Pizza Hut Protest Rally at the Univ

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Subject: Pizza Hut Protest Rally at the University of Minnesota

                            Pizza Hut Protest Rally at the University of
Minnesota

Twin Cities, MN (February 10, 1996)

The Free Burma Coalition and the Midwest Regional Student Environmental
Action Coalition put together a Pepsi protest at a Pizza Hut, a Pepsi
subsidiary, near the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities campus.  The rally
was attended by over 50 Burma activists and SEAC activists from various
mid-west campuses and organizations including University of M., St. Cloud
State University, St. Olaf College, Beloit College, University of
Wisconsin-Madison, -Oshkosh, -Milwaukee, -Stevens Point, -Eau Claire, Earth
First, Democracy Unlimited of Wisconsin, labor and community activists.
The students and community activists gathered for the Midwest Student
Environmental Activist Conference at the University of Minnesota-Twin
Cities.

The protest organizers delivered a statement explaining the reasons behind
the call for international boycott of PesiCo and its subsidiaries such as
KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Frito Lay, etc. to the manager of Pizza Hut off
of 13th and University Ave. in Dinky Town, MN.

The protestors chanted "Boycott PepsiCo, Free Burma Now!" "No justice no
Pepsi" "Corporate scum here we come."  Two activists confiscated
temporarily extra Pizza Hut signs from the Pizza Hut itself and set the
sign upside-down as a symbolic protest against PepsiCo's collaboration with
Burma's dictatorship, State Law and Order Restoration Council (Slorc).

The local traffic was also blocked for about half hour and three squad cars
escorted the protestors back to the campus, after a peaceful negotiation.
Leaflets were passed out to interested individuals.  A few individuals
turned away from Pizza Hut due to the protest.

Students ended their protest rally with the refrain "This is a public
school, not a corporate tool."  PepsiCo currently has a franchise on the
University of Minnesota campus.