Grassroots
Pressure Forces Fidelity Investments To Dump 60% of Their Oxy Stock!
Dec. 8
Grassroots pressure has forces Fidelity
Investments to dump 60% of their Oxy stock! U'WA supporters now turn
to Oxy's new largest shareholder, Sanford C. Bernstein/Alliance
Capitol Manamement! U'WA President Roberto Perez will confront
Sanford Bernstein in SF and demand they divest from Oxy!
In this post:
1. ACTION ALERT! Demand Sanford
Bernstein/Alliance Capital Management divest from Oxy!
2. Interview with Roberto Perez, President
of the Traditional U'wa Authority
3. Interview with Armando Valbuena President
of the Indian National Organization of Colombia (ONIC)
Activists across the globe (yes you!) have
taken to the streets on behalf of the U'wa people of Colombia to
demand that Fidelity Investments dump their stock in Occidental
Petroleum. From Boston to San Francisco, Portland, Oregon to
Portland, Maine, Tokyo to London, people have been demanding that
Fidelity change their investment strategy and help the U'wa people in
their struggle to save their culture and ancestral territory from
Oxy's destructive oil project.
As of the second quarter reports, Fidelity
Investments has dumped 18 million shares of Oxy stock, approximately
60% of their holdings worth over $412 million dollars! This
divestment came on the heels of mass protest around the world -
thousands of people mobilized to demonstrate at over 75 Fidelity
offices, non-violent occupy Fidelity investor centers, symbolically
dump blood and oil and generate tons of bad publicity for Fidelity.
But of course as a Fidelity spokesperson told Money magazine in
October this historic mobilization had no real impact and Fidelity's
massive divestment "was in no way related to the protests."
We believe that about as much as we believe
Fidelity's slogan that they help their customers "invest
responsibly". Fidelity's divestment is a huge step towards
victory and shows that coordinated grassroots pressure is starting to
push investors beyond just their bottom line to take the environment
and human rights into account. However, as Oxy's test drilling
continues at the Gibraltar 1 drillsite on U'wa land we must channel
our collective energies into exposing Occidental's new #1
shareholder, Sanford C. Bernstein.
Over the past year New York based Sanford C.
Bernstein & Co. LLC, a subsidiary of Alliance Capital Management
L.P., increased its shares by 10 million to become Oxy's top
investor. They currently control over 53 million shares of Oxy stock
valued at more than $1.1 billion dollars (as of November 29, 2000).
Sanford Bernstein & Co., together with their parent company
Alliance Capital, manage assets of up to $470 billion and have over
20 offices worldwide.
It's time to start writing, faxing, calling
and visiting Sanford Bernstein/Alliance Capital offices around the
world. We can unite to make Sanford Bernstein hear our voices raised
in solidarity with the U'wa and show them and all of Oxy's investor
that we will not tolerate them investing in the destruction of the
U'wa lands and culture. We demand the Sanford Bernstein invest
responsibly and "Stop investing in Genocide!" and either
get Oxy to cancel plans to drill on all U'wa ancestral territory or
divest entirely from Oxy stock.
U'wa President Roberto Perez will be in San
Francisco to kick-off the Sanford Bernstein campaign, so please stay
tuned to the U'wa Updates list for more information! You can write,
call or fax Sanford Bernstein's Vice Chairman Roger Hertog at their
US Corporate Headquarters at:
Mr. Roger Hertog Vice Chairman Sanford C.
Bernstein & Co., LLC 767 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10153-0185 Or
fax him at : 212-756-4453 Or call him directly at: 212-756-4389
Offices are located in cities across the U.S
and Sanford's parent company Alliance Capital has offices around the
world. Below is a list of US office locations. Check out their web
site <http://www.bernstein.com>
for more details. Look over the list below and then organize,
organize, organize! For more information on this issue, or to let us
know about a demonstration planned in your area call Patrick at
415-398-4404/1-800-989-RAIN or e-mail him at organize@ran.org.
