The coronavirus has created a cash-flow crisis for small businesses across the country. Many are at extreme risk of being gobbled up by massive, monopolistic corporations. If we don’t act fast, one sad result of the pandemic could be a future of gigantic corporate chains like Walgreens, Appleby’s, and McDonald’s -- and not much else.

Now, NBC reports: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, are teaming up on a proposal....The 'Pandemic Anti-Monopoly Act' would impose a moratorium on mergers and acquisitions involving large companies until the Federal Trade Commission 'determines that small businesses, workers, and consumers are no longer under severe financial distress.'"

Our communities are stronger because of the care, personal attention, and millions of non-corporate jobs that small businesses provide. Let’s not allow the big corporations to exploit the coronavirus to take them from us.

Will you support Elizabeth Warren’s bill which protects small businesses that want to come back stronger? Will you fight big corporations using the pandemic to exploit them? Click to sign the petition.

Many small business owners are longtime members of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, and many have reached out to share their fears and challenges as they struggle to keep employees on the payroll and fend off big corporate chains.

A PCCC member who co-owns two independent pharmacies in Kansas says, "Even before the coronavirus hit, there were offers from the big corporate chain pharmacies to buy us out -- and they are always trying to lure away our customers. I’m not that worried about our customers deciding to leave. But I do worry that, without protection, the coronavirus could force us to sell to the big corporations due to temporary dips in our cash flow."

A PCCC member who is a dentist in Michigan writes, “I do not want to merge or sell out to big corporations. The quality of dental work suffers and ultimately it's not good for the patients.”

A PCCC member in Montana shares this: “I have an Art Gallery, I make wedding gowns, and we have a hot air balloon company. All 3 of the businesses I manage had to close but the bills keep coming. I have been volunteering to make masks for first responders. The government has done nothing to help me or self-employed people like me.”

And a PCCC member who owns a jewelry store in Indiana says, “If the quarantine had been implemented earlier, our tourist town on Lake Michigan would likely not have been forced to cancel our spring & summer events. I own a small business & we may not make it through this.”

Across the country, there are everyday people like these who are struggling to keep their small and independent businesses community-based. We all will lose out if, as with so much else, this virus decimates small businesses, leaving us with a future even more dictated by big corporations.

Sign the petition in support of Elizabeth Warren’s bill if you agree: Congress must protect small businesses that want to come back stronger. We must ensure the pandemic doesn’t mean they are forced to sell to giant corporations.

Thanks for being a bold progressive.

-- The PCCC Team

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