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Environment Action
Alerts for
April 16 - April 23, 2001
from Rainforest Action Network April 16, 2001
In this Post :
#1 Reuters article on day of action
#2 Village Voice article on April 11th and Spank the Bank
camp
also URL for In these Times Spank the Bank camp
article
#3 A sample of reports from around the movement
Congratulations everyone on
making April 11th an amazing day! We've heard
lots of inspiring stories from the day of action but we
want to hear it all!
Every action counts whether it had
hundreds of people or just one so let us
know what you
did on April 11th. Send your reports, cool pictures and media
clips to ORGANIZE@RAN.ORG and we'll put them up on the RAN
website.
We know that Citi really felt the pressure so
all we've got to do now is
keep it up!
_______________________________________________________
#1 Reuters
article
*** let us know if you
saw this article in your local paper! Wire service
articles get distributed all over the planet and its always
helpful to know
exactly where it ran and get copies
from local papers!
STUDENT
PROTESTERS TARGET CITIGROUP IN 12 COUNTRIES
NEW YORK, April 11 (Reuters) - Students in 12 countries
protested at
Citigroup Inc. branches on
Wednesday, attacking the financial services
firm's
alleged funding of environmentally destructive projects, organizers
said.
About 50 students carried a coffin containing a replica of
Earth to
Citigroup's headquarters in New York, threw
the company's symbolic red
umbrellas into the coffin
and nailed it shut while New Orleans-style funeral
music played, student organizer Beka Economopoulos told
Reuters.
Other students
organized similar protests in about 80 cities around the
world, and launched an international boycott of Citigroup
credit cards,
Ilyse Hogue, a spokeswoman for nonprofit
organization Rainforest Action
Network, said. The
network's purpose is to preserve rainforests and fight
causes of its destruction.
"Citi is living richly off of environmental destruction,"
Hogue said.
"Students are outraged, and are standing up
to say, 'Not With My Money!'"
Alleged Citigroup-funded projects that students are
protesting include an
oil pipeline in Chad and
Cameroon, China's Three Gorges Dam, and the
expansion
of palm plantations in Indonesia that allegedly destroy rainforest
habitat for endangered orangutans.
But Citigroup spokeswoman Leah
Johnson said the company did not fund China's
controversial Three Gorges Dam.
"We agree with many of the causes
the Rainforest Action Network supports but
we object to
the group's strategy of spreading false information," Johnson
said.
Citigroup was one of the first companies to set up an
environmental affairs
office several years ago, Johnson
said. The division's work includes
tracking
environmental regulatory and legislative trends that might have an
impact on industries of interest to Citigroup and its
clients
Students also
protested Citigroup's lending record to poor people in urban
areas, as well as the company's sale of World Bank bonds
that allegedly
strap developing nations with debt.
Citigroup came under fire from
community groups when it bought consumer
lender
Associates First Capital. Community groups said Associates unfairly
targeted poor people and minorities with unaffordable, high
interest rate
loans.
Citigroup says it has taken step to change practices at
Associates,
including beefing up compliance and
controls, improving employee training
and amending some
loan terms.
_________________________________________________________________
#2 VILLAGE VOICE ARTICLE
Students Challenge Citigroup. s Hand in Bad Lending and
Environmental
Devastation
Spank the Bank April 11
by Andrew Boyd
In March, student activists from
across the country gathered in Florida for
the Ruckus
Society. s second annual . Alternative Spring Break Direct Action
Training Camp.. Instead of wet-T-shirt contests and drunken
naked beach
parties, . campers. role-played protest
blockades, learned to rappel down
buildings with huge
banners in hand, and developed strategies for opposing
one of the largest banks in the world. Citigroup. Some of
their complaints
against the bank: predatory lending in
U.S. inner cities, environmental
devastation in the
third world, and buying influence in Washington.
Backing up some of these charges, on March 6, the Federal
Trade Commission
sued Citigroup, alleging that one of
its subsidiaries was engaged in
predatory lending that
victimized low-income borrowers by misleading them
into
loans with hidden costs. On April 11 students will launch a national
day of coordinated actions against Citigroup. cutting up
credit cards,
occupying branch offices, and pressuring
college administrators to cancel
exclusive contracts
with the company. Several thousand students on over 50
campuses are expected to participate.
I was invited to the Ruckus camp
as a guest trainer in guerrilla theater
stunts. After a
two-hour drive from the Tampa airport, our van pulled into a
sprawling private campground filled with neat rows of
snowbird trailer
homes. We checked in at the Ruckus .
office. (basically, an overhead tarp). A
pool of cell
phones was spread out on a folding table recharging like a
litter of suckling pigs. I set up my tent in the dark and
then strolled
through the camp. Tents were strewn on
patches of sand and grass. There was
a medical tent and
a vegan field kitchen that the next morning would serve
up oatmeal and miso soup. A couple of local folks had come
over with some
beer, and we sat around talking, among
us John Sellers, Ruckus. s director.
Founded in 1995,
Ruckus trains environmental and human rights organizations
in nonviolent civil disobedience. Behind us, looming
through the moonlight,
was a towering scaffold hung
with rappelling ropes. . So what are you guys
protesting, anyway?. Half a beat. . Greed,. said Sellers.
With 240,000 employees, assets
in excess of $700 billion, and annual revenue
of $112
billion, Citigroup is sixth on the Fortune 500 list. In 1998
Citibank and Travelers Insurance (which also includes the
investment bank
Salomon Smith Barney) merged to create
North America. s largest financial
institution.
Citigroup. The merger violated certain provisions of the
Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act, but Citigroup
successfully lobbied the
Fed for a two-year grace
period in which to operate. Then the bank
successfully
lobbied Congress to repeal Glass-Steagall, which was replaced
by the Financial Services Modernization Act. Since 1977
Citigroup has
tallied $17 million in lobbying expenses,
and over the last two years it has
made $2 million in
campaign contributions to both Democrats and Republicans.
When new legislation that would formally legalize the
merger ran into
resistance, Citigroup enlisted the
support of then secretary of the treasury
Robert Rubin.
In November 1999, the Financial Services Modernization Act was
signed by President Clinton. One month earlier, Rubin had
left the Clinton
administration to become a cochairman
of the newly legalized Citigroup.
Rubin. s year 2000
bonus amounted to $45.3 million in stock, cash, and
options.
Citigroup operates in over 100 countries and, according to
the Rainforest
Action Network (RAN), which is
spearheading the campaign against it, has a
hand in
some of the most destructive development projects in the world. In
Africa, Citigroup acted as chief financial adviser for the
Chad/Cameroon Oil
and Pipeline Project, which will cut
through a rainforest and indigenous
lands. In China,
Citigroup underwrote bonds for the Three Gorges Dam, which
will displace around 2 million people and destroy a rare
river ecosystem.
Leah Johnson,
Citigroup. s director of public affairs, disputes these claims.
. Citigroup is just a convenient target,. she says. . We.
ve been singled out
not because of our record but
because of our size and large customer base..
. As a target, Citigroup is the logical heir apparent to
the WTO,. says
Sellers, referring to the World Trade
Organization, which brought the
anticorporate movement
into the streets of Seattle in November 1999. By
targeting Citigroup, and trying to hold it accountable to
socially and
environmentally responsible guidelines,
activists hope to have an impact on
corporate business
as usual across the globe. In 1999 RAN led a successful
effort that pressured Home Depot to stop using old-growth
timber. Soon
after, a majority of the home-supply
industry followed suit. . The difficulty
is that this
isn. t just another Home Depot,. says Sellers. . We. re taking on
the global financial juggernaut. Not just one product at
one company. To win
will require a fundamental
restructuring of the global economy..
One immediate impact the campaign is seeking is an end to
Citigroup. s
alleged discriminatory lending practices.
In November, Citigroup acquired
Associates First
Capital Corp., a Dallas-based consumer lending company that
is now the focus of the FTC. s predatory-lending suit.
