Avelo Airlines is a good example of combining a consumer boycott with public shaming including billboards (at least in New Haven) and protests in front of airports week after week. It took us awhile but we were successful. They stopped ICE Air flights ✈️ 💪 Persistence is key!
Avelo to my knowledge was the only commercial airline to participate in ICE Air. There are a slew of other non-commercial carriers that contract with ICE. I don’t recall names but you can do a search.
If you’re on Bluesky, look at “JJ in DC.” He does amazing work mapping ICE air flights in North America and Latin America.
If you’re interested, here’s some history of the Avelo boycott. I wrote about it but others did the incredible work!
Thank you for the information on Avelo. They've recently moved into what was a small non commercial airport in the bright red County I live in. Have they quit transporting thugs everywhere or just in your community?
This is a terrific article - kudos! I plan to share it widely, including in a future issue of Don't Mourn Organize Eastern Mass substack. There's no byline: I'm curious who researched and wrote it.
The 2025 movements against the Trump attacks included a mix of foolish calls to economic noncooperation (e.g. one-day Amazon boycotts) and well-strategized, well-targeted pressure campaigns against Tesla, Avelo, Disney and Target. Next: Citizens Bank!
(I'm writing as Betsy Leondar-Wright, one of the editors of Don't Mourn Organize.)
I see what you mean. But boycotts are effective when there's a demand that the company can say yes to. The many calls for one-day boycotts last year, sometimes rotating from one company to another for a week, had no goals, just general disapproval. A small business might feel pressure from losing a day's or a week's revenue, but vast multinationals can shrug that off.
I see those one day boycotts as entry points, ie opportunities to buy into the concept that economic noncooperation is possible for the participating individual and their household. People often need easy wins to build up the stamina it takes to participate in longterm pressure campaigns.
In my experience as an organizer, what empowers people is seeing campaigns win, even tiny victories. There's so much hopelessness in US society, so much belief that what we do makes no difference. That's why we steer people away from ineffective action alerts. When the Tesla boycott dragged Musk out of DOGE, that was empowering. When Jimmy Kimmel was brought back - that built stamina!
It's great to see so many people clicking Like on my comment! You all might like our substack where we evaluate action alerts by strategic effectiveness principles: https://dontmournorganizeeasternmass.substack.com/
How much do you want to stop His Royal Heinous and the fascist takeover of the country?
Enough that you’re willing to make a small sacrifice? Like altering your spending habits for a month or two or three? That could be all it would take to get the attention of the oligarchs (formerly known as The Robber Barons in the first Gilded Age, also The Fat Cats, The Greedy Bastards).
A brief demonstration of We, the People’s, power of the purse could persuade them to quit supporting HRH and the politicians who enable him.
We quit spending, except on essentials, businesses lose money, stock market goes down, Greedy Bastards pay attention to our demands.
Greedy Bastards own most of the politicians of both major parties. GBs start losing money, tell politicians to change course and do what We, the People want.
We are running out of peaceful options. The legislature and Supreme Court are controlled by HRH. He controls the executive branch, including the Military, Justice Department, FBI, ICE, the IRS. He controls all levers of power.
We, the people, still have the power of the purse. No one can control our spending, or lack of spending. When all else fails we can go on a spending strike until the business community stops supporting HRH and the politicians who enable him.
Economic warfare is the only thing the oligarchs, the business community will understand and act on. Call it a Surreptitious General Strike (Quiet Quitting). Go to work, do as little as possible. Stop spending money except on essentials. Quit feeding the corporate beast that supports the HRH.
Stop participating. Nearly 70% of the U.S. economy is driven by consumer spending. All of us. Hobble the economy and the stock market. Mahatma Gandhi drove the British from India by peaceful civil disobedience and economic disruption. We can stop the fascist takeover in the same way.
We can keep rehashing past and present atrocities until our access to the internet is taken away by the regime, or we can DO something!
If you get a return file early. If you have to pay file as late as possible keeping in mind penalties and the change in the postal service date stamping. Change withholding for the W2 to take out as little as possible which would mean you would have to pay in more at tax time next year but the amount the government has will be less until then.
