Not the boycott we need, but the one we deserve.

activism in the social media era.

Hi all,

The subject line of this one is a little harsh, I admit.

But it’s how I feel, after spending the past few weeks seeing Instagram posts from my friends announcing the closures of their (popular!) independent restaurants, side-by-side with posts calling for a spending blackout on 2/28.

A spending blackout. On a Friday. In this economy.

As these blackout multiplied across my feed, the proposed action seemed to vary in its intensity, from a one-day boycott of “big box” retailers, fast food chains, and gas stations, to a less specific commitment to use only cash for one day, to what seems basically like the Sabbath—no money spent, no businesses visited, all meals prepared in advance. I couldn’t find an original post anywhere, so I couldn’t tell what the boycott’s directive was, other than “sending a message” (to whom was also unclear).

I was curious to find out what the purported goal of the blackout was, because, as most activist organizers will tell you, a one-day spending blackout is an interesting tactic in that it’s completely pointless.

Before you begin to think my hope has simply been snuffed out by my addiction to capitalism, please remember that I’m so hot for boycotting major retailers I spent an entire day in November constructing this open-source spreadsheet listing small-business shopping alternatives for the community. I could not possibly believe more strongly in the power of economic divestment from the corporate-industrial wasteland. I am certain that our socio-enviro-political futures depend on never setting foot in a Target again.

Which is why I found myself looking sideways at this boycott. One day?

Who in their leftist right mind thinks not getting gas on a Friday will “change the world?” Who’s convincing the masses that a mere 24 hours without Amazon will “send a message” to the oligarchy? What lazy, faux-intersectional economics was this? I needed to know: Who was behind this meaningless act of protest?

Then I remembered that I have the internet and three-quarters of a journalism degree at my disposal. So I decided to do some digging. Here’s what I found:

• According to the only outlets that have reported on the blackout, this boycott was organized by The People’s Union. Never heard of them? Neither had I. It took a few really creative Google searches to find their website, as the URL is, oddly, www.theonecalledjai.com. Huh.

• The landing page of The People’s Union/The One Called Jai (so weird) indicates the original call for the boycott was in response to stores like Target rolling back their DEI initiatives. Fair enough. But scroll down and you’re quickly encouraged to buy a t-shirt or make a “donation” for things like “infrastructure” and “potential legal battles.” I checked the URL again to see if it ended in .org—it did not. I scrolled down to the page footer to see if they indicated 501(c)(3) status there, as some orgs do. They did not. But there was an “about the founder” page, so I bopped over there—maybe this was a mutual aid organization without nonprofit status run by a longtime organizer.

• Surprise! It isn’t. The People’s Union is an “organization” that seems to consist of one white dude named John Schwarz.

• Since going viral on Instagram just 3 weeks ago, The People’s Union (aka John Schwarz, who goes by the handle @theonecalledjai) has raised more than $50,000 in donations to what seems to be simply himself—no 501(c)(3) status, no affiliation with any existing mutual aid or community action organizations, and no clear plan to incorporate, beyond saying he plans to “become a nonprofit and eventually a union,” as he states in one of his videos devoted to chastising his followers for asking where the money is going.

• The only signs of life I can find for Schwarz beyond The People’s Union indicate he previously owned a failed business called “Expanded Health” that sold “exotic foods” using the same self-styled guru language he relies on now. As his early Expanded Health post states, it seems his interest in capitalizing on social media revenue with viral posts was the goal from the start: “Social-media advertising spend WILL grow rapidly. It will top $8.5 billion this year alone and is projected to grow to approx. $14 billion in 2018! Let's partner up and start expanding on this trend!”

• While I actually agree with a lot of what this guy says, he’s mostly saying what the Black Panthers and all of Buddhism has already said. It also seems as though he was more recently selling 3D printed meditating aliens on his page.

• Assuming I’m being overly cynical and John Schwarz’s goals are actually as pure as Fred Hampton’s (and if you haven’t ever seen The Murder of Fred Hampton, I’d encourage you to take this moment to do so), this blackout’s demands are vague and variable—originally calling for a full spending blackout, then walking it back and encouraging spending at small businesses only if absolutely necessary, then walking it back even more and actually encouraging spending at small businesses, then oddly admitting “plenty of people probably won’t even do this.” I’m as confused as Schwarz is, apparently.

Is it that bad for someone to anoint themselves the personal Jesus of anticapitalists? I guess not. But why funnel money into an internet stranger’s bank account when we could be supporting our neighbors’ daily endeavors to offer economic alternatives to Amazon?

Because this “movement” is being shared widely on social media—because we want activism to be as big and sexy and flash-in-the-pan dopamine-inducing as we want everything on social media to be—because the slow, deliberate, boring and offline work of real organizing and divesting is too slow, deliberate, boring, and offline. And so, small businesses are going to lose out on lifesaving revenue this Friday, and it’ll be another win for the corporate hellscape, fueled by an app owned by a member of the very oligarchy we claim to want to destroy.

Y’all. We have got to do better than this.

Instead of boycotting this Friday, please make a reservation at that restaurant you haven’t been to in a while. I don’t even care if it’s mine. Just don’t go dark on us—we need you now, more than ever.

And if you’re looking for some of that slow, deliberate, unsexy activism, please join us for Mobilize Mondays. They’re free, and there are no t-shirts.

XOXO,

Lauren