The grassroots boycott launched against Disney/ABC in the wake of its cowardly decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel off the air underscored the strength of consumer power in the fight to preserve democracy. Now, resistance organizers are asking consumers for a brief boycott over the Thanksgiving holiday of three companies: Amazon, Home Depot, and Target. A small effort might elevate a very critical message against three companies organizers have identified as Trump regime enablers.
The We Ain’t Buying It coalition explained that “pulling your dollars from companies that don’t stand with us and redirecting them to businesses that do” is an essential part of defending democracy. “Being intentional about where you spend and who you support” can underscore the pro-democracy message and impress on businesses that what they do during this critical time can affect their bottom line.
The No Kings Alliance announced on Friday that it would “join forces with We Ain’t Buying It to mobilize our collective power this Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday.” The alliance declared:
President Trump and his corporate allies continue to relentlessly attack our communities—from mass firings of federal workers to corporate pressure to dismantle DEI to ICE raids targeting our neighbors to a government shutdown that left 42 million people without needed food....
Together we will hold accountable corporations like Target, Home Depot, and Amazon, that continue to enable and profit from this administration’s relentless and cruel attacks on working people and our families.
The threat in an autocratic takeover (as we have seen from quisling universities, law firms, and tech/media companies) comes not just from the regime itself but from those in civil society who facilitate its aims to suppress civil liberties, assail the rule of law, and victimize vulnerable groups. LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, a principal mover behind the boycott, told me, “We’re watching corporations bend over backwards to appease an administration and gain tax breaks, even when it hurts their own customers.” She added: “They’ve forgotten something critical: tax breaks don’t matter when sales collapse. And we control the sales.” Picking a critical moment such as Thanksgiving weekend through Cyber Monday allows ordinary people to send their dollars “to the companies that have a real commitment to the people that work in their ranks and build their bottom line,” she explained.
Even a brief boycott can be effective. In the case of Disney/ABC, “Data from research firm Antenna found that during September, the number of U.S. consumers who canceled their Disney+ subscriptions averaged 8%, which is double the 4% estimate for the prior two months,” The Street reported. Also, Hulu’s average cancellation rate was “twice the 5% rate for the previous two months.” (Among all its streaming services, Disney reportedly lost 1.7 million subscribers.) In addition, Disney suffered a dip in market capitalization of $4.2 billion at one point.
Randi Weingarten, president of the AFT, told me: “Just like Disney consumers showed their displeasure when Jimmy Kimmel was yanked off the air, the AFT joined Dr. Jamal Bryant and others across the country this fall to boycott Target for ditching their commitment to diversity and human dignity.” This Thanksgiving, she said, Americans again can hit corporations “in the only language they seem to understand—our wallets.” Weingarten added: “People are looking for a way to make their voice heard—and this weekend they’re using their hip pocket to send a message.”
While protestors have spent months applying pressure (and exacting real damage) to Target, Home Depot has more recently caught organizers’ attention. In city after city, invading federal forces have conducted stakeouts and abusive arrests at Home Depot parking lots and stores. Home Depot denies it has cooperated with Immigration and Customs Enforcement but organizers confirm that “Home Depot is allowing ICE agents to illegally detain and kidnap laborers from their stores. The laborers in our communities are not able to look for work safely.”
Meanwhile, Amazon has set “dangerous precedents—bankrolling inaugurations and pet projects that undermine democracy,” Brown told me. “They won’t do it at our expense anymore. They won’t use our dollars to fund our own oppression.” (Amazon is also infamous for union-busting, and its founder, Jeff Bezos, owns the Washington Post, which has thrown journalistic standards overboard and turned itself inside out to appease the regime.)
Consumer boycotts have a long and storied history in America. “Ever since the Boston Tea Party, Americans have used consumer tactics in social struggles and have understood purchasing goods (or, more frequently, eschewing them) not just as a significant economic act but as an enactment of practical ethics,” Cornell University history professor Lawrence Glickman wrote. “For example, in antebellum America, members of the ‘free produce’ movement encouraged consumers to boycott goods made or produced by slaves, a tactic similar to consumer movements that remain popular to this day.”
Contrary to critics’ claim that boycotts are “token” gestures, boycotts have changed corporate conduct while publicizing the underlying grievances, giving ordinary people a sense of personal agency and incentivizing other companies to think twice before joining forces with the autocratic regime.
The 1956 Montgomery, Alabama, bus strike, for example, not only integrated that city’s buses but helped launch the national civil rights movement. Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez of the United Farm Workers Union called for consumers to show solidarity with fieldworkers who grew and harvested grapes. Huerta memorably said, “Sympathy alone just isn’t going to make it.” The farmworkers eventually broke the will of exploitive employers (with the help of truckers and longshoreman who refused to ship grapes that the Nixon administration purchased for troops overseas).
Americans can again register their anger against corporations that undermine democracy and their families’ well-being. “If these corporations want to bankroll authoritarianism and gut DEI, they’ll have to do it without our money,” Leah Greenberg, co-founder of Indivisible, told me. “We’ve seen record-breaking numbers of people show up against authoritarianism this year—in the streets, at the polls, and now at the shops.” She continued: “People across the country are signing up to reject corporate greed ahead of the busiest shopping weekend of the year. This action is another angle of pressure, and it sends a clear message: our values aren’t for sale.”
A little intentionality in your holiday gift-buying can go a long way. What would success look like? Nelini Stamp, one of the We Ain’t Buying It leaders, told me, “Success looks like a dent in sales of Home Depot, Target, and Amazon, and folks understanding there is a dent because of [these companies’] enabling of the administration.” In short, every dollar not spent sends a message.
Never give in! This tactic has been working for Canada since February of this year - to the tune of BILLIONS OF DOLLARS LOST in the US Tourism Market. Support your local producers, growers and shops and keep the bodega and the independent book store alive while withholding revenue from these oligarchs. Stand with the People. 🍁🍁
I'm telling everyone I know to boycott this coming weekend and I am very heartened to report that many people have already been boycotting these stores!