Boycott 4 Justice: No Shopping April 9, 2011

(25 paragraphs, 10 links, signature. Please count and note paragraphs beginning "The beauty" and "Corporate Greed.")    BOYCOTT 4 JUSTICE:  No Shopping on the 9th of each month throughout 2011.  Do not spend a thin dime on April 9, May 9, June 9 - NO 9th!  Join the people's 9/11 response to corporate greed and government indifference that is behind injustice in America.  Join millions of Americans who are fed up enough to stand up in a peaceful, powerful demonstration without leaving  home.

Boycotts have long been an integral component in non-violent movements for social change. The love of money is the root of ALL evil. Just resolution of every issue has opposition from corporate interests that benefit financially by continuing or escalating conditions, including wars, weakened environmental protection, the attack on labor unions, high unemployment, rising gasoline prices, and the staggering incarceration rate. People petition representatives, organize protest marches, and make impassioned appeals for change. But capital punishment continues, thousands more jobs are outsourced monthly, war costs continue to mount, collective bargaining is undermined, human/civil rights are ignored, and funding for education and other social programs diminishes. These are business decisions, and each wrong decision prospers someone. It is time to address unethical business practices financially. What Big Business wants, it gets. Consumer power can be used to inspire Corporate America to have its elected officials CHANGE.

Everyone can participate in the BOYCOTT 4 JUSTICE simply by shopping the day before or after the 9th of each month, but buy nothing on Shopping Boycott Days – no groceries, gasoline, electronics, cars, clothes, or anything whatsoever. Plenty of people do not participate in demonstrations because of handicaps, fear, and travel restrictions. Most negative circumstances facing Americans have a common cause:  corporate greed. Unite to address unethical business practices financially.


The beauty of the BOYCOTT 4 JUSTICE is that participants need not agree on the injustices being protested.  The only necessary point of agreement is that corporate greed got America in this mess, and standing united can help us get out.


Put a statement on your web pages saying why you support the BOYCOTT 4 JUSTICE and invite your group members, church or temple, civic organizations, and family to do likewise.  Participants do not have to use the Boycott 4 Justice to protest the exact same injustice(s).  The cause of all injustice is usually the same - corporate greed.  Perhaps you wish to stem the tide of jobs being outsourced overseas or to prison labor projects so that Fortune 500 companies, federal and local governments can avoid unions and minimum wage laws.  Over 1 million inmates work up to seven days a week doing jobs that were removed from the public sector, including former union jobs.  Roughly $50 billion each year is charged to taxpayers to incarcerate 2.3 million people.  Prison profiteers use these human commodities as prison laborers to earn billions more.  Over half the inmates were incarcerated on nonviolent offenses, and 1.25 million of them are mentally ill people who entered the prison system when funds for mental hospitals and community care programs were diverted to pay for incarceration instead, benefiting elitist private prison owners at the expense of America's most vulnerable citizens.


Americans do not count with decision makers as much as We the People should, and our "inalienable" rights are all too alienable. I learned that when my physically, mentally disabled brother was secretly arrested for 18 days and murdered in 2003, and we have been DENIED any records or accountability for his death for seven years - http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/ - Many people and organizations want to improve civil liberties, end the war, eliminate prisoner abuse, save Troy Davis and end capital punishment, strengthen animal protection laws, or stop some other injustice.  Although literally everyone can participate in the BOYCOTT 4 JUSTICE anonymously, it is important to realize that mainstream news will not announce the No Shopping Day.  Your help is needed to notify people about this opportunity to Unite for Justice.  STATE YOUR OWN REASON(s) for boycotting for justice. Below are samples:

For individuals: I support the BOYCOTT 4 JUSTICE on the 9th of every month throughout 2011. I pledge to buy nothing on the 9th of each month to protest ________________. (Name the injustice(s) you want to end.)

OR

I support the BOYCOTT 4 JUSTICE on the 9th of every month throughout 2011. I pledge to buy absolutely nothing on the 9th of each month to support _________________________, my son, daughter, grandson, brother, mother, father, friend. He/she is in prison and deserves human rights while incarcerated and the opportunity to live a productive life upon release.

