Boycotts Brew as Baghdad Burns

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

7 APRIL 2003

Global Boycott for Peace

Contacts:

Patrick Baggott (USA) 1-757-722-0188 pbaggott@cox.net

Sharyn Clarkson (New Zealand) ++64 2 564 4510 info@stopusa.org

Pattrice Jones (USA) 1-410-651-4934 pattrice@bravebirds.org

Cecilia Asuman Martone (Brasil) 55 16 632 23 74 martone@zaz.com.br

Clif Ross (USA) 1-510-215-8071 clifross1@yahoo.com

Liz Snyder (UK), +44 (0) 870 276 0463 esnyder@stopspending.org

 

Boycotts Brew as Baghdad Burns

In response to a war waged in opposition to worldwide public opinion, activists and regular citizens from Toledo to Tokyo are taking up the boycott in hopes of deterring the USA from continuing its attacks on Iraq.

Activist groups have organized some of the boycott efforts; others are direct expressions of public opinion.

Boycotts getting organized: many of the major boycott campaigns have banded together under the umbrella group the Global Boycott for Peace, or GBP.

 

Among the members of the GBP, boycott efforts have included:

• The International group for Direct Economic Action against war (IDEA) continues its flexible boycott strategy, offering boycotters options for both general and targeted boycotts, listing the top 2, 10, and 20 boycott targets

• San Francisco-based BoycottUS rallied local support as protests continued in the City by the Bay

• 13 members of the European Parliament signed on for a boycott of US corporations sponsored by the boycott organization For Mother Earth

• New Zealanders launched Stop USA, a group of "angry Kiwi consumers" dedicated to promoting a U.S. boycott in the South Pacific

• In Japan, Peace Choice Campaign has begun a grassroots campaign to boycott U.S. goods

• Halving her credit cards in protest, American Liz Snyder launched Stop Spending, which includes a personal "spending blog" about participating in the boycotts

• Also in the USA, the cyber campaign known as We Won't Shop Until Attack Talk Stops has Americans pledging to reduce their consumer spending by a dollar amount, currently pledges total $166,250

• In Australia, Peace Action offers "the B-lists" offering consumers comprehensive lists of corporations who both support and oppose the war against Iraq

• In the USA, Be the Cause has also continued to target specific brands (such as Kraft and Philip Morris) for a consumer boycott

• In New Zealand, Spend for Peace continues its boycott of US products, encouraging boycotters to write letters to companied, political leaders, and US ambassadors

• German cyber-campaign Consumers Against War advocates a boycott of a couple of dozen American brands

Collectively, Global Boycott for Peace, along with For Mother Earth, 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.

 

Other boycotts include:

• Influential Vancouver-based Adbusters Magazine continues to promote its "Boycott Brand America" campaign, where 37715 individuals have pledged to boycott major American brands "until the empire learns to listen"

• Protesters in Tokyo urged a boycott of US-made products, and displayed a list of popular US brands to be spurned, including, Nike, Coke, and McDonalds

• In Qatar, locals have used SMS, text messages sent over mobile phones, to advocate a boycott of American and British products

• Shopkeepers in Pakistan have vowed to boycott both British and American goods.

• The Brasil Worker's Party has called for a Country-wide ban of American goods, focusing predominantly on Exxon-Mobil gasoline

• Waiters in restaurants across Germany are telling customers that Coke is off the menu because of the U.S.-led war against Iraq

• One German bicycle manufacturer, Riese and Mueller Gmbh, cancelled $300,000 worth of deals with US suppliers

• In Mexico, the Autonomous University of Queretaro (UAQ) called on students not to consume products that originate in the United Status for two months, in rejection of the Unites States-led war in Iraq

 

According to Pattrice Jones of IDEA, the boycott represents a form of nonviolent direct action. In contrast to symbolic demonstrations of opinion, boycotts have a direct and immediate impact on their targets. The idea behind the Global Boycott for Peace movement is that the Bush regime has listened to neither public opinion nor the United Nations, but is known to listen to US corporations. If the corporations begin to suffer, they will make their discomfort known to Bush, who will be compelled to alter his behavior accordingly. The growing international boycott movement is a grassroots phenomenon, with boycott websites and calls to action springing up spontaneously in diverse locations. Boycott strategies are also diverse, ranging from refusal to purchase any US or UK goods to ostracism of only those corporations known to support or likely to profit from the war. However, the recent formation of the Global Boycott for Peace foreshadows the formation of a large and sustained boycott emerging as the war in Iraq drags on.

American Liz Snyder of Stop Spending states, "I refuse to ignorantly put my money into the pockets of those whose actions I oppose. These companies made large contributions to the Bush administration, and they lobby this administration to make sure the government meets their needs. Let's make sure that what these companies need is an end to war against Iraq."

Even if that doesn't work, say some boycotters, they would still shun US goods and services in order to ensure that their own money doesn't help to pay for a war they consider to be illegal and immoral. 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.

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 Until Attack Talk Stops http://www.stopshopping.org/index.htm

 

News Articles referenced:

Africa South (October-December 1959) Letter to the Editor by Julius Nyerere

AP Newswire (28 Mar 2003) Information-technology tools aid anti-war rallies

AP Newswire (26 Mar 2003) Anti-war shopkeepers in Pakistan say they will boycott American goods

BBC News [UK] (1 April 2003) Anti-war boycott message spreads

The Boston Globe [USA] (23 Mar 2003) Soft-drink balancing

The Boston Globe [USA] (27 Mar 2003) Antiwar Europeans target US brands: Coke, McDonald's, others boycotted

CBC News [Canada] (26 Mar 2003) Consumers battle war through boycotts

News.Com.Au [Australia] (22 Mar 2003) Protesters burn flags, effigies

The New York Times [USA] (30 Mar 2003) McDonald's: When a Brand Becomes a Stand-In for a Nation

San Francisco Chronicle [USA] (31 Mar 2003) Coca-Cola disappears from menu as Europeans try to boycott U.S. goods

Terra Brasil [Brasil] (14 March 2003) Lançada campanha de boicote a produtos dos EUA