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OPIRG-Carleton Launches New Website February 1, 2007
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OPIRG-Carleton's new website can be found at
www.opirg-carleton.org.
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Campus Activist Pamphlet January 8, 2007
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The campus activist pamphlet is now available.
Download the PDF by clicking here.
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College Kicks Coke off Campus December 14, 2006
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For Immediate Release
November 28, 2006
SWARTHMORE, Pa., Nov. 28 -- Swarthmore College will cease purchasing
Coca-Cola products by the end of the year and again calls on the company to
permit an independent investigation into allegations of complicity in
anti-union violence in Colombia and water use in India. The action, prompted
by the urgings of student leaders, follows a series of letters to Coca-Cola
by the Swarthmore administration expressing concern about its alleged human
rights abuses.
"We plan to dialogue with Coca-Cola in an effort to continue to pressure
them to reform their labor and environmental rights practices," says Ruth
Schultz '09, a history major from Minneapolis, Minn., and a leader in the
campus "Kick Coke" campaign. "In the coming months, we will establish a set
of criteria which must be met in order for the College to consider future
purchasing from Coca-Cola."
Last semester, Swarthmore removed Coca-Cola products served at the College's
snack bar and two coffee bars, including Coke, Diet Coke, and a variety of
other soft drinks, juices, and water. This new action concerns the
"fountain" Coke products served through company-supplied dispensers at the
College's snack bar and Sharples Dining Hall.
Through their "Kick Coke" campaign, Swarthmore student activists have used
petitions, a letter-writing campaign, and a Student Council resolution to
urge the College administration to remove Coca-Cola products and to pressure
the company to act on the abuse allegations.
"Many students see this action as a stand against human rights abuses and as
a means of encouraging Coke to make significant and much-needed changes in
its practices," says fellow student "Kick Coke" activist Zoe Bridges-Curry
'09. "Because the campaign centers around the institution's contract with
Coke, and is not limited to the purchasing choices of individuals, the
College's action sends a very strong message to the Coca-Cola Company. As a
consumer of Coke, Swarthmore can use its influence as a prestigious and
socially responsible institution to help effect positive change in the
corporation's practices."
"The Coca Cola Corporation has played a major leadership role in the realm
of international corporate responsibility and can surely also lead the way
by taking even more definitive socially responsible steps," says Swarthmore
College Vice President Maurice Eldridge '61. "We hope to continue dialogue
with Coke to establish guidelines that would lead to our being able to
welcome the products back to campus."
Swarthmore joins several other colleges and universities that have taken
action related to Coca-Cola and the alleged abuses. Among those institutions
are the University of Michigan and New York University.
The action related to Coca-Cola is one of several recent student initiatives
that exemplify Swarthmore's mission to combine academic rigor with social
responsibility. In 2004, the College's Committee on Investor Responsibility,
which includes student members, successfully petitioned two Fortune 500
companies to broaden their equal opportunity policies to bar discrimination
on the basis of sexual orientation. That development mirrored the
committee's successful action in 2003 with Lockheed Martin, which agreed to
add sexual orientation to its non-discrimination policies after the College
filed a shareholder resolution - the first in the country solely initiated
by a college or university since the anti-apartheid movement in the 1980s.
Also in 2004, students formed what is now the Genocide Intervention Network
in an effort to help stop the humanitarian disaster in Darfur. In what was
hailed as a victory for free speech, two students that semester won a
lawsuit against Diebold, Inc., to halt the company's efforts to shut down
any website that hosted or linked to documents detailing problems with the
company's electronic voting machines.
In addition, students last year launched an Internet-based radio program on
the war in Iraq - War News Radio - which has grown into an acclaimed weekly
program syndicated to a growing number of radio stations around the country.
Located near Philadelphia, Swarthmore is a highly selective liberal arts
college whose mission combines academic rigor with social responsibility.
