I have often commented about which
boycotts work and which boycotts don't work. My experience monitoring and
reporting on boycotts tells me this one will just simply backfire.
While political pundits were talking about the
politics of illegal immigrants, undocumented immigrants, guest workers or
whatever you want to call them, Boycott Watch was analyzing the business impact
of the planned "Great American Boycott of 2006" scheduled for May 1, 2006.
For starters,
one-day boycotts have
been tried in the past and have little to no effect. This is because instead of
buying widgets today, you just get them the day before or the day after. The
only people affected by such boycotts are the retail clerks who may not get
scheduled that day because less business may be expected by the managers. These
same clerks end up working harder to make up the sales volume and only end up
with less overall pay due to a scheduled day off. Businesses are not hurt by
one-day boycotts.
Media outlets are giving people the
impression that immigration legislation is largely a liberal vs. conservative
battle, especially considering who in the US Senate has proposed what
solutions, but the actual divide is, predictably, in the cities which have
large illegal immigrant populations. In cities such as Cleveland, the smaller
number of illegal immigrants are in fear of banding together publicly in
protest in fear they can easily be rounded up and deported. In cities such as
Los Angeles, the mass numbers self-protect illegal immigrants making it less
likely for arrests and deportation to take place.
The
protests, however, are not endearing illegal immigrants to actual Americans.
Instead of declaring they want to be US citizens, many Mexican flags have been
seen in the original protests only to have told protesters to carry American
flags, and as such, Americans are seeing disgruntled illegal aliens protesting
the country they ran to while still displaying loyalty to the country they ran
away from - a bad PR move.
Compounding the bad public
relations is the day chosen for the boycott - May Day - the anniversary of the
Communist revolution. Having a rally and boycott on that day reveals who the
illegal aliens are and what they believe in. A better choice for a boycott
would be just a few days later on Cinco de Mayo, the 5th of May, which is not,
as some people think,
Mexico's
Independence Day. That day is actually September 16th. Rather, Cinco de
Mayo is the celebration of Mexicans defeating the French at the
Pueblo, a great victory for its day. While some may say that celebration is
un-American, it is a proud day for Mexicans that some Americans celebrate in
bars as an excuse to drink. If Americans who have been
boycotting French
products knew the actual meaning of Cinco de Mayo, it would probably be as
popular as St. Patrick's Day.
The May 1st boycott day
will tell us a lot about the people who participate. People can not say on one
hand they support and want to participate in the US economy while at the same
time organize to hurt the same economy. People who take part in the may 1st
boycott are actually saying they are against participating in US economic
prosperity, which is 100% anti-American. They day picked, the anniversary of
the Communist revolution, is also ominous and should tell you something about
the organizers as well. When and if the mainstream media mention that, American
opinion will be swayed against those seeking citizenship.
While consumer have tended to ignore if the person
behind a retail counter is an illegal alien or not, people are tired of what
they see on TV and are becoming tempted to reject any service from anyone they
may even suspect is an illegal alien regardless of that assumption is correct
or not. As such, some people who discover their favorite merchant has a labor
shortage on the May 1st may decide not to return to that store so they do not
aid illegal aliens.
People who hire occasional day
laborers at street corners will continue that practice. In areas with high
construction labor costs and a shortage of workers, nobody on the job site will
complain because the work needs to get done. Consumers, however, may end up
boycotting establishments that have a May 1st labor shortage; regardless of the
missing employees are illegal immigrants or their supporters. |
| |
|
|
| Advertisement: |
 |
|
|
