Shirin Vossoughi
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Kamal Hamdan enjoys smoking Marlboro cigarettes. But lately,
every time the Lebanese economist goes to light up, people are
giving him a hard time: “What, still smoking American
cigarettes?”
The boycott of American products is picking up in many Arab
countries ““ people are switching to the French brand of
cigarettes, while McDonald’s and Burger Kings stand empty at
lunchtime. Students are protesting with sit-in demonstrations at
the local Starbucks’ and are “deleting anything that
relates to America,” according to one Saudi fast food
mogul.
Images of angry anti-Americanism from the so-called “Arab
World” have come in tandem with recent news of the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Yet amid all depictions of
flag-burning and violent demonstrations, a new movement has sprung
up. The plan is to boycott American products to force changes in
American policy. Such a direct action with its roots in the masses
debunks the dominant notion that non-Westerners critical of U.S.
policy are either fundamentalists or can be easily bought with a
taste of American pop culture. Individuals are making the reasoned
decision to not buy American products as a way of empowering the
millions whose voices have gone hoarse from cries for action
against U.S. support for Israeli occupation.
In a globalized world where corporations exceedingly hold more
sway than national governments, the recent boycott represents a new
form of social protest that confronts power where it really lies
““ in the hands of CEOs fearful of any threat to their
corporate profits. Sales at American fast-food outlets in Arab
countries are down 20 to 30 percent. In one month alone, U.S.
companies lost $200 million in Arab markets.
As news of the boycott spreads through e-mail, cell phones and
by word of mouth, the movement represents a protest that soldiers
and tanks cannot disperse, a voice that political repression cannot
quiet. It lies in the decisions made daily by individuals who
understand that money is the only driving force that has the
ability to speak truth to corporate America.
The reaction from corporate America? Massive advertising
campaigns to persuade locals against the boycott. Yet, as Marc
Lynch of the Middle East Research and Information project reports
in Jordan, people are not so stupid as to be seduced by better ads.
“Jordanians reject the “˜civilizational’
explanation for hostility toward the U.S. and insist that the
hostility emanates from American policies, not American
culture.”
It would be much better for the Bush administration if the
reverse were true. Middle Easterners painted as fanatics on a quest
against American culture are easier to discount than millions of
people with legitimate claims against specific U.S. policies.
Meanwhile, some companies, like Kelloggs and Hershey, have their
fingers crossed hoping that the U.S. will change its Mid-East
stance before old consumer habits are broken. And it is a fear they
must take seriously. What if the common view that American products
are automatically superior and of better quality is replaced with
political stigma and social pressure to buy non-American? What if
such a backlash spreads to other regions screwed over by or in
opposition to U.S. policy? For corporate America, the prospects are
dim. And President Bush’s decision to turn to advertising
queen Charlotte Beers to help spread American values in
“hostile” regions reveals only one thing: that
commercial and political hegemony are inextricably linked. But as
the boycott reflects, so is resistance to both.
Indeed, the spreading boycotts in places like Asia, Africa and
Europe reminds us that the “Arab world” is not another
world, but rather an equal part of an international community
increasingly fed up with U.S. isolationism and obstructionism.
Closer to home, students and community members are also organizing
around divesting UC funds from companies which do business with
Israel.
But consumer boycotts are only one piece of a much larger
puzzle. If American companies push for policy changes for fear of
losing profits, that’s one thing. But if we Americans join
others to seek peaceful solutions to conflicts because of moral
responsibility toward the human community, that’s quite
another.