tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/boycotts-9824/articlesBoycotts – The Conversation2023-08-15T19:48:20Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2080912023-08-15T19:48:20Z2023-08-15T19:48:20ZOnline outrage can benefit brands that take stances on social issues<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539078/original/file-20230724-14742-flc4a2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C17%2C2982%2C2061&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A large billboard featuring Colin Kaepernick stands on top of a Nike store at Union Square in San Francisco.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Eric Risberg)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/online-outrage-can-benefit-brands-that-take-stances-on-social-issues" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Nike’s advertisement featuring Colin Kaepernick sparked a social media firestorm in 2018. Kaepernick, a former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, first made headlines in 2016 when he <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/06/01/colin-kaepernick-kneeling-history/">protested against police brutality by kneeling during the American national anthem</a>.</p>
<p>Those who deemed Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the anthem as unpatriotic expressed a great deal of outrage and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nike-kaepernick-idUSKCN1LK1DK">called for a Nike boycott</a>. Despite initial concerns about the financial impact of Nike’s decision, the advertisement <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/9/24/17895704/nike-colin-kaepernick-boycott-6-billion">proved successful for the company</a> — Nike earned $6 billion from the campaign.</p>
<p>One explanation for this success is that existing Nike customers rallied behind the brand, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2018/09/13/colin-kaepernicks-nike-ad-campaign-gets-more-yeahs-than-nays-from-young-people/">outnumbering those who were outraged</a>. But social media conversations at the time suggested there was an alternative phenomenon taking place. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nikes-courageous-new-ad-campaign-mixing-racial-politics-with-sport-will-be-vindicated-102707">Nike's courageous new ad campaign mixing racial politics with sport will be vindicated</a>
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<p>Some people expressed support for Nike in response to the outrage but not because they were already loyal customers of the brand. This suggests people who shared Kaepernick’s concerns were motivated by online outrage to support Nike as a way of symbolically defending or supporting their beliefs about racial equity and police brutality. </p>
<p>After seeing this example and noticing more brands were taking stances on social issues through marketing campaigns, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/jcpy.1364">we decided to embark on a research project</a>. Our aim was to examine whether brands that take such stances benefit from the ensuing outrage from opposing consumer groups.</p>
<h2>Positive outrage</h2>
<p>We conducted five studies using real examples of brands that took stances on social issues and faced online backlash. Participants were presented a tweet that either expressed outrage or disapproval towards the brand’s social message. We then measured how connected participants felt to the attacked brand and what their intentions to make a purchase from that brand were.</p>
<p>Across all five studies, we found that participants who shared the brand’s promoted values felt more closely connected to it and were more willing to buy its products when they saw an outraged tweet. This was true for the brand that was specifically attacked, but also for other brands with similar social values.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A collage of tweets by people condemning Nike's advertising campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538809/original/file-20230722-41771-xyjt9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538809/original/file-20230722-41771-xyjt9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538809/original/file-20230722-41771-xyjt9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538809/original/file-20230722-41771-xyjt9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538809/original/file-20230722-41771-xyjt9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538809/original/file-20230722-41771-xyjt9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538809/original/file-20230722-41771-xyjt9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nike’s 2018 advertisement featuring Colin Kaepernick sparked backlash on social media.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Twitter)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The underlying psychological reason for this positive outrage effect was that participants perceived the outrage as a threat to their personal social values.</p>
<p>This is consistent with existing theories that suggest public expressions of outrage can <a href="https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/dgt6u">be seen as a threat to people’s beliefs and values</a>. In response to such threats, individuals respond by engaging in symbolic acts <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S1364-6613(03)00135-9">to defend the threatened value</a>.</p>
<p>Importantly, this feeling of threat and the subsequent positive brand consequences occurred under a certain set of conditions. Namely, the positive outcome occurred when the outrage was expressed by a member of a group with opposing values, such as political opponents, or when the outrage had online viral support.</p>
<h2>Managerial implications</h2>
<p>From a managerial perspective, brands have been hesitant to take sides on <a href="https://hbr.org/2020/02/how-do-consumers-feel-when-companies-get-political">contentious social issues</a>, partly because of the risks associated with triggering online outrage. However, consumers are increasingly expecting companies <a href="https://hbr.org/2020/10/when-should-your-company-speak-up-about-a-social-issue">to speak out on social issues that are important to them</a>. </p>
<p>Our research offers optimism, as it indicates outrage can benefit brands by bolstering support from those who share the promoted values. These are the customers companies should be trying to reach in such marketing activities. </p>
<p>But a word of caution: brands need to be mindful of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0022243720947682">risks of alienating consumers that hold opposing views</a> about the social issue in question, particularly when a brand’s customer base holds diverse social values. Brands can <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/bud-light-sales-dropped-21-4-percent-in-april">risk driving away customers and losing profit</a> when they take a stance on social issues.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A case of Bud Light beer bottles" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540874/original/file-20230802-6332-5a9zc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540874/original/file-20230802-6332-5a9zc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540874/original/file-20230802-6332-5a9zc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540874/original/file-20230802-6332-5a9zc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540874/original/file-20230802-6332-5a9zc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540874/original/file-20230802-6332-5a9zc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540874/original/file-20230802-6332-5a9zc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">After Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender influencer, promoted Bud Light on Instagram, a group of consumers called for a boycott of the brand.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)</span></span>
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<p>This underscores the importance of ensuring that such social marketing campaigns are aligned with the existing values of a brand’s core customer base. By doing so, brands can navigate the potential risks of alienation while maximizing the potential benefits of generating outrage.</p>
<h2>Societal implications</h2>
<p>As influencial figures, brands have the power to incite social change by taking stances on social issues. To bring about change, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2020/12/10/colin-kaepernick-partners-with-ben--jerrys-on-namesake-vegan-frozen-dessert/">ideas must spread and gain enough support among the population</a>. </p>
<p>Brands can play a significant role in helping this happen by uniting people and organizations around social issues through marketing campaigns.</p>
<p>While outrage from opposed groups can benefit brands, it’s possible that deliberately courting such controversy may also negatively impact society. One concern that has been raised is that this kind of marketing can <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Business/companies-increasingly-politics-marketing-risks-experts/story?id=88238066">increase the risk of political polarization</a>. </p>
<p>Polarization has the potential to lead to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-parallel-economy-the-rightwing-movement-creating-a-safe-haven-for-deplatformed-conservative-influencers-201999">rise of parallel economies</a>: one for conservatives and another for liberals. The growing trend of companies positioning themselves as “anti-woke” in the United States is an example of this unfolding.</p>
<p>However, more research is still needed to fully grasp the positive and negative effects of these marketing activities on society. To gain a better understanding of this topic, for example, it would be valuable to study how consumer backlash impacts other entities like company employees, policymakers and investors.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208091/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Raymond Darke receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Theo Noseworthy receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Saeid Kermani does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Brands are increasingly taking stances on contentious social issues and facing mass outrage on social media. New research shows that this outrage can benefit brands.Saeid Kermani, Assistant Professor of Marketing, Trent UniversityPeter Darke, Professor of Marketing, York University, CanadaTheo Noseworthy, Professor of Marketing, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1827462022-05-18T19:46:17Z2022-05-18T19:46:17ZCompanies leaving Russia are caving to public pressure, not actually making a difference<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464051/original/file-20220518-12-4dw01i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C55%2C5318%2C3484&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A closed Mango store in a shopping mall in St. Petersburg, Russia. The company temporarily suspended operations in Russia in March to protest the invasion of Ukraine, joining a global corporate boycott against the country.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/companies-leaving-russia-are-caving-to-public-pressure--not-actually-making-a-difference" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>This week, <a href="https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/en-us/our-stories/article/ourstories.mcd-exit-russia.html">McDonald’s announced</a> its final exit from Russia, making it one of almost <a href="https://som.yale.edu/story/2022/almost-1000-companies-have-curtailed-operations-russia-some-remain">1,000 western companies that have partly, or entirely, ceased operations in Russia</a>. They did so, not just to comply with sanctions, but as a voluntary reaction to the war. </p>
<p>In some ways, it is textbook <a href="https://csr.fajrjam.ir/my_doc/fajrjam/csr/books/The%20ICCA%20handbook%20on%20corporate%20social%20responsibility.pdf#page=40">corporate social responsibility</a> — a form of self-regulation in which companies make commitments to the broader social good. </p>
<p>In this case, many companies cut ties with Russia in response to the pressure to support Ukraine from governments, investors, consumers, competitors and the general public. Some even made hefty <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/4d66f931-563a-4fdb-9032-18cffa73a7f6">financial sacrifices</a>. McDonald’s, for example, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/21a9a482-3a87-42b4-8c70-81b3a25bbcea">expects a hit of up to US$1.4 billion</a>.</p>
<p>I challenge this move by western corporations because it follows dubious ethical judgments. The apparent “social good” created by businesses exiting Russia is anything but clear and should be examined with a critical eye.</p>
<h2>The immoral moral argument</h2>
<p>Companies that provide goods and services used directly in the war, <a href="https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2022/05/09/how-companies-exiting-russia-are-faring">including the financial services that fund it</a>, do have an immediate responsibility. It makes sense for certain companies to cease operations in Russia if they directly enable the invasion of Ukraine — financially, technologically or otherwise.</p>
<p>However, producing or consuming a Uniqlo sweater, a Happy Meal or a Renault Clio, has no effect on the war itself. The only impact corporate exits might have are on Russian <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/8d946204-6c74-4bfb-a649-c0335557b4ed">suppliers</a>, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/86144c9c-2258-4b9c-a0ad-ea8d63b7000f">employees and communities</a>. The rights and interests of the Russian stakeholders of western-owned companies do not seem to matter.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A sign that says 'We Will No Longer Serve Russian Vodka'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463764/original/file-20220517-16-cgqoxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=61%2C0%2C6839%2C4555&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463764/original/file-20220517-16-cgqoxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463764/original/file-20220517-16-cgqoxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463764/original/file-20220517-16-cgqoxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463764/original/file-20220517-16-cgqoxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463764/original/file-20220517-16-cgqoxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463764/original/file-20220517-16-cgqoxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A sign outside a bar in Michigan declares it will stop serving Russian vodka, presumably to protest the Russian invasion of Ukraine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some proponents have <a href="https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/why-the-business-retreat-from-russia-matters">compared today’s situation to the boycott of South Africa</a> during apartheid when <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/13/business/us-companies-bolster-anti-apartheid-code.html">American and European companies had to implement anti-apartheid laws</a> in their South African manufacturing plants and sales operations. </p>
<p>The corporate exit and boycott in South Africa during that time period was designed to stop companies from being directly complicit in apartheid. It is much harder to establish a similarly direct connection between selling <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/mcdonald-s-russia-1.6454907">McDonald’s burgers</a> or <a href="https://www.brickfanatics.com/lego-seemingly-still-operating-in-russia/">Lego toys</a> and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.</p>
<h2>Company responsibility</h2>
<p>How much, then, are companies responsible for the actions of their governments? To answer this, we can look to the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/is-china-committing-genocide-against-the-uyghurs-180979490/">genocide of the Uyghur minority</a> in China. Many displaced Uyghurs are currently working as forced labour for <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siminamistreanu/2020/03/02/study-links-nike-adidas-and-apple-to-forced-uighur-labor/?sh=5cdac1ae1003">western companies</a>. No such call for corporate boycotting have been made there. </p>
<p>There is a clear double standard about which wars and atrocities are widely condemned and which are not. There are <a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries-currently-at-war">20 ongoing wars happening around the world</a> as we speak. Which of them qualify for a corporate boycott? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Protesters wearing masks and holding signs accusing Apple of using forced labour" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463771/original/file-20220517-16-io4wjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463771/original/file-20220517-16-io4wjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463771/original/file-20220517-16-io4wjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463771/original/file-20220517-16-io4wjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463771/original/file-20220517-16-io4wjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463771/original/file-20220517-16-io4wjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463771/original/file-20220517-16-io4wjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protesters stage a mock ‘Uyghur forced labour camp’ outside the flagship Apple store on March 4, 2022, in Washington, to highlight the alleged use of illegal forced Uighur labour in its supply chain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Saudi Arabia’s role in the war in Yemen, which has resulted in at least <a href="https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/war-yemen">230,000 fatalities</a> since 2015, has never been scrutinized. Such ethical assignments of corporate responsibility are arbitrary and questionable.</p>
<p>But Ukraine is more relevant to the West, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/02/civilised-european-look-like-us-racist-coverage-ukraine">mainstream news media has illustrated</a>, because Ukrainians “look like us,” with their “blond hair and blue eyes” who “pray like us” and “drive cars like we do.” Boycotting Russia based on this type of external pressure is just pandering to racism.</p>
<h2>Which side is the ‘good guy’ in this war?</h2>
<p>War is reprehensible in all its forms. The ultimate question for corporate engagement, however, is the moral status of the reasons for war. Who are the bad guys? Who deserves the punishment of sanctions?</p>
<p>On the one hand the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/07/opinion/companies-ukraine-boycott.html">mainstream consensus seems to be</a> that Russia is aggressively attempting to rebuild the Soviet empire, ignoring the territorial integrity of Ukraine.</p>
<p>On the other hand, there are a number of arguments that challenge this. Russia started the invasion to <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/why-is-russia-threatening-to-invade-ukraine">prevent Ukraine from joining NATO</a>. Last week, the U.S. and Australia threatened military action <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/26/us-wont-rule-out-military-action-if-china-establishes-base-in-solomon-islands">in the tiny Solomon Islands</a> if that government allows China to have military presence there. If the U.S. considers what goes on 12,000 kilometres away from its borders a threat, how can we expect Russia to agree to NATO presence right on its doorstep? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Protesters drenched in red paint standing outside a retail store." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463763/original/file-20220517-22-t5keyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463763/original/file-20220517-22-t5keyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463763/original/file-20220517-22-t5keyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463763/original/file-20220517-22-t5keyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463763/original/file-20220517-22-t5keyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463763/original/file-20220517-22-t5keyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463763/original/file-20220517-22-t5keyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Activists protest outside an outlet of French home improvement retailer Leroy Merlin in Warsaw, Poland, on May 7, 2022. Protests have been held across Poland over the company’s decision to keep operating its stores in Russia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Pawel Kuczynski)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Political scientist <a href="https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2022/03/11/john-mearsheimer-on-why-the-west-is-principally-responsible-for-the-ukrainian-crisis">John Mearsheimer has written about</a> the historical reasons to empathize with Russian anxieties — including tracing the roots of the NATO conflict back to 2008 when George W. Bush’s administration began pushing for Ukraine to become a member — while still placing the initial responsibility for the war on President Vladimir Putin’s shoulders.</p>
<p>By sanctioning Russia, companies take a moral position in this war: Russia is the bad guy and deserves punishment. I argue that this situation is much more ambiguous and that the ethics of such a position is dubious at the very least — as is the social good coming out of this form of corporate social responsibility.</p>
<h2>Being ‘woke’ is profitable</h2>
<p>The commitments to social responsibility and ethical values of a Russian exit are little more than hypocrisy. Ultimately, corporations do these things to remain profitable, in our case, by giving in to pressure from their <a href="https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2022/05/09/how-companies-exiting-russia-are-faring">investors, employees and consumers</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.heritage.org/progressivism/heritage-explains/woke-corporate-capitalism">“Woke” corporations</a>, as <a href="https://www.vivekramaswamy.com/wokeinc">Vivek Ramasamy</a> or <a href="https://theconversation.com/prince-harrys-critics-have-a-point-woke-capitalism-is-no-solution-158132">Carl Rhodes</a> would suggest, do this because they know that maintaining an ethical veneer is good for the bottom line. Whether exiting Russia will actually achieve any social good, such as ending the war, is largely sidelined.</p>
<p>It is perfectly legitimate to demand greater social responsibility and ethical conduct from business. We need more of it. But publicly pressuring businesses to undertake responsibilities that can only be addressed by governments and the democratic process is the wrong way to get there.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182746/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dirk Matten does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We should demand greater social responsibility from businesses, but pressuring them to undertake responsibilities that only governments can address is the wrong way to get there.Dirk Matten, Associate Dean Research, Professor of Sustainability, Hewlett-Packard Chair in Corporate Social Responsibility, Schulich School of Business, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1792672022-03-23T12:42:04Z2022-03-23T12:42:04ZUkraine: how boycotting everything Russian – and blaming Russian society rather than Putin – is xenophobic<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/maps-show-and-hide-key-information-about-ukraine-war-179069">Russian invasion of Ukraine</a> has sparked global outrage and a desire to show support for Ukrainian citizens. Many people who are not in Ukraine have felt desperate to do something positive, something that will help.</p>
<p>Some have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/10/ukraine-humanitarian-crisis-what-is-the-most-effective-way-to-help">donated</a> clothing and blankets. Others have registered to <a href="https://theconversation.com/thinking-of-welcoming-a-ukrainian-refugee-into-your-home-our-research-can-help-you-be-a-good-host-179212">host refugees</a>. And everywhere from <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/ukraine-russia-flag-mi6-downing-b2023415.html">government buildings</a> to <a href="https://www.northyorks.gov.uk/news/article/pupils-show-their-support-ukrainian-children">school playgrounds</a>, the colours of the <a href="https://yorkmix.com/around-2000-school-students-to-create-a-chain-of-peace-for-ukraine-across-york/">Ukrainian flag</a> have been flown, solidarity writ large in blue and yellow. </p>
<p>But alongside this positive support for Ukraine is a more negative rejection of anything – and everything – associated with Russia. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/mar/12/cardiff-orchestra-defends-cut-tchaikovsky-concert-russia">Military anthems</a> by long-dead Russian composers have been stricken off concert playlists. Russian cats <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/03/03/1084205316/russian-cats-banned-international-competition">have been banned</a> from international feline exhibitions.</p>
<p>This begs the question of what these actions seek to achieve and who is being impacted. As my research shows, the <a href="https://www.rachelpistol.com/">second world war</a> offers multiple examples of destructive antagonism directed at German, Italian and Japanese citizens living in the UK and the US. As always in times of war, it is citizens who suffer the consequences of the actions of their government. </p>
<p>Amid the sanctions imposed on the Russian government, there have also been calls to boycott all things Russian, or even just Russian sounding. Boycotts, of course, give individuals a say through <a href="https://theconversation.com/boycotting-russian-products-might-feel-right-but-can-individual-consumers-really-make-a-difference-178876">collective action</a>. But many non-Russian products have been accidentally targeted. </p>
<p>Bar owners in the US have <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/27/business/russian-vodka-boycotts/index.html">dumped Stoli Vodka</a>, which is actually made in Latvia by a company headquartered in Luxembourg. The action may be symbolic but it is nonetheless misguided. </p>
<p>When Benito Mussolini declared war on Britain on June 10, 1940, there were riots across the UK. Italian shops were <a href="https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/29408">looted</a>, Italian businesses had their windows smashed. </p>
<p>Similar scenes have played out recently across the US, with Russian restaurants having their <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/russian-businesses-us-face-backlash-war-ukraine-rcna19155">premises vandalised</a>. Both then and now, however, there is confusion over which businesses genuinely belong to “the enemy”. And no consideration is given to the suffering caused to innocent civilians caught in the crossfire between their native country and their country of domicile. </p>
<p>A lack of geographic knowledge and understanding among the general public has always caused issues in times of war. <a href="https://chicago.eater.com/2022/3/16/22979594/russian-tea-time-ukraine-backlash-war-choose-chicago-tourism-ceo-lawsuit-giant-penny-whistle">Ukrainians</a> and <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war-xenophobic-attacks-and-death-threats-reported-by-russians-living-in-the-uk-12561807">Latvians</a> are currently being targeted because people mistakenly think they’re Russian. </p>
<p>This is merely people’s continued manifestation of xenophobic bullying based on a desire to “do” something but with little understanding of how best to direct their anger. During the second world war, Asian Americans wore badges stating <a href="https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Asian_American_response_to_incarceration/">they were not Japanese</a>, in order to stave off attacks on themselves or their property. Similarly, in the UK, the US and elsewhere, businesses whose names include the word “Russian” are <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/russian-businesses-us-face-backlash-war-ukraine-rcna19155">having to change to names</a> less likely to attract attention from xenophobes.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A poster advertising a bottle of vodka on the side of a phone booth." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453824/original/file-20220323-15-zwlbhl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453824/original/file-20220323-15-zwlbhl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453824/original/file-20220323-15-zwlbhl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453824/original/file-20220323-15-zwlbhl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453824/original/file-20220323-15-zwlbhl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453824/original/file-20220323-15-zwlbhl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453824/original/file-20220323-15-zwlbhl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Luxembourgeois company SPI has had to change the Russian name of its vodka, which is made in Latvia, to Stoli, after being boycotted.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/edenpictures/5851334976">Eden, Janine and Jim | Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<h2>Civilians harmed</h2>
<p>More concerning are the calls for deporting ordinary Russian citizens from western countries, even if they are opposed to Putin and his regime. In scenes that directly echo the treatment of so-called “enemy aliens” during the second world war, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, Californian congressman Eric Salwell <a href="https://www.sfgate.com/national-politics/article/Swalwell-proposes-expelling-Russian-students-16947581.php">suggested</a> “kicking every Russian student out of the United States” as a means of retaliating against Putin.</p>
<p>In the UK, the MP for North Thanet in Kent, Roger Gale, went even further. He called for all Russians to be <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/russia-citizens-visa-uk-roger-gale-b2024940.html">“sent home”</a>, even though he acknowledged that many “good and honest” people would be caught as “collateral damage”. During the second world war, much harm was inflicted on innocent bystanders because of policies like these. </p>
<p>Most Italians who <a href="https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/heritage-and-retro/retro/violent-anti-italian-riots-in-edinburgh-recalled-80-years-on-2879748">suffered during the rioting</a> had lived in the UK for decades and held strong loyalties to Britain. This did not stop male Italians who had lived in the UK for less than 20 years from being <a href="https://www.rachelpistol.com/talks">interned behind barbed wire</a> in camps on the Isle of Man, deported to camps in Canada or Australia, or, tragically for some, perishing on the torpedoed <a href="https://www.sussex.ac.uk/webteam/gateway/file.php?name=pistol-enemy-alien.pdf&site=15"><em>Arandora Star</em></a>. </p>
<p>In the US, meanwhile, Japanese immigrants had called the west coast their home for decades before the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. They had raised their children and grandchildren as proud American citizens. Had <a href="https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Immigration%20Act%20of%201917">anti-Asian legislation</a> not existed to prevent Asians from naturalising, many Japanese immigrants would have become American citizens like their American children. </p>
<p>Denied this opportunity, all those with Japanese ancestry – including their Japanese American children, who were American citizens by right of their birth – were <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/psq.12695">forcibly removed</a> from their homes and places of work and incarcerated behind barbed wire. Research <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6354763/">has shown</a> the lasting trauma this has caused and how this was done in a <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/msen/files/internment.pdf">manner tantamount</a> to ethnic cleansing. </p>