Changing withholding is a great suggestion, except that it will no longer work. The W-4 form was changed for 2026 making it more difficult to be exempt from federal income tax withholding! In the past, you could a number on your W-4 for the number of exemptions you wanted and you could claim 0 if you wanted no income tax to be withheld. With the new form to be exempt from having income tax withheld you must certify that you had no tax withheld or paid for 2025 and that you will have no tax liability to pay for 2026. There is a box you can check. This makes it impossible for most people to exempt themselves from paying income tax through paycheck withholding. (This is going to cause nightmarish problems for both the IRS and millions of taxpayers. This is an alleged “simplification” that is going to be a huge headache, especially for tax preparers.)
Brilliant breakdown here. The distinction between boycotts as signaling mechanims vs direct financial damage is something people miss all the time. I remember reading how investor perception shifts way before actual revenue takes a hit, which makes the reputational angle so much more powerful in practice. The accumulation framing really nails why sustained pressure beats sporadic action every time.
Key Lime Air in CO. We are still working on it. It's harder because it is a private/charter air service. University of CO uses Key Lime to transport its varsity athletes. We are putting pressure on CU Regents, Chancellor, and Athletic Director day after day. But it will take time and continued pressure.
Economic noncooperation, especially in terms of targeted, sustained boycotts and subscription abandonments, is the only effective tool left to the opposition to end the Trump hegemony. I love to see the videos and photos of the great crowds of the No Kings protests, and the Ice Out general strike, and I do understand their importance in showing our strength, but how much of a threat do they actually pose to the administration, unless the threat is backed up by something powerful that can really weaken the regime.
Other than videos of ICE assaults and assassinations, the most dreadful, terrifying and heartbreaking video I've seen this year was a film of American leftist radicals marching by a camera brandishing a variety of guns and rifles. The caption of the vid read, "The Thing that Scares MAGA the Most!" Well, it might scare MAGA the most (and me), but the Trumpish oligarchs would find it laughable - that terrifying militia will never get close to them. I'll never forget being in a classroom with the great political and environmental philosopher, Murray Bookchin. A student in the class confessed that he and his cohorts had been stockpiling weapons, because the violence guns represented was the only thing that the corporatists would understand as opposition. Bookchin told him he was seriously deluded if he though armed revolution would accomplish anything. "Your weapons are so amateurish and paltry compared to the weaponry of the US military, and the branches of the various federal law enforcement agencies. Your revolution wouldn't last a day."
And that's the truth of it. Trump controls all the big guns, military, ICE, The FBI, CIA - every enforcement weapon is under his command. Congress has no fire power to stop Trump. Except for a small armament of Federal marshals, the courts have no weaponized back up. My brother assures me the state police of every state could stand against - but would they? Seriously? So we can keep protesting, and we should, again to show our numbers, but the only real weapons we have are our wallets and purses - and they are far more powerful than most people think.
Boycotts don't work. I've heard that from very progressive voices. And it's true, if the boycotts are not big enough. But if the boycotts are big enough - massive, humongous, gargantuan - how could they not work? TESLA's profits declined by 46% last year. People were so sick of Elon Musk they quit buying his goddamed cars. Do you think a whisper wasn't raised in TESLA's boardroom? Do you think that stockholders thought, "Oh, it's just another day. No worries." If only those of us who really want to damage Trump were to bust his billionaire enablers where it hurts the most, in their rotten, stinking coffers! If we can pull off the the greatest boycott of all time of the twenty most MAGA devoted, wealthiest corporations on Earth, we can bring the Orangeman to his knees.
You are not wrong. Boycotts work but they take time. You’re right, they do have to be huge. But they also have to be focused on a specific, achievable change by the corporation. It is more effective to boycott manufacturers or producers than it is to boycott retailers. There probably are some specific products that people can boycott that will be effective, but people with inside knowledge will have to figure that out. The boycott of the Washington Post may cause the demise of the newspaper. The Target boycott is working but mostly in ways that are unseen unless you follow local Minneapolis business news. The difference with these two, compared to Amazon, is that other businesses were also part of the boycotts. The Washington Post lost a lot of their advertisers in addition to subscribers. Manufacturers are cancelling contracts with Target. Tesla lost a lot of buyers, but they also had to recall tens of thousands of vehicles (for a flaw that never should have gotten into production) at the same time. Those issues are enough to move investors and that is where impact becomes visible—on the stock market.
