The "Close the GAP" vigil has begun in force!  Yesterday afternoon almost 100 people rallied outside the GAP Flagship at Powell and Market Streets in San Francisco.  Demands regarding GAP's labor practices and GAP's logging of the Redwood forests were presented and speakers, performers, and spoken word carried our spirits as we rallied through the afternoon and then marched to the GAP headquarters to begin a vigil that will last until GAP accepts our demands.

We arrived at the headquarters escorted by the SFPD.  Upon our arrival the party began with drumming, guitars, food from Food not Bombs, and more and more food from the community.  As the night progressed we received the word that we would be allowed to sleep and the police remained our guardians throughout the night.  They've been very cooperative (for police) so far.

As the night progressed more people arrived bringing blankets, sleeping bags, and more food we set up house with a living room, full with plants, rugs, sage and candles, a pantry with piles of food and a kitchen for serving.  17 PEOPLE SPENT THE NIGHT!!!  It was an amazing site to see all our banners and puppets set up and a long row of people sleeping with the police watching from a short distance and the headquarters right above us.  We'll have pictures scanned soon.

This morning we passed out hundreds more flyers to employees as they entered the huge complex.  While a large portion of them seemed to be really lost people a significant group was interested and some even stayed to talk.

Date: Tue, 3 Oct 2000 14:46:50 EDT
Subject: The GAP action

     Tuesday the second of October.

    This is a simple synopsis of what has occurred the last two nights that I was there.  On Monday morning we were awakened by the police in a very polite way at six am asking us to move because we were blocking the entrance, we obliged because at six thirty, the blue collar workers start their deliveries. By seven the white collar GAP employees started to arrive.  We set up signs and had someone playing a rhythm with the drums and singing, we positioned ourselves to hand out flyers in the most effective way possible, assembly line style, with four people in a line saying things like, "Find out why we're here for a month."  This line is particularly effective because the workers start to contemplate a daily harassment for the next month and what that means for their blood pressure. The next in the line would say, "You can help change the company to you work for." This line is also effective for getting the workers off the defensive so they do not feel we are attacking them, we want the workers to realize that they have the power to effect change in their workplace. We also said; "Help make GAP a better place to work for every one". This was a subtle way of talking about the sweatshop labor without GAP workers tuning it out as a cliché. Our fourth in the line judged the reaction the worker had from the previous three solicitations and said whatever they thought would work best, many workers who ignored the previous three statements gave in by the fourth and took a flyer.

    The first day was a very deliberate chaos, there was loud construction going on and a good amount of protesters handing out flyers and talking about what workers could do to change the GAP. There were people flying every where the GAP employees went, this all served to raise the stress of many of the workers by bombarding them with input. The purpose of this is to get anyone who does know what is going on, to try and end the chaos hopefully by working to fulfill our goals. Anyone who didn't know about GAP's actions would have info to base an opinion on and anyone who didn't care about our cause but wanted the chaos to end would talk to their superiors, asking them if they couldn't do something to appease us.

    We were fighting serious GAP propaganda coming from the inside, we were told to "do our research" and that they had heard that "The clothes were made in four-star hotels by American workers" On the first day we got only about one in one hundred workers to actually take a flyer.

    The second day had far less people and so were unable to muster the massive presence we had the day before. The police, who at this point we were in very good standing with, removed their barricades and withdrew to a block away. GAP was filming us the whole time and continues to, looking for evidence to use against us, we waved "hi" and made peace signs to the man who came to change the tape.

    The previous day I had cleaned us to look like someone of the same class as most of the workers and found that I got a very good response from them, today I took this a step further, dressing as anonymously as any of the GAP workers (in clothing from thrift stores) and got even better response.  Like it or not, people judge by appearance and I enjoyed it a lot, thinking of it like dressing up for Halloween. Workers also were more willing to take flyers, at least one in ten took one, and I got a lot more positivity from them.

    I had many good experiences talking to workers, many asked, outright, if they could see a flyer and were interested in the data we had on the sweatshops and Fisher's lumber activities. I talked to one man this morning who said "After this, I am seriously thinking about quitting my job" Many workers tell us to "go get a job" or "get a life" but I feel we are getting an equally positive response from an equal number of workers.

    I feel that at this rate, we are likely to either win our demand that GAP pay it's over seas workers a living wage or divide GAP in a way that makes it too difficult to continue with their bad business practices. Sooner or later, it will no longer be profitable to do things the wrong way.

    Until then, I will be sleeping out front of the GAP headquarters by night, flying by day and working in the moments I get in between.

    I arrived last night to find that our numbers had again, dwindled. I understand this is typical of a vigil and so I remain hopeful. From what I hear, most vigils start out big and shrink as people search themselves to find if they are dedicated enough. If there are a few very hard-core people in the group who are willing to stick it out to the very end, numbers will slowly increase once more. We were serenaded by a local group of which I am embarrassed not to remember the name of but had me transfixed by their folksy sound. They played four songs about the dangers of the right and soldiering for the revolution and even got the GAP security guard, inside the building, tapping his toes. When we finally went to sleep last night, there were four of us.

