 November 22nd, 2005 - Tibetans and supporters with placards and flags demonstrated at AusRAIL Plus 2005 Conference held at Sydney's Darling Harbour. The conference was attended by Bombardier and other rail industry companies. Members of the Australia Tibet Council (ATC) handed out over 150 open letters explaining Bombardier's involvement in the railway and the implications for Tibetan people and their land. Many delgates made the effort to come out of the exhibition to ask for information and security guards allowed the demonstration to continue. Bombardier sponsored the evening conference cocktail party and we feel satisfied we gave them all something to talk about over drinks and canapes! (click on photos to enlargen)
Click here to read ATC's press release
On November 3rd,
Tibetans and supporters took action at Bombardier offices around the
world to protest the Bombardier's involvement in the Chinese government’s
railway in Tibet. Reports and pictures from the day of action are below (click on photos to see larger image). >>Read the press release
Click here to see more pictures of people worldwide telling Bombardier to "Get out of Tibet Now"
Montreal, Canada
 A
rowdy group of students and supporters gathered outside of the
Bombardier Headquarters to tell Bombardier: Get OUT OF TIBET!!! A local
Tibetan student delivered about 20 pages of petitions to the
office, while outside we did some stationary political theater. We set
up a mock train with a Chinese soldier and Laurent Beaudoin (with his
huge sac of money!) as its passengers. One of our friends in her chuba
with all the Tibet supporters behind her, were stopping the train.With
the help of cars honking as they passed by we were definitely seen and
heard today in downtown Montreal! Click here to read news coverage of the demonstration.
 
Crespin, France
 At 8.OO am, eight protesters from Etudiants pour un Tibet Libre (ETL) deployed two banners at the
entry of Bombardier factory in Crespin, one saying “more ethics for
Bombardier” in french and “Bombardier Out of Tibet” in english, and the
other saying “Out of Tibet” in french. Immediately, one of us asked the
security if we could meet the director, while others were leafleting
the employees who entered the factory. The employees
accepted the information gladly, they were very nice to us. We met the
director, Stéphane Fauth, for 10 minutes. He listened to our arguments,
asked some detailed questions about the railroad, and accepted to
forward the message to the Canadian directors. We leaftleted for
more than five hours, from 8.00 am to 1.45 pm. A media came to see us,
La voix du Nord, which is a big media in this region (132,000 circulation
!). An article appeared in the edition today, with a report of our
action. It was really a lot of fun for us! (Photos copyright of Martin Leers)
http://studentsforafreetibet.org/img/original/Bombardieraction_France2.jpg
 
Dharamsala, India
 What
is Bombardier? asked Kusho (monk) Ngawang la as a group of Tibetan
youths supported by Indian and foreign tourists performed a mock railway train
running over two Tibetans sitting on the ground here in Dharamsala.
"This is a new and creative way of presenting our message of
displeasure with Canadian company Bombardier who is working in
cooperation with China railway in constructing railways into Tibet."
said Choeying, President of Students for a Free Tibet India. Today, November 3rd 2005, all over the world Tibetans and
Tibet supporters are joining this international campaign. Ten volunteers stood in a line with stern faces, carrying a
shield saying "Golmud-Lhasa Express" and as they ran around the busy
street in McLecod Ganj, the Indian tourist joined them making the train
longer, and as the train passed over the two Tibetans sitting on the road,
many people hasitated to walk over. Click here to read the full
press release from Students for a Free Tibet (India) and Friends of Tibet
(India).
Plattsburgh, NY, USA
A bunch of us from the New York SFT office went upstate to a Bombardier
plant in Plattsburgh, NY-- not far from the Canada border-- to deliver
a letter to Bombardier
management, talk to the employees... and the media (there was a piece
on NBC's 6 o'clock evening news). We arrived just in time for the 7am
"shift change" and stood at the entrance to the plant withour placards.
We passed leaflets through the car windows of employees on their way in
and out. It was a worthwhile trip and we heard
that senior management issued a memo to treat us protesters nicely, but
not to take any of our information. Hmm, well, we sur e know they are
hearing us. It seems like they're hoping to withstand the noise (and
the investigations in Parliament in Canada, and the media scrutiny, and
the guilt...) until they get PAID. Bombardier CEO Laurent Beaudoin is
saying "I can't worry about colonialism and cultural genocide (according to the Dalai Lama) when there are profits to be made."