There are other tools for nonviolent change, but you will not read about them on substack or anywhere else. They are tools that are deployed behind closed doors, in private. They can be very effective, but they usually involve a small number of people.
How much do you want to stop His Royal Heinous and the fascist takeover of the country?
Enough that you’re willing to make a small sacrifice? Like altering your spending habits for a month or two or three? That could be all it would take to get the attention of the oligarchs (formerly known as The Robber Barons in the first Gilded Age, also The Fat Cats, The Greedy Bastards).
A brief demonstration of We, the People’s, power of the purse could persuade them to quit supporting HRH and the politicians who enable him.
We quit spending, except on essentials, businesses lose money, stock market goes down, Greedy Bastards pay attention to our demands.
Greedy Bastards own most of the politicians of both major parties. GBs start losing money, tell politicians to change course and do what We, the People want.
We are running out of peaceful options. The legislature and Supreme Court are controlled by HRH. He controls the executive branch, including the Military, Justice Department, FBI, ICE, the IRS. He controls all levers of power.
We, the people, still have the power of the purse. No one can control our spending, or lack of spending. When all else fails we can go on a spending strike until the business community stops supporting HRH and the politicians who enable him.
Economic warfare is the only thing the oligarchs, the business community will understand and act on. Call it a Surreptitious General Strike (Quiet Quitting). Go to work, do as little as possible. Stop spending money except on essentials. Quit feeding the corporate beast that supports the HRH.
Stop participating. Nearly 70% of the U.S. economy is driven by consumer spending. All of us. Hobble the economy and the stock market. Mahatma Gandhi drove the British from India by peaceful civil disobedience and economic disruption. We can stop the fascist takeover in the same way.
We can keep rehashing past and present atrocities until our access to the internet is taken away by the regime, or we can DO something!
I have not been a customer for the majority of the companies that need to feel economic pressure. However, the few that I do business with are so embedded in my economic life that I don't see how I can boycott them. It's frustrating.
I can't commit to *never* buying from Amazon because of my location and need for some things that I can't easily get elsewhere - but I *can* cancel my Prime and WaPo subscriptions, and deprive them from having me contribute to their advertising revenue in that way. I've already cancelled Disney and several other subscriptions.
My big concern with economic pressure is when the win isn't clear for companies. What can they do to get us back? Reinstating Jimmy Kimmel was a clear ask. If Target is taking a hit, but thinking the problem is product lines (as it did this fall)we haven't communicated clearly or demonstrated our power to effect change. The ask also needs to be doable. Using Target as another example- are we expecting the workers from Target to kick out ICE agents shopping in the stores? That might not be protected by law and it puts people depending on hourly wages in a terrible situation. We need to have clear, fair, achievable expectations that offer the carrot, a return of consumers, as well as the stick of a boycott.
I think people need to know more about the Montgomery Bus Boycott. It lasted for 13 months and required the support of hundreds of people with private cars to transport the thousands of people who lived too far from work to walk. People had to coordinate the carpools and drivers. Other people had to raise money for gasoline and car maintenance. At one point, a car dealership donated 16 new vehicles! Because someone asked someone who knew someone and it happened. Movements have a lot of moving parts, most of which no one ever sees.
It would be really great if boycotting worked. A large portion of people simply are not willing to go without, unfortunately. Amazon is what I think of first. It's one of the worst things that have happened to shopping for quality and price.
I cannot boycott my local Target because without it, the whole surrounding neighborhhood would be a food desert. I go there to support the neighborhood. A boycott of that particular Target store would also hurt that local area's major employer. I agree with the strategy, but perhaps we should consider if economic nonconformity is somewhat elitist, that is, for people who have transportation and can go afford to shop elsewhere or shop online. I am not sure if noncompliance can be "one size fits all." Let's be careful not to hurt people by messing with economic impact.