Bernstein Investment Research and Management
Headquarters: New York 767 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10153-0185, 212-486-5800
Chicago: 227 West Monroe Street Chicago, IL
60606-5016, 312-696-7800
Dallas: 300 Crescent Court Dallas, TX
75201-1876, 214-860-5200
Los Angeles: 1999 Avenue of the Stars Los
Angeles, CA 90067-6123, 310-286-6000
San Francisco: 555 California Street San
Francisco, CA 94104-1708, 415-217-8000
Seattle: Two Union Square 601 Union Street
Suite 4650 Seattle, WA 98101-4050, 206-342-1300
Washington, D.C.: 800 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20006-2720, 202-261-6700
West Palm Beach: Phillips Point--West Tower
777 South Flagler Drive West, Palm Beach, FL 33401 561-820-2100
White Plains: One North Lexington Avenue
White Plains, NY 10601-1785, 914-993-2300
Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd Headquarters,
London: 99 Gresham Street London EC2V 7NG United Kingdom, 44-20-7367-7300
_____________________
Interview with Roberto Perez
_____________________
My name is Roberto Perez. I am the President
of the U'wa community.
What makes you U'wa?
We U'wa are people that live nearby the
Sierra de Cocuy. To be an U'wa meansthat you can think, feel and protect.
What is the U'wa's purpose in life?
It is to value your own culture and to keep
contact with nature and all the world that surrounds us.
What is your structure of government and
each person's role?
Our highest authority is our Traditional
Authority. He rules over all of us, he teaches us, he educates us, he
the one who tells us how to interpret the world around us.
Can you describe your culture - what you
wear, eat, where you sleep?
Our culture is different from the peasant,
non-indigenous culture. We are born with it. As I said, our purpose
is to educate and our first teacher is our mother when we are born,
it is she who teaches us the names of the rivers, the trees, the
animals, the birds. Then there are the rights, I'm going to tell you
about the rights. We have songs about the fruit trees which we
consider sacred. We have sacred songs and the origin of the world and
the way things are ordered in nature. We sing to keep in touch with nature.
What is a day like in the cloud forest? What
do you see, and hear?
There's a very important fact about the
place that I live in. When we get out of our houses - we can see the
mountains and then before the mountains - we see the rivers,
unpolluted, clear. We consume from its waters, we consume pure air -
that's why we think we're closer to nature. That's why we think we
are closer to everything that surrounds us.
Can you describe your ceremonies throughout
the year?
Yes, I'm going to tell you about the rite
that we practice for the corn harvest - we sing to the corn for it to
give a plentiful and good quality harvest - we to sing to the water -
we sing to our origins - to the place that we are born - we have a
song for the sun too. Those are the rites that we practice, that's
our school - our teachers are our ancestral authorities - its no easy
thing to be an authority in my community. You have to study a lot -
yet you don't study with pencils or books. We learn in an oral way.
We learn the stories and the songs. In order to become an authority
you must study more than you can ever imagine. Sometimes it could
take 20-25 years to become an eminent authority. Then you could
become a professional.
Tell us about the U'wa's relationship with
the earth, the animals and the spirits.
First we have a strong bond with the earth -
the mother earth - because she nurtures us - she provides for us.
She's the one that gives the products that keep our community alive.
When we work, she gives. Without the mother, there is no life. We
respect all the things that grow in our mother. There's even some
medicine plants that cannot be cut or misused. We have a lot of
respect for our origins - there are sacred places that have to do a
lot with our origins that we cannot go to. There are sacred trees
that we cannot touch - only our Traditional Authority is authorized
to communicate with them. We have a lot of respect for water too
because water is the fountain, we cannot live without water.
Tell us the story about the U'wa and
Occidental Petroleum.
First when the first settlers came, the
culture of destruction came with them. Then came the people who
wanted us to convert to Christianity, with them, destruction came to.
