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World

By HELENA CORTEZ

Four years to the day after the original
Nestle Boycott ended with Nestle’s agree-
ment that it would stop foisting infant
formula on the mothers of newborn
babies around the world, Action for Cor-
porate Accountability announced a rene-
wal of the international consumer boycott
against the Swiss-based Nestle company
and the U.S.-based American Home Pro-
ducts (AHP).

Action charges that Nestle and Ameri-
can Home products promote infant for-
mula by dumping supplies of formula on
hospitals and maternity wards. This mar-
keting technique has been condemned by
the World Health Organization (WHO),
UNICEF and other leading international
medical authorities because it can result in
infant malnutrition and disease.

Douglas Johnson, national chairman
of Action, said Nestle has broken the
agreement it signed in 1984 and has vio-
lated the trust of concerned organizations
working for infant health.

According to the medical authorities,
the free formula fed to newborn babies in
hospitals and given to the mothers stops
many from breastfeeding their babies.

When the babies don’t breastfeed, the
mothers’ milk dries up and they then are
forced to buy the formula. Besides the fact
that many cannot afford the expensive
formula, in many places water needed to
prepare the formula is hard to come by
and is often contaminated.

Action announced publicly to both
companies last June that if they did not
provide a business plan by Oct. 4 detailing
how they would implement the code,
including an end to free supplies, Action
would launch consumer campaigns against
them.

“There is nothing ‘charitable, about
these so-called donations,” said Dr. Raj
Anana, a professor of pediatrics in Bom-
bay, India. “The purpose of the industry in
bringing the formula to the hospitals is to
induce sales. This is their one and only
purpose. Formula supplies induce sales by
undermining and, in some cases, prevent-
ing breastfeeding education and initia-
tion.”

Monitoring of industry marketing prac-
tices, carried out by Action and members
of the International Baby Food Action
Network (IBFAN), has found that Nestle
and American Home products continue

_Nestle’s violation spark

to dump supplies on hospitals around the
world, frequently in huge quantities.

In Singapore, Nestle and AHP each
supplied formula to nine out of ten hospi-
tals visited. At these hospitals, almost all
newborns were fed on donated milk and
mothers were given free samples of Nestle
and AHP formula. In Thailand, AHP
provided supplies to every one of 13 hospi-
tals visited, and Nestle supplied to 12 out
of 13. Figures provided by the hospital
staff showed that these hospitals were
given enough formula to fully formula
feed 100 per cent of the newborn babies.

There is already widespread ‘interna-
tional support for the boycott. “By the end
of the Nestle boycott in 1984, it was sup-
ported in 10 countries around the world,”
said Action executive director Janice
Mantell. “This month we have received
statements of support for a boycott
against Nestle and American Home Pro-
ducts from organizations in more than 20
countries, including Australia, Malaysia,
Swaziland, Kenya, Mauritius, Liberia, the
Philippines, Thailand, Austria, Belgium,
France, Germany,, Ireland, Italy, the
Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the
United Kingdom — and we_ haven’t

started organizing yet..Our international
_ network, the International Baby Food
.» Action Network, is very strong, and very
committed to infant health.”

The boycott will include all consumer
products made by both companies and
their subsidiaries, but will focus on two
products from each company. The Nestle
boycott will focus on Taster’s Choice
instant coffee and Coffeemate non-dairy
coffee creamer. Coffeemate is a product of
Carnation, which is a wholly-owned Nes-
tle subsidiary. Boycotters will be urged to
take a “clean” coffee break — to make a
statement against corporate practices
which harm children.

The AHP boycott will focus on Anacin
aspirin and Advil ibuprofin. Boycotters
will “give AHP a headache” to pressure
the company to stop its harmful infant
formula promotion.

“The first boycott lasted for seven
years,” Johnson noted. “We are prepared
to boycott again for seven years, if neces-
sary, until Nestle and American Home
Products bring their marketing practices
into full compliance with the WHO-
UNICEF marketing code.”

Canadians

By GORDON YEARSLEY

Fifty years ago, Doctor Norman Bethune
of Gravenhurst, Ontario arrived in China.
For 16 months, he practised his healing arts
with spectacular success, then died and
stepped into history. He is one of the heroes
of modern China, revered by the people for
his work, honoured as an internationalist
and held up as a model of personal devotion
and sacrifice.

