Ending Oppression with Economic Boycott? A Ridiculous Idea
by Joe Veale and a member of the Los Angeles Revolution Club
October 12, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Some people say that Black people, Latino people, other oppressed nationalities should hurt the system by withholding their income from it—not spending their hard-earned dollars with the system.
By doing so, the argument goes, they would be able to force the police to stop terrorizing and murdering Black people, Latino people, and oppressed groups of people.
By boycotting the system, the argument continues—you can force the system to at least treat people with some consideration of their basic human dignity.
This is a ridiculous idea.
Look at reality. Just one example:
The greatest loss in history of Black family wealth—wealth that was stripped away—wealth stolen right from under the feet of people—occurred during the Great Recession of 2007-2009.
By the very working of this capitalist imperialist system—and the decisions and polices adopted in line with this system—one-half of the collective wealth of African Americans was stripped away during the Great Recession of 2007-2009.
This system forces Black people to “withhold” their wealth every fucking day. If “withholding” your wealth from this system would end police terror, police murder, if it would make this fucking capitalist imperialist system treat African Americans, Native American, Latino people more equally, that would have happened a long time ago.
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