CALL TO ACTION: 'Die-in' and demo at London TOTAL Oil HQ over Burma links
FRIDAY 5 OCTOBER
8:30 - 10:30 am
33 Cavendish Square, London, WC1
FRIDAY 5 OCTOBER
8:30 - 10:30 am
33 Cavendish Square, London, WC1
Show your solidarity with the protestors in Burma - join the action!
A mass action has been called to take place at the headquarters of TOTAL
OIL in London on Friday October 5th from 8:30 - 10:30 am. A demonstration
and a mass die-in will take place outside of the central London office to
express our outrage at Total's involvement with the military junta in
Burma.
All are welcome to attend - bring placards, instruments, noise and props
if you can. A symbolic 'die-in' will be happening. A similar action
happened on Tuesday, October 2nd at the same location with 20 activists
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/10/382635.html Across France and in other parts of the UK pressure has been mounting
against Total in a number of solidarity actions.
It is important to continue pressure on this company to demand Total's
withdrawal from Burma.
TOTAL Oil's business partnership with the Burmese government is providing
vital funding that enables the brutal military dictatorship in to oppress
48 million people.
An uprising against the junta in Burma, led by monks, has been met wtih
violent repression. Security forces and armed military troops have
launched a violent crackdown on demonstrators, most of which is not being
reported due to a state-imposed media freeze. Some estimates suggest that
thousands could be dead and many more imprisoned.
We demand that the company immediately halts its operations in Burma and
announces a full divestment from the country until human rights abuses end
and a democratic regime is in place.
This action is called by people who met at a Burma solidarity march and
decided that we needed to do more by targetting the companies that have
blood on their hands.
Nearest tube: Oxford Circus
Map:
http://tinyurl.com/2oardl For more information see:
http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/total.html Further information on actions against Total Oil:
TOTAL Oil has had a joint business venture with the Burmese government
since 1992. Its major project is the Yadana gas project in southern Burma,
which earns the military regime hundreds of millions of dollars every
year.
Four Dutch political parties, including the Dutch Labour Party, part of the
governing coalition, last week called for a boycott of Total:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/09/28/europe/EU-GEN-Netherlands-Myanmar.php. The French CGT union called for Total to halt all gas extraction and
freeze all transfers:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article3010197.ece Meanwhile, there have been demonstrations and calls to boycott in
Bradford, Bristol,
and Nottingham in the UK in the last week:
Bradford:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/09/382211.html Anglicans call for boycott:
http://www.energypublisher.com/article.asp?id=11254 Nottingham:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/09/382268.html Bristol:
http://www.bristol.indymedia.org/newswire.php?story_id=26882 
Comments
Hide the following comment
The virtues of democracy............
03.10.2007 12:08
"We demand that the company immediately halts its operations in Burma and announces a full divestment from the country until human rights abuses end and a democratic regime is in place."
I've personally been very concerned by the likes of Bush, Blair and the mainstream media supporting this uprising - does it ring alarm bells for 'concerned' people as well?
Although I openly stated my discomfort about it, we still ended up with an Indymedia feature which links to two National Endowment for Democracy funded news sources, which are (ironically) identified as "Burmese resistance channels".
According to Allen Weinstein, one of the founders of NED, "A lot of what we [NED] do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA"
It seems apparent to me that we have to tread carefully when our hypocritical warmongering political masters start bleating about freedom.
As Chomsky noted:
"'The first-order prediction of a propaganda model is that constructive bloodbaths will be welcomed (with perhaps some clucking of tongues and thoughts about the barbarity of backward peoples), benign bloodbaths ignored, and nefarious bloodbaths passionately condemned, on the basis of a version of the facts that need have little credibility and that may adopt standards that would merely elicit contempt if applied in the study of alleged abuses of the United States or friendly states..' "
What seems to happening here is a push for Burma/Myanmar to be brought into the the collection of neo-liberal economies. The fuel crisis, which is seen as a trigger for the uprising, appears to have been the result of IMF pressure on the Junta.
South Africans have now got their 'democracy' and one of the most liberal constitutions in the world, but it doesn't take a lot of investigation to realise that it hasn't made a significant improvement in the lives of the masses. What has happened instead is that the political elite have joined ranks with the economic elite.
Whilst I applaud the impulse to show solidarity with the people of Burma, I am a bit alarmed by the demands of the group.
While you're at the demo (or the cells), surrounded by cops behaving like jailers, perhaps you could spend a moment pondering whether democracy is the best goal to aim for. Would you really be happy for Total to invest in a neo-liberalised, USA dominated Burma?
ftp