Students rally for Mitsubishi boycott

Students rally for Mitsubishi boycott

By Janice Luo

UCLA’s Rainforest Action Group is appealing to the students’
association to boycott all Mitsubishi products, such as cars,
televisions and computer electronics, because of the company’s
logging activities in the rainforest.

The environmental group presented a 143-page "ethical and social
responsibility" petition to ASUCLA showing Mitsubishi’s alleged
environmental abuses. The ASUCLA board of directors is now
reviewing the petition, organization officials said.

A preliminary decision on the petition is expected this week,
said Pat McLaren, project manager at the association’s student
support services.

The students’ association can make the decision to buy
Mitsubishi products at any time. They now own at least three big
screen TVs and during the summer, a Rainforest group member
discovered a Mitsubishi color monitor being shipped to an ASUCLA
employee. Signing the petition would ensure that there would be no
more buying of Mitsubishi products in the future, supporters
said.

"It won’t hurt ASUCLA or Mitsubishi financially, but it will
help us in a symbolic way. Symbolism can move mountains," said Dang
Ngo, director of Rainforest Action Group.

Ngo said other colleges such as Harvard University, Yale
University, Tufts College and University of Colorado have already
signed a petition boycotting Mitsubishi.

The Mitsubishi Corporation has responded by hiring a public
relations firm and initiating talks with Rainforest Action Network,
a nationwide organization, in November 1993. Michael Marx, the
network’s Mitsubishi campaign director, said Mitsubishi had
stumbled briefly, but has seemed to move in a positive direction
since February 1995. He attributes their recent actions to pressure
put on the corporation by Mitsubishi Motor Sales of America, who
have been the major focus of boycott in the United States.

"Mitsubishi was feeling a lot of pain from their dealers against
whom we’ve been demonstrating and picketing," said Marx, adding
that the Rainforest network is continuing discussions with
Mitsubishi.

"We remain cautiously optimistic that Mitsubishi Corporation
will accept our latest counterproposal. But whatever comes out of
the discussions, it will not stop boycotts anytime soon. As of
today there has been no effort on Mitsubishi’s part to stop logging
or the purchase of tropical wood," he continued.

Stephen Wechselbaltt, director and vice president of publicity
for Mitsubishi International Corporation, said he was optimistic
about the talks with the Rainforest network.

"We’re trying to communicate. Hopefully, we’ll be making
progress. It’s a very delicate situation and what is a proposal
today may not be the same tomorrow," he said, adding that
Mitsubishi is looking for alternatives to logging such as using the
plant, non-paper kenas.

Mitsubishi is the largest corporate destroyer of rainforests in
the world, the groups claimed. It uses logs obtained from
rainforests around the world to form concrete structures for walls,
sidewalks, furniture, plywood and veneer. After the concrete dries,
the wood is thrown away.

The use of tropical wood is essential because it doesn’t contain
eyes or other deformities. Since Mitsubishi only takes unstained
wood, the British Columbia Ministry says they waste 65 to 85
percent of the wood they cut down.

The biodiversity of the world’s rainforests holds potential
cures to diseases, Ngo said. Half the treatments for cancer are
derived from the rainforest, which also inhibit global warming and
keep the ozone layer intact. Ngo compared its destruction to
"destroying a library without reading all the books in it."

Another aspect of diversity in the rainforest is cultural. At
the turn of the century there were over one million people living
in the rainforest, and today only 200,000 people survive there. The
indigenous people are continually being decimated by diseases from
loggers and gold miners which their immune systems cannot handle,
environmentalists said. And their life source is being destroyed
because they depend on the rainforest for food and shelter.

Wechselbaltt says that Mitsubishi and the Rainforest Network
have had private conversations regarding factual statements. He
says the network made claims about genocide of a certain tribe in
Malaysia which were not valid. Wechselbaltt says there is much
misinformation between the company and the environmental group.

"Right now, it’s a matter of looking over each statement and
proving their validity. The key thing is to recognize that our key
practices have been misrepresented, and work with (the Rainforest
Network) to provide alternatives," he said.