Activism Change

Join the Great Boycott

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JUST SAY NO TO TOXICS: THE GREAT BOYCOTT    DOW SHALT NOT KILL, reads a poster published by United Silicone Victims to explain a boycott of Dow products. Other long-standing boycotts include those against Monsanto by Family Farm Defenders, Betty Martini, and the Pure Dairy Commission. Now a Great Boycott has been launched against these and other giant multinational producers of pesticides and other toxic chemicals and wastes.        Why would a group of healers, as well as health, environmental, and political activists, put time and energy into a boycott of multinational corporations? Perhaps Jon Rappoport explained it best in a 1994 lecture at the Whole Life Expo. Then a Congressional candidate, he emphasized that individuals who would heal or build health cannot ignore the health of local and global ecosystems, nor the political and economic health of the region, nation, and planet.    Whatever individuals learn about health and healing, they lack power to protect their health entirely. How can individuals avoid what abounds in local and global ecosystems? Murderous and indiscriminant, toxic pollution robs all people of choice.    Since the 1980s, Rappoport has warned of toxic pollution as an author, journalist, radio host, and lecturer at book stores, rallies, the Expo, and other gatherings of health-minded people. Underscoring the limitations of national regulations in controlling toxic hazards, he often described the circle of poison that results when American companies ship pesticides and chemicals banned in the United States to foreign countries, and Americans buy them back with imported food and other goods.      On February 16, Rappoport addressed Great Boycott activists gathered in the lecture hall of Deep River Books in Santa Monica. Crammed into aisles, spilling out the door, and overflowing into an adjacent patio, the audience listened as he explained how each year, globalization of business and trade concentrates more money and power into the hands of a few multinational corporations. This power impacts politics at all levels; contaminants in food, air, land, and water; and the quality of food and other goods available. The Great Boycott will discourage use of toxic substances and weaken the grip of multinational corporations on international politics.      The targets of the boycott are Dow, Du Pont, Monsanto, Imperial Chemical Industries (England), Rhone Poulenc (France), Ciba-Geigy (Switzerland), Bayer, and Hoechst (Germany), and subsidaries. The publication REVOLT AGAINST THE EMPIRE: WELCOME TO THE GREAT BOYCOTT, explains, in riveting, horrifying detail, the histories, products, and global health impact of the targeted companies. The strategies:     (1) Boycott their products; (2) Boycott their stock; (3) Tell others, including institutions, to sell their stock in these companies; (4) Don’t work for these corporations; (5) Pass the word.    The complexity of the corporations, the nature of their products, and the daunting scope of the boycott generates scores of "yes buts." Here are Rappoport’s answers to some common "yes buts."      Yes but: Shouldn’t we be boycotting corporation X?    R: By all means, add them to the list of corporations you or your group boycott. These eight key corporations were chosen as leading manufacturers of pesticides, as well as major sources of toxic chemicals, chlorine based products, and billions of pounds of industrial wastes. Poisons, you might say, are their life. They are all forwarding genetic projects to engineer food seeds so that our food supply in the fields will accept much higher doses of herbicides without curling up and dying.  You will ingest these higher levels of herbicide.    Yes but: Shouldn’t you be working with and through Organization X?  Shouldn’t you do X…?    R: No! YOU should. The Great Boycott is not run as an organization with a single leader and a cadre of assistants. This boycott if it succeeds will be run by small groups and individuals world-wide. The organizations that have endorsed the boycott will support it as they choose: a mention in the newsletter, a world wide letterwriting and faxing campaign, or a demonstration. You can make a phenomenal impact even on your own.      Yes but: How does an individual consumer boycott these, or retail junk we would not buy in the first place?    