Save the Redwoods/Boycott the Gap
March 16 Newsletter
Posted by Mary Bull (chalicenew@earthlink.net)
Tuesday, March 16, 1999
Greetings Forest Defenders and Human Rights Activists Across the Land!
In this newsletter...
--Internat'l Home Depot Demo: Call to Action! (3/17)
--THP Reconnaissance in Mendocino: Report (WOW!!!)
--National GAP Joint-Protest: Human Rights Campaign Kickoff!: Report
--Victory Against CDF and P-L in Superior Court: Report (YES!!!)
--Gap Job Fair Demo, SF: Report!
--MRC's Recent Mass Mailing
--Upcoming Events: Redwoods Benefit, Peace Training!
Internat'l Home Depot Demo. Tomorrow, Weds. MAR 17!
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In the Bay Area, we have two options for protesting Home Depot's major role in the destruction of old growth forests:
1.) Meet at the RAN office at 9:15 AM (bring a car if possible). From there, we will be briefed and dispatched in car pools to various Home Depots in the Bay Area. You choose your level of participation: leafletting outside, inside, and more... ;-). 221 Pine Street, Ste. 500 (Downtown)
2.) Big Demo at El Cerrito Store. 4:30 PM. El Cerrito (East Bay). 11939 San Pablo Avenue. From the City, Berkeley, Oakland: Take 80 north to Potrero Ave and hang a left at San Pablo. Also near BART!
Contact Liz at 202-547-9098/ lizb@americanlands.org or Patrick at 1-800-989-RAIN/ rags@ran.org for the DEMO IN YOUR TOWN!
DON'T FORGET: HOME DEPOT SELLS MRC (Fisher family) REDWOOD!
THP RECONNAISSANCE IN MENDOCINO!
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Over the weekend, a group of Bay Area and Mendocino Forest Defenders performed a pre-harvest inspection (PHI) of a Fisher logging plan. This plan proposes to log most of the remaining old growth and mature second growth trees in this particular watershed.
THE OLD GROWTH WAS MAGNIFICENT!!!! Scores of spectacular old growth redwoods ranging in age from an estimated 150 to 600 years. One of the strips that the Fishers intend to clearcut contains approx. a dozen trees between 200 and 600 years of age... Environmentalists speculate that the steep slope on which much of the old growth is situated is what saved these trees from being logged earlier in the liquidation era.
From the team's pictures and preliminary reports, wildlife experts say that the THP area sounds like good marbled murrelet habitat (the team found two nests high up in redwood branches, but it has not yet been ascertained to what type of bird they belong). If the Fishers succeed with this plan, it will most likely be the end of the endangered fish and wildlife that rely on old growth forest in this watershed. So, hopefully we can block the plan from that angle! The reconnaissance team's data could be instrumental in making this happen: It has already been sent to the Fish and Wildlife Service!
THREE MIGHTY CHEERS FOR THE RECON TEAM!!!
PICS and reports will be posted at our web site soon! Be sure to look for them--YOU'LL REALIZE, AGAIN, WHAT WE'RE ALL FIGHTING FOR!!!
http://www.elksoft.com/gwa/photos
***For further info on the People's Pre-harvest Inspections, contact me! A GREAT time was had by all: Great unity, great bonding with each other--and with the forest... Mendocino activists treated the out-of-town activists to much wonderful hospitality, including room and board!****
NATIONAL GAP JOINT-PROTEST!!!
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March 6th marked the kick-off of the human rights campaign against Gap, Inc. for exploitation of needleworkers in Saipan!!! Over 15 cities participated, including big rallies on both coasts (300 in SF--including 16 arrests for civil disobedience)--and lots of media coverage!!!
We--environmentalists and human rights activists--have long wanted to create a united campaign against the Fishers of Gap, Inc. (whose deplorable track record with third-world labor preceded their liquidation logging in Mendocino). Now that the labor and human rights groups have filed their billion-dollar class-action suit against Gap (the biggest offender) and seventeen other clothing retail giants, we are free to form a united campaign--and that's what we have been doing!!!
The San Francisco and New York City demos were truly joint-protests, with the Wetlands Preserve (long-time Gap boycotters--RA!!!) co-organizing the rally in NY and a fairly good turn out of environmentalists, a prominent joint-issue banner, and good joint-issue coverage in SF! Still, there's work to be done educating labor and human rights activists about the redwood issue!
Chie Abad, the courageous Saipan worker who will be testifying before Congress in May, told me recently that she was going to start addressing the redwood issue as well as the labor issue in her speeches at subsequent demos (THANK YOU, CHIE!!!)
The next national joint-protest will be April 10th! Please contact us (415-731-7924/ chalicenew@earthlink.net) or Global Exchange (juliette@globalexchange.org /415-558-9486 x254) for info about the demo nearest you!!!
SUPERIOR COURT RULES AGAINST CDF AND PL!!!
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The Times Just Might Be A-Changin'--YES!!!