With the settlers, the home of the animals were destroyed and the
animals have a right to live to. That's why at the present time we're
not defending our territory only for us, but for all the creatures
who abide in it. We want to defend our territory. After several years
what we call the second invasion since the settlers came.
After the destruction caused by the settlers
we started to see the destruction caused by this second invasion, the
invasion of the Occidental Petroleum Company. I want to say more. I
want to say that when we got a word that an oil company was going to
come to explore for oil in our territory we had a big meeting with
all of our authorities in order to agree on what we thought about
this and what we thought about our territory. From this meeting we
concluded that we were not in agreement with the oil exploration at
all. We concluded too that we consider oil to be the blood of the
mother earth and the sustainment of all the balance of the things of
nature. To make an oil exploration is an attempt against all of the
natural things in the world - it is an attempt to destroy its balance
- it has a lot of consequences too of which I am going to mention.
One that you can see right now and that is violence. Two is the
destruction of your environment.
Can you tell us about the history of suicide
with your people and why your leader would tell you to do this, and
what your people are thinking of this now?
This is a story that comes from the past. It
is true that our ancestors committed suicide when the Spaniards came
in order not to become their slaves. They all jumped from a cliff and
that cliff has its name. Its called the Cliff of the Dead. In the
present time, though we know about this story, our leaders have told
us not to talk about it anymore. Because what we are going to do now
is to defend our territory with the help of non-indigenous entities
and groups.
What have you done to stop the project?
First I want to say that the project has not
been stopped. Just 20 days ago the company started drilling. I want
to say it has been a constant struggle for us - a struggle that we've
maintained for eight years now. And it has been hard and long. The
government doesn't care about us. We care about our territory, we
care about our resources, but they say we just care about ourselves.
The government say they are the part of a lot of things - but we say
they don't care about the U'wa people, they don't care about our
5,000 people.
We say they want to destroy our resources,
our non-renewable resources, they want to take advantage of our
territory and plunder it. To do so is a violation of our legal,
traditional and patrimonial rights. We're still fighting but the
government hasn't understood our position. They do not understand the
consequences of what their doing . They do not understand that we
must protect our land.
What is happening at the drill site - what
are your people doing?
Well, they are already drilling and the rest
of it is that we have a permanent group of 35 U'wa's occupying the
farm that we've bought from the peasants. Tell us about the land
deeds. We say that, that land, that territory, is our property. Its
is our territory not because of any title, written deed or anything
like that. Its because we were born there. Its because that's our
mother land. We have to fight for this, we have to defend this and
this is not only a warning for indigenous people this is a warning
for everybody out there. For the peasants who have been expropriated
of their land and no public deed or title over the land have served
their purpose. They have all been ignored by the ones who want to
have their lands.
What is the next step and the future of the U'wa?
The future for the U'wa is the conservation,
no not the conservation - the higher valuing of our culture because
an indigenous people that has no culture is a worthless community. We
were born with a culture - and we are going to nurture it and we're
going to know everything about it - up to the last Indian alive. And
that's why I am here - informing the world - asking for your support
and your solidarity.
How can the people here help the U'wa?
The first step to help the U'wa is to spread
this knowledge of our situation. The first step is for you to open
the spaces for us to give lectures - and talk to the people - to open
your ears and listen to us - then we can start a movement - an
international movement - of people that has solidarity toward us, and
not only toward us, it doesn't have to be international just because
- it has to be international cause this is an international problem.
We're not the only nation that has this problem. For example in
Ecuador there is a community that's facing this same problem of a
company invading their territory, destroying their resources. We have
to communicate with them, we have to share our experience, we have to
learn about our experience and then look for a common way out of our
trouble. That's what we can do. Mucho Gracias.
_______________________
Interview with Armando Valbuena U'Wa Leader
_______________________
My name is Armando Valbuena and I come from
the Watichyu (pronounced Y-you) community from Northern Colombia and
at the current time am the President of the Indian National
Organization of Colombia.
