African Methodist Episcopal Church bishop Reginald Jackson announced a boycott of Coca-Cola products in front of the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta on March 25 because he said Coca-Cola and other major Georgia corporations had not done enough to defy restrictive electoral laws. Coca-Cola spoke out against a voting law after it was incorporated into the law. Jeff Amy / AP hide caption
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Jeff Amy / AP
African Methodist Episcopal Church bishop Reginald Jackson announced a boycott of Coca-Cola products in front of the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta on March 25 because he said Coca-Cola and other major Georgia corporations had not done enough to defy restrictive electoral laws. Coca-Cola spoke out against a voting law after it was incorporated into the law.
Jeff Amy / AP
When Major League Baseball decided to move its all-star game out of Georgia due to the state’s new restrictive electoral law, it became the latest in a series of political boycotts.
Many companies have been boycotted over the years, but until recently it was quite rare for companies to speak out.
This is exactly what happens after the Georgian law is passed.
Atlanta-based Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines, for example, condemned the law as “unacceptable”. Home Depot, Georgia’s largest company, has tried to stay out of the controversy. Its co-founder, Ken Langone, was an early – and significant – donor to Donald Trump, despite feeling “betrayed” by the former president after the January 6 riot at the Capitol.
And while Georgia-based companies have taken the floor after the move went into effect, some Texas-based companies are ahead of proposed voting laws there.
On Friday, another business leader, Levi Strauss CEO Chip Bergh, called laws like Georgia “racist” and a “step backwards”.
“We’re going to do whatever we can to work with lawmakers” in places like Texas and Florida, where Levi’s has major operations, “to make sure these restrictive laws don’t go into effect,” Bergh told CNN.
Trump, meanwhile, has called for a boycott of what he mockingly called “lively” companies, and Republican Senate Chairman Mitch McConnell has warned of the potentially “grave consequences” for companies that weigh down the voting rules. It’s quite a twist from a long-term lockstep relationship between American corporations and the Republican Party. However, this was stirred up by the party’s emphasis on cultural issues in the Trump era.
These boycotts are no accident, and one does not have to look far for similar ones. Here’s a look at some great examples in history – new and not so new – of how boycotts began and where the word comes from:
Some notable examples
North Carolina “Bathroom Bill”: In 2016, the NCAA boycotted the state of North Carolina, and some states and local governments prevented their officials from traveling to North Carolina on business because a law restricted LGBTQ rights that included restrictions on bathroom use.
The boycott led to the repeal of the law in 2017.
Social media and hate speech: Last year, Coca-Cola, Unilever, Hershey, Honda, Ford, and others boycotted Facebook and other social media platforms by pausing advertising because they believed the social media companies weren’t doing enough to crack down on hate speech to eliminate. Facebook eventually acted, and many months later – and Twitter and others – banned Trump from their websites after the January 6 riot at the Capitol and for his lies about widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Conservatives have complained of rampant bias and censorship from social media companies in recent years, accusing companies of now submitting to the “dissolution of culture”. But if you look at the history of boycotts, “culture breakup” goes back a lot further than you think. (Continue reading.)
Ford under the microscope: Ironically, 100 years before Ford’s boycott of the social media giants, the auto giant itself was boycotted.
In 1918, Henry Ford bought a local newspaper, The Dearborn Independent. Under Ford’s possession, it published anti-Semitic articles. A Ford boycott gained momentum and the company’s auto sales fell.
Henry Ford eventually apologized and sold the paper in 1927.
Religious conservatives also boycotted Ford in the 2000s because of a pro-LGBTQ stance. However, given the then increasing acceptance of LGBTQ rights and same-sex marriages, this was less successful.
Farm workers, students and activists march to the Taco Bell corporate offices in Irvine, California on March 11, 2002 to raise awareness of the working conditions of Florida farm workers who harvest tomatoes for the fast food chain. David McNew / Getty Images Hide caption
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David McNew / Getty Images
Farm Workers and Taco Bell: After a decade-long struggle by Florida farm workers pointing in vain to low wages and poor working conditions on tomato farms, workers shifted their focus from suppliers to the companies that bought the tomatoes. One of them was Taco Bell.
After a three-year boycott – and in a deal that former President Jimmy Carter helped the broker – the fast food chain announced in 2005 that it would only buy tomatoes from producers who agreed to the deal in order to pay higher wages and better working conditions to ensure conditions.
“We recognize that tomato workers in Florida do not enjoy the same rights and conditions as workers in other industries and that reform is needed,” then-President of Taco Bell Emil Brolick said in a statement. “We pointed out that any solution must be industry-wide because our company simply does not have the clout to solve the problems that are raised.”
Where does the word “boycott” come from?
Ireland and a man named Charles Boycott.
Yes, there was literally a man named Boycott who, by the way, did not boycott, but was boycotted himself.
Charles Cunningham boycott. Originally published / published in Vanity Fair – Men of the Day, No. 238 (by Spy). Hulton Archive / Getty Images Hide caption
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Hulton Archive / Getty Images
Boycott, a retired British Army Captain, was a property manager for English landowners who owned land in Ireland. Irish farmers had a particularly bad harvest in 1880 and wanted a rent reduction. The landowners, with boycott as proxy, would not give as much discount as was sought. When tenants refused to pay, Boycott attempted to have them evacuated – some by force.
The leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party advised tenants to stop communicating with boycott and he was isolated. The people of the city would not sell goods or provide services to him – or any people connected with him. Boycott complained to the UK press about the situation and it was escalated around the world.
The episode hit back on boycott and increased the power of the Irish peasants and the Irish Parliamentary Party. The following year, the Land Act of 1881 established tribunals with fair rents.
In 1888 the word “boycott” was first added to the dictionary.