Unified Occupy Boycott

Please sign the petition if you would participate in the following:

A unified consumer boycotting union which would serve as a ``free market weapon'' against corporations who represent what we are opposed to. This would be unlike previous Occupy related boycott attempts in that 1) The boycott would not commence until critical mass has been obtained, and 2) The targeted corporation would change every quarter.

This union would be in the form of a website, where members would vote, say once every quarter, on a product or corporation to boycott. The choices would be based on the following

1) The corporation should be publicly traded, so that quantifiable results can be seen (loss of revenue, lower equity price).
2) The corporation should be easy for a significant chunk of consumers to participate in. For example something like Coca-Cola is a better option than Goldman Sachs, as most of the 99 have no direct business dealing with Goldman.
3) The corporation should have a strong demonstrable record of favoring the 1 percent over the 99 percent.

Once this ``weapon'' is established, its power can snowball. As more consumers see the effectiveness, more will join. While today we may not be able to directly attack a corporation such as Bain, we can threaten companies which might be tempted to do consulting with Bain, so as an indirect weapon that threat of boycott can be even more powerful.

There have been various boycott lists, various calls to action, various lists of grievances against various corporations. As a consumer, I feel relatively unmotivated to go out of my way on a Tuesday to avoid buying a box of Dixie cups, because I know my purchase or abstention will not send a noticeable message to Koch Brothers. Boycotts that are eased into or have inconsistent participation will be less noticeable (on a corporate balance sheet) compared with other unpredictable market forces. On the other hand, with the knowledge that hundreds of thousands of participants are boycotting this particular product over an entire quarter, I will feel motivated. For this reason, a boycott should not be commenced until we have at least 25,000 participants.

Another advantage of this effort would be that it would make participation in Occupy accessible to more of the 99. Families with kids and tentative holds on careers can't camp out in parks as easily as those who are younger and unattached, but a boycott is easy to participate in.

Finally, this is an opportunity to cast our votes in the Supply-Side vs Demand-Side debate. Conservatives don't worry about lack of demand, because they believe (or so they say) ``supply creates its own demand.'' They also goad us into this by saying ``if you don't like the company, don't buy the product.'' I agree!