Boycotts on one hand and petitions and resolutions on the other hand are not exactly the same. Boycotts can have economic impacts, and boycott campaigns can have educational impacts, provided that they are well organized. Remember, for instance, the nonimportation movement preceding the American Revolultion: <http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2003/2003-April/011385.html>. Effects of boycotts, whether or not they work for the purposes of leftists, really depend on many factors.
What if, for instance, Egyptian and Jordanian workers linked boycotts against the Israeli occupation with their struggle against their governments' neoliberal economics, which are issues that are materially linked through free trade agreements that connect Israel, the United States, and these two countries: cf. <http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2006/2006-October/020954.html>?
That said, the first order of business, for US, UK, and other activists in the North, is to change our countries' governments' policy.
On 6/1/07, Carl Remick <carlremick at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Catch-22, what? (1) Protests against Israel won't work because of massive
> US material support for Israel. (2) US material support for Israel won't be
> cut because their are no massive protests against Israel.
Anyone planning to attend this?
<http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?list=type&type=162> The World Says No to Israeli Occupation!
On the 40th anniversary of Israel's illegal military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem, join the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation and United for Peace and Justice in Washington, DC, June 10-11, 2007 for a protest, teach-in, and lobby day. -- Yoshie