Corporations have no defense against coordinated, targeted boycotts. They can't make you buy their products.
When a large enough group of people stop buying a company's products, they are out of business—it's as simple as that.
Stop funding our own political and economic destruction. Stop buying the products of companies who fund political campaigns against the working class.
Republicans, the party of corporate welfare
Crony Capitalism and Corporate welfare
As long as it remains profitable for corporate elites to buy politicians and for politicians to take corporate money, they BOTH will continue doing it. They are corporate shills, being paid to endlessly work the system and funnel money back to their corporate donors. They are stealing as much taxpayer money as the corporate elites do, they are one in the same. When they leave government they go to work as lobbyists for their corporate masters, making millions more. You can't work through corrupt politicians.
We hold the key
We can dry up their money supply by targeting the source. Without working class progressives AS CUSTOMERS, which make up half the population, a company will be virtually out of business.
We should stop viewing ourselves as powerless employees and groveling workers and see our cumulative power as customers. We hold all the cards.
Nothing will change until we do something other than point out the problems and complain, which more often than not accomplishes little or nothing toward significant and lasting reform. The people of Egypt were done the same way by Mubarak for 30 plus years. He let them blow off steam with a few protests and then did what he wanted to anyway.
Beat them at their own game, with real free market capitalism. Single out and boycott one company, in each industry, at a time.
When a corporation insists on continuing to layoff American workers, impose hiring freezes while employing cheap overseas labor, support politicians who try to repeal minimum wage laws and give the wealthiest 1% more tax breaks while they rob their employees pension funds, or try to break organized labor unions or repeal social security you paid for or take millions in bonuses for themselves while initiating pay freezes for their employees, then... give them a buying freeze.
Stop funding the people who are robbing us
Since almost all corporations are united with each other and in collusion with their bought politicians, against the working class, we must become united too, or nothing can happen. We must single them out one company at the time in each major industry, and stop buying their products. We are half their customer base. There is absolutely nothing that company can do about it. This is the certain way to get results. You will never get 70 bought off senators to voluntarily stop taking corporate campaign money, but we can put the corporations who do, out of business one at the time, until they stop.
The problem until now was that there are millions of willing people but they are all splintered up in groups so small that they have little or no effect.
How many people will we need to convince to join the buying freeze or product boycott by the general public?
None. at least 50% of the public already agree with these principles and goals. That is 5 times more people than we need already. Just send them here.
We are the customers they must have to remain in business. United as a buying group we can put them in or out of business almost overnight.
If any major corporation lost just 25% of their customers for even a a short period of time they are virtually out of business.
Until we reverse the corporate takeover of government we cannot restore true democracy and capitalism in America.
Fascism, has been defined as a takeover of government by wealthy business owners and corporate elites to serve their own economic and political interests. This is why we can't get it done through their rigged system.
A government as corrupt as any third world country
In the 21st century, multinational corporations control almost everything. Today, there is little free market capitalism left. Through lobbying of politicians, corporations have bought, own and corrupted government, and democracy in America.
Corporations have used government to deregulate themselves, allow mergers, and acquisitions resulting in virtual monopolies. Through their political shills they have changed tax laws to favor themselves. They have stolen democracy from within. Officers in control of these corporations and their lackeys in political office openly admit that they were formed for the sole purpose of serving their own financial interests. Clearly then, government in the hands of corporations can never work since government is supposed to be being run by and for the people and their interests at large.