That is a tough situation and my own neighborhood is similar (except that it is Walmart.) There are some workarounds, but they are complicated, such as organizing a food cooperative. What would the community do if the Target store suddenly closed? (I live in a food desert myself, so this is not an idle question. I get it and I see you.)
For many years I've made an effort to not purchase items from corporations which are opposite my sense of values. I am fully aware as a single voice of boycott I make scant difference. Even so, I do it. The concept of capitalism competition is long dead. The oligarchs killed it ages ago. Capitalism is consumerism, destroy the competition to create a gigantic monopoly. For heaven's sake, there's a famous game to play with exactly that name. Duh. When one takes a little time to explore the path we have been on for so many years to reach the disturbing situation we are in now, it's incredible to realize how our inattention blinded us to the inherent dangers we ignored. But, as with all else, there were voices of caution attempting to alert us. Did we heed the warnings? Not enough. History moves in circles. Perhaps it repeats itself, maybe it echoes. It is most definitely the best teacher available. Do not ignore it now, at this important moment in American history. Democracy is being threatened as never before and could be facing its death knell. We must not allow it to be destroyed.
When does it help to identify an alternative business to support, so that good actors are rewarded as bad actors are punished? I used to think Lowe’s, not Home Depot. If I cut Lowe’s too, where do I go for building supplies? When Costco stands up for DEI, does it make sense to have an anti-boycott of Costco? Drop Facebook, adopt Blue Sky?
Avelo Airlines is a good example of combining a consumer boycott with public shaming including billboards (at least in New Haven) and protests in front of airports week after week. It took us awhile but we were successful. They stopped ICE Air flights ✈️ 💪 Persistence is key!
Good work!!!
What airlines do they use now?
Avelo to my knowledge was the only commercial airline to participate in ICE Air. There are a slew of other non-commercial carriers that contract with ICE. I don’t recall names but you can do a search.
If you’re on Bluesky, look at “JJ in DC.” He does amazing work mapping ICE air flights in North America and Latin America.
If you’re interested, here’s some history of the Avelo boycott. I wrote about it but others did the incredible work!
https://rgilmartin.substack.com/p/avelo-airlines-and-ice-air-a-model
Thus was a really good article Robin!!! Thanks
Thanks for reading. Avelo is a great case for the power of sustained resistance!
Avelo halted operations with ICE!!
Your work really paid off!!!
But do you know what airlines they use now?
Thank you for the information on Avelo. They've recently moved into what was a small non commercial airport in the bright red County I live in. Have they quit transporting thugs everywhere or just in your community?
They ended their partnership with ICE. Total victory!
This is a terrific article - kudos! I plan to share it widely, including in a future issue of Don't Mourn Organize Eastern Mass substack. There's no byline: I'm curious who researched and wrote it.
The 2025 movements against the Trump attacks included a mix of foolish calls to economic noncooperation (e.g. one-day Amazon boycotts) and well-strategized, well-targeted pressure campaigns against Tesla, Avelo, Disney and Target. Next: Citizens Bank!
(I'm writing as Betsy Leondar-Wright, one of the editors of Don't Mourn Organize.)
I have not used Amazon for months now so I wouldn’t characterize one day boycotts as foolish. They can inspire people to stop permanently.
I see what you mean. But boycotts are effective when there's a demand that the company can say yes to. The many calls for one-day boycotts last year, sometimes rotating from one company to another for a week, had no goals, just general disapproval. A small business might feel pressure from losing a day's or a week's revenue, but vast multinationals can shrug that off.
I see those one day boycotts as entry points, ie opportunities to buy into the concept that economic noncooperation is possible for the participating individual and their household. People often need easy wins to build up the stamina it takes to participate in longterm pressure campaigns.
In my experience as an organizer, what empowers people is seeing campaigns win, even tiny victories. There's so much hopelessness in US society, so much belief that what we do makes no difference. That's why we steer people away from ineffective action alerts. When the Tesla boycott dragged Musk out of DOGE, that was empowering. When Jimmy Kimmel was brought back - that built stamina!
