Oh yes, they do - if enough people make their voices heard.
 

Review of latest successful campaigns detailed by Ethical Consumer magazine
 

Animal welfare

• Live animal exports: ferry companies respond to protests, admitting to being 'overwhelmed by public response' (1994)
• Compassion in farming: supermarkets withdraw ostrich and kangaroo meat (Tesco) and only stock free-range eggs (Marks & Spencer, 1997). Organic market increasing by 30% per year, claims UK Soil Association, guardian of organic standards
• Taiwan reacts to Environmental Investigation Agency boycotts and bans trade in rhino horn (1993)
• Cosmetic testing: many successes. e.g. L'Oreal (1994) and Gilette (1997) capitulate after US group PETA's boycotts. Nine other cosmetic companies cease testing on animals.
• General Motors (US) boycot by PETA and BUAV (1991-93) because it carries out crash tests on live pigs, dogs, ferrets, rats and other animals. Animals now replaced with dummies.
• Some airlines cease carrying monkeys for vivisection following BUAV boycott, started in 1993.

Environment

• Shell and Brent Spar: Greenpeace's campaign (1995) shows that even the most powerful trans-national corporations buckle under strong consumer pressure
• Tropical hardwoods campaign by Friends of the Earth (1991-96) results in 68% fall in mahogany imports to the UK. DIY stockists stop importing 'unsustainably sourced' tropical woods
• PVC and chlorine: Pressure from Ethical Consumer Research Association (ECRA) and Greenpeace result in partial phasing out of PVC products in Denmark, Austria and Germany. Women's Environmental Network successfully convert manufacturers of sanitary protection to non-chlorine bleaching processes for pulp
• Ozone: Many successful campaigns result in Montreal Protocols banning CFCs.
• Organic food market in UK worth £200 million by 1997 and growing fast, partly because of consumer scares with BSE, hygiene and genetically modified crops (soybeans, maize and more)
• Out-of-town superstores: opposition from many groups, local to international, results in changes in UK planning laws
• Dolphins: US boycott of tuna caught in nets which trap and drown dolphins (1990). Food company Heinz takes action. Dolphin-friendly labels become 'more official'
• Whaling: Greenpeace boycott of Icelandic fish (1989) means end to 'scientific whaling' by Iceland. Environmental Investigation Agency boycotts fish from Faroes resulting in many supermarkets refusing to stock Faroese fish

Fair trade and workers' rights

 
• Sales of fairtrade products growing at 30% per year in UK
• Number of clothes shops with 'passable code of conduct' trebled since 1994
• Sports shoes: Nike and other manufacturers develop codes of conduct because of consumer pressure
• Toys: safety code for Asian toy producers initiated by World Development Movement and adopted by International Council of Toy Industries in 1996
• Football campaign success: Save the Children and other actions (1997) leads to agreement from big sports companies to phase out child labour. Independent monitoring of suppliers also agreed
• Carpets: Indian and European campaign groups introduce independently monitored 'child friendly' labelling scheme called Rugmark. This means no child labour was involved.
• Supermarkets: Christian Aid mobilises tens of thousands of consumers in UK. Result: seven of largest chains have adopted ethical policies

Oppressive regimes

• South Africa: biggest boycott of all time blocks $300 billion investments and results in 200 companies pulling out. Called off by Nelson Mandela in 1993
• Burma: pressure on PepsiCo, Amoco, BHS, Heineken, Apple, Levi Strauss, Reebok and Coca Cola means that these companies pull out. Some tour operators suspend tours
• Tibet: Holiday Inn backs out of partnership with Chinese government due to sustained US and UK campaigns by Tibet Support Group

Nuclear testing

• French nuclear testing in Pacific results in international outrage, spearheaded by Greenpeace. 80% of New Zealanders boycott French goods. French wine imports to UK fall from 70% of total share (1994) to 53% (1995).

Armaments

• German boycott campaign (1991) aims at companies who supplied arms to Iraqi regime.
• US group (INFACT) campaigns against General Electric. Company sells its armaments division in 1993 having lost at least $50 million in sales in 1993 alone.

