boycott
, collective and organized
ostracism
applied in labour, economic, political, or social relations to protest practices that are regarded as unfair. The boycott was popularized by
Charles Stewart Parnell
during the Irish land agitation of 1880 to protest high rents and land evictions. The term
boycott
was coined after Irish tenants followed Parnell’s suggested code of conduct and effectively ostracized a British estate manager,
Charles Cunningham Boycott
.
The boycott is used most frequently by
labour organizations
as a tactic to win improved wages and working conditions from management. U.S. law distinguishes between primary and secondary labour boycotts: a primary boycott is the refusal of employees to purchase the goods or services of their employers, and a secondary boycott involves an attempt to induce third parties to refuse to patronize the employer. In most U.S. states, primary boycotts are legal if they involve no physical violence, coercion, or intimidation, but federal law prohibits secondary boycotts.
Boycotts were also used during the
American civil rights movement
of the 1950s and ’60s as a social and political tool. Stores and businesses that discriminated against blacks were boycotted in the expectation that falling revenues would influence a company to change its policy. This tactic was also used to express displeasure with a company’s policies, such as boycotts by American consumers of
Nike, Inc.
’s products in the late 20th century over Nike’s alleged use of
sweatshops
and
child labour
overseas. In the digital age, company boycotts often were organized worldwide via
social media
. Organizers formed boycott groups on sites such as
Facebook
or used Web sites to publicize lists of companies that failed to conform to their values, such as
animal rights
activists who spearheaded boycotts on companies that performed animal testing and
gay rights
groups who launched boycotts of companies with ties to politicians and political measures that negatively affected the gay community.
The term
boycott
may also signify a refusal to participate in given proceedings. Representatives of a nation may boycott international conferences or convocations, for example, as a means of indicating disapproval of another nation’s political policy or conduct.
Boycotts have also been employed by a nation or a group of nations, or by an
international organization
to influence or protest the policies or actions of another country. The
United States
, for example, called for a boycott of the
summer Olympics of 1980 in Moscow
in protest over the
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
the previous year. In an instance of a boycott called by an international organization, the
United Nations
in 1965 asked all member states to break off economic relations with Rhodesia, which had illegally declared its independence from Great Britain earlier that year; the boycott remained in effect until 1979. During the
apartheid
era in
South Africa
, several countries and international organizations participated in a widespread boycott of the country, including an academic boycott in which participants refused to interact with South African scholars or to publish their materials, among other actions.