    I awoke, well rested despite the constant trucking and street sweeping, sirens and delivery people (SF deliveries start at about three or four in the morning). A man delivering pastries and bagels to GAP at about four, gave us a bag of scones that were wonderful. One of the women who was in the singing group, (I'll have a name for you next time, sorry) showed up early to help flyer. We had better responses this morning, people who had seen us the previous nights, waved to us and said "good morning" to which we responded with smiles and new flyers depicting a photo of a sweatshop in Mexico. The number of negative responses is going down dramatically, workers are starting to see that we are not here to hurl rocks at them of shred their fashion sense, we just want to get our point across and hopefully make change. Even the workers who do not believe there are sweatshops, seem to respect us for our diligence.

    I was very pleased to talk with some more people today who wanted to get details, find out more or even try to trip us up. After three days of seeing the same guy with the cup of Starbucks coffee in his hand, today he held an unlabeled, hot cup of small business java. This is the kind of awareness I had hoped for and while these are seemingly small steps, there are a lot more of them every day.

    We were told we had to consolidate our encampment to the area of one rug so that the sidewalk could be cleaned. The city told us that we could not lean banners or signs on trees or other city property because it would look like the city was taking a side. We had little choice but to oblige, our numbers weren't great enough to refuse and by ten AM, I was alone. I was alone until two in the afternoon when a fellow relieved me, until then, I sat and drew, talked with workers and passerbys and enjoyed part of a container of Health bars that a delivery guy gave me on his way into the GAP to show his support.

    Tomorrow I hope to have new flyers to give to interested workers with more information and ways that they can help from the inside. Until then, au revoir.

October fifth, two thousand.

    Well, here we are at day five!

    Many things were talked about last night when I arrived, there will be a workshop tonight to make calls and more signs. Tomorrow there will be a musical jam session and the day after that a scavenger hunt. Whoever gets Donald Fisher, (owner of GAP, Banana Republic and Old Navy) to sign a contract saying he will work in sweatshop conditions himself, wins.  I will be making new flyers with fresh propaganda. We talked a lot about checking our facts and keeping our statements clear, in a legalese culture, we must be careful to pay attention to detail. GAP employees love to try and find a technicality in our wording that will prove that they are guilt free. The trouble is, a lot of what the GAP does is legal because they make sweatshop workers sign away their rights before they can get a job but we aren't talking about what is legal, we're talking about how human beings should be treated. There was a man I had never seen before who was with us last night who was taking notes, in
hindsight, I guess he was a reporter. I hope he got something for his story. The night was uneventful though we received more shadow pastry deliveries from supporters. There were six of us.

    When we woke up there were four. A GAP employee asked us to again shrink our camp as we were blocking the sidewalk, we did this but only during the daylight hours. The man I believe was a reporter was not around, I assume he went home to bed after we went to sleep. This morning I felt less of a need to actively talk to every worker that went by, many are now coming to us to get our newest flyer. I put together a packet of info and sat on one of our carpets saying, "Getch yer GAP gossip! Delicious morsels of juicy gossip!"  This doesn't usually get anyone to come over and check out a flyer but it does make the smile secretly as they pretend to stalk by. Seeing the same, unsmiling faces everyday starts to get to me and occasionally I just have to say, "smile, enjoy your day!"

    I am continually surprised by how uniform every one looks, I should be over it but it keeps getting to me. Everyone wears the same clothes, drinks the same cup of Starbucks coffee and has the same unhappy expression on their faces. The women are Barbie dolls, the men are Ken. We joke that there must be some kind of clause that says worker may not work after the age of twenty-five. The women wear a thick layer of make up and the men wear muscle shirts and dot com bags with cell phone pouches and alt scene, thick-rimmed, glasses.

    No one seems to like their job, or at least the part of coming to work.  Many act as though it's us depressing them but I see lines etched into their mouths that have been there for months. So, every day, I go at them with the biggest smile I can and mean it, I do my best to get them to smile back though it seems that many of their mouths are not used to it. I can almost hear the squeak of rusty metal.

    Today I had to leave at ten and so I left my partner all alone as I had been the day before, hoping that she would be relieved soon and the vigil would continue on.

    Until tomorrow, please smile.

    October sixth, two thousand.

    Our numbers are once again growing and this morning, The New York Times listed GAP sales as being down another 8%. Could it be that people care more about workers rights and redwood trees than about what clothes they wear?  Well, probably not yet, I'm sure that plummeting sale can be attributed to more than us. Tonight we are holding a press conference at ten PM talking about what we are doing here. There will be many musicians and funlovers out tonight along with the Anarchist marching band and singers.

