With the call for a total economic boycott (or “blackout”) on February 25, 2025, I look at what the purpose is of such an action.
Welcome to another week of living on a proverbial ship where the captain is trying to smash it into as many icebergs as possible.
To use the wording of Norm Eisen from The Contrarian, the resistance is in “spring training”:
[I]llegal actions are being stopped by the courts, they’re being protested in the streets and questioned at increasing volumes in town halls…The coalition of pro-democracy forces has won many fights—but not all of them…Just like my Dodgers and everyone’s teams in spring training, it feels like democracy is still gelling; still working to hit its stride.
One other action is starting to be floated, or at least, floated in a way that’s hit my particular media consumption: The plan for a total economic boycott (or “blackout”) on February 28th, 2025.
What is this plan? What’s the purpose? And does it have any chance of succeeding in its aims?
Let’s investigate.
Table of Contents
What is the February 28th Economic Blackout?
While discussion of this event is spreading, the earliest media source I’ve been able to find is on Third Act, which explained this on February 15th. They go on to explain:
A U.S. Economic Blackout — a nationwide economic protest — is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 28, 2025. On this day, participants are encouraged to refrain from making any purchases, both online and in-store, from large corporations.
A group called The People’s Union, who claim to have organized this, says more:
WHAT NOT TO DO:
Do not make any purchases
Do not shop online, or in-store
No Amazon, No Walmart, No Best Buy
Nowhere!
Do not spend money on:
Fast Food
Gas
Major Retailers
Do not use Credit or Debit Cards for non essential spending
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Only buy essentials of absolutely necessary
(Food, Medicine, Emergency Supplies)
If you must spend, ONLY support small, local businesses.
Mainstream media has picked up on this, which is actually kind of surprising, because a lot of the media has seemed of late to have totally rolled over in fear of the administration, with many protests not even being reported on.
But here’s CBS News and Newsweek! I’m so proud of both of you.
What’s the point of an economic boycott?
Well to start, here’s an explainer video.
And more explanatory details:
WHY THIS MATTERS!
~ Corporations and banks only care about their bottom line.
~ If we disrupt the economy for just ONE day, it sends a powerful message.
~ If they don’t listen (they wont) we make the next blackout longer (We will)
What is the message?
As I see it, this is a grassroots attempt to organize—like a union—and promote a collective action in order to gain bargaining power. Think of it like a strike.
But instead of the “shipbuilders’ union” or the “carpenters’ union”, this is the “consumers’ union”, which is all of us. According to the Federal Reserve of St. Louis, personal consumption expenditures are at upwards of 70% of the U.S. gross domestic product.
So, if you were to somehow stop all consumption for a day, that could sink the GDP by about 0.2%. That may not seem like much, but considering that the GDP was around $28 trillion in 2023, even a small percentage is a big number.
Can an economic boycott succeed?
To answer the question of whether this action can succeed or not, it’s important to define what success is.
What I’ve been reading is that the purpose is to “send a message” that “the people” can make a difference and have more power than they think.
So it’s not to make Amazon go out of business, or make Walmart shutter stores, or anything like that. It’s an opening salvo, a start of a conversation.
In some ways, that is a very modest goal. Because of that, I think that this action has a very high rate of success. Even the fact that mainstream news is reporting on it shows a kind of success. I predict that there will be news stories about the “economic impact” of the action.
Another way of looking at the purpose of an action like this is to build solidarity. In this respect, it’s like a community-building tool. That too can certainly succeed if people start identifying as part of “the people’s union”.
Strikes work
I think it’s worth noting that strikes work. That big Hollywood writers’ strike? They won big. That United Auto Workers strike? They won big too.
To say that strikes don’t work is economic fatalism, and not matched by reality. Yes, these collective actions aren’t always successful—the air traffic controllers strike of 1981 comes to mind—but they aren’t pointless.
Who are “they”? Who are “we”?
I do want to point out some squirrely language used in the rhetoric of this campaign. From the video above:
“For decades, they have told us that they are powerless…But here’s what they don’t want you to realize: we the people are the system…We are the ones who make this country run.”
Who exactly is “they” in this sentence? Is it Jeff Bezos? Donald Trump? The government? The people in the government? The Federal Reserve? Rich people in general? How rich are we talking about here?
It’s actually a kind of hallmark of the Right to use the word “they” a lot. “Here’s the news ‘they’ don’t want you to know” is basically the foundation of Fox News and Right-wing radio. And now it’s being co-opted by the progressives. Is that an improvement?
Be clear
I distinctly remember Occupy Wall Street, which had a very strong platform with its “We Are The 99%” language. “Okay, so what are your demands?” “Uhhh, the system is rigged.”
Collective action requires clear, unambiguous demands. A higher minimum wage. Better worker protection. Corporations paying higher taxes. Something you can point to and say, “there”.
Just sending a signal is a good first step, but it can’t be the only step. After all, in this case, consumers who were going to buy something on February 28th might just wait until March 1st to buy it. Economically speaking, what did that accomplish then?
We can’t ask people to just change their behavior without offering a purpose and an alternative. Even though Amazon Prime is a terrible deal for consumers both holistically and personally, hundreds of millions of people still give Amazon a chunk of money each year for privilege of giving more money to Amazon. People are incentivized to do things that may not be in their best benefit.
So more than February 28th, I’m curious what’s going to happen afterward.
Will I be participating?
Yes, I do plan on participating in the economic blackout, but in this case, I’m participating as a kind of technicality. I’m going to be out of the country that day, and in a smaller place where cash is primarily used. So I’d actually have to go out of my way to not participate.
That said, had I been in the country, I also would be participating. What about you?
