arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

The European Social Forum, which encompasses a multiplicity of organizations from many countries, has called for a boycott of all US oil companies.

In Belgium For Mother Earth and two other NGO's have taken the step to call for a boycott which was warmly embraced by the many thousands of demonstrators who marched through the streets of Brussels on Saturday 15th March. The campaign is not directed at all products made in the USA, but it urges consumers not to buy products of companies that have come outin support of the administration of President George W. Bush.
[ More info on the campaign in Belgium | For Mother Earth website ]

The headmaster of a secondary highschool, l'Athénée Royal D'Ouffet (Huy) has decided to boycott Coca Cola and Pepsi to protest against the warin Iraq. "At the moment, the Coca Cola and Pepsi machines have been emptied andunplugged, and this until the end of the war. Then we will put them into serviceonly to sell the stock. We are looking for another company, more "clean", beforeto denounce our contract with Coca Cola and Pepsi", said Philippe Caes, Prefectof Studies of the Royal Atheneum of Ouffet, who signed the pledge to boycott USproducts launched by the NGO For Mother Earth, in protest against the war inIraq. For Mother Earth call the other institutions to follow the exemple of theRoyal Atheneum of Ouffet.

In Britain, the ExxonMobil Corp., known as Esso in Europe, has indicated that anactivist boycott is hurting its sales.
[ More News | Stop Esso website ]

In Finland, the anti-war network supports the international consumer boycott organised by theFor Mother Earth group. English language SMS messages of unknown origin are also circulating in Finland,calling on people to boycott US products if Bush starts a war without thesupport of the UN Security Council.
[ More news ]

In France, an enterprising Muslim has come up with the brand name "Mecca Cola" to replace Coca-cola.

Three members of a Basque antiwar group stage a die-in next to Coca-Cola bottlesin a supermarket of Anglet, southwestern France, in a show of anger againstUS-led war against Iraq. The group calls for a boycott of American goods.
[ More News ]

In Hamburg, Germany, a group of French chefs have taken US products off the menu toprotest against war on Iraq. Whiskey, Coca-Cola and other US soft drinks are out at one restaurant whileothers have axed US rice and ketchup. Louis Bouillon, who organised the protest, says about ten chefs are taking partin the boycott.
[ More news | Consumers Against War website ]

German bicycle manufacturer, Rise and Mueller, havecancelled deals with American suppliers worth $300,000.
[ More News ]

The Greek Communist Party calls for a boycott.

In Italy the boycott call has had positive responses.

In the UK, the Stop the War Coalition has expressed support for the ongoing Greenpeace boycott of Exxon-Esso-Mobil oil companies.

In Iceland "Atak gegn stridi" (Campaign against the war) is also calling for a boycott. Elias Davidsson declared that "As Iceland has a very small population (280,000 people), the effects of such a boycott serve to unite the people here against the war."

In the Netherlands a website calling for boycott of US products was opened somehours before the bombing started.
[ Boycot Amerika website]
The Autonoomcentrum, Amsterdam, has called a day of action against Esso/ExxonMobil, to oppose the war on Iraq.
[ Autonoomcentrum website]

In Russia Attac-South and Ecodefense-Voronezh support theboycott organised by For Mother Earth. They plan to make picket againstlocal Mcdonalds.[ Resist.ru website | Images from "Stop Mcdonalds!" campaign ]
In Russia The leader of the Communist Party's Moscow branch, Alexander Kuvayev, called on the Russian parliament to "boycott contacts" withtheir U.S., British and Spanish counterparts, referring to the three countrieswhose leaders met in the Azores last Sunday to declare war.

In Sweden

Jerre Skog, a writer, musician, idealist, and independent observer iscalling for a boycott as the U.S.A and United Kingdom will attack Iraq,violating international law! Support Peace and Justice!! Boycot US and UKproducts and currency!!
[ More info... ]writer, musician, idealist, and independent observer iscalling for a boycott as the U.S.A and United Kingdom will attack Iraq,violating international law! Support Peace and Justice!! Boycot US and UKproducts and currency!!
[ More info... ]

In Switzerland, the Martin Luther King Center, have launched a international boycott campaign of the US & UK oil companies. They say "no to war against Irak" and maintain they don't want to be accomplice.[ Martin Luther King Center website ]
In Geneva there was an occupation of a McDonald's restaurant on 18th March.

Middle East

US foreign policy towards Israel (which posseses its own weapons of mass destruction), Palestine and Iraq has angered many Muslims. The boycott of US products has hit such American giants as McDonald's, Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Starbucks, Coke and Pepsi where some company sales have dropped by as much as 65 percent.

Two of the six McDonald's franchises in Jordan have closed for lack of business, and a committee representing 14 opposition parties and 14 trade unions has called for citizens to boycott US goods and to purchase French and German goods instead.

KFC and McDonald's branches in Muscat, the capital of Oman, report that sales have fallen by up to 65 percent.

The boycott has not merely had adverse results; there is also a consequent effort to produce and consume locally-produced goods instead. The biggest success-story has been Iran's Zam Zam Cola, whose sales have skyrocketed. The manufacturers cannot keep pace with demand from customers in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other Gulf states. In the United Arab Emirates Star Cola is doing brisk business. The fact that Muslims are beginning to make products to replace American ones is welcomed by both Muslims and others around the globe.

North America

In the USA the boycott finds support amongst the opponents to the war. Be the Cause is targeting specific brands (such as Kraft and Philip Morris) for a consumer boycott.
The Green Party USA is promoting a boycott of exxonmobil.

In Canada the influential Adbusters magazine and website has launched a "Boycott Brand America" campaign, which asks participants to pledge to boycott American corporate brands "from the moment the war begins and to the best of my ability until the empire learns to listen".
[ Adbusters website ]

South America

In Brazil on 14th March the federal deputy Chico Alencar (worker´s party - PT), in Rio de Janeiro announced a campaign to boycott products made in USA, to be implemented if the attack against Iraq happens. "I hope we won't have to undertake the boycott, but if this unilateral attack from the United States, disregarding the UN, really happens, we will boycott.", says Alencar. Labor unions at Santos, the largest port in Brazil and Latin America, are planning a 24-hour strike for peace by boycotting ships and goods under the U.S. or British banner, a union official said on Monday March 17th. "Labor unions from Santos will meet to vote on proposals on how to voice our desire for peace and our distaste over the coming war in Iraq," said, Marcos Duarte, the president of the Urban Unions of Santos.
Representatives from 70 unions, including the petroleum, chemical, banking, shipping and metallurgical industries, should attend the meeting, set for Tuesday morning, said Duarte, who added that many had expressed firm support for the strike. "We don't know when we will hold the strike but we will vote on proposals tomorrow," he said. "I want to stress that the strike would not be a protest against the United States or Britain but rather against war and for peace. We are proposing that no adherent to the strike drink a Coca-Cola or go into a McDonald's for lunch," said Duarte. He said the idea came from local TV reports showing U.S. and British bar owners pouring French wine onto the streets in protest of France's threat to veto a new U.N. resolution that would give the go-ahead to a U.S.-led war in Iraq.

In Mexico, peace activists were amongst the first to launch a boycott of US products.
[ No En Nuestro Nombre website ]

Pacific

In New Zealand, the Spend for Peace campaign is calling for consumers to boycott specific US brands (such as Dow and Dupont) and to notify the companies that they are doing so.
In Australia Peace Action calls for a boycott as a positive and powerful alternative to "fighting" for peace. As most people calling for a boycott they declare: "We are not anti-American, or pro-Saddam. We just simply do not believe that war is the answer."

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