    I plan to let other people take over doing this article soon, I am feeling a little tired. Six days with four hours of sleep is starting to take it's toll along with writing this article, making and printing flyers and going to work part time, I am missing out on a lot of reading. We handed out the new flyers today, I printed them last night at Kinko's Copies, standing there with no money, a pile of flyers and me being the only one in the store I thought; how the hell am I going to get out of this?  I ended up doing a little misdirection, then grabbed my stuff and skated away into the night where I then had to figure out how to sneak past two BART agents and a cop to get to SF. I was welcomed by my cohorts and showed them the new flyers which I had printed on 'Sea Spray,' one of the fancy papers which Kinko's provides for their customers. This morning I facetiously questioned peoples priorities by saying; "Check out our new flyer, it comes in a pretty new color!" I was surprised, this actually worked pretty well, a lot of times, people actually do care more appearance then content! (sarcasm) I think that this worked well for another reason; many people couldn't help but grin or chuckle. Laughter does a lot for the soul, it releases pent up fear and allows one to feel a little more human toward someone. If I make someone laugh, I am not this aggressive, protester shoving guilt in their face, I share a small amount of common ground with them and they feel just that much more at ease. It is daily process, we flyer with new tidbits, new brain food to chew on during their five minutes from us to their cubicle. I ran into something I did not expect today, there is the rumor going around GAP that we are being paid to do this, even that The GAP themselves might be paying us to do this. The curious thing for me is; people seem to find this easy to believe because 'why would anyone sleep on the street for free?' or do any of this for free?  Am I naive? Was I sleeping? Had I slept? I am always finding out things about the corporate world that astound me, I am so far removed from that mentality that I have a lot to learn about before I can truly understand why it is. I talked to a man today who said he knew about the sweatshops but said that GAP had been good to him and that was all that mattered.

    We have taken to calling this "the red bag phenomenon," the women who wear the most makeup and give us the worst looks and care the least, always seem to have a red bag or purse. There is the equivalent for the men but less obvious and more spread out, their buzzed cut hair, their pressed shirt and clean cut, strong jaw look, carries the same affect.

    In SF of all places, this GAP seems as segregated as on you might expect in Seattle, at least half of the employees are white and mostly blonde and dress from Banana Republic rather than Old Navy. Just watching workers coming in every day, one can see a huge class separation along racial lines. People in nicer clothes grin less and refuse to take flyers more, it feels like they are afraid of the paper we hold. It is my hope that these people do find something to think about besides the plummeting clothing sales and relax just a bit.

    Until tomorrow, breathe.

    October seventh, two thousand.

    Yes,! That's right, it is the end of the first week for us as of one PM today! This has really been a two year project for a lot of people, not just one week. Talking to people who have been here the whole time, I realize that this is the culmination of a lot of effort, from those who went to Tehuacan, Mexico, to those who have been making calls to the press. GAP sales have dropped somewhere around half, total, since this campaign began two years ago.

    We think that Drexler (CEO) and Fisher (chairman) are genuinely worried.  Times articles talk about 'bad sales strategy' and 'poor market', several mainstream media groups actually credit the public pressure campaign put on by Global Exchange and gapsucks.org.

    Last night we had a meeting about holding a press conference, we agreed that today was a good day but we want to do a big one on Wednesday. The group was larger and people were excited, the feeling that this may be the 'nail in the coffin' for GAP Inc. is appealing. We covered parts of the sidewalk with chalk drawings and slogans, new banners were made and Donald Fisher's visage is becoming a recognized symbol for the GAP. There is finally a face to put on the monolithic structure of this corporation and people feel more like there is a centering point for their energy. To attack a corporation feels overwhelming, what do you attack? The building? The workers? The system as a whole?!? Fisher's face represents that the corporation is not all powerful or a juggernaut, there is a man behind it who is responsible for his actions, even when he orders others to carry them out.

    A member of the vigil claimed to have seen him coming out of the GAP HQ and when he questioned, "Are you Donald Fisher?", he denied that he was. Is he feeling guilty or just afraid he will be ripped apart by peaceful protesters?

    GAP security called the police on us today for having our blankets and rugs too close to their doorway and therefore obstructing the sidewalk. We talked to the officer, letting him know we didn't feel it was necessary to came out because we would have been able to talk with the security guard just as well. The officer told the security guard to came talk to us next time he had a problem, before calling the police.

    We have not heard any thing from GAP officials yet about their responds to our demands. This is expected, GAP will have to lose several more percentage points before they will really take us seriously but I don't think it will be another two years. At this rate, they can't afford it. I look foreword to talking to employees again on Monday, we have a whole slew of new flyers which question directly the propaganda that GAP has been handing them.

    Until I write tomorrow, it will be a new day, new flyer.

Subject: The GAP action, day 8

    A vigil like this can be very powerful as an inspiration, the energy is so positive and the action make one feel very good. All around are people trying to make a difference in other people's lives, the power of love that we all thought the sixties would bring about forever, that high water mark that Hunter Thompson talks about. When going up to a shielded GAP worker with a smile on your face, pervading exuberance, you see that shield waver and if you say just the right thing, you see them smile. This is what keeps people going out there.  However, we tend to forget, in all our giving of warmth, that we are all human, made up of equal parts positive and negative, atom for atom. Not everyone agrees on everything and not everyone communicates perfectly, two old bulls may butt heads if put in the same herd. In this case, I see it as the young bull challenging the older one. Activists who have dedicated their life to it, often have an ego to protect and a set way to believe. It's almost required of a hard-core activist to be stubbornly set in their ways, how else would they be able to unconditionally stand up for what they believe in. This leads to a solid belief that whatever one does is absolutely right, don't get me wrong, most activists are always looking to better themselves and will do a lot to accede to the beliefs of others but will usually go through a long debate to get there. What happens when you have two who believe that their way is right but have two different ways? Well, there is the consensus process, this mediates these problems-usually. Activists argue strangely, whenever I witness this phenomenon, I think that it's strange, using lingo and political correct terminology, they never raise their voices, this is a sign of weakness. When observing activists in their natural habitat, one who is astute, becomes aware of the subtle nuances of this strange and wonderful, foreign culture.

