This is why boycotts are kind of bullshit much of the time, and need a lot of work to actually be effective (The famous Montgomery Bus Boycott, which was a boycott and not a strike because they couldn't afford to actually not go to work the whole time, took LOTS of organizing)
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The whole thing is that a strike and a boycott pull in opposite directions The point of a strike is for the person providing a service to tell their customers "This service is essential, you need me" The point of a boycott is the *customer* saying "I *don't* need you"
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Which means if the service actually is that important and essential -- which it often is, if the company is doing something harmful enough to be worth boycotting -- boycotting is fucking hard
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The segregated buses in Montgomery sucked because almost everyone not rich enough to drive did, in fact, *have* to take the bus and the daily humiliation of being forced to move for white riders was something most working-class Black people *had* to just deal with
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So trying to protest that by having a huge chunk of their customer base refuse to take the bus at all during a long enough period of time to hurt their budget was really risky, and painful, and expensive
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Lots of people giving their time and money to run an informal taxi/carpool service (the "Freedom Riders") Extreme social pressure from the community to demand that everyone keep on doing it and not "cheat" (centered mostly around the church)
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A boycott that's actually pretty easy for you to do that doesn't affect your life much is... probably a boycott that isn't gonna do jack shit The company already wrote people like you off as part of the general churn of free-market competition
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Hence why all the people who said they were going to stop eating at Chick-Fil-A didn't come to much in the end They were already competing with a bunch of other fast food brands, they knew you were just one demo they were advertising to among many, it was a blip
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Customers as a class don't really have that much power, Marxism 101 is that power is wielded by *workers* and that "consumer power" is a lie Solidarity among customers is pretty damn rare
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Like the Montgomery Bus Line actually depended on a large working-class Black population that was their customer base In other circumstances they could've just been like "We're the racist bus company, that's our brand!"
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All the people going "Well then I'LL eat at Chick-Fil-A ALL THE TIME to own the libs"
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Replying to @arthur_affect
Yeah going back to the original origin of Boycott would be more effective we saw just how upset the powerful get when they are refused services with Sarah Huckabee couldn't get dinner.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boycott#:~:text=The%20word%20boycott%20entered%20the,Irish%20Land%20League%20in%201880 …
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