Jeremy Woodrum
US Campaign for Burma
Previously Aired On: July 3, 2007 - Listen to this Show!
The United States Campaign for Burma is a U.S.-based membership organization dedicated to empowering grassroots activists around the world to bring about an end to the military dictatorship in Burma. One of the primary objectives of USCB has been to bring attention to the imprisonment of Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi by the dictator regime in Burma.
Aung San Suu Kyi is the daughter of the assasinated Burmese General Aung San, who helped establish national independence in Burma. After her father was assasinated, two year-old Suu Kyi left Burma and lived and studied in India and the United Kingdom. Inspired by the non-violent practices of Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., she became a national hero and an international celebrity after returning to Burma at a time of political upheaval and leading the National League for Democracy (NLD) in opposition to the ruling military regime. She was placed under house arrest in 1989, but the NLD still convincingly won popular elections in 1990. The military junta refused to give up power keeping her under house arrest to this day. Aung San Suu Kyi has called on people around the world to join the struggle for freedom in Burma, saying “Please use your liberty to promote ours.”
Jeremy Woodrum worked in the Washington, DC office of the Free Burma Coalition from 1999-2003, serving as Washington Director for the final two years. During that time, he organized over one dozen delegations of Americans to the Thailand-Burma border and led a nationwide boycott effort that resulted in 45 companies withdrawing from Burma. He has been nominated for the Reebok Human Rights Award.
