Progressives, It's Time to Put Our Money Where Our Protest Signs Are

First published December 2004

Last April, over a million women participated in a march on Washington for reproductive choice, the largest march ever of any kind in the history of the U.S. Empowered, scores returned home and quit their old body-hating gyms and joined Curves because it professes to celebrate women in their many shapes and sizes. But rather than celebrating women, in reality its owner is working hard to control women's bodies through pouring vast sums of money into anti-choice efforts. These anti-choice contributions are made up, in part, of our monthly gym dues.

Exhilarated, yet tired and thirsty after a day-long march and rally against egregious corporate war profiteering, a protestor, holding her "Stop Halliburton" sign, sips an Odwalla juice. As she does, Coca Cola, which owns Odwalla, participates in another kind of war - one of egregious and sometimes deadly alleged union busting and human rights violations in Columbia, India, and worldwide.

During election season, countless numbers of us logged long hours during our free time and weekends, working with a collective vision of a different reality for our country. We knocked on doors and made phone calls, asking undecided voters and Bush supporters to look at difficult and often hard to acknowledge facts about what a vote for Bush would mean. We wished and hoped people would wake up and see the truth.

Like those we tried to reach, we progressives could use a little wake up call ourselves and realize (or remind ourselves) how we help create the reality we struggle so hard against by way of how we choose to spend our dollars. And with the holiday spending season upon us, there's no better time for a little reckoning.

With all the best intentions, we speak out against corporate control of our communities and our country, yet in our day to day lives we buy cards and cell phone minutes, sweaters and mini-blinds at companies like Hallmark, Verizon, Lands End, and Home Depot, to name a few whose higher ups, according to Center for Responsive Politics, are major Republican donors.

And with our dollars their wallets get fatter and fatter as ours get leaner and leaner. And with all that cash from our loyal patronage they donate to campaign or party coffers which buys lobby access or perhaps a choice political appointment, which in turn often creates more of the laws and situations we protest. (Both parties rake in the dough to be sure, but according to CBS News during this past election cycle corporate PACs favored Republicans 10 to 1.)

Ho hum. Blah, blah. Yackity yack, you say. You know this already; I'm preaching to the choir. But the choir keeps singing way off key on this song and needs some major retuning. Far fewer progressives than you might think shop our values. It's startling, actually. Moreover, many folks became politically active for the first time this past election cycle and are just gaining awarenesses that allow them to connect the dots. But whether you're a seasoned activist or new to the game, if you're serious about taking a stand against the myriad injustices that are often born of the interests of the few, this disconnect is a huge problem

If you find yourself dismissing this or poised to hit the delete button, sit a moment and ask yourself why. Without judgment or guilt, just take a minute right now to think about it. Honestly.

How do you reconcile the disparity between belief and action? Too much effort? No time? Better someone else than you? Do you think you do enough already? More probably the reason is that letting ourselves connect to these realities on such a personal level is especially hard because it puts the power in our hands and our wallets rather than "out there" somewhere. And with that recognition comes personal accountability; we can't pawn it off on someone else. We can't blame the lawmakers or the corporations. There's nobody to protest but ourselves: "Show me what a paradox looks like. This is what a paradox looks like!"

But before you get out the flogging paraphernalia like the good progressive that you are, this is in no way about shaming or blaming or self-righteous finger wagging. That's counterproductive and oh-so tiresome and will only send us all into an immobilizing, disempowering retreat spiral. And with the reality of four more years of Bush & Co., that's the last thing we need. Let go of any judgment and look at this with curiosity, as something that can provide you with useful information.

As we take a realistic look at our choices and recognize our resistance, our rationalizations, and how easy it is to disconnect, it's vital that we clearly remember how it feels. This disconnect is the very same mechanism at play for many of the legions of seemingly "nice enough" folks who voted for George W. Bush. Without a doubt their choice at the polls was fed by and large by the Bush administration's non-stop fearmongering and its turbo-fanning of the wedge issues flames. It was also born of ignorance. But the common mechanism of these phenomena is disconnection.

So in your incredulous moments, when you want to pull your hair out over how people voted for an administration that is so blatantly elitist and self-serving: remember. Remember that regardless of our political leanings, change is something nearly all of us spend much energy resisting. Remember how second nature it can feel to summarily dismiss as irrelevant issues that ask you to take a hard look at yourself. Remember how easy it is to make choices that are ultimately against our best interest, and how easy it is to pop into a big chain store or to buy non-fair trade chocolate or coffee "just this once," ignoring for the moment the horrors that often happen to the laborers at the other end who harvest those resources.

This remembering will not only inform better choices in the future, it should give us huge pause as we try to bring our progressive agenda to a wider audience, realizing we are asking people to make different choices just as we, ourselves, find it so hard to consistently and resolutely do the very same in our day to day lives. Ultimately, it can be an invaluable tool to connect and find a common denominator, just as it helps to mend the dehumanizing "us" and "them" mindset that isn't getting anybody, but Bush and friends, anywhere.

