------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------ "Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies" ---------------------------------------------------------- The BurmaNet News: November 21, 1995 Issue #283 - SPECIAL ISSUE: FREE BURMA CAMPAIGN UPDATE FREE BURMA CAMPAIGN: EVENTS AND STRATEGIES November 21, 1995 Headings: GENERAL NEWS FROM ZARNI INDIANA UNIVERSITY PENN STATE UNIVERSITY COLORADO COLLEGE NOTRE DAME UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT GREENSBORO UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN AT MADISON UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA IN MISSOULA UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA STUDENT FOR A FREE TIBET ENDORSE FREE BURMA CAMPAIGN MEDIA REPORTS ON BURMA CAMPAIGN ******************************************** GENERAL NEWS FROM ZARNI Several new colleges, universities, and high schools have either signed on to our campaign or showed serious interest in doing so in the near future. They include: Cornell College in Iowa (not Cornell University) Manhattan College University of Minnesota University of Arizona Wellesley College West High School (Madison, WI) Shibaz High School (Msn, WI) Unievrsity of Chicago's Lab School (Chicago) Several schools in St. Louis, Missouri 2) U. of Michigan group is working on city-wide selective purchasing ordiance in Ann Arbor, and so is New York City group. 3) Several individuals in Oklahoma and Montana indicated their interest in getting on board our campaign. 4) Several groups are working closely on getting alumni tours cancelled at U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, U. of Arizona, U. of Indiana at Bloomington, Notre Dame, Yale, USC, Northwestern, and Virginia Tech. If you find out your school has planned an alumni tour to Burma , please let us know. The persons to contact on tourism issues are: David Wolberg(email: freebrma@ix.netcom.com), Liz ( Elizabeth.A.Trantowski.3@nd.edu) , Brad (simpsonb@nwu.edu), Rachel (rachel.kleinfeld@yale.edu) Yuki (yuki@ASUCLA.UCLA.EDU), Ko Tun Myint (tmyint@indiana.edu) Paul at (pauglm@vt.edu) Linda (lkwon@students.uiuc.edu) 3) The Chronicle of Higher Education, a highly influential publication in international academic circle is writing a brief article on Yale group's activities to block the alumni trip to Burma. 4) We're doing a lot of outreach and forming larger coalition with other groups. The groups that have national and international networks and that we work with or will work with in the future: Students for a Free Tibet East Timor Action Network New York-based Interfaith Center for Social Responsibility 5) David Horne from Indiana have scanned in the list and email addresses of all US Senators and Congressmen and -women. PROPOSAL TO RE-SHAPE OUR CAMPAIGN First, the current mode of communication, while efficient in terms of disseminating info and coordinating the entire campaign, is not democratic and hence undesirable and counterproductive in the long run. Here is what we propose; 1) Form different focus groups. And the tentative list of these groups are as follows: A) International Coordination and Outreach Group In this, each coordinator from each Free Burma group should be in this groups as we will all need to co-ordinate future activities. While equal amount of participation and input may not be possible, at least one person from each Free Burma group should be well-informed about how things are proceeding with our grassroots movement. Also this group will be responsible to do some outreach work so as to expand our network. This group will also be responsible for forming alliances with other national and international political and social groups. B) Media Group This group will be in charge of PR things such as dealing with the press (Print, Internet, TV and Radio). All groups on board will post news about their groups' activities to the entire group (we'll create a list-server which will be used for discussions and postings.) and Media Group will pick up these postings and use them as they deem appropriate for press purposes. Also we'll be expanding the use of Netscape so as to create a data base for universities' investment figures, break-down of the universities' budgets, list of corporations and the info on corporate dirt such as their involvement in human rights situations, graphic representations of SLORC's attrocities, video-clips, etc. All Free Burma WWWpages are to be linked so that we can easily access info on Burma and Burma campaigns around the world. Here we will create a comprehensive list of Free Burma groups and contact addresses on a world-map. This group will also distribute campaign materials such as video- and audio-tapes, post paper clippings, etc. 3) Oil Group This group will focus on getting Unocal, Texaco, ARCO, UK's Primere Oil, French Government-owned Total out of Burma. They will collect and disseminate all relevant info on the aforementioned oil corporations. 4) Tourism Group This group will work together to stop alumni tours to Burma. Already there is an informal grouping in this sub-campaign. Please see "news" above. 5) Boycott Pepsi Group This group will focus on Boycott Pepsi Campaign on university and college campuses. 6) Shareholder resolution/divestment/ selective purchasing Group Simon Billenness is agreed to coordinate this campaign and has a lot of experience in working in this area. Simon is also head of Boston-based Corporate Withdrawal from Burma. 