Norman Bethune’s motives were not as
complex as many who come with secret
agendas and the assumption that China
must change. His was a simple passion for
life which he demonstrated by saving lives
on the battlefield. This same passion drove
him to rage against the evils of this world
that cause war and suffering. He did not
subscribe to the pursuit of happiness as the
main purpose of living and was apparently
driven to leave his mark in the form of
meaningful sacrifice and death. :

Of all who worked with Bethune in
China, only three are still alive. One is Dr.
Wang in Chengdu, recently retired as minis-
ter of health of the province of Sechuan. I
interviewed Dr. Wang in October last year
and he remembers vividly the impression
Dr. Bethune made on all those around him.
“His influence will never die — we were

pay homage to Bethune in China

inspired. Because of him, I determined to
become a doctor.”

Dr. Wang was a very young man when
he was assigned to Bethune’s front line med-
ical and surgical unit. He experienced first-
hand the efficiency and discipline Bethune
imposed on himself and all around him.
Many Chinese have adopted this model for
their own lives, including some who did not
personally know the Canadian doctor.

Last month, a group of Canadians held a
ceremony in Shijiazhuang to commemorate
the life of this unusual man. And a tree was
planted in memory. A bronze plaque which
the Canadians brought with them reads:
“1988: To the memory of Dr. Norman
Bethune. Left Canada for China, January,
1938. Canada China Friendship Associa-
tion, Nanaimo, B.C.”

The delegation from Canada was organ-
ized by George LeBeau, chair of the central
Vancouver Island branch of the Canada-
China Friendship Association in Nanaimo.
Several members of the group had helped in
fund-raising for Norman Bethune’s work in
China from 1937 to 1939.

The enduring value of his effort is appar-
ent in Shijiazhuang, where there is one of
the most impressive memorials in China.
The hospital, mausoleum, museum and

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The entrance to the Bethune memorial complex.

8 e Pacific Tribune, October 31, 1988

PHOTO — BILL CAMPBELL PHOTOGRAPHICS

park record his brief but intense life in
China. It is a living testimony of the love of
the Chinese people for their hero.

Every day, this hospital serves the people
in the spirit of Norman Bethune. It also
conducts seminars such as acupuncture for
doctors form all over the world. More than
30 specializing departments of this compre-
hensive hospital practise both Western and
Chinese traditional medicine. All doctors
on this staff of nearly 300 are trained in
Western medicine.

LeBeau also brought a picture that was
given to him by Norman Bethune in 1938.
He donated the original to the Bethune
Museum here.

Dr. Lu Rongling, Director of the
Bethune International Hospital, summed
up the feeling of his people in a statement
made during the tree-planting ceremony:
“Dr. Bethune lives in the hearts of the Chi-
nese people. The doctors and staff of this
hospital thank you, George LeBeau, for
organizing this delegation to visit our coun-
try on this occasion. We hope friendship
between Canadian and Chinese people will
continue to grow in the spirit of Dr.
Bethune.”

Gordon Yearsley is with the Xian Foreign
Language Institute in Xian, People’s Republic
of China.

In a ceremony in Beijing Sept. 8,
Canadian Tribune editor Tom Morris
(centre) presents framed facsimile
newspaper copy of Dr. Norman
Bethune’s famed indictment of
war, Wounds, to Ma Wenpu (I)
deputy bureau director of the
International Liaison Department
of the Chinese Communist Party
and staff member Kuang Zheng.
The inscription accompanying the
page reads: ‘’Written in Wupaishin,
Shansi, by Dr. Norman Bethune,
Wounds was published in the July
1, 1939 issue of the Communist
Party of Canada’s newspaper, Clar-
ion, four months before his death
from septicemia on Nov. 13,
1939.

“Along with his last will and tes-
tament sent to Gen. Nieh Yung-
Chen at Eighth Route Army Staff
headquarters, the manuscript was
selected by Bethune from his many
papers hours before he died.
‘Everything | have to say is in
them,’ he told his comrades.

“Presented to the Communist
Party of China and the Chinese
people by the Communist Party of

Canada, September, 1988.”

——