Washblog || Class Warfare: National Boycott for Peace & Impeachment

Class Warfare: National Boycott for Peace & Impeachment

By bluebird
Sat Mar 03, 2007 at 07:06:49 PM PST
Section: Diary Topic: Impeachment

In the early `90s I had a conversation with a photographer who sublet half of my painting studio. Her parents were wealthy - they flew her and her five siblings to the Super Bowl every year - the site of their annual family reunion. She told me about the wedding of a college friend who came from what she described as an "Old Money" Chicago family. The friend was slated to spend $70,000 on a wedding to a man from a less prestigious "New Money" family. She quoted the friend's explanation for this union: "It's very important for the money to stay in the right places." I couldn't agree more.

The National Boycott Campaign for Peace & Impeachment (www.wearenotbuyingit.org) is scheduled to run from April 15th to April 22, "Tax Day to Earth Day," in an effort to pressure Corporate America into withdrawing its support for this President and the war in the Middle East. If elected officials won't listen to constituents, maybe they'll listen to their donors? The immediate goal of the boycott is to limit the profits of these companies and thus pressure them to nudge Congress to end the war and follow through on impeachment investigations. This can be done at literally no cost and at no personal risk. The long-term goal is reclaiming our democracy.

This makes sense to me, because as I see it, power has shifted from governments to corporations. The Fortune 500, the major banks, the Defense contractors all benefit directly from the Bush Administration's domestic and foreign policies. They have the ability to destroy the environment and exploit cheap labor in other countries. They take money from local economies, and use it to subvert democracy for their own ends.

The consumer culture of the late 20th century cannot be maintained. The planet simply doesn't have unlimited resources. We - every one of us - need to change our ways. Shopping locally from independently owned businesses is probably one of the best things we can do for the environment - by cutting down on pollution associated with transporting goods over long distances - and for our communities, by keeping profits where they can be reinvested in local markets and projects.

I contacted the campaign to ask for a complete list of companies to boycott, and had a little email exchange with Lew Brown, one of the organizers. He had this to say:

The rule of thumb for shopping would be, if the product is heavily advertised it's probably one of the companies to avoid.
Once people have bought into [the boycott] as a form of resistance and they begin to see the effects of their collective power we can move on to even more devastating economic resistance along the lines of a general strike.
Bear in mind all of these tactics are but one facet of the greater movement towards peace and justice, but they are perhaps the most potentially damaging to the power elite. Without their flow of revenue, without millions of compliant "consumers" pumping money into their accounts every single day there is nothing they can do except watch it all slip away and into the hands of an empowered and informed public. There are also inherent moral and ethical dilemmas in this kind of action, but I suppose we could look upon people who have invested their time, money and life into building a franchise for Target or Starbucks as being a kind of Vichy French, in that they made their decision to go with the corporate flow without regard for the costs of the actions their companies incur around the globe through trading with sweat shops, undercutting prices in local economies and using the economies of scale to eliminate small businesses as competition in their communities while drawing the money that would have circulated locally to a distant corporate headquarters.

During the week of April 15 - 22, I will refrain from shopping at chain stores and gas stations. I will look into moving my money from a major bank to a local credit union. If I need to shop, I will visit independently owned businesses and the farmer's market. For one week I believe anyone can do this. I, for one, plan to make a habit of it.

< Olympia Pro-Impeachment Rally | Puppet Ponderings: A Brilliant Analysis >

Class Warfare: National Boycott for Peace & Impeachment | 9 comments (9 topical)

Starbucks and Target are the 'Vichy'?

You must be kidding with this.

I'm not a Starbuck's fan or customer, but the mere fact of its corporate status and marketing prowess hardly makes the company complicit in the crimes of the Bush administration. Please get a grip.

This diary shows totally confused thinking. You draw a straight line between all the Fortune 500 companies and the war in Iraq AND dangerous environmental policies AND make them all out to be agents of the Bush administration. Conspiracies abound...

Do you even know all the companies that are listed in the Fortune 500? And I do mean "ALL", since you promote an across-the-board boycott. Instead of listening to your friend Lew, who counsels boycotting any and all companies with a strong advertising platform, you should do a little research.

You should also ask yourself what the real purpose of your boycott is, because if you really believe that not buying from Target will result in that company's CEO, COO and CFO slapping down George Bush and the occupation in Iraq you are smoking something mighty powerful. This boycott campaign --if described accurately in this diary, and I'm not sure it is -- is based on a false construct, and served up with a splash of piss and vinegar for the knee-jerk crowd.

If you want to boycott all the Fortune 500 companies, be my guest. I'm certain SOME of those companies are engaged in practices that are counter-productive to environmentally sound policies. So pick your battles, and be clear about what they are.

If you want to end the war in Iraq, you'd best get in touch with your congressional representatives and tell them you'll be boycotting THEM in 2008 if they don't pony up an exit plan. You could even publicize the corporations that they get campaign contributions from.