7) Fund-raising Group We need to find a way to raise fund for a variety of campaign purposes. So far a lot of people have used their pocket money and in the long run it's going to drain their pockets. If you have experience in fundraising or interests in doing so, please sign up. We might approach individually wealthy potential donors, alternative foundations (Ford or McArthur or any mainstream foundations is highly unlikely to fund our activities), or popular rock stars/bands, artists, etc. Groups 3, 4, 5 and 6 will be asked to manage both outgoing and incoming flow of relevant info. For instance, Pepsi group will not only compile dirt on Pepsi but also distribute stickers, provide new groups with relevant info, etc. Finally, I will post the entire list of our Free Burma group contacts at the earliest possible date. In addition, I will try to get a Free Burma Coalition server from the University here (if someone already has a list-server he or she wishes us to use, that would be even better.) These are just suggestions and not meant to be exhaustive. So please read and help shape the movement. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- INDIANA UNIVERSITY We decided the following during last meeting: 1. We will mobilize the campus community including profs, staffs, and students to be aware of Burmese government's tourist project and atrocities that SLORC committed during their construction for tourist sites. 2. We will bring back the Beyond Rangoon to educate the campus community more about Burma. - Starting November 17 "Beyond Rangoon" will begin several showings at the Indiana University Fine Arts Auditorium and campus bar/restaurant theater "Bears Place". CFB will have a table set up at the University showings and will be selling traditional Burmese food, Japanese food and American food to help raise funds. The event is strictly educational. 3. We plan to approach local travel agents and companies to educate them about Burma. There are some agents here who agree with us and said that they won't encourage or advertise the Visit Myanmar 96 Year to people who want to go to an exotic place. 4. We will collect petition signatures and send those to the IU ALUMINI. We have 700 student signatures so far. 5. We will distribute articles and media coverage about slave labor, forced labor, porters, and other abuses committed by SLORC in order to construct tourist sites. We have articles from NYTimes, The Wall St, the Globe, and other sources including Keven Heppner's note on Tourist project of Myanmar. **On Nov. 14 there will be a leafletting of the Showing "Raise the Bamboo Curtain:Burma and Vietnam." This is a Pro-SLORC film on the campus. **On Nov. 8 we showed the film, "The Burma Deception". A small crowd attended. Tun Myint answered questions after the show. --------------------------------------------------------------- FBC - INDIANA UNIVERSITY - GENERAL SUGGESTIONS 1. We should have all local activists combined and form International Free Burma Campaign Group. With this group in heading, we can back up all local activities around the world. 2. Prof. Josef Silverstein is willing to give some sort of educational talks around campuses about UNOCAL, TOTAL, and Texaco pipeline projects. He will be at UCLA in coming January. I am also planning to invite him to Indiana University campus. 3. For PepsiCo project, we should try to get talk with PepsiCo head quarters in order for us to clearly explain them about how PepsiCo is wrong to run business in Burma corporating with SLORC. Indiana Free Burma Campaign received call and letter from PepsiCo claiming that they are not doing business with SLORC. They need more info on how much they are wrong. If we approach them to get talk and hand them concrete documentation, they might consider something. 6. I disagree with the idea to approach PepsiCo, UNOCAL, and Texaco as resources for scholarship fund for Burmese students in exile. This idea originally come from. I would like to know other activists' opinions. 7. Tourism project, PepsiCo, Total, Unocal, and other corporations should be approached based on humantarian reason rather than political reason. These are all about killing and abusing human rights by SLORC. These projects and corporations are supporting SLORC's activities by neglecting them. International Free Burma Campaign should educate to both these corporations and consumers of these corporations. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- PENN STATE UNIVERSITY Penn State University held a rally with about 20-30 students there flyering the homecoming parade (which coincidentally fell on the 27th!) and their fans. The night before the action, students chalked up the sidewalks of the campus with outlines of bodies and numerous slogans, some of which were exposing the $14 million monopoly contract between PSU and Pepsico. We found out that 5 Alumni are going on the trip which stops in Burma. We're poised to get them info which they will use to reconsider their trip (we hope). -------------------------------------------------------- COLORADO COLLEGE Our Burma movement is going well- we have collected close to 300 signatures on a 2,000 student campus) in support of a free Burma which we will give to our Board of Trustees and to Marriot (which contracts Pepsi for part of its meal service). Texaco is next on the list, with what seems like hundreds of stations in our city. ------------------------------------------------------ NOTRE DAME UNIVERSITY A small group of us met with the Director of Travel for the Alumni Association. She was very interested in what we had to say and would like to see what she could do. However, she made two points. One, there are two people going on the trip from Notre Dame. I know that it's two too many, but she said that the remainder of the group, some 88 people, come from various universities around the country. The second point was that the tour group, TCS Expeditions, made a proposal to our Alumni Association and they accepted it. So we have less power in that