RE: [Marxism] The Case For Boycotting Israel and the United States

[<Loupaulsen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(http://www.counterpunch.org/tilley08052006.html)

But why leave the US out of the boycott?  Tilley writes,

"This is the moment to turn international pressure on the complicit US,
too."

["Complicit"?!]

"It's impossible, today, to exert an effective boycott on the United States,
as its products are far too ubiquitous in our lives."

(What?  Isn't it easier to boycott "ubiquitous" products?  Isn't it likely
to have an effect quicker?  I am already boycotting Israeli products, but
the main effect of this is that I can't buy "Elsa's Cookies" which these
tasty cookies sold in this organic foods store.  This is not exactly going
to bring down the Zionist regime.)

"But it's quick and easy to launch a boycott of emblematic US products,
upsetting its major corporations." (and then she goes on to recommend a
boycott of Coke (which is already being boycotted, see www.killercoke.org )
and McDonald's (which people should be boycotting anyway in order not to
kill themselves) and such.

"Why stop there?" is my reaction.  Let's run through a list of things:

Boycotting the U.S. as a host location for academic conferences.  This makes
sense anyway for the reason that many scholars are denied permission to
travel to the United States.  It's incompatible with the principle of fair
inquiry to hold a conference in the United States.  U.S.-based organizations
of academics should schedule all their conferences at locations elsewhere in
the hemisphere.

Boycotting the U.S. as a tourist destination.

Boycotting U.S. airlines.

Boycotting U.S. cars (people are mostly already doing this)

Boycotting U.S. consumer products - is it really impossible to eat or wash
oneself or clean one's floor in other parts of the world without using a
U.S. product?

Boycotting U.S. banks

Boycotting U.S. construction firms and developers - pressure would have to
be directed against local bourgeoisies

Boycotting U.S. weapons systems - pressure would have to be directed against
governments

Barring U.S. officials from visiting one's own country

Films and TV productions: MUST millions of people around the world see
"Pirates of the Caribbean - the guy with the octopus face (what the hell is
the name of that thing again)"?

All these seem pretty easy.  What are some harder ones?  Pharmaceuticals and
medical supplies maybe.  Oil companies - that's rough - BP Amoco is half US
anyway and the Brit half is no better, and it's not like Shell is very
virtuous.  But then there's Venezuelan CITGO!  Boycotting Microsoft is going
to be a hard sell, but Comrade Gary is always telling us we should be using
Linux anyway.  

It just seems to me that a boycott of Israel WITHOUT a boycott of the United
States is sort of incomplete, and subscribes to the notion, which Tilley
seems to share, that Israel is the true independent criminal, and the United
States has just been wanting in moral fiber in "complicity" with its
actions.  On the contrary, as Charles Krauthammer declares, the United
States is Israel's "great patron" which it is trying to please with its
massacres and monstrous crimes.  Let's not go after the button man, while
letting Don Corleone off the hook!  Furthermore, a boycott of the U.S. AND
Israel seems to forestall the charge that we are just hate the Jews and so
on, or, for that matter, are taking on Israel as an "easy target" in the
hopes that we can opportunistically use anti-Semitism to boost the boycott.
Surely the U.S. government and corporations deserve the opprobrium of the
world as much as or more than the Israeli ones.  I am not speaking for
anyone else here, but personally I could get very enthusiastic about
supporting an international boycott of the U.S. and Israel, and I would be
very happy if somebody picked up this ball and ran with it.  

Lou Paulsen




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