People’s Union calls for a 24-hour “economic blackout” Feb. 28 to highlight workers’ economic strife
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Peoples Union graphic promoting the 24-hour Economic Blackout planned nationally for Friday, 2/28/25
People’s Union calls for a 24-hour “economic blackout” Feb. 28 to highlight workers’ economic strife
by
Peoples Union graphic promoting the 24-hour Economic Blackout planned nationally for Friday, 2/28/25
The People’s Union, a grassroots organization that seeks to “unionize people to take back our power” is calling for a 24-hour nationwide “economic blackout” on Friday, February 28, 2025 targeting the biggest businesses in America, including companies like Amazon, Walmart, Starbucks, Target, Exxon and others, to highlight the companies’ part in creating an “economy designed to exploit workers, suppress wages, and keep the majority of us in a constant state of struggle. These are the forces that have stolen our financial freedom, manipulated our government, and kept power in the hands of the wealthy elite.”
Blackout participants are asked not to purchase anything online or at big retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Target, Starbucks or other big companies for 24 hours on 2/28. Participants are also urged to not spend money on fast food or gas, or use their credit or debit cards for essential spending, since doing so financially benefits big credit card companies. Paying bills and buying food, medicine and other necessities are fine during the Blackout, but people are asked to patronize locally-owned businesses, and not big corporations or chain stores.
What is the People’s Union?
According to its website, the People’s Union was founded by “John” (Instagram video), a guy who goes by the handle TheOneCalledJai on social media accounts. John writes, “I am not a politician. I am not a corporate backed activist. I am just a man who has lived through struggle, seen the truth, and decided to do something about it.” His bio sketch says he had a difficult youth and grew up in a poor, abusive household. As a young man, he worked menial jobs just to feed himself and eventually concluded that “the system is rigged to keep all of us trapped” in economic despair.The goal of the People’s Union is to organize average working people to “create a force strong enough to counterbalance corporate control, political corruption, and economic exploitation.”
A famous Adbusters ad spoofing Marlboro cigarette ads. Adbusters is not affiliated with the People’s Union. In the 1990s, Adbusters started and annual “Buy Nothing Day,” held on the day after Thanksgiving every year (“Black Friday”), to counteract overconsumption, excessive materialism and wastefulness, and its impact on the environment.
Economic Blackout Day mimics Buy Nothing Day, a national day of protest against unbridled consumer spending started by the Vancouver, Canada-based group Adbusters Media Foundation in the 1990s. Adbusters publishes Adbusters Magazine, “one of a handful of magazines in the world that receives zero funding from advertising, either print or online, corporate sponsorship or government/foundation grants.” The magazine contains spoof ads that criticize a host of common consumer products. Buy Nothing Day falls on Black Friday every year, the day after Thanksgiving and the biggest consumer spending day of the year. Adbusters also originated TV Turnoff Week and Occupy Wall Street.
The People’s Union is not affiliated with Adbusters Media Foundation or the November Buy Nothing Day.
In explaining the conditions that led up to the need for the Blackout, the People’s Union’s website says, in part,
The narrative of the Economic Blackout from the People’s Union website is:
The People’s Union also plans an Amazon Boycott from March 7 -14 and a Nestle boycott March 21-28.This is it. The first real test. The first demonstration of power. The first time we send a shockwave through the system that has controlled us for too long.
On Friday, February 28th, we go dark. For 24 hours, we stop feeding the machine. No spending. No unnecessary purchases. No engagement with major corporations.
Because for decades, they’ve made you believe that you’re just a worker. Just a consumer. Just another cog in their endless cycle of profit and control.
But they’ve lied.
John, founder of the People’s Union
The truth is simple: they don’t run this country — we do. And the moment we choose to stop playing by their rules, the moment we cut off their supply, the moment we remind them that they need us, not the other way around, that’s the moment we begin to take control back.
WHAT HAPPENS ON FEBRUARY 28TH?
• No purchases. No Amazon. No Walmart. No Starbucks. No unnecessary gas fill-ups. No online orders.
• No engagement. Skip the big-brand entertainment, the news cycles designed to distract and divide.
• Absolute focus. This is about unity, discipline, and demonstrating collective will.
This is not a protest. It’s not a gimmick. It’s a warning shot.
Because if they ignore this one-day blackout?
We escalate. We go longer. We go deeper. And they will have to listen.
This is only the beginning.
WHY THIS MATTERS
Every major shift in history started with one moment. One act of defiance. One refusal to comply with a broken system.
This is that moment.
We are done waiting for politicians to fix what is broken.
We are done watching billionaires hoard wealth while the working class struggles.
We are done believing we are powerless.
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