On the important French Fry Question

[kelley]

At 11:11 AM 1/22/01 -0800, Brad DeLong wrote:
>>At 11:04 AM 1/22/01 -0500, Doug Henwood wrote:
>>>Dennis Perrin/Nancy Bauer wrote:
>>>
>>>>there are organzied boycotts
>>>>of many of the companies I choose not to buy from. Nike is perhaps the most
>>>>recognized
>>>
>>>Student anti-sweatshop activists, taking their cue from the workers, are 
>>>opposed to boycotts against the likes of Nike. They want the workers to 
>>>be well paid and decently treated and free to organize, not disemployed.
>>>
>>>Doug
>>
>>
>>  this is the crucial point.  boycotts only hurt workers unless they are 
>> done in concert with a labor struggle where, for example, they are on 
>> strike already.  and it's unfortunate that consumption-focused efforts 
>> that see themselves as "progressive" don't appear to grasp that one.
>
>Doesn't the labor-side boycott start as an anti-scab tool? As in "it won't 
>do you any good to hire scabs because no one will buy the stuff they 
>make"? Isn't a boycott's *only* role to make it very expensive to replace 
>your workforce with scabs?
>
>One problem is that this *tactical* role of a boycott in a labor dispute 
>gets confused with the *strategic* role of a boycott in green 
>disputes--there you don't want anyone to buy the stuff *ever* because you 
>don't like the environmental consequences of how it is made, while here 
>you want the stuff bought because you want to boost demand for the 
>workers' labor as long as the stuff isn't being made by scabs.
>
>But the idea that there are two kinds of boycotts with two different sets 
>of goals to be implemented in two different ways is just a little bit too 
>complicated...

so a strategic boycott, to be done right, must boycott an entire industry 
-- meat production or coffee production or athletic shoe production?  to 
just boycott one particular chain simply doesn't get at the problem at all 
since they're _all_ guilty of deploying the same tactics.  someone tell the 
story of when the county in you reside, brad, banned all gasoline suppliers 
so that the city vehicles had to fuel up in another county or somesuch

what we've seen here is moralizing condemnation of those who have made 
different choices and thrown their energies elsewhere. we've seen badges of 
honor worn on virtual sleeves, "ain't i just the kewlest because i don't 
patronize ____" .   or conversely, some variation on "jane you ignorant 
slut. .  ." heh.

kelley