Calls for International Boycott to Stop War Against Iraq
This idea is not new but has gained strength with its adoption at the Cairo Conference Declaration in December, 2002. Traprock was an early participant in this discussion, having made the proposal on October 1, 2002 to the StoptheWar Coalition. See http://www.ddh.nl/pipermail/wereldcrisis/2002-October/003063.html. Several initiatives have been started since then and discussion groups have formed. Please email us with suggestions. If you wold like more information, please feel free to contact us.
Here are a few links. Please let us know of others that we should consider posting.
Stopshopping.org - :"We won't shop until attack talk stops."
International Group for Direct Economic Action (IDEA) - Makes a specific proposal and invites discussion at http://groups.yahoo.com/grou/BoycottUS/. Pressently, the group calls people to "Boycott U.S. produced goods and services (with reasonable exceptions, e.g. for co-ops, organic farms, etc.) ONE DAY FOR EACH IRAQI CHILD, KILLED, STARVED, MAIMED OR ORPHANED."
Traprock has responded to this part of the idea as follows:
"We support the idea as well, and had proposed almost 3 months ago to the StoptheWar Coalition in the UK. We had presented the idea as a dialogue between Sunny and I. It didn't go anywhere at the time and we were unaware that our dialogue was posted on the internet until it was pointed out to me by Patrick Baggott, one of the originators of the present boycott proposal. See http://www.ddh.nl/pipermail/wereldcrisis/2002-October/003063.html
I encourage anyone interested in the idea to join the discussion group. My comment is that there should be an easily defined endpoint. The point of a boycott is not punitive, but to change policy. When the policy changes, the boycott should change or end. Pinning it to deaths and harm to Iraqi children sounds fair, but would create a boycott of indefinite duration. How to determine the numbers? Plus, the numbers would grow and continue indefinitely. For example, look at the Gulf War Casualties. At the end of the initial fighting, there were few [American] casualties. Now, over 159,000 Americans have disabilities from Gulf War related casualties and over 8000 deaths of Americans have been attributed to the war. See http://grassrootspeace.org/depleteduranium.html for more information."
Peace, CharlieCharles Jenks
President,
Traprock Peace Center - http://grassrootspeace.org
charlesjenks@gmail.com
Media Accounts
A search of "boycott" brings up a number of interesting articles reprinted at CommonDreams.org
US Firms Fear Stronger Boycott Campaign if Iraq War Erupts. (Source: The News International, Pakistan)
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/020508/2002050844.html - on calls for boycotting US commodities for US support of Israel. Lots of boycott articles come up with a search of "boycott' at the ArabicNews.com site.
Page created November 25, 2002 by Charlie Jenks.
