>I'd say your post goes to the difference
>between boycott as politics and boycott as
>lifestyle. Boycotts are only meaningful
>politically when they reflect some kind
>of mobilized constituency. Boycotts in
>terms of some global catalog of good and
>bad business firms is more like a personal
>moral expression, fine as far as it goes
>but not to be confused with politics. The
>personal is not political.
Yes, a good point. One that I was trying to make, in a sense. You're more eloquent and astute than I. Perhaps I missed this in Mike's orig. post
I do wonder why you make the distinction between ethical and political. Aren't normative claims also political ones? This doesn't *necessarily* collapse the political *into* the personal.
Someone (Tom L I think) sent me to a web site list of USWA approved food products:
Dairy Products: 1. Baskin Robbins, CA 2. U C Milk Company, Inc.: Dairy 3. Good Humor-Breyers Ice Cream Co. 4. Popsicle Industries, CA: Popsicle; Creamsicle; Chippers; Revello 5. Prairie Farm Dairy: cottage cheese and sour cream dips 6. Penn Traffic Company, Sani-Dairy Division: Sani-Dairy 7. Natrel (Ontario) Inc., Sealtest 8. Thibault, CA: margarine 9. Uniondale Cheese Factory, Inc. CA: cheese
So, if I can find these companies in FL, then I can have cheese, margarine, cottage cheese, sour cream and LOTS of ice cream So much for buying store brands, though. Trying to figure out which big company produces those store brands is a real pisser, too, since they always simply say "distributed by _____ whatever store you're shopping at." In other words, Van de Kamps makes beans which cost about 69 cts a can. But I can buy the store brand which ARE sometime Van de Camps beans, perfectly good too and not necessarily seconds, go for 40 cts a can, sometimes less on sale. For me, 29 cts is a significant difference. If we eat two cans of beans a wk, that's a savings of about 30 bucks a year which = more than an entire week's worth of groceries. But finding out which store carries Van de Kamp's in disguise that's another question.
Bakery Products: 1. Weston Bakeries, Ltd. CA: breads 2. Golden Meal Bread, CA; bread and bakery products 3. Hostess Frito-Lay Co.CA: potato chips, bakery products 4. Rich Products, CA: frozen bakery products Maplehurst Bakeries, CA: Sara Lee Commercial Bakeries, CA: Taste Delight cookies Sunfresh Foods Limited, CA: Valueplus bread
Not too bad on the bread products. Sara Lee is a little rich for my blood and I don't buy snack foods much anyway--bake it myself much more cheaply which brings us to:
Baking Products: 1.North American Salt Company, Diamond Crystal; Purity; Red Cross; Sterling Salt 2. Best Foods, CA: Mazola Oil 3. Hershey, CA: chocolate 4. Commercial Bakeries Corp, CA: President's Choice cookies and crackers 5. Thibault, CA: margarine 6. Wilkins-Rogers, Inc.: Washington Flour; Washington Cake Mix; Washington Pancake Mix; Raga Muffins; Indian Head Cornmeal; Mrs. Crutchfield Muffin Mix
Well, of course, no sugar here. And the flour and mixes under the brand name Washington. Surely these are the *worst* thing on the market. Not only are they shoddy products, they're often marketed as good buys to unwitting consumers who believe that they are. Bleh. Shame, shame.
So, I actually don't have much to work with in terms of raw baking products produced by UWSA approved products.
Canned Foods 1. Clearwater Seafood of CA: Canned Clams 2. Best Foods, CA: Skippy peanut butter Van Kamp, US: pork and beans 3. National Fruit Products Company, Whitehouse apple sauce, , juice and cider vinegar; also canned spiced apple rings, sliced and escalloped apples
Apparently, no one makes canned vegetables or canned fruit who are worthy unionized firms. Not that I used canned stuff much. Thumbs down on this one. Not much variety and lord what would I do if a hurricane hit and we couldn't cook for two weeks. Gad. I'll go to Frances' and I won't ask where she bought the canned food for that week.
Cereal: Quaker Oats Co: oatmeal Kellogg's Co.: Nutri-Grain Bars; Pop-Tarts
My son will be thrilled with this list. he would live on nutrigrain and poptarts if I let him. I don't since there is very little nutritional value ultimately with the Nutri grain and Pop tarts, so nix them. Plus they're extraordinarily expensive. Quaker oats, okay, but they're expensive too compared to the off brands. I save nearly a dollar for a superlarge size of off brand oats. About 12 bucks a year= half a week's groceries.
Beverages 1. Mid-Atlantic Canners Association, Inc.: Coca-Cola; Orange Crush; Sprite 2. Abott Labs (Ross): Infant and adult formula 3. Quaker Oats, US: gatorade 4. Coca Cola Company: Hi-C; Minute Maid 5. Labatt Blue; Labatt Lite and various brands, including Budweiser 6. Molson Breweries 7. Clinton's Ditch Cooperative Co., Pepsi, 7 up 8. Parmalat foods: radiated, boxed milk (great!) 9. Cape Breton Beverages, CA: Pepsi products 10. Tropicana Canada: orange juice
I can live with the variety here. Name brands that are affordable, though certainly not nutritious. Of course, we could tell poor folks about how they shouldn't drink most the above crap anyway.
But I hear from another list that at least one of these Canadian breweries aren't doing too well union-wize. Anyone know more about that?
>As for the Spice Girls, nobody has said
>much about the most interesting one
>(potentially) -- Ginger, who has left
>the gold mine the group had become.
>Not unlike Jimmy Ruffin leaving the
>Temptations.
Oh but Ginger was THE Thatcherite Babe. If you want to know what I mean, you'd have to go to their old web site and take the "Which Spice Girl are you most like?" test. But she's probably no longer on it, so I fear you've missed out on a delightful experience. I recall this because much to my horror I matched Ginger. Bleh.
But do tell about the Temptations and Jimmy Ruffin
SnitgrrRl