    What am I blabbing about? And shouldn't this be in the opinion section?  Yes, It should be, I suppose, but journalism is considered news and this is my journal. As to what I am talking about; last night, there was a squabble stemming from history between two very active, activists. I am telling you about this to illustrate, (1) It is not all fun and free love on the front lines, (2) I will be as unbiased in my articles as I can possibly be. You will get no censored events in my column or tactful insinuation, we are all human, on both sides of this debate-even Donald Fisher, though I'm still working on that one.

    Yesterday around four o'clock, the news finally came and Channel Four filmed us doing what we do best-orate. We have another news day scheduled on Wednesday with games and skits. Last night we talked extensively about how to theme the games and what to do in our skits, we came up with many variations on old favorites. Our company was large but dispersed one by one, by the time it was time to go to sleep there was only myself and one other person. This is the smallest the vigil has ever been, may it never fall below one.

    This morning, I slept far longer than I've been able to sleep since the beginning of the vigil. I was glorious, I slept until ten, through all the traffic noise of a motorcyclist convention. When I finally awoke, there were three people there and I was renewed that the vigil would maintain. On the topic of rest; I will not be doing this article tomorrow and, unfortunately, will not be able to greet the GAP workers tomorrow with my fresh new batch of flyers. I will get someone to stand in as writer for tomorrow, I am eager to find out what happens.

Street update
October Ten, Two Thousand.

    Greed.  Money is a very strong incentive for most people, they say everyone has their price. Could you do something that you detested intensely but continue because the money was too good to pass up? Greed is a driving force. What drives greed? Could Donald Fisher hate what he is doing enough to be sick with it? If so could he decide to change--willingly? Maybe he justifies all of it in the name of taking care of his family. Maybe he believes he makes up for it by giving millions away in, tax-deductible, donations. What say you, Don?

    A woman came up to our group of seven last night and said she thought we were doing a wonderful job she continued by furtively dropping hints that she worked for the GAP but was afraid to be seen talking to us. She eyed the camera across the street that supposedly films us day and night, though we see no standby light on anymore and suspect it is a wooden owl placed to keep the pigeons at bay. She talked about how she was not well liked at the company already for speaking her mind. I find myself torn between giving further details about this woman in the interest of news, or protecting her from being fired should GAP read this article--and if they are responsible, they do. I know this; if she was fired tomorrow for something that GAP read here, she would have the entire anti-GAP movement behind her. Even if she was fired for something as hard to deny as "job performance," everyone would know the real reason she was fired. There for I have convinced myself that it is the right thing to report the news as I witnessed it. She claimed to have spoken directly to Donald Fisher about her beliefs that GAP was being irresponsible and wrong in their dealings with sweatshops, and that someone had to stand up and say it. She wanted to get away from the window while talking to us, she did not want to be seen by any of the GAP employees conversing with us, even though the only ones around were the night watchmen who have the boring task of watching us sleep all night. She made it clear that she wanted to help us out but was afraid of the repercussions and so would not sign our petition unless she could remain anonymous. It was also clear that she was not the only employee who felt this way.

    The rain makes one introspective. I cannot say that as a fact, I know it to be true in me but I have never read anything to back it up. Nevertheless, the rain makes one introspective, one contemplates his or her role in their would or immediate environment. One of the greatest tests of will for an individual is to see if they believe in anything enough to sleep out in the rain for it. Four such hardy fools did just that last night, myself included, and came out with mood dampered but resolve hardened. Too bad the cops want to arrest us for tarping our food and bed clothes. That's right, I got a message tonight, after I left the vigil at nine, that there were threats of arrest. I have no details at this point so I cannot give you more--or even speculation, but I will get the details as soon as I can and write another piece.

    Needless to say, there are activists jumping to help prevent catastrophe and I expect to hear that some may have been arrested. Tomorrow, I will be taking another break from this article, I will try again to get a stand-in. I will return on day twelve if I have not, myself, been arrested.

Studying the natives
Day 9

    The natives are restless. We seem to be starting communications with some of them. We've been studying closely their strange customs. There seems to be some phenomenon with the angriest of the female species carrying red bags. What they are carrying we do not know. They also seem to be on schedule entering and exiting what seems to be their holy place. Usually the morning is started off by lower class workers (perhaps slaves) bringing offerings of baked goods. Since we do not speak their language, we do not yet know what goes on inside. They seem to honor conformity above all else for they all don the same strange ceremonial dress. We hope we will soon be considered safe. It has been difficult winning their trust. The lower class seems to be the only ones using tools. We have seen their chief or leader only once. Before the large main dwelling they must salute or pay homage of some sort by showing the guards some kind of flat religious relic with writing and an image on it. We have been here 9 days but have just begun to understand these strange and fascinating creatures.

