Mitsubishi Boycott for Burma

[brelief@xxxxxxx]

THE MITSUBISHI BOYCOTT IS ON!

Do not be confused - Jesse Jackson has called off the Rainbow Coalition's
boycott of Mitsubishi because he is satisfied with Mitsubishi's improvements
regarding sexual harassment. The global environmental community, however,
has not seen the improvements we demand. Mitsubishi Corporation is still one
of the world's worst corporate destroyers of rainforests. It still props up
the illegitimate Burmese military regime, the SLORC. It still participates
in cultural genocide the world over. The boycott is on! Full force ahead! 

RAIN FOREST HAIKU

Trees are treasured friends
Why do you cut the trees down?
You have no friends left!
-Kota Mio (Age 7, Kyoto, Japan)

Mitsubishi sucks
Digging up the earth with trucks
Just to make big bucks
-Maura Hurley, Kyoto

Please write Haiku for our 4th annual Haiku and art project. Last year over
10,000 haiku were sent to the president of Mitsubishi urging him to work
towards a more sustainable future. We would especially like to invite
students, teachers, and professors to get involved in the project. All you
need is a pen and paper, (recycled or tree-free please) and your creativity: 
A Haiku poem consists of one 5 syllable line, one 7 syllable line, and
ending in another 5 syllable line. We are also asking people to make origami
cranes or any other artistic creation to get our message across. 

Send your Haiku to: 

Mr. Minoru Makihara
Mitsubishi Corporation 
6-3, Marunouchi 2-chome
Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo 100
Japan

Send copies of your Haiku to the Rainforest Action Network office, 450
Sansome St. #700, San Francisco CA 94111, USA. 
Fax:  (415) 398-2732
E-mail: boycottmc@xxxxxxxxxxx
Please call Joshua at 415-398 4404 with any questions.

MITSUBISHI/BURMA CONNECTION 

Despite the fact that San Francisco, like eight other cities, one county and
one state, has passed an ordinance which prevents the city from contracting
with corporations that do business in Burma because of their human rights
abuses, the San Francisco Airport Commission voted to accept Mitsubishi
Heavy Industries' low-ball bid to build a people-mover at the airport.
Mitsubishi does business in Burma in many different capacities including
buying teak taken from Burma's rainforests and supplying the pipeline that
is being built using forced labor. Airport commission members voted to award
the contract in a 3-2 vote (interestingly, the three men who supported it
had little interest in the evidence presented as to Mitsubishi's social
practices). 

We were ready to release this story to you and ask you to send a postcard to
San Francisco's mayor Willie Brown urging him to respect that democracy and
human rights are at stake in this decision. After our first round of
printing the postcards we had to rewrite the story because of a court
decision to reject the bid. The airport commission and the city attorney
decided to ignore the city's Human Rights Commission (HRC) recommendation to
reject Mitsubishi because of specific problems meeting affirmative action
goals and also the broader question of its involvement in Burma because of
legal loopholes in the wording of the ordinance. The deal was thrown out,
however, because of Mitsubishi's inability to comply in minority hiring
practices (and possibly because it attempted to deceive the city about its
minority contracts), which violates San Francisco's charter to promote
minority- and women-owned businesses. So bad was Mitsubishi's attempt to
falsify compliance with the hiring requirements that the San Francisco
Chronicle reports that when an HRC representative went to check up on one
minority subcontractor which was "slated to do $ 4.2 million in concrete
work and discovered only an empty office with two desks in a warehouse
occupied by an ice cream company." 

This is a victory for human rights and the environment. Decisions like this
show Mitsubishi that it will be held responsible for its actions. Why not
send a postcard telling Willie Brown that you support taking a tough stance
with companies doing business in Burma and the agreement San Francisco has
made to stop supporting a tyrannical military regime: You can also email him
at DaMayor@xxxxxxxxxxxx 

 - - - - - - - - -- - - - -  -
SAMPLE MESSAGE

Mayor Willie Brown
401 Van Ness Avenue
San Francisco, CA

Dear Mayor Brown: 
I applaud the recent court decision to reject Mitsubishi's bid for the San
Francisco Airport's people mover. The city's efforts to uphold progressive
minority and woman hiring practices should be lauded and emulated across the
country. 

I understand that this proposal was also challenged because of San
Francisco's Burma Resolution. Please understand that not only is Mitsubishi
doing business in Burma, but that the president of Mitsubishi Corporation
personally promotes investment in Burma. This is despite the democratically
elected leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's pleas for all companies
to divest from Burma until democracy is restored and the human rights abuses
cease. 

