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Speak Truth to Power!
On April 25th Philip Morris will officially change its name to "Altria" and Louis Camilleri will take over Geoffrey Bible's job as Chief Executive Officer of the company. Many U.S.-based GPTC participants plan to travel to Richmond, VA to be present at this historic event. Our objective: to draw attention to the corporation's global trail of death and deceit -- that a new nice-sounding name can never hide. We want to represent the voices of people around the world. To do so, we need your assistance! Question: What do you want to say to PM shareholders and the media covering the shareholders' meeting? More specifically:
In particular, we are looking for responses that fit into the following
categories:
As well as:
Any and all ideas that you have would be greatly appreciated. We will try to use as many as possible. We encourage those of you who are unable to join us in Richmond to organize solidarity demonstrations in front of PM facilities near you and/or to issue press releases to coincide with the meeting. We will send you a sample press release later this month. Below please find the latest figures on Philip Morris' international sales volumes, as well as some background on incoming CEO Louis Camilleri and links to photos from last year's Philip Morris shareholders' meeting. Responses - Thoughts on Altria, Messages to Camilleri, Chants Report on 2002 Philip Morris Annual Meeting of Stockholders PHILIP MORRIS PROFIT & SALES - 2001 As Philip Morris reported glowingly at the end of January, the killing is just going up, up, up around the world: Philip
Morris' profit and sales, domestic and global Philip
Morris International results for 2001
Reuters reported that Louis Camilleri, set to replace Geoffrey Bible
as CEO of Philip Morris, "served a stint in eastern Europe, where
he led significant expansion of Philip Morris' reach in the former Communist
region and sometimes forcefully campaigned against antismoking legislation
in Poland and elsewhere." The story also notes that Camilleri also
serves on the board of ERGE-EI Foundation "that supports PhD economics
studies in Communist eastern Europe through Czech universities."
Camilleri is not a naturalized U.S. citizen. For more information: NEWSMAKER-Camilleri
is the new top Marlboro Man
Last year GPTC participants Christine Kuck and Olivia Osborne of Taking ACTION (USA - ID) and Essential Action attended the meeting. Here are some images that show how they represented the voices of GPTC participants from around the world: Christine
and Olivia tell Philip Morris that Idaho and Moldova give the Marlboro
Man "the boot" Olivia
in front of Philip Morris' towering monument to its successful cigarette
brands (before PM security threatened to confiscate poster and camera) Olivia
with sign "PM & Kraft = Blood money" Christine
with sign "Philip Morris - selling the USA, tobacco, and death in
Georgia" Posters
with messages from GPTC participants in Vietnam & Cameroon |
