Myanmar Update: Internet down, mobilization inside and outside Burma, what you can do (lobby Beyoncé and protest Chevron!)
It’s been gutting, with news of the continued loss of lives across Myanmar and the shutdown of the internet, and ongoing financial support for the military by corporations. However, there are a number of things you (yes, you!) can do to help the Burmese out.
First off, apparel leaders profit greatly from employing local labor – predominantly women – at their factories in Myanmar and they have remained largely silent and continued operations throughout the coup. Garment workers held a strike on March 8 despite retaliation and have called upon support from those corporate leaders for support to ensure that they aren’t fired from their jobs from their involvement with the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). But the silence is deafening.
There is a campaign to call on someone who has far more clout than most of us and she has her own line for Addidas, one of the more prominent brands with manufacturing in Myanmar. That’s right, Beyoncé herself. This is not as farfetched as one might think. Her Beygood initiatives are far-reaching and genuinely helpful; her support of the Asian community is well known and it seems likely that she would respond to the issue of labor relations under threat from a military dictatorship.
To help get the word to her, Campaign for New Myanmar has all the information here.
No Business With Genocide has a similar and wider focused campaign here.
A larger concern are petroleum industry leaders who continue to do business with the Burmese military and finance the Tatmadaw directly or through various channels. Chevron has been one of the most egregious offenders for decades. For background, please read Simon Billeness’s post here. For what you can do, if you’re in Houston is attend the rally at Chevron headquarters on Saturday. The protest is being co-sponsored with the Houston Peace & Justice Center. You can find pertinent details here.
If you live in another part of the country, other protests are taking place in San Francisco, Washington DC, and Denver. And I’ve just noticed that others are in New York City and Los Angeles!
For more information about what the military is doing to the people of Myanmar and for ways to help, below are a number of resources.
Campaign for Myanmar just launched and I recommend checking their site out for a wealth of up to the minute information and action items you can pursue.
U.S. Campaign for Burma Twitter feed
International Campaign for the Rohingya
This may be slightly redundant, but I wrote this as a starting point for one and all:
The Coup in Myanmar: Resources to learn more and What you can do
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