Topline
Grassroots pressure against corporate policies and the Trump administration is mounting as the “We Ain’t Buying It” campaign calls on consumers to boycott Target, Home Depot and Amazon from Black Friday, November 28, through Cyber Monday, December 1, while the “Mass Blackout” urges a nationwide economic shutdown over the holiday weekend.
“When corporations align with cruelty and authoritarianism, they must understand that our purchasing power matters,” said LaTosha Brown, cofounder of Black Voters Matter and a member of the “We Ain’t Buying It” coalition. Photo of November 25, 2016 Black Friday Protest on Michigan Avenue, Chicago. (Photo by Bilgin Sasmaz/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
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Key Facts
The “We Ain’t Buying It” boycott is organized by a broad coalition of anti-Trump groups, including the No Kings Alliance, Black Voters Matter, Indivisible and some 160 other like-minded civic groups.
“We Ain’t Buying It” takes aim at Target for going along with the Trump administration in rolling back its DEI policies, Home Depot for allegedly enabling ICE operations against laborers in its stores and Amazon for funding the administration to secure corporate tax cuts.
More broadly, it urges consumers to support Black, immigrant and other people-of-color businesses, as well as to shop at small local businesses and with other retailers that “have stood firm for democracy and inclusion.”
The “Mass Blackout” is more sweeping, urging consumers to halt all spending except at small businesses, cancel subscription services, avoid ad-driven platforms such as streaming services, restrict non-essential travel and refuse to work for seven days, from November 25 through December 2.
The “Mass Blackout” is organized by the Blackout the System, The People’s Sick Day, The Progressive Network, American Opposition, and the Money Out of Politics Movement.
Small businesses are exempt from “Mass Blackout” actions, though it urges participants to pay in cash and to donate to “Feeding America” to help sustain communities “hit hardest by economic injustice and political repression.”
Key Background
Both boycott groups are targeting this holiday weekend to exert maximum pressure during the busiest sustained shopping period of the year. The National Retail Federation predicts that 186.9 million Americans will shop over the weekend, including 37.5 million on Thanksgiving Day. Black Friday will be the biggest shopping day with 130.4 million shoppers expected, followed by Cyber Monday with 73.9 million and 67 million on Small Business Saturday. The boycotts urge supporters to sit out the holiday shopping weekend as a protest against the Trump administration and its corporate backers. Organizers hope that a drop in spending will send a powerful message to the political and corporate establishment and bring about change to the current economic system.