Dianne Feinstein, Free Trade and Burmese Dictators

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By Medea Benjamin

When Nelson Mandela was still in prison and those of us in the
anti-apartheid movement were searching for a way to help bring down the
South African regime, we seized upon the power of the dollar. We put direct
pressure on US companies to stop doing business with South Africa, and got
our cities, counties and states to pass "selective purchasing laws"
prohibiting business deals with companies profiting from apartheid.

Selective purchasing, one of the key tools in the human rights toolbox, has
once again been invoked to battle the repressive regime of Burma, a military
regime that annulled the 1991 elections, violently suppresses the democracy
movement and herds millions of its people into forced labor. Heeding the
call of Burma¹s Nelson Mandela, Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, to
stop foreign investment until democracy is restored, human rights activists
in over two dozen US cities have won the passage of selective purchasing
laws. In 1996, Massachusetts had the honorable distinction of becoming the
first state in the nation to require companies to choose between doing
business with the Burmese regime or with the state of Massachusetts.

But the forces of free trade uber alles, ranging from corporate America to
member states within the World Trade Organization, are fighting back. The
National Foreign Trade Council, a coalition of some 600 major
multinationals, wants to declare the Massachusetts law unconstitutional on
the grounds that it violates the federal government¹s exclusive authority
to conduct foreign affairs. The lower courts sided with the Council, and
the state of Massachusetts appealed to the Supreme Court, which will hear
the case on March 22.

The case has evoked strong support for Massachusetts from 78 members of
congress and 22 state attorneys general. But here in California, Senator
Dianne Feinstein has shamefully betrayed the people of Burma and the human
rights community by taking the side of the corporations. In fact, she is
the only Democrat in the entire Congress to sign on to an amicus brief in
support of the Trade Council. Feinstein¹s outrageous move not only pits her
against the state of Massachusetts, but against seven cities in her own
state - San Francisco, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Oakland, Santa Cruz, Palo
Alto, West Hollywood, Santa Monica, plus the county of Alameda - all of
which have passed selective purchasing laws against Burma.

This battle between the right of corporations to profit from repression and
the right of US citizens to use local legislative power to resist
repression will have far-reaching implications on our ability to use
financial pressure to advocate for human rights. It would be a cruel irony
if our own constitution were used to stop us from doing our civic duty of
answering the plea of those suffering under brutal governments. And it is
certainly a cruel irony that our own Senator is supporting such an immoral
position.

Hundreds of human rights activists will be outside the Supreme Court
building in Washington DC and outside the San Francisco offices of Senator
Dianne Feinstein on March 22 to show our solidarity with the people of
Burma, our rejection of corporations that profit from repression and our
determination to hold on to one of the few tools we have to fight
oppression. It would be fitting if between now and March 22, Dianne
Feinstein took her name off the amicus brief and publicly recognized the
right of US citizens to keep our state tax dollars out of the hands of
dictators.

Medea Benjamin, founding director of Global Exchange, is the California¹s
Green Party candidate for US Senate.