Mastodawn

Economic boycott of everything and general strike Nov 25th Dec 2nd. When I was talking about #NoKings / #50501Movement needing to having an escalation plan, this is an excellent escalation. Hitting US retail on #BlackFriday and #CyberMonday coupled with a #PeoplesSickDay during that time could actually be enough to force the invocation of the 25th. There's already been an elite fracture. The government shut down is not the well calculated coup that I think Trump and co thought it was.

This whole #BlackOutTheSystem thing has a lot of potential....
https://www.blackoutthesystem.com/

#USPol

Blackout The System | Reclaiming the People's Power

Blackout The System is a grassroots movement across all races, cultures & classes to strategically and peacefully withdraw our labor & spending. The "system" will hear us - We The People. We’re not just talking about what’s wrong - we’re building what is right. A civic force that rivals the rigged system. It's Not Left vs. Right - It's the Top vs. All the Rest of Us

Blackout The System

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hex Nov 7

This is also a good way to make the protests actually valuable. The #NoKingsDay protests let people see how big the resistance was. It informed a section of the elite that their best bet was to resist rather than comply. The shutdown is already hurting the economy. The an economic blackout could be enough to break it... and we're all still waiting for the AI bubble to pop. It's gonna get really hot, really fast.

The great thing about the economic blackout as a strategy is that they don't have a mechanism to compel people to buy stuff. So it turns out that "make the economy scream" is a two player game. Go fucking figure.

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hex

What's especially interesting, and dangerous to capitalism, is that there are a lot of opportunities that come out of this.

Corporations are destroying everything. We actually don't need them. We can build mutual aid networks, guerilla gardening, library socialism... When we stop with consumerism, we can find the joy in actually living, creating, being a creative human rather than simply a consumer. With a bit of momentum we can bend the system to our will. With enough momentum we can shatter it completely and free ourselves from this trap.

Things can go a lot of different ways. I'm excited to see how things go.

Edit:
I'm specifically excited about this...
https://www.blackoutthesystem.com/about-mutual-aid

This is cool. This is really fucking cool.

About Mutual Aid | Blackout The System

Steps & principles of building mutual aid. Mutual aid is a practice and philosophy that emphasizes solidarity over charity, recognizing that our well-being, health, and dignity are interconnected. It asserts that our survival relies on cooperation rather than competition, especially in times of crisis when our health depends on that of others. Mutual aid is not charity; it's solidarity.

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hex Nov 7

You can bring down a government, smash a dictatorship, you have the power. This is an excellent strategy. But if you can go this far, if you can win this much, how much farther can you go? Is it enough to get back to the "normal" polycrisis, to return to microplastics and ecocide, to every open space filled with tent camps while luxury apartments continue to sit empty? Is it enough to be one injury or diagnosis away from unending debt?

What #SolarPunk future could we build instead? I expect it's whatever one you dream about, talk about, organize for, and fight for.

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hex Nov 7

I cannot stress enough how effective economic attacks have been as a tool throughout US history. They're basically *the thing that works* historically.

Edit:
Someone else pointed out that the American Revolution started with a big economic blockade. The Civil Rights movement involved a boycott of Woolworths and there was the bus boycott. Yeah... lots of examples, and a lot of them ended with their demands being met.