Federal regulators
charge that Associates routinely
deceived and lied to customers, tricking
them into
costly loan refinancing and making hundreds of millions of dollars
of profit in the process.
. Predatory lending is not unintentional,. says Terra
Lawson-Remer, a
cofounder of Student Alliance to Reform
Corporations (STARC) and recent
graduate of Yale. . It
is a purposeful and strategic exploitation of poor
people and people of color.. STARC, which has been on the
forefront of
anti-sweatshop organizing on campuses, has
also recently decided to put the
heat on Citigroup. s
alleged predatory-lending and redlining practices.
Redlining is the selective denial of banking services to
certain
communities. . Long before they bought
Associates, Citigroup was underserving
minority
neighborhoods,. says Matthew Lee, of Inner City Press (ICP), a
grassroots consumer and community group in the South Bronx,
which has been
fighting Citibank since 1992. . There
are 450,000 people living in the South
Bronx, but there
are only three consumer-accessible Citigroup branches
here..
Last November during a hearing held by the New York State
Banking Department
on Citigroup. s proposed acquisition
of Associates, an array of community
groups spoke
against the acquisition. But then later that afternoon, as Lee
tells it, . A gaggle of young, mostly white college
students came to testify
on the community. s behalf and
about the environmental and social impacts of
Citigroup
projects all across the globe. This surprised the heck out of the
regulators..
Citigroup, however, doesn. t seem too concerned. When
queried about the links
between these diverse
complaints, Johnson said, . What links?. Activists have
come to identify unchecked corporate power as their common
enemy. . We
shouldn. t be drawing red lines around U.S.
inner cities,. says Patrick
Reinsborough, grassroots
coordinator for RAN. . We should be drawing green
lines
around the world. s remaining forests.. Johnson refused to comment on
whether this multipronged campaign posed a threat to
Citigroup. s image or
its ability to appeal to new
customers. . Citigroup seeks to maintain
constructive
dialogue with RAN and other groups on relevant social and
environmental issues,. she said. . We disagree with their
pressure tactics,
but we share common goals..
. Companies like Citigroup have
become so powerful that until you start
asking
questions about their global presence, community groups can. t get
their ear,. Lee contends. . Citigroup may not care what
people in the South
Bronx think, but they. ve got to
care about what white students think..
Lawson-Remer
agrees: . As students, we have kinds of leverage that others don
. t.. Besides cutting up Citi credit cards, STARC and the
five other national
student groups that cosponsored the
Ruckus camp are working to divest
university endowments
of their Citigroup holdings and pressing for a jobs
boycott by creatively disrupting Citigroup recruitment
efforts on campuses.
.
Targeting Citi makes sense,. says Dave Casey, a senior from Eastern
Michigan University. He hadn. t heard about the campaign
until the Ruckus
camp but is now planning to make it
the focus of his campus activism. . It
puts a head on
the enemy; it gives us an opportunity to take concrete local
actions on campus. It also helps make connections because
no matter what you
. re already working on, Citi. s
probably involved in it..
The
week in Florida ended with a campwide direct action role-play. Trainers
stood in as police, campus officials, and reporters. A RAN
staffer played
Citigroup. s CEO, Sandy Weill, who was
visiting the mock campus for a
speaking event. In a
scene of organized chaos reminiscent of recent
antiglobalization protests, the campers put into play
almost everything they
had learned that week. One
action team locked their arms through steel
tubing to
the chassis of a van, blocking the CEO. s limousine from entering
campus. Another team went to the auditorium, where three
students locked
themselves together on the stage with
bicycle U-locks around their necks.
. Citigroup is
profiting from racism,. said one of the students hoarsely, as
an aggressive newscaster from . No Content News. stuck a
mic in his face. A
third team scaled the walls of the
administration building. A banner with
Citi. s red
umbrella and a slash through it fluttered high above the ground.
Chants of . Human need! Not corporate greed!. filled the
camp. The chants
finally turned to cheers as the lead
Ruckus trainer yelled out, . OK. Stop!
You guys won!.
It is unlikely that students will hear these words from
Citigroup itself any time soon, but as Reinsborough says, .
This is just the
beginning..
***********************
also for another detailed article
on the Alternative Spring Break Spank the
Bank Ruckus
camp from In these Times magazine check out :
http://www.inthesetimes.com/web2511/winters2511.html
______________________________________________________________
#3 A FEW REPORTS FROM APRIL 11TH
We've heard from dozens of local
organizers who leafleted, demonstrated,
gathered
boycott statements and had fun being a thorn in the side of the
world's most destructive bank. Below are some of
the few we recieved
written write ups
about. We know there's a lot more great day of action
stories out there so send them in!
Let us know what happened in your
community! Send reports to
organize@ran.org! Also if you've got cool
pictures, media clips or ideas
that worked on your day
of action that you want to share with activists
other
places - send them into RAN and we'll put them up on the Citi website!
Mail hard copies to RAN Attn : Citi campaign 221 Pine St.
#500 SF CA 94103
-Haverford University
Students at
Haverford got cell phones donated for the day and gave away free
cookies and muffins to folks who called Mark Rogers,
Citigroup's director of
public affairs. They
had an extended conversation with Mr. Rogers about
Citi's involvement with the China Development Bank--the
bank that is funding
the 3 Gorges Dam project in
China. They collected 168 signatures of
Haverford and Bryn Mawr students who pledges not to work
for Citi until they
have meaningful social and
environmental criteria to evaluate their
financial
projects. They're planning to mail them to Citigroup this week.
-U of Chicago
At the University of Chicago students chalked the corporate
cluster on
campus in front of Citibank with messages
reading "do you know where your
money
is?" They hung a banner from the trees in their plaza that faced the
administration building offices with the words
"Citibank Lives Richly Thanks
to UofC
Students." The university administration sent out a survey on
Tuesday regarding Citibank as the ATM provider on campus,
as apparently
their contract is coming up for review.
Students also made a large chalk
mural in the plaza
that listed all the ills that Citi perpetuates under the
heading "We Want A New Bank!" They passed out
hundreds of flyers and
surveys to passersby to kick off
an intensive campaign to kick Citi off
campus!
-NYC
In
NYC nearly 100 students and activists turned out during lunch hour for a
New Orleans style funeral procession to Citigroup
Headquarters, led by
street preacher and performance
artist Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop
Shopping. Demonstrators dressed as orangutans,
trees and other various
species and impacted
communities danced to marching band jazz music after a
coffin bearing the Earth. The really visited
Citibank branches along the
way, where the question was
asked is Citi going to stop funding destruction
or is
it going to hammer the last nail in the coffin of the planet. Various
speakers brought attention to Citigroup's shameless
track record. Inner
City Press/Community on
the Move addressed Citi's racist lending policies, a
member of the NOW class-action lawsuit raised awareness
around incidents of
sexual harassment and
discrimination at Salomon Smith Barney, and Rainforest
Action Network spoke
out against Citi's funding of
environmentally devastating projects around
the world.
Students from NYU and Wesleyan announced a credit card boycott
and efforts to kick Citi off campus. The rally ended with
demonstrators
liberating the earth from Citi's coffin
and deposited dozens of red
umbrellas into the casket
as Radical Cheerleaders led the crowd in a rousing
version of Dancing on the Ruins of Multinational
Corporations. Much fun
was had and
media attention gained from Reuters, ABC, Financial Times, the
Village Voice, 17 Magazine, and the IMC!
-U of Utah
Students and Green Party members in Salt Lake City
demonstrated at a
downtown Associates Capital Bank to
protest their connection with Citigroup.
They handed
out pamphlets listing grievances and exposing Citi's role in
environmentally and socially destructive
projects. They also distributed
information
the Federal Trade Commission lawsuit against the Associates
First Capital Corporation, owners of Associates Capital
Bank. The suit
spotlight practices of predatory
lending. Students at the University of
Utah
called on their administration to cut ties to Citigroup, as their vice
president of finance and accounting admitted they do invest
in the
corporation. They called on other
student to pressure the university to use
its
shareholding powers now to institute change. They also pledged to
protest Citi's ATM and student union information
booths. They landed a
great article about
the day's events in the Daily Utah Chronicle!
