Measuring the Impact of the 'Great American Boycott'

On the day when more than a million advocates of illegal immigration were estimated to be skipping work and boycotting American goods, consumer experts were unsure if the protests would be effective.

The National Immigrant Solidarity Network (NISN) and other pro-immigrant groups urged illegal immigrants and their supporters to stay home from work and school and to boycott American businesses May 1, calling it the "Great American Boycott of 2006."

The goal of the protest, according to NISN, was to show "anti-immigrant politicians and hate-mongers" that illegal immigrants are vital to the United States economy. In addition to the calls for strikes and boycotts, rallies were held in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and elsewhere.

Dr. Carl Horowitz, director of the Organized Labor Accountability Project of the conservative National Legal and Policy Center, was skeptical that the demonstrations would make much of a difference. "Our economy is just too big and diverse for any group, no matter how well organized, to have much of an impact," he said.

Horowitz added that in order for a boycott to be successful, it would have to continue for a long period of time. "That could only be achieved by illegal immigrants returning to their home nations," he said, "an idea many Americans would gladly support."

Monroe Friedman, emeritus professor of psychology at Eastern Michigan University, told Cybercast News Service that calling the demonstration a boycott was inaccurate. "People are marching, they're demonstrating, and we don't really know how many of them are absent from work or got approved absences from work. We just know they're out in the streets," he said.

Friedman, the author of the book "Consumer Boycotts," added, "I don't see anyone that's going to stores ... checking to see whether people are buying things.

"There is a very, very emotional tone and character to the term boycott," Friedman said. "It's one of these buzzwords and I think the news media gets very excited and leaps upon it to use it as a headline word." He said protest organizers might take advantage of the media's eagerness to use the word "boycott" to describe events that don't constitute a boycott.

Friedman said boycotts are "not one-day affairs but these are much longer in duration," pointing to the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott led by Martin Luther King Jr., in the mid-1950s, which lasted more than a year.

The real purpose of the "Great American Boycott" is not to squeeze the U.S. economy, Friedman said, but "it's really a day to call attention to ... some of the concerns that immigrants have had over the years."

Friedman declined to speculate on the impact of Monday's events, saying that he thought the wisest approach would be to "wait and see" what happened during the demonstrations and whether people actually skipped work and stopped shopping.

"There [will] be some anecdotes here or there of people not showing up for work and businesses not functioning at full capacity," he said, "but in the main it's going to have a marginal effect on our economy and that will send a signal to boycotters that future such actions aren't in their best interest."

Anti-Bush activists attempted a similar "boycott" on Jan. 20, 2005, the day of President Bush's second inauguration. The boycott was intended as an anti-war message. Organizer David Livingstone told the Associated Press that he hoped pro-war corporations and politicians would lose money.

The NISN used Internet advertisements to emphasize its goal of showing the immigrants' impact on the economy. If illegal immigrants are a drain on society, one of the ads claimed, "then during the day on May 1st the stock market will surge and the economy will boom. If not, we prove them wrong once and for all."

The Dow Jones finished Monday down about 24 points and the NASDAQ was down about 18 points.

"The stock market can surge or fall for any number of reasons. You don't need an illegal immigrant boycott to do that," Horowitz said.

Protest organizers "want to fulfill their own prophesy," he added. "They'll set up a conclusion and then they'll cherry pick the evidence that allegedly proves it.

> Take the time to read this; It ought to scare the pants off you!

> We know Dick Lamm as the former Governor of Colorado. In that context his thoughts are particularly poignant. Last week there was an immigration overpopulation conference in Washington, DC, filled to capacity by many of American's finest minds and leaders. A brilliant college professor by the name of Victor Hansen Davis talked about his latest book, "Mexifornia," explaining how immigration - both legal and illegal was destroying the entire state of California. He said it would march across the country until it destroyed all vestiges of The American Dream.

> Moments later, former Colorado Governor Richard D.Lamm stood up and gave a stunning speech on how to destroy America. We used to call him "Lick Damn" but somewhere along the way "Lick Damn" wised up. The audience sat spellbound as he described eight methods for the destruction of the United States. He said, "If you believe that America is too smug, too self-satisfied, too rich, then let's destroy America. It is not that hard to do. No nation in history has survived the ravages of time. Arnold Toynbee observed that all great civilizations rise and fall and that 'An autopsy of history would show that all great nations commit suicide.'"

