SALISBURY — Consumers nationwide have a chance on Friday to demonstrate their collective power during an economic blackout. Local social advocacy organizations are calling on area residents to join in.

The economic blackout calls for a 24-hour abstinence from purchasing items sold by online retailers and certain big box stores like Walmart and Best Buy. The move also precludes purchases from restaurants like McDonalds — essentially a blackout on spending any money on fast food, gas or at major retailers.

“Feb. 28 the 24-hour economic blackout, no Amazon, no Walmart, no fast food, no gas, not a single unnecessary dollar spent,” said John Schwarz, founder of The People’s Union USA, the organization behind the national protest.

The People’s Union USA website called Feb. 28 the first of “multiple counter measures to the attack on DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) as well as other draconian measures taken” by President Donald Trump’s administration.

Their website goes on to say “corporations and banks only care about their bottom line. If we disrupt the economy for even just one day, it sends a powerful message. If they don’t listen, we make the next blackout longer. This is our first action. Our numbers are powerful. This is how we make history.”

Samantha Haspel is a moderator for Salisbury Indivisible, a nonpartisan organization committed to working at national, state and local levels to promote policies that encourage inclusion, tolerance and fairness.

“The group is dedicated to resisting undemocratic or unconstitutional policies or laws,” its Facebook page says. “We are a non-partisan group and we welcome members of all political parties as well as new voters and unaffiliated voters.”

Reinforcing that nonpartisan position, Haspel said on Monday, “Lets be clear. This is not about Republicans. This is not about Democrats. This is about the fact that America is a democracy. It is not a Fortune 500 company.”

Haspel indicated that the stand she and others are taking is against the ultra wealthy consolidating power in the U.S. by taking away government oversight. One arm of government oversight currently in Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency’s crosshairs is the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, a regulatory agency created after the 2008 economic crisis to oversee banks, payday lenders, mortgage-servicing operations, foreclosure relief services, debt collectors, credit unions and securities firms. Meanwhile, proposed budget resolutions appear poised to extend the previous $4.5 trillion tax cuts from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that exploded the national debt.

Center of Budget and Policy Priorities Deputy Director on Federal Tax Policy Samantha Jacob wrote last week, “In a party line vote, the Republican-controlled House Budget Committee advanced their budget resolution to move forward legislation that would give tax cuts to the wealthy and partially pay for them by taking health care and food away from people who face challenges affording these essential needs.”

Several cuts that have been announced are at least at face designed to snuff out fraud and abuse. To date, evidence of fraud and abuse has been scant, with much of the announcements simply cutting spending. However, Haspel said that as with any government, there is probably going to be some form of fraud and abuse.

“Every government has bad actors,” she said. “But I do not believe that stripping agencies and giving tax breaks to billionaires by cutting funding of programs that help average Americans survive is the way to (address abuse).”

Ultimately, as a private citizen it can feel like there are no options to protest changes taking place in Washington.

“This is a national mobilization,” Haspel said. “Many people are trying to figure out what actionable items they can do. We are flailing. How do we react to one thing after the next?”

She hopes this economic blackout will dispel that notion.

“How do you fight that?” she said. “You fight that with your pocketbooks. That is the only way to fight it.”

In a Monday email, members of the locally-based Women for Community Justice issued a statement regarding the upcoming action, saying the group “supports the consumer activism by the People’s Union USA for an economic blackout,” adding, “this action is an attempt to unite people despite their differences and to initiate change among corporations who have recently abandoned their diversity incentives.”

Women for Community Justice urged potential participants to plan ahead so that the blackout can send a message that consumers are “tired of the rising cost of living and the control of huge corporations over fairness and economic justice.”

It can be hard to gauge the effectiveness of large-scale grassroots movements such as an economic blackout, but that is not discouraging Haspel or the Women for Community Justice.

Former Rowan County Board of Commissioners candidate and downtown business owner Alissa Redmond said in an electronic message on Monday that she has experienced calls for boycotts against her South Main Book Company. She said that the power of those types of movements rests in the people who participate.

“I believe corporate entities will watch this movement closely to see how many folks opt in,” Redmond said.

Ultimately, it is not about one day of boycotting, as Redmond mentioned, but rather rethinking and retooling how and where people spend their money.

“If folks learn to shift their habits and behaviors long-term, shopping locally for the vast majority of their needs, then real change at corporate levels will become possible,” Redmond said.

The protest calls for no discretionary spending, but does say that if one has to shop to do it locally. A story in Forbes on the upcoming blackout suggested that small businesses were likely to suffer during those types of movements. Redmond said she is not worried.

“As a small business owner, I am not concerned about this boycott,” she said. “A day of sales, even a Friday, which is a busier day for us, won’t impact our bottom line this year or even this quarter.”

She is focused on the bigger picture.

“I do believe these movements reinforce reminders for customers that — when they buy from their neighbors instead of online platforms — shopping locally is vital for healthy communities to continue growing and remaining unique destinations,” she said. “I am optimistic small, particularly minority-owned, businesses will experience a bump as folks are thinking about the impact their shopping habits can make; the longer-term, the better.”

For Haspel and many of the community organizers, the moment is one of historic significance and the actions taken will reflect on who they are.

Haspel referenced the words of Jane Fonda, a social advocate and acclaimed actress, who spoke at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday and reminded audiences about a period in American history when an economic blackout (the Montgomery Bus Boycotts) made all the difference.

Echoing Fonda, Haspel said, “Would you have been on that (Edmund Pettus Bridge) standing with Black people (in 1955)? Would you have sat at that lunch table? … We don’t have to wonder that anymore. We are there. What are you willing to do? How far are you willing to go?”

To learn more about the protest, visit theonecalledjai.com.