SF -
35 local activists faced a
chilly drizzle to do a tour of 4 different
Citibank
branches. The procession filled the streets with vibrant anti-Citi
chants as over a thousand flyers were handed out. At each
branch a symbolic
deposit was made to show Citi the
true cost of their destructive practices.
A red ribbon
was deposited to highlight Citi's racist redlining
and
predatory lending practices. An orangutan displaced by Citi funding
palm plantations in Indonesia deposited a bag of
sawdust to represent the
threat to biological and
cultural diversity that Citi's investments in
forest
destruction represent. A bottle of oil polluted water (complete with
dead fish) was delivered to remind Citi that their
investments in fossil
fuels are causing global warming
and destroying fragile ecosystems from
Venezuela's Orinoco river delta to the African
rainforests. The final
delivery was of a
giant cut up citi credit card delivered by a student in
graduation cap and gown
who in a
fiery speech (yeah Dana!)declared that not only would students be
boycotting Citi credit cards but they would be boycotting
jobs with Citi as
well. Citi's highly articulate
reponse - "No comment."
Charleston, SC
35 protesters, with
lots of great signs, banners, and someone in an
orangutan suit visited the downtown SSB
office. Lots of info was
distributed, lots
of tourists got the see another side of Charleston and the
protest got tons of media included 3 TV newscasts.
Portland, OR
A marathon roving protest with 4 rallies on 3 different
campuses. A slick
guerrilla theater piece
educated people about the links between Citi and the
growing prison industry. Banners were hung off
buildings including one
which read "Practice What you
Teach: Invest Responsibly, not in Citigroup
destruction". A press conference with speakers
form Portland State
University, Reed and Lewis and
Clark addressed Citi's involvement in the
prison
industry, predatory lending, and environmental destruction and
announced the coalition to kick Citi off all 3
campuses! Activists marched
around campus
chanting "Invest in Education not Incarceration" "PSU, LC and
Reed unite to stop corporate greed" and "Hey hey ho ho,
citigroup has got to
go." To top it all off
copies of the statement and press release where
delivered to the school presidents to let them know that
students don't want
their money going to the world's
most destructive bank!
Vancouver, British Columbia
Over
20 activists from Forest Action Network drummed and danced through the
streets of Vancouver distributing
literature about the evil practices of Canada's largest
bank
Toronto-Dominion (TD). Several branches were
visited
and 72 year old forest defender Betty Krawcyk
(who recently completed a long
prison term for blocking
old growth logging in the Elaho valley)led the way
into
the first branch to educate customers about TD's role in financing
rainforest destruction.
The day
climaxed with mass sticker of TD ATM's and the cutting up of a giant
TD credit card. For more info see www.fanweb.org
from Rainforest Action Network April 16, 2001
Press release from RAINFOREST ACTION NETWORK
For Immediate Release, April 16,
2001
Contact: Ilyse Hogue,
415/595-7246 (on site); Shannon Wright: 415/596-7246;
415/398-4404
Activists Hang Banner at CITIGROUP Headquarters:
. HEY CITI, NOT WITH MY MONEY!.
Event Follows on This Week. s
Launch of Credit Card Boycott, Protests in 80
Cities
and 12 Countries
Demonstrations Planned for Tomorrow at CITI Shareholder
Meeting
New York, NY-- During
morning rush hour in midtown Manhattan, commuters were
greeted with the sight of two activists unfurling a 20-foot
banner from flag
poles outside of Citigroup. s (Citi)
headquarters reading, . Hey CITI, Not
With My Money!.
The climbers were drawing public attention to the growing
controversy around Citi. s leading role in financing
environmentally and
socially destructive projects
around the globe.
Today. s
event follows on the heels of the launch of a student led boycott
against Citi credit cards and protests in more than 80
cities in 12
countries last Wednesday, April
11th. Growing ranks of students and
shareholders are joining the campaign to demand that Citi
adopt
comprehensive environmental and social criteria
throughout their lending and
trading business.
. With only 22 percent of primary
forests intact on the planet, there are
certain
activities we can longer afford to fund,. said Ilyse Hogue of the
Rainforest Action Network. . More and more Citi customers
are outraged by the
bank. s leading role in profiting
off rainforest destruction, global warming
and the
displacement of indigenous peoples..
The climbers were David Murphy, 28 of Brooklyn and Scott
Anderson, 27 of
Kentucky. Mr. Murphy
commented, . Citi has a consistent record of
prioritizing short term profits at the expense of long term
health of
communities and the environment. I am here to
send a clear message that Citi
can no longer fund
immoral and destructive activities with MY money..
Representatives from Rainforest Action Network on site
today pointed to
several examples of the company. s
involvement in egregious projects,
including mining in
the fragile Amazon basin, constructing oil pipelines
through indigenous land in Venezuela and expanding palm
plantations in
critical habitat of endangered
orangutans in Indonesia. Protesters also
highlighted
Citi. s policies of redlining in communities and . predatory
lending. in urban areas that disproportionately affect
economically
disadvantaged people and target
communities of color.
The
international campaign targeting Citigroup is working to transform the
funding practices of the corporate financial system. The
campaign is calling
for Citigroup as America. s largest
financial institution, to become an
industry leader in
integrating social and environmental criteria into its
investment decision-making. Rainforest Action Network calls
for an immediate
ban on funding development projects
that result in the destruction of
primary forests
worldwide and a prioritization of lending for renewable
energies and tree-free lumber and paper alternatives.
A broad coalition of groups,
including Rainforest Action Network, NY
National
Organization of Women, Inner City On The Move, and United For A
Fair Economy, will continue their vigilant protest at Citi.
s shareholder
meeting tomorrow morning, April 17 at
Carnegie Hall.
High resolution
digital photos will be available for use by the press at
http://www.ran.org/ran_campaigns/citigroup/index.html
- - - - - - - - - -
- - -
- - - - - - -
Beka Economopoulos
Rainforest Action Network
East
Coast Grassroots Organizer
http://www.ran.org
888-840-6416 office
917-560-3609
cell
"Only after the last tree
has been cut down. Only after the last river has
been
poisoned. Only after the last fish has been caught. Only then you will
find that money cannot be eaten."
-- Cree Indian Proverb
from Sierra Club April 17, 2001
SC-ACTION Vol. III, #40
DEFENDING
THE ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA
Thursday, April 12, 2001
-----
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"President Bush's actions would gut the
Endangered Species Act, our
nation's premiere wildlife
protection law."
-- Carl Pope,
the Sierra Club's executive director, on Bush's new plan to
limit citizen input on endangered species.
-----
[1] ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT: Bush Pushes to Make Public
Comment Extinct
President
Bush's proposed budget would gut the Endangered Species Act by
severely limiting money for enforcement. Although the
public could still
sue -- as is common -- to force the
Fish and Wildlife Service to list an
animal as
endangered, by cutting the funds used to enforce the results,
these citizen suits would be rendered ineffective.
To find out more details and keep
on top of the latest news:
http://www.sierraclub.org/politics/bush/
-----
[2] OPINIONS: Public Unhappy With Bush's Environmental
Approach
According to a
just-released Bloomberg poll: "President Bush's approach to
the environment is meeting with disapproval, even among
groups that voted
for him last November..." Though
Bush's general approval rating is up a
bit, to 56
percent, on environmental issues he wins the approval of just 38
percent of Americans. Another 34 percent disapproves of his
environmental
agenda and the remaining 28 percent are
undecided or won't say. "It's not
just tree huggers,"
said Evans Witt, president of Princeton Survey Research
Associates, the company that conducted the poll. "There's a
chunk of his
core supporters who aren't happy" with the
president's actions on the
environment.
