One-Day Boycotts Won’t Beat Big Business

In a collective operation spearheaded by activist group The People’s Union USA, social media users nationwide launched an economic boycott of major retailers to protest recent rollbacks in DEI programming and the stranglehold billionaires have on American politics. 

Or rather, they closed their wallets for the 24 hours of Feb. 28. 

And if participants really needed to get something, the so-called boycott allowed them to patronize any small business. And what’s more, apparently cash is fine, because you’re not using a major bank. 

What are we really fighting for, anyway?

The poorly defined, less than stringent and finite nature of this ostensible economic blackout made it totally futile at its core. The effort, and many of the others like it put forth by The People’s Union USA and similar groups, are useful for making the average Instagram user feel like they’ve done some good by reposting an infographic — and little else.

Short-lived boycotts and daylong efforts like this one aren’t imbued with any particular sense of historicity or organized struggle, rendering them completely ineffective. They do, however, point to the declawing of traditional methods of protest and striking back at power in a distinctly performative online era. 

Feb. 28’s boycott was the first in a series of planned one-day or one-week long boycotts of various megacorporations. From March 7-14 Amazon is the target, and The People’s Union USA calls on participants to not shop on Amazon or at Whole Foods. Their calendar then pivots to Nestlé, Walmart and General Mills for the following weeks. 

The People’s Union USA’s reasons for targeting these companies are completely legitimate. Amazon has been involved in a number of high-profile exposés accusing them of horrific workplace conditions and union busting. Nestlé has been the subject of lawsuits detailing a wide range of human rights abuses at cocoa plantations. 

Their overarching goals to remind America’s wealthy elite who has the power and shake a fist at the repeal of DEI efforts are important. Clearly the level of endorsement of the boycott received online indicates mass support for these issues. 

The venues of power these strikes look to target, however, are totally outside the reach of such short-lived movements. These companies deal in the billions, not hundreds or thousands of dollars. 

Since the dust has begun to settle on Friday’s efforts, it seems to have had no real impact on that day’s company profits. Major retailers reported feeling no serious pinch, seeing fluctuations — if any —  that could be reasonably chocked up to inclement weather.

It was completely ridiculous to think even a million people participating in a day-long decentralized boycott might make even a drop in the bucket. The central inefficacy of this economic blackout — and all the boycotts put forth by The People’s Union USA — is the simple fact that they have an end. 

Each boycott presented by The People’s Union USA and similar organizations promotes week-long or day-long efforts focusing on certain megacorporations or the economy writ large. Even if the targeted companies were affected by these boycotts, all they’d have to do is wait out their fast-approaching end dates.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott did start as a one-day boycott of city buses Dec. 5, 1955. But the organizer — the Montgomery Improvement Association, led by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — extended the boycott indefinitely following the city of Montgomery’s refusal to meet their demands. 

The boycott only ended Dec. 20, 1956, when the Supreme Court ruled bus segregation was unconstitutional in Browder v. Gayle. Even then, boycotts continued for an additional month until the ruling was officially implemented in Montgomery. 

This gave the city of Montgomery no clear indication of how long the activists would be willing to continue boycotting the bus system — and therefore no idea how it would be affected in the long term.

Civil Rights leaders themselves didn’t know how long their boycott would last or how long they would need to maintain mass carpooling efforts — but it wasn’t a deterrent. Their dedication was strong enough, and the cause important enough, to warrant action no matter the disruptive impacts it had on activists’ lives. 

Most of the people who participated in The People’s Union USA’s boycott were likely shopping at Target, Walmart and Amazon the day after the strike. The economic blackout, much like it was for the corporations it targeted, was just a blip on their calendar. 

The next week-long boycott of General Mills or Amazon will have a similarly negligible effect. There simply aren’t enough people involved in the right places or right times for these efforts to be felt in any particular way, and deluding oneself into believing these kinds of boycotts are effective is exactly that — delusional.