For Immediate Release, October 26,1995
Press Contact: Mark Westlund 415/398-4404
TWO WOMEN SCALE BANK OF CALIFORNIA TOWER WITH HUGE BANNER:
SAVE THE RAINFORESTS!
ACTIVISTS PUT THEMSELVES ON THE LINE FOR THEIR BELIEFS . . .
LITERALLY.
WHAT:
Two women activists from Rainforest Action Network have
scaled the Bank of California tower in downtown San Francisco
and will unfurl a 35Pfoot banner with the message: Stop
Mitsubishi's Rape of Mother Earth--Boycott Mitsubishi's Bank of
California. The women are suspended from the top of the
skyscraper on rock-climbing ropes. Bank of California is owned
by Mitsubishi Bank.
On the ground, Bay Area environmentalists, an Amazon Indian
chief, and concerned citizens are protesting corporate
destruction of the Earth's rainforests. Included are stiltwalkers,
activists in animal costumes, and drummers.
WHEN:
RIGHT NOW! Noon, Thursday, October 26, 1995
WHERE:
Bank of California is located at the corner of Sansome and
California Streets in downtown San Francisco.
WHY:
Rainforests are being destroyed at an accelerating pace around
the world, eliminating vast numbers of plant and animal species,
and devastating the traditional lands and cultures of the people
who live there. Mitsubishi Corporation, which owns Mitsubishi
Bank and the Bank of California, is the single greatest corporate
rainforest destroyer in the world.
INTERVIEWS:
AerialPactivist Donna Parker is on radio, and can do interviews
from her perch high atop the bank. On the ground, RAN executive
director Randall Hayes, Mitsubishi Boycott head Michael Marx,
and Chief Jacir de Souza of the Macuxi tribe are also available.
(San Francisco) Rainforest Action Network, Bay Area
environmentalists, and other concerned citizens gather in San
Francisco's business district to protest the devastation of
rainforests and rainforest peoples. This demonstration, on
Thursday of World Rainforest Week, focuses on Mitsubishi BankPP
and its domestic holding, Bank of California--which funds
environmentally destructive projects around the world.
Mitsubishi Corporation is one of the largest corporate
destroyers of the world's forests. It fully or partially owns
logging operations throughout the world. Mitsubishi corporate
activities lay waste to thousands of square miles of forest, and
contribute to the destruction of native rainforest cultures.
Every year, an area of rainforest the size of Italy is destroyed,
and much of that destruction derives from exploitation by
multinational corporations. Compliant governments cooperate
with greedy companies such as Mitsubishi to plunder forest land
for short-term profit.
Rainforest Action Network works to protect the Earth's
rainforests and support the rights of their inhabitants through
education, grassroots organizing and nonPviolent, direct action.
Rainforest Action Netwrok
450 Sansome Street Suite 700
San Francisco, CA 94111