Strategic, targeted boycotts can be incredibly powerful.
Imagine people can only buy stuff from companies that get stuff from Israel, but you know that company A could switch to a different supplier within a few months. So you boycott company A, buying instead from companies B, C, and D that also make stuff in Israel. If you have enough people, this would be ruinous for company A who would be unable to sell their stock for profit, and company A could have no choice but to switch to a non-Israeli supplier to let the boycott end and restore their profits. Then you all buy from company A, pressuring companies B, C, and D to switch supplier.
One of the things that annoys me about the BDS campaign is that it doesn’t do this. People see a huge list of stuff to avoid that they’ve become habituated to and either bounce off it or only do it partially. I’m not saying to retract the list, but it would be great if BDS picked one product off the list and said “if you boycott anything, boycott this”, and kept it there until the company relented.
Strategic, targeted boycotts can be incredibly powerful.
Imagine people can only buy stuff from companies that get stuff from Israel, but you know that company A could switch to a different supplier within a few months. So you boycott company A, buying instead from companies B, C, and D that also make stuff in Israel. If you have enough people, this would be ruinous for company A who would be unable to sell their stock for profit, and company A could have no choice but to switch to a non-Israeli supplier to let the boycott end and restore their profits. Then you all buy from company A, pressuring companies B, C, and D to switch supplier.
One of the things that annoys me about the BDS campaign is that it doesn’t do this. People see a huge list of stuff to avoid that they’ve become habituated to and either bounce off it or only do it partially. I’m not saying to retract the list, but it would be great if BDS picked one product off the list and said “if you boycott anything, boycott this”, and kept it there until the company relented.