The coming US boycott

[JaneDoughnut]

Saw this on Common Dreams today - http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1118-24.htm - I think it's the right thing to do, but I'm nervous nonetheless. We are deluding ourselves if we think our households won't feel the pinch - possibly even more quickly than the targeted companies.

Then again, if it will restore sanity to American foreign policy, it's well worth it to me. Bring it on!

[Zorra]

1. This would not have had to happen if Bu$h did not steal 2 elections.

But he did.

Bu$h and the fascists have stolen our governmment, destroyed democracy, allowed an attack upon our country, led us into a bloody and unjustifiable war, incurred a crushing debt upon the citizenry, and are rapidly taking away our liberty.

We simply cannot stand for it.

Now, we are going to have to fight once again for the democracy that the founders of our country fought for over 200 years ago.

We are going to have to feel the same pinch that the colonists felt after they dumped tea into Boston Harbor.

It's either that, or become slaves to a corrupt, bloodthirsty, repressive, anti-democratic fascist dictator.

Let's pull together and help each other through this, so we can get our country, a democratic country, back.

[Lorien]

2. Great article!! This is quite a find

My avatar write:
"The U.S. economy," she writes, "is strung out across the globe. It's economic outposts are exposed and vulnerable. Our strategy must be to isolate Empire's working parts and disable them one by one. No target is too small. No victory too insignificant."

"We could reverse the idea of economic sanctions imposed on poor countries by Empire and its Allies. We could impose a regime of People's sanctions on every corporation that has been awarded a contract in post-war Iraq. Each one of them should be named, exposed and boycotted—forced out of business. It would be a great start."

Weekend protests, Roy tells us, are not enough. "What we need to discuss urgently are strategies of resistance...Gandhi's salt march was not just political theatre. In a simple act of defiance, thousands of Indians marched to the sea and made their own salt. It was a direct strike at the economic underpinning of the British Empire."

"Already the Internet is buzzing with elaborate lists of American and British government products and companies that should be boycotted...They could become a practical guide that directs and channels the amorphous but growing fury in the world."

For Roy, it is not enough to communicate ideas, to write letters to Congress. "We must make it materially impossible for the empire to achieve its aims." She does not ignore elections. But she believes that "Free elections, a free press, and independent judiciary mean little when the free market has reduced them to commodities available for sale to the highest bidder...The machinery of democracy has been effectively subverted."

(snip)

[Kenneth ken]

3. nice article

I'm not at all deluded that our households will not feel the pinch. I'm convinced the US will be bankrupt in less than 10 years, regardless of a world boycott against us. And that is probably a generous forecast.

As soon as China and Japan find a way to dump their dollars without losing too much loss to themselves, we'll crash because they'll stop buying our bonds - funding our deficits.

[Lorien]

4. A kick for a great read

:kick:

[Sapphocrat]

5. Another kick

That's a beaut -- should be required reading. Great find!

[donkeyotay]

6. The CEO president has destroyed brand America

<<Sporadic and spontaneous boycotts, local in form, have been taking place in cities throughout the globe. National Public Radio (U.S.) reports that thousands of Europeans, repulsed by the election of Bush, are refusing to buy American goods. One placard in a Paris window says: "Promote peace. Don't buy American." According to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh, Europe is simmering. "You're going to see American profits disappear. American corporations are going to be in big trouble. It's going to be a mantra not to buy American. All our major manufacturers are reporting major slowdowns in Europe. You're going to see the dollar disappear.">>

Great link. Really worth a read. The American left may feel impotent to fight bushco, but the whole world is uniting in an effort that will only grow stronger. They no longer admire us. Bush destroyed our brand. What a miserable failure.