This section includes info on new boycotts, successes and updates about ongoing campaigns from the current issue of Ethical Consumer.
Boycott News Archive (from May 2006)
Boycott short haul flights
Aviation is the fastest-growing source of climate change causing greenhouse-gas
emissions, and Flight Pledge Union are on a mission to get us out of
the air. Their website calls for people to take the “single most
effective decision you can take to reduce your impact on the climate”
and pledge to limit the number of flights you take. There are two pledges
– gold and silver. If you sign the gold pledge, you promise to
boycott flying completely in the coming year. If you sign the silver
pledge, you promise not to take more than two return short-haul flights,
or one return long-haul flight, for the next year.
For readers beyond congratulating themselves for taking one long haul
flight a year, direct action group Plane Stupid may provide more inspiration.
On the 6th November the group shut down 30 travel agents by chaining
their front doors shut and leaving signs on the windows reading, “Closed
for a total rethink. See www.planestupid.com.”
Sign the flight pledge
or send an email, alternatively
telephone 07722 215769 or email
Plane Stupid.
Indian villagers call for Coca-Cola boycott
Over a thousand villagers protested at Coca-Cola’s north India
headquarters, demanding that the company take immediate actions to clean
up its act in India. The village of Mehdiganj and surrounding villages
have been experiencing severe water shortages since Coca-Cola started
bottling operations there. The remaining groundwater and the soil have
also been polluted as a result of the bottling plant’s operations.
The Central Pollution Control Board of India, the primary environmental
regulatory agency, has confirmed high levels of lead, cadmium and chromium
in the sludge being produced by the plant.
“Access to water is a fundamental human right and the Coca-Cola
company is denying this right to thousands of people across India,”
said Nandlal Master of Lok Samiti, a community organization from Mehdiganj
at the forefront of the campaign against Coca-Cola.“We will continue
to campaign until people across India can live free of the abuses being
perpetrated by these companies.”
Communities in India campaigning against Coca-Cola for creating water
shortages and pollution enjoy tremendous support internationally. Close
to twenty colleges and universities in the United States and the United
Kingdom are restricting the sale of Coca-Cola products until the company
genuinely addresses the concerns in India. UK boycott organisers hope
the campaign will be as effective as similar action against Nestlé.
For more information, visit www.IndiaResource.org
or email
Canadian seafood linked to seal killings
Respect for Animals are calling for UK consumers to boycott seafood
from Canada. The group is asking shoppers, retailers and importers
not to buy Canadian seafood and fish products as they are produced
by the same people who are killing the seals. Over 325,000 seals,
the vast majority under three months old, were killed for their fur
this year alone. In the last four years over one million seal pups
have been clubbed or shot to death, and many are likely to have been
skinned alive.
Respect for Animals claim that Canadian sealers’ main income
comes from the sale (and export) of fish and seafood products, and
that the UK imports over £50 million of this each year. The
Boycott Canada campaign is urging consumers to support the seals by
not buying Canadian seafood, and its website contains tips on avoiding
it. Much of the Canadian seafood does seem to be helpfully labelled
with a large maple leaf symbol.
The campaign is having other far-reaching effects as well. 425 Members
of the European Parliament (MEPs) have signed a Written Declaration
calling for a ban on products made from seals in the European Union.
The breakthrough came following international pressure from a coalition
of animal welfare groups, which had asked supporters to write to their
MEPs. The high level of MEP support echoes the widespread condemnation
of the annual Canadian seal slaughter. Campaigners are eagerly awaiting
action by the European Commission following the Written Declaration.
The Boycott Canada website has information for contacting supermarkets
in the UK to urge them to stop buying Canadian seafood and also urges
campaigners to write to James Scott Peterson, Canada’s International
Trade Minister and inform him you are choosing to boycott Canadian
seafood products until the commercial seal hunt is ended for good.
See www.boycott-canada.com/
or telephone 0115 952 5440 for updates. Direct your letters to: The
Honourable James Scott Peterson, Minister, c/o Canadian High Commission,
1 Grosvenor Square, London, W1K 4AB.
Visit ECRA's Boycott Bush
website