NOTE: Organizations need only trade the pronoun “I” for the name of the organization, i.e.:

On behalf of 210,000 members of NAMI*, we support the BOYCOTT 4 JUSTICE to protest criminalization of mental illness and support resumption of Medicaid insurance for inpatient psychiatric care. Members should buy nothing on the 9th day of any month in 2011.

OR

AFLCIO* supports the BOYCOTT 4 JUSTICE to strengthen WORKER RIGHTS. Supporters should make no purchases whatsoever on the 9th day of any month in 2011. 

The same notice would suffice for Wisconsin protestors, abolitionist groups, environmental protection organizations, prisoner rights activists, teachers protesting school closings, and all other human/civil rights organizations or individuals who recognize that corporate greed is the ultimate cause of injustices. This is your peaceful protest opportunity.  STATE YOUR OWN REASON for joining millions in the BOYCOTT 4 JUSTICE No Shopping Days:  9th of each month in 2011.
_________________
*Neither of the organizations above has pledged support for the BOYCOTT 4 JUSTICE to date. I was prevented from using email and my phone to contact human and civil rights organizations about the boycott.  I feel they should participate and used them as examples. Urge your civic groups and social network or places of worship to participate in the peaceful, powerful initiative for change, and please try to notify us by posting a comment at this blog or email MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com. 

Literally everyone can support the BOYCOTT 4 JUSTICE while working, playing, or sleeping. Just do not spend any money on the 9th of every month throughout 2011. A 24-hour shopping moratorium once each month would not really hurt the fragile economy, nor is it intended to do that. The boycott is our 9/11 response to corporate greed that is responsible for most, if not all, of the problems that plague America.  A successful boycott will remind corporations and government officials that customers, voters, and they are co-dependent.


The private prison system, wars, and unemployment are intricately tied.  Over one million inmates work up to seven days a week for state and federal governments and Fortune 500 companies avoiding unions, minimum wage and worker safety laws.  Inmates make 100% of military uniforms, canteens, tents, and many other essentials.  War is therefore very profitable for prison investors.  Companies find it difficult to compete with corporations that use prison laborers to supply goods and services or outsource work overseas.  As more Americans are laid off, laws are passed that are designed to obtain more prisoners, such as the proposal to outlaw menthol cigarettes and tougher immigration laws that remand illegal aliens to prison rather than back to their countries.  The U.S. Supreme Court is currently deliberating on whether American children can be interrogated by police officers in their schools without their parents' knowledge, an attorney, a warrant, or a Miranda warning. A seventh-grader is already imprisoned (sentenced as an adult) because he confessed to crimes under those circumstances.  False confessions by children and the mentally ill account for 25% of wrongful convictions, but young people make hardy prison slaves and can be trained to lay bricks, become plumbers, fishermen, electricians, or manufacture whatever products their assigned prisons produce and market on Wall Street.  The same elitists benefit from wars, America's record-high incarceration rate, and outsourcing jobs, which leads to unemployment, wage reductions, and foreclosures.  The economy is an ecosystem, and the poor and middle class are at the bottom of the food chain.  Workers, peace advocates, and prisoner activists have a common opponent.  THEY are ONE.  

Unity is the only thing that works for oppressed people. Americans are too divided along racial and socioeconomic lines and should harness our collective strength as consumers to effect change. While blacks, Native Americans, Latinos, Asians, middle class and poor Caucasians in America engage in infighting and about problems that beset us, around 95% of the nation’s wealth is in the hands of 5% of the people – some of whom are elitists who encourage division among the masses to divert attention from the causes of economic depression that benefit Big Business, such as expensive wars and outsourcing millions of jobs overseas and to prisons labor projects. Many people do not participate in protest marches because they are handicapped, timid, or lack the time or resources to travel and unite for justice. But EVERYONE SHOULD STOP SHOPPING FOR 24 HOURS EACH MONTH OF 2011 ON THE 9TH - The People's Peaceful 9/11 Attack on Corporate Greed and Government Indifference.

