The Case for Boycotts

You might think that street protests and economic boycotts are the province of the left and/or union agitators; but that is not the case. The first major protest in our country was itself a form of boycott.

Wikipedia:
“The Boston Tea Party was a direct action protest by colonists in Boston, a town in the British colony of Massachusetts, against the British government. On December 16, 1773, after officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor. The incident remains an iconic event of American history, and has often been referenced in other political protests.

The Tea Party was the culmination of a resistance movement throughout British America against the Tea Act, which had been passed by the British Parliament in 1773. Colonists objected to the Tea Act for a variety of reasons, especially because they believed that it violated their right to be taxed only by their own elected representatives. Protesters had successfully prevented the unloading of taxed tea in three other colonies, but in Boston, embattled Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson refused to allow the tea to be returned to Britain. He apparently did not expect that the protestors would choose to destroy the tea rather than concede the authority of a legislature in which they were not directly represented.”(1)

Returning taxed tea to Britain was a means of boycott. American colonists had refused to purchase tea whose taxing by Britain represented a coercive act with which they disagreed.

Yet, the Boston Tea Party protesters took their boycott even further. Since the Royal Governor refused to return the tea to Britain, it was dumped into the Boston Harbor in an even more overt type of boycott.

As Wikipedia points out, there were other protests in the colonies. One of those protests had a surprising author. The sitting Governor of Virginia, upset at the revolutionary fervor of the Virginia House of Burgesses over the Stamp Act, decided to cancel the assembly. Thus duly cancelled the representatives, including Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, George Washington and Henry Lee, decided it was time to act against the Crown.

I’ll let Alf J. Mapp, Jr. describe the event:
George Washington advanced a plan that “called for the organization of associations whose members would be pledged to import no British goods except a few specified necessities.”(2)

Needless to say, the purpose of the plan, which would cause great hardship to the people of Virginia, was to hit the Crown where it hurt and let them know that the colonists did not do business with a dictator.
Today the Tea Party protesters and other leaders of their movement have been the victims of boycotts by leftists who are trying to silence our voices. And there are businesses working to profit from the massive spending of our tax dollars by the Obama administration.

It is time to do more than make signs, participate in town halls and march on State Houses. It is time to hit the left where it hurts. The Tea Party protesters are the only group that can mount effective boycotts because we are the most productive sector of our economy. We still work, we still earn money and we can direct our money into areas that promote free markets and freedom of expression. Why should we finance our enemies through our purchases?

Below is a list of company types that are ripe to be defeated by effective boycotts.

1. Companies whose owners have given substantial contributions to far left organizations. These people make huge profits by means of “insider” information gotten from the government and by means of being given the “privelige” to participate in the planning of government boondoggles and other forms of re-distribution (theft). They have donated to leftist causes and leftist politicians. Why are we buying their hedge fund services, their insurance policies and their products? Why should we give them the money they need to erode our freedoms? Why do we donate to their foundations that fund anti-capitalism in the universities and government?

2. Far left organizations. These organizations need to be exposed – especially in the area of where they get their money. They should be ostracized and their protests should be protested.

3. Companies openly seeking to “partner” with the government in the hope of gaining significant business from government programs, expenditures, grants or other contracts. There are many companies in bed with the government in the hopes of cornering markets. These companies are seeking to beat their competition by using political campaign contributions, advocating government programs and paying lobbyists to represent their interests. Many of the jobs they will create will go to friends of the left and will result in a waste of money.

4. Labor unions are seeking to muscle in on capitalism and they have paid dearly for a favored status with the government. They seek to use the government to protect them while they shake down and extort millions in the forms of union dues, high wages and unfair rules that tie the hands of private firms.

5. Companies that join in boycotts of Tea Party members, authors, private citizens and/or public speakers. Whenever a company buys the line of the far left and pulls advertising and support from people like Glenn Beck, they should in turn be boycotted.

There are other forms of boycott. The association suggested by George Washington is a way of organizing boycotts and other forms of resistance. In addition, petitions, letters to the editors, letters and phone calls to elected representatives and to the heads of corrupt businesses can improve the effectiveness of boycotts. We also need journalists who are willing to stand up for truth by exposing the corrupt and often illegal practices that are being engaged by many people in government today. If they look closely enough they will find bribery, threat, extortion, insider trading, shady deals and oligarchy at the heart of our government. These practices need to be exposed to the light of day. Who has the courage to do this?

Tea Party protesters should put their money to work helping to create a free society. We cannot support with our hard earned dollars companies that are part of the problem. We should not work for or buy the products of companies and organizations that have declared war on the American way of life. This includes the White House, Congress, so-called community organizations, Far-Left Foundations and favor-seeking corporations.

(1)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party
(2)Thomas Jefferson by Alf J. Mapp, Jr. Madison Books