The boycott in the conflicts of capital and labour is one of the links in the chain of retaliatory warfare which generally draws the combatants from one measure of offence to another. Its place in the policy of labour revolt may be said to come after the more neutral stages of an industrial struggle have been gone through. First we have the strike or lock-out. Then as its almost inevitable accompaniments, the blockade of the works by the pickets of the men, and the blacklisting of the strikers by the employers in order to prevent them obtaining work elsewhere. This, be it observed, is merely a negative form of contest, the later stages of which approach and indeed embody the principle of the boycott. A more acute stage is reached when, for instance, if the men live on the premises of the employer they are ejected from their houses, and may even be prevented from obtaining other dwellings in the locality; or, on the other hand, when the workers use all their power to induce their fellows and the general public to refrain from buying the produce of their employer. They may lose in the strike, and may return to work without having effected their object, but if they can institute a close boycott they must win in the end. Therefore the boycott, if skilfully and judiciously used must always remain a terrible weapon in the hands of labour for use against capital where the circumstances are favourable to its application.
John Burnett
