So do protest marches work –  see Iraq below or is there another way of obtaining change?  I am not looking at direct action here.

Have just posted this elsewhere https://www.facebook.com/events/1699106910402196/ but felt it worth repeating here Sorry about the length.

What I copy at the foot  was a post  by a friend the other day I agree with him

HOW we boycott  is another question, but it is successful – slowly. Even if BDS for Palestine is taking ages. But it is what brought Apartheid in SA down.  And think of the bus boycott that sparked off the Civil Rights Movement and changed the face of the USA for ever.

In my view we cannot go on taking advantage of cheap chicken kept in cages so we can eat cheaply, and cheap products made in sweat shops, we cannot go on doing that and expect the world to get better for us?   If each of us cannot change individually what hope is there that others will change?

Here in Scotland there used to be a saying “Charity begins at home”

This for me is the same as “Be the change you want to see in the world” and, as I came to realise in India this summer, I cannot and must no try to “change the world” but can and must change myself.

We cannot and must not go on marching while enjoying a cheap chicken sandwich.

Marching of course has its place, but it is an attempt to get OTHERS to change, It does nothing to change ourselves.  On the contrary marching lets us feel “good” and virtuous, and reinforces all our prejudices about ourselves?

Boycotting on the other hand, affects us first and foremost, and changing ourselves, I am convinced, is not only the first step but in a strange way, the ONLY step?

And here is the friend’s post reproduced with his permission  I love his penultimate paragraph    “Isn’t it a fact, Protest Marches on a Sunday afternoon are fun, but Boycotts when the Markets open on Monday morning are far more effective?”

Anyway here is an extract of the post  –

“Did Marches stop the Iraq War? We marched all over America  ( I assume he meant all over the States and not all over America including Canada, Argentina etc  ) in little towns and large cities but we are now looking at a final Iraq bill of 6 trillion dollars and over a hundred thousand Americans killed or wounded and a million dead and maimed Iraqis.

“Wall Street came along in 2008 and stole America’s  (i.e. States’  ) 401k’s in some phoney “Derivative Swap” scam and we started the Occupy Wall Street Movement that morphed into a National and even International Occupy Movement with Protest Marches and Occupations to protest the loss of our homes and our savings, and where did that get us?

“………….

“The Democratic Party has splintered into the Socialist Bernie Urban Educated half and the Corporate Neo-Liberal Tim Kain Joe Manchin Rural Uneducated half and now can’t even figure out whether to wipe it’s ass with its right wing or its left wing hand.

“………

“Yes, by now it should be clear, Lefty Marches and Movements have been largely ineffectual because they always fail to effect the one thing the Right Wing Corporate Conservative fears being effected the most, their financial portfolio.

“Trump’s and the Right’s reaction to Nordstrom dropping Ivanka Trump’s line of women’s wear is a clear blue print for how the Left should attack the direct threat that now faces American i.e. States  Democracy.
“Stop buying anything that isn’t absolutely necessary. Boycott Corporations. Buy local necessities and nothing else.

“…………..

“Remember, 3 Walmart inheritors now hold as much wealth as 130 million poor Americans.

“Do you think those three inheritors ever really consider anyone but themselves?

“But if those 130 million Americans  (Statespeople) suddenly decided, “Fuck You Corporate America, We Ain’t Buying Another Fucking Thing” wouldn’t those three Walmart billionaires and their ilk be more likely to finally pay attention to the hundreds of millions of Americans they would never consider otherwise?

“Isn’t it a fact, Protest Marches on a Sunday afternoon are fun, but Boycotts when the Markets open on Monday morning are far more effective?

“And finally, with the ability to organize and communicate, isn’t the Internet, now that smart phones have become ubiquitous, the new technological game changer when it comes to starting and sustaining a FULL SPECTRUM CORPORATE BOYCOTT that utilizes many of the otherwise powerless poor and disaffected voices in society?”     End