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date: 14 November 2019

Abstract and Keywords

This chapter provides a historical perspective on how political consumerism was applied within the South African and British anti-apartheid movements, specifically addressing the role that consumer boycott campaigns played in undermining the apartheid regime. The chapter will first discuss the rise of boycott campaigns in apartheid South Africa and how one of these campaigns eventually spread to Britain and assisted in the creation of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement. The chapter will then discuss how increasingly violent state suppression in South Africa resulted in the rise of alternative forms of local resistance and how it galvanised the outside world to expand their use of the boycott tactic. Finally, the chapter will focus on the resurgence of local resistance in South Africa and how both local and international consumer boycott campaigns assisted in the fall of apartheid.

Keywords: political consumerism, boycott, apartheid, Britain, South Africa


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