Tuesday, August 5, 2008

It worked once, why not against Exxon/Mobile


Some thoughts on an action in history.

The Ireland of the 1870's was a troubled place. Poverty, anger, frustration were the crops tilled in the minds of oppressed peasants.

A home rule movement began and gained momentum under the leadership of Irish nationalist Charles Parnell.

At one point Parnell tried a tactic to prevent land price fixing and the cheating of peasants.
If a landlord evicted a tenant, the landlord would be ostracized, ignored. No one would work for him, and shop keepers would refused to serve him.

As with all tactics there has to be a first time it's tried. It happened to a young retired British captain, who was the manager of the Earl of Erne's estates in County Mayo.

Parnell got the tenants together and put the young captain in a position where he could not accept the peasants demands. Thus he was totally ignored. No laborers, no cooks, no maids, no services of any kind.

The tactic worked for 50 men under British guard had to be imported to harvest the Earls crops.

The captain and his family had to leave Ireland.

The captains name was Charles C. Boycott and ever since then his name became the action.

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