Swarthmore, with an enrollment of 1,450, is consistently ranked among the
top liberal arts colleges in the country.
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CONTACT: Alisa Giardinelli, Swarthmore Media Relations, 610-690-5717,
agiardi1@swarthmore.edu http://www.swarthmore.edu
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For India related campaign inquiries, contact India Resource Center at
415-336-7584, info@IndiaResource.org www.IndiaResource.org
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Jaggi Singh faces 6 months of jail time November 29, 2006
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For Immediate Release
Jaggi Singh faces 6 months of jail time for attending Harper press
conference
Press point at Singh's bail hearing
Monday, November 27, 2:30pm
Montreal municipal court,
775 Gosford street Room R-40
Contact: Louise-Caroline Bergeron, Block the Empire: 514-378-2511 Jared
Will, Jaggi Singh's legal advisor: 514-806-6260
Montreal, November 27 - Well-known social justice activist Jaggi Singh
is facing a potential 6 months in prison following his arrest at the
Montreal General Hospital on Friday, November 24, just prior to a press
conference by Stephen Harper. Singh was aggressively removed by Montreal police officers from the room where he and other anti-war organizers were waiting to ask Harper questions. The Crown is pushing to deny Singh bail on Monday, and keep him in preventative custody until May, at which point he would stand trial.
Singh and over two dozen other members of local anti-war group Block the
Empire were on hand to raise the issues of Canada's ongoing occupation
of Afghanistan, Harper's support for Israeli war crimes in Lebanon over the summer, and Conservative cutbacks to social programs for women and the poor.
"Publicly challenging our elected leaders is a fundamental right in a
democratic society. The fact that the crown wants to deny Jaggi Singh
bail and hold him in jail for 6 months for simply attending a press
conference is unjust and ridiculous," says Louise-Caroline Bergeron, a spokesperson for Block the Empire. Singh will have his bail hearing on Monday, November 27 at 2:30pm at the Montreal municipal court, 775 Gosford street, room R-40.
Contact: 514-378-2511
bloquezlempiremontreal@resist.ca
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Latest Hero of Burma: dies in prison October 23, 2006
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A special tribute to Thet Win Aung who died in the Mandalay prison on Oct 16, 2006 while serving 59-year term, calling for Democracy in Burma
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Political prisoner's death 'appalling'
AUSTRALIA (AAP) - has condemned the death of a political prisoner in a Burmese jail, with diplomats to protest to the country's military rulers.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he was "saddened and appalled" by the death of Thet Win Aun – a student activist jailed by the junta.
Amnesty International revealed the man died in a prison in Mandalay, in Burma's north, two days ago, where he was tortured and may have been denied treatment for health problems including malaria.
He was sentenced to 59 years in prison in 1998 for his part in organising student demonstrations that called for improvements to schools and the release of political ..…prisoners.
"The circumstances of Thet Win Aung's death, as well as the international community's ongoing serious concerns about conditions in Burma's prisons, underlines the need for Burmese authorities to allow the immediate resumption of prison visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross," Mr Downer said.
"I call on Burmese authorities to undertake a thorough and independent investigation into Thet Win Aung's death and to release immediately and unconditionally political prisoners in Burma."
Mr Downer said he had instructed Australia's Ambassador in Rangoon to convey the Australian Government's concerns to the Burmese regime.
"I strongly urge the regime to demonstrate genuine progress towards democratic political reform and to undertake constructive dialogue and reconciliation with all political and ethnic groups," he said.
The UN estimates about 1100 political prisoners are held in Burma, which has been under military rule for almost 45 years.
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U.S. criticizes Myanmar junta for political prisoner's death
WASHINGTON (AP) - The death of Thet Win Aung illustrates the high price that opponents of Myanmar's ruling junta have to pay for demanding their human rights, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.
The 34-year-old opposition activist died this week in jail in Yangon, the capital, where he was sentenced in 1998 to 59 years in jail for agitating for reform of the Asian country's educational system.