Studying the natives
There was much rain last night and our camp was soaked. We should have made more provisions for this different climate. In most species the lower class seems to do most of the work but here it seems there is a middle working class for they're pouring in and out in a steady stream like worker ants from the anthole. Maybe they are carrying back food in the red bags. But I also think not, because of the females - they seem to be the most malnourished. Maybe that's why they are so angry, they have to bring food back for someone else and get little of it themselves. We have propped up an image of hteir leader trying to fool them but it has not worked. This is the first sign of intelligence. Yesterday they offered us some kind of tokens of edibles but we could not accept them because we did not know what significance they had. The weather is cold but the rain seems to be gone. Today we mostly cleared camp and studied more than interacting with the natives. They are very strange indeed.

More ways for GAP to make money

    October Twelfth, Two Thousand

    Positivity.

    That is the best word I can use to describe the events of the last two days. Quick catch up. First I would like to say that this is all from source as I was unable to be at the vigil when this happened.  Yesterday, around three o'clock, GAP called the police to come and issue citations to persons sleeping at the vigil for laws pertaining to vagrancy.  As it happened, whether deliberate on the GAP's part or just by chance, there was only one person there at vigil at the time. The police told this person that protesters needed to remove all bedding and food from the premises and had one hour to do so and had better start calling some people.

    What happened next was beautiful. This lone person made a frantic call out to friends and activists to come to the vigil's aid immediately. Within the half hour there were ten people there, phonebanking on cell phones. Media arrived and did interviews. The instantaneousness that support arrived was powerful. The word came down that we were breaking vagrancy laws and had to disband sleeping in front of GAP Headquarters at One Harrison in San Francisco California and that we had to remove all bedding and foodstuffs.  This was not taking away our first amendment right because we were still allowed to have signs but the police were called because, GAP employee's felt "uncomfortable" with us handing out flyers to them every morning.

    I must throw in my personal opinion at this point.  I believe GAP was hoping that the rain would chase us away. It was not worth the bad publicity to kick us out if we were just going to be chased off by the rain. Well, we weren't chased off by the rain and this struck home that maybe we were serious about this and weren't just going to go away.  They had to take steps.

    I arrived the afternoon of the eleventh at five sharp, the time that our Olympic events were supposed to start. I was disappointed and had very little information about what had occurred during the last fifteen hours. There were only four people there when I arrived and ten police officers. The dark clouds above felt oppressive and my mood was severely dampened. Those who had organized were doing their best to pep the rally up, shouting chants and statements, but as there were only two doing it, it wasn't very effective. A musician came who had trouble staying as anonymous as he would have liked and slowly people started to come together. By seven we were fairly strong with ten people and many police starting to leave. The musician played and sung songs of repair to the Earth and everyone took a turn on the Bull horn. I wore a Donald Fisher costume and told GAP workers to "Go ahead and make me some more money!"

    By dark there were fifteen people there and no police. The police went home realizing we were not a violent threat but left behind their barricades which we promptly used to hang signs on. We had a consensus meeting about where the vigil was going. Many were worried that it might just fizzle out.  The meeting progressed and gradually the mood got brighter, people said with conviction that they were dedicated to keeping it going or at least going out with a bang. No one knew if we were going to sleep there or how; if we did but by nine, there were eight people still there, willing to spend the night.  I got a brief guitar lesson and we danced, inviting GAP security to join us.  We caroused until very late and had to few sleeping bags for the number of people we had but we made it through by sleeping in shifts, out of the camera's view (GAP turned it back on). I woke up sore but cheerful, seeing many people who hadn't been to the vigil in days were there now. The five of us who were left started flyering the first wave of employee's immediately with more new flyers depicting Donald Fisher feeding GAP Inc. money to a two headed creature with an elephant head and a donkey head.

    By the second wave we were starting to have a lot of fun, saying our spiel and debating with those who had heard different info from GAP.  Speaking with employee's one realizes that there isn't anyone who truly, in their core, does not want to take a flyer or hear what you have to say, it's all about the introduction. Those who don't want a flyer because of the paper may go to a web page and read about it there. Each of us has a target employee, we never decided that every member of the vigil should do this, we just, each, saw that one person who stood out in the stream as someone especially unhappy or unwilling to talk with us.  Someone who would sneer or walk past with a tight frown or would narrow their eyes at us. This person we would try especially hard to get to, to find out what is behind their anger or unhappiness. My target person is a very upset black woman who gives us the dirtiest looks. I believe she is in a position of great power at GAP and I find that I have to understand where she is coming from. She, as a minority and a woman, has worked with the system to get equality for herself and now that she is at the top, she is fighting the idea that GAP may not be the best place to get it.

    By the third wave we stopped handing out flyers and just sang and danced, asking employee's to just smile and have a good day.  Myself and two others greeted workers coming off the bus with a serenade and a dance routine and received many grins. I left today to write this article and found myself not wanting to leave the group hugs and positivity. On the way home I overheard a couple of elderly women on the BART talking about the GAP vigil and what they had heard on the news about it and I felt like everything was going to get stronger.