It's great to see so many people clicking Like on my comment! You all might like our substack where we evaluate action alerts by strategic effectiveness principles: https://dontmournorganizeeasternmass.substack.com/
Scott Galloway’s “Resist and Unsubscribe” is a really helpful “how to”
https://www.resistandunsubscribe.com/
The Peaceful Solution-Part 1
How much do you want to stop His Royal Heinous and the fascist takeover of the country?
Enough that you’re willing to make a small sacrifice? Like altering your spending habits for a month or two or three? That could be all it would take to get the attention of the oligarchs (formerly known as The Robber Barons in the first Gilded Age, also The Fat Cats, The Greedy Bastards).
A brief demonstration of We, the People’s, power of the purse could persuade them to quit supporting HRH and the politicians who enable him.
We quit spending, except on essentials, businesses lose money, stock market goes down, Greedy Bastards pay attention to our demands.
Greedy Bastards own most of the politicians of both major parties. GBs start losing money, tell politicians to change course and do what We, the People want.
We are running out of peaceful options. The legislature and Supreme Court are controlled by HRH. He controls the executive branch, including the Military, Justice Department, FBI, ICE, the IRS. He controls all levers of power.
We, the people, still have the power of the purse. No one can control our spending, or lack of spending. When all else fails we can go on a spending strike until the business community stops supporting HRH and the politicians who enable him.
Economic warfare is the only thing the oligarchs, the business community will understand and act on. Call it a Surreptitious General Strike (Quiet Quitting). Go to work, do as little as possible. Stop spending money except on essentials. Quit feeding the corporate beast that supports the HRH.
Stop participating. Nearly 70% of the U.S. economy is driven by consumer spending. All of us. Hobble the economy and the stock market. Mahatma Gandhi drove the British from India by peaceful civil disobedience and economic disruption. We can stop the fascist takeover in the same way.
We can keep rehashing past and present atrocities until our access to the internet is taken away by the regime, or we can DO something!
Now is the time for this Peaceful Solution.
Please go back and read the article. You clearly missed the point.
I didn’t miss the point. I disagree with it.
I would like to know how people are thinking about paying Federal taxes this year. I don’t want to fuel this regime.
If you get a return file early. If you have to pay file as late as possible keeping in mind penalties and the change in the postal service date stamping. Change withholding for the W2 to take out as little as possible which would mean you would have to pay in more at tax time next year but the amount the government has will be less until then.
Thanks so much!
Changing withholding is a great suggestion, except that it will no longer work. The W-4 form was changed for 2026 making it more difficult to be exempt from federal income tax withholding! In the past, you could a number on your W-4 for the number of exemptions you wanted and you could claim 0 if you wanted no income tax to be withheld. With the new form to be exempt from having income tax withheld you must certify that you had no tax withheld or paid for 2025 and that you will have no tax liability to pay for 2026. There is a box you can check. This makes it impossible for most people to exempt themselves from paying income tax through paycheck withholding. (This is going to cause nightmarish problems for both the IRS and millions of taxpayers. This is an alleged “simplification” that is going to be a huge headache, especially for tax preparers.)
Brilliant breakdown here. The distinction between boycotts as signaling mechanims vs direct financial damage is something people miss all the time. I remember reading how investor perception shifts way before actual revenue takes a hit, which makes the reputational angle so much more powerful in practice. The accumulation framing really nails why sustained pressure beats sporadic action every time.
Key Lime Air in CO. We are still working on it. It's harder because it is a private/charter air service. University of CO uses Key Lime to transport its varsity athletes. We are putting pressure on CU Regents, Chancellor, and Athletic Director day after day. But it will take time and continued pressure.
Good luck—I hope you are successful!
Economic noncooperation, especially in terms of targeted, sustained boycotts and subscription abandonments, is the only effective tool left to the opposition to end the Trump hegemony. I love to see the videos and photos of the great crowds of the No Kings protests, and the Ice Out general strike, and I do understand their importance in showing our strength, but how much of a threat do they actually pose to the administration, unless the threat is backed up by something powerful that can really weaken the regime.
