Back to the People! More than ever.

[dawnstar@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Back to the People! More than ever. TOTAL FINA ELF

Thats the message the MPs want to send to the Free Burma militants
(activists) and supporters. They know there is not much they can do on
the political front here. They know that. And so they say, the media and
public opinion is virtually the only way to change things. lawyers talk
to commissions, human rights groups talk to parlementarians, and the mps
say go back tothe people. go to square one. start again. again and again
and again. Like the ballet teacher to the star vedette. Do it again and
again and again.
A professional does that. But this Total boycott is not for practice.
And how does it feel to get your butt whipped, because that is exactly
what has happened, and Thierry Desmarest is holding the whip. I don't
like that, not at all. In less than ten days
the Total Fina acquisition is a done deal. It already is, just
formalities now. 19 shares Total Fina for 13 shares Elf. The US banks
and firms like Merrill Lynch take their commissions, tens of millions of
dollars, ithink the Total Fina merger they took in 63 million dollars,
this time it may be much more, much bigger stakes. They pushed the deal.
You understand, american finance institutions pushed the deal through.
And if you check out the "Enforcibility of Civil Liabilites Against
Foreign Persons", there isnt much you can do , the US federal security
laws say so, about Total Fina in french courts. Its a "société anonyme",
and its directors and executive members are located outside the US, as
is most or all or at least a substantial portion of the assets of these
directors and officers of TF are located outside the US, and as a result
"it may be difficult for investors to effect service of process within
the United States upon these persons or to realize agianst them upon
jugements of courts of the US predicated upon any civil liability
provisions of the US fed security laws. Liabilities predicated 
upon the US fed security laws may not be enforceable in actions brought
in France. In addition, actions for enforcement before French courts of
judgements of US courts rendered against these French persons may be
barred by Article 15 of the French Civil Code which has been construed
by French courts as granting French nationals, as well as cerain foreign
nationals domiciled in France, the right to be sued in France only."

So, when you think of this, and you think of how four years has passed
since launching a boycott message, on the net, with millions of hits a
month, by the end of the year, in 1996, for the Worldwide Total Boycott,
and now to be told by the French MPs that they cannot do anything, and
to have it thrown back in your face, less than ten days before Desmarest
at Total Fina gets his cake and eats it too, that makes you think that 
he whipped us. And whipped us good. And like I say, Idont that.

Since the beginning I have called to the organisers to take the Total
boycott very seriously. They have not done so for one reason or another.
And now we are told to go back to the people. I dont need MPs to tell me
this, you dont either. But the message is the same. 

Just think. If four years ago, there had been a strong national movment
and internaitonal movement for boycott, you can count on the fact that
investors would have been very scared off, as they were with the Pepsi
Boycott. Okay, so Unocal is in the US and Total is French. But Total is
held now by US investors, perhaps half of it, think about that. If we
had moved hard four years ago, we might not be facing the same kind of
future now, and probably not Total either. And probably not Burma. 

I am not bitter. I have done what I could do to inform you. Perhaps I
could have done more. Four long years. I took a break at the beginning
of 1998, to write, and came back late last year to once again try to
kickstart this Total Boycott action, and diverted  people to Belgium to
do it, who are now working through Paris and with the EarthRights
International group, which is a good thing. 

So what's going to be next? In fact, there is no turning back now. The
boycott movement has to take hold. That's clear. And everything in the
MP report points to that, especially the fact that the MPs say, after
the Total Fina -Elf fusion, the company will be too highly visible, too
internationally exposed, to discount or neglect it. 

Which might suggest a reason why they put in a former Elf director in
Rangoon as Ambassador. Total Fina is going all the way on this one. It
wouldnt do justice for us now to back off, now would it. 

Total Fina considers, as do their investor advisors, that US fed courts
do not have jurisdiction over Total Fina company activities. This issue
is now before US federal courts through civil actions. You know that.
But there is nothing now to stop the boycott movement, except inertia,
indifference and neglect. 

Total Fina and now the MPs have made it perfectly clear that the ball is
now in our court. Either the Free Burma Movement intensifies its
activities and rethinks its strategy in dealing with the new Total Fina
Elf company, or it continues its strategies now in place with the
inevitable and certain defeat. 

The choice is ours, rather, should I say, the choice is yours, now, more
than ever. 
I should also say we can thank certain people for this defeat. They know
who they are. 

Sorry to bother about, thought you should know.