To read more results from the
Bloomberg poll:
http://quote.bloomberg.com/fgcgi.cgi?T=money_nstory.ht&s=AOtRr5hRiVGhlIEJs
-----
[3] FRANKEN-FOOD FIGHT: Monsanto
Triumphs Over Farmer Who Grew GM Crop
Percy Schmeiser, a farmer in Saskatchewan, Canada, owes the
Monsanto
corporation up to $85,000 for growing
genetically-modified Round-Up Ready
Canola. The twist:
it was an accident. According to Mr. Schmeiser's
testimony, GM pollen from a neighbor's farm blew into his
canola field.
Despite the fact that the GM seed he grew
was in effect "pollution," a
Canadian judge ruled that
Schmeiser is liable for licensing fees and
profits on
the crop grown. Canadian environmentalists note that roughly 40
percent of Canada's canola crop is now grown from
genetically-modified
seed.
Learn more about the case:
http://www.percyschmeiser.com
Read a recently-revised Sierra
Club report on genetic engineering:
http://www.sierraclub.org/biotech/report.asp
-----
[4] GREAT LEAKS: Global Warming Likely Cause of Great Lakes
Decline
Falling water levels
in the Great Lakes are trigging renewed debate over
why
the level of the lakes has long been in decline. A new study, reported
in the Detroit News, points to global warming. The study
suggests that
water levels, which have been in decline
for several years, could fall by
an additional 1 to 3
feet over the next three decades. Businesses that
depend on materials transported by barge and boaters who
ply the waters for
pleasure are worried that the
decline could harm the local economy.
To read more about global warming and the Great Lakes:
http://detnews.com/2001/metro/0104/11/a01-210689.htm
-----
[5] TAKE ACTION: Time to Stop POPs
-- Persistent Organic Pollutants
Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are chemicals like
DDT, PCB and
dioxin. Not only are these chemicals
extremely toxic, they hang around in
the environment,
resisting the natural processes that break down some types
of pollution. Even worse: POPs accumulate in human body fat
and are passed
on to babies in the womb and to infants
through breast milk.
The
"Stockholm Convention," an international treaty to reduce the amount of
persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in our environment, is
almost ready to
be signed. This treaty is crucial to
reducing the amount of toxic chemicals
in our
environment -- and our bodies. And the Stockholm Convention is
strongly supported by environmentalists around the world.
The only question then: Will
the Bush administration sign it?
Send a fax to Secretary of State Powell to urge U.S.
support:
http://whistler.sierraclub.org:8080/takeaction/index.jsp
For more information on
the POPs treaty:
http://www.sierraclub.org/toxics/resources/
-------------
Sierra Club Legislative Hotline -
202-675-2394
Sierra Club National Headquarters -
415-977-5500
Sierra Club World Wide Web - http://www.sierraclub.org
Sierra Club Vote Watch Website - http://www.sierraclub.org/votewatch/
White House Comment Line - 202-456-1111
White House Fax Line - 202-456-2461
George W. Bush's e-mail - president@whitehouse.gov
Dick Cheney's e-mail - vice-president@whitehouse.gov
White House Address - 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington, DC
20500
US Capitol Switchboard - 202-224-3121
To contact your senators - http://www.senate.gov/contacting/index.cfm
To contact your representative - http://www.house.gov/writerep
from Rural Advancement Foundation International April 17, 2001
RAFI News Release
April 11, 2001
The "ETC" Century
Erosion, Technological
Transformation, and Corporate Concentration in the 21st Century
New report warns that after
Terminator, 'Generation 3' biotech, and the Gene Giants, will come
Nanotechnology, Neural manipulation, and the looming 'Binano Republic'.
Jointly published by the Dag
Hammarskjöld Foundation (Uppsala, Sweden) and RAFI (Winnipeg, Canada), the 128
page study by Pat Mooney looks at three major forces that will shape the 21st
century - Erosion, Technological transformation, and Corporate concentration -
'ETC'. The 'ETC' Century goes beyond RAFI's normally broad mandate in
biodiversity, biotechnology, and genomics, to explore a panoply of other
corporate and technology developments affecting our planet.
Divided into four parts, The "ETC"
Century is filled with up-to-date data and historic perspectives drawing from
RAFI's 24-year experience. Although the publication is being released
in April 2001, for technical reasons the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation's journal,
Development Dialogue, bears the date 1999: 1-2.
Erosion: In section
one, the forces eroding our eco-systems, human cultures, and equitable societies
are analyzed. In one-third of Latin America there are no indigenous
languages spoken. Almost half of the world's languages disappeared in
the last century and half of those remaining will vanish with the current
generation. The report argues that with the erosion of language comes the
erosion of our knowledge of the eco-system and our capacity to adapt to climate
change and other environmental pressures. "Our generation is the
first generation in the history of the world to lose more knowledge than we
gain" Pat Mooney insists.
Technological transformation: As the critical elements for
human survival (our biological environment and our cultural diversity) collapse,
powerful new technologies are being brought forward to manipulate our
world. The second section examines current strategies in
biotechnology including biological warfare. Accessing confidential
military documents, the report notes that 1000 kg of the chemical sarin gas used
in a Tokyo subway can only kill 8000 people, a one megaton hydrogen bomb can
kill 1.9 million people and a 100 kg Anthrax "bomb" dropped over a city from a
helicopter can kill three million people. Biowarfare, including
agro-terrrorism and ethnically targeted "bombs" are so inexpensive, anonymous,
and effective that they will be used.
Nanotechnology (the construction of both living and
non-living materials from the atom up), informatics, robotics, sensors,
aerospace, material, and neural sciences are also discussed in Section
Two. Announcing the "dawning of the Age of Liliput" the report
describes nanotechnology as the logical declension or move "down" from genes to
atoms as the critical unit of commerce in the 21st century. OECD
governments are now spending over $1.5 billion per annum on nanotech
development. From no nanotech patents at all ten years ago, the U.S.
Patent Office is granting more than 150 a year now. The key barrier
to nanoscale manufacturing was thought to be the inability of machines to
self-replicate. In 2000, more than a dozen patents were issued for
molecular self-assembly to such powerful research institutions as the U.S. Navy,
and major aerospace, computer, car, and drug companies. The report
documents the power of nanotechnology and suggests that nanotech in 2001 is in
the sam!
e stage of development as biotech in
1987. "Except that information technologies make the pace of progress
enormously faster with nanotech than with biotech," Pat Mooney
concludes.
Looking
at the full set of inter-related new technologies coming onto the
stage, Mooney argues that biotech and nanotech will merge and that
nano-scale technologies will spell the "death of dissent" as sensors,
biocomputers, and miniscule robots render privacy impossible. "The 'right to
privacy' and 'freedom of information' will be inverted into the corporation's
right to privacy and its right to have access to our information," Mooney
suggests, "most scientists have been 'social somnambulists' -
avoiding the social impact of their research while benefiting from
commercialization."
Corporate concentration: In its third section, The "ETC"
Century identifies corporate concentration as a major force. The
erosion of the resource base (including human resources) and the assent of new
technologies (purported to compensate for this erosion) will compel a level of
corporate mergers and alliances cutting across traditional industrial
sectors. In the food sector, input and output enterprises (life
sciences and food processors) may merge with commodity retailers such as
Wal-Mart. The health care industry is already merging the drug makers
with medical service providers as companies recognize that their economic future
lies in making well people dependent rather than making sick people
independent. Further down the road the report conjectures that
nutriceuticals and farmaceuticals could cause a total merger of
biochemistry-based enterprises dominated by the insurance
industry. "No one gains more from knowing and controlling genomics
than your insurance company,!
" Mooney
says, "What happens to genetic privacy when your doctor is also your
insurance agent?"
Returning to
the theme of cultural erosion, this section also poses the merger of the
information and entertainment industries with communications hardware and
software firms - 'conduit' and 'content' become one industry. Even
today, five companies dominate global news, music, cinemas, and
entertainment. The "ETC" Century also concludes that before the year
2030 nanotechnology will bring about the transformation (or elimination) of
mining and heavy manufacture. The new economic order created by
nanotechnology will amount to a 'Binano Republic' in which everything from Big
Macs to GameBoys will be created and controlled by a corporate
oligopoly.