I'm continually stunned by how little thought goes into beating back the unethical policies of this, or any, presidential administration.

But since I have the day off tomorrow, I'd still like a little of what you're smoking.

by shoephone on Sat Mar 03, 2007 at 11:45:54 PM PST

* 1 none 0 *

see also prison labor by bluebird, 03/04/2007 11:43:26 AM PST (none / 0)
c'mon - what about NOT spending life fools by rmdSeaBos, 03/05/2007 05:40:48 PM PST (none / 0)

some of what I'm smoking

Between 1989 - 2006, the following companies contributed to the major political parties:

Supporters of the Republican Party:

American Medical Association $24,220,439M
Altria Group $22,330,450M
National Auto Dealers Association $20,754,892M
United Parcel Service $20,458,428M
National Assn of Home Builders $18,928,515M
American Bankers Association $17,869,830M
National Beer Wholesalers Association $16,509,004
National Rifle Association $15,847,474M
Verizon Communications $15,330,191M
Lockheed Martin $14,330,819M
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu $12,423,471M
RJR Nabisco/RJ Reynolds $12,412,097M
Union Pacific Corp. $12,164,568M
PricewaterhouseCoopers $11,814,018M
Merrill Lynch $11,794,769M
American Institute of CPAs $11,618,621M
Pfizer, Inc. $11,114,230M
American Financial Group $10,167,764M
MBNA Corp. $10,106,006M
Chevron $9,434,478
General Motors $9,323,853M
UST Inc. $9,205,002M
Exxon Mobil $9,027,614M
National Restaurant Association $8,603,045M
GlaxoSmithKline $8,453,498M
Southern Co. $8,220,627M
Eli Lilly & Co. $7,758,601M
Associated General Contractors $7,720,066M
Amway Corp. $7,661,516M
CSX Corp. $7,508,160M
Bristol-Myers Squibb $6,799,855M
Enron Corp. $6,585,907M
Andersen $6,290,362M
British Petroleum $5,557,049M
Vivendi $3,818,670

Corporations Supporting Both Parties:

AT&T Inc. $36,920,985
National Association of Realtors $30,289,548M
FedEx Group $22,724,449M
Citigroup Inc. $20,852,446M
Microsoft Corp. $15,949,283M
JP Morgan Chase & Co. $15,402,854M
General Electric $13,488,554M
BellSouth Corp. $14,373,277M
Ernst & Young $14,207,387M
Morgan Stanley $14,122,740M
Credit Union National Assn $13,632,897
American Dental Assn $13,475,089
Bank of America $13,426,947M
Blue Cross/Blue Shield $12,784,055M
AFLAC Inc $11,972,189M
Boeing Co $10,673,685M
Anheuser-Busch $10,037,973M
Credit Suisse Group $9,649,187M
Nat'l Rural Electric Cooperative Assn $9,548,052M
Freddie Mac $9,264,523M
Walt Disney Co. $9,205,002M
Exxon Mobil $9,027,614M
Prudential Financial $8,479,932M
MCI, Inc. $7,951,186M
Metropolitan Life $7,592,281M

Corporations receiving multi-million dollar defense contracts:

Lockheed Martin $94,056,641,059
Boeing Co $81,645,655,401
Raytheon Co $39,904,717,897
Northrop Grumman $33,829,847,656
General Dynamics $33,280,959,821
United Technologies $17,953,516,117 _
General Electric $10,600,007,101
Science Applications International Corp $10,598,835,883
Carlyle Group $9,334,962,462
Newport News Shipbuilding $8,852,781,214
TRW Inc $8,725,744,602
CLASSIFIED DEFENSE CONTRACTOR $8,267,851,367 _
Computer Sciences Corp $6,789,832,719
Halliburton Co $6,768,728,331
Textron Inc $6,629,835,387
Litton Industries $6,478,824,475
Honeywell International $6,135,622,361 _
Health Net Inc $6,111,054,478
Humana Inc $5,683,896,585
L-3 Communications $5,233,392,435
ITT Industries $5,079,977,541
BAE Systems $4,814,022,157
Bechtel Group $4,407,883,109
DynCorp $4,144,957,980
Triwest Healthcare Alliance $3,747,753,606
Alliant Techsystems $3,232,676,891
Booz Allen Hamilton Inc $3,031,707,940 _
Boeing Sikorsky Comanche Team $2,866,440,580
FedEx Corp $2,741,817,111
MITRE Corp $2,581,129,647
Oshkosh Truck Corp $2,571,553,972
Aerospace Corp $2,494,160,391
Stewart & Stevenson Services $2,449,600,260 _
Titan Corp $2,389,803,664
Exxon Mobil Corp $2,385,708,270
Jacobs Engineering Group $2,375,316,745 _
URS Corp $2,366,845,558
Longbow LLC $2,298,648,038
Massachusetts Institute of Technology $2,297,676,759
Electronic Data Systems Corp $2,291,485,707
Veritas Capital Management $2,208,194,107
Government of Canada $2,207,393,181
Dell Computer $2,190,422,159
BP $2,107,226,427
Motorola Inc $2,036,815,650
Johnson Controls $2,033,875,329 _
Raytheon/Lockheed Martin Javelin Joint Venture $2,029,406,010
Harris Corp $2,022,433,071
IT Group Inc $1,991,658,451
Cardinal Health $1,934,142,520 50

