Buy Nothing Day
Greetings, Gaptivists, Buy-Nothing-Day Organizers, and All Concerned!
Buy Nothing Day is the 2nd Anniversary of the Gap Boycott! So, we--many of the activists who are participating in the various Gap Campaigns--Save the Redwoods - Boycott the Gap, the Gap Sweatshop Campaign (Global Exchange, et al), the Gap Vigil (STARC, et al)--intend to participate BIG TIME in Buy Nothing Day!!! I want to describe to you the VERY FUN, POWERFUL ACTION we propose, but first would like to encourage you to make Gap, Inc a special focus on Buy Nothing Day and throughout the Holiday shopping season...
Though there are many worthy corporate retail targets for Buy Nothing Day, Gap, Inc.--the largest clothing retailer in the US--has special standing among the Corporate Exploiters of the World, as its founders and major shareholders, San Francisco's own Fisher family, are destroying 350 square miles of redwood forestland as well as exploiting thousands of desperately poor people, just to increase their bottomline! In addition, Don Fisher helped draft the GATT, NAFTA, and WTO textile rules that paved the way for the proliferation of sweatshops world-wide.
There's another important reason for making Gap Inc. a special focus on Buy Nothing Day and throughout the holiday season: WE ARE VERY CLOSE TO WINNING THIS ONE: Gap stock prices have been plummeting -- down 50% since April -- and September same-store sales were down an average 8% from last year (double-digit decrease for Old Slavy). Many people are saying that it's the Boycott. From our inside sources, we have heard that the Fishers themselves have admitted that the Boycott is affecting profits -- and that they are "unraveled." If we ESCALATE NOW -- if we MAXIMIZE PRESSURE THIS HOLIDAY SHOPPING SEASON -- we believe the Fishers will put their ravaged forestland into a conservation land trust and pay their workers a living wage! It will be an UNPRECEDENTED VICTORY for People and Planet Over Corporate Exploitation--and it will be a profound WAKE-UP CALL to all the others! PLEASE HELP MAKE THIS HAPPEN!!!
When we kicked off the Gap Boycott on Buy Nothing Day, November 26, 1998, there were solidarity actions in 40 cities across the US, including Alaska and Hawaii. (Since then, we've had Gap actions has far away as Amsterdam, and our UK network has been growing!) We'd like an even bigger SHOW of FORCE this year -- 100 Solidarity Action, great or small! -- and already, activists are committing!
See below for details regarding the San Francisco BND Gap Action and
contact info for the organizers of solidarity actions happening elsewhere! Please let us
know what SOLIDARITY GAP ACTIONS **you** plan between now and the end of January (post
holiday sales are huge money-makers for retailers) and we will post them here!
BE PART OF THIS VICTORY!!!
Let us post ***your*** Holiday Action here (email to chalicenew@earthlink.net
)!!!