Issue link: https://bluemagazine.uberflip.com/i/24995
t one so Was it fate, or just his love of high altitudes and his --- passion for snowboarding that drew Yauch to the cause? In 1992, while trekking through Nepal, Yauch encountered a group of Tibetan refugees fleeing over the Himalayas. ------ .. "'- -' he traveled with them to a poor refugee community ----------.,. II!Iႀ�munication, Yauch contacted Potts to find out how best to donate the royalties from "Shambala," "Bodhisattva Vow" and "Alright Hear This"-three songs on the album that feature samples of Tibetan monks chanti ng. "Erin suggested we give the money to small ---- --- --I111111 groups. So we talked about her doing the work, and it just � .... ..,xnrlnding from there, " explains Yauch . All told, Milarepa has raised over $1 mil lion through concert pro ceeds and royalties. Besides funding its own campaigns, �---------I111!11.�!!toa provides grants to Tibetan refugee projects abroad, as well as to activist organizations and youth groups here at home. Milarepa's track record is "remarkable," says John Ackerly of the International Campaign ·for Tibet, a human rights lobby group in Washington, D.C. "Before Milarepa, young people really didn't have an organization they felt they could turn to. Now they're defi nitely on the forefront, especially in terms of economic campaigns and publ · ic ity. " Milarepa's call for a boycott of Chinese goods last -- - ----------I111111""Wlllas backed by over one hundred organ izations, includ ing the AFL-CIO. They've since enlisted fashion designers like Anna Sui, Todd Oldham and Marc Jacobs to hang tags on th eir garments ensuring that their clothing is not pro duced in China and encouraged customers not to buy from ... �es and companies that deny ' basic human rig hts. But -- ----- !I!IIII in today's global ized economy, with more and more major U.S. corporations operating in China, asking people to avoid Chinese products isn't so easy. in Katmandu-where he eventually ran into Erin Potts, now Milarepa's di rector. Later, when the Beasties were recording ... com- panies eperatir:lg in Tibet l ike Holiday Inr:l, WRiGh nms a hotel in Lhasa in partnership with the Chinese government. In April, Milarepa and over fifty other Tibet support groups launched an international boycott of Holiday Inn and its parent company, Bass PLC (which produces Bass beer). They argued that the hotel helps legitimize China's hold over the country. According to Potts, Tibetans who work for Holiday Inn are' paid less than their Chinese coworkers. This is in keeping with China's aggres sive population transfer campaign-a crusade which subsidizes Chinese people to settle in Tibet, rendering the Tibetans not only a minority in their own country but second-class citizens as well. In future months, Milarepa plans to target �ther multina tional corporations which are no';" being encouraged by the Chinese government to move into Tibet as part of a fifteen-year redevelopment plan. From freeing Tibet to taking on global conglomerates, Milarepa's agenda seems impossibly ambitious, But Yauch and Potts are optimistic, a trait they've picked up from ·the Tibetans. "The West rea lly needs an example of nonviolent struggle agai nst oppression and injustice, " says Yauch. "Hopefu lly when a large enough group of people is aware of it, when it reaches a critical mass, [the Chinese government] won't be able to hang on any more. It wi ll reach a point where enough Chinese people are embarrassed and say we rea lly need to have a change."