History of Boycotts
Boyco%s have a long and proud history of promo7ng progressive social change: 1773 Boston Tea Party The Tea Act granted the Bri7sh East India Company a monopoly on tea sales in the American colonies. A tea boyco% was used to mobilize colonists to protest against being taxed without any representa7on in the Bri7sh Parliament. 1791 Sugar and Rum Boyco5 AWer the Bri7sh Parliament rejected the Aboli7on Bill in 1791, aboli7onists called for a boyco% of Britain's largest import, slave-­‐grown sugar. By 1792, 400,000 people in Britain were boyco_ng slave-­‐grown sugar. 1933 AnB-­‐Nazi Boyco5 of German goods When Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, Jewish war veterans and the interna7onal trade union movement organized a boyco% of Germany. A huge rally in New York a%racted 55,000 people. 1955 Montgomery Bus Boyco5s To protest segregated sea7ng, African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama. The Supreme Court ul7mately ordered Montgomery to integrate its bus system, and a boyco% leader, Mar7n Luther King Jr, emerged as a na7onal civil rights movement leader. 1970 Grape and Le5uce Boyco5s To call a%en7on to the poor working condi7ons of migrant workers, the United Farm Workers called for a na7onwide boyco% of all non-­‐union le%uce and grapes. The ensuing strikes, mass pickets and boyco%s led to labor law reforms in California. 1980s Boyco5 of Apartheid South Africa Ini7ated in London in 1959, by the 1980s the An7-­‐Apartheid boyco% had become a worldwide protest encompassing boyco%s, sanc7ons and divestments. It led directly to the freeing of Nelson Mandela and the dismantling of the regime. BOYCOTTS AND FREE SPEECH -­‐ WHAT THE US SUPREME COURT HAS SAID The First Amendment to the United States cons7tu7on, the right of free speech, protects the right of collec7ve ac7vi7es such as freedom of assembly and freedom of associa7on. Group expression is recognized as being as important as individual expression. Three landmark US Supreme Court judgments have se%led the ques7on of whether boyco% ac7vity is protected under the First Amendment: NAACP v Claiborne Hardware (1982) The Mississippi branch of the NAACP had orchestrated a boyco% against local businesses that refused to hire African Americans. The court found` that the economic harm caused by non violent boyco% ac7vity did not diminish or impact the free speech rights of boyco%ers. Pickering v Board of EducaBon (1968) A local school teacher was dismissed aWer wri7ng a le%er to a local newspaper cri7cal of the ac7ons of the Township Board of Educa7on. The court recognized that public employees could not be denied or offered a job based on their poli7cal views. O’Hare Trucking Services v City of North Lake (1996) A business’s contract with the city was terminated on the basis of the owners poli7cal ac7vity. The Court found the ‘Pickering” principle applied to contractors too, meaning the state cannot refuse to do business with an en7ty based on the owners’ poli7cal views or ac7ons. History of Boycotts
What are some conclusions we can reach
regarding these boycotts in US history:
What do these boycotts have in common? How do they differ?
Would you have participated in a boycott if
given the chance? Are there some boycotts that you wouldn't have
participated in? How many of these boycotts did the federal or
state government try to restrict?
How do you feel about the Palestinian call to
boycott products made in the Occupied West
Bank?
History of Boycotts
BOSTON TEA PARTY
h%p://www.bostonteapartyship.com/boston-­‐tea-­‐party-­‐facts h%p://www.american-­‐revolu7onary-­‐war-­‐facts.com/Events-­‐Leading-­‐To-­‐
American-­‐Revolu7on/Boston-­‐Tea-­‐Party-­‐Facts.shtml h%p://www.history.com/news/10-­‐things-­‐you-­‐may-­‐not-­‐know-­‐about-­‐the-­‐boston-­‐
tea-­‐party SUGAR AND RUM BOYCOTT
h%p://aboli7on.e2bn.org/campaign_17.html h%p://azvsas.blogspot.com/2015/03/boyco%-­‐weapon-­‐of-­‐oppressed.html ANTI-NAZI BOYCOTT
h%p://azvsas.blogspot.com/2015/03/boyco%-­‐weapon-­‐of-­‐oppressed.html MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTTS
h%p://www.history.com/topics/black-­‐history/montgomery-­‐bus-­‐boyco% GRAPE AND LETTUCE BOYCOTTS
h%p://peoplesworld.org/today-­‐in-­‐labor-­‐history-­‐united-­‐farm-­‐workers-­‐launch-­‐
the-­‐le%uce-­‐boyco%/ BOYCOTTS AND FREE SPEECH CASE LAW
Watch Alan Levine’s excellent summary of case law delivered during a panel discussion organized by Woodstock Free Speech in July 2016: h%p://woodstockfreespeech.org/wfs-­‐events