How to Turn an “#EconomicBlackout” Into an All-Out War on #CorporatePower

Friday’s economic boycott is a one-day attack on corporate interests. The #degrowth movement calls for a broader societal shift.

Jonah Valdez, February 28 2025

Excerpt: "Rooted in the work of American and European political theorists of the 1970s, the 'degrowth' movement criticizes a #capitalist system that seeks unending growth and profit, which has led to #ecological and #environmental ruin such as the impacts of #ClimateChange.

"Instead, it advocates for a system that prioritizes the needs of the #planet and its people, such as #housing, #education, and #healthcare. According to Jason Hickel, a leading advocate of degrowth and author of 'Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World,' the movement calls for reducing consumption and production of things that harm the planet such #FossilFuels, #SUVs, #PrivateJets, #mansions, #FastFashion, #IndustrialBeef, #CruiseShips, and the #MilitaryIndustrialComplex.

"While the term may be unfamiliar to many Americans, its core ideas have cropped up in the Green New Deal’s goals of a post-fossil fuel economy; the pandemic-era phenomenon of white-collar workers voluntarily quitting their jobs and working less; and the recent social media trend of '#NoBuy,' which encouraged people to purchase less and #repurpose more.

"'People are getting a sense that they’re ripped off, that they’re being taken advantage of and exploited as consumers,' said Aaron Vansintjan, co-author of 'The Future Is Degrowth: A Guide to a World Beyond Capitalism.' 'It is promising that people are responding to the current moment by showing their distrust of these corporations.'

"The boycott has drawn wide–ranging media coverage, along with the attention of some celebrities. It also caught the attention of #LindaSarsour, a progressive activist best known for organizing the 2017 #WomensMarch after #Trump’s first election.

"'It is an easy risk-free way to invite masses of people to act in reaction to the outrageousness of this Administration,' Sarsour told The Intercept in an email."

https://theintercept.com/2025/02/28/no-buy-nothing-corporation-boycott-capitalism-degrowth/
#CorporateColonialism #Corporatocracy #RepairCafes #LibraryOfThings #ReuseRepairRecycle #CircularEconomy #CapitalismKills #EnvironmentalDamage #USPol #WorldPol #CapitalismMustDie #PlannedObsolescence #ProtectMotherEarth

#TaxTheRich, it’s a decent start

Posted by Bluebird | Mar 12, 2025

"As incredible as it may seem, just a handful of #billionaire #Mainers could fund the state for years out of their own pockets and still live out their lives as multimillionaires. So when socialists say tax the rich, we mean more than raising what billionaires pay by 1% or 2%, we mean raising their taxes by 25% or 50% or more to start with. We mean we should take back the wealth they have collected by exploiting all the people who have worked for them, all the land they have stolen, and all the resources they have grabbed all around the world. In the meantime, socialists often support smaller measures whenever we feel like they are a way to raise funds to help our class, raise consciousness, and build organization.

However, increasing taxes on the wealthy isn’t a permanent solution to the persisting problems of #capitalist society. It’s a good start, but it’s not enough.

[...]

"By all means tax [the wealthy] at a rate of 95%, 99%, 100%, 200%! Take back everything they have stolen from us. Truly solving the causes of social inequality cannot happen until the property of the capitalist class has been expropriated, but for the reasons explained above, simply taxing them at any rate will prove ineffective given enough time.

"Moreover, tax increases tend to antagonize capitalists. Sooner or later, as we are seeing very clearly now in Washington, they will transform their economic might into raw political power to claw back even the small social costs that generations of #SocialMovements and trade unions have imposed on them. During such times, as grim as our prospects may seem, it becomes clearer than ever that so long as the capitalists have all the power, even the most progressive public policy can only be temporary.

"How much longer will capitalist industry be allowed to #pollute the planet? How many more times does the economy have to crash? How many more wars will we be forced to fight on the behalf of these #RobberBarons? How many more lives will be ruined by #debts, mass #layoffs, denied insurance claims, and more? Why should we tolerate a system that exploits those whose labor keeps society functioning?"

Read more:
https://pineandroses.org/opinion/www-pineandroses-org/
#MaineDSA #Socialism #CapitalismMustDie

#Landlords gouge victims of #LAFires

by Judd Legum and Noel Sims, Jan 14, 2025

"The devastating fires in Los Angeles have killed 24 people. The fires have burned tens of thousands of acres, and hundreds of thousands of #Angelenos have been forced to evacuate. The blaze has destroyed at least 12,000 structures and thousands of people have nowhere to live.

"For most people, this is a horrific tragedy. But numerous landlords in the area are treating it as a #MoneyMaking opportunity.

"A review of rental listings revealed dozens of properties where the landlords have sharply increased their prices since the fires began on January 7. Popular Information used Zillow to identify rental homes in communities near the areas impacted by the fires — including #PacificPalisades, #SantaMonica, #ManhattanBeach, #HuntingtonBeach, and the #SanFernandoValley — that have increased their asking price over the last week.

"While not every rent increase is evidence of #exploitation, the timing and scale of many increases strongly suggest #PriceGouging is occurring.