<p>Calling for all Russian citizens to suffer for the actions of Vladimir Putin does nothing to place meaningful pressure on the Russian government. Death threats, damage to property, physical attacks and cyber stalking do nothing to help Ukrainians. This is simply bullying. </p>
<p>A clear distinction must be drawn between Russian government officials and those Russians who have earned their wealth via corruption and support of Putin, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60125659">who need to be sanctioned</a>, and ordinary Russian citizens living abroad. The latter find themselves in a dangerous situation, regardless of how staunchly they oppose their government’s invasion of Ukraine. </p>
<p>Many Russian citizens and Russian speakers – which includes many Ukrainians – are suffering xenophobic abuse. If history is to be repeated, they are at risk of incarceration, and even deportation. What Ukraine needs is political, military and humanitarian assistance, not hatred directed at innocent Russian citizens living in the west.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179267/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Pistol does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Russian citizens in the west are being targeted in much the same way Germans, Italians, and Japanese were during the second world war.Rachel Pistol, Research Fellow, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1763732022-02-04T00:42:35Z2022-02-04T00:42:35ZWas the Sydney Festival boycott justifiable to support Palestine?<p>The remarkably successful <a href="https://theconversation.com/sydney-festival-boycott-when-arts-organisations-accept-donations-there-is-always-a-price-to-pay-174393">pro-Palestinian boycott</a> by artists of the recent Sydney Festival was a vibrant example of engaged citizens taking foreign policy into their own hands. </p>
<p>Perhaps 35% of the festival’s <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/labor-silent-on-sydney-festival-antiisrael-boycott/news-story/06298e237428805f4f971ec808b16262">participants withdrew</a>, objecting to Israel’s A$20,000 sponsorship of a dance created by an Israeli choreographer and performed by the Sydney Dance Company. Over <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/performers-have-been-boycotting-this-month-s-sydney-festival-here-s-why/c419b014-a92f-427e-a76c-d46c73252538">1,000 artists</a> also signed a letter supporting the boycott.</p>
<p>The heat on Israel follows <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/07/27/gaza-apparent-war-crimes-during-may-fighting">alleged war crimes</a> in last year’s Gaza war, accusations of apartheid by <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution">Human Rights Watch</a> and now <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/02/israels-apartheid-against-palestinians-a-cruel-system-of-domination-and-a-crime-against-humanity/">Amnesty International</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/jerusalem-evictions-show-how-urban-planning-is-being-weaponised-against-palestinians-175690">evictions and home demolitions</a> in East Jerusalem and the ever-expanding colonial <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080052/israel-settlements-west-bank">settlements</a> in the West Bank.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/jerusalem-evictions-show-how-urban-planning-is-being-weaponised-against-palestinians-175690">Jerusalem: evictions show how urban planning is being weaponised against Palestinians</a>
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<p>The boycott caused uproar. The conservative <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/festival-boycott-the-futile-work-of-useful-idiots/news-story/475418b7ecf4e96888d17aff0389ad1b">federal</a> and <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/dance/new-arts-minister-says-sydney-festival-boycott-is-censorship-20220110-p59n0e.html">state</a> arts ministers condemned it, as did a conservative <a href="https://www.davesharma.com.au/news/sharma-condemns-calls-to-boycott-sydney-festival">former Australian ambassador to Israel</a>, conservative <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/jewish-groups-push-back-against-sydney-festival-boycott/news-story/b8e2ad7ac14cb0a57c5ab1f1fb18464e">Australian Jewish groups</a> and <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/120-artists-industry-officials-slam-boycott-of-sydney-festival-over-israeli-funding/">some artists</a>. Israel was <a href="https://www.algemeiner.com/2022/01/13/israeli-ambassador-slams-antisemitic-aggressive-bds-campaign-against-sydney-festival/">apoplectic</a>. </p>
<p>Caught like a deer in headlights, the festival organisers <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-13/sydney-festival-chair-responds-to-festival-boycott/100753598">belatedly acknowledged</a> the moral objections of artists by pledging to review their policy on donations by foreign governments, but refused to return Israel’s money. The Sydney Dance Company still danced, to rapturous reviews.</p>
<h2>Surprisingly weak objections</h2>
<p>Opponents of the boycott have mounted some surprisingly weak objections.</p>
<p>They say it censors art for political reasons. </p>
<p>Artists themselves chose not to perform, persuaded, in the free marketplace of ideas, by boycott campaigners. Artists who still wished to perform were free to do so, and audiences were free to attend. There were no union-style pickets. This was a relatively “smart” boycott.</p>
<p>As the European Court of Human Rights unanimously <a href="http://opiniojuris.org/2020/06/16/baldassi-and-others-v-france-criminal-convictions-of-bds-activists-violate-freedom-of-expression-under-the-european-convention-on-human-rights/">found in 2020</a>, advocacy of boycotting Israel is protected free speech – the opposite of censorship. </p>
<p>Democracies only function if citizens are free to voice their opinions, hoping to convince others. It is absurd for <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/dance/new-arts-minister-says-sydney-festival-boycott-is-censorship-20220110-p59n0e.html">government ministers</a> to condemn such advocacy as censorship. It also patronises artists as unqualified to make up their own minds.</p>
<p>Opponents say it politicises art. Yet political critique has long been a function of art and artists. Art is not just elevator music. The same arguments are often made not to politicise sport. Yet Australia is willing to <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-australias-diplomatic-boycott-of-the-beijing-winter-olympics-is-important-but-unlikely-to-have-any-significant-impact-173422">diplomatically boycott</a> the Beijing Winter Olympics.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-will-follow-us-in-diplomatic-boycott-of-chinas-winter-olympics-173425">Australia will follow US in diplomatic boycott of China's Winter Olympics</a>
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<p>Critics argue Israel is anti-Semitically singled out for a boycott when other states have worse human rights records. But it is not the responsibility of campaigners for Palestine to crusade for victims in every other bad country. </p>
<p>It is to their credit they have mobilised an effective boycott, which campaigners elsewhere might learn from. It is not anti-Semitic to criticise Israel for violating international law or to take peaceful action to urge it to stop.</p>
<p>Opponents claim Israel is a democracy. But democracies violate rights too and should not be immune from sanctions.</p>
<p>In any case, Israel is not a democracy for five million Palestinians living under Israeli military control. Most of them have been <a href="https://www.btselem.org/publications/fulltext/202101_this_is_apartheid">unable to vote</a> in Israeli elections for over 50 years – even though <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/country/israel/freedom-world/2021">Israeli settlers in Palestine</a> enjoy the vote.</p>
<p>Opponents warn Hamas has endorsed the boycott, as if invoking the spectre of terrorism automatically discredits it. Hamas <a href="https://apnews.com/article/world-news-israel-health-coronavirus-pandemic-west-bank-dedb09a673ccd2e72ceac1ef2c89c632">supports COVID vaccines</a> too, which hardly makes them a bad thing. Smearing boycotters by association with Hamas is pitifully cheap.</p>
<p>Critics claim struggling artists need to perform because their incomes plummeted during COVID. Again, the artists know best whether they are willing to forgo income to stand up for human rights.</p>
<h2>The questions which should be asked of a boycott</h2>
<p>There are three genuine questions that should be asked of any boycott. Are the offender’s violations serious enough to justify it? Is the collateral damage to innocents, if any, proportionate? Could the boycott potentially improve the wrongdoer’s behaviour?</p>
<p>First, Israeli violations of international law have been exhaustively documented. It denies Palestinians their rights to self-determination and statehood, has committed war crimes and human rights violations and denies justice to victims. </p>
<p>Its sponsorship of illegal Israeli settlements proves its agenda is to colonise Palestine, not free it or bring it peace. It has constantly defied the international community, including the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=28010&LangID=E">Security Council</a> and the <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/en/case/131">International Court of Justice</a>.</p>
<p>Palestinian violations do not excuse Israel’s violations. That other countries may be worse does not diminish the case of a boycott of Israel, but draws attention to the need to boycott others as well.</p>
<p>Secondly, the boycott has caused limited collateral damage. It targeted Israeli support for a blameless Israeli dance performed by blameless Sydney dancers and inconvenienced audiences. The calculus of the boycott is these are small sacrifices if stigmatising cooperation with Israel may pressure it to change. </p>
<p>Thirdly, a boycott inflicts pointless vengeance if it has no prospect of success. Critics cry shunning a tiny amount of Israeli money for a harmless dance in faraway Sydney will hardly bring peace to the Middle East.</p>
<p>Yet Israel is hyper-sensitive about its perception by western allies. The spread of sympathy to the Palestinian cause among the Australian community has rattled Israel’s cage and increases its international isolation.</p>
<h2>A case of conscience</h2>
<p>Citizen boycotts are growing precisely because western governments like Australia and the US have so spectacularly failed to hold Israel to account for systematic violations. We should not only apply our new <a href="https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/press-release/human-rights-first-welcomes-australia-s-adoption-magnitsky-style-sanctions">Magnitsky Act human rights sanctions</a> to adversaries like Russia or China, but also to our “friends” when they badly misbehave.</p>
<p>China will not stop its repression of Uighurs just because Australia doesn’t send officials to watch the Olympics, but we boycott anyway, to stigmatise terrible behaviour. Who knows what might happen when the butterfly of citizen boycotts flaps its wings in the desert of Middle Eastern politics? There is so little to lose and so much to gain.</p>
<p>Australians must exercise their own conscience about different types of boycotts. But the case for boycotts is plausible and should be taken seriously – not sledged by specious or misleading criticisms.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sydney-festival-boycott-when-arts-organisations-accept-donations-there-is-always-a-price-to-pay-174393">Sydney Festival boycott: when arts organisations accept donations, there is always a price to pay</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176373/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben Saul is affiliated with Chatham House, London and the International Centre for Counter-terrorism in The Hague</span></em></p>The Sydney Festival boycott was a vibrant example of engaged citizens taking foreign policy into their own hands.Ben Saul, Professor of International Law, Sydney Centre for International Law, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1734732022-01-12T13:37:11Z2022-01-12T13:37:11ZEthical US consumers struggled to pressure the sugar industry to abandon slavery with less success than their British counterparts<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438885/original/file-20211222-17-yrdz02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=102%2C308%2C3900%2C2128&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The enslaved people who produced sugar before the Civil War did dangerous and grueling work.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/slaves-harvesting-sugar-cane-in-louisiana-1833-note-the-news-photo/918908388">The Print Collector/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Twenty-two-year-old Sam Watts saw the Virginia coastline vanish while he was aboard a domestic slave ship in the fall of 1831. Andrew Jackson was president, and <a href="https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/joshua-d-rothman/the-ledger-and-the-chain/9781541616615/">slave traders</a> had <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300192001/business-slavery-and-rise-american-capitalism-1815-1860">bought Watts</a> for US$450 (about <a href="https://www.officialdata.org/us/inflation/1831?amount=450">$14,500</a> in 2022 dollars). They were ripping him from multiple generations of his loved ones for a voyage of no return.</p>
<p>After the ship docked at New Orleans three weeks later, Edmond J. Forstall, a banker and entrepreneur, purchased Watts for $950. His new owner put Watts to work making barrels in the new <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/unsavory-history-sugar-american-craving-180962766/">Louisiana Sugar Refinery</a> – the world’s largest operation of its kind at the time.</p>
<p><a href="https://vimeo.com/79397052">Watts labored under an overseer’s lash</a>, but he may have felt less unfortunate than Louisiana’s 36,000 enslaved people forced to work on plantations producing the sugar that went into his barrels. Growing, cutting and processing domestic <a href="https://www.whitneyplantation.org/history/slavery-in-louisiana/">sugar cane took an even deadlier toll</a> than producing <a href="https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2014/11/19/slavery-economy-baptist">cotton</a> or <a href="http://slaveryandremembrance.org/articles/article/?id=A0056">tobacco</a>. </p>
<p>Watts’ unpaid work fed a supply chain with tragic human costs. Most Americans today would surely like to think that consumers who knew their sugar was grown and processed by enslaved people living in the United States would refuse to buy it. But the <a href="https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2017/03/10/abolitionists-fought-lost-battle-americas-sweet-tooth/chronicles/who-we-were/">historical record</a> points to a greater opposing force: <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300192001/business-slavery-and-rise-american-capitalism-1815-1860">the rise of American capitalism</a>, which before the Civil War was fueled by unpaid labor.</p>
<h2>Government support for sugar started early on</h2>
<p>Louisiana growers started producing molasses in the 18th century and granulated sugar by 1795. Output increased after the U.S. <a href="https://www.history.com/news/louisiana-purchase-price-french-colonial-slave-rebellion">bought Louisiana from France in 1803</a>. The federal government was already protecting domestic sugar with a <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/tariff-act-1789">tariff on imported sugar</a>.</p>
<p>By the 1830s, strong demand and creative financing from international investors were also bolstering Louisiana’s sugar sector. The same year Sam Watts was bought and sold, <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/private-correspondence-of-henry-clay/oclc/60712913">Sen. Henry Clay wrote</a> that “a repeal of the duty would compel the Louisiana planter to abandon the cultivation of the sugar cane.”</p>
<p>Sugar had by then been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/sugar-slave-trade-slavery.html">transformed from a luxury</a> into a <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-history-of-sugar-the-food-nobody-needs-but-everyone-craves-49823">wildly popular ingredient</a> that was integral to the American diet.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.thespruceeats.com/what-is-molasses-1328678">Molasses</a> and cane sugar were as American as <a href="https://food52.com/blog/24688-apple-pie-origin-story">apple pie</a>. They flavored everything from Boston <a href="https://www.paulreverehouse.org/boston-baked-beans-a-case-study-in-culinary-tradition/">baked beans</a> to <a href="https://www.history.com/news/13-colonies-food-drink">syllabub</a> – a dessert of sweetened whipped cream mixed with cider or wine.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the historical record indicates that most Americans who bought a quart of molasses or pound of refined sugar crystals either didn’t know or didn’t care very much about the struggles of Sam Watts and tens of thousands of other African Americans like him. Sugar was <a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/refined-tastes">a prestige item</a>, signaling wealth and refinement.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438886/original/file-20211222-23-cyppqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A bowl of gooey brown Boston baked beans" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438886/original/file-20211222-23-cyppqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438886/original/file-20211222-23-cyppqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438886/original/file-20211222-23-cyppqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438886/original/file-20211222-23-cyppqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438886/original/file-20211222-23-cyppqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438886/original/file-20211222-23-cyppqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438886/original/file-20211222-23-cyppqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many Americans consume sugar and perhaps molasses – a byproduct from refining the sweet stuff – when they eat beans.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/boston-baked-beans-news-photo/563538625?adppopup=true">Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>British abolitionists offered a model</h2>
<p>Starting in the 1780s, British abolitionists had urged and organized consumer <a href="https://www.bl.uk/restoration-18th-century-literature/articles/abolition-of-the-slave-trade-and-slavery-in-britain">boycotts to end the transatlantic slave trade</a>. <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/322123/sweetness-and-power-by-sidney-w-mintz/">Sugar was its engine</a>, and <a href="https://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/campaignforabolition/abolitionbackground/biogs/greatcampaigners.html">activists</a> like the <a href="https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_122690_smxx.pdf">poet Robert Southey condemned</a> those who “sip the blood-sweeten’d beverage” with a clear conscience.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.quakersintheworld.org/quakers-in-action/153/Boycotting-Goods-Produced-by-Slaves">They</a> published pamphlets and circulated petitions urging consumers, particularly women, to stop buying sugar made by enslaved people. <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/transactions-of-the-royal-historical-society/article/children-against-slavery-juvenile-agency-and-the-sugar-boycotts-in-britain/10C268B8FB7C2C50A43295C50309BD24">Children got involved</a>, too.</p>
<p>In 1791 in Manchester, England, some <a href="https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/adam-hochschild/bury-the-chains/9781447211365">300,000 people promised to boycott sugar</a> sourced from the Caribbean. Sales dropped dramatically. Abolitionists flooded Parliament with petitions to end the transatlantic slave trade.</p>
<p>Britain made its <a href="https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/how-did-slave-trade-end-britain">subjects’ involvement in the trade illegal in 1807</a>. Yet sugar producers in the Caribbean, including in Jamaica and Cuba, continued to force hundreds of thousands of enslaved people to make sugar.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-one-woman-pulled-off-the-first-consumer-boycott-and-helped-inspire-the-british-to-abolish-slavery-140313">Elizabeth Heyrick</a>, a Birmingham philanthropist, led an even more successful English boycott of West Indian sugar in the 1820s.</p>
<p>British boycotts made at least a symbolic difference, because abolitionists got consumers to empathize with enslaved workers at a time when national interests were <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807844885/capitalism-and-slavery/">turning away</a> from the sugar industry because of <a href="https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/how-did-slave-trade-end-britain">shifting international alliances</a>.</p>
<h2>The limits of consumer pressure</h2>
<p>Although the U.S. <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/02/congress-votes-to-ban-slave-importation-march-2-1807-430820">banned the landing of foreign captives</a> destined for enslavement in 1808, it let the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-brutal-trade-in-enslaved-people-within-the-us-has-been-largely-whitewashed-out-of-history-165442">domestic slave trade flourish</a> for another five decades.</p>
<p>U.S. growers were competing mainly with the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/sugar-masters-in-a-new-world-5212993/">Cuban sugar producers</a> who could still import African captives. Newly enslaved people often <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300247336/last-slave-ships">arrived on American-owned vessels</a>.</p>
<p>Free African American and white <a href="https://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/feature/quaker-activism/">Quaker abolitionists</a> sought to underscore the connection between unrequited toil and the abundance it produced. Before <a href="https://www.blumeglobal.com/learning/history-of-supply-chain/">supply chain management</a> existed as a systematic process, those who worked to abolish slavery pointed out that the dollars spent on sugar fed the forced labor and degradation of Black people who made and processed sugar and other commodities.</p>
<p>To that end, Quakers formed the <a href="https://www.quakersintheworld.org/quakers-in-action/153/Boycotting-Goods-Produced-by-Slaves">Free Produce Society of Pennsylvania</a> in 1827 to combat slavery in supply chains furnishing consumer goods.</p>
<p>In 1830, African American abolitionists established their own similar organization, the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/30043514">Colored Free Produce Society of Pennsylvania</a>. Its 500 members used their collective power to demand cotton, sugar and tobacco be made by free workers. Judith James and Laetitia Rowley, two Black Philadelphians, co-founded another group, the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/30043514">Colored Female Free Produce Society</a> soon after.</p>
<p>That organization’s members were connected with <a href="https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/mother-bethel-ame-church-congregation-and-community-2/">Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church</a>, Philadelphia’s hub of abolitionist and community organizing. It urged consumers to use their buying power to free enslaved people.</p>
<p>In 1834, Philadelphia’s most successful Black businessperson, William Whipper, opened a free labor store next to Mother Bethel church. In New York, African American abolitionist David Ruggles sold only free sugar and encouraged others to follow suit.</p>
<p>By 1838, the <a href="https://www.quakersintheworld.org/quakers-in-action/153/Boycotting-Goods-Produced-by-Slaves">Free Produce Movement</a>, as it was called, had coalesced as the American Free Produce Society. </p>
<p>But those scattered individual acts of conscience failed to force the sugar industry to stop relying on forced Black labor. U.S. <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300227116/slaves-cause">abolitionists’ efforts to inform the public</a> and organize boycotts also failed to stop growing demand, because <a href="https://www.winton.com/longer-view/the-sweet-and-sour-history-of-sugar-prices">sugar prices fell</a> until the Civil War disrupted the popular commodity’s production. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439246/original/file-20220103-117041-1p6gvxn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A teaspoon overflowing with sugar, held above a heap of more sugar" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439246/original/file-20220103-117041-1p6gvxn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439246/original/file-20220103-117041-1p6gvxn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439246/original/file-20220103-117041-1p6gvxn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439246/original/file-20220103-117041-1p6gvxn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439246/original/file-20220103-117041-1p6gvxn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439246/original/file-20220103-117041-1p6gvxn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439246/original/file-20220103-117041-1p6gvxn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">So sweet, but at what cost to human rights?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/refined-sugar-royalty-free-image/478187147">Victor De Schwanberg/Science Photo Library via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Sugar demand climbed</h2>
<p>Rather than cut back, Americans consumed more and more sugar.</p>
<p>When Watts went to work in the Louisiana Sugar Refinery, the average U.S. resident <a href="https://lsupress.org/books/detail/the-sugar-masters/">ate 13 pounds of it per year</a>. By 1850 the total had surged to 30 pounds.</p>
<p>In many places, emancipation didn’t stop coercive labor practices. The relationship between emancipated workers and the sugar barons and other planters who employed them still <a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/coolies-and-cane">approximated slavery</a>.</p>
<p>Sugar workers in Thibodaux, Louisiana, for instance, lived in many of the same quarters as they had before the Civil War. When they unionized and tried to strike for better wages in 1887, <a href="https://www.wdsu.com/article/thibodaux-massacre-descendants-dark-hidden-history/38524593#">white townspeople massacred</a> the farmworkers and their relatives, <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/thibodaux-massacre-left-60-african-americans-dead-and-spelled-end-unionized-farm-labor-south-decades-180967289/">killing 60</a>.</p>
<p>In Texas, <a href="https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/sugar-land-slave-convict-labor-history/">sugar plantation owners used convict laborers</a> to grow and process their sugar cane. Many prisoners forced to make sugar were teens convicted of minor offenses, often by Jim Crow courts.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 140,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletters to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-140ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>The 2019 discovery of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/27/opinion/sugar-land-texas-graves-slavery.html">95 grave sites</a> of African American sugar workers buried on a prison farm in Texas offered a glimpse of the toll sugar work took on Black workers, many of them children.</p>
<p>The Free Produce Movement may have failed to curb the human rights atrocities occurring in the 19th-century sugar supply chain. But many <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-trafficking-and-slavery/not-made-by-slaves-ambivalent-origins-of-ethical-consumption/">activists are still drawn</a> to the connection U.S. and British slavery abolitionists made between consumer purchasing power and the possibility of improving labor conditions.</p>
<p></p><hr> <p></p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439239/original/file-20220103-48418-1p7tcpi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439239/original/file-20220103-48418-1p7tcpi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439239/original/file-20220103-48418-1p7tcpi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439239/original/file-20220103-48418-1p7tcpi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439239/original/file-20220103-48418-1p7tcpi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439239/original/file-20220103-48418-1p7tcpi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439239/original/file-20220103-48418-1p7tcpi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>This article is part of a series examining sugar’s effects on human health and culture. <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/sugar-2022-114641">Read the series at theconversation.com</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173473/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Calvin Schermerhorn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Before the Civil War, US activists sought to combat slavery through sugar boycotts. Instead, consumption grew.Calvin Schermerhorn, Professor of History, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1649802021-07-29T12:24:59Z2021-07-29T12:24:59ZWhy Ben & Jerry’s decision to stop selling ice cream in the West Bank rattled Israel<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413284/original/file-20210727-12-53z9x7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=306%2C355%2C7873%2C5101&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Israelis have long had a sweet tooth for Ben & Jerry's. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IsraelBenJerrys/36fca80a45eb400890010fe0c7955700/photo?Query=ben%20&%20jerry%27s=&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=142&currentItemNo=10">AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2018, I was living in Israel while researching a book about the <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Israels-Securitization-Dilemma-BDS-and-the-Battle-for-the-Legitimacy/Olesker/p/book/9780367551674">country’s fight against groups that challenge its legitimacy</a>. </p>
<p>Every Wednesday, a new batch of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream arrived at my local supermarket, and I would snap up as many tubs of vanilla as I could. By Thursday, there’d be none left. Clearly, Israelis love their Ben & Jerry’s – <a href="https://finance.walla.co.il/item/3442683">which makes up about 75%</a> of the premium ice cream market in Israel. </p>
<p>Still, even I was surprised by the ferocity of the Israeli reaction to <a href="https://www.benjerry.com/about-us/media-center/palestine-statement">Ben & Jerry’s announcement</a> on July 19, 2021, that it would no longer sell its ice cream in Palestinian territories occupied by Israel. Many Israelis <a href="https://www.ynet.co.il/digital/internet/article/b11qeme000">on my social media feed</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/likuduk/status/1417363134839468040">were outraged</a>. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/07/19/ben-jerrys-israel-west-bank/">Politicians condemned</a> Ben & Jerry’s as “anti-Israel” and urged American lawmakers to sanction the South Burlington, Vermont-based company. Some states <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/22/texas-gets-involved-in-israels-fight-with-ben-jerrys-over-west-bank-boycott.html">are already preparing to do just that</a>. </p>
<p>Could it be that the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement – which <a href="https://bdsmovement.net/faqs#collapse16231">targets the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza</a> – has finally found Israel’s soft spot? </p>
<h2>What is the BDS movement?</h2>
