An Alternative To Boycotts

Today, we as consumer are often unaware of where the things we buy come from, or how and by whom they are made. However consumers are not the only ones living in ignorance, many major conglomerates and companies are unaware of the origins of their products.  This means that some companies are unknowingly supporting, and profiting from slavery. To think that box of chocolates sitting on our kitchen table is a product of slave labor is sickening. It brings up the question of what we, as consumers can do. To many people the obvious answer is a boycott. A boycott as described by Andrew John and Jill Klein in their article The Boycott Puzzle: Consumer Motivations for Purchase Sacrifice as "Boycotts are usually conceptualized as instrumental-that is, as a tactic to influence the behavior of a firm (or other institution) by withholding purchase of their products. "

According to Kevin Bales, author of Ending Slavery : How We Free Today's Slaves. We may actually be hurting instead of helping our cause. Out of all the small farms that supply cocoa for the chocolate company, only a very small percentage are using slave labor. When consumers stop purchasing the head company's products all the little companies and farmers who do business with the larger one are hurt.  Kevin Bales says that"by mounting a boycott that destroys what little market they [farmers without slaves] do have, the result can be destitution and potentially enslavement." Even though boycotts can be successful, they can result in more people being hurt, than being helped. Kevin Bales says that in order to truly remove the presence of slaves from the products we buy we need to free the people currently enslaved and prosecute the people enslaving them.

Instead of focusing our energies on combating slavery through boycotts, we should focus on encouraging companies and other consumers to as Kevin Bales says "take responsibility for the product chain of the things we make, sell and buy". Companies can do this by working with human rights groups and finding ways to monitor the labor conditions of the workers who make all aspects of the product. This method of fighting slavery is a better than boycotting because it does not harm innocent farmers and companies, leaving them destitute and more vulnerable to enslavement themselves.

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