Northern Star 24th June 1848
Boycotts have a long history & Tories never like them
A piece of legislation designed to prevent public bodies including local authorities for steering clear of investments in countries whose human rights records they disagree with is before Parliament. On 3rd July only 10 MPs voted against it, with many abstaining. Backers included the legislation’s sponsor Michael Gove and the Parliamentary front man for the Labour Friends of Israel Steve McCabe
The aim of the legislation is not, as might be supposed, Russia but Israel. There is a significant BDS movement that focuses on the activities of the Israeli Government, currently of a hard to far right political nature.
The Government of course is officially boycotting Russia over the war with Ukraine, but no doubt there are still links as a recent party at the Russian Ambassador’s residence in London attended by some Tory Peers underlined. For Tories human rights may be nodded at but the key is profit. Boycotts aim to hit profits.
The most successful UK focused one in recent history was against apartheid South Africa. It was wide ranging from South African produce to sport. It was the only thing that brough apartheid down but it helped.
Boycotts have a much longer history. In the late 1830s the Chartists called a Grand National Holiday where the call was to abstain from all excisable goods such as beer and tobacco. The idea was to deprive the Government of revenue. It didn’t work because it relied on individual effort.
Better organised was the tactic of Exclusive Dealing which the Chartists operated in the late 1830s and the 1840s. The Chartist plan was to boycott shops and businesses that did not support the Charter. Conversely those businesses that did advertised the fact to attract custom.
Profit was of course disrupted so the Government did not like it or the call for democratic rights that was behind it
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