U'Wa Banner dropped from Boston Gore HQ
Rainforest Action Network
August 14, 2000
NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release Contact: Patrick Reinsborough (415) 305-7246 8/14/00 Los Angeles Contact: Shannon Wright: (415 ) 596-7246
SPANISH LANGUAGE INTERVIEWS AVAILABLE ENVIRONMENTALISTS DROP BANNER OFF ROOF OF DEMOCRATIC PARTY OFFICE IN BOSTON DEMAND AL GORE USE INFLUENCE TO STOP GENOCIDE OF COLOMBIAN INDIGENGENOUS PEOPLE
Boston-Activists from the Rainforest Action Network have hung a 30’ by 40’ banner off of the Democratic State Committee Office on Portland Street in Boston to protest Al Gore’s silence on a genocidal oil drilling project on the ancestral rainforest lands of the indigenous U’wa people by Occidental Petroleum, a company in which Gore is a major investor.
The banner drop was supported by a spirited and colorful rally featuring large puppets reenacting the life and death struggle of the U’wa people to protect their ancestral homelands from oil drilling. The group also presented Gore with the “Eco-Hypocrite” award. The award was a giant mock-up of Gore’s book Earth in the Balance, retitled Gore Out of Balance. Gore’s ties to Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum are being highlighted as a clear example of excessive corporate influence over the Democratic Party and the political process. At the end of the peaceful demonstration, activists agreed to remove the banner from the building. From the Democratic Party office, demonstrators marched to Fidelity Investments, another one of the major shareholders in Occidental Petroleum.
Members of the U’wa tribe had intended to travel to Los Angeles to confront Al Gore, but were denied visas by the US embassy in Bogota. U’wa leaders have journeyed to the United States often over the last several years – this is the first time any have ever been denied entry. The Boston protest coincided with the kick-off of the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, where thousands are marching in the streets on the genocide of the U’wa and other issues.
Gore has deep ties to Occidental Petroleum, including holdings of up to a million dollars in Oxy stock, annual payments from Occidental for over 15 years of $20,000 and the fact that Al Gore Sr. was on the board of Oxy for twenty-eight years. Just days after sleeping in the White House Lincoln bedroom, Occidental CEO Ray Irani contributed $100,000 to the Democratic National Committee. In addition, a Gore initiative resulted in the sale of the Elk Hills Naval Petroleum Reserve to Occidental. The unprecedented closed bidding process was the largest privatization of federal property in U.S. history, one that tripled Occidental’s U.S. oil reserves overnight. The U'wa, a peaceful tribe of 5,000 in the Colombian cloudforest, are adamantly opposed to Oxy's project and have repeatedly stated that they are willing to die to stop the drilling. The U'wa believe that oil is the blood of mother earth, and to extract it would be to threaten the spiritual balance of the world, the environment, and their physical safety from Colombia's civil war.
“It’s a question of integrity,” said Kim Foster of Boston Rainforest Action Group. “Will Al Gore take action stop the human rights and environmental tragedy in Colombia or will he continue to allow big oil’s campaign contributions to silence him? We will continue to expose Gore’s connection to Occidental Petroleum until he acts on behalf of human rights and the environment rather than oil company profits.”
For more information on the week's events, Al Gore's ties to Big Oil and the U'wa people's campaign please see: www.d2kla.org www.amazonwatch.org www.arcweb.org www.moles.org www.ran.org