Jan and LNers,
  I have done some research and writing on the Nestle boycott
and boycotts in general over the last few years.
The purpose of a boycott to pressure a company or sometimes government
to change unethical practices by:
1. raising public awareness (giving them bad pr)about the unethical
behavior and
2.  To put enough finanacial pressure on that company or government so
that they will change their practices. IN boycotts the financial pressure
usually comes in the form of having lots of people not buy lots of
products -
enough that the company feels the pinch in their bottom line.

One of the things that made the original Nestle boycott so successful was
that it did both. People all over the world knew about the boycott and
since nestle sells all over the world, and people all over the world
weren't buying Nestle, the company looked terrible all over the world
and, though they never admitted it, the boycott did affect their
bottom line.

The original boycott was very carefully planned and orchestrated and it
took a long time to reach the goal.

In movies, books and other aspects of life, the sequel is rarely as good
as the original. I think this is true of the Nestle boycott as well. There
are several reasons for this.
 Life is more complicated now than it was in 1977. Nestle owns many
companies
that sell all kinds of food products for humans and other animals. Even
if the
Nestle symbol appears somewhere on all their products, it is difficult to
keep track of what you can and cannot buy. If you want lots of people to
boycott,
then it has to be easy to remember what to cross off your shopping list.

There isn't the same publicity about this boycott as the last one. Not as
many
people know about it as the last one and so not as many people are
crossing
Nestle off their shopping list.

Focussing on one product and writing letters to the company about why
you are not buying their products may help with the bad public relations
part
of a boycott, but as long as it doesn't hurt their bottom line, there is
no
reason for Nestle to change its practices.

I'm not sure I could bring myself to buy Nestle products, but I also
don't think
that the boycott is really accomplishing anything at this point.
The Nestle boycott was a landmark event, and served as a model for other
successful
boycotts in other areas as well. There is much for the bf movement to be
proud of
in its accomplishment in this area.
I think that we should be developing other strategies to hold Nestle and
other
companies accountable for their unethical behavior and its consequences.

  Naomi Bar-Yam

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