[Intl-tobacco] Protests at Altria annual meeting

[robert weissman]

1. Daily Record: Protesters attempt to clear air at Altria's E. Hanover
meeting
2. Essential Action news release: Youth Protest Altria Annual Meeting,
Warn of Altria Break-Up Dangers

http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20060428&Category=COMMUNITIES14&ArtNo=604280348&SectionCat=NEWS01&Template=printart

04/28/06
Protesters attempt to clear air at Altria's E. Hanover meeting

Anti-smoking activists target Philip Morris owner

BY ROB JENNINGS
DAILY RECORD

EAST HANOVER -- Anti-smoking activists were protesting outside and
inside the building on Thursday when Altria Group Inc. held its annual
stockholder meeting.

Unfurling a banner reading, "Give The World a Break,"and displaying an
image of a skeleton wearing a Philip Morris hat, about a dozen people
stood silently in the meeting room as Altria Chairman Louis C. Camilleri
outlined the company's philanthropic efforts.

Approximately 175 stockholders attended the 21/2-hour meeting at the
Kraft Foods technology center, and it appeared that many were smoking
opponents who bought shares in order to have a voice in the company.

They asked Camilleri to curtail the company's sale of cigarettes or take
other steps to limit smoking. Altria is perhaps best known for its
tobacco division, Philip Morris, and it owns 87 percent of Kraft.

"I stand before you in absolute contempt and derision," said Shane
Bradbrook, who lives in New Zealand.

"If it looks and smells and sounds like exploitation, it is
exploitation," he said.

Frustration

Several nurses, a priest, a nun and a 15-year-old girl from New
Hampshire were also among those questioning Camilleri, who responded
politely but occasionally expressed frustration at criticism directed at
the company.

"Regretfully, I think your goal, sometimes, is to destroy the company,"
Camilleri said to Regina Carlson, president of New Jersey GASP.

"Don't let your animosity of this industry, or this company, blunt your
judgment," he added.

Anti-smoking shareholders introduced six proposals, including one
expressing "support for laws at all levels combating use of tobacco."
All were defeated by more than 90 percent of the vote.

Peter Kosak of Vernon, Conn., a shareholder who supports cigarette
sales, railed against the company's critics for monopolizing the microphone.

"It's like a terrorist action," he said.

Kosak, an ex-smoker, denied that cigarettes were addictive and
questioned studies indicating that secondhand smoke is a health hazard.
He said the company's supporters shouldn't take any guff from their critics.

"The (Dominican nuns) over here, they'll never get a cent from me. We'll
hit them in the pocket," he said.

Focus on Mexico

Emily Martuscello, 15, of Dover, N.H., who attended with eight other
students, said such sentiments demonstrated why she became an
anti-smoking advocate.

Megan Rising, an organizer for Corporate Accountability International,
criticized the company for its involvement in Mexico. She charged that
someone died in Mexico every 10 minutes from a tobacco-related illness.

Camilleri rejected several measures that the company was urged to
support, such as supposedly "fireproof" cigarettes now mandated in New
York but not elsewhere.

"If you light a cigarette, and ignite a cigarette, it is not fire-safe,"
he said. "It is irresponsible to say a lit cigarette can be fire-safe."

Camilleri said the company did not oppose bans on smoking in public
places, such as the law recently implemented in New Jersey.

There was a heavy security presence inside the room, but no one was
asked to leave. Protesters holding anti-smoking signs also greeted
drivers entering and exiting the campus.

Police said no arrests were made.

--

Youth Protest Altria Annual Meeting, Warn of Altria Break-Up Dangers

4/27/2006 7:28:00 AM

To: National Desk

Contact: Anna White of Essential Action, 202-413-9656; or Vicki Hebert
of Dover Youth 2 Youth, 603-401-0735

EAST HANOVER, N.J., April 27 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Over 100 youth tobacco
control activists from around the U.S. and world are demonstrating
outside of Altria's annual shareholder meeting this morning to denounce
Philip Morris's aggressive targeting of young people worldwide.

They are calling on the company to agree to nine demands to ensure that
the breakup of Altria does not worsen the global tobacco epidemic that
the World Health Organization estimates will kill 10 million people
annually by 2025, 75 percent in developing countries.

Altria is actively considering splitting its components into three
separate companies: Philip Morris USA, Philip Morris International, and
Kraft.

"A corporate split could have devastating impacts," says Anna White of
Essential Action, a corporate accountability group based in Washington,
D.C. "An independent Philip Morris International may effectively be able
to function as a stateless corporation. It will likely not be
constrained by public opinion or the prospect of litigation in the
United States."

"Philip Morris sells 80 percent of its cigarettes outside of the United
States," says Sheryll Yotsuda of REAL: Hawaii Youth Movement Against the
Tobacco Industry. "If Philip Morris International intensifies its
marketing and political maneuvering after a breakup of the company, the
consequences will be dire."

More than 100 organizations in 50 countries have endorsed the demands to
prevent Altria's breakup from worsening the tobacco epidemic.

As shareholders arrived at the annual meeting, youth and adult advocates
from Arkansas, California, Washington, DC, Hawaii, Illinois, Montana,
New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin
demonstrated near a 15-foot high cigarette pack labeled "Global Killer."

Shane Kawenata Bradbrook and Skye Te Rangi Kimura of the Te Reo
Marama/Maori Smokefree Coalition came from New Zealand to denounce
Philip Morris's misappropriation of the Maori name and culture when the
company launched a "Maori Mix" line of its L&M cigarette brand in Israel
late last year. "Tobacco kills too many of our people each year," says
Bradbrook, "To add insult to injury, Philip Morris has stolen our name
to lasso young people in another country into a lethal addiction. It's
time the company stopped tobacco advertising altogether."

Bradbrook is one of 25 youth and adult advocates who plan to bring the
list of nine demands to Altria CEO Louis Camilleri inside the
shareholders meeting.

"We are here to challenge the company and the tactics it uses to prey on
youth worldwide," said Emily Martuscello, a youth advocate with Dover
Youth 2 Youth (based in New Hampshire. "We will no longer allow this
company to target our generation in order to make a killing."

Today's protest follows a similar demonstration held yesterday at
Altria's headquarters in New York City.

For the full text of the demands, endorsing organizations, and examples
of Philip Morris abusive activities, go to:
http://www.givetheworldabreak.org