ETC
Solutions: In its concluding section, the report outlines a series of
initiatives for civil society organizations (CSOs) to begin now to address the
"ETC" Century. Pat Mooney, if not entirely optimistic, ends by
offering some hope that the future predicted can still be averted.
To encourage debate on the
trends analyzed in The "ETC" Century, the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation and RAFI
will hold a seminar focusing on new technologies at the Foundation's centre in
Uppsala June 25-29, 2001, titled, "What Next in Technological Transformation?"
the seminar will bring together an invited group of 35 activists, scientists,
and academics from around the world to explore the socio-economic and scientific
implications of nano and other technologies. Following this global
gathering, the two organizations will also work with partner organizations in
Africa, Asia, and Latin America to convene regional workshops on the same
themes. The Asian workshop is expected to be held in September 2001
in conjunction with SEARICE (Southeast Asian Regional Institute for Community
Education based in Manila, Philippines). The Latin American workshop
scheduled for November, will be led by CET (Centro Ecologia t Tecnologia based
in Temuca, Chile). Details of the African workshop !
are not yet finalized.
Copies of the publication:
One to
five copies of The "ETC" Century are available at no charge. Ask for
Development Dialogue 1999:1-2, The "ETC" Century from:
The Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation
Dag Hammarskjöld Centre
Övre
Slottsgaten 2
SE-753 10 UPPSALA
SWEDEN
Fax: (46) (18)
122072
E-mail: secretariat@dhf.uu.se
Website: www.dhf.uu.se
A PDF version of the full text can
also be downloaded from RAFI's website at www.rafi.org.
For further information:
Pat Mooney, Executive Director
RAFI
110 Osborne St. S, Suite 202
Winnipeg MB R3L 1Y5
CANADA
Phone: (204)
453-5259
RAFI's "Name-Calling"
Contest: We're changing our name and we're looking for your
ideas! Until May 1, please go to www.rafi.org to see the names others
are suggesting and to add your own.
from National Environmental Trust April 17, 2001
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from League of Conservation Voters April 18, 2001
Come show your support for the heroes who strive to make
sound
environmental protections a
reality. Please join us in Washington, DC on
April 25th for LCV's Rally for the Allies - an event to
celebrate the
members of Congress who make the
environment a priority. Featured
speakers
include Rep. George Miller (CA-7) and Rep. Sherwood Boehlert
(NY-23) and LCV President Deb Callahan. Please
RSVP soon - we hope to see
you there!
For more information, visit: http://lcv.org
from the Nature Conservancy April 18, 2001
Who says you can't change the world?
Every April 22 since 1970,
millions of people just like you have gotten
together
to celebrate Earth Day. The brainchild of Gaylord Nelson, a
U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, Earth Day celebrations are now
held in 184
countries. Last year's merriment
saw 200 million people around the
world join together
in the name of environmental awareness.
Here's what's new at nature.org for Earth Day 2001!
* Are you eco-savvy? -
find out by taking our Earth Day Quiz. -- http://www.you-click.net/GoNow/a14464a33383a67074702a4
* Like birds? Check out our
bird tips. -- http://www.you-click.net/GoNow/a14464a33383a67074702a3
* Of course, Earth Day or not, we're
always hard at work - check out our latest
Success Stories. -- http://www.you-click.net/GoNow/a14464a33383a67074702a5
* Spruce up your desktop with some new
wallpaper. -- http://www.you-click.net/GoNow/a14464a33383a67074702a1
* Make someone's day - send one of our
new nature e-cards. -- http://www.you-click.net/GoNow/a14464a33383a67074702a2
Click on over to
nature.org today -- http://www.you-click.net/GoNow/a14464a33383a67074702a9
Earth Day 2001 - there's no better time to get
involved.
from World Wildlife April 18, 2001
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from Center for Marine Conservaiton April 18, 2001
Your voice this
week is extremely important
for the future of the
Atlantic spiny dogfish (cape
shark)
population.
You can take action on this alert either via email
(please see directions below) or via the web at:
http://actionnetwork.org/take-action.tcl?key=419220A20308B0418112636C190
Visit the web address below
and tell your friends to
take action on this important
campaign!
http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/Dogfish_Threatened/forward?rk=n7qUq8d1Xpq4W
We encourage you to take
action by April 23, 2001
Cape Shark Conservation Threatened
----------------------
At their meeting, next Monday,
April 23, the Atlantic
States Marine Fisheries
Commission will decide the
fate of the Atlantic spiny
dogfish (cape shark) population.
Your voice is needed
to stop the undermining of federal
conservation efforts
and help save the cape shark population
from collapse.
----------------------
INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPOND VIA THE
WEB:
If you have access to a web browser, you can take
action
on this alert by going to the following URL:
http://actionnetwork.org/take-action.tcl?key=419220A20308B0418112636C190
INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPOND VIA
EMAIL:
Just choose the "reply to sender" option on your
email
program, and edit the letter below as you wish.
You
must include the whole letter in your response
including
"-YOU MAY EDIT THE LETTER BELOW-" and "-END
OF LETTER-".
Please do not add your name and address to
your letter.
Our system automatically does this for
you.
We STRONGLY
encourage you to make edits directly to
our sample
letter below, and put the alert talking
points into
your own words. An individualized letter
is worth ten
computer generated letters. Of course,
hundreds of
unedited letters will still create a large
impact, so
please reply even if you don't have time
to personalize
the letter.
Your letter will
be addressed and sent to:
Director Gordon Colvin
-------YOU MAY EDIT THE LETTER BELOW---------
As an Atlantic state resident, I
am deeply concerned
about the health of our coastal and
ocean resources.
I am therefore distressed to learn
that, despite strict
federal controls and recent state
emergency action,
Atlantic spiny dogfish sharks remain
at serious risk
from overfishing. I understand that the
Atlantic States
Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC)
will discuss this
issue on April 23.
As you may know, an unsustainable
dogfish fishery throughout
the '90s led to severe
depletion of the targeted mature
females and a record
low number of pups - damage that
will now take decades
to repair. The lack of stringent
dogfishing limits in
state waters is derailing the
federal rebuilding plan.
Massachusetts, in particular,
has allowed continued,
excessive dogfish fishing. As
a result, the 2000
federal dogfish quota for these
vulnerable sharks was
exceeded by 67%.
I
feel strongly that the "constant harvest strategy"
that
Massachusetts is proposing for the ASMFC - that
would
more than double the quota allowed by the federal
plan
on depleted mature females - leaves this damaged
public
resource at unacceptable risk.
I am grateful for your recent support of the ASMFC
emergency dogfish closure and remain strongly in favor
of a long term ASMFC dogfish plan that continues to
protect the population in line with the federal recovery
plan. I therefore strongly urge you to attend the
dogfish
management discussion on April 23 and ensure
that our
state votes for:
-- Rejection of the "constant harvest strategy"
for dogfish;
-- Adoption of federally compatible state dogfish
measures;
--
Emergency closures until new, long term
measures are in place.
Thank you for considering my
views.
-------END OF
LETTER-------------------------
from Global Response April 18, 2001
Dear Members of Global Response's "Quick Response Network:"
In January, Global Response
launched an international letter-writing
campaign to
help NGOs in Papua New Guinea maintain a moratorium on new
logging concessions in the country's magnificent
rainforests. Global
Response members sent
letters and faxes to the World Bank and to the Papua
New Guinea government (see Action Alert text at
http://www.globalresponse.org/gra_index/gra0101.html).
Now we can send automatic
emails from the Forests.org website -- and we need
to
do this immediately! Decisions about the moratorium will be announced
in
the next few weeks. Papua New Guinea
environment and development
organizations are sending
out a renewed appeal for international support to
uphold the logging moratorium. Please take a
moment to add your voice to
this critical campaign.
