The right to boycott is likely heading to the US Supreme Court after a court of appeals upheld an Arkansas law restricting contractors from boycotting Israel.
With major implications for freedom of speech in the US, it is worth re-examining the historical use of boycott as a tool of resistance by anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist grassroots movements for justice, and the case of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement called for by Palestinians.
Unlike broad-based sanctions that are imposed by powerful states, often unilaterally and as a means of punishment, boycott movements are rooted in the resistance of people against the injustices of those in power, as a tool of accountability for human rights abuses.
The term "boycott" was first coined in 1880, after Irish tenants refused to pay unaffordable rental increases forced on them by an English land agent, Charles Cunningham Boycott. However, the practice of using such nonviolent means to effect change was used before this - such as the 1791 Sugar Boycott in Britain against slavery - and has been used many times thereafter.
In 1891, Iranians participated in the Tobacco Protests, refusing to use tobacco products as a collective response to a widely unpopular move by Nasir al-Din Shah to grant a concession to Britain over Iran's tobacco industry.
A tool of resistance
In the US, boycotts became an essential tool during the 1950s in the Civil Rights Movement, used by Black communities as one strategy to fight back against white supremacy in the United States. The Montgomery Bus Boycott continued for 13 months as Black people refused to ride city buses until the Supreme Court decision to end bus segregation.
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