Don't just OCCUPY Wall St...BOYCOTT IT!

Don't Just Occupy Wall St....BoYCOTT it.

Rashard Zanders – Mpls, MN – Today's the usually innocuous Mpls Star-Tribune featured an editorial by a Hudson, WI resident that articulates clearly where the very imperative OCCUPY Movement needs to go next:

Richard Lerch wrote “Please American workers and consumers, take the issue to the next level. It started in the 1990s with the establishment of NAFTA. This action gave corporate executives the venue to acquire cheap labor at the cost of American middle-class workers. Next came executive compensation rewards for increasing stock values rather than actual productivity. The elimination of American workers and production facilities soon followed. It can be tracked as to leading to today's economic quandary.

“The next step should be an action plan that would affect corporate executives where it seems to hurt most – their personal pocketbooks. This can be attained not through regulation, but by boycotting those corporations that continue to show disregard for American workers and the economy of the United States for the enhancement of their own welfare. In order to succeed, they still need the support of American consumers.”

While I might argue that the problems are older than NAFTA, Mr. Lerch's point is indisputable. The military industrial complex has and continues to fracture the social contract for their profits at the expense of the the rest of society. In the 50's spurned on by the defiance of Ms. Rosa Parks, MLK and southern Blacks showed what a disempowered community can do when they shut down the Montgomery, AL public transit system by refusing to be consumers. This revolutionary action is needed today, and needs to be expanded against all Fortune 500/1000/5000 companies that profit off the US like leaches, while leaving the economy, society, and our political system in states of disrepair. The blood of the beast is green. We must go for the jugular. Besides, dollars not spent with racist or apathetic businesses is more that goes to rebuild our community's foundations.
It is the responsibility of all of us who had so earnestly believed hope and change was possible, to generate it from within ourselves, by choosing not to be blind consumers.

Rashard Zanders is a freelance writer, teacher and musician. The nazi-fication of America and its institutions is an ongoing thesis with him. He can be reached at rashard.zanders@gmail.com