Thanks,
Paula Palmer, Global Response
*****************************
ACTION ALERT!
PAPUA NEW GUINEA TO
ALLOW FINAL CLEARING OF RAINFOREST WILDERNESS
Government and International Donors to
Let Moratorium on New
Logging End
Despite New Evidence of Law Breaking
April 17, 2001
By Forests.org, Inc. at http://forests.org/
TAKE ACTION NOW!
http://forests.org/emailaction/png.htm
Papua New Guinea (PNG) contains
the third largest intact tropical
rainforest wilderness
in the World. In 1999, the PNG government,
World Bank and Australian government committed to a
moratorium on new
logging operations as a requirement
for a new loan program. The
moratorium was
to stay in place until there had been independent
reviews of proposed and existing timber operations, and the
review
findings and recommendations were implemented in
new policy and
legislation. The preliminary
results from the first review found
that incompetence
and illegalities mark the timber allocation
process. Despite months of protest, the World
Bank and Australian
government have yet to announce
whether they still support the
moratorium - and will
withhold further lending if the PNG government
does not
honor its commitments to maintain the moratorium. The final
decision will be made shortly, and through their silence
donors are
signaling that allowing the moratorium to
lapse is acceptable.
Outraged by this betrayal, PNG
forest communities and organizations
are calling for
international support.
Maintaining the moratorium, ending subsidies to industrial
log export
and implementing a new forest management
paradigm that emphasizes
community based certified
forestry and protected areas; will all
prove crucial to
the future of PNG's community well being,
governance,
and rich biodiversity and ecosystems. Please demand that
the moratorium on new logging in Papua New Guinea be
maintained.
Check back frequently as this alert will be
updated bi-weekly.
TAKE ACTION
NOW!
http://forests.org/emailaction/png.htm
P.S. Please forward
this email to friends, family and colleagues.
More Information can be found at
the Papua New Guinea Rainforest
Conservation &
Sustainable Development Portal at
http://forests.org/pngforest.html
********************************
Paula Palmer, Executive Director
Global Response
PO Box 7490
Boulder CO 80306
Tel. 303-444-0306
Fax. 303-449-9794
Website:
www.globalresponse.org
Mission: Global Response empowers people of all
ages, cultures, and
nationalities to protect the
environment by creating partnerships for
effective
citizen action. At the request of indigenous peoples and
grassroots organizations, Global Response organizes
internatinoal
letter-writing campaigns to help
communities prevent environmental
destruction. Global Response involves young
people as well as adults in
these campaigns, to develop
in them the values and skills for global citizen
cooperation and earth stewardship.
from Greenpeace April 19, 2001
US President George Bush has announced that his
administration is abandoning US support for the Kyoto Protocol, the
international treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The decision has
sparked outrage around the world and there have been many calls for Bush's
corporate backers to distance themselves from this decision.
On 5 April, Greenpeace launched a
new climate campaign by writing to the 100 largest US corporations, many of whom
funded Bush's election campaign, and asking them to explain their position on
the Kyoto Protocol. As of today, only ExxonMobil, the largest US corporation,
has responded, not with a letter, but by taking out ads in major newspapers
attacking the Kyoto Protocol.
Please help stop global warming by joining our campaign to
force the largest US corporations to take a clear position on the Kyoto Protocol
and greenhouse gas reduction.
1. Download a climate action kit from:
http://cybercentre.greenpeace.org/t/s/collector/getMessage?i=17
which contains a list of
the 100 largest US corporations.
2. Write to the local branches of these companies in your
own community and ask them "Does your company support the ratification and entry
into force of the Kyoto Protocol?".
3. Use the poster, flyer and other information in the
action kit to promote this campaign in your own community.
4. Join the Climate Action Group
at:
http://cybercentre.greenpeace.org/t/s/ag/listGroups
and participate in online
discussions on this campaign.
Please help send a strong signal to George Bush and the US
corporations that support him.
Kevin Jardine
New Media Campaigner
Greenpeace International
VISIT THE CYBERCENTRE
Please don't forget to visit the Greenpeace Cyberactivist
Community at:
http://cybercentre.greenpeace.org/t/s
from Rainforest Action Network April 19, 2001
IN THIS POST
1) Summary of the
week of global protest against Citi!
2) New York Times
blurb on banner hang at Citi HQ
3) press release on
Citigroup shareholder meeting
4) "Sandy"--spoof song:
Barry Manilow's "Mandy"
5) Citigroup Shuts Down Artists
Web Site
____________________________________________________
#1
DEMONSTRATION AT SHAREHOLDER MEETING CAPS WEEK OF GLOBAL
PROTEST AT CITI
CAMPAIGN RAMPED UP, CITI FEELS THE
HEAT!
There is certainly no
question at this point that CEO Sandy Weill and the
rest of the World's Most Destructive Bank are feeling the
heat. After an
incredibly successful and
unprecedented week of events, people of conscience
have
every reason to celebrate.
Demonstrations at the annual shareholders meeting on the
17th capped a
week-long drive to expose Citi's
destructive practices and advocate for a
democratic,
just and ecologically sane economy. Students and protesters
affiliated with the Rainforest Action Network, United for a
Fair Economy,
Inner City Press/Community on the Move,
Student environment action
Coalition and the National
Organization For Women distributed fact sheets
and
fortune cookies with special messages. When shareholders read their
fortunes they were treated to kernels of truth tacked
on to Citi's latest
greenwashing PR campaign - Citi
lives richly of predatory lending...Citi
lives richly
off of rainforest destruction... Citi lives richly off global
warming.
Unfortunately the NY Police Department decided that
Citigroup had the right
to silence the protesters and
threatened to arrest anyone flyering or
handing out
fortune cookies. Pam Martens, a representative of NOW-NY and
one of the original lead plaintiffs on the "Boom Boom Room
Suit" in which
2000 women are involved in a class
action suit to expose Citigroup's
systematic sexual
harassment of female employees - was arrested for handing
out flyers.
Undetered by the flagrant violation of our constitutional
rights,
demonstrators held a press conference where
Adam Hurter from Wesleyan, Liz
Aakhus from Columbia and
Kelly Nagy from SEAC described the national
campaign on
campuses to boycott Citi credit cards. Over 12,000 signed
postcards and pledges to boycott Citi's cards, loans and
jobs were
displayed. Other speakers touched
on shareholder activism and the range of
different
communities that were uniting to confront Citi's systemic abuses.
The world famous Red Dancing Umbrella Troupe performed a
choreographed dance
with Citi's trademark red umbrellas
(adorned with CITI crossed out) while
singing an ode to
Sandy Weill's destructive behavior set to the tune of
Barry Manilow's Mandy. The rally culminated with
2 people (one an inspired
passerby!) spontaneously
cutting up their Citi credit cards in front of the
flashing bulbs of the international financial press. For
pictures see
http://www.ran.org/info_center/press_release/010417.html
Members of the anti-Citi
coalition infiltrated the shareholder's meeting had
an
opportunity to address Sandy Weill and shareholders directly inside the
meeting. After a fiery speech challenging Sandy
on his company's
environmental and social record, Ilyse
Hogue, campaign director of the
Beyond the Bottom Line
Campaign at the Rainforest Action Network was
escorted
out of the building.
An
account of the days events is available online, where you can hear a
transcript of yesterday's Democracy Now! show with Amy
Goodman and guests
Ilyse Hogue of RAN and Matthew Lee
of Inner City Press/Community On the
Move. Check it out at http://www.webactive.com/pacifica/demnow.html.
Unfortunately Citigroup refused to appear on the show since
they said they
were unwilling to debate anyone from the
Rainforest Action Network.
The
shareholder meeting was the final cap to a week-long series of anti-Citi
protests. The day before, activists with RAN
hung a banner in front of the
Citigroup Headquarters
which read "Hey CITI, Not With My Money!". Pictures
can be seen at www.ran.org and
www.ran.org/ran_campaigns/citigroup/index.html.
