I recently argued that there is revolutionary power in the dollar. The power rests with the masses that refuse patronage of a business. A boycott is a tool not used nearly as often as it should be in this capitalist society where the dollar is king.
The Civil Rights Movement provides examples of peaceful movements that changed policy and laws that were unjustly discriminatory against citizens who were expected to live by them. Whether we are fighting business policy or discriminatory laws, we are fighting the spirit that leads to making those policies and laws. To fight a system in which discrimination and violence was so deeply ingrained, Civil Rights leaders turned to Mohandas Gandhi and his principles of non-violent civil disobedience.
When Rosa Parks sat down on the Montgomery, Alabama bus on December 1, 1955, she was prepared to stay sitting. She knew the laws that disallowed her to continue sitting if the section she was in filled up with white folks who boarded the bus after her.
When she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white traveler, she was prepared to fight against those laws. The rest of the black community in Montgomery did not allow her to fight alone. Upon her arrest, a flyer was distributed to the entire black community pleading with them to support Mrs. Parks by refusing to ride the bus for one day. They agreed.
The black community stood up straight when they refused to support the transportation system that refused to support their first class citizenship.
Their peaceful demonstration continued beyond that day and lasted for over a year. They arranged car pools with others, both black and white, who supported the boycott. The Montgomery Bus Boycott nearly bankrupted the bus company that provided the public transportation in that city. In addition, businesses and shops patronized by the bus riders saw a decline. In addition, court cases filed in the matter led to the Supreme Court that ruled segregated buses unconstitutional.
The boycott did not end without violence. Leaders received threats on their lives, four churches were bombed, and a bomb was detonated on the front porch of the home of Martin Luther King, Jr., then a doctoral candidate and pastor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery. But no violence was returned by the black community.
When a violent act is met with violence is justified. When violence is met with peace, the violator and the witness are forced to reconsider the use of violence.
The reason it worked is that many people were willing to participate in self-suffering in order to bring truth to light. One or two people boycotting or refusing to patronize a business is not going to change policy. But many—entire communities in some cases—get the attention of both policy makers and business owners who will eventually respond to the pressure.
In the case of Montgomery, the boycotters ended segregation on buses and jump-started the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a national organization that has affected presidents and changed history.
When you consider what one little dollar can do if you refuse to spend it, and then others join you in that refusal, the dollars begin to add up, and businesses begin to pay attention.
Act as if what you do makes a difference. –William James
Food Security in South Bend 