As the new U S West Dex Yellow Pages have been issued, the Lubicon Defense Project is escalating public pressure on U S West, the local telephone provider here in the pacific northwest. In support of the Lubicon Cree Nation and Toronto Friends of the Lubicon, U S West customers are sending a message to Daishowa by demanding that the U S West Dex phone books not be published on paper purchased from a company which violates indigenous human rights in Canada.
"Until Daishowa is ready to make a clear, public and unequivocal commitment not to cut or buy wood cut on unceded Lubicon Territory until a land rights settlement is reached with both levels of the Canadian government and a timber harvesting agreement is negotiated which respects Lubicon wildlife and environmental concerns, the Lubicon Defense Project will increase our public education campaign. To further this nine year old request, The Lubicon Defense Project also demands that all legal action be dismissed against Toronto Friends of the Lubicon." says Dan Clarke. "Since consumer pressure in the form of a boycott is the only tactic that has kept Daishowa out of Lubicon Territory to date, escalating the boycott seems to be the only way to keep Lubicon trees standing for just a little longer as the waiting game continues in Canada."
The Lubicon Defense Project has initiated a campaign in the pacific northwest United States where U S West customers are encouraged to include a letter with each phone bill payment protesting the use of Daishowa paper in the publishing of the U S West Dex directories. This tactic was successful in convincing Consumers Gas, Canada's largest gas utility, to indicate that it will discontinue buying from the California oil and gas company, Unocal. Unocal built a sour gas processing plant just outside the proposed Lubicon reserve against the opposition of the Lubicon and their supporters. The Lubicon are demanding that the plant be moved.
A `U S West/ Daishowa Partnership' brochure which features a cut-out letter for U S West customers to include with their phone bill payments is available from the Lubicon Defense Project. Please contact the Lubicon Defense Project if you or your organization would like to help copy and/or distribute the brochures.
Ameritech Publishing Inc. (of Michigan) is a telephone directory manufacturer (Yellow Pages) which has recently confirmed that they include Daishowa among a few of the paper manufactures they purchase directory paper from when publishing their phone books. Ameritech Corp owns Ameritech Publishing. Ameritech provides communication products and services & has over 17 million business and residential lines in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan & Ohio. At any time, Yellow Pages and other phone directory products issued in cities in these states may have been published with Daishowa paper.
A similar campaign as the one initiated in the northwest could easily be launched in the Great Lakes states and other places where Daishowa has entered peoples homes in the form of telephone books.
Please contact the Lubicon Defense Project if you live in the Great Lakes states and are interested in beginning a campaign against directories which use Daishowa paper.