<p>The boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, known as the <a href="https://bdsmovement.net">BDS movement</a>, began in 2005. That’s when 170 Palestinian civil society organizations called for an economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel for its <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-178825">violation of international law</a> and <a href="https://www.btselem.org/topic/settlements">Palestinian rights</a>, as well as its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. </p>
<p>The movement, which soon included a loose network of activists based all around the world, also urged companies, universities and others to divest from Israel and countries to sanction it.</p>
<p>Inspired by the <a href="https://www.aamarchives.org/campaigns/boycott.html">success of the global movement to end apartheid</a> in South Africa, the BDS campaign seeks to enlist academics, countries, companies and others in its effort to punish and isolate Israel. Its biggest gains so far have been in getting some <a href="https://amchainitiative.org/academic-associations-endorsing-academic-boycott-of-israel">academic groups</a> and <a href="https://bdsmovement.net/news/us-churches-advance-effective-solidarity-palestinian-freedom-justice-and-equalit">churches</a> to support its boycott.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A protestor in the foreground holds up a sign that reads 'no pride in apartheid' while others carry signs such as free Palestine during a protest outside the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv, Israel" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413354/original/file-20210727-12-1y6i01i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413354/original/file-20210727-12-1y6i01i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413354/original/file-20210727-12-1y6i01i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413354/original/file-20210727-12-1y6i01i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413354/original/file-20210727-12-1y6i01i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413354/original/file-20210727-12-1y6i01i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413354/original/file-20210727-12-1y6i01i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The BDS movement says it was inspired by the anti-apartheid protests against South Africa in the 1980s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IsraelEurovisionSongContest/81537dbadab24fa19466b3f3e82a314d/photo?Query=boycott,%20divestment%20and%20sanctions&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=39&currentItemNo=7">AP Photo/Oded Balilty</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Minimal impact on Israel</h2>
<p>But the BDS movement appears to have <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/israel/gdp">had little impact</a> on Israel’s economy or its diplomatic standing. </p>
<p>One reason for this is that Israel <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/162679">has faced boycotts</a> since before it even became a state in 1948. As a result, its <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2018/01/26/how-much-does-bds-threaten-israels-economy/">economy has become adept</a> at producing high-quality, cutting-edge and specialized products for export, making boycotts less effective because trade partners can’t easily substitute goods from other countries. </p>
<p>Israel has also successfully lobbied some countries and lawmakers to condemn boycotts against it. In 2019, for example, the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-bds-israel/germany-designates-bds-israel-boycott-movement-as-anti-semitic-idUSKCN1SN204">German Parliament designated the BDS movement as antisemitic</a>. And U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has said it <a href="https://eurojewcong.org/news/communities-news/united-kingdom/queens-speech-includes-measures-to-stop-council-boycotts/">plans to pass a measure to curb boycotts against Israel</a>.</p>
<p>In the U.S., some are boycotting the boycotters. <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/anti-bds-legislation/">Thirty-five states have passed anti-BDS laws, executive orders and resolutions</a> since 2005. These typically limit state authorities from doing business with anyone who is actively boycotting Israel and prevent state pension funds from investing in BDS-linked companies. Officials in Florida and Texas <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/florida-texas-threaten-ben-jerrys-032000298.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAJmB4NRzk29KpIYOonj7Zp3jViWAnlZmeoxFxWakSonqEcrzfDE7SiGZj5-Z8JjMxu4g7mHuHBIZ033PtvQv0FbtSjMpeEEbyjmOPuu8bG0SRR7osua-qsCMqHsKdT5sDf427bfMXBjNTj0N-8xoqwj1EBE_UFt4vKf1fNuAFldJ">have already threatened</a> to add Unilever, Ben & Jerry’s parent company, to a blacklist of businesses that are ineligible for investments. </p>
<p>One of the main reasons why the anti-apartheid movement succeeded in isolating South Africa in the 1980s is that it convinced major companies, such as <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-09-18-mn-11241-story.html">Coca-Cola</a>, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/c0d9a736cc6fbd382d00adfaf7d82895">Pepsi-Co</a>, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/7b9a662a5728d811aa5bbc8c19c224a1">Reebok</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/25/world/ford-completes-divestment-in-south-africa.html">Ford</a>, to stop doing business with the country. </p>
<p>While French telecom group Orange <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-orange-partner-comm/israels-partner-comms-to-terminate-orange-brand-license-agreement-idUSKBN0UJ1GB20160105">ended its licensing agreement</a> with an Israeli company in 2016, few other big companies have embraced the movement. In 2018, Airbnb said it would remove the listings of properties in Israeli settlements, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/09/world/middleeast/airbnb-israel-west-bank.html">but reversed itself a few months later</a> after a flurry of anti-discrimination lawsuits were filed against it.</p>
<p>But despite the lack of substantive economic or diplomatic impact, I believe it would be a mistake to label the BDS movement as a failure. Rather, Ben & Jerry’s decision hints at a watershed moment in the BDS campaign. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="remove a cloth that was covering a cardboard cutout of a new ice cream flavor, Justice ReMix'd, in a cup" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413622/original/file-20210728-17-fq78q4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413622/original/file-20210728-17-fq78q4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413622/original/file-20210728-17-fq78q4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413622/original/file-20210728-17-fq78q4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413622/original/file-20210728-17-fq78q4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413622/original/file-20210728-17-fq78q4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413622/original/file-20210728-17-fq78q4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield have been outspoken in their support for some social causes and often turn them into ice creams. Here they unveil Justice ReMix’d, which contains cinnamon and chocolate Ice cream with ‘gobs of cinnamon bun dough and spicy fudge brownies.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/BenJerrysJusticeRemixdFlavorHighlightsCriminalJusticeReform/479aa06025bb428497385eb95f302378/photo?Query=ben%20&%20jerry%27s=&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=142&currentItemNo=26">Eric Kayne/AP Images for Ben & Jerry's</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Shifting views of Israel</h2>
<p>The company, <a href="https://www.benjerry.com/about-us#1timeline">founded by Jewish friends</a> Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield in 1978, <a href="https://www.benjerry.com/values/issues-we-care-about">has long embraced a liberal social mission</a> – which it frequently <a href="https://psmag.com/news/the-history-of-ben-jerrys-progressive-politics">expresses through its ice cream flavors</a>, such as <a href="https://www.benjerry.com/whats-new/2018/02/social-mission-flavors">Save Our Swirled</a> and <a href="https://www.benjerry.com/flavors/justice-remixd-ice-cream">Justice ReMix’d</a>. Even after Unilever bought the company in 2000, Ben & Jerry’s <a href="https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/ben-jerrys-got-bought-without-selling/">remained independent</a> in pursuing its progressive values. </p>
<p>In its <a href="https://www.benjerry.com/about-us/media-center/palestine-statement">statement announcing the shift</a>, Ben & Jerry’s said selling ice cream in the West Bank and Gaza “is inconsistent with our values.” Cohen and Greenfield <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/28/opinion/ben-and-jerry-israel.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage">defended the company’s decision</a> in an op-ed in The New York Times on July 28, 2021. </p>
<p>While I don’t doubt the company’s values were behind the decision, I also believe something else was at work: Israel is losing the battle for public opinion.</p>
<p><a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/350393/key-trends-views-israel-palestinians.aspx">Israel currently has a net favorability</a> of just 3% among Democrats and voters who lean Democratic, down from 31% in the early 2000s. Among liberal Democrats, Israel has a net unfavorability of 15%, as more of these voters express support for Palestinians. The trend is especially strong with younger Americans, who are much less supportive than their older counterparts. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://criticalissues.umd.edu/sites/criticalissues.umd.edu/files/UMCIP%20Middle%20East%20Questionnaire.pdf">separate 2019 poll</a> found that, although most Americans had never heard about the BDS movement, 48% of Democrats who were familiar with it said they support it. And almost three-quarters of all respondents of that survey said they opposed laws that punish people for engaging in a boycott.</p>
<p>During the anti-apartheid fight, big companies didn’t join the movement until <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/08/protest-divestment-south-africa.asp">public opinion</a> began to seriously shift in response to vibrant grassroots activism, typically led by college students.</p>
<p>Ben & Jerry’s has faced a <a href="https://vtjp.org/boycott-ben-jerrys/">similar campaign</a> from pro-Palestinian activists for years. The <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-44124396">fighting in Gaza in May 2021</a> that left <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/gaza-strip-escalation-hostilities-10-21-may-2021">253 Palestinians and 12 Israelis dead</a> seems to have accelerated the pressure as <a href="https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/boycott-israel-no-ben-and-jerrys-is-boycotting-social-media-671245">social media activists bombarded</a> the company with demands to boycott Israel. This prompted a 20-day silence by Ben & Jerry’s on social media, followed by the new policy just a few weeks later. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A blast of smoke and debris rises from a building that was just hit by an Israeli missile strike in a densely populated area of Gaza City" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413352/original/file-20210727-13-1r7sc1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413352/original/file-20210727-13-1r7sc1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413352/original/file-20210727-13-1r7sc1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413352/original/file-20210727-13-1r7sc1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413352/original/file-20210727-13-1r7sc1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413352/original/file-20210727-13-1r7sc1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413352/original/file-20210727-13-1r7sc1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Israel airstrikes demolished many buildings like this one in Gaza City during its fight with Hamas in May. The conflict may have been a factor in Ben & Jerry’s decision.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IsraelGazaWarCrimes/9cb16eada82f45a5aa0d6cdc23ccbfb8/photo?Query=gaza%20AND%20may&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=4320&currentItemNo=2">AP Photo/Hatem Moussa</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Shared values</h2>
<p>In other words, public sentiment among a group of U.S. voters – including many American Jews – who <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/07/29/will-divisions-over-israel-fracture-democratic-party/">used to be stalwart supporters of Israel</a> has shifted, and they are increasingly turning their backs on the Jewish state. </p>
<p>For instance, while most Americans <a href="https://www.thechicagocouncil.org/commentary-and-analysis/blogs/americans-favor-two-state-solution-more-israelis-and-palestinians-do">support a two-state solution</a> that separates Israel from the Palestinian territories it occupies, the <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2021/05/14/this-is-what-the-death-of-the-two-state-solution-looks-like/">Israeli government</a> and <a href="https://www.btselem.org/press_releases/2021413_new_all_population_israeli_palestinian_survey">its citizens</a> increasingly <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/01/11/what-do-israelis-think-about-settlements-turns-out-age-matters">do not distinguish</a> between Israel and the territories it has occupied since 1967. </p>
<p>The rhetoric of Israeli politicians condemning companies like Ben & Jerry’s that join the boycott of settlements – such as calling it a <a href="https://twitter.com/yairlapid/status/1417169814867484676">form of antisemitism</a> or <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/citing-ben-jerrys-snub-herzog-says-israel-boycotts-a-new-kind-of-terrorism/">equating it with terrorism</a> – makes the problem worse. In my own research, I found that <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Israels-Securitization-Dilemma-BDS-and-the-Battle-for-the-Legitimacy/Olesker/p/book/9780367551674">it validates and perpetuates</a> the illiberal image of Israel that the BDS movement paints. </p>
<p>In an <a href="https://hbr.org/2021/01/why-ben-jerrys-speaks-out">interview in January</a>, Christopher Miller, Ben & Jerry’s head of global activism strategy, said the “strongest bond you can create with customers is around a shared set of values.”</p>
<p>That’s why I believe Ben & Jerry’s is likely to stay the course – and why more American companies will follow suit. </p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ronnie Olesker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ben & Jerry’s decision to no longer sell ice cream in the occupied territories comes as Israel continues to lose the support of a group of Americans who once were stalwart allies.Ronnie Olesker, Associate Professor of Government, St. Lawrence UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1611652021-06-24T12:10:04Z2021-06-24T12:10:04ZHow palm oil became the world’s most hated, most used fat source<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407563/original/file-20210622-15-jq0ku3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C2991%2C1985&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Oil palm fruit in North Aceh, Indonesia.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/workers-drops-the-palm-fruit-from-their-pandanus-before-news-photo/867112046">Fachrul Reza / Barcroft Media via Getty Images </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Palm oil is everywhere today: in food, soap, lipstick, even newspaper ink. It’s been called the world’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/543306a">most hated crop</a> because of its association with <a href="https://phys.org/news/2019-09-palm-oil-indonesia-raging-forest.html">deforestation in Southeast Asia</a>. But despite <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/mar/10/people-businesses-boycotting-palm-oil-sustainability">boycott campaigns</a>, the world uses more palm oil than any other vegetable oil – <a href="https://ipad.fas.usda.gov/cropexplorer/cropview/commodityView.aspx?cropid=4243000&sel_year=2020&rankby=Production">over 73 million tons in 2020</a>.</p>
<p>That’s because palm oil is cheap. The plant that makes it, the <a href="https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/20295">African oil palm</a>, can produce up to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2008.09.009">10 times more oil per hectare than soybeans</a>.</p>
<p>But as my <a href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9781469662893/oil-palm/">book on palm oil’s history</a> shows, this controversial commodity hasn’t always been cheap. It became that way thanks to legacies of colonialism and exploitation that still shape today’s industry and that make it challenging to shift palm oil onto a more sustainable path.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vvKgnRPThKI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Palm oil and its derivatives are ubiquitous in consumer products but can appear under hundreds of names, such as glyceryl and sodium lauryl sulfate.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>From slavery to skin care</h2>
<p>Palm oil has long been a staple food in a region stretching from Senegal to Angola along Africa’s western coast. It entered the global economy in the 1500s aboard ships engaged in the <a href="https://slavevoyages.org/voyage/about#methodology/introduction/0/en/">transatlantic slave trade</a>. </p>
<p>During the deadly “middle passage” across the Atlantic, palm oil was a valued food that kept captives alive. As the author of a 1711 book noted, traders also smeared captives’ skin with palm oil to make them “<a href="https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/109229#page/142/mode/1up">look smooth, sleek, and young</a>” before sending them to the auction block.</p>
<p>By the mid-1600s, Europeans were rubbing palm oil on their own skin, too. European writers, learning from African medicinal practices, claimed that palm oil “<a href="https://archive.org/details/trueexacthistory00ligo_0/page/50/mode/2up?q=does+the+greateft+cures+upon+fuch">does the greatest cures upon such, as have bruises or strains on their bodies</a>.” By the 1790s, British entrepreneurs were <a href="https://hcommons.org/deposits/objects/hc:24958/datastreams/CONTENT/content">adding palm oil to soap</a> for its reddish-orange color and violetlike scent. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407566/original/file-20210622-23-1ghnxrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Cakes of Sunlight Soap with vintage wrapper." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407566/original/file-20210622-23-1ghnxrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407566/original/file-20210622-23-1ghnxrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407566/original/file-20210622-23-1ghnxrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407566/original/file-20210622-23-1ghnxrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407566/original/file-20210622-23-1ghnxrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407566/original/file-20210622-23-1ghnxrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407566/original/file-20210622-23-1ghnxrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lever’s Sunlight Soap, introduced in the 1880s, got its tint from palm oil.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/cake-of-sunlight-soap-with-packet-sunlight-soap-was-news-photo/90743248">SSPL vis Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807, traders sought out legal products. In the following decades Britain slashed tariffs on palm oil and encouraged African states to focus on producing it. By 1840, palm oil was cheap enough to completely replace tallow or whale oil in such products as soap and candles.</p>
<p>As palm oil became increasingly common, it lost its reputation as a luxurious good. Exporters made it even cheaper with labor-saving methods that allowed palm fruit to ferment and soften, though the results were rancid. European buyers, in turn, applied new chemical processes to strip away foul odors and colors. The result was a bland substance that could be freely substituted for more expensive fats and oils.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407768/original/file-20210622-14-s8cbv3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Sketch of men pounding oil palm fruit with sticks" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407768/original/file-20210622-14-s8cbv3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407768/original/file-20210622-14-s8cbv3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407768/original/file-20210622-14-s8cbv3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407768/original/file-20210622-14-s8cbv3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407768/original/file-20210622-14-s8cbv3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407768/original/file-20210622-14-s8cbv3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407768/original/file-20210622-14-s8cbv3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘The Production of Palm Oil,’ by Édouard Auguste Nousveaux, 1844.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/dp/original/DP809147.jpg">Metropolitan Museum of Art</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Palm oil colonialism</h2>
<p>By 1900, a new industry was gobbling up all kinds of oils: <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/margarine#ref206629">Margarine</a> was invented in 1869 by the French chemist Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès as a cheap alternative to butter. It soon became a mainstay of working-class diets in Europe and North America. </p>
<p>Palm oil was first used to <a href="https://niche-canada.org/2021/03/24/hard-butter-times-in-canada-what-buttergate-reveals-about-environmental-and-food-history/#_ftnref4">dye margarine yellow</a>, but it turned out to be a perfect main ingredient because it stayed firm at room temperature and melted in the mouth, just like butter.</p>
<p>Margarine and soap magnates like Britain’s <a href="https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/lady-lever-art-gallery/story-of-lever">William Lever</a> looked to Europe’s colonies in Africa for larger quantities of fresher, edible palm oil. However, African communities often refused to provide land for foreign companies because making oil by hand was still profitable for them. Colonial oil producers resorted to <a href="https://dial.uclouvain.be/pr/boreal/object/boreal:179705">government coercion and outright violence</a> to find labor.</p>
<p>They had more success in Southeast Asia, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022463420000697">where they created a new oil palm plantation industry</a>. Colonial rulers there gave plantation companies nearly unlimited access to land. The companies hired “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=UTQTEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=women+coolie+history&ots=o-dqj6wmSN&sig=qcIq6QlBVx-M82xGv1kdq4eISIc#v=onepage&q=women%20coolie%20history&f=false">coolies</a>” – a derogatory European term for migrant workers from southern India, Indonesia and China, based on the Hindi word Kuli, an aboriginal tribal name, or the Tamil word kuli, for “wages.” These laborers toiled under coercive, low-paying contracts and discriminatory laws. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404095/original/file-20210602-25-18s00qb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two men with a large bunch of palm fruit suspended from a pole." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404095/original/file-20210602-25-18s00qb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404095/original/file-20210602-25-18s00qb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=836&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404095/original/file-20210602-25-18s00qb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=836&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404095/original/file-20210602-25-18s00qb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=836&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404095/original/file-20210602-25-18s00qb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1051&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404095/original/file-20210602-25-18s00qb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1051&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404095/original/file-20210602-25-18s00qb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1051&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Two workers carry a large bunch of oil palm fruit on a Sumatran plantation around 1922.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://digitalcollections.universiteitleiden.nl/view/item/923366">J.W. Meijster, Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The oil palm itself also adapted to its new locale. While scattered palms grew to towering heights on African farms, in Asia they remained short in tight, orderly plantations that were easier to harvest efficiently. By 1940, plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia were exporting more palm oil than all of Africa.</p>
<h2>A golden gift?</h2>
<p>When Indonesia and Malaysia gained independence after World War II, plantation companies retained their access to cheap land. Indonesian authorities dubbed palm oil from their fast-growing plantation industry a “<a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Palm_Oil_a_Golden_Gift_from_Indonesia_to.html?id=uRe5MwEACAAJ">golden gift to the world</a>.” </p>
<p>Palm oil consumption grew as competitors dropped away: first whale oil in the 1960s, then <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-crisco-toppled-lard-and-made-americans-believers-in-industrial-food-127158">fats like tallow and lard</a>. In the 1970s and 1980s, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10408399209527562">health concerns about tropical oils</a> such as coconut and palm undercut demand in Europe and North America. But developing countries snapped up palm oil for <a href="https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:zc839jm3057/Gaskell_Dissertation-augmented.pdf">frying and baking</a>.</p>
<p>Plantations expanded to meet the demand. They kept costs down by recruiting <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8373.2012.01496.x">poorly paid and often undocumented migrant workers</a> from Indonesia, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Nepal, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68944-5_9">reproducing some of the abusive practices of the colonial era</a>.</p>
<p>In the 1990s, U.S. and EU regulators moved to <a href="https://nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/fear-frying/">ban unhealthy trans fat</a>, a type of fat found in partially hydrogenated oils, from foods. Manufacturers turned to palm oil as a cheap and effective substitute. From 2000 through 2020, EU palm oil imports more than doubled, while U.S. imports shot up almost tenfold. Many consumers <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/food-drink/bs-fo-berger-cookies-trans-fat-20171120-story.html">didn’t even notice the switch</a>. </p>
<p>Because palm oil was so inexpensive, manufacturers found new uses for it, such as replacing petroleum-based chemicals in soaps and cosmetics. It also became a <a href="https://chinadialogue.net/en/energy/11957-as-palm-oil-for-biofuel-rises-in-southeast-asia-tropical-ecosystems-shrink/">biodiesel feedstock in Asia</a>, although research suggests that making biodiesel from palms grown on newly cleared land <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14852-6">increases greenhouse gas emissions</a> instead of reducing them. </p>
<p>The EU is <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/malaysia-palmoil-wto-idUSL2N2NI071">phasing out palm oil biofuels</a> because of concerns over deforestation. Undeterred, Indonesia is working to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-climate-biodiesel/analysis-indonesias-palm-oil-powered-green-diesel-fuels-threat-to-forests-idUSKBN2A4030">increase the palm component</a> in its biodiesel, which it markets as “<a href="https://pertamina.com/en/news-room/news-release/success-with-d-100-pertamina-is-ready-to-produce-green-energy">Green Diesel</a>,” and to develop other palm-based biofuels.</p>
<p><iframe id="aCG5A" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/aCG5A/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Boycott or reform?</h2>
<p>Today there are enough oil palm plantations worldwide to cover an area <a href="https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/13/1211/2021/">larger than the state of Kansas</a>, and the industry is still growing. It is concentrated in Asia, but plantations are spreading in Africa and Latin America. A 2019 investigation of one company in the Democratic Republic of Congo found <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/11/25/dr-congo-development-banks-linked-palm-oil-abuses">dangerous conditions and abusive labor practices</a> that echoed colonial-era palm oil projects. </p>
<p>Endangered animals have received more press. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, tropical forest clearing for oil palm plantations <a href="https://www.iucn.org/resources/issues-briefs/palm-oil-and-biodiversity">threatens nearly 200 at-risk species</a>, including orangutans, tigers and African forest elephants.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1398226039952875522"}"></div></p>
<p>However, the <a href="https://www.iucn.org/resources/issues-briefs/palm-oil-and-biodiversity">IUCN</a> and many <a href="https://international.nwf.org/deforestation/palm-oil/">other advocates</a> argue that shifting away from palm oil <a href="https://theconversation.com/palm-oil-boycott-could-actually-increase-deforestation-sustainable-products-are-the-solution-106733">is not the answer</a>. Since oil palm is so productive, they contend, switching to other oil crops could cause even more harm because it would require more land to cultivate substitutes.</p>
<p>There are more just and sustainable ways to make palm oil. Studies show that small-scale agroforestry techniques, like those historically practiced in <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23209182">Africa and among Afro-descendant communities in South America</a>, offer cost-effective ways to produce palm oil while <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2019.00122">protecting the environment</a>. </p>
<p>The question is whether enough consumers care. Over 20% of palm oil produced in 2020 received certification from the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil, a nonprofit that includes oil palm producers and processors, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, banks and advocacy groups. But barely half of it found buyers <a href="https://rspo.org/impact">willing to pay a premium for sustainability</a>. Until this changes, vulnerable communities and ecosystems will continue to bear the costs of cheap palm oil.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161165/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan E. Robins received funding for this research from a joint American Philosophical Society-British Academy grant, the Hagley Museum and Library, the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute, and the Michigan Technological University Research Excellence Fund.</span></em></p>Palm oil is responsible for widespread deforestation and labor abuses, but it’s also cheap and incredibly useful. That’s why many advocates call for reforming the industry, not replacing it.Jonathan E. Robins, Associate Professor of Global History, Michigan Technological UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1403132020-07-10T12:22:17Z2020-07-10T12:22:17ZHow one woman pulled off the first consumer boycott – and helped inspire the British to abolish slavery<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345871/original/file-20200706-4008-13wey8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An illustration of a sugar plantation in Antigua.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_plantations_in_the_Caribbean#/media/File:The_Mill_Yard_-_Ten_Views_in_the_Island_of_Antigua_(1823),_plate_V_-_BL.jpg">The British Library</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>While many companies have <a href="https://www.cnet.com/how-to/companies-donating-black-lives-matter/">trumpeted their support for the Black Lives Matter movement</a>, others are beginning to face consumer pressure for <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/07/07/magazine/why-words-arent-enough-companies-claiming-support-black-lives-matter/">not appearing to do enough</a>.</p>
