Starve the Giants™

A Protest Movement for Social, Ecological, and Economic Justice

(Aligned with UN SDGs 1, 10, 12, 13, and 16)

What It Means

Starve the Giants™ is not a catchphrase. It is a refusal; a deliberate act of consumer resistance. On one level, it is a call to boycott corporate giants — conglomerates, exploitative global supply chains, and profit-obsessed retailers — by divesting through conscious consumer choice. The act of buying secondhand becomes political: a redistribution of power from billion-dollar brands to local communities.

But the phrase also points to something darker. Starvation as a weapon, both historically, and presently. In Gaza, international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have documented how the restriction of food, water, electricity, and medical supplies is not incidental, but a deliberate strategy of war. In October 2023, the United Nations described Israel’s total blockade of Gaza — cutting off electricity, fuel, and aid — as an act of collective punishment, a violation of international humanitarian law under the Fourth Geneva Convention. By late 2023, 97% of Gaza’s water was deemed unfit for human consumption (UN OCHA). The World Food Programme reported that 9 out of 10 people in Gaza were facing severe food insecurity, and UNICEF warned that hundreds of thousands of children were at imminent risk of malnutrition. A January 2024 UN situation report described the crisis bluntly: “Starvation is being used as a weapon of war.”

Starvation as a Weapon of War

The deliberate use of hunger to control populations is not new.

• During the Siege of Leningrad (1941–44), nearly 1 million civilians died as Nazi forces cut off supplies for 872 days.

• In British-ruled India, the Bengal Famine of 1943 killed an estimated 3.1 million people while wartime grain was exported to Britain. Winston Churchill dismissed pleas for aid, blaming the famine on the “breeding habits” of Indians.

• The Irish Famine (1845–52), often remembered as a natural disaster, was intensified by British colonial policy that allowed food exports to continue while millions starved.

  
  

Hunger has always been more than a byproduct of war. It is a strategy of domination — one that breaks not only bodies, but also the sovereignty of entire peoples.

What Resistance Looks Like

Resistance doesn’t only take place in parliaments or protests. It happens every day at the checkout counter.

• Every dollar is a vote. When you shop secondhand, you divest from billion-dollar corporations and invest in your community.

• Every garment is a story. Thrifted clothes carry histories, challenging the culture of disposable fashion.

• Every action scales. Your local thrift shop is THE alternative to corporate retail giants.

  
  

The ❤️ of the Movement

At Academy St. Thrift, Starve the Giants™ means more than selling clothes. It means reshaping culture. It means community over corporations. It means connection over convenience. It means resilience over repetition. It means individuality over mass trends. As fashion prices climb and global supply chains fracture under their own weight, the power to reshape the economy is already in our hands, one purchase at a time. Starve the Giants™. Not another dime for destruction.