On April 11th over 80
demonstrations in 12 countries on 5 continents
provided
a powerful demonstration of global support for an end to Citi's
funding of destruction and for an economy that values
principles over
profits. The message to Citi
is clear : there is a global movement to
transform the
financial system and Citigroup is our first target.
Thanks to everyone who played a role in the past week's
events. We did an
amazing job of getting
under Citi's skin. There is no chance that they are
unaware of a world-wide popular effort to transform the
practices of the
corporate financial
sector. We're in an incredible position to build upon
the links that have been made between different movements
and keep the
pressure on Citi. Whether its a
weekly adopt-a-Citi demo, teach-ins,
regular phone
zapping or non-violent direct actions let's all keep the
pressure up! Citi is learning the hard way that
they cannot ignore this
coalition and that we will no
longer allow them to profit from the
destruction of the
environment, racist lending practices, exploitation of
low income communities or the systematic violation of the
rights of women.
United our movements can force
Citigroup and the rest of the financial
industry to go
beyond the bottomline and create a world where principles
come ahead of short term profits.
Inspired and Invigorated,
RAN Beyond the Bottom Line
Campaign Team
Beka Economopoulos, Ilyse Hogue, Patrick
Reinsborough
- - - - - - - - - -
#2 NEW YORK TIMES
April 17, 2001
MANHATTAN: ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTEST IN MIDTOWN Eight members of an
environmental
group were charged yesterday with reckless endangerment and
disorderly conduct after unfurling a 20-foot-long banner
during the morning
rush in Midtown. Members of the
Rainforest Action Network climbed flagpoles
and
unfurled the banner reading, "Hey Citi: Not With My Money!" at
Citigroup's offices at East 53rd Street and Lexington
Avenue. The group said
it objected to the bank's loans
for projects like mining in Amazon rain
forests. Leah
C. Johnson, a Citigroup spokeswoman, said, "We share some of
their concerns, but we're just not sure what climbing up a
flagpole has to
do with these
concerns." Al Baker (NYT)
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
#3
For
Immediate Release Contact: Ilyse Hogue, 415/595-7246 (on site)
April 17, 2001 Shannon Wright: 415/596-7246; 415/398-4404
CITIGROUP SHAREHOLDER MEETING
ROCKED BY PROTEST
Dramatic Cap
to a Week of Protests Against Banking Giant. s Social and
Environmental Policies
Students Launch International Credit Card Boycott: . Not
With My Money,
Citi!.
New York, NY. Shareholders attending Citigroup. s (Citi)
shareholder meeting
this morning at Carnegie Hall were
greeted by a lively protest with
representatives from
diverse organizations demanding that Citi go beyond the
bottom line and clean up its act on environmental and
social abuses
worldwide. Student
representatives also announced to gathering shareholders
that an international Citi credit card boycott has been
launched.
Calling Citigroup .
the world. s most destructive bank,. students from
national networks also announced their campus campaign to
transfer student
loan balances away from Citi and
challenge university relationships with the
financial
institution.
. Students
customers are the backbone of the Citigroup machine!. declared
Kelly Nagy from Student environment action Coalition. .
We are waking up to
the company. s environmental track
record and policies and proclaiming, . Hey
Citi, not
with my money!.
A broad
coalition of groups, including Rainforest Action Network, NY
National Organization of Women, Inner City of the Move, and
United for A
Fair Economy, held a press conference and
protests outside of the
shareholder meeting at Carnegie
Hall this morning.
Today. s
event caps a week of protests against Citi. s policies in more than
80 cities in 12 countries and a banner hang at the
corporate headquarters
yesterday in midtown
Manhattan. Growing ranks of students and shareholders
are joining the campaign to demand that Citi adopt
comprehensive
environmental and social criteria
throughout their lending and trading
business.
. Students are always on the
forefront of every social change movement, so
its no
surprise that students are leading the way towards transforming the
global financial system,. said Patrick Reinsborough,
Organizing Director of
the Rainforest Action
Network. . Students today understand the connection
between Citi. s leading role in rainforest destruction in
South America,
predatory lending in communities of
color in the South Bronx, and sexual
harassment in the
workplace. They simply will not tolerate their money being
put toward this systemic abuse..
Citi shareholders were also
greeted by the upbeat Red Dancing Umbrella
Troupe.
co-opting Citi. s corporate logo. with campaign messages, while
concerned Citi customers handed out custom-made fortune
cookies decrying
Citi. s environmental and social
negligence.
Representatives
from Rainforest Action Network on site today pointed to
several examples of the company. s involvement in egregious
projects,
including mining in the fragile Amazon basin
and expanding palm plantations
in critical habitat of
endangered orangutans in Indonesia. Protesters also
highlighted Citi. s policies of redlining communities and .
predatory lending.
in urban areas that
disproportionately affect low-income people and target
communities of color.
The international campaign targeting Citigroup is working
to transform the
funding practices of the corporate
financial system. Rainforest Action
Network calls for
an immediate ban on funding development projects that
result in the destruction of primary forests worldwide and
a prioritization
of lending for renewable energies and
tree-free lumber and paper
alternatives.
# # #
- - - - - - - - -
#4
Sandy
(to the tune of "Mandy" by
Barry Manilow)
Cutting trees
and clearing soil,
Building pipes to carry oil,
Dirtying the air,
Nuclear testing,
Citigroup is there,
Always
investing.
Oh Sandy,
You can sleep through the night
without caring,
Cause you're
there at the top.
Oh Sandy,
You've been trashing the planet
we're sharing,
And we need you
to stop!
Oh Sandy.
Propping up corrupt regimes,
Squelching democratic dreams,
Profiting from pain,
But they
never sweat it,
Citigroup is there,
Advancing the credit.
Oh Sandy,
You can sleep through the night
without caring,
Cause you're
there at the top.
Oh Sandy,
You've been trashing the planet
we're sharing,
And we need you
to stop!
Oh Sandy.
by Felonius Ax (aka Cliff Tasner)
_______________________________________________
#5
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 17th, 2001
CITIGROUP SHUTS DOWN ARTISTS WEB SITE
Overreacting to a satire of its
web site, Citigroup has issued a notice
under the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act claiming copyright infringement
and demanding that the satirical site be shut down. The
notice also applies
to a satire of the web site of its
subsidiary Citibank. In response to the
notice,
Hostpro, the company hosting the satirical sites, has blocked the
sites from being viewed on the internet and has
de-activated the email
accounts of the artists
responsible.
The sites, work
of the artists collective Together We Can Defeat Capitalism
(TWCDC), were designed as part of the April 11th worldwide
day of action
against Citigroup's socially reckless
practices organized by the Rain Forest
Action Network
(RAN, http://www.ran.org).
RAN is not directly involved with
the satires. The
sites were to stay on the internet indefinitely as public
monuments to corporate greed and hypocrisy.
TWCDC made the satirical artworks
by cloning the web sites CITIBANK.COM and
CITIGROUP.COM
and simply putting them back on the internet under the domain
names CITIBANK-GLOBAL-DOMINATION.COM and
CITIGROUP-GLOBAL-DOMINATION.COM.
The only changes to
the sites were the addition of several links to web
sites documenting Citibank's investments in environmental
destruction,
unfair labor practices, involvement in
predatory lending practices, money
laundering, etc. For
example, a link for Citibank credit cards took
customers to a "cut up your Citibank credit card page" at
RAN; a link for
"private banking" took customers to
moneylaundering.com.
Apart
from such links, the sites were fully functional and customers could
even open legitimate bank accounts with the actual
Citibank. TWCDC liked the
idea that the Citi web sites
would provide customers with the information to
make
informed choices rather than the illusion of choice presented by the
real Citi sites.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, A TWCDC spokesperson
explained that the
web site action was in fact doing
Citibank a favor as now Citigroup had
domain names more
in line with its actual business plan. The spokesperson
added that, "Citigroup is acting aggressively towards our
artwork because it
has a guilty conscience about its
reckless practices. Citigroup's action
shows how big
corporations can just stamp out free speech because they can
afford the expensive lawyers. But we refuse to be bullied
by greed."