<p>For example, some people are advocating a consumer boycott of Starbucks over an <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/boycott-starbucks-coffee-giant-slammed-for-banning-black-lives-matter-gear-2020-06-11">internal memo that prohibits employees</a> from wearing gear that refers to the movement. And advocates are urging supporters to <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/06/18/boycotts-people-plan-stop-spending-stores-dont-support-blm/3208170001/">target other companies</a> under the Twitter tag <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23boycott4blacklives&src=typed_query">#boycott4blacklives</a>.</p>
<p>Consumers boycotts, which put power into the hands of people of even modest income and can lend a sense of “doing something” in the face of injustice, have a mixed track record. There have been some notable successes, such as <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/consumer-boycott">consumer-led efforts to end apartheid in South Africa</a>. But others, such as boycotts of the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/27/business/nra-boycotts.html">National Rifle Association</a> and <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2018/01/26/how-much-does-bds-threaten-israels-economy/">of Israel</a>, have yielded little.</p>
<p>But it may hearten Black Lives Matter consumer activists to learn that the first-ever boycott – organized <a href="https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/irish-invented-boycott">over 50 years before the term</a> was even coined – was ultimately a success, if not in the way the woman behind it intended. <a href="http://www.tomzoellner.com/">I stumbled upon</a> this history during research for my just-published book <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674984301&content=bios">about the end of slavery</a> in the British Caribbean.</p>
<h2>Blood sugar</h2>
<p>In the 1820s, <a href="http://www.quakersintheworld.org/quakers-in-action/146/Elizabeth-Heyrick-">Elizabeth Heyrick</a> felt disgust over Britain’s enslavement of people on islands such as Barbados and Jamaica in the West Indies, where large sugar plantations <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zjyqtfr/revision/2">produced virtually all</a> the sugar consumed in Western Europe. </p>
<p>Although England banned the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-slavery/chronology-who-banned-slavery-when-idUSL1561464920070322">British Atlantic slave trade in 1807</a>, it still permitted people to own slaves in its colonies in the early 19th century. </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Heyrick joined the <a href="https://blog.bham.ac.uk/legalherstory/2018/03/15/elizabeth-heyrick-and-the-birmingham-ladies-society-for-the-relief-of-negro-slaves/">abolition movement</a> from a position of privilege and wealth. But after an early marriage to a hothead husband ended with his death in 1797, she <a href="https://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/english/research/womens-writing-in-the-midlands-1750-1850/elizabeth-heyrick">converted to Quakerism</a> and vowed to give up “all ungodly lusts.” She eventually found a passion for the antislavery movement, though with marked frustration for the slow-moving process of pushing bills through the English Parliament.</p>
<p>Contemptuous of the male abolitionists in Parliament whom she regarded as too willing to appease the wealthy slaveholders who clung to slavery as an economic pillar, Heyrick launched a campaign to get ordinary Britons to quit using the sugar produced on these islands and for grocers not to carry it.</p>
<p>If people must have the “sweet dust,” she said, they should <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-trafficking-and-slavery/not-made-by-slaves-ambivalent-origins-of-ethical-consumption/">at least make sure</a> it was grown in Britain’s colonies in the East Indies – Bengal and Malaya – where canefield laborers were impoverished but <a href="https://www.the-low-countries.com/article/new-research-guide-on-slavery-in-the-former-dutch-east-indies">at least technically free</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341853/original/file-20200615-65908-1rktgy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341853/original/file-20200615-65908-1rktgy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341853/original/file-20200615-65908-1rktgy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341853/original/file-20200615-65908-1rktgy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341853/original/file-20200615-65908-1rktgy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341853/original/file-20200615-65908-1rktgy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341853/original/file-20200615-65908-1rktgy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A printed illustration of sugar cane in Jamaica in the 1800s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/cutting-the-sugar-canes-sugar-culture-in-jamaica-engraving-news-photo/932206586?adppopup=true">Biblioteca Ambrosiana/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Her campaign involved writing a series of <a href="https://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/campaignforabolition/sources/antislavery/sugarboycott/sugboycott.html">booklet-sized polemics</a>. In one such broadside, she asked those who favored gradual emancipation to reflect “that greater victories have been achieved by the combined expression of individual opinion than by fleets and armies; that greater moral revolutions have been accomplished by the combined exertions of individual resolution than were ever effected by acts of Parliament.”</p>
<p>Heyrick <a href="https://www.inist.org/library/1824-00-00.Heyrick.Immediate%20not%20gradual%20abolition.pdf">pulled no rhetorical punches</a>: </p>
<p>“Let the produce of slave labor henceforth and for ever be regarded as ‘the accursed thing’ and refused admission to our houses,” she wrote. “Abstinence from one single article of luxury would annihilate the West Indian slavery!!”</p>
<p>Her focus on citizen-driven change through deliberate consumer activism was unpopular with her contemporaries who preferred negotiations among government officials to achieve their ends. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341855/original/file-20200615-65930-no18ev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341855/original/file-20200615-65930-no18ev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341855/original/file-20200615-65930-no18ev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341855/original/file-20200615-65930-no18ev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341855/original/file-20200615-65930-no18ev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341855/original/file-20200615-65930-no18ev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341855/original/file-20200615-65930-no18ev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341855/original/file-20200615-65930-no18ev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A poster advertised a chapel service in celebration of the abolition of slavery in 1838.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abolitionism_in_the_United_Kingdom#/media/File:Abolition_of_Slavery_The_Glorious_1st_of_August_1838.jpg">The National Library of Wales.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The Baptist War</h2>
<p>Heyrick grew despondent with the seeming lack of progress from her boycott effort and died in 1831 <a href="http://abolition.e2bn.org/people_31.html">without seeing her goal of “imminent emancipation” achieved</a>. Her passing was barely noticed by British newspapers, yet her efforts would come to bear astonishing results very soon after her death.</p>
<p>Heyrick could not have known that an enslaved Baptist deacon in Jamaica named Samuel Sharpe was – while she was pushing for a boycott – reading about the anti-slavery movement she did so much to fuel, almost certainly including the “Quit Sugar” movement.</p>
<p>Heartened by the news that many people in the faraway capital of the empire were actually sympathetic to him and his fellows, he began to formulate his own <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/baptist-war-1831-1832/">revolutionary vision</a> and preached about it and his plans for rebellion to select groups of elite slaves.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674984301">Sharpe’s rebellion</a>, known as the <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/baptist-war-1831-1832/">Baptist War</a>, began on Dec. 27, 1831. The <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674984301">uprising lasted less than two weeks</a> and resulted in the destruction of dozens of buildings and killing of at least 500 slaves – both during the fighting and in reprisals. A giant pit had to be dug outside Jamaica’s Montego Bay to hold all the bodies. Sharpe was <a href="https://jis.gov.jm/information/heroes/samuel-sharpe/">hanged</a> a few months later. </p>
<p>But the mere demonstration of military competence – the rebels defeated the island militia in at least one head-to-head confrontation – made an impression like no other uprising had before and helped inspire the British Parliament to pass the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Slavery-Abolition-Act">Slavery Abolition Act of 1833</a>, which abolished slavery in the West Indies. <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/legislativescrutiny/parliament-and-empire/parliament-and-the-american-colonies-before-1765/the-west-indian-colonies-and-emancipation/">Full freedom wasn’t achieved</a> until 1838.</p>
<p>The headlines of 19th century newspapers thus performed a double-function as they crossed the Atlantic. News of the sugar boycott helped inspired enslaved people to revolt, and news of their visceral unhappiness to the point of mayhem helped inspire the British Parliament to push for immediate abolition – which is what Heyrick had been saying all along.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140313/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Zoellner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar of slavery in the British Empire describes the first boycott against sugar made with slave labor in the West Indies.Tom Zoellner, Professor of English, Chapman UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1263262019-11-04T19:04:36Z2019-11-04T19:04:36ZScott Morrison wants to outlaw boycott campaigns. But the mining industry doesn’t need protection<p>On Friday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison vowed to craft new laws targeting social and political protest. Speaking to the Queensland Resources Council, he labelled some activist groups as environmental “anarchists”, <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/morrison-vows-to-take-action-against-environmental-anarchists-20191101-p536fk">and lamented</a> how businesses like banks might be sensitive to consumer or protest group pressure to limit dealings with the mining industry.</p>
<p>These laws could ban activists from advocating for certain boycotts against companies. Morrison lambasted progressives, saying they:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>want to tell you where to live, what job you can have, what you can say and what you can think – and tax you more for the privilege of all of those instructions.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Boycott laws already exist</h2>
<p>The first thing to note is there is no proposal on the table. Morrison merely warned his government was:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>working to identify mechanisms that can successfully outlaw these indulgent and selfish practices.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The existing law on boycotts has been driven by conservative governments. In the 1970s, the Fraser government sought to crack down on “secondary boycotts”, with stiff provisions in trade practices or competition law. Morrison also specifically invoked “secondary boycotts” in his speech.</p>
<p>A secondary boycott is simply pressure you put on someone you’re dealing with to have them “boycott”, or not deal with, another person or business. It’s considered secondary action because you have no particular beef with the person you are directly pressuring. The real target of your pressure is the “secondary” person or business down the chain.</p>
<p>It’s easy to imagine secondary boycotts most people would sympathise with. Going on strike to stop your employer dealing with overseas sweatshops, for instance. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1190905251521425409"}"></div></p>
<p>The chief concern of secondary boycott law has been with union power. The fear was that a strong union, in a key sector like the wharfies unloading ships, could wield disproportionate social power through secondary boycotts. </p>
<p>As a result, unionised workers are now confined to industrial action, such as going on strike, to improve conditions in an enterprise bargain at their workplace.</p>
<h2>Morrison wants to stop consumer pressure on banks</h2>
<p>The focus of laws against secondary boycotts has never been against consumer groups or movements involving non-employees. There’s an obvious and good reason for this.</p>
<p>Encouraging or organising consumers to put pressure on one company to limit its dealings with a secondary “target” company is a form of political communication and association. These are freedoms <a href="https://theconversation.com/bob-brown-wins-his-case-but-high-court-leaves-the-door-open-to-laws-targeting-protesters-85742">the High Court</a> has read into our constitution.</p>
<p>It might seem unfair to banks for consumers to organise boycotts against them to encourage a change in their business practices. The banks may see themselves as the meat in the sandwich, caught between activists and the mining industry.</p>
<hr>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cattle-prods-and-welfare-cuts-mounting-threats-to-extinction-rebellion-show-demands-are-being-heard-but-ignored-124990">Cattle prods and welfare cuts: mounting threats to Extinction Rebellion show demands are being heard, but ignored</a>
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<p>The Morrison government will not only try to sell this idea as a “get protesters” or “protect coal” initiative. He’ll also argue markets should be as free as possible and boycotts either distort competition or are an abuse of power. There are two problems with this.</p>
<h2>Companies don’t need more protection</h2>
<p>First, it’s a hard sell to pretend banks are the playthings of activist groups. Financial institutions look at mining investments across a range of risks, including their social brand and reputation.</p>
<p>Second, modern corporations, especially retail ones dealing with citizens every day, have long been aware of the social environment around business. They don’t trade in an economic bubble because economics has never been divorced from society. </p>
<p>Social media reinforces this reality by galvanising and magnifying consumer and activist sentiment.</p>
<p>Things would be different if activists could strong-arm one business to renege on an actual contract with another. It has long been against tort law (laws against “civil wrongs” like intimidation or tresspass) to leverage someone into breaking an agreement, without some justification.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1190166493947809794"}"></div></p>
<p>But if a bank reneges on an existing funding deal with a mining company, say because protesters were blockading the bank’s offices, the miners would hardly have to go after the protesters. </p>
<p>The bank would be liable for damages to the mining company director. And the bank would only buckle under such pressure after a thorough cost-benefit analysis to itself.</p>
<p>Morrison also appealed to “quiet shareholders” in his remarks. He implied they were the real meat in the sandwich when businesses did not pursue a singular vision of putting today’s profits above long-term social reputation.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-morrison-government-authoritarian-populist-with-a-punitive-bent-126032">Is the Morrison government 'authoritarian populist' with a punitive bent?</a>
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<p>The irony here is that even company law is not solely about economics, shorn from social reality. Shareholders are entitled to be <a href="https://www.afr.com/companies/financial-services/how-activists-pushed-cba-out-of-coal-in-five-years-20190925-p52upw">corporate activists, too</a>.</p>
<h2>Previous attempts at boycott legislation</h2>
<p>In any case, you can expect the government to sell any proposal to expand secondary boycott law as one to protect smaller businesses, not the banks or big miners. </p>
<p>Last year, it heralded a proposal to criminalise the incitement of protesters trespassing to protect family farms. The law that was passed this year extends to <a href="http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/num_act/ccapa2019451/sch1.html">all manner of primary production</a>, including large-scale abattoirs.</p>
<p>We have seen similar kites aloft before. In 2007, Treasurer Peter Costello vowed <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/costello-aims-to-make-protesters-pay-for-boycotts-20070223-gdpj7n.html">to crack down on</a> those who organised boycotts. He singled out animal welfare activist group PETA for encouraging a boycott of Australian wool in protest against the de-skinning of sheep.</p>
<p>In the end, Costello’s bill did not expand secondary boycott law. It just allowed the competition watchdog to take representative action on behalf of businesses affected by secondary boycotts. Labor waved it through.</p>
<p>This time, the stakes may be higher.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126326/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Graeme Orr has been an investigator on grants funded by the Australian Research Council to research the law of politics and labour law. He also undertakes consultancies for bodies like electoral commissions and integrity agencies, the Electoral Regulation Research Network and occasional pro bono assistance for community groups requiring assistance with the law of politics. </span></em></p>Laws on boycotts already exist, but their aim was never to target consumer groups.Graeme Orr, Professor of Law, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1153522019-04-16T10:45:52Z2019-04-16T10:45:52ZBrunei wants to punish gay sex with death by stoning – can boycotts stop it?<p>The sultan of Brunei has been on the throne for 52 years, making him the second-longest reigning monarch in the world, after Queen Elizabeth II. </p>
<p>In Brunei – a rather traditional, deeply Muslim Southeast Asian country – the sultan is known for leading a decadent life. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2011/07/prince-jefri-201107">Vanity Fair</a> once dubbed Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and his brother, Prince Jefri Bolkiah, “constant companions in hedonism.” They spend lavishly on luxury cars, yachts and real estate, and according to the magazine, “allegedly sent emissaries to comb the globe for the sexiest women they could find in order to create a harem the likes of which the world had never known.” </p>
<p>Now, Brunei’s sultan appears to have found religion. </p>
<p>He has implemented a harsh interpretation of Sharia – Islamic law – in his country, taking aim at LGBT people, women and even children with some of the world’s harshest penalties for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/03/world/asia/brunei-stoning-gay-sex.html?module=inline">homosexual conduct</a>. </p>
<p>Under Brunei’s new laws, gay sex and adultery can result in death by stoning, and having an abortion is punishable by public flogging. Dressing in clothing associated with a different sex may <a href="http://www.agc.gov.bn/AGC%20Images/LAWS/Gazette_PDF/2013/EN/S069.pdf">incur</a> a fine and imprisonment up to three months. Younger children can be <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/04/03/brunei-new-penal-code-imposes-maiming-stoning">whipped</a> for these offenses.</p>
<h2>Diversion from economic woes</h2>
<p>These laws represent serious breaches of international human rights law, my <a href="https://paulagerber.com/">field of academic expertise</a>. </p>
<p>Thirty-six countries – including the United States, United Kingdom, Argentina and Australia – recently <a href="https://international.gc.ca/world-monde/issues_development-enjeux_developpement/human_rights-droits_homme/2019-04-13-erc-cde.aspx?lang=eng">issued a joint statement</a> expressing “profound dismay” at Brunei’s penal code, which the United Nations has deemed “<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-47906070">cruel and unusual</a>.”</p>
<p>Why is Brunei’s sultan suddenly so keen to enforce Sharia across this island nation of 430,000?</p>
<p>One of the main reasons may be plunging global oil prices. For the first time, the oil-rich nation of Brunei is <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/d8e074fe-80e6-11e7-a4ce-15b2513cb3ff">grappling with economic crisis</a>. </p>
<p>Other countries have similarly <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/11/21/gambia-life-sentence-aggravated-homosexuality">whipped up hatred against LGBT people</a> to distract the public’s attention from economic crisis or corruption allegations. </p>
<p>The sultan may also be seeking to <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/09/asia/brunei-sultan-intl/index.html">rehabilitate his reputation</a> as a “party boy.” </p>
<p>“This is obviously not coming from a place of religious devotion, since the sultan himself is in violation of every single rule of Sharia you could possibly imagine,” religious scholar Reza Aslan <a href="https://nypost.com/2014/05/10/inside-the-wacky-sex-obsessed-world-of-brunei/">told the New York Post</a> in 2014, when the sultan first flagged his intention to impose strict Islamic law in Brunei.</p>
<p>Perhaps the Sultan thinks that implementing Sharia will enable him to leave a religious legacy that outweighs his decades of very public excess and indulgence.</p>
<h2>Do boycotts work?</h2>
<p>As a way of trying to get the Sultan to change his mind about imposing these harsh penalties within Brunei, many <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/video/george-clooney-leads-celebrity-boycott-of-brunei-linked-hotels-over-anti-lgbtq-laws/">celebrities</a> and gay rights advocates are calling for boycotts of the sultan’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/03/world/asia/brunei-hotel-boycotts.html">international hotels</a> and of <a href="https://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/global-travel-firm-boycotts-royal-brunei/news-story/ab92e4f28a66c1254f8fd077eee57143">Royal Brunei Airlines</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1113177461276082177"}"></div></p>
<p>But evidence suggests that boycotts are <a href="https://i-d.vice.com/en_au/article/kzdmvv/brunei-sultan-lgbt-boycott">not the most effective way to influence foreign governments</a>. </p>
<p>For one, they can cause the offending government to harden its position to show it will not give in to foreign pressure. That can make it harder to work collaboratively with leaders of that country to actually improve the situation.</p>
<p>That’s what happened in Uganda in 2014, when President Yoweri Museveni introduced some of the word’s toughest <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/24/uganda-president-signs-anti-gay-laws">anti-gay laws</a>.</p>
<p>“I advise friends from the West not to make this an issue, because if they make it an issue the more they will lose,” he said. “Outsiders cannot dictate to us. This is our country.”</p>
<p>This risk is compounded by the evident double standard of an international boycott of Brunei and the sultan’s businesses. Other countries that impose the <a href="https://ilga.org/downloads/ILGA_State_Sponsored_Homophobia_2019.pdf">death penalty</a> for same-sex sexual conduct – including Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia – are not subjected to similar global condemnation.</p>
<h2>Who can stop the sultan?</h2>
<p>The United Nations may stand a better chance of curbing Brunei’s behavior. </p>
<p>Brunei’s human rights record will be reviewed by the U.N.’s Human Rights Council next month, as part of a regular assessment called the Universal Periodic Review – a relatively new process <a href="https://www.ibanet.org/Human_Rights_Institute/HRI_Publications/SOGIESC-at-UPR.aspx">described by the International Bar Association</a> as “the most progressive arena for the protection of the LGBTI community internationally.” </p>
<p>Though the Universal Periodic Review has no power to enforce its recommendations, it has <a href="http://nyujilp.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/45.1-Saunders.pdf">shown some success</a> in advancing human rights in U.N. member countries. Its method is to foster dialogue with and between governments and civil society, create a plan for improving rights and closely monitoring progress.</p>
<p>Brunei’s allies and neighbors are also well placed to put pressure on the sultan. </p>
<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11558-016-9264-x">Research</a> has found that if a state is criticized by one of its strategic partners, it is more likely to accept that criticism than if it comes from a state with which it has fewer ties. </p>
<p>Brunei is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, a voluntary association of 53 sovereign states, most of them former British colonies. <a href="http://thecommonwealth.org/chogm">Its biannual Heads of Government Meeting</a>, set to take place in Rwanda next year, is a potential forum for meaningful dialogue about the state of LGBTQ rights across the Commonwealth of Nations, since Brunei is one of 35 Commonwealth countries that <a href="https://antigaylaws.org/commonwealth/">still criminalize consensual same-sex sexual conduct</a>. </p>
<p>If negotiations with Brunei are unsuccessful, the Commonwealth of Nations can take the powerful step of <a href="http://www.commonwealthofnations.org/commonwealth/commonwealth-membership/withdrawals-and-suspension/">suspending</a> its membership. That would prevent Brunei from participating in group meetings and events – including the popular <a href="https://thecgf.com/">Commonwealth Games</a>, which have been described as “sport with a social conscience.” </p>
<p>This step was previously taken in response to grave human rights violations committed by <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-suspended-commonwealth-member-fiji">Fiji</a>, Nigeria, Pakistan and Zimbabwe.</p>
<p>Over 100 LGBTQ and human rights groups from Southeast Asia have also <a href="https://www.queerlapis.com/statement-of-asean-civil-society-organizations-on-the-full-enforcement-of-sharia-law-in-brunei-darussalam/?fbclid=IwAR0gYog-OUYkrZStCzkd0BuAL6Iuxonqtbyl9PcYEULJqc_EkSfWb4z4dV0">called on</a> the Association of South East Asian Nations – ASEAN, a regional intergovernmental organization – to take a hard line against member state Brunei, saying its new laws “legitimize violence.” </p>
<p>But ASEAN’s <a href="https://asean.org/asean-human-rights-declaration/">non-binding 2012 declaration of human rights</a> – which does not explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and contains <a href="https://theconversation.com/asean-human-rights-declaration-a-step-forward-or-a-slide-backwards-10895">imprecise language</a> that significantly dilutes its power – seems unlikely to demand an institutional response. </p>
<h2>Does the sultan mean it?</h2>
<p>There is concern that Brunei’s imposition of hard-line Sharia will embolden its Muslim majority neighbors, Malaysia and Indonesia, to <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/08/asia/brunei-indonesia-malaysia-islam-intl/index.html">follow suit</a>. </p>
<p>Malaysia already applies Islamic law in some states. Last September, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/03/women-caned-in-malaysia-for-attempting-to-have-lesbian-sex">two women found guilty of attempting to have sex</a> were sentenced to be, and were, caned. </p>
<p>In nearby Indonesia, gay sex is legal in all but one province, but homophobia and transphobia are <a href="https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/anti-lgbt-hysteria-in-indonesia-delays-sexual-violence-bill/#gs.4gflb9">rising nationwide</a>, and recent <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-lgbt-insight/criminal-code-revamp-plan-sends-chill-through-indonesias-lgbt-community-idUSKBN1FT2IO">talk of criminalizing gay sex</a> has LGBTQ Indonesians worried. </p>
<p>Brunei, it’s important to note, has not actually used the death penalty since 1957. </p>
<p>An optimist could conclude that the new laws are mostly symbolic – designed to beef up the sultan’s Islamic credentials and garner favor with other Muslim countries to boost trade and tourism. </p>
<p>That interpretation, however, is unlikely to diminish the fear of the vulnerable minorities targeted by Brunei’s Sharia laws.</p>
<p><em>This article is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-boycotts-against-bruneis-new-anti-gay-laws-wont-be-effective-but-regional-pressure-might-115067">article</a> originally published on April 11, 2019 in The Conversation Australia.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115352/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paula Gerber is a Director of Kaleidoscope Human Rights Foundation, a not-for-profit organization working to advance the human rights of LGBTI people in the Asia Pacific region.</span></em></p>Brunei’s new anti-gay Sharia laws are the harshest in the world. Yet few countries have publicly condemned them, and an international boycott could backfire.Paula Gerber, Professor of Human Rights Law, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1013062018-08-13T22:19:40Z2018-08-13T22:19:40ZThe major trade implications of the Canada-Saudi Arabia spat<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231713/original/file-20180813-2918-11s42wp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In this 2015 photo, Ensaf Haidar, wife of the jailed Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi, shows a portrait of her husband in France. The arrest of Badawi's sister is at the heart of a diplomatic spat between Canada and Saudi Arabia that will significantly affect trade between the two countries. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Christian Lutz)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A diplomatic spat between two countries may seem only political at first, but the ongoing Canada-Saudi Arabia spat could have serious economic ramifications as well. </p>
<p>Over the years, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/twec.12392">international political economy research</a> has demonstrated that bilateral diplomacy has significant economic impacts, especially on bilateral flows such as trade and investment between countries.</p>
<p>Indeed, the influence of politics on international trade has gained acceptance in economics. An increasing <a href="http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/187119111x566751">number of studies</a> have found that diplomatic relationships between nations, taking the form of state visits, trade missions and the presence of vibrant consulates and embassies, are significant determinants of bilateral trade between countries. A <a href="http://pure.au.dk/portal/files/101924987/wp16_09.pdf">current study</a> in the <a href="https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/research-handbook-on-economic-diplomacy"><em>Research Handbook of Economic Diplomacy</em></a> found that bilateral diplomatic relations can even have a more pronounced influence on trade than economic integration between two countries.</p>