matter. Nonetheless, we have the names of the alumni from Notre Dame going on the trip, and we are going to try to contact them. The remaining universities going on the tour are: University of Arizona, University of Southern California, University of Minnesota, University of Michigan, and University of Washington. We will get in touch with the Amnesty groups at those universities. In the meantime, the Director of Travel here is going to fax our packet of information to the tour agency and relate our concerns to the Executive Director of the Alumni Associatio.. And then we'll take it from there. ---------------------------------------------------- UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT GREENSBORO On the 27th, we sabatoged the 'frat rock'. UNCG has a large rock that the frats paint every so often with various slogans. The Environmental Awareness Foundation painted Free Burma and Boycott Pepsi slogans on a menacing black background. We also glued informational flyers on the rock face. We have also just launched a Kick-Pepsi-Off-Campus (Free Burma Campaign) and the core group there for our Free Burma campaign is Environmental Awareness Foundation (EAF). their address: EAF c/o Branden Gannon, Action Coordinator Box 3, EUC, University of North Carolina, Greensnoro, NC 27412-50041 TEL: 910-334-5324 --------------------------------------------------------- UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN AT MADISON The Madison group is working with a number of activist groups on campus including the following: Community Action for Latin America UW Greens Students for a Free Tibet East Timor Action Network Progressive Student Network Student Labor Action Coalition International Women's Rights Group Amnesty International We're going to be targeting dorms and residence halls to recruit undergrads and getting petitions from the general student populace. Also we have contacted the housing department for permission for briefings at dorms and residence hall meetings. Food services are also being contacted to get our Pepsi boycott message across and to dissuade them from signing any contract with Pepsi in the near future. We have talked with the umbrella organization, Associated Students of Madison, and they will most likely get on board our Free Burma campaign. Many Madison area schools (elementary, middle and high schools) want to get involved in Burma campaign and we have been able to give talks at different schools, thanks to teachers with activist-orientations. They will begin mobilizing students to get rid of Pepsi and its products from the Madison school district. We're also in the process of creating 1) a list-server where everyone of us can post campaign related news (e.g. what other groups are pursuing). Also a world-map with Free Burma Coalition contacts will be up on our web-page fairly soon. You can just click on, for instance, any state in the US, and you will be provided with the contact's email address there, if we have a contact in that region. The same holds for other countries where FBC is operating. Any data you can dig up on universities' investment, dirt on multinationals, etc. please send directly to Mike Ewall at Penn State. His address: mxe115@psu.edu He has created a project called "Corporate Dirt Archive." We will complete a list of organizers who have signed up (and are still signing up) to different focus groups and make available to the entire FBC. Please know one organizer from each group will be automatically listed as part of the international and national coordination (and outreach) group, unless he or she asks otherwise. ------------------------------------------------------------ UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA IN MISSOULA On October 26,1995, Edith T. Mirante, author of "Burmese Looking Glass" and director of the independent Burma information project Project Maje, gave a slide lecture at University of Montana , in Missoula. The topic was Burma's human rights and environmental crisis, with a focus on corporate involvement with the SLORC regime, especially the Unocal/Total's gas pipeline scheme. The lecture was arranged by environmental activists. Students, concerned faculty, and members of groups including Amnesty International, attended. The following day, an action was organized to spotlight Pepsico's Burma involvement. Students and faculty distributed leaflets about Pepsi and Burma in the university cafeterias, calling for a boycott of Pepsi products. They met with the university food & beverage manager, who told them of the bid process for the Pepsi beverage supply contract, and informed then that they can participate in an upcoming meeting about that contract. The action raised campus awareness of Burma and will doubtless affect Pepsi consumption there. Future events, including films on Burma, and activities are planned, and will expand to network other campuses in Montana. For more information or networking, contact Athena at tel. 406-728-2757 or Bryce at 406-243-1753. ---------------------------------------------------- UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA On October 27, Kent Sanmann gave a colloquium on his research on Burma's ethnic issues. ---------------------------------------------------- STUDENT FOR A FREE TIBET ENDORSE FREE BURMA CAMPAIGN Hi - Just wanted to say to feel free to add Students for a Free Tibet to the list of orgs. supporting the Burma campaign. Lots in common, best of luck - John Hocevar, Director, Students for a Free Tibet (Their address is ustcsft@igc.apc.org) -------------------------------------------------- MEDIA REPORTS ON BURMA CAMPAIGN Pacifica Radio Network aired a Burma campaign story in New York City on Nov. 11 ---------------------------------------------