Students for a Democratic Burma

Note: Students for a Democratic Burma existed from around 1995-1997 as a student movement group at Pennsylvania State University

9/25/97: Texaco pulls out of Burma!



Pennsylvania State University is one of the largest schools in the country, having a main campus with over 40,000 students. They are among the top 3 universities with corporate and military connections. They have a 10-year, $14.5 million monopoly contract with PepsiCo that is good until 2002. To date, the Penn State Administration has been unwilling to vote for resolutions brought before the shareholders of PepsiCo or other corporations to have them reevaluate their business operations in Burma. In January, 1996, the Alumni Association sponsored a trip to Burma which attracted six Penn State alumni. Due to our protest, they haven't sponsored any of such trips since. In January, 1997, after a few years of vigilant protests on campuses around the country, Pepsico pulled out of Burma. In September, 1997, Texaco followed suit. Penn State still holds stock in Unocal, another oil company doing business with the SLORC regime.

Students for a Democratic Burma's objectives are:

  1. to get Penn State to publicly release a statement expressing the position against corporate investment in Burma until democracy and human rights are restored there;

  2. to get Penn State to use its stock in any corporations invested in Burma to vote in favor of resolutions brought before the shareholders of those corporations calling for divestment from Burma;

  3. to get Penn State to adopt a Selective Purchasing Policy in which Penn State will neither renew nor sign new contracts with companies doing business in Burma; and

  4. to get the Penn State Alumni Association to agree to schedule no more trips to Burma until democracy and human rights are restored.

Date: 9-25-97
Contact: Brian Lipsett 867-7341 (SDB)

Press Relase: Major Victory: Texaco to Leave Burma

Students for a Democratic Burma at Penn State joins the Free Burma Coalition in Celebration.

Calls on Penn State to stop profiting from slave labor and ethnic genocide - Dump Burma Business Stock; Sell Unocal Shares.

Students for a Democratic Burma (PSU) joined the Free Burma Coaltion and grassroots activists worldwide in celebrating another in our long string of victories aimed at restoring democracy to Burma by isolating the Brutal rogue military regime SLORC (State Law and Order Restoration Council) which rules Burma (called Myanmar by the illegitimate dictatorship). Another victory came in January, when Pepsico pulled out of Burma after three years of consistent, rising grassroots pressure.

In previous years, the SDB has campaigned to get Penn State University to vote its shares in company's doing business in Burma (for example: Pepsico, Texaco, and Unocal) in favor of human rights shareholder resolutions and against the SLORC dictatorship. PSU has consistently failed to take a public stand in support of the democratic movement of the Burmese people, and has shirked its ownership responsibility while profiting from investments in companies doing business with an illegitimate* government involved in systematic human rights abuses, slave labor, and ethnic genocide.

Unlike Penn State University, the University of Wisconsin has taken a responsible ownership stand by choosing to vote its stock in favor of human rights resolutions regarding Burma and, more recently, has moved to pull its stock out of companies doing business in Burma (see attachments).

Students for a Democratic Burma is now requesting that the PSU review its stock portfolio with an eye towards identifying companies that continue to do business in Burma. Since PSU has consistently failed to take a responsible ownership position (PSU apparently does not vote any of its stock at all), we now ask the university to dump stocks of companies doing business in Burma. Students for a Democratic Burma and the Free Burma Coaltion would be more than happy to provide a list of publically traded companies doing business in Burma to the university so that they may make wise choices about how to handle their investments. For starters, we call on PSU to dump any and all shares in Unocal corporation that they continue to hold.

* SLORC lost free and fair democratic elections in 1990 but responded by exiling and imprisoning the elected democratic leadership

Additional Background

Contact: Father Joseph Lamar 914-941-7636 x 2516 (Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers)

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Last modified: 25 Sept 1997

http://www.actionpa.org/fcg/sdb/