It's worth reiterating: the point isn't to feel guilty and overwhelmed about every purchase you make only to stand blinking in a frozen stupor, ATM card in your cold, sweaty palm, trying to figure out what the hell is "safe" to buy. Nor is it about vilifying or scapegoating particular corporations or its higher ups. It's about flatly recognizing the mechanisms that drive our country and who is truly at the wheel. Because whatever our progressive cause, we can protest 'til the cows come home, but as long as we continue to participate in those mechanisms we're going to keep getting what we've gotten.

Note, too, that encouraging conscious spending is in no way an endorsement of massive consumerism. We could all do with buying so much less. (And don't get me started on the environmentally disastrous mushrooming of "disposable" products and extreme over-packaging.) But unless we have an extensive bartering system in place, or plan to grow and harvest our own crops and make our own tools and build our own homes, we buy goods and services. So progressives, it's time to break free from the clutches of rationalization and put our money where our protest signs are, as much as we can. It's time to create a "Take Back Our Country" Investment Portfolio.

Where you and I spend every penny of our money every day of our lives is our Investment Portfolio in a very real and very powerful sense. If we invest in (read: shop at) multi-national corporations that union bust, all but ignore worker's rights, use sweatshop and child labor, and commit egregious environmental transgressions; horrific working conditions and the unhealthy, miserable, controlled lives of millions will be our return. If we invest in multi-national corporations who are relatively "good" in the traditionally-defined human rights department, but have put 17,873 locally owned Mom and Pop stores across the country out of business; our return is a country ruled by the few with a greater and greater disparity between the rich and poor, a nationwide loss of self-sufficiency, and a joke of an "American Dream" for the overwhelming majority of us. We are making long-term investments that keep on taking rather than giving.

In making conscious everyday choices about where we spend our dollars and cents there is no greater power. Say that last line to yourself again. Print it out. Tape it in your wallet. That's a hard one for many because as progressives we get nervous and our noses get all crinkly when we talk about using money and power because, after all, we're working hard to change the dynamics of the Golden Rule, not be a part of it. But unlike the goals of our current administration, the power we're talking about isn't one over the people; it's one of the people.

And a way to be of the people and not for the few is simple and by no means new. Spread the wealth. Stop taking money out of your communities. Refuse to put your neighbors out of business by shopping at huge chains. Stop giving your money to people who are not working in your best interest. Shop regularly at your locally-owned, community-based stores and buy food from local farmer's markets if you have them. Buy organic. It's not only devoid of pesticides and hormones, but many organic farms are small, local, and struggling. They need your support to keep from being overtaken by big agribusiness. (But beware; seeing the demand, organic everything is on its way to being the next big corporate takeover.)

Yes, organic and local are often more expensive. Not always, but sometimes they have to be to compete with mass produced, low cost food and products. But, support them anyway. Many earn a very meager income and do it. Rather than being a burden or a progressive's guilty "should," being mindful of your choices feels great. It makes you more present in your life.

As you refuse to shop at stores that don't further a progressive agenda, look at it as your potent, daily, post-election work for peace and justice. Think of it as boycotting powerlessness. Because that's exactly what it is.

A few things you can do right now:

1. Confront your resistance. Out yourself. Gently. Then figure out why you don't shop your values and realistically address your issues/concerns. And as you do this, go ahead and throw out your burdensome "progressive guilt" once and for all. It keeps you stuck and makes you a living hell at parties.

2. Get educated.  Go to sites like Corpwatch (www.corpwatch.org) and Center for Responsive Politics (www.opensecrets.org) to see how the companies you do business with rate.  At opensecrets, click on "Soft Money Donations" and type in a corporation.

3. Create an 'I'm Taking Back Our Country' (ITBOC) Investment Portfolio, one step at a time. Make a pledge to yourself, to your community, and to your kids to stop shopping at at least one chain store you do business with regularly. No matter what. Yep, even if it's a big pain in the ass. Seek out the local alternatives in your area. It's a wonderful way to reconnect to your neighborhood. That human connection with local vendors is what creates community. After feeling great and seeing how doable it is, add another and then another. Encourage friends to start their own ITBOC Portfolio.

4. Start your ITBOC portfolio today with your holiday shopping. Ideally we'd put less emphasis on obligatory holiday gift giving, or we'd make our own gifts. But if that isn't an option, check out the countless community craft fairs filled with interesting one of a kind stuff made by local artists. They're really great. Or shop at fair trade stores like San Francisco Bay Area's Global Exhange (www.globalexchange.org). In your gift card, tell your loved one about the artist and/or the concept of local shopping and fair trade. Bring to life the person/people who made the gift. How much more meaningful and interesting it'll be than some million in a million gift from a chain store.

5. Confront the corporations. If you know you're in a store that isn't local or fair trade, ask, "Does any of part of the money for [fill in product or service] go to help this neighborhood? Or, "How much of this price tag do the people in (fill in: China, Malaysia, America, etc.) who make this stuff get?" Politely refuse to buy it if they don't know. Then write to the CEO and let him/her know what you think. Write a letter to the editor. Also, be sure to thank the companies that are doing good things, as well.

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