<p>Conversely, strained political relationships between states can also harm trade between them. Diplomatic tensions among nations increase the risk of trade disruption, mainly because trade must be more profitable than usual to compensate for the risks of disruptions and irritants in the political relationship. </p>
<p>For instance, in my recent study published in the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S017626801730616X"><em>European Journal of Political Economy</em></a> I estimated that imposing economic sanctions can reduce trade flow between the sender and its target by 17 to 32 per cent.</p>
<h2>The Danish cartoons & trade</h2>
<p>A specific example is the case of <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/30/AR2006013001316.html">the Muhammad cartoons in 2005-06</a>, when a Danish newspaper published cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad that were considered by some to be blasphemous or defamatory towards Muslims. This led to a call for consumer boycotts of Danish goods in a number of Islamic nations, including Saudi Arabia. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022199615001725">Empirical evidence</a> indicates the diplomatic spat disrupted Danish exports as much as 18 per cent.</p>
<p>Diplomatic relationships are relevant in minimizing potential risks that businesses encounter in their foreign operations. Various forms of risks —including political, legal and credit woes — may discourage potential exporters from entering foreign markets. </p>
<p>But those risks can be minimized if there are established diplomatic or political ties between countries. This is mainly because they will signal or give assurances to international firms that their governments are on good terms, and thus their interests will be respected.</p>
<h2>Canada & Saudi Arabia</h2>
<p>The diplomatic rift between Canada and Saudi Arabia was the apparent result of a single tweet from Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s global affairs minister, calling for the release of a human right activist.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1025030172624515072"}"></div></p>
<p>The tweet not only resulted into diplomatic brawl, but also the suspension of trade and investment ties between the two countries. This will also culminate in possible travel bans as the Saudi government plans to suspend international flights by the Saudi national airline from Riyadh and Jeddah to Toronto.</p>
<p>The consequences of these rising diplomatic tensions don’t just have political ramifications, such as the recall of ambassadors, but could have deleterious economic outcomes for both countries because of the hampering of trade between the two countries.</p>
<p>Trade volume between Canada and Saudi Arabia exceeded US$3 billion in 2017. The trend shows a steady increase in bilateral trade over the years, since 2002, as depicted in the figure below: </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231539/original/file-20180811-2912-1ve16j0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231539/original/file-20180811-2912-1ve16j0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231539/original/file-20180811-2912-1ve16j0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231539/original/file-20180811-2912-1ve16j0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231539/original/file-20180811-2912-1ve16j0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231539/original/file-20180811-2912-1ve16j0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231539/original/file-20180811-2912-1ve16j0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231539/original/file-20180811-2912-1ve16j0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">UN Comtrade data</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Consistently, the trade flow between them increased, even at the peak of the global financial crisis a decade ago. However, this consistent increase was derailed slightly by a minor diplomatic spat in 2008-09 following an ultimately unsuccessful attempt by Saudi Arabia <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/canadian-once-set-for-execution-freed-from-saudi-prison-1.1371554">to publicly behead a Canadian citizen.</a> The consequence was a dip in trade flows between both countries in 2009.</p>
<h2>What products will be affected?</h2>
<p>Specific products that may be adversely affected by this strained relationship are illustrated in the figure below, showing the values and the percentage of specific products that Canada exports to Saudi Arabia:</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231538/original/file-20180811-2906-1hsrdov.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231538/original/file-20180811-2906-1hsrdov.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231538/original/file-20180811-2906-1hsrdov.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231538/original/file-20180811-2906-1hsrdov.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231538/original/file-20180811-2906-1hsrdov.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231538/original/file-20180811-2906-1hsrdov.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231538/original/file-20180811-2906-1hsrdov.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231538/original/file-20180811-2906-1hsrdov.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">UN Comtrade data</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Vehicle and transport equipment account for the highest share of Canada’s export to the kingdom, totalling over US$500 million in 2017. Losing a market that accounts for half a billion dollars is significant, particularly because U.S. steel and aluminium tariffs are also negatively affecting this industry in Canada at the moment.</p>
<p>The Canadian agri-food sector could also be adversely affected if the diplomatic spat affects its exports. Agri-food exports from Canada to Saudi Arabia amounted to about US$93 million in 2017, and together they account for about nine per cent of Canada’s total exports to the Saudi kingdom. </p>
<p>Specifically, cereals, oil seeds and <a href="https://www.ic.gc.ca/app/scr/ic/sbms/cid/searchProductResults.html;jsessionid=00017mJnX39Ub_MkOe0ILgBSLaV:-O03?hs4startCode=1201&hs4endCode=1214&hs6Code=1201">oleaginous fruits</a> (fruits used to produce vegetable oils) together account for five per cent of total exports to Saudi Arabia. Already, the Saudis have indicated they will stop <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-fix-big-mistake-saudi-foreign-minister-1.4777438">purchasing Canadian wheat and barley</a>.</p>
<p>Canada has a trade deficit with Saudi Arabia, and the kingdom’s imports are dominated mostly by crude oil. Mineral fuels, mineral oils and products of their distillation; bituminous substances and mineral waxes account for 95 per cent of total imports from Saudi Arabia, totalling about US$1.9 billion in 2017. </p>
<p>Considering that crude oil is a hot commodity, the Saudis can easily find new buyers, even if Canada also decides to boycott Saudi’s oil in retaliation.</p>
<h2>Maintaining diplomatic ties is critical</h2>
<p>The trade-deteriorating effect of diplomatic tensions are real, even without explicit economic sanctions among states. What’s more, threats of trade boycotts by autocratic regimes can be carried out with much more ease than in democratic countries. </p>
<p>Saudi Arabia is an autocratic state, and its administration has a greater capacity and authority to enforce the boycotts, even over private businesses. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231701/original/file-20180813-2891-14xj4z7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231701/original/file-20180813-2891-14xj4z7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231701/original/file-20180813-2891-14xj4z7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231701/original/file-20180813-2891-14xj4z7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231701/original/file-20180813-2891-14xj4z7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231701/original/file-20180813-2891-14xj4z7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231701/original/file-20180813-2891-14xj4z7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protesters on Parliament Hill demonstrate against Saudi Arabia’s decision to behead Canadian Mohamed Kohail. He was freed in 2012.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tom Hanson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It will be therefore in the best interests of both countries to safeguard their good diplomatic relations. They should not allow a mere tweet to derail the cordial relationship that has existed between them for years. Strong diplomatic ties are undeniably important in order to deepen the bilateral economic and trade relationship between Canada and Saudi Arabia. </p>
<p>Western countries must understand that it is only possible to improve human rights conditions in despotic countries by maintaining diplomatic ties, otherwise the use of force and sanctions will <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12142-009-0126-2">curtail political and civil rights</a> and further <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03050629.2010.502436">deteriorate human rights and democratic freedom</a> of the civilian population.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101306/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sylvanus Kwaku Afesorgbor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The diplomatic spat between Canada and Saudi Arabia could have serious economic ramifications as well. When diplomatic ties are cut, research shows trade suffers significantly.Sylvanus Kwaku Afesorgbor, Assistant Professor, Agri-Food Trade and Policy, University of GuelphLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/957362018-05-04T10:49:12Z2018-05-04T10:49:12ZBoycott China and avoid a trade war<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217621/original/file-20180503-138586-1kwi1o7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">China hopes to make more microprocessor chips in China, which makes it a great industry to lead a boycott.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The U.S. and China are locked in negotiations both sides say they hope will avert a painful trade war. </p>
<p>The Trump administration has threatened to impose a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-22/what-s-intellectual-property-and-does-china-steal-it-quicktake">series of tariffs</a> unless China agrees to limit <a href="http://time.com/5230353/donald-trump-china-tariffs-100-billion-chinese-goods/">what he calls</a> “its illicit trade practices.” The Chinese government, for its part, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/30/business/china-trump-trade-talks.html">appears unwilling</a> to accede to his demands and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/apr/06/china-us-tariffs-trump-country-midterms">has offered some retaliatory trade sanctions</a> of its own. </p>
<p>The ostensible reason President Donald Trump is willing to risk a trade war is because <a href="https://www.cfr.org/interactives/campaign2016/donald-trump/on-china">he argues</a> – justifiably – that U.S. companies have been taken advantage of by their Chinese counterparts for decades, required to hand over lucrative intellectual property in exchange for access to China’s growing middle class. </p>
<p>Tariffs, however, aren’t the answer to that problem, as <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=x5dB33oAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">my research</a> in <a href="https://www.crcpress.com/The-Economics-of-International-Trade-and-the-Environment/Batabyal-Beladi/p/book/9781566705301">international economics</a> and the <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781351784696">design of international environmental agreements</a> shows. Rather, if Trump really wants to achieve his stated aims, he should put American businesses on the front lines of his strategy and call for a boycott of China. </p>
<h2>Doing business in China</h2>
<p>If that sounds preposterous, consider the origins of this escalating conflict. </p>
<p>Its seeds can be traced back to the opening up of the Chinese economy as a result of reforms introduced by <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-reforms-chronology-sb/timeline-china-milestones-since-1978-idUKTRE4B711V20081208">Deng Xiaoping in 1978</a> and the zeal of American – and more generally Western – companies in taking <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-western-companies-can-succeed-in-china-65291">full advantage</a> of new business opportunities in this gigantic market.</p>
<p>However, in many instances in the past four decades, the presence of mandatory technology transfer policies and foreign ownership restrictions have meant that market access has been granted only to Western firms <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-22/what-s-intellectual-property-and-does-china-steal-it-quicktake">willing to play ball</a>. In addition, there is now considerable evidence that Chinese businesses, often with the participation of government officials, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/opinion/china-us-intellectual-property-trump.html">have been conducting cyberattacks</a> on American companies to steal their intellectual property. </p>
<p>The Trump administration <a href="http://ipcommission.org/report/IP_Commission_Report_Update_2017.pdf">estimated</a> that this theft of American intellectual property costs US$225 billion to $600 billion annually.</p>
<p>And since companies are already on the front lines of this fight, with the most to lose, it makes sense that they’re the ones to lead the counter attack. </p>
<h2>A boycott by firms</h2>
<p>So how would a boycott work? Importantly, the U.S. couldn’t do it alone. </p>
<p>American companies, like everyone else, want to make money in the <a href="https://www.marketmechina.com/china-can-penetrate-billion-strong-market">one billion person</a> market that is China and hence it would not make sense for them to unilaterally withdraw. By doing so, they would be giving up valuable market share to their rivals. For example, if a top U.S. luxury car seller such as <a href="http://www.autonews.com/article/20180105/RETAIL01/180109836/cadillac-behind-china-nears-sales-peak">Cadillac</a> were to unilaterally boycott the Chinese market, then it would be giving up valuable market share to other rivals. </p>
<p>The key point is that many of those rivals are in Europe and <a href="http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2012/07/german-paper-china-steals-volkswagen-patents">have also been used and abused</a> by Chinese companies and hence have a similar interest in finding a way to prevent them from stealing any more of their intellectual property. </p>
<p>If all Western luxury car makers jointly boycotted China, then this would be equivalent to acting as if a Chinese market didn’t exist. Clearly, profits would take a hit in the short run, but the long-term objective of ensuring that Western companies do business on a level playing field would be met.</p>
<h2>Cars and chips</h2>
<p>Also, a boycott wouldn’t have to involve more than a few industries to be effective. Specifically, the focus would need to be on industries that China, through its <a href="https://www.cfr.org/blog/why-does-everyone-hate-made-china-2025">Made in China 2025 scheme</a>, would like to dominate. Two strong examples are cars and computer chips. </p>
<p>China has been trying to develop a domestic automobile industry since the early 1980s, an effort <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/43107062?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">that has largely failed</a>. But now, under the Made in China initiative, it is seeking to become a leader in electric vehicles. </p>
<p>However, it needs Western automakers to continue to <a href="https://arstechnica.com/cars/2017/11/ford-is-going-to-launch-a-new-brand-of-electric-cars-just-for-china">operate in China</a> and conduct research on battery technology and on electric vehicles in order to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-02-01/the-breakneck-rise-of-china-s-colossus-of-electric-car-batteries">achieve this goal</a>.</p>
<p>Thus if Western car companies and particularly those actively conducting research in battery technology jointly agreed to stop competing in China, that would send a strong message to Beijing. Either China could try to go it alone with no Western collaboration or it’ll have to realize that systematically strong-arming companies will not help it attain its goals. </p>
<p>A second example of an industry in which a Western boycott would be effective is microprocessor chips. This is because China <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-china-chips-exclusive/exclusive-china-looks-to-speed-up-chip-plans-as-u-s-trade-tensions-boil-sources-idUSKBN1HQ1QP">is still significantly dependent</a> on imports despite operating a few notable supercomputers that use solely home-made chips. <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-next-target-u-s-microchip-hegemony-1501168303">Almost 90 percent of chips</a> used in China are either imported or produced domestically by foreign companies, so a boycott would force the government to sit up and take notice. </p>
<p>For a boycott of this sort to work, it is important that American officials not attempt to go it alone, making it seem like a purely China versus U.S. spat. Successful boycotts follow a “strength in numbers” logic.</p>
<p>And this is where the Trump administration enters the fray. It could use its diplomatic muscle to enlist the governments of like-minded allies – particularly the European Union – to get their companies in key industries to join the American-led boycott. This could be part of a wider effort to credibly and collaboratively communicate to China that it needs to play fairly. As New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/01/opinion/america-china-trump-trade.html">recently noted</a>, the “last thing Beijing wants is a U.S.-E.U. united front demanding it play fair.” </p>
<p>Not only would this selective boycott make it harder for the Chinese government to achieve its <a href="http://english.gov.cn/2016special/madeinchina2025/">Made in China 2025 dreams</a>, it would also anger consumers, who are <a href="https://www.marketingtochina.com/5-reasons-chinese-like-buy-imported-brands/">increasingly hungry</a> for Western goods – something the leadership <a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/1878363/give-chinese-greater-access-foreign-consumer-goods">is well aware of</a>. </p>
<p>And in contrast to tariffs, such a campaign would likely have no adverse impact on American consumers. </p>
<p>One important caveat: This course of action, like imposing tariffs, would probably do little to reduce the threat of intellectual property theft by Chinese hackers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217601/original/file-20180503-153878-nvu6ku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217601/original/file-20180503-153878-nvu6ku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217601/original/file-20180503-153878-nvu6ku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217601/original/file-20180503-153878-nvu6ku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217601/original/file-20180503-153878-nvu6ku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217601/original/file-20180503-153878-nvu6ku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217601/original/file-20180503-153878-nvu6ku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Chinese government is hoping to make more high-tech products in China by 2025.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Ng Han Guan</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Would a boycott work?</h2>
<p>When we think of a boycott, we usually imagine consumers avoiding a particular product. Such boycotts have had <a href="http://www.ipr.northwestern.edu/about/news/2017/king-corporate-boycotts.html">varying levels of success</a>. </p>
<p>A corporate boycott of a nation is much less common. To the best of my knowledge, a corporate boycott of a nation along the lines suggested here has not been attempted before. Historically, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_boycotts">boycotts</a> against a nation have typically been designed to persuade consumers to not purchase products from a nation, such as the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/when-boycott-began-bite">anti-apartheid movement</a> or the more controversial <a href="https://bdsmovement.net/what-is-bds">boycott of Israel</a>. </p>
<p>What I am proposing is a country boycott by companies located in multiple nations and hence it is not possible to directly gauge the likelihood of success based on past actions</p>
<p>That being said, vigorous diplomacy by like-minded nations sharing a common objective has yielded positive outcomes in as diverse and difficult cases as the <a href="https://www.state.gov/e/oes/eqt/chemicalpollution/83007.htm">1987 Montreal protocol</a> to reduce ozone-depleting substances and the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-33521655">2015 Iran nuclear deal</a>. Similarly, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries cartel has demonstrated how businesses across nations can take joint action to achieve a common objective, with <a href="http://energyfuse.org/opecs-history-of-oil-market-management-its-complicated/">mixed success</a>.</p>
<p>Might China retaliate? Perhaps, but the costs would be high if the U.S. were to successfully organize a boycott involving companies in several dozen countries. More likely, it would find accommodation a much more palatable option in the face of a united front. </p>
<p>The recent tariffs aside, Western businesses and nations need to stop treating China with kid gloves, which I believe they have been doing for years. A boycott would be a good start – and wouldn’t risk a trade war.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95736/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amitrajeet A. Batabyal has received funding from the United States Department of Agriculture, the Giannini Foundation for Agricultural Economics and the Charles Koch Foundation.</span></em></p>If companies in key industries collectively shunned the Chinese market, that would force China’s leaders to take notice, with less risk of blowback.Amitrajeet A. Batabyal, Arthur J. Gosnell Professor of Economics, Rochester Institute of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/925132018-02-27T18:45:38Z2018-02-27T18:45:38ZWhy is the NRA boycott working so quickly?<p>The boycott of the National Rifle Association <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/22/politics/wayne-lapierre-cpac-speech-nra/index.html">following its response</a> to the <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/parkland-school-shooting-gun-control_us_5a9482a6e4b02cb368c4c52b">school shooting</a> in Parkland, Florida, came fast and furious.</p>
<p>Car rental companies, airlines, trucking businesses, tech firms, insurers and a bank that issued an NRA-branded credit card <a href="https://hellogiggles.com/news/nra-boycott-list-of-companies/">all severed their relationships</a> with the gun advocacy group within days of the shooting that left 17 dead. </p>
<p>Predictably, companies that cut ties – such as Atlanta-based Delta – faced their <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/02/25/nra-hits-back-cowardice-companies-cutting-ties-gun-lobby-backlash/">own backlash</a> from NRA loyalists. In particular, the lieutenant governor of Georgia (and candidate for governor) <a href="https://twitter.com/CaseyCagle/status/968199605803454465">threatened</a> to “kill any tax legislation that benefits @Delta unless the company changes its position and fully reinstates its relationship with @NRA.” </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"968199605803454465"}"></div></p>
<p>Once again, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-corporate-ceos-found-their-political-voice-83127">companies are finding themselves</a> caught in the middle of <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-did-che-guevara-become-ceo-the-roots-of-the-new-corporate-activism-64203">political conflicts</a> that they might have preferred to avoid.</p>
<p>There is nothing new about consumer boycotts – <a href="https://www.masshist.org/revolution/non_importation.php">Americans boycotted British goods</a> in response to the Stamp Act in the years before the Revolution. But as I’ve learned in <a href="https://hbr.org/product/changing-your-company-from-the-inside-out-a-guide-for-social-intrapreneurs/11057-HBK-ENG">my research on corporate activism</a>, two things are different now. First, businesses are being targeted not just for their own actions but for the company they keep – in this case, relationships with the wrong kinds of customers. Second, the speed of the response is unprecedented. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208146/original/file-20180227-36671-lh6q2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208146/original/file-20180227-36671-lh6q2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208146/original/file-20180227-36671-lh6q2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208146/original/file-20180227-36671-lh6q2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208146/original/file-20180227-36671-lh6q2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208146/original/file-20180227-36671-lh6q2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208146/original/file-20180227-36671-lh6q2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Delta found itself in a tricky situation after it said it would stop giving discounts to NRA members.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Markus Mainka/Shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Trouble in the supply chain</h2>
<p>Activists have targeted corporations for generations based on their business practices. </p>
<p>One of the most famous corporate boycotts <a href="https://www.nestle.com/ask-nestle/our-company/answers/nestle-boycott">was launched against Nestle</a> in 1977 because of the Swiss food giant’s marketing of infant formula in low-income countries – a practice which <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/feb/27/formula-milk-companies-target-poor-mothers-breastfeeding">arguably continues today</a>. The legendary boycott lasted seven years, until Nestle agreed to abide by global best practices. You can even read about it on the company’s own website. </p>
<p>In the 1990s, activists started to target companies not just for what went on within their own corporate boundaries but further back in the supply chain. When the labor practices of Nike’s contract suppliers <a href="http://archive.li/LbQ9Q">brought activist scrutiny</a>, according to a company official, the “initial attitude was, ‘Hey, we don’t own the factories. We don’t control what goes on there.’” </p>
<p>But the first of many boycotts against Nike was followed by <a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/portland/morning_call/2013/05/timeline-of-how-nikes-labor-practice.html">corporate efforts at reform</a>, and the company now has a history of holding suppliers to account and <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/inside-nikes-struggle-to-balance-cost-and-worker-safety-in-bangladesh-1398133855">cutting off those that don’t measure up</a>.</p>
<p>Today corporations like Nike take for granted that they will be held accountable for the actions of their suppliers and even for the <a href="https://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_responsibility_paradox">policies of governments of countries where they do business</a>. As <a href="https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/sulr/vol39/iss2/13/">corporations increasingly rely on contractors</a> for core parts of their business, they are held responsible by ethically minded consumers for actions further back in the supply chain – even the <a href="http://amj.aom.org/content/59/6/1896.abstract">provenance of the mineral tantalum</a> in their electronic devices like smartphones.</p>
<p>And today, 40 years after its first major boycott, Nestle knows better than to disclaim responsibility <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/feb/01/nestle-slavery-thailand-fighting-child-labour-lawsuit-ivory-coast">when activists uncovered slave labor</a> in their cat food supply chain. </p>
<h2>Know thy customers</h2>
<p>With the threatened anti-NRA boycott, corporate responsibility is extending in the other direction, to customers. Businesses can be held accountable not just for how their products are created but the character of the people or groups who use them. </p>
<p>Corporations <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/26/business/business-travel-the-big-get-the-best-of-the-corporate-discounts-at-hotels.html">routinely negotiate discounts</a> for groups such as AAA, AARP, alumni clubs and others. Now these routine business decisions will be subject to an additional level of scrutiny: What does who we serve say about us? </p>
<p>Still, the speed and comprehensiveness of the anti-NRA actions were startling.</p>
<p>Within two days of a <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/corporations-nra-f0d8074f2ca7/">target list</a> being posted on ThinkProgess, a number of major national corporations <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/car-rental-hotels-ditch-nra-following-boycott-818226">had dropped</a> the NRA as a “partner.” And the site keeps a running tally of companies cutting ties with the NRA. </p>
<p>Compared with the seven-year time scale of the Nestle boycott, or the <a href="http://reward0301.superfast-server47.loan/?utm_medium=NQ3aDvyuBCtafRQJPeFC66tm%2bMNW8T%2baflxP0d0AJGo%3d&t=main4">multiyear boycotts</a> of corporations operating in South Africa during the 1980s, this was something new. Social media previously enabled the <a href="https://medium.com/powering-progressive-movements/anpartner-case-study-womens-march-mobilizes-millions-worldwide-1077b5b2b9ed">rapid mobilization</a> of street protests, including the Arab Spring and the Women’s March on Washington. Now even the threat of mobilization on social media can lead companies to change quickly.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208157/original/file-20180227-36700-uncwiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208157/original/file-20180227-36700-uncwiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208157/original/file-20180227-36700-uncwiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208157/original/file-20180227-36700-uncwiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208157/original/file-20180227-36700-uncwiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208157/original/file-20180227-36700-uncwiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208157/original/file-20180227-36700-uncwiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">First National Bank in Omaha, Nebraska, said it will not renew its contract to issue the group’s NRA Visa card.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Nati Harnik</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>With us or against us</h2>
<p>Corporate action is increasingly transparent: Whether a company cuts or maintains ties with the NRA, the world will know it via social media. To <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qdvm6h8WKg">paraphrase George W. Bush</a>, either you’re with us or against us, and it takes only moments to find out which.</p>
<p>The NRA boycott demonstrates that in an age saturated in social media and political polarization, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/23/business/nra-boycott.html">politics will be inescapable for the corporate sector</a>. </p>
<p>Moreover, what counts as “political” is encompassing an ever greater group of activities, ranging from which websites a company’s ads pop up on to who its customers are. </p>
