The Target boycott started in early August and I haven't shopped there since. It's been 4 months of purgatory. I love Target.
Today I decided to end my personal participation with the boycott. Here's why:
Backstory on the Target Boycott - If you've been briefed, feel free to skip to after the video:
Target has excellent LGBT policies. They are sponsors of many LGBT pride events and AIDS Walks nationwide. They openly and proudly hire and provide benefits to LGBT employees and their partners. So why then...??
In the wake of the Supreme Court's stupidest decision ever, known as Citizens' United, corporations can spend limitless funds on political campaigns.
Today I decided to end my personal participation with the boycott. Here's why:
Backstory on the Target Boycott - If you've been briefed, feel free to skip to after the video:
Target has excellent LGBT policies. They are sponsors of many LGBT pride events and AIDS Walks nationwide. They openly and proudly hire and provide benefits to LGBT employees and their partners. So why then...??
from zazzle.com
In the wake of the Supreme Court's stupidest decision ever, known as Citizens' United, corporations can spend limitless funds on political campaigns.
Target was among the first big business to jump onto that bandwagon by giving a donation of $150,000 to MN Forward, a Republican group that supported Tom Emmer. Emmer was a Republican running for governor of Minnesota who would have supported tax cuts for big businesses and Target thought it a good idea to support the candidate. What Target didn't pay attention to was that Emmer was also a financial supporter of a Christian Rock group "You Can Run But You Cannot Hide" whose frontman supports the execution of homosexuals.
Cue the big gay boycott.
If We the Riff Raff don't like the way that Fat Cats are organizing us then we have a few tools at our disposal to fight back. Boycotting, effectively executed, is an excellent tactic to get the Fat Cats to listen up. Our power as a mass organized consumer is a powerhouse for change... but organizing well enough to manifest that power is the hard part.
My local activist group, Equal Roots and other Rank and File organizers in Los Angeles, composed together literature, called the press, and organized a group of demonstrators to stand in front of Target in West Hollywood with big BIG signs. The point of the boycott, is more about corporate dominance then the actual donation itself... or at least what I was screaming from the streets. Just because big businesses can support political candidates with limitless funds, doesn't mean they should. And that we, the consumer, are putting them on record.
My local activist group, Equal Roots and other Rank and File organizers in Los Angeles, composed together literature, called the press, and organized a group of demonstrators to stand in front of Target in West Hollywood with big BIG signs. The point of the boycott, is more about corporate dominance then the actual donation itself... or at least what I was screaming from the streets. Just because big businesses can support political candidates with limitless funds, doesn't mean they should. And that we, the consumer, are putting them on record.
www.equalroots.com
So was it effective? And are we still boycotting? Are boycotts effective? Are we wasting our time?
This boycott arguably had several purposes, outcomes, and/or demands:
I've read that Target lost billions of dollars and I've also read that it didn't effect their bottom line at all. I don't know which is right and chances are, unless the Target COO is reading my blog, neither do you. Stalemate.
Target did not donate elsewhere and actually stopped negotiating with the HRC to end the boycott. Target wins.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Target has stopped giving money to MN Forward and that "other companies on the cusp of donating also declined once they saw what happened to Target." Rank and File win.
Emmer lost the election. Whether the Target boycott had anything to do with the outcome can not be firmly concluded either way, however the boycott gave attention to a race that would have otherwise gone unnoticed by national media. Rank and File win.
Why I am ending my personal participation in the boycott?
Now that the boycott is out of the media, the window for maximized effect has closed. It's now a personal choice where you want to spend your dollar and I don't think Target will make that same mistake again, so I don't have a problem with my dollar going to the company once more.
So who won?
In my opinion the most important part of this boycott was to send a message to other companies that we have power as a consumer and that we do not want big businesses taking control of the way we will continue to grow and organize as a people and as a society. That puts too much power in the hands of the rich.
I believe that companies (especially ones that are forced to disclose their donations because of state laws) will be much more careful in the future.
There is still much more that needs to be done to ensure that we don't allow corporations to win the war of King of the Hill, but the Battle of Target is over now. We should drink our grog, rest up, and sharpen our pitchforks for the next battle.
Remember to choose your battles carefully. But if we don't like the way we are being organized, don't forget that we have the option to do something about it.
This boycott arguably had several purposes, outcomes, and/or demands:
- To make Target lose equivalent to (or more) money then they donated to MN Forward.
- To make Target "even the scales" by donating elsewhere (to The Victory Fund, for example)
- To stop donations to MN Forward
- To warn other companies not to donate to political campaigns (This is the best reason, in my opinion)
- To make Tom Emmer lose the election.
I've read that Target lost billions of dollars and I've also read that it didn't effect their bottom line at all. I don't know which is right and chances are, unless the Target COO is reading my blog, neither do you. Stalemate.
Target did not donate elsewhere and actually stopped negotiating with the HRC to end the boycott. Target wins.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Target has stopped giving money to MN Forward and that "other companies on the cusp of donating also declined once they saw what happened to Target." Rank and File win.
Emmer lost the election. Whether the Target boycott had anything to do with the outcome can not be firmly concluded either way, however the boycott gave attention to a race that would have otherwise gone unnoticed by national media. Rank and File win.
Why I am ending my personal participation in the boycott?
Now that the boycott is out of the media, the window for maximized effect has closed. It's now a personal choice where you want to spend your dollar and I don't think Target will make that same mistake again, so I don't have a problem with my dollar going to the company once more.
So who won?
In my opinion the most important part of this boycott was to send a message to other companies that we have power as a consumer and that we do not want big businesses taking control of the way we will continue to grow and organize as a people and as a society. That puts too much power in the hands of the rich.
I believe that companies (especially ones that are forced to disclose their donations because of state laws) will be much more careful in the future.
There is still much more that needs to be done to ensure that we don't allow corporations to win the war of King of the Hill, but the Battle of Target is over now. We should drink our grog, rest up, and sharpen our pitchforks for the next battle.
Remember to choose your battles carefully. But if we don't like the way we are being organized, don't forget that we have the option to do something about it.
All good reasons to stop the boycott. Oh, but now I'm really pissed off for friends of mine who bought into their Black Friday bait and switch of offering the LotR blu-ray set for $7.99, but having no stock of it - and cancelling every single accepted order. It was a fraud perpetrated to lure people in to buy other stuff - and I will boycott them as a bad business, if still a relatively gay-friendly one.
ReplyDelete