To Boycott or not to Boycott

January 7, 2024

The statement of “to Boycott or not to Boycott” has been on everyone’s lips since the start of the genocide in Gaza.

Why do we Boycott?

As the public we have one thing in our hands that can be used as a powerful tool to influence companies. Our spending power. Our hard earned money. We choose where we want to spend it and how we want to invest into society.

When companies decide to take a stance that isn’t beneficial for the global community then we as the public have a right to boycott. By boycotting we withhold our funds in order to send a strong message to the companies and brands that we do not agree with their investments and they would need to therefore relook at them before we begin spending again.

These actions help to destabilise capitalism.

New Lease of Life

A new lease of life can come from this big brand boycotting. As consumers we can begin supporting independent brands and smaller shops. As a society we talk about the loss of the high street, and smaller businesses moving to the online world.

However when the majority of consumers move away from bigger brands like Coca Cola, Nestle or P&G and the brands that are labelled under them like Costa, Persil, Dettol, Walkers and more. Then you will have a shift from within.

There are many websites you can access that will help in your boycott journey. These are listed in the Boycott Resources section at the bottom of the article.

We can support smaller independent brands and bring a lease of life back to the high streets. There is an argument that these brands are more expensive than your usual chains; however this is an eco effect. By choosing more sustainable brands you will be helping the environment; causes such as slavery in fast-chain fashion will also be affected. You will be adding to your local economy and helping to stabilise the infrastructure within your country. This makes better choices all round from producer to consumer.

Could you Cancel?

Once you begin looking at boycotting you will see that actually it is easy to cancel brands, companies and even influencer/celebrities.

Your outlook to life changes the more you de-materialise your life. From a personal experience we have even found brands we wouldn’t have gone to before to be better and cheaper for our pocket since mass boycotting.

This has made it simpler for us to cancel certain companies and brands.

For example; years ago we cancelled Starbucks as a family. This was after we found out how connected they were to Israel. We moved onto Costa as Costa had no ties. However in the last 3 months we have found out that Costa has been sold to Coca Cola – therefore we are now boycotting Costa. This hasn’t been easy as it was our go to coffee house. However, as a family, kids included we knew this was a stance we had to make. There is an alternative – not Pret (as they are also complicit with Israeli ties), but Cafe Nero as well as the Independent coffee houses on the high road. If you look closely you will find alternatives to your favourites.

As a person you need to just think is this one coffee more important than a life in Palestine.

Complacent Companies and Brands

As we are on the subject of coffee houses, lets look a bit more into Starbucks.

A coffee house first established in 1971. It quickly became the go to place for your seasonal favourites and coffee treats. However in 2014 Starbucks partnered up with SodaStream – an Israeli company. After being warned that they would be hit with boycotts they still pursued and bought a share into SodaStream.¹

SodaStream markets itself as environmentally friendly to hide the fact that it is, after all, part of a colonial enterprise. More than 200 Palestinian families were expelled from their homes to make way for the construction of Maale Adumim in the 1990s, in defiance of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Israel has announced its intentions to forcibly displace another 2,300 Palestinians from their land in order to facilitate further expansion of the settlement. – BDS Movement

With the history of SodaStream and it’s many links to displacements, to creating factories on Palestinian Occupied Territories. Starbucks took a risk and to them it paid off.

However; the BDS Movement carried out its boycott and many people moved away from the brand. This wasn’t a collective boycott, so the effects were not as enormous as they are today.

Today, Starbucks has lost over $12 billion since 7th October 2023. With many stores losing business and closing down, Starbucks is feeling the pinch. They will never admit this though, even after the CEO Laxman Narasimhan put out an official statement² on 11th December 2023, not once did he mention the boycott, genocide or ties to Israel.

Instead there was a lot of backtracking to Covid-19 and how they strived to keep jobs open and were supportive to their staff and others. The issue with Starbucks is that on the outside it wants to keep a clean profile. No ties or partners with Israel or affiliated brands. However their entire operation is a rouse.

Many will not know but Starbucks actually operates as a bank with a coffee house as its front. In 2009 Starbucks introduced a rewards card that looked simple on the surface, but with some extra steps it becomes a financial enabler. Customers need to upload credit onto their rewards card and as that credit sits on the card, Starbucks can invest it into the various ventures without the card holder knowing. This ultimately becomes an interest free loan from the customer to Starbucks. Even though some may argue that customers receive rewards/goods for their card usage. It is still a deceptive way of Starbucks increasing its business and investing the money in places customers are not being informed about.