Copyright law
allows "fair use" of copyrighted material for criticism and
comment, particularly for non-commercial usage (Title 17,
Chapter 1, Section
107: http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html ). TWCDC
believes its
sites are legal under this definition and
the group is seeking to reclaim
its rightful space in
the public realm.
TWCDC
previously tangled with Citibank over a parody advertising campaign
the group ran in San Francisco in 1997. San Francisco State
University had
given permission for its parodies of
Citibank ads to be displayed in kiosks
on campus
property, but Citibank strong-armed the university into removing
them on threat of legal action.
Citigroup's most recent action
against the group underlines how the bottom
line now
dominates everything, everywhere and how difficult it is to
disseminate any contrary views to capitalism which now
dominates globally.
You could
find out more about Together We Can Defeat Capitalism's
controversial projects at http://www.TWCDC.com were it not currently being
blocked by Hostpro.
###
CONTACTS:
Together We Can Defeat Capitalism
415-643-4845
415-370-9245 (cell)
andycox@earthlink.net
(temporary during de-activation,
preferred contact is phone)
Citigroup
Mark Rodgers, Director
of Public Relations
Citigroup New York
718-248-1092
mark.rodgers@citicorp.com
Citigroup Legal Counsel
Mark D.
Rasch, Esq.
703-375-2301
Rain Forest Action Network
Patrick
Reinsborough
415-398-4404
800-989-RAIN
http://www.ran.org
organize@ran.org
Hostpro
Heather Barnes, Abuse
Department
425-974-4715
abuse@hostpro.com
from Rainforest Action Network April 19, 2001
MEDIA
ADVISORY AND FULL SCHEDULE
spread the word
and help build for the U'wa visit by mobilizing
your
community against Plan Colombia and particularly on April 26th
Bernstein/Alliance Capital's investments in Occidental
Petroleum!
___________________________________________________________-
Amazon
Watch * Activism Center at Wetlands Preserve *
Rainforest
Relief * Rainforest Action
Network * Action Resource Center
Media Advisory
For Immediate
Release: April 17, 2001
Contacts:
Atossa Soltani,
310-455-0617 (CA)
Kim Foster, 617-623-2453 or mobile
617-438-2326 (New England)
Adam
Weissman, 212-966-4831 (NY)
Uíwa Tribal Leader Kicks-off U.S. Tour to
Expose the ìCrude Logicî behind the U.S. Drug War in
Colombia
(Los Angeles, CA) --
Roberto Perez, President of the Uíwa people of
Colombia
will arrive today in Los Angeles for his National Tour (April
17-28) to speak out against Plan Colombia and the corporate
interest
behind the so-called ìdrug
war.î The Uíwa people, a peaceful tribe of
5,000 who live in the cloud forests of northeastern
Colombia, have
captured headlines around the world for
their crusade to halt Occidental
Petroleumís (OXY)
exploratory oil drilling operations on land the tribe
considers sacred.
Mr. Perez will speak to audiences in Los Angeles, San
Diego, Boston,
Providence, Stratford (CT), and New York
(see attached schedule) ranging
from corporate
investors to anti-globalization activists, labor unions,
and universities on how U.S. oil interests are served by
the military
aid package.
Just two days after Plan Colombia was passed by US
congress, the U'wa
homeland became heavily militarized
and their peaceful blockade against
OXY was violently
disrupted. Today, several thousand armed soldiers
guard
the area surrounding the drill site. Meanwhile guerrilla bombing
of Oxyís pipeline has dramatically escalated ñ over sixty
attacks so far
this year -- in retaliation to U.S.
military aid. Fearing that this
violence will further
spread to the heart of their territory, the U'wa
say
that they will continue their uncompromising resistance.
The Uíwa chief will speak at the
annual shareholder meetings of
Occidental Petroleum in
Los Angeles and Textron Technologies, the Huey
Helicopter manufacturer in Rhode Island. In addition, Mr.
Perez will
take center stage at demonstrations and
vigils at Bernstein/Alliance
Capital, OXYís largest
investor (New York) and at Sikorsky Aircraft,
manufacturer of Black Hawk. These companies have been among
the most
aggressive lobbyists for the U.S. military aid
package.
In Boston, Mr. Perez
will join Noam Chomsky at the Massachusetts
Institute
of Technology for a forum on Free Trade Area of the Americas
and Plan Colombia, where he will speak out against the
perils of
globalization and the emerging Colombia oil
war.
Each day countless innocent civilians are being
displaced, terrorized,
and assassinated throughout
Colombia by armed groups, many with ties to
paramilitaries and the Colombian Military. This military is
being backed
by powerful US interests: oil companies,
weapons and helicopter
manufacturers.
The tour was organized to foster
growing awareness of the connection
between oil and
Plan Colombia. A major component of Plan Colombia is
securing access to the country. s oil reserves through
protecting current
oil
production as well as "securing" the frontiers in order to tap the
unexplored reserves -- an objective that the U.S.
Government is not
publicly admitting.
# # #
Media Advisory Page 2
Schedule of Key Events for Roberto
Perez, Uíwa Chief
When
What
Where
Contact
Friday
4/20/018:30AM-12:30PM
Demonstration at Occidental
Petroleum Annual Shareholder Meeting Santa
Monica, CA
Miramar Hotel Ocean & Wilshire
Atossa Soltani
310-455-0617202-256-9795 (mobile)
Saturday 4/21/0112:00-2:00 PM
Uíwa
Leader to Speak at Rally Against Free Trade Area of the Americas at
U.S. Mexico Border Mobilizations
San Ysidro, CALarsen Field
Atossa
Soltani 310-455-0617 202-256-9795 (cel)
Event Hotline
626-403-2530
Sunday
4/22/017:00 PM
Forum w/ Noam Chomsky & Roberto
Perez
Boston, MA MIT Bldg. 10 room 250
Kim Foster617-623-2453 617-438-2326 (mobile) or Patrick
Reinsborough
(415) 305-RAIN
Tue 4/24/016:30-8:30 AM
Vigil @ Sikorsky Helicopter Plant (Black Hawk Helicopter
Manufacturer)Stratford, CT Sikorsky Plant
Kim Foster 617-623-2453 617-438-2326 (mobile)Patrick
Reinsborough (415)
305-RAIN
Wednesday 4/25/01 9:00-11:00AM
Demonstration at Textron Technologies Annual
Meeting (Huey Helicopter
Manufacturer)
Providence, RIConvention Center, (corner of Sabin&
Exchange Terrace)Kim
Foster617-623-2453617-438-2326
(mobile)Patrick Reinsborough (415)
305-RAIN
Thursday 4/26/0111:00 AM
Protest Demanding Divestment from Bernstein
/ Alliance Capital (Oxyís
top shareholder)
New York, NY
Bernstein / Alliance Capital 767 5th Ave.
(at 58th St) ManhattanAdam
Weissmann212-966-4831
Saturday 4/28/0111:00AM-6:00PM
EARTHFEST 2001 with WBOS Boston, MA Hatch Shell
Kim
Foster 617-623-2453 617-438-2326 (mobile)Patrick Reinsborough (415)
305-RAIN
from League of Conservation Voters April 19, 2001
TOn March 23rd the Bush Administration asked for public
comments on a
proposal to roll back new BLM hard rock
mining regulations that would have
been more protective
of the environment and the public's health. These new
regulations are the product of a four year rulemaking
process - a process
which involved thousands of public
comments, dozens of public hearings in
cities across
the west, and four different drafts of the rule - and
replaced old regulations that failed to protect our public
lands from
toxic mining pollution. The Bush
administration, led by Interior Secretary
Gale Norton,
now proposes a return to the earlier rules.
Act quickly. The comment period ends on May 7. To have your
voice be
heard, visit the LCV Action Center: http://lcv.org/actioncenter/index.html
____________________________________________
