Members of Britain’s largest college teachers’ union on Monday voted to boycott Israeli academics over what members termed “apartheid” policies and discriminatory practices toward Palestinians. Read more about this foolish and errant British boycott here and here.
The 69,000-member National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE) passed the motion at its annual conference in the northern English city of Blackpool. Two parts of the proposal passed with a show of hands, while a third went to a vote.
Opposition to the vote culminated on Saturday with a letter to The Guardian in which hundreds of academics called on NATFHE to reject the motion.
On Friday, The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) also announced that it condemned the proposed boycott and similarly urged NATFHE to withdraw the motion.
The statement released by the AAAS board of directors said it joined with other organizations “in condemning this proposed boycott as antithetical to the positive role of free scientific inquiry in improving the lives of all citizens of the world, and in promoting cooperation among nations, despite political differences.” It added, “Free scientific inquiry and associated international collaborations should not be compromised in order to advance a political agenda unrelated to scientific and scholarly matters.”
Folks, it’s time to boycott British products. We did it in 1769, in opposition of “taxation without representation,” with a Colonial boycott of British trade goods.
There was the boycott of British goods in December 1921 by Mahatma Gandhi, known as the swadeshi policy. Gandhi also urged people to boycott British educational institutions and law courts, to resign from government employment, and to forsake British titles and honours.
What are some British products? Tetley Tea, BBC World Service, Royal Patrician English Teaware and China, Cadbury Chocolates or any of the following United Kingdom companies:
3i
AC Cars
Alexander Dennis
Alliance & Leicester
Alliance Unichem
AMVESCAP
Anglo American plc
Anglo Swiss Capital
ARM Holdings
Arriva
Art of Memory
AstraZeneca (Anglo-Swedish)
ASDA (part of Wal-Mart)
Aston Martin Lagonda
Aviva
BAA plc (formerly British Airports Authority)
BAE Systems (merger of Marconi Electronic Systems and British Aerospace)
BBC
Barclays Bank
Bentley Motors Limited
British Airways
British American Tobacco
BHP Billiton (Anglo-Australian)
The BOC Group (formerly Brin Oxygen Company, British Oxygen Company)
Boots Group
Bowens International Ltd
BP (formerly “British Petoleum” and “BP Amoco”)
Bradford & Bingley
Brambles
Brintons
British Airways
British Land
BSkyB
BT Group plc (formally British Telecomumnications
Burberry
Cable & Wireless
Cadbury-Schweppes
Cameron Balloons
Carnival Corporation & plc (Anglo-American)
Centrica
Co-operative Group
Compass Group
Corus Group (Anglo-Dutch)
Crown Group
Daily Mail and General Trust plc
Diageo
DSG International plc
Dunlop
EasyGroup
EasyJet
EMAP
FCUK
Focus (DIY) Ltd
Forbidden Technologies
Gallagher
GKN plc
GlaxoSmithKline
Greene King
GUS
HBOS
Hilton Group (separate from the US Hilton company)
HSBC
Imperial Chemical Industries
Imperial Tobacco
iScene Limited
ITV plc
Jaguar Cars
Jardine Matheson
Jawasoft
John Taylor Bellfounders
Johnson Matthey
Kangol
KESA Electricals
Kingfisher plc
Land Rover (part of Ford Motor Company)
Land Securities
Laura Ashley
Legal & General
Lloyds TSB
Lonsdale
Lotus Cars
Lunn Poly
Marconi Corporation plc (formerly The General Electric Company plc)
Marks and Spencer
Manganese Bronze
MFI
MG Rover Group
MoneyScene
Morrisons
National Express Group
National Grid Transco
Nationwide Building Society (a mutual)
Northern Rock
NTL
O2 (part of Telefónica)
Oldroyd Publishing Group Ltd
Prudential
Rank Group
Reebok (part of adidas)
Reed Elsevier (Anglo-Dutch)
Remarkable
Rio Tinto Group (Anglo-Australian)
Rolls-Royce plc
Royal Bank of Scotland
Royal Dutch Shell (Anglo-Dutch)
Royal & Sun Alliance
Royal Mail
The Sage Group
J Sainsbury
Save a Cup Recycling Company
Scottish & Newcastle
Scottish & Southern Energy
SMG plc
Shire Pharmaceuticals Group
Smith & Nephew
Smiths Group
Somerfield
Stagecoach Group
Standard Chartered
Standard Life
Swire
Tate & Lyle
Tesco
Telewest Broadband
Tomkins
Touch Local
Triumph Motor Company
TVR
UTV plc
Umbro
Unilever (Anglo-Dutch)
Uniross
United Business Communications Company PLC
Vauxhall Motors (part of General Motors)
Vestey Group
Virgin Atlantic Airways
Vodafone
W H Smith
William Grant & Sons
Williams Medical Supplies plc
Wolseley
Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries PLC
Woolworths
Xrefer