Brisbane, Australia
 Yesterday, members of the Australia Tibet Council demonstrated outside the
Bombardier Transportation office in Brisbane. W got heaps of attention
from the crawling peak hour traffic - lots and lots of beeping horns and waves and thumbs up from people. It was quite inspiring to
see the level of support there is out in the community for Tibet. We had no trouble from the Bombardier staff. They had
employed two security guards to protect themselves from us (!) and they
had been there waiting for something to happen since 6am! I think
they were quite pleased when we turned up 'cause it gave them something
to look at! Apparently the building was locked down and staff had
to use special passes yesterday also. As we thought, no media
made it along. We gave flyers to passers by, but not sure whether
any of them were employees of Bombardier. We had a great time and
thousands of people read our signs and went away with Tibet in their
minds.
Vienna, Austria
The Tibetan Community in Austria and Save Tibet Austria picketed the
local Bombardier Transportation office from 8.00 - 9.30 am today.
Bombardier employees were nonviolently confronted by us as they came to work.
A letter stating our demands was also delivered to the Bombardier office.
Wroclaw, Poland
 SFT
Poland: I'm quite happy with what we've done. Together, we leafleted
people
passing by. There was information about Bombardier's involvement in
the railway, why it's wrong and how they can show their resistance.
Some of
them were really interested and asked about details (yeah!) We had
banners and also put leaflets behind the windscreen wipers of
employees' cars. I talked to secretary of Bombardier and she promised
me to show all signed petitions to the headmaster of Bombardier in
Wroclaw.
She also advised me to write special message to him to convince him to
send them to Bombardier CEO Laurent Beaudoin in Montreal.
Derby, UK
 SFT Nottingham took loads of flyers and gave them out to people as they
came and left the Bombardier Transportation Headquarters in Derby
(which is absolutely massive). They were expecting us which was
quite amusing. A guy was sitting by the front gate in a suit the whole
day watching us and asking us to move off their property whenever we
strayed a little. Some employees later told us they had been instructed
not to talk to us or take any information which is a pretty dispicable
way for Bombardier to control the situation - hiding the facts from
their own employees. Nevertheless we gave out 160+ flyers to staff, a
couple of whom expressed their support. (We only nearly got run over a
couple of times)
Tashi delek
Ali
Berlin, Germany
 Tibet
Initiative Deutschland (TSG Germany) joined the International Day of
Action on November 3rd by having a demonstration in front of Bombardier
Transportation Headquarters in Berlin. Further our members and
supporters sent fax and emails to all Bombardier offices in Germany.
 Baroda, India
RTYC
Baroda protested outside the Bombardier Transportation office in
Baroda, in the Western Indian state of Gujarat. This office was closed
on November 3rd for the Diwali festival, but members will be meeting
with the HR manager once it has re-opened.
Edmonton, Canada
 SFT
Edmonton members collected petitions outside the Bombardier Finance
office in downtown Edmonton. Photo is taken in the square across from
the office tower with City Hall in the background. On Nov. 22nd,
Edmonton Amnesty group will host a Social Responsibility, Human Rights
and Business event. A local Tibetan monk will speak about Bombardier's
involvement in the Tibet railway.
 Jigme
and I went over to the Bombardier office in Fairfax, VA. It was only
the two of us - but we were armed with SFT's flyers! We went up to the
actual office, but didn't get past the first receptionist. So, we
handed our letters to the management over to the receptionist along
with informational flyers for the staff. Then, we taped o ur flyers up
in the elevators and all over the building. Before we left, we tucked at
least 50 flyers under the windshield wipers of employees' cars in the parking lot.
Toronto, Canada
Members
of SFT Toronto handed out flyers at the (really large) Bombardier
Aerospace manufacturing site in Downsview, Toronto. A letter was
presented to the plant manager and we asked that he send in onto
Bombardier CEO, Laurent Beaudoin. The Tibetan Women's Association of
Ontario also sent letters and emails to the office.
Newport Beach, California
LA Tibetan Community delivered a letter to the manager of the Bombardier office in Newport Beach.
|