<p>In this new era, companies will be forced to choose their friends wisely.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92513/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jerry Davis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The lightning-quick corporate response to demands for a boycott against the NRA shows that companies can’t escape politics in an age saturated with social media.Jerry Davis, Professor of Management and Sociology, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/900592018-01-17T13:59:59Z2018-01-17T13:59:59ZWhy boycotting the Daily Mail is a complicated business<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202099/original/file-20180116-53324-mw75xr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">h</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Boycotts are nothing new. Businesses, countries and individuals have been ostracised as a means of protest for a long time. It was the 19th century shunning of land agent <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Cunningham-Boycott">Captain Charles Boycott</a> by his neighbours in Ireland which gave us the word. But in today’s highly connected world, boycotts can be organised much more quickly – and be much wider ranging in their targets. </p>
<p>Should we be worried about this? Or is it a sign of an emerging democratic process to bring about a better society? And what about the effects on businesses? Do boycotts fundamentally threaten their hold on consumer markets? </p>
<p>The essence of a boycott is to put collective action ahead of individual preference. You might think: “I prefer to buy my clothes from H&M, but I will forgo my personal benefit in support of a collective action against that company. I will shop somewhere else.”</p>
<p>This is the thought process (and follow up action) consumers go through for a boycott to become effective. But it is not always this straightforward. </p>
<p>For example, those advocating a boycott may have a certain ideological disposition. But if they do not actually consume the product to be boycotted, there will be no immediate loss to the seller. </p>
<p>How many individuals proposing a boycott of the Daily Mail newspaper actually ever pay to read it, and in turn expose themselves to the adverts companies place within its pages? We might suspect that Daily Mail boycotts are led by those on the left wing of politics. So the most likely answer is that the right wing Mail will not lose many readers, or its advertisers lose many potential customers. </p>
<p>Boycotts are more likely to succeed where they appeal to widely shared public concerns. For example, a boycott of SeaWorld by animal rights activists was credited with a 7% <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/04/seaworld-shares-sink-record-low-attendance-falling">fall in admissions to the attraction</a>. </p>
<p>Recent opinion against the Daily Mail has been mobilised, most notably through the group <a href="http://stopfundinghate.org.uk/">Stop Funding Hate</a>. This group seeks to reduce companies’ advertising spending in British newspapers which it alleges promote social division. Without advertising revenue, the theory goes, boycotted newspapers will be weakened as outlets for communicating messages which sow the seeds of divisions within society. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"950693035662245889"}"></div></p>
<p>But that highlights another problem for modern day boycotts in a social media dominated world. Many people actually <em>have</em> attitudes which others consider to be divisive. </p>
<p>In the echo chamber of the media we choose to consume, we tune into those news sources which confirm our existing beliefs and prejudices. We shut out those channels which challenge them. UK national newspapers have always appealed to groups based on their attitudes and values. Ask a British person to name their preferred newspaper, and you will already have a good idea of their attitudes and values. Millions of people choose to read the Daily Mail.</p>
<p>And despite the deep pockets of the Mail, it is unlikely that commercial interests will be completely subservient to political evangelising. Yes, the paper has political views, but it is also business savvy. Poor business weakens its political platform. </p>
<p>So the Mail’s chosen political position might appeal to a significant segment of consumers, and not to others. Along the way, it will inevitably lose some advertisers, with <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/lego-ends-advertising-daily-mail-stop-funding-hate-campaign-a7413361.html">Lego</a> and <a href="http://www.thedrum.com/news/2017/02/17/the-body-shop-ceases-advertising-with-daily-mail-owing-clash-editorial-stance">Body Shop</a> publicly severing ties. Virgin Trains announced it would no longer stock the paper, and then <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42687568">reversed the decision</a> a few days later.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"952820229377228801"}"></div></p>
<p>Some of these battles may have been based on good analysis of cost effectiveness, and nothing to do with political views. But an advertiser could gain added kudos on the way out if it cites the greater social good as the reason for pulling adverts. </p>
<h2>Preaching to the choir?</h2>
<p>In an intensely measured and monitored media world, this would seem to be a no-cost win for advertisers. But publicly pulling advertising can also harm advertisers. The retailer Paperchase thought it was doing the right thing by apologising for its dealings with the Mail, again citing differences in values between the company and the newspaper. Yet this was not a clear win for its brand equity. Some <a href="https://order-order.com/2017/11/20/paperchase-faces-backlash-bowing-anti-press-freedom-cranks/">prominent commentators responded</a> by proposing a boycott of Paperchase for caving in to pressure from an alleged small group of individuals, and thereby threatening free speech.</p>
<p>The American John Wanamaker, an early pioneer of marketing is believed to have once commented: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. The trouble is I don’t know which half.”</p>
<p>Today, in theory, consumer tracking technology has hugely increased companies’ abilities to assess the effectiveness of their media activity. But changing the attitudes of people who never buy from you and probably never will won’t make much difference to the bottom line. Appealing to core customers will. </p>
<p>While complex theoretical approaches may help to examine the direct and indirect consequences of boycotts, there will still be uncertainty. And a boycott may simply strengthen the resolve of those you are trying to shun.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90059/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adrian Palmer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Boycotts can bring backlashes – and back tracking.Adrian Palmer, Professor of Marketing, Keele UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/729272017-02-20T15:22:48Z2017-02-20T15:22:48ZHillsborough: Liverpool FC has got rid of The Sun but it cannot rid The Sun of Liverpool FC<p>A <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/feb/10/liverpool-ban-the-sun-newspaper-over-hillsborough-coverage">total ban</a> has been put on The Sun by Liverpool football club, 28 years after the city started a mass boycott of the newspaper for running a false story about supporters’ behaviour during the Hillsborough tragedy. It means that its sports reporters no longer have access to football games and training grounds. But the tabloid will still find ways of covering Liverpool FC. </p>
<p>The ban came after new inquests into the Hillsborough disaster in 2016 found that all 96 supporters were <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36138337">unlawfully killed</a>. The Sun had already been refused exclusive player and manager interviews for 28 years but following the inquests the Merseyside club also barred the paper from its Anfield stadium and Melwood training ground after being approached by the Total Eclipse of The Sun campaign group and following consultation with Hillsborough victims’ families. </p>
<p>In response, The Sun released a statement which read in part: “The Sun can reassure readers this won’t affect our full football coverage”. The newspaper can make this claim because sports journalists are no longer purely reliant on firsthand information to get their news and can easily locate alternative secondhand, mainly mediated sources in ways that were not possible in 1989. Far from ideal, certainly, but The Sun will see it as better than nothing. Clubs can deny access but they cannot control information flows in 2017.</p>
<p>As it stands, The Sun will still be able to cover Liverpool’s away games from other stadiums. The newspaper can still run live blogs, match reports and quote pieces from home matches because sports journalists will be able to access live TV feeds. The Sun is also a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jul/22/sky-sports-signs-deal-for-near-live-online-premier-league-highlights">co-holder</a> of the Rupert Murdoch-controlled rights to online highlights, shared with The Times and Sky Sports. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157307/original/image-20170217-10195-1iurynq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157307/original/image-20170217-10195-1iurynq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157307/original/image-20170217-10195-1iurynq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157307/original/image-20170217-10195-1iurynq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157307/original/image-20170217-10195-1iurynq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157307/original/image-20170217-10195-1iurynq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157307/original/image-20170217-10195-1iurynq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Sun boycott.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/36593372@N04/6932997707/in/photolist-byDqFe-6wR7kb-oranrv-9DXzFR-7aX2rT-7aX33a-7b1Q4o-7b1R8o-7aX2iB-nXEi8L-FGnUyN-7b1QQd-7aX2Y4-7aX1Lt-Gcigz8-bWR4fs-7aX1SX-7b1Qvh-Cq7tBQ-HkdYRa-Hke6CX-FgeyoS-HomFvu-ehH58a-ehNMco-b8PkrZ-b8PiN6-6wR2XN-6nc1SB-oHBBof-or8FxB-oHAMCL-da7a7D-b8Pix2-6oiVsm-ehH5nK-ehH4Ca-b8PnyH-79fJH8-6wR6x5-or8ZSo-ehNMCb-6zW99n-6ngaob-8WnvY-6nwVyg-6fnRsx-P9PG-6g9Eo8-eG1tbN">Mick Baker/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As BBC reporter Simon Stone <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-38933817">noted</a>, Sun reporters will be able to watch Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp’s weekly press conferences on the club’s website. Press conferences also tend to be broadcast live or near-live by Sky Sports News so there is nothing stopping an office-based reporter tweeting or writing a story from the TV broadcast.</p>
<p>This mediated coverage can be underpinned and supplemented by copy from news agencies such as the Press Association, whose reporters have access and provide The Sun and other national newspaper sports desks with story feeds on Liverpool. The Sun sports journalists could also still seek exclusive stories on transfer rumours involving Liverpool players from external sources. </p>
<p>The complete ban simply reinforces the commercial damage that was already being wrought on The Sun by a combination of the city boycott and limited access to the club. The newspaper has already lost millions of pounds in sales and advertising revenue over the past 28 years due to the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=_APdCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT252&lpg=PT252&dq=sun+lost+revenue+liverpool+hillsborough&source=bl&ots=KFJkaQNDit&sig=X6ATx4TdO7SiiZFDaYamsK_T9x4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiQkqSE2Z7SAhVpJ8AKHcFHAVM4ChDoAQhMMAw#v=onepage&q=sun%20lost%20revenue%20liverpool%20hillsborough&f=false">circulation black hole of Liverpool</a> and will continue to do so. Also, The Sun’s secondhand coverage of the club and difficulty in obtaining exclusives has put it at a huge competitive disadvantage to its rivals. </p>
<p>The Sun will still be determined to cover Liverpool because of its standing as a big club both nationally and globally. The newspaper has always hoped Liverpool fans outside the city would adopt a softer stance. It will also be aware that its digital platforms have global reach and access to a significant overseas Liverpool fan base. Liverpool FC <a href="http://www.liverpoolfc.com/fans/lfc-official-supporters-clubs">claims</a> that 200 official supporters clubs exist across 50 countries.</p>
<p>But why did it take 28 years for Liverpool FC to enforce a complete ban? David Prentice, head of sport at the local newspaper, the Liverpool Echo, <a href="http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/sn-liverpool-took-28-years-12587844">explains</a> that, in 1989, sports journalists had built close and trustworthy relationships with club contacts and were seen as entirely separate from the news desk. But the outcomes of the Hillsborough inquests in Warrington last April demanded more accountability.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157312/original/image-20170217-10223-1k18nzd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157312/original/image-20170217-10223-1k18nzd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157312/original/image-20170217-10223-1k18nzd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157312/original/image-20170217-10223-1k18nzd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157312/original/image-20170217-10223-1k18nzd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=658&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157312/original/image-20170217-10223-1k18nzd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=658&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157312/original/image-20170217-10223-1k18nzd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=658&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The number of people that lost their lives as a result of Hillsborough.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/motti82/3444478511/in/photolist-6fnRsx-6nwVyg-6g9Eo8-P9PG-eG1tbN-bWR4fs-FNodaT-6hJJUK-a1adN-ngTAcj-HkdYRa-Hke6CX-HomFvu-GvRSeD-Hke1oP-Hke2aZ-HkdZ5X-Hke3iv-HomxdC-GvRTBZ-HrjD7X-HhR7Gs-HrjVfi-HhRbzs-H23t39-HhR9LC-HomyfY-H23qFq-H23qCj-GvRUax-HomxAG-GvRTXi-HhR7SC-GvKynj-HkdZvB-HhR6G1-HhR6gm-HhR68A-GvKBYs-Hke6NB-H23snb-GvKA7G-Homztu-Homxo7-HomwqL-Hke1Sz-HhR7BN-HhR61w-GvRSir-HrjJme">Joe Mott/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s also worth adding that it’s now a more straightforward decision for football clubs to ban newspapers. Top flight clubs in 1989 would have seen sports journalists as key intermediaries between them and supporters - not any more. National newspapers used to be relied on for publicity but declining print circulations have undermined their value to clubs. The Sun today has a newspaper circulation of 1.6m compared to more than 4m at the time of the Hillsborough disaster.</p>
<p>Also, the traditional journalist-source relationship has been disrupted by the fact that newspaper organisations are now a form of competition to clubs. The Sun’s website may pull in <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/online-abcs-telegraph-decision-to-charge-for-premium-content-sees-website-overtaken-by-fast-growing-sun/">3.5m daily average unique browsers</a> but Liverpool FC has its own social media account, website and TV channel. It wants to publish and broadcast its own exclusive interviews with players and managers directly to fans. Plus, the club can control its message rather than run the risk of journalists adding spin or putting out counter messages. </p>
<p>Newspaper sports journalists are kept much more at arm’s length from sources in an age of sanitised, carefully controlled mixed zones, press conferences and briefings. Source relations are no longer defined by cultivating contacts and building relationships and trust, but by economic arrangements such as the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31379128">£5 billion combined domestic TV rights deal</a> between the Premier League and Sky Sports and BT Sport. Print journalists do not have the same closeness to professional sporting world that they enjoyed in 1989.</p>
<p>Liverpool FC has finally got rid of The Sun - but, in a 2017 media landscape, it cannot rid The Sun of Liverpool FC.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72927/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon McEnnis worked as a sports journalist for The Sun between 2000 and 2009 but is no longer in employment with the newspaper </span></em></p>Liverpool FC has imposed a complete ban on The Sun but it cannot prevent the tabloid newspaper from continuing to cover the club.Simon McEnnis, Senior Lecturer in Sports Media, University of BrightonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/717432017-01-23T14:41:09Z2017-01-23T14:41:09ZBoycotts by celebrities and musicians hit Trump where it hurts<p>It seems apt that the inauguration of the first reality TV show president was overshadowed by discussions of audience size. It clearly rankled Trump that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/22/us/politics/womens-march-trump-crowd-estimates.html">by any metric</a> the Women’s March the following day achieved far greater numbers in Washington DC, even before you start counting all the other associated demonstrations across the US and internationally. Another bone of contention was the light attendance at his own events <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/20/politics/donald-trump-barack-obama-inauguration-crowd-size/">compared to those for Barack Obama</a> on ascending to the presidency. His first weekend, and that of incoming White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, was spent peddling <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/21/us/politics/trump-white-house-briefing-inauguration-crowd-size.html">disprovable falsehoods</a> about the size of the crowds.</p>
<p>It’s difficult to disentangle the aesthetics from the politics of inaugurations, especially given the strong undertow of show business in American presidential politics. But there is a distinctiveness to the recent proceedings that separates them from other modern inaugurations. Just as Trump’s actual inauguration was sparsely attended, the pre-inauguration concert was also a somewhat desultory affair in terms of the line-up. Headliners like country artist Toby Keith, YouTube act The Piano Guys and America’s Got Talent runner-up Jackie Evancho were no match for the star power on display when the likes of Beyonce and Aretha Franklin performed for Obama.</p>
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<p>This is of a piece with Trump’s whole run at the White House, his campaign being marked by musicians distancing themselves from <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-slammed-by-musicians-for-appropriating-music-but-pop-and-politics-have-a-long-history-63901">his use of their music</a>. There are limits to what artists can do to prevent their recordings from being used – and Trump deployed the Rolling Stones’ music at inaugural events despite their objections. But short of outright duress, there’s little that can be done to bring unwilling musicians to the stage and there has been a broad consensus that Trump’s platform is not one they wish to share. From stadium fillers like Elton John to tribute acts like the B Street Band, there was an <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2016/12/musicians-who-declined-trumps-inauguration.html">unprecedented and vocal turning away</a> from this series of inauguration events.</p>
<h2>Celebrity boycott</h2>
<p>Neither is this solely a party political issue. Instead, it appears to match Trump’s own personal, and historically low, approval ratings on entering office. Traditionally, the inauguration events have been a bi-partisan celebration of the office of the president, rather than of the incoming president himself, with a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/inauguration-performances-werent-always-so-contentious-highlights-from-the-last-75-years/2017/01/11/33de4cc2-d5e9-11e6-9a36-1d296534b31e_story.html?utm_term=.636f4bae65cf">long history</a> of artists – like Ray Charles and Frank Sinatra – playing across party lines or, like Jessye Norman, for both Republicans and Democrats. </p>
<p>But given the Trump team’s own apparent disregard for the traditional unifying role of the transition and inaugural events, it seems appropriate that a bi-partisan artistic celebration of the constitutional process has been withdrawn. Briefings have been <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/19/politics/outgoing-administration-raises-alarm-bells-on-trump-readiness/">left unread</a>, key roles still <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/2a4e852c-e0c6-11e6-9645-c9357a75844a">unfilled</a>, and Trump’s first weekend in office has been most obviously marked by ramping up hostility towards the media.</p>
<p>A celebrity boycott may, on the face of it, seem to be a relatively minor consideration compared to the potential implications of Trump’s protectionist and authoritarian impulses. But this withdrawal of musical labour aligns with the broader movement evidenced in the historic scale of the demonstrations at the weekend. </p>
<p>Trump’s apparent contempt for serious journalism deploys a brazen steamroller to circumvent verifiable facts. It is telling, though, that the contempt of Hollywood and the musical world irks him. There’s a sense he seems more concerned with the trappings than the business of the presidency – the role rather than the job itself. Challenging the false assertions that emanate from his office will obviously be a key means of attempting to maintain a healthy polity. </p>
<p>But there’s another strand to the work of preventing authoritarianism from flourishing. Trump’s is the politics of the playground – he (it almost always is a he) with the biggest toys, the cronies and the loudest voice gets to call the game. This only works if people co-operate. And musicians are in a position to refuse, literally, to play along, and check the normalisation of the current administration.</p>
<h2>The new resistance</h2>
<p>Inaugural events take place before the business of a new government has got properly underway. But they serve as a kind of cultural barometer. That headline acts this year include country stars and reality-show runners-up is telling. Just as Trump’s electoral college win was overshadowed by his loss of the popular vote, he is also unable to attract a broad range of performers who appeal beyond his base.</p>
<p>Bruce Springsteen, whose main contribution to the transition was a <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/springsteen-played-secret-white-house-gig-for-obama-staff-w461748">private concert</a> for Barack Obama’s outgoing staff, lauded the Women’s March as the “<a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7662605/bruce-springsteen-joins-new-american-resistance-donald-trump-barack-obama">New American Resistance</a>”. There’s certainly a long tradition of musical participation in positive mobilisation in American politics. The <a href="https://www.loc.gov/collections/civil-rights-history-project/articles-and-essays/music-in-the-civil-rights-movement/">Civil Rights movement</a> is a case in point. </p>
<p>Vocal opposition is a central plank of resistance to any political tendency, and musicians have already started to make their voices heard – the <a href="http://pitchfork.com/news/71034-dave-eggers-announces-4-year-long-1000-song-anti-trump-playlist/">1,000 Songs project</a> will provide a protest song for every day of Trump’s presidency, and there was a raft of “<a href="http://consequenceofsound.net/2017/01/d-c-dissidents-washingtons-counter-inaugural-concerts/">anti-inaugural</a>” concerts across the country. But modern American politics is plugged into celebrity culture in a substantive fashion, and Trump’s personal obsession with his own ratings and celebrity status means that he craves such endorsement – to the point of making it up where it doesn’t exist. </p>
<p>So while the paucity of top-tier talent marking his entry to the White House isn’t the main countervailing force to his presidency, it highlights the limits of his cultural reach. The sound of contradictory voices is one form of resistance. The sound of silence, withholding even tacit endorsement, especially to a president who so clearly covets it, is another.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71743/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam Behr receives funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council </span></em></p>Musicians have largely greeted Trump with the sound of silence – and in doing so, they check the normalisation of the current administration.Adam Behr, Lecturer in Popular and Contemporary Music, Newcastle UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/642032016-09-27T09:56:52Z2016-09-27T09:56:52ZWhen did Che Guevara become CEO? The roots of the new corporate activism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139277/original/image-20160926-31856-15hv1ze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">His example appears to be living on in corporate America these days.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Che Guevera via www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Target recently staked out a position in the culture wars by announcing that it will build private bathrooms in all its locations, after earlier allowing transgender customers to use whichever room corresponds with their gender identity – <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/target-to-spend-20-million-to-roll-out-private-bathrooms-to-all-stores-1471453630">both actions</a> sparking anger from many conservatives. </p>
<p>While big business hasn’t always been on the vanguard of social justice, in recent years companies like Target, Apple and even Wal-Mart have increasingly taken positions that put them squarely on the side of socially progressive activists. So how did Che Guevera – the face of the Cuban Revolution – become CEO of corporate America? </p>
<p>When I first began studying the interactions between social movements and corporations 25 years ago, it was rare to see business take a public stand on social issues. Yet today we see organizations ranging from General Electric to the NCAA <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/major-corporations-join-fight-against-north-carolina-s-bathroom-bill-n605976">weighing in</a> on transgender issues, something that would have been hard to imagine even a decade ago.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139327/original/image-20160926-31842-15nz195.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139327/original/image-20160926-31842-15nz195.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139327/original/image-20160926-31842-15nz195.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139327/original/image-20160926-31842-15nz195.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139327/original/image-20160926-31842-15nz195.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139327/original/image-20160926-31842-15nz195.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139327/original/image-20160926-31842-15nz195.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When the Greensboro Four launched their sit-in protest, companies tended to stay neutral on social issues.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A%26T_four_statue_2000.jpg">Cewatkin via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>From custom abiders to bullies</h2>
<p>Traditionally, corporations aimed to be scrupulously neutral on social issues. No one doubted that corporations exercised power, but it was over bread-and-butter economic issues like trade and taxes, not social issues. There seemed little to be gained by activism on potentially divisive issues, particularly for consumer brands. </p>
<p>A watershed of the civil rights movement, for example, was the <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/2095077?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">1960 sit-in protest by students that began at a segregated lunch counter</a> in a Woolworth store in Greensboro, North Carolina, and spread across the South. Woolworth’s corporate policy had been to “abide by local custom” and keep black and white patrons separated. By supporting the status quo, Woolworth and others like it stood in the way of progress.</p>
<p>But negative publicity led to substantial lost business, and Woolworth eventually relented. In July, four months after the protest started – and after the students had gone home for the summer – the manager of the <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/the-greensboro-sit-in">Greensboro store</a> quietly integrated his lunch counter.</p>
<p>In general, companies were more worried about the costs of taking a more liberal stand on such issues, a point basketball legend and Nike pitchman Michael Jordan made succinctly in 1990. Asked to support Democrat Harvey Gantt’s campaign to replace segregationist incumbent Jesse Helms as a North Carolina senator, Jordan declined, reportedly saying “<a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2016/07/did_michael_jordan_really_say_republicans_buy_sneakers_too.html">Republicans buy sneakers, too</a>.”</p>
<p>And companies presumed that taking controversial positions would lead to boycotts by those on the other side. That’s what happened to Walt Disney in 1996 as a result of its early support for gay rights, such as “gay day” at its theme parks. Its stand prompted groups including America’s largest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptists, to <a href="http://www.cnn.com/US/9706/18/baptists.disney/">launch a boycott</a>, calling Disney’s support for gay rights an “anti-Christian and anti-family direction.” The <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/id/8318263/ns/us_news/t/southern-baptists-end--year-disney-boycott/">eight-year boycott</a>, however, was notably ineffective at changing Disney policy. It turns out that too few parents had the heart to deny their children Disney products to make a boycott effective. </p>
<p>Since then, some of the biggest U.S. companies have taken similar stands, in spite of the reaction from conservatives. For example, when the Arkansas legislature passed a bill in March 2015 that would have enabled LGBT discrimination on the grounds of “religious freedom,” <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-walmart-arkansas-analysis-idUSKBN0MT13E20150402">the CEO of Wal-Mart urged the governor to veto the bill</a>. </p>
<p>Not surprisingly, given Wal-Mart’s status in the state and the corporate backlash that accompanied a similar law in Indiana, the <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/04/01/govt-and-business-leaders-object-to-ark-religion-bill/70757942/">governor obliged</a> and eventually signed a <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/31/politics/arkansas-religious-freedom-anti-lgbt-bill/">modified bill</a>. That din’t sit well with Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, however, who <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/23/opinion/bobby-jindal-im-holding-firm-against-gay-marriage.html">argued in The New York Times</a> that companies in those states were joining “left-wing activists to bully elected officials into backing away from strong protections for religious liberty.” He warned companies against “bullying” Louisiana.</p>
<p>Why have corporations shifted from “abiding local custom” around segregation and other divisive social issues to “bullying elected officials” to support LGBT rights?</p>
<h2>Changing environment</h2>
<p>In my view, there are two broad changes responsible for this increased corporate social activism.</p>
<p>First, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Changing-Your-Company-Inside-Intrapreneurs/dp/1422185095/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8">social media and the web have changed the environment for business</a> by making it cheaper and easier for activists to join together to voice their opinions and by making corporate activities more transparent. </p>
<p>The rapid spread of the Occupy movement in the fall of 2011, from Zuccotti Park in New York to encampments across the country, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/06/occupy-wall-street-social-media_n_999178.html">illustrates</a> how social media can enable groups with a compelling message to scale up quickly. Sometimes even online-only movements can be highly effective.</p>
