As we get ready to celebrate MLK’s Birthday, let's not forget the journey MLK took to get to the “Mountaintop” as his speech implied in Memphis in 1968. The most effective means to effectuate change against your opponent, is to challenge the economic well being of your opponent. History’s provides us with numerous examples, one in particular, was Rosa Park’s boycott of the Birmingham Transportation System. Dr. King outline how economic resistance against corporations like Coca-Cola could have brought Change to Memphis. We can take his lessons from his 1968 speech and apply it to our current political crisis.
We should focus our anger and frustrations in the development of a National initiative to bring about an economic boycott of corporations, business entities and individuals who have supported the racist and neo-fascist policies of the new administration, like L.L. Bean, Exxon, sports teams whom owners were supporting the President elect, and his own brands.
Just ask our brothers and sisters in the LGBTQ community in Georgia, when they became aware that the Georgia legislature was contemplating passing a similar anti- LGBTQ law like Indiana; Coca-Cola was forced through threats of boycott to come out against the law. Even the GOP Governor recognized the devastating impact on the state's economy if this law would have passed.
Economic boycotts have proven to be one of the few non-violent remedies that has proven effective against totalitarianism. The World governments prefer economic sanction to bring about changes in behavior of governments, i.e. Iran. We can use the same approach to bring about changes internally to our government at the local, state and federal levels.