Join The BUY-cott!!!

[Dr.Phool]

Mods, this is from the June 20, 2005 issue of In These Times ( www.inthesetimes.com ).It was written by Jeff Cohen. I just got it in the mail tis morning, and it's not posted on their website yet. I know the rules, and it's only 4 paragraphs long, I'll post it anyway.

Join The BUY-cott!

Looking for an easy way to protest Bush foreign policy week after week? An easy way to to help alleviate global poverty? Buy your gasoline from Citgo stations. Join me and tell your friends.

Of the top oil producing and refining countries in the world, only one is a democracy with a president who was elected on a platform of using his nations oil revenue to benefit the poor. The country is Venezuela. The President is Hugo Chavez. Call him the Anti-Bush.

Citgo is a refining and marketing firm that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company. Money that you pay at the pump to Citgo goes primarily to Venezuela. There are 14,000 Citgo stations in the United States (go to www.citgo.com/citgolocator.jsp to locate one near you. By buying your gasoline at Citgo you are contributing to the billions of dollars that Venezuela's democratic government is using to provide health care, literacy and education, and to subsidize food for the majority of Venezuelans.

A country with so much oil wealth shouldn't have 60 percent of it's people living in poverty, earning less than $2 per day. With a mass movement behind him, Chavez is confronting poverty in Venezuela. That's why large maajorities have consistently backed him in democratic elections. And why the Bush administration supported a military coup in 2002 to overthrow Chavez. So this is the opposite of a boycott. Call it a BUYcott. Spread the word.

[Skittles]

1. yay

my local station is already CITGO. :D

[Katherine2]

2. I found some in my area

(Irvine, CA). They're all at 7-Elevens. Who knew? Thanks.

[silverweb]

3. BuyBlue just did a good writeup on this.

http://www.buyblue.org/archives/2005/05/weighing_in_on.html#more

We used to get gas at Arco, but now it's either Costco or Citgo (7-Eleven), since we don't have Hess anywhere near us.

[Dr.Phool]

4. Thanks for the link.

I have plenty of Hess stations and Citgo stations around me. One Costco about 15 miles away.

[silverweb]

5. Great!

Be sure to let BuyBlue know you're switching. They're keeping track of people who change suppliers/brands because of their research.

:hi:

[NeoTraitors]

6. Buyblue confuses the heck out of me.

Their list of companies shows Citgo as red. It also shows Geico and Kohls as red. I thought Warren Buffet (blue dem) owned Geico and Sen. Herb Kohl (D WI) owned Kohls.

I want very much to finacially support dems and to boycotte repubs but their list is very confusing.

[NeoTraitors]

7. Sorry, I understand the Citgo thing now,

but still am baffled by Kohls and Geico.

[phylny]

8. There's a flaw in this logic.

No matter what, the other oil companies still profit from this "Buycott."

Citgo can refine just so much gasoline, and if the demand for their product exceeds its refining capacity, the company will buy what they need from the other majors. In fact, in areas of the country where Citgo has no refineries and exchanges product through pipelines or via trucks with other oil companies, the net effect to those other companies is exactly the same. The other companies still sell gasoline, through Citgo to you.

In addition, let's assume the demand for Citgo gasoline grows, but Venezuela cannot meet the demand. Either the price will rise due to increased demand and limited supply, or ... you guessed it, the other companies will make up the difference by selling their gasoline through Citgo.

A "Buycott" will certainly hurt somebody - the owner of the station, who makes a penny or two on every gallon of gasoline, and who makes his money through the convenience store or repairs.

edited for typo