Last week, Humboldt Superior Court Judge Bruce Watson ordered CDF to RESCIND APPROVAL of two Pacific Lumber logging plans for failure to consider CUMULATIVE IMPACTS and the concerns of other agencies!!! Judge Watson royally upbraided CDF in the course of his remarks!
THREE OVER-THE-TOP-CHEERS FOR JUDGE WATSON
AND EVERYONE WHO HAS FOUGHT FOR
THE MATTOLE RIVER WATERSHED!!!
The SF Examiner reported: "The ruling could affect approval of other logging plans in areas where streams may be threatened by erosion..." That opens the door to the entire overlogged Redwood Coast!!!
LET IT BE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gap Job Fair Demo, Weds. MAR 10: Report!
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The Global Exchange people (human rights activists) disguised themselves as Gap recruiters in the Nikko hotel lobby in SF and handed out anti-Gap literature that looked pro-Gap on the surface. Very clever--got a lot of good feedback from job seekers on this technique! Meanwhile, the environmentalists held a joint-issue banner and leafletted in front of the entrance of the hotel. By 1:30, everything was quite dead, so we finished leafletting at the Gap flagship!
UNITED WE WILL STOP FISHER EXPLOITATION
OF WORKERS IN SAIPAN AND REDWOODS IN MENDOCINO!!!
MRC's MASS MAILING
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Mendocino Redwood, the company that manages the Fishers' logging operation, sent a mass *green-wash* mailing, apparently to everyone who signed the petition and included a legible address! We're really getting to them--HURRAY!!!
In the mailing, they say there are factual errors in the petition; then fail to point them out. They say that one of the THPs named in the petition is not theirs--we didn't say it was: The second half of the petition naming the THPs is addressed to CDF and begins "...Mendocino Redwood Company, Georgia Pacific, and others..."
Of course, Sandy Dean re-iterates the same old tired song-and-dance that MRC has no connection with the Gap. The fact that both companies are controlled by the Fishers doesn't seem to be a strong enough connection for Sandy Dean; however, it more than suffices for the rest of us--including the media, where the connection has been stated matter-of-factly time and again (most recently in Eric Brazil's article on the joint-action in the March 7 SF Examiner).
The remainder of the three-page mailing is their standard green-wash PR that's posted at their web site (such as their bogus "old growth policy," their proposition that clearcutting is a long-term restoration technique, and so on). Mary Pjerrou, President of the Redwood Coast Watersheds Alliance, has rebutted this propaganda both publicly on the radio with Sandy Dean--effectively silencing him on the air--and privately to many groups and individuals who have inquired. However, we'll probably post a formal rebuttal at the web site soon, as well as send it out to the entire online network!
In the meantime, if anyone needs reassurances or to talk through any of this MRC PR, please call or email us (415-731-7924 or 707-877-3405).
UPCOMING EVENTS!
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--Thu, March 18. 4:30--8:30. PEACE TRAINING. Greenwood Community Center, Elk. Elk is on Hwy 1 four miles south of the 128/Hwy 1 junction. The Sheriff's Department is cooperating and will have officers present to participate in this training.
Norman de Vall is providing sleeping bag space for out-of-town forest defenders who want to attend the training (707-877-3551). Other info: (707) 468-1660, the Mendocino Environmental Center.
--Sun. March 21. REDWOODS BENEFIT: Jazz, blues, poetry, art. Julia Butterfly via cell phone. Mendocino Grammar School, 44261 Little Lake Road, Mendocino. Doors open at 6:00 for the silent auction. Tickets at the door. Beverages and snacks. For more info, contact Mary Rose Kaczorowski, tel. (707) 937-0239, email: redwoodm@mcn.org; Mary Pjerrou, tel. (707) 877-3405, email: pirohuck@mcn.org.
The event will benefit the Plight of the Redwoods Tour (the Redwoods Tour met with such enthusiasm on the east coast in January, thatRedwood Mary is planning a return trip in April) and the Greenwood Watershed Association, a local environmental group that is working through restoration and litigation to save the last of the old growth redwoods in Greenwood Creek.
Enjoy an evening of jazz and blues with Rachel Benson, as well as performances by Annie Rose, Liz West, Martha Mbouquin, YoTeh-He, and Chris Skyhawk, poetry by ruth weiss, and a silent auction featuring artwork by Redwood Mary, Julia Butterfly Hill, and various fabulous services donated by the Community. Join artist Ellen Witherite in the creation of a giant community "Save the Redwoods" mandala that will be taken on the Plight of the Redwoods second east coast tour.
Julia Butterfly will speak at the event live via cell phone. On December 10th, 1997, Julia "Butterfly" Hill climbed 180 feet up an ancient redwood named "Luna" and has not come down. She is conducting her courageous vigil on behalf of one of the last wild places left in our country, the remaining 3% of our magnificent old growth redwood forests.
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Cheers and keep up!
Mary Bull
Save the Redwoods/Boycott the Gap Campaign, SF
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