#I am extremely new to this whole...''full-throated support of organized labor in every context'' concept but also and at the same time

[notbecauseofvictories]

aggressivelybicaptainamerica replied to your post: By the way, Kroger is a vast and multi-headed...

And this is exactly why the idea of people actually being able to hurt large corporations by boycotting is so fucking frustrating and stupid. 10 companies literally own everything.

To be fair, I think that boycotts can be and remain productive from a labor activism perspective, even in this day and age. It’s not incidental that Lyft debuted its IPO lower than expected after its drivers went on strike and asked riders to boycott in support. Amazon was phased by the 2018 Prime Day boycotts, and if you want to burrow down to the local or state level the examples multiply drastically. However, the key to a successful and impactful boycott, whether at the local or national level, is absolutely an organized, united movement, which hopefully is drawing on the expertise of people who have seen and done it (ie, labor activism) before. The reason the Lyft boycott was so successful is because local drivers formed and joined organizations representing their interests: Rideshare Drivers United in LA, Chicago Rideshare Activists, New York’s Independent Drivers Guild. They timed the boycott deliberately for when it would impact the company’s interests the most. And its not like Kroger or any similar corporation just shrugs when it starts losing local market shares. As Patriot Act pointed out in its piece on municipal broadband, national million-dollar companies are absolutely spooked when local folks take concrete action against them---but it requires more than one person deciding not to patronize that company anymore. It takes collective effort, and judicious application of the activist toolbox history has given us. Someone on this site wrote a post about how you don’t just wake up one morning knowing how to organize a protest or found a coalition; these are appreciable skills you attain by working in the space. Similarly, boycotts can be useful, but only when we work in the context of a larger group, one that’s hopefully consulted with some people who understand how that mechanism of countervailing power works.

After all, a pretty significant part of organized labor is the organized part.