Action of the Week, November 30, 2025

Learn from the Successful History of Boycotts

In 1880, Irish statesman and land reformer Charles Stewart Parnell encouraged tenants to engage in a powerful form of pushback against land agent Charles Cunningham Boycott and others like him who represented the interests of unjust absentee landlords.

A local parish priest led the campaign to socially ostracize Captain Boycott, which was so effective that domestic and field staff and local retailers no longer would do business with him. The priest is said to have contributed “boycott” (as both a noun and verb) to the lexicon “after one too many attempts at persuading his parishioners to adopt the word ‘ostracise.’” Boycott reportedly remained belligerent throughout—until the local siege forced him and his family to flee, and when they eventually emigrated to the United States, it was as the Cunningham (not Boycott) family.

In our revolving door era, it can be frustrating to see figures like the FDA’s notorious foot soldier Peter Marks—or, some years ago, former CDC head Julie Gerberding—rewarded for services rendered with plum jobs in the pharmaceutical industry. However, as we often point out at Solari, each of us does have the power—and, indeed, the responsibility—to shun the desk killers in our own midst and to stop financing the people who are building a control grid and poisoning and killing us and our families.

One of the lessons of the Charles Cunningham Boycott story is that, “in its original intention, the demands of the boycott were not only economic; they were also social…. Not only was the offender to be shunned, but likewise all those who continued to do business or associate in any way with him.” Britannica also explains that the force of shunning comes as much from “mark[ing] for the community those behaviours that are considered unacceptable” as from whatever deterrent effects it may have on offenders.

However, the economic clout of an effective boycott matters, too. Theologian Dusty Gates has written (and Catherine says something similar in her Red Button Story),

“When we complain about something with our lips, but continue to participate in it with our pocketbooks, our complaint loses its volume and clarity.”

Referring to her Popsicle Index (the percentage of people in a community who believe that a child can leave their home, go to the nearest place to get a popsicle, and come home alone safely), Catherine wrote long ago in an article titled “What Can a Woman Do to Help the Popsicle Index Rise?”:

“I wish that tomorrow every woman woke up in America with the sudden idea in her head that she was going to snub any man who did anything that made the Popsicle Index go down, and focus her energy on men who make the Popsicle Index rise…. Puritanism for the guys who make it go down. Abundance of admiration and attention for those who make it rise.”

As we approach the time for making New Year’s resolutions, check out another classic Solari article, Coming Clean: Building a Wonderful World, now available in a revised and updated PDF, and determine what steps you can take to stop supporting—socially, culturally, and economically—the individuals and corporations that are doing you harm.