About the Global Boycott for Peace:

Many of the major boycott campaigns have banded together under the umbrella group the Global Boycott for Peace, or GBP:

We choose to boycott U.S. corporations because they, in defiance of the world community, have chosen to profit from war, from the preparations for it, and from the continuing exploitation of the world's people and resources. We choose to boycott US corporations because they, and powerful individuals associated with them, fund and control the major political parties and corporate media that together actively obstruct our progress toward a peaceful and sustainable world.

Collectively, Global Boycott for Peace is sponsoring its first day of direct boycott actions on April 15th 2003. Protesters around the globe will voice their plans to boycott at local shopping districts, gas stations, and strip malls across the globe.

The GBP boycott is peaceful, legal, and provocative. In contrast to symbolic demonstrations of opinion, boycotts have a direct and immediate impact on their targets.

When Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere took up the call to boycott goods coming from apartheid South Africa, he wrote: "Can we honestly condemn a system and at the same time employ it to produce goods which we buy, and then enjoy with a clear conscience?" Boycotters of the Global Boycott for Peace and across the world today are embracing the same philosophy, refusing to purchase the goods of a country whose actions, in good conscience, they cannot support.

Join the discussion:

Click here to subscribe to BoycottUS on Yahoo! Groups.

My personal statement:

As an American considering the boycott of US goods, I emailed several economists around the Country to ask them if a successful boycott would be bad for the American economy. They all said the same thing: no. It would actually be better for the economy if Americans saved more money. We'd have more capital assets, and thus more financial security as a nation.

One of the ways to do this is to not buy from big brand name companies targeted in the boycott, and to spend less money overall. Additionally, buying locally creates a community-based economy, which means boycotting is better for local business owners in the long run.

As an American boycotter, I feel it's not just the actions of the Bush administration that drive me to take this action. It's also the feeling that the American landscape and the cohesiveness of my community are being damaged. My community, my landscape, my psyche: all are damaged by big businesses intent on injecting the regularity of sprawl into every corner of American life. We are letting our money flow freely and ignorantly into the pockets of those we oppose, we are trading our paychecks, our peace, our power, our nation for the right to own a lot of stuff, and people across the world are suffering because of it. I have chosen to live a life of voluntary simplicity, to the best of my ability, so long as war, occupation, and the alarming behavior and attitudes of those running my country persist.

End these, and I spend my money without reservation. Until then, my consumer confidence remains firmly set at zero.

Information and Links:

International TOP 20 boycotts:

• Exxon-Mobil (E$$O)
• Chevron-Texaco (Caltex)
• BP-Amoco
• General Electric
• Phillip Morris/Kraft (Altria)
• US Airlines/Car Industry
• Dell Computers
• Coca Cola
• McDonalds
• Bristol Myers Squibb
• PepsiCo
• Motorola
• TimeWarner/AOL
• Disney
• Microsoft
• Shell
• Amway
• Anheuser Busch
• Revlon

Online sources of further information:

• International group for Direct Economic Action against war (IDEA) http://www.boycottwar.net
• Adbusters http://www.adbusters.org
• Be the Cause http://www.bethecause.org
• BoycottUS http://www.boycottUS.net
• Citoyens-Consommateurs Scandalises par la Politique Internationale des Etats-Unis http://users.skynet.be/plusdepetroleus/tracts.htm
• Consumers Against War http://www.consumers-against-war.de
• For Mother Earth http://www.motherearth.org/USboycott
• Peace Action http://peace-action.inbyron.com
• Peace Choice Campaign http://www.peace-choice.net/
• Spend for Peace http://www.spendforpeace.co.nz
• Stop Spending: Because War Doesn't Grow on Trees http://www.stopspending.org
• Stop USA http://www.stopUSA.org
• We Won't Shop http://www.stopshopping.org/

* this is not an official GBP document and may not reflect the views of all GBP members.

I think we need to boycott one main item at a time to create a strong statement. Boycotting Pepsi and Coke is no good. If we could boycott one and bankrupt them, it would scare the living day lights out of very corporation on the planet. The advantage of this also would be that no one would have to sacrafice. Does any one know which company is worse for the planet. It would also be much easier to spread the word if the was one main item that could be linked to corporate imperialism.

"If we could boycott one and bankrupt them,"

Don't hold you're breath.

hm, lets boycott a company that uses gay marketing techniques like telemarketing or pop-up ads

it occurs to me that alot of you lefties are going to have toget rid of those shitty Macs you have, what with Motorola on the list.

It's SO vulnerable.

something that is consumer intensive, to hurt

the quickest.

I would say gasoline, but the cities are laid out

to consume the stuff in order to go to work.

Hell, most of the luxuries we indulge in, are

nonessential unhealthy and could be abandoned, anyway.

Start with the TV.

I would say that the first step is education.

Learn about these companies and thier subsidiaries.

Start small, say with boycotting "chain stores"

I started by boycotting McDonalds, then taco bell, and so on.

Boycott one fast food chain (or any other chain) one at a time.

Study the effects that your boycotted corporation has on the global market

and what thier money goes to buy and exploit.

Shop with in your local community and support small business.

Be an intellegent shopper.

Know where your money goes, and what other avenues it supports.