A growing number of initiatives are appearing around the world to boycott U.S. corporations, to pressure them and their government to abandon the war plans against Iraq. Independent byocott initiatives have appeared in the U.S., the U.K., continental Europe, the Middle East, Thailand, and Australia (at least). Efforts are being made to coordinate these various boycott initiatives, or to bring together into a unified boycott campaign
Boycott of US Corporations as Anti- Iraq War Strategy Advances Around the World
IDEA - International group for Direct Economic Action against the war
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In response to the well-publicized resolve of the Bush administration to undertake the invasion of Iraq, activists around the world have in recent months have begun to articulate campaigns to boycott the U.S. corporations that underwrite the Bush policies of militarism and domination.
Most of these campaigns have shared the unusual feature of calling for a boycott of many or most U.S. corporations - a GENERAL BOYCOTT, akin to the successful anti-apartheid boycott of South Africa.
One of the most active of these campaigns currently is the one developed and promoted by IDEA - International group for Direct Economic Action against the war, an international coalition of anti-war activists. This boycott campaign shares another notable aspect with the boycott of South Africa, and with a recent call for a boycott of Israeli goods made by Israelis themselves: The campaign was initiated by citizens of the target country, the U.S., and like the South Africa and Israel boycotts, it is not anti-anybody. It is anti- violence, anti-war.
There will be a call for this boycott to begin if and when the full scale invasion of Iraq takes place. This will be done in concert with all of the international peace movement's other actions-rallies,strikes, and acts of civil disbedience .
The IDEA boycott campaign has two special features: First, it calls for a boycott of British corporations as well, because of the Blair government's determined support for the U.S. war agenda.
Secondly, it has been designed to be flexible, and adaptable to the perspectives and lives of the people who are being called upon to participate. IDEA recognizes that the positions of people in the consumer marketplace vary, that their level of commitment to, and time and energy for a boycott will vary, and that people have different notions as to how a boycott ought to be implemented.
IDEA's boycott asks people to choose between two "modes" of boycotting:
1) a general boycott, where people will boycott most U.S. and U.K. corporations, to the extend that it is feasible for them to do so. They will buy from non- U.S./U.K companies, and from co-ops, small businesses, etc.that have no stake in the war. And they will reduce their spending for goods they don't need.
2) a list of companies specifically targeted by the campaign, chosen because they are military contractors as well as producers of consumer goods, because of their huge funding of the politicians that support the war, because they are a direct economic beneficiary of the "oil economy", or other good reasons. This list is divided into a "Top Two" (Phillip Morris and General Electric), the "Next 10" and the "Next 20", since some boycotters want a very simple - others a more comrehensive list.
There are other important iraq war boycott campaigns as well. In the Arab countries, some have called for the well-known partial boycotts of Israeli and U.S. goods, directed toward the Palestinian issue, to be expanded in scope to address the war. In Europe, a major boycott of Esso (Exxon-Mobil) is underway, supported by Greenpeace and other anti-war activists.
In the U.S. there is http://www.stopshopping.org/index.htm which asks people to support a growing consumer movement against the war by pledging to reduce their spending by a specific dollar amount.
For Mother Earth, a prominent Belgian disamament, ecology, and human rights organization , has just recently launched a boycott of U.S. products. http://www.motherearth.org/USboycott/ Like IDEA's boycott, Mother Earth's lists specific comanies, and also includes the choice to "boycott all US products". Other international boycott campaigns directed to the Iraq war are detailed at their web sites: http://www.boycotttheusa.com/ and http://www.boycottusa.org/ (both United Kingdom), Peace Action http://peace-action.inbyron.com/ (Australia), and Spend For Peace http://www.spendforpeace.co.nz/ (New Zealand) .
The British organization Ethical Consumer is promoting their "Boycott Bush" campaign - also a general boycott of U.S. corporations - in response to the negative U.S. position on the Kyoto global warming accords. http://www.boycottbush.net/ The scope of this campaign has not as yet been extended to the Iraq war crisis.
At this time, these campaigns are functioning rather independently, but IDEA's activists are exploring the commonalities among them with the goal of bringing them together into a unified boycott campaign to stop the war against Iraq.
www.boycottwar.net/
