boycott

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.