Money and ethics

• Amount of cash invested ethically doubles between 1994 and 1997 (EIRIS research). Now increasing at 34% per year
• Ethical Investors Group sees turnover increase 100% in 2 years
• UK Co-operative Bank with prominent ethical campaigns strongly increases its turnover and profits (e.g. 34% in 1995)
• Triodos Bank (Holland, UK), which supports sustainable and ethical projects, doubles in size in first year

Successful campaigns

Oxfam

• Clothes Code campaign

Oxfam's campaign against sweatshops is having considerable success. Some clothing retailers have been implementing ethical codes of practice in the production and supply of such clothes. 'Around the world, people who make the clothes you buy are being denied their basic rights. It has to stop. You can help!' is the Oxfam rallying cry to action.

MOSOP

• Shell Oil boycott - The Shell Oil company has been accused of helping to destroy the land belonging to the Ogoni people in Nigeria, despite the MOSOP campaign led by Ken Saro-Wiwa - executed in 1995. Greenpeace has been another major campaigner on this issue.

 
• Greenpeace has fought vigorously aganst Shell. Greenpeace's "Shell-Shocked" pages describe "the environmental and social costs of living with Shell in Nigeria".
• If you want to join in, you can support Greenpeace Canada's embargo Shell campaign here.
Has this campaign been a success? It didn't stop the execution of Saro-Wiwa and his co-campaigners, but it powerfully drew worldwide attention to what was going on in Nigeria - which was then very publicly expelled from Commonwealth as a result.

Greenpeace

• Shell and Brent Spar - When Shell wanted to dump an old oil-production platform at sea, Greenpeace mobilised millions of people in Europe to object by boycotting Shell fuels. This hit Shell hard and they quickly changed their tack. The Brent Spar now languishes in a Norwegian fjord whilst the company decides what to do next. We, the consumers, voted No and forced one of the biggest companies in the world to change.

Rainforest Action Network

• Burger King - In 1987, the Rainforest Action Network's first consumer campaign succeeded when Burger King cancelled $35 million worth of Central American rainforest beef contracts - a major milestone in the ongoing fight against converting rainforests to ranches.
• Mitsubishi and logging - According to the Rainforest Action Network, the Mitsubishi Corporation fully or partially owns several logging operations throughout the world as well as buying millions of cubic feet of timber from other logging companies - making it one of the largest importers of timber in the world. RAN believe that their protests are beginning to take effect. For example, Circuit City, the largest personal electronics retail chain in the US, announced that it was dropping Mitsubishi due to poor sales.

 

Current campaigns

ChristianAid

• Rip off ... A clever campaign (selected UK magazines) in which you 'rip off' a postcard and mail it, thus supporting Christian Aid's campaign to engage supermarket managers in the push for ethical codes of conduct. They ask you to 'Make your mark. Send the card. Or call on 0345 000 300' (local call rates).

 

• 'Change the rules' supermarket campaign - A hard-hitting report into how Britian's biggest supermarkets profit from Third World poverty.

VSO

• Enforcing the babymilk code - VSO is one of several organisations campaigning for mother and baby health and against the commercial promotion of breastmilk substitutes.

Corporate Watch

• Monsanto's genetically-modified beans - Monsanto (USA) seems determined to force genetically modified food products - their soya beans are the most notorious - on an unwilling and suspicious market.

Genetically modified organisms: campaigns are gathering pace as more and more GM crops are grown. A major campaign, spearheaded by Greenpeace, is also being pursued by other respected organisations like the UK's Food Commission (who have no Website but you can contact them at by telephone at London at 0171 628 7774 or fax at 0171 628 0817).
 

Consumers Association

• Safe food for all - CA produces a World Consumer Rights Day kit that answers key ethical consumer questions - like: Why is there hunger and how can it be overcome? Why should we care how our food is produced? How does advertising influence our food choice?

This is just one of the many campaigns run by CA.

 

you can find more information surfing  the ONEWORLD website
 

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