Jon’s Corner of the Whirled

Here is the body of an email I got from TrueMajority.org asking for help to support legislation to punish companies that continue to do business in Sudan.

We’ve Come a Long Way on Sudan, But Killing Continues
Here’s the Next Step

In the three months since TrueMajority started working to stop the
genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region, the president and a unanimous
Congress have declared the Darfur killing a genocide; the UN Security
Council has given Sudan a tight deadline to provide security for the
refugees or the members will consider oil sanctions; and the Khartoum
government is now allowing food aid and relief workers to reach the
survivors, millions of whom live in refugee camps.

The security situation outside the camps is still terrible, but what
we’ve achieved in a short time has been amazing. All previous
genocides were so labeled after the fact, but for the first time, the
world community is trying to stop this one. You’ve been a big part of
getting our government, and consequently the world community, to act
quickly. We did not do this alone, but we did a lot. Along with our
friends at Faithful America, members of TrueMajority, took the
following actions:

- Sent 152,000 well-timed faxes, messages and phone calls to
Congress in the run-up to the congressional votes on Sudan
- Participated in a 1,000-person die-in in front of the White
House on the day of the vote (An aide to Sen. Feingold told us it
was “touch and go” whether the vote would take place and that our
activism was extremely helpful.)
- Donated $130,000 to send a camera crew to the refugee camps,
whose satellite images generated over 50 newspaper, television and
radio stories about Darfur all over the country
- Participated in a hunger strike of 3,200 people in 50 states

Now here is another chance for results. Congress is considering
legislation to punish companies doing business with the Sudan regime
responsible for the genocide. If these sanctions cause companies to
pull out of Sudan, the regime responsible for the Darfur genocide may
stop its murderous militias for good.

To send a fax supporting the sanctions (text below), just click the
link below.

http://action.truemajority.com/index.asp?action=10185&ms=sud4

Andrew Greenblatt
TrueMajority
=========================================

Here are more details about the bill:

Sudan depends heavily on foreign investment and foreign corporations
to build power stations, run telecommunications systems and drill for
oil. The Comprehensive Peace in Sudan Act, H.R. 5061, would block
those companies from raising capital or even trading their stock in
the United States. The Alcatel company, as one example, would have to
decide whether profits from the murderous Khartoum regime are worth
being banned from the New York Stock Exchange and thus being
unavailable to U.S. investors.

The act would also publish the names of all companies doing business
in Sudan, exposing them to a budding Sudan divestment campaign. If
the Khartoum government stops the genocide and reins in the murderous
Janjaweed militias, the government would be rewarded with hundreds of
millions of dollars in aid.

Congress will adjourn soon for the fall, but there is still time to
push through the bill, which already has 55 cosponsors in the House.
In a crisis offering few good options, this is something we can
unconditionally support.

To send a message to your representatives supporting the act, click
here:

http://action.truemajority.com/index.asp?action=10185&ms=sud4

Here’s the text of the message we’ll send to your representatives:

Dear Representative,

Since Congress declared that genocide is taking place in Darfur,
Sudan, our country and the world are paying close attention to the
terrible situation there. As Americans, we must do what we can to
force the Khartoum government to stop the killing, and one ready tool
is economic pressure.

H.R. 5061, the Comprehensive Peace in Sudan Act, would block
companies that do business with the genocidal government in Khartoum
from raising capital in the United States or listing their stock on
the New York Stock Exchange. Companies who do business with killers
shouldn’t be allowed to do business here.

If companies begin to pull out of Sudan, the government there will
pay more attention to our calls to stop the killing. Please do all
you can to support H.R. 5061, the Comprehensive Peace in Sudan Act.

Sincerely,
(We’ll put your name and address here.)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 6th, 2004 at 1:14 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.