I urge you in all future decisions regarding potential city contracts with
Mitsubishi to take the highest moral ground and reject Mitsubishi's
business. It participates in human rights abuses, global ecological
destruction, and intentionally trying to deceive the city of its lack of
minority hiring. It has proven itself a company undeserving of San Francisco
tax payers' support. 

Respectfully,

 - - - - - - - -- - - -
Rainforest Action Network
"...companies investing in Burma only serve to prolong the agony of my
country by encouraging the present regime to persevere in its atrocities...
We do not think that now is the time for any foreign company to invest in
Burma." -Aung San Suu Kyi, Democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner 

The following localities have passed selective purchasing laws regarding
Burma: Massachusetts; Alameda County, CA; Berkeley, CA; Madison, WI; Santa
Monica, CA; Ann Arbor, MI; San Francisco, CA; Oakland, CA; Carrboro, NC;
Takoma Park, MD; Boulder, CO. New York City is currently pending a decision
on this. 

The following companies have withdrawn from Burma due to consumer and
shareholder pressure: Pepsi, Levi Strauss, PetroCanada, Amoco, Liz
Claiborne, Eddie Bauer, Macy's (Macy's stopped direct sourcing from Burma,
but its store still stock apparel made in Burma), Columbia Sportswear,
Oshkosh B'Gosh, Heineken, Carlsberg, London Fog/Pacific Trails, Apple
Computer, Interbrew (Labatt's), Wente Vineyards, Motorola, Philips
Electronics, HewlettPackard, and Eastman Kodak. Let's get Mitsubishi added
to this list!

According to the December 1996 issue of Multinational Monitor, there are
some disturbing statistics on the world's biggest economies, as follows:
1. Of the 100 largest economies in the world, 51 are corporations, only 49
are countries. 
2. The combined sales of the world's Top 200 corporations are far greater
than a quarter of the world's economic activity.

3. The Top 200 corporations' combined sales are bigger than the combined
economies of all countries minus the biggest 9; that is they surpass the
combined economies of 182 countries.

4. The Top 200 corporations have almost twice the economic clout of the
poorest four fifths of humanity. 

5. The Top 200 corporations have been net job destroyers in recent years.
Their combined global employment is only 18.8 million, which is less than a
third of 1 percent of the world's people.

And where does Mitsubishi fit into all this? They are the largest corporate
economy in the world, and the 22nd largest economy in the world. In other
words, Mitsubishi has a larger economy than the fourth most populous nation
on earth: Indonesia. 

AWARDS CIRCLE Corporate Watch Corporate Watch is a new website that was
launched to help people fight the corporate powers. Rainforest Action
Network, along with Adbusters and McSpotlight were awarded their first three
Corporation Buster awards for doing the finest job of using the Internet to
confront corporate globalization and the work for more socially just and
ecologically sustainable world. RAN was one of the three award recipients
because of the coverage the site gives to the global deforestation
perpetrated by Mitsubishi Corporation. Check their site out at:
www.corpwatch.org / home.html. 

Multinational Monitor Kudos to Mitsubishi! You have to hand it to the folks
- they are very good at everything they do - ecological destruction,
cultural genocide, sexual harassment, price fixing, transfer pricing, etc,
etc. So good, in fact, that in a recent issue of the Multinational Monitor
Mitsubishi Corporation was awarded with being in the top-ten worst
corporations in the world for their environmental practices and their
history of sexual harassment. Check out the most recent issue for more details. 

Wesleyan University joins the Campus Campaign.

Add Wesleyan University, in Middletown, CT to the list of schools whose
Student Associations have passed the resolution to buy no Mitsubishi
products on their campaign. That brings the list up to 32 schools across the
country that have signed a resolution to keep Mitsubishi off their campus. 

COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES ENDORSING THE MITSUBISHI BOYCOTT 

Barnard College
Boston College
California State University - Stanislaus
Clemson University
Colgate University
College of the Canyons
Colorado College
Carleton College (Northfield Minnesota)
Harvard
Iowa State University
Monterey Institute of International Studies
New College (San Francisco, CA)
Raritan Valley Community College
San Francisco State University
Seattle Central College
Stanford
Tufts
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Santa Cruz
University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
University of Colorado, Boulder
University of Iowa
University of Kansas
University of Minnesota
University of North Carolina
University of Northern Iowa
University of Richmond
University of Vermont
University of Washington
Wesleyan University
Whittman University
Yale



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