Other than videos of ICE assaults and assassinations, the most dreadful, terrifying and heartbreaking video I've seen this year was a film of American leftist radicals marching by a camera brandishing a variety of guns and rifles. The caption of the vid read, "The Thing that Scares MAGA the Most!" Well, it might scare MAGA the most (and me), but the Trumpish oligarchs would find it laughable - that terrifying militia will never get close to them. I'll never forget being in a classroom with the great political and environmental philosopher, Murray Bookchin. A student in the class confessed that he and his cohorts had been stockpiling weapons, because the violence guns represented was the only thing that the corporatists would understand as opposition. Bookchin told him he was seriously deluded if he though armed revolution would accomplish anything. "Your weapons are so amateurish and paltry compared to the weaponry of the US military, and the branches of the various federal law enforcement agencies. Your revolution wouldn't last a day."
And that's the truth of it. Trump controls all the big guns, military, ICE, The FBI, CIA - every enforcement weapon is under his command. Congress has no fire power to stop Trump. Except for a small armament of Federal marshals, the courts have no weaponized back up. My brother assures me the state police of every state could stand against - but would they? Seriously? So we can keep protesting, and we should, again to show our numbers, but the only real weapons we have are our wallets and purses - and they are far more powerful than most people think.
Boycotts don't work. I've heard that from very progressive voices. And it's true, if the boycotts are not big enough. But if the boycotts are big enough - massive, humongous, gargantuan - how could they not work? TESLA's profits declined by 46% last year. People were so sick of Elon Musk they quit buying his goddamed cars. Do you think a whisper wasn't raised in TESLA's boardroom? Do you think that stockholders thought, "Oh, it's just another day. No worries." If only those of us who really want to damage Trump were to bust his billionaire enablers where it hurts the most, in their rotten, stinking coffers! If we can pull off the the greatest boycott of all time of the twenty most MAGA devoted, wealthiest corporations on Earth, we can bring the Orangeman to his knees.
You are not wrong. Boycotts work but they take time. You’re right, they do have to be huge. But they also have to be focused on a specific, achievable change by the corporation. It is more effective to boycott manufacturers or producers than it is to boycott retailers. There probably are some specific products that people can boycott that will be effective, but people with inside knowledge will have to figure that out. The boycott of the Washington Post may cause the demise of the newspaper. The Target boycott is working but mostly in ways that are unseen unless you follow local Minneapolis business news. The difference with these two, compared to Amazon, is that other businesses were also part of the boycotts. The Washington Post lost a lot of their advertisers in addition to subscribers. Manufacturers are cancelling contracts with Target. Tesla lost a lot of buyers, but they also had to recall tens of thousands of vehicles (for a flaw that never should have gotten into production) at the same time. Those issues are enough to move investors and that is where impact becomes visible—on the stock market.
There are other tools for nonviolent change, but you will not read about them on substack or anywhere else. They are tools that are deployed behind closed doors, in private. They can be very effective, but they usually involve a small number of people.
The Peaceful Solution-Part 1
How much do you want to stop His Royal Heinous and the fascist takeover of the country?
Enough that you’re willing to make a small sacrifice? Like altering your spending habits for a month or two or three? That could be all it would take to get the attention of the oligarchs (formerly known as The Robber Barons in the first Gilded Age, also The Fat Cats, The Greedy Bastards).
A brief demonstration of We, the People’s, power of the purse could persuade them to quit supporting HRH and the politicians who enable him.
We quit spending, except on essentials, businesses lose money, stock market goes down, Greedy Bastards pay attention to our demands.
Greedy Bastards own most of the politicians of both major parties. GBs start losing money, tell politicians to change course and do what We, the People want.
We are running out of peaceful options. The legislature and Supreme Court are controlled by HRH. He controls the executive branch, including the Military, Justice Department, FBI, ICE, the IRS. He controls all levers of power.
We, the people, still have the power of the purse. No one can control our spending, or lack of spending. When all else fails we can go on a spending strike until the business community stops supporting HRH and the politicians who enable him.
Economic warfare is the only thing the oligarchs, the business community will understand and act on. Call it a Surreptitious General Strike (Quiet Quitting). Go to work, do as little as possible. Stop spending money except on essentials. Quit feeding the corporate beast that supports the HRH.
