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Wednesday, 12 July 2006 12:48 |
| | Janese Johnson |
Throughout history, economic activism has brought about great changes from small ways that a company does things to very large government changes.
Economic activism basically means using your purchasing power to send a message and to help create change. There are quite a few great historical moments when it was clear that economic activism was the way to go.
A
common boycott that we are all familiar with happened in 1773 and
culminated in the Boston Tea Party. This boycott came about because
Britain??s East India Company could not sell its tea in England. The
government passed the Tea Act of 1773 in order to save the company. The
act gave the company the right to directly sell its tea to the colonies
without paying the taxes that were imposed on the colonial merchants,
who had served as middlemen previously. This decision could have
created a monopoly on the tea, which not only angered the merchants,
but also the colonists. The colonists banned together to boycott the
tea. This act of using purchasing power was the beginning of the
Revolutionary War.
Gandhi is another example of the power of economic activism. He saw
that it was the British ?®love for foreign cloth that ousted that wheel
from its position of dignity.?∆ His solution was to promote buying of
homespun cloth and to have the economy favor the natives of India and
not the British. This movement was the beginning of India??s freedom
from British rule. These actions worked in a powerful way because the
idea of freedom from foreign power and ways to achieve that helped the
Indians feel empowered to do something about it. A strong belief that
Gandhi imparted to many was ?®that human mind or human society are not
divided into watertight compartments called social, political and
religious. All act and react upon one another.?∆
Although there are many examples of economic activism, the one that has
affected us most recently in our country is the Montgomery Bus Boycott,
which was the beginning of the civil rights movement.
African-Americans started to protest white stores in the 1930s. Federal
jobs started opening up in the 1930s as a result of Eleanor Roosevelt??s
advocacy of fairness for African-Americans. Some changes took place
before Dec. 1, 1955, but the civil rights movement did not really take
off until one brave woman decided not to give up her seat on the bus to
a white person. She was then arrested and attracted a lot of attention
from many leaders in the African-American community, one of them being
Martin Luther King Jr. There were many aspects to this movement besides
boycotting. There were also marches and sit-ins. The boycotting of
buses in Montgomery was supported by 50,000 African-Americans and
lasted more than a year, leading to the Supreme Court??s decision to end
bus segregation in 1956.
These days, I have heard many people say that they do not get involved
with politics because they feel they cannot change what is happening or
they feel that politicians are crooked. I believe that no one can
really be neutral now. Everyone is affected one way or another by what
is happening in our country and in the world. No one can really be
neutral. What Desmond Tutu says about neutrality is, ?®If you are
neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the
oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you
say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your
neutrality.?∆
What can we do to make a difference politically and economically? One
important thing we can do is use our dollars to support companies that
are putting money into areas of what matters to us. There is a Web site
that shows what political party each individual company is donating to
and whether their company policies and activities are environment-,
labor-, and community-friendly. The Web site is at www.buyblue.com.
One thing I learned on this site is that out of the many oil companies,
there is only one who supports the Democratic Party and that is Amerada
Hess Corporation. It has two stations in Asheville ?? one is on
Hendersonville Road and the other is on Smokey Park Highway. AHC has
been given mixed reviews in regards to their approach to the
environment and to labor rights.
Another interesting fact that I got out of this site was that Home
Depot supports the Republican Party, while Lowe??s Home Improvement
supports the Democratic Party. Most department stores dished out tons
of money to the Republican Party, but Target seemed to a little more
bipartisan with its donations.
So if you want
to see political change happen in our country, then know that one
person can make a difference. I don??t believe that Rosa Parks knew that
she was going to create a movement with her refusal to give up her
seat. She did not give up her seat because she saw the injustice in the
system and the way the system was set up. We can all make a difference,
especially if we come together with a clear and organized plan.
?ÿ
Janese Johnson
has been doing intuitive counseling nationally for more than 20 years.
She may be contacted at janesej-at-buncombe.main.nc.us.
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