Government no longer functions to ensure a fair playing field for capitalism and free enterprise. Republicans love to tell you, government is not the answer it is the problem, all the while using government to serve themselves and their corporate cronys. They have shaped laws (or the lack there of) to allow them to outsource jobs to foreign countries, to the detriment of America and the American workers. Their political lackeys openly defend them, claiming that it is necessary to compete rather than requiring import tariffs. Tariffs would collect billions to balance the budget and lower taxes for everyone. More importantly tariffs would remove the benefit corporations receive from using and exploiting cheap overseas labor at the expense of the middle class American workers and ultimately America itself. Corporations and their politicians lobby to repeal minimum wage laws, for the purpose of more money for the CEOs and board of directors. Hundreds of millions of dollars in salaries and bonuses every quarter of every year is being sucked out of the top of each one of these companies by 8 to 10 people. They take for themselves 3 or 4 hundred times the average salary they give to their employees, while claiming the workers and their organized unions want too much money. They layoff thousands of workers to pay each other greater dividends. Pure greed. This small group of people, less than one half of one percent of the population sit on each others board of directors. They determine everything. The economic top one percent of the population now owns over 70% of all of America's wealth. a staggering figure. And, if that weren't enough, they have bought politicians and used government to change tax laws to avoid the bulk of their tax obligations and changed corporate structure so they no longer answer to the common shareholders for their outlandish salaries and bonuses. Through political appointment of lifetime federal judges they have even corrupted the legal system. Antitrust laws are no longer being enforced. They buy competitors and merge to eliminate competition, steal the pension funds of their employees, and its all being done legally now.
Insurance companies have convinced half the country that government can not reform their industry. And half the country is actually supporting the insurance industry and politicians they bought to ensure there will be no change.
Nowadays, to offset the occasional public street protest, corporations mount phony protests of their own, to give the appearance of public support when there is little or none. They own entire news broadcast networks and bought politicians who pump out propaganda 24/7.
The Supreme court recently ruled that corporations can now give unlimited campaign contributions to support candidates, overturning over a century of legal protections. Foreign multinational corporations can now give unlimited amounts of money to fund any politicians campaign willing to shill for them and serve their interests rather than that of the American people. This isn't free market capitalism, it is fascism—an oligarchy.
How can a handful of corporate directors and their paid off politicians convince nearly half the voting public to support this?
They tell them lower taxes and less government is the simple answer, all the while they spend millions electing politicians to use government to deregulate themselves and shift the tax burden onto the working class by cutting their own tax rates.
They have used government to reduce capital gains tax rates to 15% and take the bulk of their money under those tax loopholes as bonuses and dividends, and pay no social security on that income. Something salaried employees are not entitled to do. If they let you do it too, the whole system would collapse.
Turning this around should be easy if we simply do it
Is this a government working for the good of the people? Everyone knows the answer to that.
It hasn't always been this way.
Sound hopeless? Actually it can be stopped. With 100% certainty.
It has been done before, in much worse conditions than this.
Many may not be aware of what happened in the 1980’s in Poland, a communist block country at the time.
It all began because of one shipyard worker.
It resulted ultimately in the downfall of communism, the breakup of the soviet union and the beginning of democracy in Poland.
A general strike of the workers for better pay, working conditions and the right to form unions and organize labor.
How long did it take? less than 8 weeks.
And unlike then, it will not require near the sacrifice that they had to make.
No one has to quit their job or go on strike.
Isolate a company with coordinated general public boycott of it's products.
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First: A common meeting place is essential. It can't be splintered up. It must be coordinated and centralized to bring millions of working class consumers together to have the most impact.
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Second: It must remain a public project outside the control of any political party and their potential corrupting effects.
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Third: Target one corporation at a time in each industry.
So, how will we get the other 20% of the country to join the cause? Those who have been paid or brainwashed by corporations to defend them? We don't need them. It doesn't matter what they do or say.
Does this work?
Can any major company afford to lose 100 million customers? Or even 10 million? Of course not. The only way it can't work is if we don't do it.
How will we get 100 million participants?
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There are more than 100 million ready and willing already out there. They simply need to know we are here.
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Each of us send 10 friends, relatives or fellow workers a link to buyingfreeze.org to join the boycotts. Networking through concerned like minded individuals, organizations and websites.
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Wikipedia and Skype did in a matter of months.
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All the progressive and independent sites will point to this central organizing forum.
- Organized Labor Unions will support this with their millions of members.
We can reach millions and become organized in a matter of months—something that was virtually impossible to do just a short time ago.
Will it take years to get results?
Enron and Bear Stearns were broke in a matter of weeks. In a matter of only 2 months, the airline and auto industries were nearly bankrupt over the decline of a mere 20% in sales after 9/11.
Corporations have a fatal vulnerability: They need you as a customer! Only then do they need employees. Without you as their customer, they have no company left for them to rob.