Stop participating. Nearly 70% of the U.S. economy is driven by consumer spending. All of us. Hobble the economy and the stock market. Mahatma Gandhi drove the British from India by peaceful civil disobedience and economic disruption. We can stop the fascist takeover in the same way.
We can keep rehashing past and present atrocities until our access to the internet is taken away by the regime, or we can DO something!
Now is the time for this Peaceful Solution.
I have not been a customer for the majority of the companies that need to feel economic pressure. However, the few that I do business with are so embedded in my economic life that I don't see how I can boycott them. It's frustrating.
I can't commit to *never* buying from Amazon because of my location and need for some things that I can't easily get elsewhere - but I *can* cancel my Prime and WaPo subscriptions, and deprive them from having me contribute to their advertising revenue in that way. I've already cancelled Disney and several other subscriptions.
My big concern with economic pressure is when the win isn't clear for companies. What can they do to get us back? Reinstating Jimmy Kimmel was a clear ask. If Target is taking a hit, but thinking the problem is product lines (as it did this fall)we haven't communicated clearly or demonstrated our power to effect change. The ask also needs to be doable. Using Target as another example- are we expecting the workers from Target to kick out ICE agents shopping in the stores? That might not be protected by law and it puts people depending on hourly wages in a terrible situation. We need to have clear, fair, achievable expectations that offer the carrot, a return of consumers, as well as the stick of a boycott.
I think people need to know more about the Montgomery Bus Boycott. It lasted for 13 months and required the support of hundreds of people with private cars to transport the thousands of people who lived too far from work to walk. People had to coordinate the carpools and drivers. Other people had to raise money for gasoline and car maintenance. At one point, a car dealership donated 16 new vehicles! Because someone asked someone who knew someone and it happened. Movements have a lot of moving parts, most of which no one ever sees.
The linked article explains how the boycott was sustained, organized, and how they achieved their goal—as well as what the actual goal was. It was not to put the local bus operator out of business, although that nearly happened, too. https://legalclarity.org/the-legal-and-social-impact-of-the-montgomery-bus-boycott/
It would be really great if boycotting worked. A large portion of people simply are not willing to go without, unfortunately. Amazon is what I think of first. It's one of the worst things that have happened to shopping for quality and price.
I cannot boycott my local Target because without it, the whole surrounding neighborhhood would be a food desert. I go there to support the neighborhood. A boycott of that particular Target store would also hurt that local area's major employer. I agree with the strategy, but perhaps we should consider if economic nonconformity is somewhat elitist, that is, for people who have transportation and can go afford to shop elsewhere or shop online. I am not sure if noncompliance can be "one size fits all." Let's be careful not to hurt people by messing with economic impact.
That is a tough situation and my own neighborhood is similar (except that it is Walmart.) There are some workarounds, but they are complicated, such as organizing a food cooperative. What would the community do if the Target store suddenly closed? (I live in a food desert myself, so this is not an idle question. I get it and I see you.)
For many years I've made an effort to not purchase items from corporations which are opposite my sense of values. I am fully aware as a single voice of boycott I make scant difference. Even so, I do it. The concept of capitalism competition is long dead. The oligarchs killed it ages ago. Capitalism is consumerism, destroy the competition to create a gigantic monopoly. For heaven's sake, there's a famous game to play with exactly that name. Duh. When one takes a little time to explore the path we have been on for so many years to reach the disturbing situation we are in now, it's incredible to realize how our inattention blinded us to the inherent dangers we ignored. But, as with all else, there were voices of caution attempting to alert us. Did we heed the warnings? Not enough. History moves in circles. Perhaps it repeats itself, maybe it echoes. It is most definitely the best teacher available. Do not ignore it now, at this important moment in American history. Democracy is being threatened as never before and could be facing its death knell. We must not allow it to be destroyed.
When does it help to identify an alternative business to support, so that good actors are rewarded as bad actors are punished? I used to think Lowe’s, not Home Depot. If I cut Lowe’s too, where do I go for building supplies? When Costco stands up for DEI, does it make sense to have an anti-boycott of Costco? Drop Facebook, adopt Blue Sky?