Mitsubishi Boycott in Full Force
1/15/97
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Headline: Mitsubishi Boycott in Full Force
Source: Rainforest Action Network
Date: 1/15/97
RAINFOREST ACTION NETWORK
For Immediate Release-January 15, 1997
Press Contact: Mark Westlund - ranmedia@ran.org
MITSUBISHI BOYCOTT IN FULL FORCE, SAY ENVIRONMENTAL, HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS
"Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition is satisfied with Mitsubishi's
improvements here in the U.S. regarding sexual harrassment, but
internationally the Mitsubishi boycott remains in full force.
Environmental groups still recognize Mitsubishi as one of the leading
destroyers of the world's rainforests, and human rights groups condemn
Mitsubishi's partnership with the military junta in Burma."
Randall Hayes, Rainforest Action Network
SAN FRANCISCO - "The Mitsubishi boycott is in full force," said Rainforest
Action Network's Randall Hayes, executive director of one of over
one-hundred environmental and human rights groups around the world
supporting boycott sancitons against rainforest destroyer Mitsubishi.
Jesse Jackson announced this morning that his Rainbow Coalition is ending
its several-month boycott of Mitsubishi, citing improvements in regulating
sexual harrassment in the workplace. However, international environmental
groups are continuing boycott efforts, including Rainforest Action Network,
Greenpeace International, World Rainforest Movement, and Friends of the Earth.
Thirty-two U.S. colleges have endorsed resolutions barring
Mitsubishi recruiters from campus, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and
University of California, Berkeley.
Mitsubishi Corporation is one of the largest corporate destroyers of the
world's forests. Mitsubishi has enormous logging operations reaching from
Malaysia and the Amazon to Siberia, Canada, and the United States. Millions of
acres of tropical, temperate, and boreal forests are destroyed every year by or
for members of the Mitsubishi corporate family.
In Burma, Mitsubishi is helping to build a pipeline for an oil development
project with Total Petroleum and Unocal that is in partnership with the
State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), Burma's repressive,
illegitimate military government. The project will displace upwards of
twenty traditional communities in and adjacent to Burma's rainforest.
Total's coordinator of operations for Thailand and Burma, Herve Chagneaux,
has acknowledged "I could not guarantee that the military will not be using
forced labor."
Rainforest Action Network has led the Mitsubishi boycott since 1991. The
organization works to protect the world's rainforests and their inhabitants
through education, grassroots organizing, and non-violent direct action.