Mary Bull's update

About an hour after Scot left at 6:30 AM, Susan and an activist/guitarist (sorry I didn't get his name!) came and sang Union songs to the arriving employees--it was just terrific!--I joined them at about 8 AM for the singing. After they left, Mark came with our huge blow-up of a Fisher Family Clearcut--which really engaged the employees. We completely cleaned up and refurbished the site. We made a sign inviting all Gap employees to a Happy Hour on Weds after work to discuss the issues (Austin's terrific idea!), and we verbally volunteered to buy the first pitcher of beer--many receptive employees! We were then joined by Redwood Mary whose charges for the June 10 Gap sit-in had just been dismissed (TEFLON MARY strikes again--nothing ever sticks!), the sun came out, and we had a grand old time--laughing and engaging the employees and passers-by, many of whom wanted to know more about the photo-collage and blow-up of Fisher logging practices (R-M is going to make a photo-collage on the sweatshop issue, as well, because it is so effective)! Jonah arrived, and shortly after so did Captain Paras--he was definitely into playing the corporate lackey, telling us to remove the few remaining signs that we had attached to trees and poles--but by the time Mark and Jonah had finished talking with him, he was softening toward People and Planet (we were allowed to LEAN our signs and Don Fisher puppet on trees and poles, but not ATTACH them) -- and our vigil site looked better than ever!

Street Update:  October fourteenth, Two Thousand

    We can once again sleep in front of the GAP HQ legally. Legal research was done and it was approved by a Lieutenant of the SFPD. Essentially, we will be allowed to sleep in front of GAP, but not as a large group so as not to look like an encampment.

    This was the news I got arriving at the vigil last night. After days of being here, the vigil is really starting to feel like a second home--one I am at home a lot more often. Someone said, early on, that the most important thing we are building here is a community, even if nothing comes of this vigil, we have started a powerful group that will come together on issues in the future. I think this is right. I was feeling tired and a little down but I had only to be in the company of these dedicated people, many of whom I had not met before the vigil, to feel better. The energy here is so welcoming.

    Last night there were five besides myself. We stayed up talking politics and playing hacky-sac, exchanging life stories and hometown histories.  Conversations like these keep you healthy. At around one thirty or two in the morning a couple of guys with southern accents and a girl who didn't talk much, parked in front of the vigil and asked "what this was about" and wanted to know if they could hang out with us for a while and discuss it. We happily invited them to do so, starting by answering their questions about what we were doing and what was going on. Both of the guys seemed receptive but the woman was closed and would not openly discuss with us. I didn't catch much of her comments, which she gave exclusively from inside the car with her window rolled nearly to the top. After about fifteen minutes she got out of the car and went home, leaving her friends to continue the conversation with us without her. The two men we met last night were very different in character, one was immediately open to listening and engaging and he came out and sat on the car hood. The other was less open to discuss but had valid issues in asking us for more hard evidence. He stayed inside the car. It didn't take long to realize that all three in the car were GAP employees come to check us out and hear us out. What the first guy kept saying is, "this is your chance to try and convince me" and so we debated for two and a half hours total with the two of them. At first I had a better time connecting with the first guy, who wore a GAP hat and was leaning on the hood of his car. It was harder to find common ground with the second, who wore little round glasses and stayed inside. They were both young, not more than twenty-five and came from Texas.  The one wearing the GAP hat intended to vote Gore while the one in the car was voting Bush. We told them both that everyone in the group was unanimously voting Nader and GAP hat thought we were silly but was open to hearing why. I mostly talked to GAP hat at first while others talked to The one in the car.  We talked about things ranging from sweatshop conditions and redwood deforestation to our childhood and highschool. We seemed to agree that it was wrong to make money on the suffering of others but he didn't believe that we could do anything by sitting on the sidewalk, protesting. He brought up a good point about displacing workers now as GAP sales dropped in the meantime until GAP changed it's practices and we discussed making life better for the children of the workers who are working today. Essentially, he believed that as GAP sales dropped, they would require less units from factories and workers would be laid off. We talked about if GAP changed their vendor code of conduct so that workers could work safely and be paid a living wage, the workers today would not reap these benefits but their children would. I don't even believe this to be necessarily so, I don't think it would take an entire generation to reform these factories, I believe these worker could have better living conditions, a safer workplace and a living wage in a year or two. But it will take someone with more business science then I to answer this question with any assurity.

    At some point the conversations switched, with me talking with the guy in the car and most of the group talking with the first guy who had at this point walked into the middle of our group and was debating pleasantly. I talked with the guy in the car about homelessness. He had done a study in collage where he had given ten different homeless people a twenty dollar bill and seven of them had gone straight for a liquor store. He had taken this to mean that homeless people weren't even trying to get a better situation and that society shouldn't support boozers. This was a long conversation, I had to go deep into the homeless condition to explain where this was coming from, from personal experience of being homeless. He seemed like he really had a big heart for people in that situation but felt disgusted when he gave them 'hard earned money' so they could go use it for liquor. I ended up suggesting that he give his money to a shelter or soup kitchen instead he said it was a spur of the moment thing and he would just randomly give money to a person on the street but that it wouldn't come up that he was randomly at a soup kitchen.

