This mailing from Randall Robinson, as National Co-Chair of the Free South Africa Movement, announces that Shell Oil has been selected as the primary target for a grassroots boycott. Shell Oil plays a crucial role in supporting and reinforcing the apartheid system in South Africa by supplying critically needed fuel to the South African military and police. Shell Oil is part of the giant multi-national conglomerate Royal Dutch Shell, the second largest oil company in the world, and it gets nearly one-third of its global profits from American consumers who buy products at 12,000 Shell service stations. U.S. labor unions, women's groups, civil rights organizations, religious congregations, and...
This mailing from Randall Robinson, as National Co-Chair of the Free South Africa Movement, announces that Shell Oil has been selected as the primary target for a grassroots boycott. Shell Oil plays a crucial role in supporting and reinforcing the apartheid system in South Africa by supplying critically needed fuel to the South African military and police. Shell Oil is part of the giant multi-national conglomerate Royal Dutch Shell, the second largest oil company in the world, and it gets nearly one-third of its global profits from American consumers who buy products at 12,000 Shell service stations. U.S. labor unions, women's groups, civil rights organizations, religious congregations, and tens of thousands of indviduals have already joined in a nationwide boycott of Shell Oil products. If you are a Shell credit card holder, please cut your card into two pieces as a symbol of protest and your solidarity with the suffering people in South Africa. Robinson will present thousands of destroyed cards to the President of Shell Oil. Also, people are urged to sign a letter to the President of Shell Oil and return it with a contribution to support building the Shell Boycott across the U.S. The mailing says TransAfrica has worked for the last five years to end apartheid and promote a peaceful transition to democratic government in South Africa. TransAfrica has been and remains in the vanguard of the fight against apartheid - from organizing daily protests in front of the South African embassy in Washington, D.C. to gathering over one million "Freedom Letters" from concerned Americans and presenting them to Bishop Desmond Tutu. U.S. companies doing business in South Africa are already feeling pressure of divestment legislation pending in Congress. Dozens of U.S. companies, sensitive to their public relations back home, have stopped doing business in South Africa. This impact has forced white South African business leaders to admit publicly that apartheid must be removed for economic prosperity to occur in South Africa. Another reason for targeting of Shell Oil is that the National Union of Mineworkers, the largest black labor union in South Africa, recommended this company. Last year, 86 workers were fired by a Shell-owned coal mine because they had taken 45 minutes off work to attend the memorial service of a black co-worker killed on the job in the Rietspruit mine.
