Does DU do alot of boycotting?

[W_HAMILTON]

Just read another thread about the damn AFA, after having read plenty over the past year about how they "mobilized" and got programs taken off the air, or companies to retract financial support for something, or whatever it may be.

So my question is, why doesn't DU do more of this? Or does it? I've seen a few threads here and there asking to email this person, or send a letter to this person, but it doesn't seem to happen on a massive basis needed to actually get stuff changed. It says there are about 85k people registered here, and who knows how many more who are lurkers but haven't yet registered. That seems like a pretty sizable number to get stuff accomplished if everyone acted.

If it was something supported by the administrators here, and everyone took part in it, wouldn't we be able to get stuff accomplished too? Couldn't we put some pressure on companies and media types the same way AFA has been doing?

[Mythsaje]

1. I'm actually surprised we haven't gone that route...

and just now I've been thinking it might not be a bad idea at all to start doing this sort of thing. Organize in a different way than we have been.

[Maddy McCall]

2. If the AFA had been 1/10 as successful as they claimed, I might agree.

They've lost WAY more battles than they've won.

[W_HAMILTON]

4. Yeah, that's true...

...but still, even if we "won" 1 in every 10 tries, I'm sure it would be satifsying :)

I just don't know what else to do. The companies are all about profits. The news networks are all about ratings. If you have 85k people letting them know they are no longer going to buy your company's goods, or no longer watch your biased television shows, or that you DO support something that the AFA (or another group) is protesting, you would think that it would make an impact.

[lindisfarne]

3. We boycott republicans pretty well. :>)

[John Q. Citizen]

5. The boycott is a tactic which works well under specific instanses

and fails miserably in other cases. It is not a one size fits all tactic.

The Selma bus boycott worked very well because the city of Selma was depemdent on black ridership to remain in operation, the civil rights movement was able to use the Rosa Parks incidence as a metaphore for all the injustice and racism experienced by blacks and was able to thus rally widespread support, and the civil rights movement was able to link the "back of the bus" rule to the whole issue of apartide in America.

Many attempted boycotts fail, because the factors aren't present for them to succeed. The target may be immune or at least not very suseptable to a boycott, (this is probably the biggest factor) the community asked to participate may not buy into the relevence of a boycott to thier lives. Or their is created a backlash of support for the boycotted entity.

Change is kind of up to us. The creators of this site have already given us their gift of a revolution in political communication. They occasionally suggest specific action around an issue in the activism forum, but they wisely keep it occasional and geared toward lobbying and setting terms of national debate.

We are free to create a peaceful revolution using this resource, so welcome.

[W_HAMILTON]

6. It wouldn't work all the time

But like I said in my other post, it seems all the corporate types just care about their profit line nowadays. CNN and MSNBC see Fox get good ratings, so they stuff their networks with rightwing wacko's in attempts to steal away some of their viewers (they won't, but it's not stopping them from trying). The few times an AFA protest worked, it's not because the companies are inherently Christian or whatever, it's because they don't want all the revenue from Christians drying up.

So I was just wondering why, with 85k or so people, we couldn't use some of the same tactics to see if we can't get some leverage on these companies and networks who seemed to have been bowing under the pressure of the fundy-types lately.

[John Q. Citizen]

7. I've been boycotting cable all my life. As a kid I wanted it because

lots of other kids at school would talk about this or that great show, and we had like two channels.

It wasn't until after my sibling and I moved out of the house that my mom got cable, and as an adult, I've never paid for cable in my life.

Oh I see it once in a while at friends or a motel or a business with it on, but I've been boycotting cable forever. Now I wish I had a cable internet connection.

Who would you boycott and why?