100 of the Fortune 500:

1. Exxon Mobil (XOM)
2 Wal-Mart Stores (WMT)
3 General Motors (GM)
4 Chevron (CVX)
5 Ford Motor (F)
6 ConocoPhillips (COP)
7 General Electric (GE)
8 Citigroup (C)
9 American Intl. Group (AIG)
10 Intl. Business Machines (IBM)
11 Hewlett-Packard (HPQ)
12 Bank of America Corp. (BAC)
13 Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA)
14 Home Depot (HD)
15 Valero Energy (VLO)
16 McKesson (MCK)
17 J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
18 Verizon Communications (VZ)
19 Cardinal Health (CAH)
20 Altria Group (MO)
21 Kroger (KR)
22 State Farm Insurance Cos
23 Marathon Oil (MRO)
25 Dell (DELL)
26 Boeing (BA)
27 Amerisource Bergen (ABC)
28 Costco Wholesale (COST)
29 Target (TGT)
30 Morgan Stanley (MS)
31 Pfizer (PFE)
32 Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)
33 Sears Holdings (SHLD)
34 Merrill Lynch (MER)
35 MetLife (MET)
36 Dow Chemical (DOW)
37 UnitedHealth Group (UNH)
38 Wellpoint (WLP)
39 AT&T (T)
40 Time Warner (TWX)
41 Goldman Sachs Group (GS)
42 Lowe's (LOW)
43 United Technologies (UTX)
44 United Parcel Service (UPS)
45 Walgreen (WAG)
46 Wells Fargo (WFC)
47 Albertson's (ABS)
48 Microsoft (MSFT)
49 Intel (INTC)
50 Safeway (SWY)
51 Medco Health Solutions (MHS)
52 Lockheed Martin (LMT)
53 CVS (CVS)
54 Motorola (MOT)
55 Caterpillar (CAT)
56 Archer Daniels Midland (ADM)
57 Wachovia Corp. (WB)
58 Allstate (ALL)
59 Sprint Nextel (S)
60 Caremark Rx (CMX)
61 PepsiCo (PEP)
62 Lehman Brothers (LEH)
63 Walt Disney (DIS)
64 Prudential Financial (PRU)
65 Plains All Amer. Pipeline (PAA)
66 Sunoco (SUN)
67 Northrop Grumman (NOC)
68 Sysco (SYY)
69 American Express (AXP)
70 FedEx (FDX)
71 Honeywell Intl. (HON)
72 Ingram Micro (IM)
73 DuPont (DD)
74 New York Life Insurance
75 Johnson Controls (JCI)
76 Best Buy (BBY)
77 Delphi (DPHIQ)
78 Hartford Financial Services (HIG)
79 Alcoa (AA)
80 Tyson Foods (TSN)
81 TIAA-CREF
82 International Paper (IP)
83 Cisco Systems (CSCO)
84 HCA (HCA)
85 St. Paul Travelers Cos. (STA)
86 News Corp. (NWS)
87 Federated Dept. Stores (FD)
88 Amerada Hess (AHC)
89 Coca-Cola (KO)
90 Weyerhaeuser (WY)
91 Aetna (AET)
92 Mass. Mutual Life Ins.
93 Abbott Laboratories (ABT)
94 Comcast (CMCSK)
95 Merck (MRK)
96 Deere (DE)
97 Raytheon (RTN)
98 Nationwide
99 Washington Mutual (WM)
100 General Dynamics (GD)

by bluebird on Sun Mar 04, 2007 at 11:07:36 AM PST

* 2 none 0 *

wow - you know how to use the google by shoephone, 03/04/2007 01:15:02 PM PST (none / 0)

did you visit their website? by bluebird, 03/04/2007 01:29:16 PM PST (none / 0)

And you still didn't explain by shoephone, 03/04/2007 01:18:42 PM PST (none / 0)

direct quote by bluebird, 03/04/2007 01:58:06 PM PST (none / 0)

Welcome Bluebird ! 1st Diary &

good luck.

part of this local blog thing is that everyone goes there cuz everyone goes there ...

I do hope you'll continue to go here, as I've enjoyed your comments in other theres than here ;)

rmm.

http://www.liemail.com/BambooGrassroots.html

by rmdSeaBos on Wed Mar 07, 2007 at 05:55:32 PM PST

* 9 none 0 *

Class Warfare: National Boycott for Peace & Impeachment | 9 comments (9 topical)

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