<p>When the Susan G. Komen Foundation cut off funds to Planned Parenthood that were aimed at supporting breast cancer screenings for low-income women, a pop-up social movement arose: Facebook and Twitter exploded with <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/03/us/komen-foundation-urged-to-restore-planned-parenthood-funds.html">millions of posts and tweets voicing opposition</a>. Within days the policy was walked back.</p>
<p><a href="http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/04/what-matters-about-mozilla-employees-led-the-coup/">Mozilla’s appointment of a new CEO</a> who had supported a California ballot proposal banning same-sex marriage also generated outrage online, both inside and outside the organization. He was gone within two weeks. </p>
<p>More recently, Mylan’s exorbitant price hikes on its EpiPen took place over several years, but an <a href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/08/25/how-parents-harnessed-the-power-of-social-media-to-challenge-epipen-prices/">online petition fueled by social media</a> this summer turned it into a scandal and a talking point for presidential candidates.</p>
<p>In each case, social media allowed like-minded “clicktivists” to draw attention to an issue and demonstrate their support for change, quickly and at very little cost. It’s never been cheaper to assemble a virtual protest group, and sometimes (as in the Arab Spring) online tools enable real-world protest. As such, activism is likely to be a constant for corporations in the future.</p>
<h2>Millennials don’t like puffery</h2>
<p>Second, <a href="http://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_new_face_of_corporate_activism">as consumers and workers, millennials are highly attuned</a> to a company’s “social value proposition.” </p>
<p>Companies targeting the sensibilities of the young often tout their social missions. <a href="http://www.toms.com/improving-lives">Tom’s Shoes</a> and <a href="https://www.warbyparker.com/buy-a-pair-give-a-pair">Warby Parker</a> both have “buy a pair, give a pair” programs. Chipotle highlights its <a href="https://chipotle.com/food-with-integrity">sustainability efforts</a>. And Starbucks has promoted fair trade coffee, marriage equality and racial justice <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/3046890/the-inside-story-of-starbuckss-race-together-campaign-no-foam">more or less successfully</a>. In each case, transparency about corporate practices serves as a check on puffery. </p>
<p>Social mission is even more important when it comes to recruiting. At business school recruiting events, it is almost obligatory that <a href="http://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_new_face_of_corporate_activism">companies describe</a> their LEED-certified workplaces, LGBT-friendly human resource practices and community outreach efforts. </p>
<p>Moreover, our employer signals something about our identity. Value alignment is part of why people stay at their job, and among many millennials, socially progressive values – particularly around LGBT issues – are almost a given.</p>
<p>In this situation, corporate activism may be the sensible course of action, at least when it comes to LGBT issues. According to the <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/2016/05/12/changing-attitudes-on-gay-marriage/">Pew Research Center</a>, for example, support for same-sex marriage has increased from 31 percent in 2004 to 55 percent today, and there is little reason to expect a reversal. </p>
<h2>Risks remain</h2>
<p>Even as trends lead to more corporate activism, the reaction hasn’t always been as the businesses expected. Businesses on the vanguard of social issues themselves can become targets if and when they slip up.</p>
<p>When Starbucks attempted to promote a dialogue about race after the killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner by police in 2014, its method – <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/3046890/the-inside-story-of-starbuckss-race-together-campaign-no-foam">asking baristas to write “race together”</a> on cups to encourage conversations – was widely ridiculed. Some even regarded the effort as a <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/03/22/394710277/starbucks-will-stop-writing-race-together-on-coffee-cups">misguided marketing ploy</a> rather than a sincere effort to promote understanding. </p>
<p>In 1998, William Clay Ford Jr. became chairman of Ford Motor and aimed to turn the company green by improving fuel economy and “greening” its production processes. The company even put an <a href="https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/features/ford-s-living-roof--ten-years-in--rouge-center-experiment-helps-.html">energy-efficient “living” roof</a> on a truck assembly plant. Its continued reliance on its profitable line of gas-guzzling SUVs, however, prompted some to <a href="http://content.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,108802,00.html">accuse Ford of hypocrisy</a>. </p>
<h2>Red and blue companies?</h2>
<p>While prominent companies like Starbucks and Target have taken stances associated with liberal causes, some businesses have gone the other direction. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-mo-chick-fil-a-gay-20120718-story.html">Chick-fil-A aimed to implement</a> “biblical values” and supported anti-gay groups in the 2000s. Those groups returned the favor by encouraging like-minded people to dine there on “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/us-news-blog/2012/aug/01/chick-fil-a-appreciation-day">Chick-fil-A appreciation day</a>.”</p>
<p>Hobby Lobby <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/07/10/after-hobby-lobby-ruling-hhs-announces-birth-control-workaround">famously sought to abstain</a> from providing funding for birth control for employees on religious grounds. Koch Industries, overseen by the famous Koch Brothers, <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/4/1/1288957/-Sign-the-pledge-Don-t-buy-these-Koch-products">has long been a lightning rod</a> for boycotts due to the right-wing proclivities of its dominant owners. And small businesses across the country are not always shy in advertising their conservative political orientations. </p>
<p>As <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9030.html">states have seemingly divided</a> into red (for conservative) and blue (for liberal), might we expect the same thing from corporations, as consumers and employees drift toward the brands that best represent their views – red companies and blue companies? </p>
<p><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/list.php">It is already easy to look up</a> political contributions by companies and their employees. For example, Bloomberg, Alphabet and the Pritzker Group lean Democratic; Oracle, Chevron and AT&T tend Republican. </p>
<p>In the current electoral climate, it is not hard to imagine this continuing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64203/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jerry Davis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Companies, which in the past tended to stay neutral on divisive social and political issues, are increasingly taking a stand. What’s behind the change?Jerry Davis, Professor of Management and Sociology, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/594622016-05-17T04:49:05Z2016-05-17T04:49:05ZWhy Australia legalising same-sex marriage makes good business sense<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122771/original/image-20160517-15904-166hqup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Both major parties have a platform that could ultimately facilitate same-sex marriage in Australia.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Alan Porritt</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia’s most senior Catholic bishops <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016/election-2016-catholic-bishops-intervene-in-election-over-samesex-marriage-20160515-govgcl.html">have spoken out</a> to warn the major political parties, regardless of who wins government on July 2, not to undermine the institution of marriage by legalising same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>Both major parties have a platform that could ultimately facilitate same-sex marriage. The Coalition <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/federal-election-2016-samesex-marriage-plebiscite-pause-for-poll/news-story/0210edad67c41715ca3a03ba8e530ce7">proposes a plebiscite</a>, or popular vote, on the issue. If passed, it could lead to legislation enabling same-sex marriage. Labor promises a parliamentary vote and legislation in its <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-26/labor-party-national-conference-same-sex-marriage-vote/6648834">first 100 days</a> of taking office.</p>
<p>Notably absent from the church’s exhortation is any significant analysis of the economic consequences to Australia from resisting same-sex marriage. </p>
<p>Experience in the US serves to highlight the potential long-term economic consequences if Australia fails to legalise same-sex marriage. These could include boycotts, adverse consequences for tourism, and undermining the ability to attract top talent to Australia. And the argument that same-sex marriage will undermine freedom of enterprise appears misplaced.</p>
<h2>Boycotts</h2>
<p>Supporting same-sex marriage helps businesses to avoid the risk of boycotts. Rejecting it risks tacitly approving “discrimination” (in the lay, if not the legal, sense).</p>
<p>This discrimination implicit in rejecting same-sex marriage has led to threats of boycotts in the US. Indiana, for example, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11501143/Indiana-boycott-urged-after-state-passes-anti-gay-law.html">faced boycotts</a> after passing a law that would have enabled companies to discriminate against gay and lesbian couples on religious grounds. </p>
<p>North Carolina faced boycotts in April 2016 after <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/backlash-grows-over-religious-freedom-anti-discrimination-push-n554016">passing a “religious freedom” law</a> that included “bathroom use” provisions. Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump <a href="http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a44212/donald-trump-north-carolina-anti-lgbt-bill/">later highlighted</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… the problem with what happened in North Carolina is the strife and the economic punishment that they’re taking.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Mississippi also recently <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/05/mississippi-law-lgbt-discrimination-religious-moral-grounds">passed a far-reaching law</a> that enabled organisations to refuse services based on religious convictions, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/10/business-protest-anti-lgbt-laws-mississippi-north-carolina">resulting in a significant backlash from the business community</a>. Similarly, the <a href="http://fusion.net/story/284140/disney-marvel-nfl-georgia-boycott-anti-gay-bill/">threat of boycotts</a> help to result in Georgia’s similar laws ultimately <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2016/03/28/us/georgia-north-carolina-lgbt-bills/">being vetoed</a>.</p>
<p>Companies have shown a clear capacity – and willingness – to act against legislative programs that could potentially entrench discrimination. This creates a clear risk should Australia continue to resist moves toward same-sex marriage. </p>
<h2>Tourism</h2>
<p>Same-sex marriage has become the norm in many Western countries. The US Supreme Court received significant attention after its decision on same-sex marriage, as did Ireland’s popular vote in favour <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-24/ireland-approves-gay-marriage-in-referendum/6492698">in 2015</a>.</p>
<p>The more extreme anti-LGBT legislation in the US has <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/22/travel/north-carolina-mississippi-lgbt-gay-rights-travel.html?_r=0">significantly harmed tourism</a>. In the immediate aftermath of North Carolina passing its law, the town of Raleigh lost US$3 million <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/21/travel/uk-lgbt-travel-advice-north-carolina-mississippi/">from foregone tourism and business events</a>. And the UK <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2016/04/21/travel/uk-lgbt-travel-advice-north-carolina-mississippi/">issued a travel warning</a> pertaining to states with such discriminatory legislation. </p>
<p>Parity of reasoning would imply that consistent attacks on what the US Supreme Court regards as a basic right would undermine Australia’s attractiveness as a tourist destination.</p>
<p>Sydney’s Mardi Gras would look anomalous in a country that persistently attacks LGBT rights. However, <a href="http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/229065/9246_FA1_SCN-4pp-March-2015.pdf">the event</a> attracts at least 375,000 people, and generates A$30 million in revenue. Over time, it is plausible that denying same-sex marriage would risk tourism-related economic benefits.</p>
<h2>International market for labour</h2>
<p>Denying same-sex marriage could lead to difficulties attracting international talent in the long term. Australia’s current position has not yet adversely affected employment. However, a persistent failure to legalise same-sex marriage is equivalent to rejecting it.</p>
<p>Companies in the US have reacted strongly to anti-same-sex marriage laws. After Indiana moved against it in 2015, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/benioff-makes-good-on-threat-to-indiana-2015-3">said</a> the laws would discourage the company from spending in Indiana. Salesforce has reportedly helped employees uncomfortable with the law <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/02/salesforce-indiana_n_6991990.html">move out of Indiana</a>. </p>
<p>The company <a href="http://fortune.com/2016/02/26/salesforce-marc-benioff-georgia-gay-marriage/">also considered</a> shifting employees and a major conference from Georgia when it made a similar move against same-sex marriage. </p>
<p>Similarly, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman <a href="http://officialblog.yelp.com/2015/03/an-open-letter-to-states-considering-imposing-discrimination-laws.html">advised states</a> to reconsider such laws. He highlighted an unwillingness to operate in Indiana. </p>
<p>The US examples have often been more overtly severe than simply refusing to acknowledge same-sex marriage. They involve active changes to existing laws in order to discriminate between individuals. </p>
<p>Australia currently is not changing an existing law. However, a repeated pattern of inaction to alter laws, over an extended period, could start to give the appearance of overtly discriminatory laws.</p>
<h2>What about freedom of enterprise?</h2>
<p>Some small sectors of the business community raise concerns that they might be forced to serve gay and lesbian people, thereby undermining freedom of enterprise. This is false. </p>
<p>A cake for a gay wedding is simply a cake. Sexuality does not influence the nature of the service provided. Thus, allowing same-sex marriage would not undermine freedom of enterprise – it would involve no change whatsoever to the goods and services that companies provide.</p>
<p>Refusal to serve such customers for no reason other than an objection to their status as being gay is <em>prima facie</em> discrimination. </p>
<p>In severe cases, such discrimination could arguably be implicit hate speech. The refusal to provide services constituting an implicit value judgement of that individual’s right to possess the human rights they believe heterosexual people should solely be entitled to.</p>
<h2>What now?</h2>
<p>In supporting same-sex marriage, the government will help to highlight to the international business community that Australia is a welcoming country that will not discriminate based on sexuality. </p>
<p>The Coalition’s proposed plebiscite will, <a href="http://www.australianmarriageequality.org/who-supports-equality/a-majority-of-australians-support-marriage-equality/">based on opinion polling</a>, return a vote in favour of legalising same-sex marriage if it is held. This will generate a strong signal to international companies that might otherwise be deterred from investing in Australia.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59462/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Humphery-Jenner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Experience in the US serves to highlight the potential long-term economic consequences if Australia fails to legalise same-sex marriage.Mark Humphery-Jenner, Associate Professor of Finance, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/405922015-04-24T18:35:45Z2015-04-24T18:35:45ZCreating justice for Bangladeshi garment workers with pressure not boycotts<p>Two years ago, on April 24, 2013, the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh collapsed killing <a href="http://www.ranaplaza-arrangement.org/">1,134</a> garment factory workers inside. Just five months before this accident, a fire at the Tazreen Fashion factory killed 112 people.</p>
<p>The disasters left many Americans wondering how to respond to prevent such tragedies from happening again. The companies whose brands were manufactured at these factories and other global garment retailers wondered how to keep their customers in the face of worldwide condemnation of Bangaldesh factory working conditions.</p>
<p>Almost immediately, even with no known association with Rana Plaza factories, the clothing company PVH (maker of Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and other brands) signed the <a href="http://bangladeshaccord.org/signatories/">Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh</a>, a five-year, legally binding agreement among international brands and retailers, Bangladeshi trade unions, and international trade unions to work together to improve factory conditions, created in May 2013. </p>
<p>The Walt Disney Company took another approach; it <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2013/05/02/news/companies/disney-bangladesh/">pulled</a> its production from Bangladesh, effectively <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/05/02/when-does-corporate-responsibility-mean-abandoning-ship/disney-and-other-big-brands-need-to-address-the-real-challenges-to-outsourcing">boycotting</a> the country.</p>
<p>Which strategy is better for Bangladeshi workers? And which strategy should consumers support?</p>
<p>To answer these questions, we must ask two more. What approach would empower the more than <a href="http://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/f8968f8043a64b51a4f2bc869243d457/AM2014_IFC_Issue_Brief_Bangladeshi+Garment+Sector.pdf?MOD=AJPERES">4.2 million</a> Bangladeshi garment workers? And what approach would hold brands accountable? These are the keys to better working conditions long-term. </p>
<h2>Studying the lived experience of labor activism</h2>
<p>In 1993 a group of village women in Bangladesh <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/political-theory/political-theory-and-feminist-social-criticism">introduced me</a> to their strategies for social criticism. </p>
<p>In my view, political theory about ethics and responsibility should be informed by the lived experience of <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/political-theory/universal-human-rights-world-difference">those in the struggle</a>. </p>
<p>Since 2010, I have been <a href="https://www.globalfundforwomen.org/storage/documents/impact/ackerly_breakthrough_evaluation_research_2012.pdf">studying </a> labor, environment, and gender justice as these have been pursued by activist organizations. The argument below draws on the insights from the grass roots of the global labor movement.</p>
<p>A simple boycott of Bangladeshi manufacturing is not accountable to the workers. </p>
<p>A boycott is not a just approach to labor injustice because, if successful, it would leave the workers without their source of livelihood. To understand what justice requires and what it means to respect the human rights of workers in struggle for their rights, we need to understand what they mean by their “rights,” for example by listening as Kalpona Akter, an activist and a former child worker in the Bangladesh garment industry, addressing the 2013 Wal-Mart shareholder meeting in the video below.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AcC-yCyF4fo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<h2>‘Boycotting is suicide for my country’</h2>
<p>Boycotting, whether by brands or consumers, may indeed send a message to clothing companies, the Bangladeshi garment industry, and to the government of Bangladesh that poor working conditions are unacceptable.</p>
<p>But that message may cost workers their livelihood. As Kalpoona Akter, who is with the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity, once said to my Vanderbilt University students, “a boycott is suicide for my country.”</p>
<p>Instead, consumers may be more effective by giving political support to Bangladeshi workers who are trying to change the practices of garment factories and retailers. They may use social media to organize and to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9tbRFUFWyU">protest at stores</a>. In each example they are not merely consumers. They are acting politically and ethically to support workers. </p>
<p>US consumers have been encouraging corporations to sign the <a href="http://bangladeshaccord.org/signatories/">Accord on Fire and Building Safety</a>. </p>
<p>Students from universities across the US, including Rutgers and NYU, have urged their schools not to source school spirit garments from <a href="http://sustainability.vfc.com/">VF Corporation</a>, owner of the Jansport brand, until VF signs the Accord. Two hundred brands have done so, including Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle Outfitters and <a href="http://www.fotlinc.com/">Fruit of the Loom</a>. </p>
<p>So why did a company like PVH know how to respond with accountability? Because company representatives had already been talking with workers. </p>
<p>After the That’s It Sportswear factory fire killed 29 workers in Bangladesh on December 14, 2010, labor groups, PVH and other US brands began negotiating on factory safety. Then, in March 2012, after <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/workers-die-factories-tommy-hilfiger/story?id=15966305">ABC News confronted Tommy Hilfiger</a> at Fashion Week with news that workers had died sewing his clothing, PVH signed an agreement on factory safety. After Rana Plaza, that agreement was modified, updated, and went into effect under its current name, the <a href="http://bangladeshaccord.org/">Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh</a>. In other words, PVH management had been listening to workers and understood that accountability to workers was the key to an effective solution.</p>
<p>Another way companies can be accountable to workers is by contributing to the Rana Plaza Donors Trust that helps compensate the over 5,000 survivors and victims’ families, many of whom were orphaned. </p>
<p>To encourage corporations to pay their share to the <a href="http://www.ranaplaza-arrangement.org/fund">Rana Plaza Donors Trust</a>, students and consumers have been delivering letters to store managers of clothing retailers including <a href="https://www.childrensplace.com/">The Children’s Place</a> and the Italian company Benetton. On Friday, April 24, a press release from Workers United-SEIU, announced that an agreement had been reaching in which The Children’s Place would contribute an <a href="http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/17878/rana_plaza_anniversary">additional $2 million </a>to the Rana Plaza Donors Fund.</p>
<p>These <a href="http://usas.org/">students</a> and consumers are working in partnership with <a href="http://www.laborrights.org/">labor rights groups</a>, <a href="http://www.seiu.org/division/workers-united/">unions</a>, <a href="http://www.cleanclothes.org/">anti-sweatshop groups</a>, and Bangladeshi activists to bring <a href="http://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Akter_Testimony.pdf">political attention </a>to worker rights. </p>
<p>Two of these activists are Kalpona Akter from the <a href="http://www.labourbehindthelabel.org/news/item/834-who-is-bcws">Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity</a> (BCWS) and Mahinur Begum, who was 16 when Rana Plaza collapsed around her. Ms Akter founded BCWS in 2001 with two other former garment workers who had been part of an earlier effort in the 1990s to form a trade union in a garment factory in Bangladesh. The AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center conducted the training: “<a href="http://www.solidaritycenter.org/content.asp?pl=409&sl=409&contentid=431">The Solidarity Center supports a mission</a> to help build a global labor movement by strengthening the economic and political power of workers around the world through effective, independent, and democratic unions.”</p>
<p>The BCWS was originally founded as a non-government organization promoting worker organizing in sectors other than the garment sector. However, the needs of organizing workers for legal defense and the need for workers in non-union factories for arbitration with their management has kept BCWS focused on the garment industry. </p>
<p>Through their work in legal awareness training for workers, code of conduct training for workers and factory managers, leadership training for worker leaders, and advocacy, BCWS activists have earned the respect of both workers and managers for their skills in conflict resolution. </p>
<p>Yet organizing in Bangladesh can be <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/10/world/asia/bangladeshi-labor-organizer-is-found-killed.html?_r=0">dangerous</a>. </p>
<p>Even in the US activism is not without some risk. On March 12 this year, Kalpona Akter, Mahinur Begum and two dozen others were arrested at the Secaucus, NJ, headquarters of Children’s Place for trespassing when they tried to deliver <a href="http://laborrights.org/mahinurs-letter-childrens-place-ceo-jane-elfers">a written request</a> for increased compensation to the Rana Plaz Trust. The charges against the Bangladeshi activists and the students in the group were later <a href="http://www.northjersey.com/news/business/reduced-charges-dismissals-for-children-s-place-protesters-1.1309634.">dismissed.</a> </p>
<h2>Trust fund lacks support from key players</h2>
<p>Today the trust still has not received adequate <a href="http://www.ranaplaza-arrangement.org/fund/donors">donations</a> to meet its obligations. </p>
<p>Although some companies whose clothing was produced at Rana Plaza – like <a href="http://www.cleanclothes.org/ranaplaza/who-needs-to-pay-up">Cato Fashions and JC Penney</a> – have given nothing at all, others companies such as <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/17/rana-plaza-disaster-benetton-donates-victims-fund-bangladesh">Benetton</a> have contributed, though less than advocates have called on them to give. </p>
<p>Three companies (H&M, Gap and N Brown Group) have donated to the trust even though they have no known association with Rana Plaza factories. Like those who have signed the Accord, they want their consumers to perceive that they are on the <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/simonmainwaring/2011/09/07/the-new-power-of-consumers-to-influence-brands/">right side of this issue</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78836/original/image-20150421-9051-1u8gliq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78836/original/image-20150421-9051-1u8gliq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78836/original/image-20150421-9051-1u8gliq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78836/original/image-20150421-9051-1u8gliq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78836/original/image-20150421-9051-1u8gliq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78836/original/image-20150421-9051-1u8gliq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78836/original/image-20150421-9051-1u8gliq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78836/original/image-20150421-9051-1u8gliq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A body in the rubble of the collapsed Rana Plaza.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">REUTERS/Andrew Biraj</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Both the Rana Plaza Trust and the Accord on Fire and Building Safety are important ways to be accountable to workers. Even with these achievements, however, long-term improvement in working conditions will require effective advocacy within Bangladesh. </p>
<p>For that to happen it <a href="http://features.hrw.org/features/HRW_2015_reports/Bangladesh_Garment_Factories/assets/pdf/bangladesh0415_web.pdf">has to be safe to speak up</a>. “Bangladesh has a history of corruption, of political turbulence,” Ellen O. Tauscher, a Californian politician who is chairwoman of the of the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/22/business/international/battling-for-a-safer-bangladesh.html?_r=0">told</a> the New York Times. </p>
<p>Non-boycott consumer activism has helped on this front, too. </p>
<p>For instance, in 2010 an international letter-writing campaign coordinated with local organizations secured the <a href="http://www.cleanclothes.org/news/2010/09/13/bangladesh-labour-activists-released">release</a> of worker rights activists who had been <a href="http://www.sweatfree.org/bcwsalert-7-2010">arrested and held</a> on false charges. </p>
<p>Non-boycott activism has also helped secure better working conditions in many factories as well as the payment of back wages for many workers. </p>
<p>Though workers still experience retaliation for speaking out about factory conditions and for organizing, they have been able to <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324216004578480813191051492">form unions</a> recognized by the government and their work places. And the minimum wage has <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/05/world/asia/bangladesh-takes-step-toward-raising-38-a-month-minimum-wage.html?_r=0">increased.</a> </p>
<p>The work environment in Bangladesh is being transformed.</p>
<h2>Taking steps to accountability</h2>
<p>Taking responsibility for worker rights means being accountable to the workers who make the clothes brands sell and consumers wear. </p>
<p>Through basic economics of supply and demand, our choices as consumers affect others. Raising awareness of this fact can be done in small steps – by asking the managers at the stores where we shop about the working conditions under which the clothes we can afford and choose to wear are made.<br>
The consumer today is not alone. There are many ways to nudge brands to support humane working conditions and accountability. </p>
<p>Social media connections with organizations like <a href="http://www.cleanclothes.org">Clean Clothes Campaign</a> and the <a href="http://www.laborrights.org/industries/apparel">International Labor Rights Forum</a> can help consumers identify brands that are concerned with labor rights. Social media also enables consumers to signal to each other and to brands that they care about social responsibility. The power to change work places is not merely a purchasing power. </p>
<p>Our greatest contribution would be to ensure that another Rana Plaza collapse doesn’t happen and that working conditions continue to improve for all workers. </p>
<p>April 24, is the Global Day of Action: <a href="https://actionnetwork.org/event_campaigns/global-day-of-action-remembering-rana-plaza">Remembering Rana Plaza</a>. We must not let this disaster be forgotten.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40592/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>In 2010 and 2012 Brooke A. Ackerly received funding from the Global Fund for Women. The full explanation and results of this work are on line at <a href="https://www.globalfundforwomen.org/storage/documents/impact/ackerly_breakthrough_evaluation_research_2012.pdf">https://www.globalfundforwomen.org/storage/documents/impact/ackerly_breakthrough_evaluation_research_2012.pdf</a>.
