Cancel Your Subscription to Spotify Today

Last week, I cancelled my subscription to Spotify because the company is running recruitment advertisements for ICE. I told the company that I was doing it to protest against the ads and that when they stopped running the ads, I would reinstate my subscription. I cancelled my subscription as a part of a national movement to boycott Spotify in protest against the running of the ads.

Why did I feel that I had to do that?

We Must Use the Weapons We Have

Our democracy is in danger, and ICE has become the symbol of the drive toward oligarchy. In our fight to preserve our democracy, we must use all of the weapons at our disposal. The Trump administration is doing everything that it can to turn our country into an oligarchy, and raids by masked ICE thugs are one of the means that the administration is using to increase its power and to make us afraid to oppose it.

The normal political weapons to oppose Trump's effort appear to be ineffective. His party has full control of the legislative branch, and the party’s members fear to oppose him even when he damages the interests of their constituents and even when he claims powers that belong rightfully to the legislative branch. Thus, for example, he has been able to impose tariffs on imports without Congress’s approval by faking a national emergency. The judicial branch also seems to be under the president’s control at least partially. The Supreme Court has regularly overturned rulings by lower courts in order to facilitate the drive toward oligarchy.

We may be able to take control of Congress away from the president in the 2026 elections, but that outcome is far from guaranteed. In any case, we cannot afford to wait another full year to begin to oppose the administration’s disastrous policies. We must do what we can do now with the weapons that we have.

The would-be oligarchs have rallied to Mr. Trump’s support as we can see from their donations to his project of building a newballroom at the White House. However, the would-be oligarchs are vulnerable to pressure from their customers. We can make it expensive for the oligarchs to support Mr. Trump, and we can use that power today.

We Must Stick Together

We should stick together and follow the leadership of progressive organizations. The boycott of Spotify is a national movement that is being promoted by strong national organizations including No Kings and Indivisible. Many of us joined them recently in the largest, peaceful, political demonstrations in our country’s history, but if we want to win in the struggle against oligarchy, our commitment must extend beyond a single day's protest. We must continue to stick together in solidarity with such organizations. We will not agree with them on every issue, but progressive forces cannot win by fighting among themselves. If the boycott is effective, it will show the would-be oligarchs that the people have power and that we are prepared to use it. However, the boycott cannot be successful unless we stick together to support it.

We Must Focus Our Efforts

You may ask why we are focusing our efforts on Spotify. After all, several companies are supporting the drive toward oligarchy. Why do we attack Spotify and not those other companies. The answer is that we cannot do everything at once. We have limited resources, and we must focus our efforts if we are to be effective. The boycott of Spotify is not the only possible action, but it is a real national action that we can support now. If allow ourselves to be immobilized because we can see that other actions are possible, we will never do anything, and we will never win. The boycott will fail without our support.

We Should Do An Easy Thing Today To Avoid Big Sacrifices Tomorrow

A day may come when we have to make big sacrifices to save our democracy. That day is not yet, and perhaps, if we act now, that day may never come. So, let us act now and hope that we will succeed.  Cancelling a subscription to Spotify is easy, and if we do enough such easy things before it is too late, perhaps we will not need to make big sacrifices later. 

So, I urge you to cancel your subscription to Spotify. We must stick together; we must use the weapons that we have; and we must focus our efforts to be successful. Resist!