How Did The Economic Boycott Strategy Begin?
“Economic boycotts have a long and illustrious history, tracing their lineage from the Stamp Act of 1765 (American colonists refused to pay a British tax) to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s call to…stay off Alabama buses,” wrote Marshall Glickman (“Pocketbook Power: How Well-Organized Boycotts Change Corporate Policy,” published in E magazine). Charles Stewart Parnell coined the actual term “boycott” in 1880 to describe the ostracism of Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott by his poor Irish neighbors. The tactic was effective in the struggle of Irish peasants against English landlords. Tenants faced barriers to ownership and paid increasingly high rents that left them destitute. One year earlier, Parnell and Michael Davitt had founded the Land League to fight for just treatment in housing and land. The League began Ireland’s first peaceful widespread peasant rebellion. The highly successful strategies of India’s Mahatma Gandhi and America’s Martin Luther King, Jr., were employed to bring cha