    After this we got deeper, we talked about white privilege in this country and materialism. He seemed to thoroughly believe that collecting stuff would make him happy and that he was. I talked about living at ones means without overextending ones means. The conversation, I felt, got well into both our psyche's and I felt richer for it. Someone at the vigil said, after they had left, that it was good to get into a deep debate with someone you don't agree with to keep yourself sharp and prevent staleness. We left the conversation feeling like we had informed but not converted, GAP hat believed that sweatshops existed but thought it was worse to change them and the guy in the car didn't believe they existed but if he knew for sure he would adjust his point of view of the GAP. When first we felt that the guy in the GAP hat was more open and that the guy in the car was closed, we realized by the end of the conversation that the guy in the car had a taller 'wall' but it was thinner.

    It was near morning and none of us had slept, all of us feeling jazzed from the debate when an older guy with a guitar came over and told us he was down with what we were doing. He stood there and he smoked a jay, telling us about his childhood in Louisiana. He broke out his Guitar, a girl broke out her drum and the rest of us clapped while he sang an upbeat blues number and told us a story about how a whale had beached it's self in front of his boardwalk home on Venice beach. The drum rhythm was soft and soothing and dawn chased away night. The guy with the guitar had to get to work early but he said he would come back and visit. You just don't get this kind of stimulation anywhere else.

Power to the People-Close the Gap

    Today, Saturday October 14th, was Day 14 of the 24-hour a day occupation/vigil we concerned people of the world have been holding in front of the GAP Inc. headquarters.  I just got home from a straight 20-hour shift at the vigil and my body is still readjusting to being back in a warm box, with a toothbrush, a shower, a refrigerator, microwave, and bed.  But I did not come home (from my home away from home) to stop fighting for our cause. I must continue my work here in my house and keep it going so that those still there can soon expect reinforcements and much needed fresh energy. I must do this because the souls who brave the harsh winds, closed minds, hard concrete, and little sleep are true heroes in my mind.  They, like me, understand that privileges like warm running water, plenty of food to eat, and adequate clothing to be well dressed and warm are things that cannot be taken for granted.  We understand that these are privileges not enjoyed by all.  That overseas and even in our own country there are millions of people who are slaves to the corporate industries and big businesses that pay them a pittance and are solely concerned with profits.

    I have spent 3 nights on the streets to show that I do not need all of my comforts and conveniences and that I will sacrifice them if it in any way can help my fellow people who do not have the opportunity to get basic things such as food, clothes, and shelter.  These people work in sweatshops and for their long hours (10-14 hour days), backbreaking work, and endless sweat they receive less money than they need for these three basic things.  Executives, board members, CEO's, and stock holders take home huge amounts of cash and spend ridiculous amounts of money but they do not lift a finger or do any of the exhausting physical labor.
 This way in which our funds are distributed is completely unequal and unfair.  This destroys families and the social fabric of the countries that are being exploited.  It also sets examples of greed and gluttony in our own backyard.  These filthy rich people have somehow got it in their heads that they deserve these enormous salaries.  A man like Donald Fisher, Chairman of the Board of Directors of GAP Inc. makes 8.4 million dollars a year. If he gave up 6 million dollars of his salary, 3000 workers in Mexico could be making a living wage.  But GAP executives like him self do not want to share equally or fairly the 1.1 billion in profits GAP Inc. (which includes Old Navy and Banana Republic) made last year.  It's really quite simple, these rich folks just keep getting richer and all the rest of us, who are the majority (80% of us in America) keep getting poorer.  Middle class and poor class people in America have seen their pay rates fall behind inflation (5.75 minimum wage for example) and we have the lowest spending power we have had in decades.  All this occurs while it does not occur to us to try and unite and make a change that will create an economy for the masses, and not just the wealthy minority who is currently the sole beneficiary of the way our government is run.

    And so, we protestors have chosen the GAP Inc. as our target and as a model citizen for corporations that exploit people and the environment and show no respect for either.  This behavior is causing a wide array of social and environmental problems.

    The social problems include cutthroat competition amongst the bottom feeders who the rich pit against each other.  We have kids growing up seeing people who own yachts, limos, Sports teams, mansions, airplanes, and property all over the world.  They become full of dreams of this kind of exorbitant and excessive spending and ownership.  Kids see material items such as jewelry, big fancy cars, and expensive clothes as important symbols of success.  It also creates people who feel that greed is the American way and that there is nothing wrong in acting solely in the interest of profits.  They say that it's the norm and that good business is based on the biggest possible profit.  It gives people the false illusion that they can become millionaires if they play their cards right and work hard enough.  American capitalism has created a culture that is generally selfish and separated and that lacks a soul.

    The environmental problems tie in with this directly because this type of material drive and consumer based lifestyle is causing enormous amounts of pollution and degradation.  This mass production is eliminating all our precious resources.  Factories are producing synthetic and chemically treated products that cause the contamination of the air and water we need to survive.  These booming industries are producing goods at a rate that the earth cannot handle and therefore its' natural cycle remains uncompleted.  We cannot expect plastics, stiro-foam, and other unnatural products to be absorbed by the earth and this is causing huge piles of waste and sewage to build up.  Urban environments that are based on industry are plagued with smog (on some days you are advised not to go outside because air is so unclean), traffic jams, contaminated or insufficient water supplies, and decaying buildings.  While those who are benefiting greatly from the boom in these environmentally unfriendly industries are moving to the suburbs and paving over land we need for farming.  They are buying extremely expensive homes in gated communities while the average worker cannot afford to pay rent in a city like San Francisco.  All this because we continue to watch as corporations get away with murder.  They kill our souls by overworking us, and by not giving us enough time with our families.  They kill our earth by letting their factories pollute and contaminate everything.