R: All the more reason to spread the word. Obtain the flyer and the press release about the Great Boycott. If you do nothing else, send it to store managers, leave it in restaurants, post it on bulletin boards, put it between the pages of a library book about environmental poisons. Put it on the Internet. Fax it to as many numbers as you can, including those of publications and groups.      Yes but: Many of their products are sold to wholesalers, large industries, and farmers.    R: Emphasize the disinvestment element. A corporation cannot survive if people don’t buy its stock, A company’s stock rises and falls, not only on its performance, but on people’s expectations. A little loss of confidence can initiate a drop that accelerates to a plunge.    Yes but: I don’t buy stocks.      R: You might contact stock brokers, portfolio managers, and investment consultants. Your IRA or your pension plan at work may be invested in stock. One of our supporters talks to the stock brokers and money managers who call to solicit her business.    Yes but: Isn’t this awfully negative?    R: Negative? Try global poisoning of air, water, soil, food and all life forms by powerful multinationals. Or the murderous litany of side effects listed for their drugs in the PDR. Besides poisons on a colossal scale, we are up against monopolies of monstrous power. By all means, take positive steps: buy and raise organic produce, meditate, seek alternative products, but you break a monopoly by boycotting its stock and products, then laying down real alternatives to the needs it pretends to fill.    Yes but: How can a few hundred Davids affect the behavior or survival of eight multinational Goliaths?    R: It depends on how well these so-called "Davids," overcome the initial inertia. They can easily become millions of "Davids" and starve the "Goliaths." Always remember: people support these corporations with their purchase of product and stock, and their labor. These corporation need us. We don’t need them.    Far from languishing in inertia, a group of Davids has charged ahead, Faxing press releases, writing letters, and sending out Faxes. Millions more are needed. William Dailey and Don Kidson have offered the use of the Hardware Humanitarian House at 1427 12th St., Santa Monica, 395-6337, for interested groups to meet. Rappoport will conduct meetings there the first Sunday of each month, –March 3, April 7, and May 5– from 6:00–8:00 P.M.  A $1 donation to the House would be appreciated. A partial list of boycotted products:    Dow: Ziploc bags, Fantastik, Handi-Wrap, Saran Wrap, Spray ‘n Wash, Dow Bathroom Cleaner, Glass Plus Multisurface Cleaner, Smart Scrub, Ultra Yes Laundry Detergent, Vivid Bleach, Style and Permasoft hair products, Nicorette, Norhistamine, Cepacol, Gly- oxide, Gaviscon, Cepastat, Citrucel, Delbrox, Os-Cal, Styrofoam plastic products, Starane, Spike, Verdict, Trefflan, and Dursban    Du Pont Du Pont brand paints, cement, and lacquers; Lucite paints; Benlate, Benomyl, and Carbendazim; Conoco, Jet and Seca petroleum products; Teflon; High Impact, Magnathin, Magnum, Prime Plus, and Stren fishing lines.    Monsanto NutraSweet, Equal; Simplesse; Simple Pleasures Frozen Dairy Desserts, Salad Dressing, and Mayonnaise; Roundup, Dimension; the Flavr Savr tomato, products containing BGH.    Bayer All Bayer aspirins, Alkaseltzer, One-A-Day Vitamins, Flintstone Chewable Vitamins, SOS Scouring Pads, Bugs Bunny Vitamins, and Cutter insect repellent.  Ciba-Geigy: Funk Seeds Products, SoftColor and Vision Care contact lenses, Nupercaine Ointment, Privine Nasal Spray, Doan’s Pills, Fiberall Laxative, Sunkist Vitamins, Accutrim, and Ten-K.           For flyers, information about The Great Boycott and specific products, call 213/243-9005. For in depth information about the boycott and the companies, obtain a copy of REVOLT AGAINST THE EMPIRE: WELCOME TO THE GREAT BOYCOTT, with full reproduction and distribution rights, from Deep River Books, or send a check to Jon Rappoport, 2633 Lincoln Boulevard, #256, Santa Monica, Calif. Price: $8. Or photocopy a friend’s. AN ABRIDGED VERSION OF THIS ARTICLE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN WHOLE LIFE TIMES.

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Filed under: Disinvestment

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