Faizel Patel, 2016-08-19
The two year-long BoycottWoolworths campaign has officially ended.
The campaign launched in August 2014 by the National Coalition 4 Palestine (NC4P) and included the Palestine Solidarity Alliance (PSA), BDS South Africa and COSATU, amongst others called for the complete boycott of Woolworths due to its Israeli trade relations.
NC4P says due to its trade with Israel and negative publicity from the #BoycottWoolworths campaign Woolworths also suffered brand damage and at its height and according to a professional media report: “three out of every ten articles about Woolworths referred to the boycott [of the company]”
In a statement (NC4P) Chairperson Edwin Arrison, says the BoycottWoolworths campaign had enormous successes over the last two years achieving several goals.
“We have now revisited our strategic imperatives and announce the end of the blanket boycott of Woolworths to broaden the campaign to now target all Israeli products in any store. Included in our strategic imperatives, going forward, will be to also ensure that in line with labelling legislation of the DTI that no falsely-labeled Israeli products are sold in South Africa.”
The organisation says the campaign was a bold move in that it was the first comprehensive consumer boycott in the history of South Africa since 1994.
“There were many who supported the campaign and the achievements were important to the ongoing struggle in solidarity with Palestinians. We learned a lot from the campaign and hope to use that knowledge in our future campaigns and the struggle for a free Palestine.”
NC4P has thanked the community for participating in various actions and events but also in the simple task of respecting the boycott and educating other family and friends to refrain.
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