Brandeis’
Burma Action Movement
By
Susie Davidson
Advocate
Correspondent
WALTHAM
- On the Saturday before Passover, a dozen Brandeis students gave some
Bloomingdale’s shoppers pause as they shopped. Holding signs proclaiming
“Slave Labor” and “Boycott Bloomingdale’s,” armed
with instructional literature, they chanted “Money spent at
Bloomingdale’s is money spent supporting slavery!”
Andrew
Lightman and Mikael Lurie, co-presidents of Brandeis’ Burma Action
Movement, have joined the New England Free Burma Coalition, a network of area
colleges, in targeting Federated Department Stores (of which Filene’s,
Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s are subsidiaries with independent
purchasing rights) with an initial letter-writing campaign and now protests,
asking the stores to not sell slave labor clothing made in Burma, also known as
Myanmar.
“I've been working as College Coordinator for the New England Free Burma Coalition as well,” says Lurie. “This protest came on the heels of earlier ones at a Hess Gas Station in Cambridge and the Macy's in Downtown Crossing,” he explains. “We've been building these protests throughout the year and have gotten really good turnouts from both Brandeis students and activists from throughout the area.” In December, the protests commenced at Macy’s downtown Boston store.
“I
feel it’s crucial for us as Americans and Jews,” he continues,
“to stand up for the rights of those oppressed throughout the world and
in the words of Aung San Suu Kyi (Nobel Prize Laureate and General Secretary of
the National League for Democracy in Burma, still under house arrest):
‘use our freedom to help theirs’.
There
were no arrests at the demonstration, and it ended peacefully after two hours.
The Burma Action Movement, formed at Brandeis in 2000, seeks to educate the Brandeis community about Burma and its ruling military junta, which opposes democratic initiatives in the nation, through speakers’ forums and information dissemination. Last Easter, the group fasted to show solidarity with Burmese political prisoners.
42
million Burmese citizens live under military rule, even though the National
League for Democracy legitimately won in the 1990 elections. The Massachusetts
Legislature passed a law in 1996 which mandated penalties for firms who
conducted business with Burma; however, this measure was nixed by the Supreme
Court, who ruled that foreign policy creation was a federal issue.
“As a major here at Brandeis in both Politics and Near Eastern and Judaic Studies,” says Lurie, “I have become aware of the plight that is Burma and so many other issues in the world in which we as activists can make a real change.”
Lurie
is writing a senior honors thesis on Burma, which he visited last spring.
“These
types of consumer boycotts and demonstrations have become increasingly
vital,” he notes, “to keeping the ethical standards of our
corporations in check as the world becomes increasingly globalized.”
He has
an intricate knowledge of that which he decries. “The vast majority of
money earned from the apparel industry in Burma goes directly to the military
junta,” he says, “as they continue to keep a hard grip on their
illegitimate hold on power in that nation. The major premise behind our
demonstration is stated by Aung San Suu Kyi, who remarks that ‘until we
have a system that guarantees the rule of law and basic democratic
institutions, no amount of foreign aid or investment will benefit our
people’.
“Last
Saturday 12 protestors, mainly from Brandeis, stood in solidarity halfway
around the world with the democratic resistance of Burma.”
Lurie
has no plans for stopping. “We will continue to pressure Federated Stores
until they do the right thing and withdraw their support of products made in
Burma/Myanmar, a country the US State Department and UN International Labor
Organization have condemned for widespread practices of child and forced
labor.”
For
further information, Lurie can be reached at 781-529-6268.