It is more than just not getting up for work. It is about refusing to be dutiful consumers for the elites. They do not amass their wealth without us. We make them rich, and we can turn the tides on them very easily if we use our consumer power.

[NOTE: Please go to Events to see actions for 2019/2020]

Years of conditioning and advertising have made Americans notorious consumers

Americans love to consume, whether they can afford to or not. All you have to do is spend time in a mall at Christmas. We have lost all perspective on what the season is about, and corporations and merchants have created that change in perspective in order to feed the never-ending, debilitating cycle of consumption and debt. Most people do not even recognize that this is going on. Consuming is a way of life for most.

I work in a hardware store with a television in the background and I hear the mind-numbing infomercials run every single day selling face creams that remove wrinkles, reduce eyebags, and make you look like Cindy Crawford. And for the men? Well, we can watch Larry King every afternoon as he peddles his prostate support vitamin pack where he trots out a variety of snake oil salesmen. In between, we have various legal firms representing plaintiffs against big pharma in any number of drug cases. If these drugs were safe, these firms wouldn't exist. And if these infomercials weren't working, they wouldn't be running them. Someone is buying this garbage.

But there are some who do recognize it to varying degrees. These people may not realize how much power they have to change this situation. There is more than one way to shut this system down. While not every person would support a nationwide strike (and in this climate it would be near impossible to pull one off), enough of us refusing to consume would send a message. There is nothing that elites understand (or fear) more than falling profits.

We want instant impact but have long-term goals.

If you're thinking this is going to be a bang-bang revolution and we're done, you'd better think twice and you'd better plan on being in for the long haul. So, while we're trying to upend this mess, there are things we can do to change the landscape. For most, these are not small changes, but nothing good comes out of this mess with out a price for everyone:

• Dump cable for good; there are plenty of viable alternatives out there from high-performance antennas to YouTube TV. YTTV does not require a contract. There is seriously no reason to continue to pay parasites like Comcast and Verizon any longer.
• Switch cell phone providers! Dump Verizon, Sprint, and the rest of them. Switch to Boost Mobile, T-Mobile, Cricket or another no-contract, pay-as-you-go provider. The service if fine. I know. You can buy outright a smart phone for  a fraction of the cost (I bought a refurb Galaxy S7 and it's just fine). I get three lines, plus unlimited talk, text, data and 30 gigs of WiFi hotspot for $100 flat a month. Total. Nobody needs these overpriced entities anymore. You also get the added bonus of privacy. It may be a small victory, but it is a victory over endless surveillance nonetheless.
• There are a number of corporations we must permanently eliminate from our suppliers list. We'd like to call out a few notables for you (we reiterate that this is not an exhaustive list):
  • ​Amazon and Whole Foods
    • ​Any time you invest in Jeff Bezos, you are investing in your own oppression. Not only has he been granted a patent to sell surveillance as a service, he is helping the government build a surveillance state on us. 
  • Walmart
  • Nestle
  • Monsanto/Bayer
    • ​There are also allied products that incorporate Monsanto products. See the information here. 
  • Starbucks
  • Apple
  • Disney
    • ​The battle for total control of our media is coming down to two giants, of which Disney is one. It's reach is frightening and appetite knows no bounds. Either way, we lose, and we might as well accept the fact that our media is forever lost to us at this point. That doesn't mean that we should allow Disney's rampage to continue.
• We must stop buying Israeli products just as we did South African products. The link to the complete list is here. 
• Boycott the military. It is hard to fight illegal, interventionist wars when nobody volunteers to do so. Serving is not mandatory, and nobody is protecting our safety or freedom. You are supporting the military-industrial complex and our gluttonous corporate interests around the globe.

We know it is an uphill battle to get Americans to turn off the "consume" button, but it is something that gives us instant leverage in this battle with minimal pain. (There is no change worth pursuing that will ever be pain free.) Think about it. Every time we spend money, we are voting for the kind of world we want to live in.