I received the following message from my union rep this morning:
Wondering what you can do to support our union brethern in Wisconsin? Simple. Boycott the products of the Koch brothers' companies, including Georgia-Pacific brands like Vanity Fair (not the magazine, I assume), Angel Soft, Quilted Northern, Brawny, Sparkle, Mardi Gras, and Dixie. Pass the word!
Sounds good, right? Boycott the bastards! Do something that will kick them where it hurts. And where it hurts to people like that is in the pocketbook.
Except...
I'm not so sure that it's a realistic idea.
I know everyone is calling for it, and I know it satisfies a visceral urge to do something in response to what they are doing to us, but when I think about who they are, I'm just not convinced that this action will accomplish anything other than potentially to jeopardize the jobs of thousands of workers in the plants that manufacture these products.
The Koch Brothers are billionaires. They simply do not care. They have shown as much by their actions and by their donations. The causes that they support are uniformly right wing, uniformly antithetical to our causes. They want nothing more than to destroy the left, and they really do not care how they accomplish that aim. They have more than enough money to ride out any boycotts. Even if we could succeed in shutting down every one of their businesses completely, which we never could nor would we actually want to, they'd live happy, wealthy lives until they die and leave their billions to their next of kin.
They are untouchable.
When I said this, my union rep responded:
The past has shown that these types of people do not think like this. Money is not the issue more than prestige and leaving behind a bedrock/icon . I can find little evidence in the scenario playing out like this. I would argue they will protect their legacy. I am not sure we have enough people that would make a significant difference, but perhaps it is worth a try.
I agree. Money is not the issue, and that is my point. They do not care about money. They care about crushing us like the insignificant bugs they see us as. It is that legacy, not the far less consequential legacy of paper products magnates, that these powerful Wall Street vermin desire. And they are on their way toward achieving it.