There have been numerous efforts to encourage the people to resist the urge to spend massive amounts of their money as the “Holiday Season” kicks off and major corporations and big businesses entice us to participate in the shopping frenzy of “Thanksgiving Thursday”, “Black Friday” and now “Cyber Monday”.  These efforts, from alternative celebrations to outright protest actions, take many forms. 

Every year at this time, the United American Indians of New England hold the National Day of Mourning March and Protest at Cole’s Hill near Plymouth Rock, an event I have had the privilege of attending five times over the years and hope to do so again sometime (see the related post, “Thanksgiving or Day of Mourning?”).  In some Pan Afrikan communities, ceremonies such as Gye Nyame (after an Adinkra symbol attesting that “I fear none but the Creator”) and Umoja Karamu (or “Unity Feast”; see the related post about the Pan Afrikan Liberation Movement’s Umoja Karamu in Baltimore November 23) have sought to replace Thanksgiving gatherings with more Afrikan centered events.

This post concerns a specific campaign aimed at big businesses, major corporations and the political machine that maintains them, often at the expense of “the people on the bottom” as they seek to extract more of our hard-earned money to fuel their record profits.

The “Mass Blackout” Economic Boycott is designed to stage a massive economic protest against the current regime in the White House (perhaps, but not necessarily, in connection to the “Remove the Regime” protests scheduled for November 20-22 in Washington, DC and other locations) and, at the same time, deny the major corporations, many of whom support and are supported by the current regime, of the massive profits they count on at this time of the year, from Thanksgiving Day events to Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping sprees as consumers ramp up for the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

The “Mass Blackout” Economic Boycott aims to deny the major corporations our hard-earned dollars and, in the words of the organizers, “drain them dry” instead of propping up their bottom lines at the beginning of what they always plan to be their most profitable holiday season.

Two primary promotional graphics have been shared over social media and are shown below.  The guidelines for the “Mass Blackout” Economic Boycott are stated by the organizers as follows:

• • No Amazon.  No Target.  No Walmart. No national chains.
  • No fast food from national brands.  If you eat out, choose independent restaurants.
  • No online shopping.  No Prime Day deals.  No app store purchases.
  • No streaming rentals.  No movie tickets at national theater chains.
  • No rideshare if a local taxi or transit option exists.
  • No new gadgets.  No new clothes.  No home decor.
  • No buy now pay later.  No impulse credit card splurges.
  • To prevent “spoke spending” before and after the Blackout, we ask that all participants purchase goods needed from community-owned stores and markets leading up to and after the dates.  This helps with sustained impact and keeps our money out of the mega businesses’ pockets.

If I’m understanding this correctly, small, community-owned and -operated businesses, especially those run by Pan Afrikan, Indigenous and marginalized communities, are not subject to the boycott.  “Small Business Saturday” is reportedly exempted from the boycott, according to a November 12 USA Today article cited below.  Traditionally, the community is encouraged to specifically support these small and community businesses and organizations as a means of building up an “alternative economy”, one that we frankly should have been supporting all along.

Mass Blackout’s Web Site

“This holiday season, we shut down the system,” proclaims the official Web site, https://www.themassblackout.com.  “We’re pulling the plug on corporate control.”  This is a coordinated economic shutdown—a collective refusal to participate in a system that profits off our pain, exploits our labor, and buys our politicians.

The site explains further:

The system isn’t broken. It’s working exactly as designed—for the wealthy.

The Mass Blackout is a nationwide economic action, coordinated across aligned organizations, calling Americans to:

• • • • Stop online or in-store shopping (except for small businesses)
      • Stop work
      • Stop streaming, cancel subscriptions, no digital purchases
      • Remove the regime

If you must spend: support small, local businesses only. Pay in cash.

We’re not targeting small businesses or communities—we’re targeting the corporate systems that profit from injustice, fuel authoritarianism, and crush worker power.

For more details and analysis of the need for an economic boycott, to download their Media Kit and other resources, and for a list of suggested organizations to which you can donate to help lift up those in greatest need, go to the Web site, https://www.themassblackout.com.

Mainstream Media Coverage

While the “Mass Blackout” may not yet have received the attention it merits (and why would the corporate media support efforts to subvert corporate America’s effort to maximize its profits?), USA Today published an article on November 12 about the “Mass Blackout” (“Cancel Black Friday? ‘Mass Blackout’ doesn’t want you to shop or work to protest Trump” by Jessica Guynn, https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/11/11/black-friday-cyber-monday-donald-trump-boycotts/87221297007/).

A coalition of grassroots organizations is calling for a nationwide economic shutdown during the busy holiday shopping season, including Black Friday and Cyber Monday, to protest the Trump administration and economic inequality.

The groups – Blackout the System, The People’s Sick Day, American Opposition, the Money Out of Politics Movement, and The Progressive Network – urged Americans to stop all spending and refuse to go to work during the “Mass Blackout,” which runs from Nov. 25 to Dec. 2.

Avoid travel and restaurants and cancel streaming and digital subscriptions, organizers said. “If you must spend: support small, local businesses only. Pay in cash.” Small Business Saturday on Nov. 30 is exempted from the blackout.

The groups in the coalition had all independently called for shopping boycotts but decided to join forces.

“We are living under a political system captured by special interests, where billionaires and corporations write the rules,” Isaiah Rucker Jr., founder of Blackout the System, said in a statement. “Congress serves donors, not the American people, and democratic norms are being dismantled in front of our eyes, with corporate backing. This campaign is about showing them where the power truly lies, with the people.”

Carlos Álvarez-Aranyos, founder of American Opposition, told USA TODAY the coalition is “developing the American muscle for boycotts and blackouts as a way to leverage economic power” with the ultimate goal of leading a general strike.

“We don’t see this fight as left versus right. We see it more as top versus bottom,” Álvarez-Aranyos, who helped organize the “No Kings” protests and the Tesla boycott, said in an interview. “This is about Black Friday because, honestly, what we are seeing across the board is just unsustainable. We are being taken advantage of. Prices are up. Inflation is through the roof.” …

The rest of the November 12 USA Today article can be read at https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/11/11/black-friday-cyber-monday-donald-trump-boycotts/87221297007/.