Name: __________________________________

Period: _____

Methods of Resistance

Margin Notes

Resistance Through Boycotting

Vocabulary
Integration Combining
people or
groups who
had been
separated
Bantustans A homeland
for a group of
people in
South Africa
Regime A controlling
government

A boycott is an act of voluntarily refusing to buy, deal with a person,

organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for social
or political reasons. People who boycott believe that you can influence
your country with your
wallet. If you stop
buying milk from a
store on the corner, the
owner will be directly
aected and influenced
to change their stance
on apartheid. Normally,
groups who boycott
have a list of demands
are boycotts will
continue until demands
are met. In South
Africa, white and black
South Africans
boycotted white
businesses to try and
shift economic power in
the country.

In South Africa in 1985

Mkhuseli Jack
organized boycotts of white-owned businesses in the city of Port Elizabeth. The boycotters
presented their series of demands: the integration of public facilities, the removal of troops
from the black bantustans and an end to workplace discrimination. The boycotts were so
powerful that the regime responded with the first declaration of a state of emergency in 23
years in an eort to stop the movements momentum.
During a boycott, citizens have to try and find alternative ways to meet their basic needs. This
can be especially dicult in South Africa because some soil in bantustans is often excessively
damaged and it is hard to for citizens to grow their own food. Also, because of the history of

Name: __________________________________

Period: _____

colonialism in South Africa, most goods and resources were owned by the white population.
There is not always the options of buying from black or colored South Africans.
One benefit of boycotts is that you can involve other countries and encourage global
participation. Desmond Tutu supported the economic boycott of his whole country. This
means that he wanted other countries to stop trading or keeping economic relations with his
country. This would harm South Africas economy because they would have no one to sell their
natural resources like diamonds, gold, coal, cocoa beans, and tropical fruits to and no one to
buy natural resources from.
A strike is when employees refuse to work for their employers as a form of protest. Strikers,
like boycotters, also have demands that need to be met in order to end the strike and reach an
agreement. Many South African miners went on strike because of the
harsh working conditions for blacks in South African mines. Students
Vocabulary
in South Africa would also go on strikes of their own. For example,
many students in Soweto refused to attend the schools established for
Inadequate black South Africans in protest of their inadequate resources and
Lacking quality
programs.
Strikes are eective because they take the workforce away and can
often make it impossible for businesses to operate as usual but it can be dicult for citizens to
participate in a strike. If you are striking, you have to think about how to provide for yourself
and your family without a paycheck or what you would do if you were arrested. In South Africa,
it was illegal to strike and mine-workers often feared arrest and had to organize in secret.