The lobby day for Darfur will be Wednesday, January 30th, at about 1pm. We’ll meet in 2 North Case Lobby, work out a transportation situation, and provide all of you with the materials and a briefing. Then we head to Lansing, where it shouldn’t take more than an hour (probably closer to 30-45min).
Remember, you can get an excused absence from any classes you have if you talk with me in advance.
Remember, meeting tonight at 8:30pm in the 2 North Case Main Lobby area. We need to go over the lobby day plans and get those finalized. To get acquainted with the legislation, I have included two little briefing sheets on the “About” page. Please look these over and ask Tom if you have any questions.
-Tom
Han and Tanya are continuing their work to set up an effective lobby campaign in Lansing with Senator Hansen Clarke, one of the sponsors of the legislation. They are looking to put together a packet that will allow us to inform legislators in one, professional packet, what the legislation is about and why it must be supported. If interested in helping, contact Han or Tanya.
Plans are in the works to coordinate a series of lobby days, whereby volunteers would storm the capitol offices and knock on every legislators door to explain the importance of Sudanese divestment. If you would be interested in volunteering to lobby one day, please contact Tom.
Please keep on with the petition (we’re at almost 120 signatures), and remember to show up to our weekly meetings.
The death toll is rising, and you money is making it possible.
Currently, Michigan tax dollars are supporting companies that aid the Sudanese government in its genocide in Darfur. Already 400,000 have died in addition to the over 2 million refugees. This needs to stop.
Michigan can make a difference. Existing legislation would divest our tax dollars and tuition dollars from companies aiding the genocide. Together with the other 20 states doing this, Michigan can say with a clear voice that, just as we didn’t support Apartheid, we don’t support genocide.
However, this legislation is sitting in a Senate committee, never receiving a vote. While the House voted divestment through almost unanimously, the Senate is, once again, playing politics with people’s lives.
The people of Darfur need this. Michigan needs this. Please call your legislator and urge them to bring Senate Bill 555 and House Bill 4854
up for a fair vote.
-Tom Choske and Jeff Lakin
President and Vice President for Government Outreach (respectively) Spartans For Progressive Divesment
Yesterday, the United Nations released a statement that the government of Sudan is, once again, failing to comply with UN Security Council Resolutions. Unless they allow all Peacekeepers into the country, hundreds of thousands more will die.
Michigan can make a difference. Existing legislation would divest our tax dollars and tuition dollars from companies aiding the genocide. This would hurt the Sudanese President in a very tender place: his wallet. Also, it would make a statement that Michigan doesn’t want Lansing to send its money to foreign companies that help murder innocent civilians.
However, this legislation is sitting in a Senate committee, never receiving a vote. Certain lawmakers are stifling this legislation for political gain, much as they did for the budget. We all know how bad that was for the university and the state.
The people of Darfur need this. Michigan needs this. Please call your legislator and urge them to bring Senate Bill 555 and House Bill 4854 up for a fair vote.
-Tom Choske
President, Spartans For Progressive Divestment
Darfur needs our help. The United Nations has released a statement that, unless the government in Khartoum fully complies with UN Resolutions and allows all aid into the country, the peacekeeping mission will fail and hundreds of thousands more will die.
Michigan has legislation to divest from companies aiding the genocide, hitting the Sudanese President where it hurts: his wallet. However, this legislation is sitting in a Senate committee, never receiving a vote.
The people of Darfur need this. Michigan needs this. Please call your legislator and urge them to bring Senate Bill 555 and House Bill 4854 up for a fair vote.
-Tom Choske
President, Spartans For Progressive Divestment
It has claimed 200,000-400,000 lives. It has displaced millions. It has tortured countless millions more. And it continues to this very day — with no end in sight.The situation in Darfur is real. Real people are being forced from their homes. Real people are being tortured. Real people are dying. To date, the genocide waged by the government of Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir has taken the lives of well over 200,000 people, and the attacks by the Janjaweed, local mercenaries hired by the regime, have tortured and displaced millions.
The only way to bring an end to this is to target the money the government gets, namely the foreign oil companies. They must be engaged by their shareholders, and the State of Michigan has a lot of shares. If the state can engage these companies, we can make a difference on the ground in Darfur. To do that, though, we need your support as concerned citizens to get the government to pass SB 555 and HB 4854, the Michigan Sudan Divestment legislation.
Tom Choske
president, Spartans For Progressive Divestment and international relations and German senior
How can we make a difference in Sudan? This question has sparked much debate in the news of late. Some believe the only way is through deploying troops. However, that is not the case. The U.S. can help end the genocide in Darfur at little cost and no loss of life.
Divestment is the first step. Much of the world — the U.S. included — divested to end apartheid in South Africa in the 1990s, so we can divest from Sudan to end the genocide. The Sudanese government makes most of its money from oil revenues, which the people don’t see a penny of, by pressuring foreign oil conglomerates that are involved in Sudan to put pressure on the government. To get the oil companies to do this, they must be engaged by their shareholders, such as fund managers and even individual people. If they don’t change their practices, we as concerned citizens will take our money other places.
This strategy has worked already. Schlumberger, a French oil company, stopped supporting the genocide and is now building hospitals and schools in Darfur. It carried virtually no cost for the investors, as there are plenty of more profitable companies out there to invest in, and it made a difference on the ground. There were no lives lost, either.
Stand up and support divestment legislation. It is the first step, and a significant one, that can help a lot of people at little cost.
-Tom Choske
President, Spartans For Progressive Divestment
