Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Consumer movements are the organized actions of individuals in pursuit of greater equality in the relationship between buyers and sellers. While consumer movements rarely resort to revolutionary violence or even civil disobedience in pursuit of their goals, these movements are engaged in life and death issues, like the safety of food, drugs, and automobiles. Consumer movements, once confined to affluent countries like the US and Sweden, are now found in rapidly modernizing countries like China and India, formerly socialist nations like Poland and Russia, and less developed countries like Nigeria and Bangladesh. The history of consumer movements extends back to the end of the nineteenth century, when middle-class and upper-class women in the US formed local “consumers leagues” to press for better working conditions and greater food safety. In 1899 these leagues coalesced into the National Consumers League, which exists today as the world's oldest consumer organization. After a lull associated with World War I, consumer activism in the US grew more forceful in the 1920s and 1930s. This era of activism culminated in the creation of Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports magazine and arguably the world's most powerful consumer organization. Despite more than a half-century of activity, consumer movements were largely unknown by members of the general public until the appearance ... log in or subscribe to read full text