Boycott idea: Doable or not?

Could we make a website, where each week we target a different company for an email onslaught?

Say the first week we target Wal-Mart. You go to our website where it has a form letter like: "Due to Walmart contributing $X million to Republican campaigns, and blah blah blah George W Bush blah blah blah, I am no longer doing business at Walmart." You have the option of using that form letter, or typing your own in the message box. Sign your name and email address, and click send.

So basically we send thousands of emails in a short time to each company we are boycotting, to let them know.

We could also have another function to send one big email with our "signatures" to the companies we like (we don't want to overload them with many emails - just one big nice one.

I've seen this kind of website. In MA when we were trying to license Naturopathic Physicians this year, I just had to click to the website, and do what is described above to email my state rep. So I know it's possible.

Ok, it this too far-fetched or going overboard?

Glenda

IF...we actually follow thru on the boycotts...
AND
There is someone willing to handle the logistics of such a web-based campaign.

Did you have anyone in mind when you posted this idea??

I went to bed, then it hit me, and I had to get back up again :)

We must have some computer geeks on DU. But also I know a few in real life I could ask, at least how complicated it would be.

G.

And not a week. A month, maybe a quarter.

Pick one week betweeen Thanksgiving and Christmas. Don't buy a fucking thing from any of them. Take as much of your money out of the banks as you possibly can. Sell off any stocks you have for money markets or euros. One week direct action. There are lots of possibilities.

A real committment is needed for 4 years,not just a brief period.

but we need to communicate it. We need to explain clearly the reasons behind the boycott and broadcast it to as many people as possible.

I wonder if Randi Rhodes, Malloy or any of the other lib. broadcasters would pass it along to their audiences?

the better. That way we can reach out to people outside of DU, and like you said, get AAR to plug it.

We have to start somewhere - generating ideas. Maybe this isn't *the* idea that ultimately gets implemented. But I wanted to get the ideas flowing.

G.

I think it should be done and I like the one month slam someone else had mentioned on another thread. ...OH and "Tis the season" Perfect time to slam on Walmart.

so sure! Count me in! I've been boycotting them for close to 5 years.

This is a great idea!

...I think we need a dedicated board for this.

to the point, but individual. Even a whole bunch of "form letter" emails are usually ignored.

The other thing I might suggest is that short message should be something like "I disagree with your decision to support any candidate, (or the way you treat your employees) or (your decision to purchase 90% of your products from China) so I have decided to show my displeasure by no longer shopping in your stores."

The email advises the Company of your displeasure, but it also advises that they have lost your business. That would have a much stronger impact, especially if there were enough people to follow through and NOT buy their products.

and about moving my money overseas. Information on foreign banking would be a great topic to add. Overseas real estate and other investment info as well. I don't want Wall Street benefiting from my efforts.

Boycott these motherfuckers! (sorry, I'll be swearing for awhile, after this week...)

Taking away their economic power is the *only* thing they understand...

We need to go after these neanderthal companies in an organized way and make them pay with a very noticable loss of business. I also am already boycotting WalMart, but I believe we need a "central clearing" place so that we can target only those that will give the biggest bang for the buck (obviously any individual can boycott any company they want). We need a mass effort that will make them feel the pain. I like the idea of having a seperate page here at DU that is organized in such a way as you describe so that we can coordinate our efforts and let them know that they're up against something formidable.

...who busts unions, is not good for communities - people who shop there are doing the same thing as people who vote against their own interests....except in this case their shopping habits are denegrating their own intersts.

term basis. Walmart, definitely. We need to do some research on the worst companies with regard to their political, human rights & environmental policies. And we need to come up with a list of companies to support, too.

1st. wal-mart is too big. sure we can boycott it on the side but they wouldn't care.

2nd. emails? are you kidding me? unless you are doing a denial of service attack (which will likely get you in trouble) a delete key takes care of that.

I love your enthusiam, but let us refine this a bit -- preferably to a nice sharp edge.

Refine 1. Handwritten letters with typed copy. keep a copy of this for your records, send one copy to the CEO, each board of directors, and to your local paper. Several things happen here: first, you are physically putting something tangible upon their desks -- eventually with enough papers they won't have a desk visible. second, it expresses your disgust directly to people who have power -- ceo, board of directors, media editors. also, and this is the one that matters to me -- it supports USPS which definitely needs our support, and denies business to UPS and FedEX, 2 staunch enemies we have now.

Refine 2. Randi had it right. Buy stock and grab those SOBs by the balls. It's twistin' time. If we could create the move-on equivalent of churches and other charities being investors we can cause serious damage. we spent oodles of millions of dollars in this election -- it was stopped by a few backroom connections, and a handful of millions on defrauding machines. we have a bad investment here, no? next time, no money for political runnings. that that and put it into a 'Progressive Mutual Fund' and let's really wring these bastards 'til they sing. if that $100+ mil Kerry raised was applied to some of these asshole companies we could've brought one or two of them to their knees already.

Refine 3. Get off the wal-mart fixation. it's like shooting for the moon when you need to build the ground floor. the walton family still has the majority control of this company's stock. give it up. this is the dessert we eat at the end of a feast, not the main course.

Right now i'm still researching which enemy company/ies can easily be annihilated. my 'advisor' :) brought the wonderful idea of 'national, regional, local' focii. this way we can gut a local bastard (as many of you so gleeful crave at the moment), regional warlord, and a national 'prince.' i shall work on a national company near death, brainstorm about your local 'assholes' who need culling, it's local terrain data that i wouldn't have access to.

I found examples which show the general format I mentioned to generate boycott emails:

http://www.boycottworldcom.com/g_letter.html

http://www.caja.org/campaigns/coke/#1

http://capwiz.com/naturopathic/mail/compose/ (it starts at this page http://capwiz.com/naturopathic/dbq/officials/ so you can drill down to write to newspapers, senators, etc)

example of signing a petition:

http://www.ethical-business.com/?sect=sign&pet=111

Glenda

go here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=2600099&mesg_id=2600099

see Post #180