In a recent Fortune.com³ article it stated that “a consumer action group is accusing Starbucks of exploiting customers via its gift card and app payments, forcing them to enter a spending cycle where they will never be able to fully spend the remaining balance of prepaid amounts.” This action has allowed Starbucks to acquire a close sum of $900 million in the last 5 years on unspent gift card and app credit so they could invest it into the business as “corporate revenue, boosting corporate profits and inflating executive bonuses.”

This latest collective boycott is a mixture of all the above and the response to its workers when the genocide began on 7th October. Starbucks Workers United, a union for Starbucks workers posted “Solidarity with Palestine” on its X account. Starbucks put out a statement to rebuke this claiming it disagreed with the Workers Union whilst condemning acts of terrorism⁴. It then filed a legal complaint towards the union and asked them to stop using Starbucks trading name, logo and intellectual property.

Since the October 7th boycotts, Starbucks has not only lost financially, but they have also had to close many of its stores. The struggle to keep customers can be seen through the many deals they are launching on a daily basis.

Fashion is Political

When it comes to Fashion houses Zara has been one that sprung up on the Boycott list mid November. Zara has been a complacent company in many ways over the years and has been one that I personally have stepped away from a while ago.

From their use of Uyghur forced labour in their factories. Zara has had many legal issues over the years due to their fast fashion stance. In 2019 Zara began to ban hijabis entering their French stores. This was raised as a concern and protests ensued. The concern of many women were not taken seriously and Zara again lost many customers. However it was still not on an official boycott list. In mid November 2023 they published a campaign. The Zara Atelier Campaign “The Jacket”.

The images of this campaign is claimed to have been conceived in July and taken in September. However, the insensitive and tone deafness of the company can be seen through every image that was published. As a company you would need to go through many checks before a campaign is launched. With the images coming out of Gaza; Zara should have been more aware that shrouded bodies, a white woman standing in the middle of rubble wearing a military styled jacket, and plaster board that formed the shape of Palestine in the background would be deemed offensive.

However as always it seems that Zara believes that it is above any hypocrisy and that customers will forgive and forget. This time the backlash is different and was something that the fashion house and its CEO was not ready for. After the initial online backlash, Zara took down the images and wrote an informal post which was less of an apology and more of a reasoning.

None the less the damage has been done and the public have since taken it in their own hands to show the world where they stand on the case of Zara. From boycotts, sit ins to protests. They have been able to shut down shops during the busiest shopping periods over Christmas. Zara is now a cancelled fashion house to many and will need to prove itself before many decide to go back to it.

Moving Forward

This sudden surge in boycotting can become very overwhelming for many. With some people questioning how far do we go? Can we honestly boycott everything that needs to be boycotted? Will people just go back to their old habits in a few months time?

The answer to all this is – we will be the difference. The choices we make today are the ones that we teach the next generation who will grow up to be more proactive in activism then we are. If we boycott these brands, the big and the small that do not fit with our ethics or global humanity then some of these brands will not exist in 20 years time. They will be replaced with brands we want.

As people we need to remember that boycotting is something that we need to carry on if we want it to be effective. Now that we have started, we do not stop however difficult it may seem in the long run.

Professor Erica Chenoweth has stated in a rule that even if 3.5% of the population take part in nonviolent movements it will help to create a shift within the area they are attempting to stand up against. These amount of people will create inevitable success and policy change by resisting in large numbers.

Many companies are linked with Israel due to their low tax rates if they create factories on Palestinian Occupied Land. Boycotting these companies means that we are showing them that we want no ties with Israel. They will need to see if the risks outweigh the benefits.

Once companies start realising that they are in problem due to their ties with Israel they will begin pulling out which will mean the Israeli economy gets hit. Their allies in the West will only be able to financially help them out for a while as they will also have pressure from their own public and economy.

This will leave them with only one choice and that will be to begin alienating Israel financially and leave it to fend for itself. With little to no investment Israel will need to pull itself out from the many conflicts it has its hand in, such as, Sudan, Congo and others. It will be begin spiralling and with no allies to help financially, it will be a state in distress.

Hence the reason you hear that all injustices are interlinked. If you succeed in dropping one of the pieces you will create a domino affect that will help start the fall of other injustices.

This all starts and ends with Us – and the power we hold in our hands.

We have seen what our leaders and governments can do and they have proven they are all about power and money. Now is the time we take control.

It is up to each and everyone of us. The public, our consumerism, our loyalty and the freedom of people – humanity.

To find out more about why we need to boycott and what is happening in Palestine take a look at some previous articles. Palestine Update in Gaza, Palestine – Gaza: There are no two sides to this.