From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: BOYCOTTS AS SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 08:23:06 GMT

The ACTivist, Volume 8 #9, September 1992.

The ACTivist, Ontario's peace monthly, is published by ACT for
Disarmament, 736 Bathurst St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S 2R4,
phone 416-531-6154, fax 416-531-5850, e-mail web:act. Hard copy
subscriptions are $10 for a year ($25 for institutions and funded
agencies).

Reprint freely, but please credit us (and send us a copy!)

/** gen.newsletter: 138.14 **/
** Written  9:00 pm  Aug 31, 1992 by web:act in cdp:gen.newsletter **
BOYCOTTS AS SPIRITUAL PRACTICE

By Brian Burch

Each issue of the Student Christian Movement magazine All Things 
New contains information on boycotts. From Daishowa pulp and paper
 products to California table grapes, products are isolated for boycott 
in an effort to link the call for justice with a simple and powerful tool 
for change. Whether viewed as a spiritual exercise or an act of 
solidarity, boycotts have been a long-standing part of the life and 
work of the SCM.

Boycotts are a pragmatic and simple tool. By refusing to buy a product, 
we cease to pay for the injustices which bring profit to those who 
distribute these goods. It is both an individual action, as each person 
chooses to buy or not buy a given product, and a collective action whose
 supporters non-cooperate with the marketplace for a specific purpose
 during a common period of time.

Among the many boycotts that members of SCM support are the 
California table grape, the General Electric and the Bata Shoes 
boycotts.

The United Farmworkers' boycott of California table grapes is an 
effort to achieve fair and free collective bargaining for migrant 
farmworkers and an end to the use of five of the most deadly pesticides 
that are regularly sprayed upon the food we eat.

The General Electric boycott is an effort to end GE's involvement in 
the nuclear arms industry. And the boycott of Bata Shoes is due to 
the heavy involvement of Bata in Indonesia, whose invasion of East 
Timor has resulted in the deaths of over 200,000 people since 1976.

Boycotts seem an ideal form of social action for a religious organization. 
An individual acts on the faith that by what one person chooses to do,
 change can occur. There is no violence done to anyone. A boycott can 
be organized individually or collectively, bringing to a campaign public
 actions like rallies, to reinforce what an individual is doing in day to 
day life.

There are no rewards to gain by participating in a boycott for those 
choosing not to buy a product. It involves small transformation of 
behaviour. The effects of boycotts, however, can be enormous, as those 
seeking an end to apartheid in South Africa can testify.

A benefit for the California grape, General Electric, Bata Shoes, and 
other boycotts, will be held on Friday, September 11 at 7:00 p.m., 
in the Steelworkers' Hall, 25 Cecil St. Admission is $7, which includes 
a DJ, cash bar, snacks, and a minimum of speeches. For more 
information, contact the University of Toronto SCM at 979-9629.



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