Contrary to what corporations try to make us believe, the beauty of capitalism is that working class actually holds all the cards. It is being demonstrated in our current economic situation: The working class does not have the income to buy their products, resulting in an overall recession. When companies lay off workers, they cripple their own customer base. When they export all the jobs overseas, no one can buy their products. When half the country stops buying Fords or banking at Bank of America, for example, it will be more than just a recession for them—it will be a crisis. They will change their policies and be good corporate citizens, or they will be out of business and replaced by a company who will.
Although corporations can go to third-world countries to find cheap employees, they must still have you buying their products or they are out of business, anyway, period.
What is the corporate alternative defense to this? Nothing! Employees and working class Americans do not have products they can stop buying. Ford, Bank of America or Hyatt Regency can't lay you off, cut your wages, pension plan or replace you with cheap labor in third world countries, you don't work for them. And, even if you did and they are put out of business because of their unfair business practices, there are other companies to work for who will have gotten the message and changed their ways or they soon will be put out of business too.
When unions strike, corporations hire other workers starving for a job, scab labor to break the strike. Instead of the working class sticking together in solidarity, all to often they take advantage of fellow workers and in effect hurt themselves as well as everyone else.
Corporations want you to think you need them for employment and not notice that without you as their customer they are literally out of business.
Corporations are doing this to us, because we have let them.
Make them compete
Other companies in the same industry will comply as soon as (for example) Bank of America lowers credit card interest rates to 19% maximum and stops charging hidden transaction fees. Since more than half their customers are independents and progressives, they will lose half their customers. If only half the progressives participate, that is still 1/4 of all their customers, it will have a massive effect. Make them compete for our business. Currently they are all in collusion. They raise their rates together and you have no where to go.
Instead of just complaining and pay it like in the past, get united against one company and move your account to anyone else but them until they change.
Looking at the numbers
Since 90% of the population are middle income working class independents, liberals, progressives and conservatives, the company being boycotted will lose half their U. S.sales if just half participate! You don't have to stop buying cars, simply stop buying Fords. Their stock will begin to drop as sales are effected and shareholders will begin cashing them in, just like with Enron. And, there will be no government bailout if we won't buy their cars anyway.
Buy General Motors and Chrysler automobiles. They are two great American and government success stories for the ages. The right wing pundants immediately pushed for them to not receive government backed LOANS, while wall street was busy, giving themselves billion dollar bonuses with no strings attached. They wanted Chrysler and GM to go broke and be reorganized so they could rob the union funds and in effect eliminate the united Auto Workers Union.
How will this change government?
Outspoken corporations driving issues that demonize workers and organized labor unions and openly push to cut workers compensation negotiated in good faith and earned over decades, will be less vocal and stop paying politicians millions in campaign bribes or they will become the next target of the public boycott. In fact, it will become popular again for corporations to stand with their employees and appreciate their customers rather than thinking you have no ability to do anything about their poor treatment. They can only remain in business if you buy their products.
Corporations will find that those willing to work with the people to enact fair laws and government oversight are the only ones we will buy from. It will no longer matter if they buy politicians, we simply won't buy their products if they do. Corporations will join with organized labor and push government to reform trade laws. By setting import tariffs on products manufactured outside the U.S. it will lower American tax payers taxes in half. It takes away any incentive and stops undermining our country for corporate elites willing to wreck America for personal greed.
Drive the nail in their heart, they only care about the bottom line.
You are the one we have been waiting for to help us and we are the ones you have been waiting for to help you. Together we will shrink each one of them in half and eventually out of business if they don't change.
How else can I help?
In addition to supporting the current and coming boycotts. You can help by spreading the word, placing links on progressive websites, union bulletin boards and blogs, bumper stickers and donations.
Join the community blog and share your ideas.
Organized workers through Labor Unions are what has made America the top industrial power we are today. They brought us the 40 hour work week, weekends off, better working conditions and pay, even retirement. They have stood in solidarity with women’s right to vote, equal pay,civil rights and now we can stand with them and change America.
These efforts need a central location, otherwise there would be dozens of willing but unconnected individuals and underfunded groups rather than the power of pooling our resources behind one major effort that can be hugely successful.
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