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Wed, 06 Dec 2000 UWA - VICTORY Fidelity Dumps Oxy stop! Next SANFORD BERNSTEIN! GRASSROOTS PRESSURE 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 CAPITAL MANAGEMENT! U'WA PRESIDENT ROBERTO PEREZ TO CONFRONT SANFORD BERNSTEIN IN SF AND DEMAND THEY DIVEST FROM OXY! 1. ACTION ALERT! Demand Sanford Bernstein/Alliance Capital Management
divest from Oxy!
#1 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." Surrrrreeee. 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
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
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 To find other offices near you, go to: For additional US and international Alliance Capital locations (UK,
Germany, Africa, Australia, Japan, India, Canada, etc.)go to:
For background info on the U'wa struggle and the international solidarity campaign check out : www.ran.org www.amazonwatch.org www.moles.org
#2 * * *please spread widely! * * * The President of the Traditional U'wa Authority Roberto Perez is coming to San Francisco! Don't miss the chance to hear about this inspiring indigenous rights struggle first hand! Monday December 11, 7:30 pm Community Forum : The U'wa Struggle for Survival The Women's Building 3543 18th St (between Valencia and Guerrero) Tuesday December 12, 12pm Rally to stop Sanford Bernstein Corporation from investing in genocide! Join U'wa leader Roberto Perez in confronting Occidental Petroleum's largest investor Sanford Bernstein. 555 California (cross street Kearney) downtown SF near Montgomery BART Colombia's U'wa people have been struggling for 8 years to defend their ancestral homelands against efforts by Occidental Petroleum (Oxy)and the Colombian government to drill for oil. As the U'wa have repeatedly mobilized to blockade Oxy's drilling, they have been joined in nonviolent resistance by local campesinos, students, striking workers and other indigenous peoples, who see themselves in a common struggle. Backed by a $1.3 billion US aid package with no human rights restrictions, the Colombian government has militarized the U'wa homeland, and left three children dead and dozens of peaceful protesters injured. The U'wa's uncompromising resistance has inspired hundreds of solidarity actions around the world, from Tokyo to India's Narmada Valley, from London to Chile, San Francisco to West Palm Beach! In early November Occidental began test drilling but the U'wa resistance continues! Don't miss this unique opportunity to hear directly from U'wa Traditional Authority president Roberto Perez about the latest developments on the ground. Then on Tuesday Dec 12 join Roberto Perez in directly confronting Occidental Petroleum's largest shareholder asset management company Sanford Bernstein! Activists around the world targeted Fidelity Investments (formerly Oxy's largest shareholder) and demanded they stop investing in the destruction of U'wa lands and culture. After more than 75 actions at Fidelity offices around the world they have dumped more half their Oxy stock - 18 million shares! Now its time to do the same with Sanford Bernstein. Last April Sanford Bernstein president, Roger Hertog assured the U'wa that he would look into his companies investments in Oxy and come to a "just and fair" solution. Well his solution was to buy 10 million more Oxy shares! Now its time to hold them accountable and get another major Oxy shareholder to divest. Bring your instruments, banners and signs supporting the U'wa and calling on SB to stop investing in genocide and destruction. Work parties are being planned. For more information contact Rainforest Action Network at 415-398-4404 or email organize@ran.org #3 NY activists rally for the U'wa at Colombian consulate call on Gore and Colombia President Pastrana to get Oxy off U'wa land! From: Adam Weissman, Wetlands Preserve [mailto:jun1022@cybernex.net] We had activists in Irani, Gore, and Pastrana costumes, an 8" tall mock oil derrick, oil drums with Oxy logos, anti-Oxy t-shirts, signs, banners, and leaflets in English and Spanish. "Ray Irani" handed fake money to Gore and Pastrana, who proceeded to dump "oil" from the drums on an activist representing the U'wa. We also had a banner with the slogan, "The Real Cliffhanger: The U'wa vs. Al Gore and Occidental Oil: Too Close to Call ," At the end of the demo, two of us entered the consulate and went to
the top floor to meet with or set an appointment with the Consular General
to express our concerns. We were told that he was out to lunch. We then
proceeded to leaflet almost every person in the building before leaving.
# 4 Interview with Roberto Perez November 17, 2000 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 means that 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.
#5 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)
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