Pocketbook Brigade
We have the power of our vote and we have the power of our pocketbooks. We created this group when we realized, we have power we haven't recognized. We don't exercise our power of the pocketbook.
Women have influence over approximately:
80% of retail and online purchases.
90% of household spending including grocery shopping, clothing, furniture, etcetera.
91% of home purchases
Women purchase 54% of cars sold in the USA and influence 84% of all vehicle sales in the USA.
We have the power of the pocketbook. We need to use that power to remind billionaires, our public officials and companies who don't support our vision of a diverse, equitable and inclusive United States of America that we made them who they are today, and we can unmake them too.
We are asking group members to boycott Facebook Marketplace, Amazon and Tesla and others, on July 19th & 20th 2025. We will march, boycott and picket Amazon distribution centers, Wholefoods and other Amazon entities like Prime video streaming, Telsa dealerships and service centers and Facebook Marketplace on July 19th & 20th. Many of us have already begun to boycott these organizations. We have plans to compensate their employees for missing work on the march, boycott and picket days, if they were scheduled to work.
We picked July 19th & 20th due to the correlation with the first Women’s Rights Conference in Seneca Falls, NY in 1948 and Frederick Douglas’ involvement in the conference and the Women’s suffrage movement.
That meeting was the first Social, Civil and Religious rights for women meeting, in the United States of America. It was called the Seneca Falls Convention. At the convention they presented a Declaration of Sentiment which began with descriptions of 19 "abuses and usurpations" of women's rights and went on to describe a list of 11 resolutions. The eleven resolutions demanded women be treated as equal to men. The resolutions implied that many laws placed women in a subservient or inferior position to men as having no legal force or authority. They demanded that women have equal rights within the church and equal access to jobs.
The 19th resolution called to secure a woman's right to vote. Please visit this History Channel link to learn more about the Seneca Falls, NY convention and the subsequent meetings. https://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/seneca-falls-convention#declaration-of-sentiments
On the 20th of July 1848 Frederick Douglass gave a speech in favor of women's suffrage, supporting the belief that women should have the same political rights as men. He went further by saying that giving women the right to vote would benefit the government and he expounded on the belief that women should be given the same educational and work opportunities as men.
Soon after the convention an article in The North Star written by Douglas detailed the connection between abolitionism and feminism. Douglass didn't stop there. He helped found the American Equal Rights Association in 1866, along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony and he continued to advocate for women's rights throughout his life. From the beginning Women’s Rights and Civil Rights / Abolitionists leaders and advocates have worked together to end oppression. What we are dealing with today is another form of oppression.
In keeping with these events, we thought it would be appropriate to have Pocketbook Brigade events on Saturday July 19 and Sunday July 20th. We can ask people to support Women or Minority Owned Businesses that weekend. We can disseminate posters locally to businesses across the USA which, they can put in their store windows certifying them as a woman or minority owned business. At the same time asking people to Boycott Trump (going forward we will call him "47") supporters like Elon Musk, Jeff Bazos and Mark Zuckerberg. To pull this together quickly, we will need everyone’s help to get the word out on social media, emails and text messages and to approach woman and minority owned businesses in your area. We will include lists of the businesses we are supporting on our website. We can also work togehter to obtain interviews or at least coming events announcements on public radio and TV stations to spread the word.
Our marches don't affect their pocketbooks, but our boycotts will. It is going to take all of us to stop them. We must work together.
We’d like for you to join us. Check the Caledar of Events page to know about upcoming marches. Please contact us through our contact us page or email: cconrado@pocketbookbrigade.org to request an invitation to a virual planning meeting or to request we add your event to our calendar of events page. To learn more about our volunteer opportunities visit our voluteer opportunities page. We need your help to recruit volunteers, organize marches, boycotts and pickets to take or mission national. Thank you for your time and consideration.