    So when will all this stop and how will the movement grow?  It will start with things like this GAP Vigil/ 24-hour camp out.  It will grow with dedicated individuals who are willing to sacrifice for a change they believe in, a change we desperately need.  All of these causes and issues are connected and related, so we have to come together and fight the powers that be one by one and day by day.  So come down to Embarcadero and Harrison to meet all the amazing individuals who give some of their time.  An injustice done to these workers and to this world is just the same as an injustice and wrong done to all of us because it affects all and we are all one.  Join us in demanding that these workers at GAP sweatshops be given a living wage and in demanding that Donald Fisher stop cutting down our ancient redwood forests (which he is currently cutting down on the 235,000 acres of redwoods that the Fisher family owns in Mendocino and Sonoma Counties).  Bring with you your instruments and make music with the musicians who are already there singing, free styling and playing guitar and drums.  Come chant with us, distribute facts about the Gap Incorporated and come be a part of our disturbance, our righteous presence, and our resistance to all of this corporate domination, which has to end, which we have to end.

October sixteenth, Two Thousand.

    Harassment and miscommunication.

    The fifteenth, four forty in the morning, I was awaken by the flashlight of a policeman. "Got too comfy, feel asleep did you?" he roused me and told me that if we were caught sleeping again we would get a citation. We told the two officers that were there that we had been told that day that we would be allowed to sleep here without harassment, he told me everything changes, nothing lasts forever. I showed him a clip board containing notes about what we had been told and the names and badge numbers of those who had told us.  The officer who had told us we could sleep here was a woman, He laughed, recognizing the name. I picked up that he did not respect her.  Incidentally this officer was white, short cropped blonde hair and the barely restrained testosterone that make cops look bad in the eyes of the public. I guess what I am talking about is white privilege and where it does the most harm. It is unfortunate that there can be such clear distinctions, based on race or age but I have talked with a lot of police and he was the type I see too often, a look in his eyes that says he is in total control and you better not step out of line cause he's just waiting to do what he does best. I can't make such generalities about other ethnicities, I can't say that an Asian cop of the age of fifty or a black cop of twenty-five will act one way or another. Only young, white cops seem to fit so snugly in their pigeon holes. I have never understood the cookie cutter mentality but it seems very pervasive with this type. I guess that's why you can spot the 'type.'

    We ended up sleeping in shifts but were unmolested the rest of the night.  The next morning was Saturday and there is really not much news on Saturday usually. There was no news this Saturday.

    Saturday night, I arrived late, around eleven thirty. There were few people there, only four and there was not much activity. Around one, someone had to go home and we were left with three, myself included. I expected a night about like last, possible harassment but not much else to write about.  I was right but the harassment was quite a bit to write about. It was a typical situation, three protesters, four officers, two squad cars. I had been awake when they arrived, led by the same type of young officer with short blonde hair, but was unable to wake the others before they had us flanked. The officer with the blonde hair roused first one, then the next of my cohorts with a stern, authoritative voice, shining his flashlight in their eyes. The first thing he wanted was the ID of the last person he awoke, when the tired protester asked why he set his jaw and said he was going site the protester for sleeping.

    I once read the entire LAMC and PC when I was in Hollywood, particularly paying attention to the laws regarding vagrancy, and though law is not a subject that sticks particularly well for me, I do remember that a citation may not be given unless a warning has been issued during the same sleep period. This is not LA, it's SF but I expect the law is not too dissimilar. I put this to the officer, saying that he might want to check that before he wrote the ticket. He was offended that I questioned his authority and argued that he didn't need to check, he knew the law here.

    I told any officer in earshot that I thought that the police worked for the people and that they did not solely protect the interests of the corporations, he made a joke about his badge saying GAP police. I questioned the feasibility of enforcing a law against the homeless saying that there always were going to be homeless and that citing them did nothing. This is not quite true; citing them makes them go to court for the citation or risk a bench warrant, many miss their court date and end up with such a warrant, when they are stopped again, they are brought in.

    So I talked to another officer and got the 'good cop, bad cop' routine from him. "I think what you guys are doing is beautiful, all you got to do is follow two simple rules; no leaning anything against city or GAP property, no sleeping." This is actually a highly effective way to whittle away our night time vigil, make it as uncomfortable as possible and the protesters go away.  It may actually work for some but there a lot of dedicated people out here.  This morning, the two of us who were left, were dead tired. Police had been by every hour, checking to see if we were asleep. We had little enthusiasm until later in the morning. I talked with someone who did contract work for the GAP who was very interested in finding out about what happens in sweatshops and I gave him a packet of info and a couple of web sites to check out. I started to feel more into to it by midmorning and simply stood, greeting everyone in a friendly way. I am still surprised at how few people smile.

    Later that morning, we brought out a huge redwood stump to bring it home to the GAP workers what the kind of destruction looks like along with full color pictures of clearcuts.

    I have since heard that there was a meeting with the police chief of that district and it went well, I don't yet have details but I hear that police officials were unhappy to hear about the citation and there may have been miscommunication.