Corporate Greed. Slave owners did not heed calls to conscience and release slaves; employers who worked children from dawn to night in sweat shops before child labor laws were enacted did not heed calls to conscience; employers with hazardous working conditions in coal mines and manufacturing plants did not heed calls to conscience and voluntarily institute fair wages, a 40-hour work week, and safe work environments. Big Business has no conscience. That is why Americans' jobs are being outsourced overseas and behind prison walls and human/civil rights violations by the government are increasing. Shopping boycotts worked during the civil rights era, and labor strikes achieved victories when unions were born because shopping boycotts and labor strikes impacted corporations' PROFITS.


A one-day shopping moratorium would not ravage the nation’s fragile economy, and it is not intended to do harm.  But a successful boycott would show corporate America and elected officials how serious you and I are about having a justice system that is functional but fair and respectful of the human/civil rights of all people without regard to socio-economic distinctions, race, or health status of citizens and immigrants. A successful boycott will evidence our dissatisfaction with eroding civil liberties and high unemployment.

After 9/11, America embarked on a War on Terror that sacrifices precious lives and trillions of dollars. Unite to declare war on injustice beginning March 9, and repeat the boycott every 9/11 this year until significant changes are made. Make an impact while washing your car, watching television, or sleeping every month on the 9th. Take your lunch to work – make no purchases! With no protest march to attend, you need not worry about crowd control Tasers, being added to the government’s growing watch list, or any other evil device used to prevent Americans from exercising our Constitutional right to peacefully assemble and petition government for a redress of grievances. Just keep your money in your pockets for 24 hours once each month. Join us, and ask your group members, friends, and family to join the BOYCOTT 4 JUSTICE.  Together, we will use consumer power to effect positive social change. 


THERE IS NO NEED FOR ALL PARTICIPANTS TO AGREE ON ANY SINGLE INJUSTICE BEING PROTESTED DURING THE BOYCOTT 4 JUSTICE NO SHOPPING DAYS.  For instance, you may support capital punishment, but I am using the No Shopping Boycott to protest capital punishment for moral as well as financial reasons.  Each condemned inmate costs taxpayers an additional $90,000 per year to warehouse over and above the usual $50,000 per year for the inmate to be housed in a maximum security prison, yet officials resist abolishing capital punishment. The money is needed to help Americans live an abundant life rather than conducting executions.  I also denounce criminalizing mental illness.  


More information about the BOYCOTT 4 JUSTICE is in FreeSpeakBlog at http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/ . But a shopping boycott is not difficult to understand, and announcing your participation is not required.  

Just do it!
No shopping any month on the 9th

ADDRESS UNETHICAL BUSINESS PRACTICES FINANCIALLY. BIG BUSINESS HAS NEVER BEEN MOVED BY IMPASSIONED APPEALS TO CONSCIENCE. MONEY MATTERS. KEEP YOURS ON THE 9th OF EVERY MONTH.  COLLECTIVE BARGAINING STILL WORKS!


God said unity works:  And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. ~ Genesis 11:6

The link to share this article is BOYCOTT 4 JUSTICE: No Shopping April 9, 2011
http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/boycott-4-justice-no-shopping-april-9.html

Other articles in this BOYCOTT 4 JUSTICE series include the following five (5):

BOYCOTT 4 JUSTICE: No Shopping May 9: http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/boycott-4-justice-no-shopping-may-9.html (a list of 25 reasons for the boycott - add your own!)

BOYCOTT 4 JUSTICE: No Shopping June 9, 2011
http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/boycott-4-justice-no-shopping-june-9.html

BOYCOTT 4 JUSTICE: No Shopping on the 9th of Any Month
http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/boycott-4-justice-no-shopping-on-9th-of.html

BOYCOTT 4 JUSTICE: Beginning March 9 - No Shopping!
http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/boycott-4-justice-march-9-no-shopping.html

Human Rights for Prisoners BOYCOTT Beginning 3/9/11
http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/human-rights-for-prisoners-boycott.html

Mary Neal
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill
http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI
.