Event Title
Companies, Boycotts, and Solidarity: From the Farmworkers to the Maquiladoras
Location
Lindy C. Boggs Conference Center – Room 256
Session
Session One - Empire and Solidarity in Historical Perspective
Start Date
16-10-2009 3:30 PM
End Date
16-10-2009 6:00 PM
Description
Popular organizations have called for boycotts, and supporters have promoted and observed boycotts, for multiple reasons. Boycotts have attempted to pressure individual companies to change policies, stop abuses, or adopt codes of conduct, either through directly affecting their profits, or by tarnishing their public image. They have attempted to educate the public about specific corporate abuses in order to build momentum for change at the state level, either by persuading Latin American governments to enforce labor laws and hold companies legally accountable, or by demanding that international governments apply pressure on both corporations and Latin American states. This paper looks at four moments in the history of company-focused activism: the United Farmworkers and the grape boycott, the exposés of ITT in the Chile solidarity movement, the Guatemala Coke boycott, and the maquiladora campaigns, to examine the different ways that activists on both sides of the borders have attempted to empower workers, stop human rights abuses, educate consumers, and influence the policies and actions of corporations and states.
Companies, Boycotts, and Solidarity: From the Farmworkers to the Maquiladoras
Lindy C. Boggs Conference Center – Room 256
Popular organizations have called for boycotts, and supporters have promoted and observed boycotts, for multiple reasons. Boycotts have attempted to pressure individual companies to change policies, stop abuses, or adopt codes of conduct, either through directly affecting their profits, or by tarnishing their public image. They have attempted to educate the public about specific corporate abuses in order to build momentum for change at the state level, either by persuading Latin American governments to enforce labor laws and hold companies legally accountable, or by demanding that international governments apply pressure on both corporations and Latin American states. This paper looks at four moments in the history of company-focused activism: the United Farmworkers and the grape boycott, the exposés of ITT in the Chile solidarity movement, the Guatemala Coke boycott, and the maquiladora campaigns, to examine the different ways that activists on both sides of the borders have attempted to empower workers, stop human rights abuses, educate consumers, and influence the policies and actions of corporations and states.