> Here is how they do it," Lamm said:

>"First, to destroy America, turn America into a bilingual or multi-lingual and bicultural country." History shows that no nation can survive the tension, conflict, and antagonism of two or more competing languages and cultures. It is a blessing for an individual to be bilingual; however, it is a curse for a society to be bilingual. The historical scholar, Seymour Lipset, put it this way: "The histories of bilingual and bi-cultural societies that do not assimilate are histories of turmoil, tension, and tragedy." Canada, Belgium, Malaysia, and Lebanon all face crises of national existence in which minorities press for autonomy, if not independence. Pakistan and Cyprus have divided. Nigeria suppressed an ethnic rebellion. France faces difficulties with Basques, Bretons, and Corsicans.

> Lamm went on: "Second, to destroy America, invent 'multiculturalism' and encourage immigrants to maintain their culture. I would make it an article of belief that all cultures are equal, that there are no cultural differences. I would make it an article of faith that the Black and Hispanic dropout rates are due solely to prejudice and discrimination by the majority. Every other explanation is out of bounds."

"Third, we could make the United States an 'Hispanic Quebec' without much effort. The key is to celebrate diversity rather than unity." As Benjamin Schwarz said in the Atlantic Monthly recently: "The apparent success of our own multiethnic and multicultural experiment might have been achieved not by tolerance but by hegemony. Without the dominance that once dictated ethnocentricity and what it meant to be an American, we are left with only tolerance and pluralism to hold us together." Lamm said, "I would encourage all immigrants to keep their own language and culture. I would replace the melting pot metaphor with the salad bowl metaphor. It is important to ensure that we have various cultural subgroups living in America enforcing their differences rather than as Americans, emphasizing their similarities."

> "Fourth, I would make our fastest growing demographic group the least educated. I would add a second underclass, unassimilated, undereducated, and antagonistic to our population. I would have this second underclass have a 50% dropout rate from high school."

> "My fifth point for destroying America would be to get big foundations and business to give these efforts lots of money. I would invest in ethnic identity, and I would establish the cult of 'Victimology.' I would get all minorities to think that their lack of success was the fault of the majority. I would start a grievance industry blaming all minority failure on the majority population."

> "My sixth plan for America's downfall would include dual citizenship and promote divided loyalties. I would celebrate diversity over unity. I would stress differences rather than similarities. Diverse people worldwide are mostly engaged in hating each other - that is, when they are not killing each other. A diverse, peaceful, or stable society is against most historical precedent. People undervalue the unity it takes to keep a nation together. Look at the ancient Greeks. The Greeks believed that they belonged to the same race; they possessed a common language and literature; and they worshipped the same gods. All Greece took part in the Olympic games. A common enemy, Persia, threatened their liberty. Yet all these bonds were not strong enough to overcome two factors: local patriotism and geographical conditions that nurtured political divisions. Greece fell. "E. Pluribus Unum" -- From many, one. In that historical reality, if we put the emphasis on the 'Pluribus' instead of the 'Unum,' we will balkanize America as surely as Kosovo."

>"Next to last, I would place all subjects off limits; make it taboo to talk about anything against the cult of 'diversity.' I would find a word similar to 'heretic' in the 16th century - that stopped discussion and paralyzed thinking. Words like 'racist' or 'xenophobe' halt discussion and debate. Having made America a bilingual/bi-cultural country, having established multiculturalism, having the large foundations fund the doctrine of 'Victimology,' I would next make it impossible to enforce our immigration laws. I would develop a mantra: that because immigration has been good for America, it must always be good. I would make every individual immigrant symmetric and ignore the cumulative impact of millions of them."

> In the last minute of his speech, Governor Lamm wiped his brow. Profound silence followed. Finally he said, "Lastly, I would censor Victor Hanson Davis's book Mexifornia. His book is dangerous. It exposes the plan to destroy America. If you feel America deserves to be destroyed, don't read that book."

> There was no applause. A chilling fear quietly rose like an ominous cloud above every attendee at the conference. Every American in that room knew that everything Lamm enumerated was proceeding methodically, quietly, darkly, yet pervasively across the United States today. Discussion is being suppressed. Over 100 languages are ripping the foundation of our educational system and national cohesiveness. Even barbaric cultures that practice female genital mutilation are growing as we celebrate 'diversity.' American jobs are vanishing into the Third World as corporations create a Third World in America. Take note of California and other states - to date, ten million illegal aliens and growing fast. It is reminiscent of George Orwell's book "1984." In that story, three slogans are engraved in the Ministry of Truth building:
"War is peace,"
"Freedom is Slavery," and,
"Ignorance is Strength."

> Governor Lamm walked back to his seat. It dawned on everyone at the conference that our nation and the future of this
great democracy is deeply in trouble and worsening fast. If we don't get this immigration monster stopped within three years, it will rage like a California wildfire and destroy everything in its path, especially The American Dream.

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