Why I agree with Boycott Woolworths

While some people prefer Blogging about the simpler things in life I on the other hand prefer Blogging about more complex issues in life. As of late I have been thinking about Boycott Woolworths, to be honest what got my attention was the amount of people who have joined the Boycott in such a short amount of time, basically the boycott is caused by Woolworths trading Israel. Interestingly amongst the large amount of people who have joined the boycott I found people like Notably Blade Nzimande, Cosatu, SACP and PublicInvestment Corporation.

I’ve found Boycott Woolworths to be a complex issue because of its nature, in short the story covers a lot of issues related to different political, legal and ethical views.

According to the Oxford school dictionary sanction is defined as “action taken against a nation that is considered to have broken international laws, Sanctions against that country include refusing to trade with it.” I`ve felt the need to define sanction and put it out there to help express my feelings a bit more and explain why I agree with boycott Woolworths so much.

Firstly I want to take you back in time back to a bad place in time in a country I love so much I want to take you back to the apartheid era in South Africa and remind of a big role that was played by the sanction made against the South African apartheid government at the time, if you really take a minute to think about it the sanctions placed against the government were place because of the international laws broken by the government at the time and as a result of the sanctions the economy crashed and the government was forced to change their bad laws and as a direct result of the laws changed the sanctions were gone, so sanctions helped end apartheid in South Africa.

The reason why Israel is under sanctions due to its apartheid government and it apartheid laws. Head of retail operations Paula Disberry in Woolworths says “legislation Cleary allows trade with Israel” in all honest she is right it does. I’m not saying what Woolworths is doing is unlawful I`m saying it is unethical, because weather willing or unwillingly Woolworths is funding an apartheid government in Israel while so many South Africans clearly disapprove of such actions. I`m a public relations student and I know for a fact that it is not the legislations of South Africa that walk into Woolworths and buy bread and milk every day but rather the people of South Africa that walk into Woolworths and buy bread and milk, so I think Woolworths should stop hiding behind legislation and start standing with their consumers and more importantly stand with their fellow South Africans against an apartheid government in a foreign country.