Boycotts as a form of political expression and leverage have their roots in Ireland. Indeed the Irish have a strong claim to having invented the boycott, a term and practice that took root following the ostracisation in 1880 of an English land agent named Charles Cunningham Boycott by his local community in Mayo.
Today, boycotts are a feature of the culture wars everywhere, particularly in the United States.
The most intensive examples of the past 10 years have usually been generated by the grassroots base of the party not in power. During the Biden presidency there were several large-scale boycott initiatives aimed at major corporations. The best known was the widespread boycott of Bud Light beer in 2023 by conservative Americans unhappy that the company had collaborated on a social media promotion with a transgender influencer. That campaign showed that boycotts could have bite, as Bud Light experienced a serious sales decline for eight months resulting in an estimated $395 million loss.
Now, with the Trump presidency, the boycotting impetus is with progressive civil society actors – civil rights activists, faith groups and labour advocacy groups – who are protesting against companies cutting back on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies. One of the most prominent is a black American-led protest against the retail giant Target which has reversed DEI initiatives. A Harris poll in mid-February showed that four in 10 Americans were shifting their shopping habits to align with their politics, with liberals doing so in greater numbers than conservatives. A grassroots organisation called The Peoples Union USA has been asking Americans to carry out an “economic blackout” by not shopping for a day. It is also planning weekly boycotts of selected companies, including Amazon and Walmart.
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Boycotts of American goods and services from outside the US – something that would once have been unthinkable – have also been increasing in number and intensity. In Canada, where many are incensed by Trump’s threats about tariffs and references to the “51st state”, a surge of patriotism has energised boycott initiatives, with polls showing that 80 per cent of Canadians are buying more Canadian products and stores are labelling items “Made in Canada”. They are eschewing American Bourbon and Californian wine and shopping local instead of on Amazon Prime. New apps that allow Canadians to identify products with an American link are proving popular.
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There are similar campaigns taking root across Europe to use boycotts to protest the Trump administration’s policies regarding Ukraine and its proposed imposition of tariffs, similar to the boycotts of Russia goods.
Calls for boycotts of American brands are strongest in Nordic countries where social media is awash with listings of American products and services. In Denmark, where there is widespread public anger over Trump’s declarations about buying or seizing Greenland, the Danish Salling Group, operator of major supermarkets in the country, has announced it will be adding a star to electronic price tags for goods made in Europe – although it denies this is an effort to boycott American goods.
Meanwhile, Tesla’s sales have plummeted in Europe, with a January report showing that sales of the vehicle across the continent had fallen by 45 per cent year-on-year, a clear consumer rebuke of Elon Musk’s activities as Trump’s agent. The biggest fall in Tesla sales were in Germany (59 per cent) and France (62 per cent) where there was public anger at Musk’s efforts to meddle in national politics. The drop damaged Tesla’s share price, which had risen sharply to a record high after Trump’s election.
As the stakes appear to grow higher in the rift between the US and Europe – with the US abandoning Ukraine and possibly Nato and threatening 25 per cent tariffs on European goods – it is possible that a transnational movement could emerge across Europe aimed at pushing back on the Trump administration through boycott actions.
In Ireland the only debate about boycotts has so far focused on whether Irish politicians should attend the St Patrick’s Day spectacle at the White House. This has both subsumed and deflected any broader or deeper public discussion about protesting the Trump administration.
But that could change as events evolve – the imposition of tariffs, say, or the forced removal of Palestinians from Gaza – and a visit by Trump to Ireland could be a lightning rod for major protests.
The scenario may have once seemed implausible but many political norms are now shifting or simply dissolving. The polarising effects of culture wars are now being taken up in Europe, and Ireland is not immune. As cultural and media realms become suffused with politics, all of our choices come to signify a political identification. In this climate, boycotts become the accepted currency of identity politics and dissent.
The allure of America has already dimmed in Ireland since the first Trump administration, a form of psychological disinvestment from the powerful myth of America as a liberal and redemptive power, one that acts on behalf of a global common good. The second Trump administration may break the spell entirely and lead to more tangible forms of disinvestment.
Questions about the efficacy and tactics of boycotting America can quickly become mired in arguments about what constitutes “American” goods and services in an age of globalised productions and supply chains. But they also have the same kind of transgressive charge as Trump’s disruption of our received notions of the world America made. Boycotting America may seem a fruitless, quixotic pursuit, yet even contemplating it is a radical imaginative act. We will need more of those as the world we have known is turned on its head.
Liam Kennedy is professor of American Studies and director of the Clinton Institute, University College Dublin
