RAND_MR1382

eye. Once the drive to pass the selective purchasing legislation emerged with full force,
it was a surprise to those who might have opposed it, including corporations and the
office of Gov. Weld, who had a reputation as a pro-business Republican. When Weld’s
press secretary, Jose Juves, first heard about the legislation and checked into it—to do
so, he used the web for the first time—“I was kind of shocked that the whole sort of
ready-made organization … was out there.” 33 Of all the companies with business in
Burma, only the oil and gas concern UNOCAL Corp. took the effort to hire a local
lobbyist. For many other companies, the first time they heard about the issue was after
the selective purchasing bill had become law, and they were notified that they were on
an official state list of affected companies. “They definitely came late to the dance,”
Juves said. 34 Table 5.1
States and Localities That Have Passed Selective Purchasing Legislation on Burma
Commonwealth of Massachusetts Alameda County, Calif.
New York City, N.Y. Berkeley, Calif.
Madison, Wisc. Santa Monica, Calif.
Ann Arbor, Mich. San Francisco, Calif.
Oakland, Calif. Carrboro, N.C.
Takoma Park, Md. Boulder, Colo.
Chapel Hill, N.C. Los Angeles, Calif.
Portland, Oreg.
NOTES: As of January 1999. List is meant to be suggestive; other localities also may have passed such legislation.
As the bill slowly made its way through the state legislature in 1995 and 1996, activists
used the Internet to push it along. Rushing, working with Simon Billenness of the
Massachusetts Burma Roundtable and other activists, sent emails from home and office
to keep supporters apprised of developments and to urge them to make their voices
heard when the bill was at a key legislative juncture or in trouble. The electronic
missives generated phone calls and letters to state senators and representatives from
their constituents inside Massachusetts and activists outside the state, explaining the
need for the legislation and pressing for passage.
The legislation very nearly died several times. Activists using the Internet rallied to
overcome each obstacle. An amendment that would have added virtually every
totalitarian regime in the world to the legislation—and thus buried it under its own
weight—was killed, and a March 1996 Senate motion to table the bill and postpone it to
the next legislative session was reversed. Billenness, through the Burma Roundtable, was