"In Manhattan Beach, for example, Popular Information identified a five-bedroom home listed on December 31, 2024, for $8,750 per month. By Monday, the rent was bumped up 125 percent to $19,750 monthly.

"But it is not only luxury properties with ocean views whose prices have skyrocketed in the last week.

"A three-bedroom home in #Tujunga, listed for $4,100 on December 28, was increased to $8,500 on January 7, the day the Pacific Palisades fire broke out, 93 percent higher than its initial listing price."

Read more:
https://popular.info/p/landlords-gouge-victims-of-la-fires
#PredatoryLandlords #CapitalismKills #CapitalismMustDie #RentGouging #Unhoused #California #UnaffordableHousing #Housing

Ahead of Another Summer of Climate Disasters, Let’s Talk about Real Solutions

"#Capitalism has no future on this planet. We will need a far-reaching revolution to address this crisis."

#CrimeThinc, May 8, 2024

"The mainstream climate movement begins from a premise that guarantees failure. Not just failure. Catastrophe. And the more effective it is, the more harm it will cause.

Let’s explore why.

#ClimateReductionism

"When people think of environmentalism these days, they are likely to picture civil disobedience in the streets, media activism, enthusiastic lobbying, and conferences aiming to set global goals for carbon emissions—all under the leadership of non-governmental organizations, academics, and progressive politicians. Ecological struggle, however, has always also included anti-capitalist and anti-colonial currents, and these currents have been getting stronger, more dynamic, and better connected over the past couple decades.

T"hat growth, however, has not been without setbacks, often caused by intense targeted repression that leaves movements exhausted and traumatized, like the #GreenScare that began in 2005 and the repression of #StandingRock and other #Indigenous-led #AntiPipeline movements a decade later.

"Systematically, at precisely the moments when radical currents are licking their wounds, the predominantly white, middle-class vision of environmentalism takes the stage and pushes the entire conversation in reformist directions.

"The actual crisis we are facing is a complex ecological crisis, in which police killings, repressive laws, ongoing histories of #colonialism and #WhiteSupremacy, #HabitatLoss,#LandGrabs, food cultures, human health, #urbanism, borders, and wars are all entangled. The leadership of the environmental movement has made the strategic decision to reduce all of this to a question of climate—the climate crisis—and to recenter the state as the protagonist, as our potential savior. This means centering the #ParisAgreement and the #COP summits as the solution to the problem, and using performative #activism and #CivilDisobedience to demand policy shifts and investment in support of green energy."

Read more:
https://crimethinc.com/2024/05/08/ahead-of-another-summer-of-climate-disasters-lets-talk-about-real-solutions
#ACAB #CriminalizingDissent #CapitalismMustDie #CorporateColonialism #Corporatocracy #ClimateJustice

#BernieSanders Lays Out Plan to Fight #Oligarchy as Wealth of Top #Billionaires Passes $10 Trillion

"If there was ever a moment when #progressives needed to communicate our vision to the people of our country, this is that time," wrote Sen. Bernie Sanders. "Despair is not an option."

Jake Johnson
Dec 31, 2024

"A Bloomberg analysis of billionaire wealth published Tuesday found that the combined fortunes of the 500 richest people on the planet surpassed $10 trillion this year, a finding that came shortly after U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders issued an urgent call to action to prevent the emergence of 'an oligarchic and authoritarian society.'

"The new analysis notes that the world's top 500 billionaires 'got vastly richer' this year with the help of "an indomitable rally in U.S. technology stocks."

"Just eight billionaires—#ElonMusk, #MarkZuckerberg, #JensenHuang, #LarryEllison, #JeffBezos, #MichaelDell, #LarryPage, and #SergeyBrin—added more than $600 billion to their collective wealth in 2024 and accounted for 43% of the $1.5 trillion increase in net worth among the world's 500 richest people, according to Bloomberg.

"'But it was Musk—the so-called 'first buddy' of President-elect Donald Trump after unprecedented support for his reelection campaign—who dominated the world's wealthiest in 2024,' Bloomberg observed, adding that Trump himself also saw his fortune surge to a record high this year, 'boosted by the performance of his majority stake in Trump Media & Technology Group Corp.'

"Musk's use of his enormous fortune to influence the U.S. political system—including via his purchase of one of the world's largest social media platforms and donations to Trump's 2024 campaign—amplified existing concerns about the corrosive impact of massive wealth concentration on democracy.

"And #WealthInequality in the U.S. could soon get worse, with Trump and the incoming Republican-controlled Congress set to pursue another round of tax cuts for the #UltraRich and large #corporations."

Read more:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/bernie-sanders-billionaire-wealth

And yes, best takeaway from the #HumanGeography class -- #CapitalismMustDie !

#Lakota #Historian #NickEstes on #Thanksgiving, #SettlerColonialism & Continuing #IndigenousResistance

#DemocracyNow, November 28, 2024

"Lakota historian #NickEstes talks about the violent origins of Thanksgiving and his book Our History Is the Future. 'This history … is a continuing history of #genocide, of settler colonialism and, basically, the founding myths of this country,' says Estes, who is a co-founder of the Indigenous resistance group The Red Nation and a citizen of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe."

Watch / listen / read transcript: http://www.democracynow.org/2024/11/28/nick_estes_thanksgiving