On February 28 about 16 percent of U.S. consumers participated in an “economic boycott.” The campaign, organized by the so-called People’s Union, represents the largest effort in what organizers intend to be an ongoing escalation targeting compliance with the Trump administration’s anti-DEI policies in the short term and broader systemic economic injustice in the long term. While the revolutionary Left can and should highlight the dramatic strategic and ideological shortcomings of this campaign and its organizing base, we should also acknowledge what its relative popularity shows a renewed enthusiasm that we can harness as part of a rising tide of class consciousness.

It’s useful to observe these specific actions within their broader context. In short, people understand the material connection between economic and industrial forces and the government better than most might believe. Beyond the massive nationwide protests against Trump’s agenda — which confront the political apparatus in an apparent and sanctioned manner — there are also sustained actions against Trump’s biggest oligarchic ally, Elon Musk, and corporate entities that comply with his agenda, such as Target, a subject of the February 28 boycott. With people buying and selling Tesla cars as both positive and negative protests, akin to trading Beatles records, the #TeslaTakedown exemplifies the global effort against the legitimate corporate face of Musk’s expanding financial empire, culminating in about 200 domestic and 500 international demonstrations, primarily at Tesla dealerships. Target has experienced the soft power of sustained boycott action: for eight consecutive weeks, foot traffic has been down 6.2 percent, likely exacerbated by Trump’s expanded tariffs. Far from posing fundamental threats to these established financial giants, we can confidently clearly observe a widening trend of opposition.

Regarding the events of February 28, it is both to the boycott organizers’ credit and their detriment that they started and promoted their campaign through unconventional means. Primarily spreading on social media and by word of mouth, it was eventually endorsed by figures like Stephen King, Bette Midler, and John Leguizamo. While such efforts can sometimes result in counterbalancing actions, in which people spend more money immediately before or after the proposed event, initial analysis shows that it had an impact. Target and Walmart, two of the targeted companies, saw slumps in online sales of 9 and 5 percent, respectively. Web sales for Amazon, perhaps the epitome of runaway capitalist excess, dropped by 2 percent, which may not seem significant, but it is noteworthy, considering its monopolizing grip over the economy. These results, though small, are products of relatively minor efforts, illustrating that we can, even without strike funds, demonstrations, and strong organizations, have an impact on the economic institutions that control our lives. Such actions pierce the veil of corporate supremacy, albeit ever so slightly.

Similar efforts emerge every year or so, using provocative language to call on sympathetic people to strike at the toxic American economy through alienated individual acts. Their slogans proclaim that we will take our power back and hit them where it hurts through specific consumption choices. But this overlooks that our true power lies in our roles not as consumers but as workers, and that it is the working class, and the working class alone, that can transform society and dismantle the tyranny of capital. 

Indeed, the so-called People’s Union appeals to broad and vague notions of “the people,” aspiring to “unionize the entire nation” irrespective of class, raising questions about how this organization can be considered an actual union. Yet we have much to learn from real unions and their most powerful weapon: the general strike. In contrast to these social media campaigns, characterized by frenzied urgency and guilt, unions are formed in real workplaces where people share material solidarity and can build on radical compassion to inspire a sense of militancy. Genuine human organizers help workers find common cause and coalesce into a force that can exert demands and withhold their labor, but this requires time and hard work. While unions have often succumbed to bureaucracy and failed to maintain class independence, they can also represent, in the best sense, the self-organization of the working class, which is vital for us as revolutionaries.

The People’s Union is not the only group overstating the tactical significance of withholding purchasing power. Concurrently, a similar initiative has been launched by Black faith and civil rights leaders. They are calling for a “Target fast” to take place during Lent, and Pastor Jamal Bryant’s website has surpassed its goal of garnering 100,000 participants by at least 50,000. Promoting a #LatinoFreeze, Reverend Al Sharpton has introduced the term “buycott” for his plan to reward companies like Costco that seem poised to maintain DEI policies, even coordinating transportation to facilitate supporters spending money there. The exceedingly low potential of this approach must be clear. While private capital will reposition itself to curry favor in the shifting political climate, rainbow capitalism does virtually nothing to protect the most marginalized people in our society who are suffering the consequences of the Trump administration. We should also note the relative success that reactionaries have had in this arena, starting boycotts of businesses that advertise support for Pride and championing slogans like “Go woke, go broke.” Encouraging workers to give their money to the corporations that exploit them, and even facilitating this, is nowhere near revolutionary. These efforts are pale imitations of the multipronged campaigns of the civil rights movement, which undertook massive organizational efforts. Supporting or boycotting businesses based on their policies can be a tool in our arsenal, but it cannot be effectively deployed until we make significant progress on the organizational front, which must be pursued with a revolutionary strategy in mind.

With the February 28 boycott now concluded, our task is to prepare for the next one so that we can build dialectically toward a more effective and revolutionary project. Now that even wishy-washy labor leaders like Shawn Fain are discussing a general strike, the time is ripe for serious organizing. Meanwhile, the People’s Union has raised $90,000, which it plans to use for questionable purposes, such as creating a private communication network for its supporters. That money could instead support a strike fund for workers and their families, assist organizers in their workplaces, promote neighborhood assemblies, and fund myriad other valuable and necessary foundational initiatives that will be essential for a revolutionary approach to bear fruit. Instead, the People’s Union is using the bureaucratic playbook to usurp the righteous frustration of the working class. It is distorting a time-honored tactic, presenting it as something novel that they invented. International working-class solidarity, imbued with self-organization and revolutionary strategy, is what this historic moment demands, not market-based, individualistic half measures.