This is an interesting idea. I honestly hadn’t considered that we could contribute to strike funds in these countries. Seems like a thing worth organizing
I feel like a network of that sort would have applications all over the place.
Perhaps this is a petty example, but whenever I'm asked to input a tip in a place where tipping isn't appropriate (like a drive-through fast-food restaurant), I'd like to tip $0.05 as a hint that I've contributed $5 to their strike fund (which they could use an app to later verify).
Why not just boycott the places with abusive labor practices instead of some convoluted scheme that only signals your virtuous nature to the exploited employees.
You know, like back in the day when people boycotted goods produced in Apartheid South Africa.
It's not about virtue signaling, do you think that giving them strings-attached money is going to make them like me? It's kind of a jerk move.
It's about establishing communication directly with the workers so that you can circumvent potentially corrupt unions.
As for general purpose boycotts, I don't think they're as effective as they used to be. Modern supply chains are too convoluted.
It's easy to see somebody doing something that you don't like and engage with them directly about how you can help them stop. Mapping an evil to a change in your spending habits that prevents it... I'm sure there are cases where that's still possible, but I don't think it's the majority of them.