</span></em></p>The horrific collapse of a factory in Bangladesh that killed hundreds sent American scrambling for ways to ensure this doesn’t happen again. A professor explains why boycotts are not the answer.Brooke A. Ackerly, Associate Professor of Political Science, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/389422015-03-18T06:26:02Z2015-03-18T06:26:02ZNote to Elton John: fashion boycotts never work<p>The very public spat between Italian design duo Dolce & Gabbana and pop superstar and UK national treasure Sir Elton John over Dominico Dolce’s <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/mar/15/elton-john-boycott-dolce-gabbana-synthetic-ivf-babies-comment">comments about gay parenting, IVF and traditional families</a> has caused a storm in the media and on Twitter with accusations flying in both directions. In an <a href="https://instagram.com/p/0PJUURgGUI/?taken-by=eltonjohn">Instagram post</a> on Sunday, John said: “How dare you refer to my beautiful children as ‘synthetic’”. </p>
<p>The fallout comes in the context of the fashion label’s traditional family <a href="http://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/autumn-winter-2015/ready-to-wear/dolce-and-gabbana">collection at Milan Fashion Week</a> earlier this month – models, some pregnant, hit the runway with their babies and children, epitomising the duo’s ideas on what makes a family.</p>
<p>John’s celebrity friends – including former Dolce & Gabbana face Victoria Beckham – have come out in support of his call for a boycott of the brand, as has the LGBT community. The Twittersphere erupted with consumers backing John after his Instagram post. </p>
<p>Hilariously, there were plenty of comments about the prices of Dolce & Gabbana products being a far more effective barrier to buying the brand than any celebrity-led boycott might be.</p>
<p>John’s call for a boycott of the brand is an interesting one for the fashion industry. Consumer boycotts of fashion brands and retailers have a sad history. There are very few boycotts of fashion – barely any of them work.</p>
<p>How many shoppers pulled their loyalty from high street retailers after the <a href="https://theconversation.com/bangladesh-disaster-shows-why-we-must-urgently-clean-up-global-sweat-shops-13899">Rana Plaza tragedy</a> in Bangladesh in spring 2013? It killed almost <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/24/rana-plaza-factory-disaster-anniversary-protests">1,138 people</a>, many of them working in clothing manufacturing for UK, European and US brands. Sure, there were some. But these few people hardly stopped Primark, for example, from <a href="http://www.scotsman.com/business/retail/primark-continues-uk-and-european-sales-growth-1-3662859">increasing sales and profits</a> and expanding the business internationally in the ensuing two years. </p>
<p>While other controversies over sustainable supply chains – from child labour to toxic dyes – do cause media storms and embarrassment to the fashion industry, it’s debatable how much impact they actually have on the business of fashion brands and retailers. </p>
<p>There are plenty of mea culpas along the way, plenty of compensation packages. And, to be fair, the fashion industry does want to and is endeavouring to clean its supply chain.</p>
<h2>Animals win more hearts</h2>
<p>But it’s animals rather than people that seem to gain more impact among fashion companies as a result of high profile campaigns. Recently, the use of angora hit the headlines following a <a href="http://action.peta.org.uk/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=5&ea.campaign.id=23870">People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) film</a> that led to swathes of UK high street stores and brands – Marks & Spencer, Next, Whistles, Topshop, H&M and Primark among them – <a href="http://www.instyle.co.uk/fashion/news/primark-asos-and-topshop-join-ban-on-angora-products">banning use of the wool</a>. </p>
<p>Back in 2004, a campaign by The Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade successfully persuaded the Inditex Group, which names Zara among its fascias, to <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3683966.stm">ban use of all fur</a>. Zara has also <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/feb/09/inditex-bans-angora-sales-animal-rights-protests">just joined</a> the ban on the use of angora.</p>
<p>Dolce & Gabbana are estimated to be worth $1.65 billion each and are the 27th richest men in Italy, <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2015/03/16/dolce-gabbana-break-the-internet-coming-out-against-gay-parenthood-elton-john-calls-for-boycott/">according to Forbes</a>. Their business is wide covering men’s and women’s wear, kidswear, accessories and myriad licensed products – not least among them perfumes. </p>
<p>It would take an extremely effective and extensive boycott for the row with Elton John to adversely affect the Dolce & Gabbana business. After all celebrities, frequently, do not even buy the designer fashion they wear – they are gifted clothing to wear at high profile events. </p>
<p>Despite support for the Dolce stance there will, of course, be PRs putting crisis management plans into effect this week, aiming to protect the reputation of the brand and its future sales. </p>
<p>So will a few celebrities stopping wearing the clobber really hurt the brand? This will only happen if this war of words stops regular consumers from buying a Dolce & Gabbana perfume or a bag. And I somehow think this is unlikely to happen – particularly when the person who calls the boycott is <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2999023/Elton-John-seen-LA-holding-Dolce-Gabbana-shopping-bag.html">seen with a D&G shopping bag</a> a day after the initial spat.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38942/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Josephine Collins does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If Elton was to take a look through fashion boycotts in the past, he wouldn’t find a great track record (not that he seems too set on this one anyway).Josephine Collins, Course Leader, BA (Hons) Fashion Journalism, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/305002014-08-15T05:11:19Z2014-08-15T05:11:19ZCultural boycott of Israel is short-sighted and riddled with inconsistencies<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56535/original/wc2vg72j-1408024607.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Boycotters need to be careful about the comparisons they draw.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/theqspeaks/4453720158">The Q Speaks</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/russell-brand-calls-for-israel-boycott-comedian-urges-big-businesses-that-facilitate-the-oppression-of-people-in-gaza-to-pull-funding-9668147.html">Russell Brand is the latest to muscle in on the Israel-Palestine conflict</a>, calling for big businesses to pull funding from the country. But the issue of boycotts is a fraught one. For many Jews, the word “boycott” immediately carries with it the haunting spectre of recent history; reviving the Nazi boycott of Jewish shops and businesses in Germany during the 1930s. </p>
<p>That does not mean that Jews automatically oppose boycotts. Indeed, many Jews unofficially boycotted German products after the Holocaust, refusing to visit Germany or to buy a Volkswagen car for example. Many other Jews participated in the boycott of South African products during apartheid. And, when the Tricycle theatre in north London recently asked the UK Jewish Film Festival (UKJFF) to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/aug/05/tricycle-theatre-jewish-film-festival-cancelled-israel-gaza">forgo its grant from the Israeli Embassy</a> and the UKJFF refused, many Jews seemingly called for <a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/huge-protest-calling-on-boycott-of-tricycle-theatre-over-jewish-film-festival-ban-9655430.html">a boycott of the theatre</a>. (In this instance, one has to say that calls to boycott a boycotter become somewhat absurd and Kafkaesque.)</p>
<p>But the problem with the current calls to boycott Israel is that they send out the wrong signals to the very people who are most receptive to dialogue. This is because Israel is not the only state currently engaged in questionable behaviour, but it appears to be the only one singled out for a boycott on the scale proposed. Many ask where the similar boycotts of Syria, China, Russia and the many other states whose human rights records are questionable are. </p>
<p>They perceive a double standard here and begin to ask why the world’s only self-identified Jewish nation is the target of a boycott when other equally, if not more deserving nations, are not. They then come to one conclusion: that calls for a boycott are motivated by the same thing that motivated the Nazis – and that one thing is anti-Semitism. </p>
<p>This is precisely the situation Tricycle finds itself in. Having asked the UKJFF to cut its ties with the Israeli Embassy, the theatre is now surely duty bound to ask each and every organisation with which it deals to cut its ties to any governmental agency engaged in conflict. To do otherwise would confirm the accusations of anti-Semitism by making it look like the UKJFF has been singled out for special treatment.</p>
<p>Calls for a boycott therefore take on the appearance of anti-Semitism if not always the intent. To justify their stance, boycotters throw around terms like “genocide”, “apartheid”, “<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/israels-incremental-genocide-gaza-ghetto/13562">ghetto</a>” and “<a href="http://www.theweek.co.uk/24773/german-protestors-dare-compare-israelis-nazis">Nazis</a>” while ignoring their historical specificity and how they came about. In order to allay charges of anti-Semitism, boycotters need to pay far more attention to the words they use.</p>
<p>Of course, this may be unfair. It’s true that those who seek to defend Israel against any criticism often use the stick of anti-Semitism as a blunt weapon. But it is also true that a blanket ban of Israel has the same effect. It brings under its umbrella those who oppose Israeli actions, including Arabs living, working and studying in Israel. One can read far more trenchant criticism of Israel in the Israeli newspaper <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/">Ha’aretz</a> than one would read in either The Guardian or on the BBC but under the terms of a boycott, Ha’aretz would be banned. The boycott then becomes counterproductive, silencing the very voices who can make a change to Israeli policy from within.</p>
<p>Cultural boycotts have particular impact as they focus on universities, arts, culture, theatres, cinemas, and so on. These are often the very places where Israelis are most critical of the Israeli government’s policies. What’s more, by boycotting universities, cultural and arts institutions, the boycotters play into the hands of those Jews who constantly warn us about anti-Semitism. The effect is that boycotts of all kinds strengthen and play into the hands of the right wing while weakening those who may be oppositional.</p>
<p>It needs to be asked why Israel alone is being targeted on this level. Perhaps it’s because Israel is perceived as a Western “civilised” nation and is therefore susceptible to change, open to reason where other countries or groups, such as Hamas or IS, are not. Or perhaps we’re displacing Western guilt about our own history of colonialism by accusing another nation of colonialism. </p>
<p>The West must not discharge its own responsibility for the state of affairs in the Middle East. Britain had a <a href="http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/2FCA2C68106F11AB05256BCF007BF3CB">mandate over Palestine</a> and helped to draw national borders. Or maybe it’s just that many people are ignorant of modern history, including that of their own country’s foreign relations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/30500/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nathan Abrams occasionally contributes to Ha'aretz on a freelance basis.</span></em></p>Russell Brand is the latest to muscle in on the Israel-Palestine conflict, calling for big businesses to pull funding from the country. But the issue of boycotts is a fraught one. For many Jews, the word…Nathan Abrams, Professor of Film Studies, Bangor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/303262014-08-15T05:11:03Z2014-08-15T05:11:03ZIsrael’s cultural diversions are never normal, never neutral<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56531/original/m6nt7k2d-1408023348.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Out of tune with human rights?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/theeerin/8328076218/in/photostream/">TheeErin</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/arts/news/edinburgh-fringe-second-israel-funded-show-pulled-1-3498490">Two cancelled shows</a> at the Edinburgh fringe, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/aug/05/tricycle-theatre-jewish-film-festival-cancelled-israel-gaza">a theatre in London refusing to host a film festival</a> while it was partly funded by the Israeli Embassy and now, on the other side of the spectrum, Belfast City Council is seeking legal advice about an <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-28769435">event featuring Respect MP George Galloway</a>, after he urged people in Bradford to reject all Israeli goods, services, academics and tourists. </p>
<p>The cultural boycott of Israel has high stakes, as were revealed in the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/09/tricycle-theatre-uk-jewish-film-festival-debate">dispute with the Tricycle Theatre</a>. The London venue has for the past few years hosted the UK Jewish Film Festival. This year the theatre asked the UK Jewish Film Festival to abandon its Israeli government funds: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Given the current conflict in Israel and Gaza, we feel it is inappropriate to accept financial support from any government agency involved.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The theatre even offered to replace the funds that would be lost. </p>
<p>Yet the festival’s Director, Judy Ironside <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/08/05/tricycle-theatre-jewish-film-festival-israel_n_5651531.html">declined the offer</a>, on grounds that Jewish culture is “intrinsically connected to the state of Israel”. She also portrayed all Jews as victims: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>This decision is shameful and shows that boycotts of Israel inevitably lead to the harassment of Jewish culture and individuals across the world.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So the Israeli funds aim to present the country as a promoter of “Jewish culture” and sanitise it. This presents Israel as a cultured Western country, supporting its official image as “the only democracy in the Middle East”. </p>
<p>But democracy has always been a slippery word, and cultural diversions have always played a key part in politics. And, like many Western democracies that have claimed a heritage from the classical past, Israel has a shameful history of imperialist expansion and brutal oppression. </p>
<p>When Israel calls itself a “democratic Jewish state”, what does this mean? Since 1948 the state has combined aspects of settler-colonialism and racist apartheid, marginalising Palestinian Arabs as second-class citizens or worse. Israel is governed by institutions promoting Jewish domination over the Arab population inside and outside its considerably expanded borders. </p>
<p>All these injustices are compounded by the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967. The occupation is still being enforced through land seizures, economic blockades and war crimes. Palestinian cultural projects have been suppressed or <a href="http://972mag.com/jenins-freedom-theater-raided-by-the-israeli-army-2/19566">even physically attacked</a>.</p>
<p>Israeli democracy has produced a nation prepared to carry out the slaughter of civilians, including hundreds of children, during past and present conflicts. The “normal” situation in Gaza is one of slow starvation in an open prison policed by the Israeli Defence Force. Surely Israel should not get away with parading itself to the world as a civilised and cultured state synonymous with Jewish culture, beliefs and historical traditions. </p>
<p>Since 2004 the <a href="http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1047">Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel</a> (PACBI) has advocated a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions. The boycott challenges “Brand Israel”, a political strategy of normalisation. The boycott exposes those who are commissioned or recruited to rebrand the Israeli state or complicit institutions (artistic companies and universities). Through their silence about or direct involvement with the occupation, these cultural institutions have been justifying, whitewashing and/or diverting attention from Israel’s violations of international law and human rights. </p>
<p>The boycott has gained worldwide support. In the UK its supporters have targeted performances of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO), the Habima Theatre Company and Batsheva Dance Company. Protesters raised the slogan: “The IPO is out of tune with human rights” at its Proms concert. All three groups are among many receiving government funds to serve as cultural ambassadors for Brand Israel. The first two have proudly given performances in illegal Jewish settlements, arguably further promoting the occupation. </p>
<p>Whenever and wherever Israel attempts to promote its cultural events, we should publicise the fact that for decades it has stifled the cultural and educational expression of those living in the West Bank and Gaza, as well as the millions of Palestinian refugees rendered homeless and stateless by its expansionist policies. </p>
<p>The Palestinian people have called upon us to boycott Israeli goods, Israeli universities and Israeli artistic companies. To do so is vital for solidarity, raising awareness of the just cause of the Palestinian people and making their voices better heard through our protests. The boycott exposes the complicity of cultural bodies in Israel’s violation of human rights and international law. </p>
<p>Despite those violations, Israel has been favourably singled out for political and financial support by Western governments. Living in the UK, whose government has been complicit in Zionist expansion and war crimes since the <a href="http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/balfour_declaration_of_1917.htm">Balfour Declaration</a>, we have a special responsibility to respect the 2004 boycott call of Palestinian civil society. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/30326/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paula James has been a member of Palestine Solidarity Campaign for ten years. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les Levidow is affiliated with Jews for Boycotting Israel Goods (J-BIG) and the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP). </span></em></p>Two cancelled shows at the Edinburgh fringe, a theatre in London refusing to host a film festival while it was partly funded by the Israeli Embassy and now, on the other side of the spectrum, Belfast City…Paula James, Senior Lecturer in Classical Studies, The Open UniversityLes Levidow, Senior Research Fellow in Development Policy and Practice, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/252722014-04-10T20:39:47Z2014-04-10T20:39:47ZIn the government’s hierarchy of values, is free speech at the top?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45918/original/bnbx4pf7-1397008385.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">George Brandis wants to protect the 'right to be a bigot' in the name of free speech. But the government may seek to remove such a right in relation to corporations.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Dan Himbrechts</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The federal government <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/apr/02/coalition-review-of-consumer-laws-may-ban-environmental-boycotts">has indicated</a> that it is considering repealing an exemption in the <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/caca2010265/">Competition and Consumer Act</a> that provides for boycotts of companies on environmental grounds. The government is concerned at preventing boycotts such as <a href="http://blog.getup.org.au/2011/11/16/campaign-update-this-weekend-at-a-harvey-norman-store-near-you/">GetUp’s 2011 campaign</a> against Harvey Norman. Customers were urged to boycott the store to encourage it to stop stocking furniture made from Australian native forests.</p>
<p>There are valid reasons to protect even inaccurate speech in order to safeguard the principle of freedom of expression. But the issue here is that the government is seeking to do so in an inconsistent manner. </p>
<p>The government is also seeking to amend the Racial Discrimination Act in order to protect the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-24/brandis-defends-right-to-be-a-bigot/5341552">“right to be a bigot”</a> – in attorney-general George Brandis’ words – and thus to make inaccurate and harmful claims about people on the basis of their race in the name of free speech. Simultaneously, however, the government may amend the Competition and Consumer Act to remove such a right in relation to corporations. </p>
<p>In doing so, the government is exposing its own hierarchy of values in which freedom of expression is not actually paramount.</p>
<h2>The Competition and Consumer Act</h2>
<p>The parliamentary secretary for agriculture, Richard Colbeck, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/apr/02/coalition-review-of-consumer-laws-may-ban-environmental-boycotts">argued</a> that the proposed amendments to the Competition and Consumer Act are consistent with the government’s apparent <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/george-brandis-knottwister-over-free-speech-20140313-34p6q.html">commitment to freedom of speech</a>. He says that campaigners can “say what they like”, but that businesses need to have access to “some recourse to enforce accuracy”.</p>
<p>As it stands, <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/caca2010265/s45d.html">Section 45D</a> of the act prohibits people from conducting a boycott that would cause loss or damage to the business of another person. The purpose of the section is to promote competition in the market and to protect the freedom to conduct business within this market. </p>
<p>In drafting the act, the government recognised that this value of market freedom had to be balanced against the value of freedom of expression. As a result, <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/caca2010265/s45dd.html">Section 45DD</a> contains several exemptions to Section 45D, which protect certain kinds of industrial action and consumer boycotts conducted for reasons:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>…substantially related to environmental protection or consumer protection.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The operation of these two sections is a classic example of the fact that Australian law often seeks to promote a whole variety of policy objectives, and these objectives or values are not always consistent with each other. One of the complications of drafting good law is finding an appropriate balance between competing values. Often this requires determining which value is most important. </p>
<p>In the case of Section 45D, it was decided that freedom of expression would be given priority and allowed to “trump” the rights of businesses to profit.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45919/original/t43jqjmt-1397009198.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45919/original/t43jqjmt-1397009198.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45919/original/t43jqjmt-1397009198.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45919/original/t43jqjmt-1397009198.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45919/original/t43jqjmt-1397009198.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45919/original/t43jqjmt-1397009198.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45919/original/t43jqjmt-1397009198.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The government is concerned at preventing boycotts such as GetUp’s 2011 campaign against Harvey Norman.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Supplied</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The 18C debate</h2>
<p>But if we examine Colbeck’s argument in relation to the government’s <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/george-brandis-releases-planned-sweeping-changes-to-race-hate-laws-20140325-35fe3.html">commitment</a> to repealing <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/rda1975202/s18c.html">Section 18C</a> of the <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/rda1975202/">Racial Discrimination Act</a>, it becomes clear that this claim of consistency is unsustainable, unless Colbeck believes that bigotry is, in fact, accurate. </p>
<p>Brandis has previously <a href="http://hrlc.org.au/reclaiming-human-rights-from-the-fury-of-ideologues/">indicated</a> that the decision to repeal Section 18C was motivated by the <a href="http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/09/28/bolt-decision-guilty-of-discrimination-judge-declares/">2011 case</a> against News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt. Brandis argued last September that Bolt:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>…was successfully prosecuted merely because he expressed a controversial opinion.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As the law stands, <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/rda1975202/s18d.html">Section 18D</a> provides a broad exemption to Section 18C for, among other things:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>…anything said or done reasonably and in good faith … in making or publishing … a fair comment on any … matter of public interest if the comment is an expression of a genuine belief held by the person making the comment.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45920/original/qb9bq6xn-1397009294.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45920/original/qb9bq6xn-1397009294.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45920/original/qb9bq6xn-1397009294.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=886&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45920/original/qb9bq6xn-1397009294.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=886&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45920/original/qb9bq6xn-1397009294.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=886&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45920/original/qb9bq6xn-1397009294.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1113&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45920/original/qb9bq6xn-1397009294.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1113&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45920/original/qb9bq6xn-1397009294.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1113&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Andrew Bolt was found guilty of breaching Section 18C in 2011 – a section the government is seeking to repeal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Julian Smith</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In his <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/cth/FCA/2011/1103.html">judgment</a> against Bolt, Justice Bromberg emphasised that although the phrase “offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate” in Section 18C seems to be very broad, it does not extend to personal hurt feelings, but rather to conduct that has profound and serious effects.</p>
<p>The reason that Bolt was found to have breached Section 18C was because his articles were found to have both profound and serious effects, and to contain multiple errors of material fact, distortions of the truth and inflammatory and provocative language. </p>
<p>In other words, the group of fair-skinned Indigenous Australians did not use Section 18C to sue Bolt for “hurt feelings” (as so many <a href="http://freedomwatch.ipa.org.au/john-howard-backs-section-18c-repeal/">have claimed</a>), but rather as a means of preventing serious harm to themselves and their community, and as “recourse to enforce accuracy”.</p>
<h2>The wider freedom agenda</h2>
<p>When taken together, it is clear from the government’s actions that the value it holds to be paramount is the freedom of the market – or, more accurately, the freedom to profit. </p>
<p>While the government is keen to promote an unfettered right to speech when it comes into conflict with the right to equality for marginalised groups, it is quite prepared to trample over this same right to speech when it conflicts with corporate profits. </p>
<p>So, the next time Brandis highlights this government’s commitment to freedom, it’s worth being clear about whose freedom he is referring to. He has <a href="http://hrlc.org.au/reclaiming-human-rights-from-the-fury-of-ideologues/">previously written</a> that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>…rights are moral claims inhering in individual men and women (and, in certain circumstances, in corporations as well). </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In light of possible changes to the Competition and Consumer Act, perhaps Brandis should have considered reversing this order of mention.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/25272/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cristy Clark does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The federal government has indicated that it is considering repealing an exemption in the Competition and Consumer Act that provides for boycotts of companies on environmental grounds. The government is…Cristy Clark, Lecturer in Law, Southern Cross UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.