This is the second organized economic protest (first one was on February 28th) while the April 5th protest is being organized (by the 50501 Movement and Women’s March) for a much larger mobilization in Washington D.C. Indivisible’s Hands Off 2025 is also part of this protest. Having multiple organizations involved spreads out some of the logistics required for peacefully assembling in D.C. (which has added requirements). There are local state protests for people who cannot make it to D.C. (check the respective sites for events or The Big List of Protests web site for these specific ones).
For this economic boycott, I’m just continuing what I started a few months ago. As noted before, I’ve pulled back extensively on non-essential spending while slowly stocking up on essentials before the prices start going up (this is expected to really begin ramping up in April especially once more tariffs are enacted by this idiotic regime).
The protests and boycotts against Tesla is beginning to have a material impact (but will take multiple quarters to manifest itself). While the stock has come down significantly since hitting an intraday high of $480/share around December 17, 2024, it’s the damage to the brand name globally which will have a long term chilling effect on sales (and thus revenues/profits). Sales are continuing to decline while surveys in Germany reveal many have no plans to purchase one. Musk may try to offset some of this by abusing his position (like fleet sales of Tesla’s to the government). IMHO, China’s BYD EV’s is going to eat Tesla alive globally for passenger car sales (the US being an exception because BYD’s cars including its EV’s aren’t sold in the US because of the automotive tariffs). And once Japanese car makers commit to more EV models, the market competition is really going to heat up.
Basically, this protectionalist stance versus actually competing in this market (because the lobbyists in the US who support the automotive industry and big oil have been such a roadblock to this entire EV industry which requires the entire infrastructure to be built to support it; this is going to backfire in the longrun). Asia will long have the infrastructure in place where the economies of scales will kick in on the renewable energy side (IMHO).
Another company that needs to be seriously boycotted is Airbnb since its co-founder Joe Gebbia joined Elon Musk’s DOGE. Gebbia is good friends with Musk and also serves on Tesla’s board of directors (since 2022). Anyone who wants to associate with a Nazi like Musk is free to do so, but don’t expect me to respect that person nor be an advocate for their businesses. Airbnb itself has been a parasitic leech on the hotel industry (which themselves, have done no favors and provided the reasons for why Airbnb became so attractive; but the major hotels are run by the same group of greedy executive class). The theme is common with these executives; enshittification and taking advantage of the worker class.
As for the April 5th protest, something of a larger mass mobilization is much more difficult to quickly do because of logistics. The US with its larger geographic footprint makes it more challenging to get people to a specific location like D.C. for example. On top of the proper permitting and authorizations for organizers, there is transportaion and lodging. The other aspect is ensuring it is peaceful and safe (plus getting the communication out to participants about all of this).
The grassroots 50501 protests have been moderately successful but realistically not large enough in terms of attendees (each state plus the total aggregate). The hope is this April 5th one will be a much larger number (states plus D.C. and the total aggregate number). When you have six-figures marching and protesting, it’s a visual reminder of the power that people have when they come together en masse. It also sends a stronger signal to the oligarchs and regime that the population is no longer taking what they are doing sitting down.
Related to this are more calls being made for a general strike in the US. One such call came from Representative Jim McGovern of MA regarding such a “national” strike. To be fair, organizing an actual general strike requires significant planning and organization because you need a lot of the major unions onboard and have support mechanisms for workers who would be affected. Something like this is a battle of time where it drags the entire economic engine to a crawl.
Oligarchs understand money and denying their businesses of it is one way to get their attention. Should the big 3 agenda items (Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security) be pushed through simultaneously where such large groups of people are affected in rapid succession (healthcare coverage will be lost as well as interruptions in monthly checks), you can expect a very organic reaction to that (because there will be many in this demographic who will feel they no longer have anything else to lose, and that is a history lesson that oligarchs and dictators tend to forget).
One Comment