Describe the current political situation in Colombia.
The 40 million people that live in Colombia
are facing a civil war. A war that is fought for the possession of
territories where the natural resources are located. This war has
various political elements, economic elements, military elements and
social activities such as racial segregation which is being applied
to our people. There's two ongoing social genocides that's part of
this large scale war that being fought for the property and the land.
Describe the US role in this and the role of
the International Monetary Fund and The World Bank.
The IMF has issued some directives to the
President of Colombia in order for him to reform our Constitution to
set up the stage for further interventions. The World Bank is
supporting changing the economic policies of Colombia in order for
the multinational companies like mining companies and oil extraction
companies to profit even more from the war in Colombia, so they can
exploit more resources and get more profit from each unit of the
resources they get. The US government through the actions and
decisions of the US congress has brought Plan Colombia which has two
main phases. The first phase or stage of the plan is the military
phase which consists of seven million dollars that is dedicated to
bombing the sites where they consider a military danger - a threat to
national security. A second phase is the economic phase or social
phase of the plan which consists in signing Colombia into the North
American Free Trade Agreement.
What are the largest problems facing
indigenous people in Colombia?
Following directives by the US Congress,
that consists basically in adding Colombia to NAFTA we could lose the
judicial entity - the Indigenous Reserve or Reservation. And through
our constitution reform we could be facing the loss of the
territories that have already been legally established for the
indigenous communities. As soon as Colombia enters NAFTA the
massacres only won't be targeted to the peasant communities but they
are going to be mainly indigenous massacres. These are going to be
ethnic cleansing massacres in order to free the land of any
inhabitants that would be an obstacle to the oil companies to enter
and plunder our natural resources.
How are the U'wa being affected by this
global economy?
As soon as the drilling start the Uw'a
people can very well be banished from the land. Their culture is
going to be destroyed, their language is going to be destroyed their
lives are going to be destroyed. The rivers are going to be polluted
and with the rivers, all of the environment will start to die slowly.
Without the rivers and with their pollution comes the death of
everything that feeds off the river. The U'wa people feed on the
products of the jungle. The most important element of globalization
is the accumulation of capital. International governments and
multinational's see the U'wa indigenous people as an obstacle for the
accumulation of capital, so they must be eliminated.
Why would the US give Colombia 1.7 million
dollars in military aid?
This aid is only given in order to protect
and secure the region of Putamaya which holds large oil sites, and
its issued in order to displace the people from the lands to drive
out the peasants from their lands, to drive indigenous people out of
their lands, and to pollute the rivers - to pollute the environment
to set the stage for the destruction of these resources.
What kind of effect will Plan Colombia have
on the U'wa?
Plan Colombia was supported in the US by the
multinational Oxy. This plan has within it a set of tools that will
be use to exterminate the U'wa as well as other indigenous people
that live in Colombia. This is a war that is not only military, but
economic and administrative. This second phase of plan Colombia means
that the constitution will be reformed so the rights that are written
now are not going to be written anymore and we're not going to have
any way to defend our territory and our reservation.
What do you think is a solution to these problems?
For the existence of the U'wa people, for
the peace in all territories in Colombia and for all the people of
Colombia: is organization, mobilization and discussion - support -
from people like you - citizens in the US.
And this is how people can help here in the US?
These are the basic ways - but in your
struggle - in your support you'll find more transcending ways to help
us that have been known to be used in other conflicts like for
example the use of human shields in the U'wa territories or the
sending of commissions and the mobilizations directly into those territories.
What is your hopes for the future of the
U'wa and indigenous people everywhere?
The survival of the U'wa people and the
indigenous people around the world depend on the mobilization of
citizens of the US and the support we can get from every
International community that we can have contact with. Also, I would
recommend that for the next election that you ask for a commission
from the Colombia government to review the process of elections and
to give some recommendations on how to do it. (laughs)
END
