The key is 100% boycotting all services provided by a company. Wikipedia’s list of Amazon product/services as reference (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Amazon_products_and_services).
Incidentally, I know entire neighborhoods that don’t have other grocery stores besides Target/Whole Foods, not to mention that AWS is the cloud computing industry standard… As a personal example, my vet-prescribed cat foods are manufactured by Purina, a subsidary of Nestlé (needless to say, a separate but also extremely evil large corporation)
Considering how much of the Internet is now backed by AWS… yeah good luck with a full, 100% boycott, unless you’re willing to install a plug-in to let you know which parts of the web are on AWS and specifically avoid them.
That being said, a 100% boycott is borderline puritanical. It’s very easy to order nothing from Amazon, and if enough of us do it will make a noticeable dent in their profits.
From the DSA instagram 6 days ago:
Why didn’t the “economic blackout” change anything?
Stocks rose Friday instead of falling, and there was no sign that the “economic boycott” that spread across social media had any impact whatsoever, other than maybe being a promotional tool for smaller businesses.
Why didn’t it work and what would work instead?
We don’t have power as “consumers”.
Working people are always going to need to buy things. And even if a large portion of workers stopped buying everyday goods from Target or Starbucks, we’d still need to pay rent, pay the mortgage, pay utilities, and ultimately depend on a larger supply chain. You can’t “opt-out” of capitalism.
Boycotts that work are focused on a clear target and have with a specific demand, and are built on long-term, deep organizing. But even then, as a tactic, a boycott isn’t going to be what brings the economy to a halt to stop the Trump agenda.
We have power as workers.
In January 2019, a 35 day shutdown of the federal government came to an end after the flight attendants union announced their intention to strike. Such a strike would have grounded a large percentage of air travel, which even if just for a short period of time would have had a devastating impact on the US economy.
If we want to hit the ruling class where it hurts we need to organize as workers, not as consumers. Our power is in collectively withholding our labor, not withholding our dollars (which we only have in the first place by selling our labor).
Strikes are organized, not mobilized.
Strikes don’t happen because someone made an Instagram post calling for it and then everyone thought it was a good idea.
Strikes are the result of long-term organizing that builds tightly structured organization through a series of escalating actions that show the level of support for the union, which if successful leave workers confident and the boss afraid.
A strike can’t work if only a minority of workers walk out either. Strikes require a supermajority of workers to be effective.
So what can you do?
Join an organization like DSA that is working to build the kind working class power necessary not just to beat back Trump’s attacks but to win a better world.
Join the labor movement. Organize at work, in your union if you have one, and get trained on the secrets of successful organizing through organizations like Labor Notes. Looking for a new job? Consider taking a job in a “strategic sector” like healthcare, education, or logistics.
Stop scrolling and start talking to your coworkers, your neighbors, friends, and family. The revolution will not be posted. Revolutions are made through organizing.
We don’t have power as “consumers”.
If even 10% of consumers “bought” like I do the economy would suffer greatly. Almost everything I acquire was trash, recycled, repurposed, used, etc. I could show someone around my house and property for 2 solid hours showing off all the deals I got or created.
Just in the last week I’ve found in my hood:
- Nice dryer - repaired and selling now
- 3 vacuum cleaners, 2 of which are also carpet cleaners and are brand new, cleaning for sale
- Leaky, portable ice maker, probably just needs unclogged
- 3 kid’s scooters, fixing up the best for my daughter
- 1 girl’s bike, fixing for my daughter
- More that I’m forgetting. Had to stop and get this stuff fixed and/or sold.
I was building stuff yesterday with culled lumber from the hardware store, $50 for $1,400 worth. When I got home I helped my wife with a sweet curio cabinet she got for $35. LOL, it’s huge!
tl;dr: I find it weird that people just go out and buy stuff new when there’s so much free/cheap/used goods to be had.
Good call. The greenest purchase you can make is fixing the thing you already own.
I’m sorry, but it’s likely literally impossible for this to be the leading paradigm for 10% of people. Maybe 10% would work but I think it’d already be problematic.
You have to remember that the only reason you got these things was because other people didn’t need them anymore. Why didn’t they need it anymore? Because they bought new stuff.
And you surely didn’t get all these things from a single household. Many different households had to get new stuff so their old stuff became available. It’s likely that more than 10 households are necessary to sustain 1 person that gets everything used, because not everyone buys new things all the time, and stuff often breaks instead of still being fine to use.
I personally would eyeball 1-5% of people could do this like you, but this is just a complete unsubstantiated feeling, a guess.
Amazon doesn’t make anything. There’s very little on Amazon that can’t be purchased somewhere else.
It’s more realistic when the boycotters have a specific demand, e.g. getting the company to divest from Israel.
Then the boycott just has to do them more damage than quitting Israel would.
A direct boycott of Amazon and its subsidiaries? Super easy, barely an inconvenience.
But boycotting services that happen to use Amazon? Impossible!
Any business may use products ordered from there. Your local toll gate may use AWS. Unless you are a major client nobody is going to let you audit their supply contracts.
Yeah, AWS is ginormous and largely invisible. You can usually figure out when something’s in AWS if you can traceroute it, and sometimes by IP, but that requires knowing the IP of the server in question AND having the know-how to use and understand those tools’ output.
100% is unattainable, but tbh even 10% would hurt them
The way I see it… whenever I do buy from Amazon, I say to myself that my money is going to the workers/drivers… and whenever the Magas pay for stuff, that goes straight to Bezos.
It’s not as good as buying from somewhere else, but it helps.
There is never a perfect solution. Just boycotting them in any way you reasonably can will go a long way.
Boycott is the wrong word.
Permanently change your spending habits. A temporary change a company can ignore, but permanent change in spending will affect them.
You can’t avoid everything 100% of the time but simply closing your Amazon account and not ordering their trash EVER AGAIN will make a difference.
Every one of us needs to change permanently to not empower this oligarchs any more.
That is a good idea. I’ll close my account as well.
Uhmmm, I haven’t used Amazon for anything in at least four years, pretty sure it’s really easy
Have you confirmed that no website you provide ad revenue or membership fees to used AWS? If you haven’t checked, then you probably have supported Amazon. Amazon makes most of their money through AWS.
Regardless, good on you for not buying from Amazon directly. I too haven’t purchased from them for years
Don’t aim for 100%. Just 90% would be good. Make it a point when buying something to look for someone else first. Often there is a widget.com company that sells the same thing for a similar price but they have experts to write up the description and so help you choose which of the 100 different manufactures is really best for you. Every brand says they have the best, but often there are differences an expert would know about that you will never figure out on amazon.
Amazon reviews are terrible - sure what you choose worked for your purposes, but almost nobody buys all 100 (or even 10 of them) and compares, and thus you don’t know if this works but should be a 3 star because of how much better something they didn’t buy is.
I’ve ordered from Amazon once. That’s the only occasion I’ve ever used any of their services. I’m not intentionally avoiding them, I simply don’t have the need for any of it. I’ve always just used ebay and Aliexpress instead.
Be careful about ebay, a lot of sellers just drop ship from Amazon
Its only vialble if there’s a organized critical mass of people doing it.
It’s not. Not spending money is not a very effective direct action. Like companies can’t just borrow money or be bailed out until people get tired.
The most plausible way is a short-term boycott for like 2 weeks at the end of their fiscal reporting period. You want the rebound not to be reflected in the quarterly report so it fucks with the share prices.