Casey said the United States is deeply troubled by Thet Win Aung's death, which he said "demonstrates the tragic price the people of Burma are forced to pay for opposing the repressive policies of the regime and standing up for their human and… democratic rights."
He denounced the continued detention of six democracy advocates arrested last month - Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, Htay Kywe, Min Zeya, Pyone Cho and Myint Aye - and demanded their immediate and unconditional release along with political party leader Aung San Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners.
Human rights groups estimate that Myanmar's prisons hold more than 1,100 political prisoners in brutal conditions. A group of former political prisoners based near the Thailand-Myanmar border says more than 125 political prisoners have died in jail since 1988, when the current junta took power.
Myanmar, also called Burma, has been under military rule since 1962.
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300 attend funeral of 34-year-old Myanmar political prisoner
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Nearly 300 friends and sympathizers attended the funeral of 34-year-old student activist Thet Win Aung, who died this week in prison, one of his colleagues said Wednesday.
Thet Win Aung, who had been serving a 59-year sentence since 1998 after protesting for educational reform, died Monday in a central Myanmar jail. Human rights organizations urged a probe into the circumstances of his death, suspecting he was abused, while Myanmar's military government said he died of natural causes.
"The parents of Thet Win Aung and his elder brother attended the funeral held at Kyarnikan cemetery in Mandalay on Tuesday evening, also… attended by nearly 300 sympathizers, friends and members of the National League for Democracy," said Mya Aye, a former student leader who attended the ceremony in the country's second-biggest central city.
The National League for Democracy, led by Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is the main political party opposing the military government.
Another of Thet Win Aung's brothers, Htay Win Aung - better known as Pyone Cho - is also active politically as one of the key leaders of the 88 Generation Students Group, and was arrested on Sept. 30 along with four other student activists. He is still detained and did not attend the funeral, Mya Aye said.
Mya Aye said Thet Win Aung's family was informed by prison authorities that he died of "heart failure."
London-based rights group Amnesty International called on Myanmar authorities to launch an independent investigation into his death. It said he was badly tortured during his imprisonment and suffered from a variety of health problems, including malaria. By 2005 he was reported to have been unable to walk without assistance.
A Myanmar government spokesman said that according to his information, Thet Win Aung died of natural causes.
"Torture is not our policy and we have strict rules and regulations which forbid abuse of prisoners," Ye Htut, deputy director general of the information and public relations department of the Information Ministry, said in an e-mail Tuesday from Myanmar.
Myanmar's military government is said by human rights groups and the United Nations to hold more than 1,100 political prisoners under inadequate and brutal conditions.
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Brief Bio of Thet Win Aung
Name: Thet Win Aung
Age: 34
Address: Tamwe Township, Rangoon
Sentence: 59 Years
Date of Sentenced: October, 1998
Location of Death: Mandalay Prison
Thet Win Aung took part in 1988 Movement as one of the leading members of his high school student union in Rangoon Division, Burma.
In 1989, he was elected vice general secretary of the Basic Education Student Union (BESU). He was dismissed from his school for his political involvement and later jailed for 9 months for his role in forming the Student Union.
In 1994, the Military Intelligence agents tried to arrest him again because he published the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU) pamphlets and organized student demonstrations to commemorate the 32nd anniversary of 7th July Affair.
Although he escaped, his home was searched frequently and his family harassed incessantly while he was on his run. From behind the scene, he took part in the 1996 student demonstrations and helped organize the student protests against the poor quality of education and students' rights in 1998.
He was arrested in 1998, and sentenced to 52 years imprisonment, which was increased to 59 years. At first, he was detained in Kalay Prison, Sagaing Division, and then transferred to the Mandalay prison.
He died in the Mandalay prison on Oct. 16, 2006 a few weeks after his brother, Phyo Cho, was arrested with other prominent student leaders including Min Ko Naing.
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