Save the Redwoods/Boycott the Gap
Boycott the Gap: News!!! Actions!!! Events!!!
Posted by Mary Bull (chalicenew@earthlink.net)
Monday, January 31, 2000
Forest Defenders Across the Land!
As you can tell from the following line-up, we're going to nail EMPEROR
DAVIS, who--surprise, surprise--is NOT clothed in the fine feathers of
democracy, nor even the grey flannel suit of moderation that he touts ad
nauseum--RATHER, he wears the slimy skin of the COMPLETELY CORRUPT,
PEDDLER OF INFLUENCE--and we're going to expose him in it, again! and
again!! and again!!!! FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS:
-Jan 12: CA Board of Forestry Hearing: Report!
-Feb 9: The Next Sacto Action!!
-TBA--: The NEXT Sacto Action!!!
-Feb 5, L.A.***BIG GAP JOINT-ACTION: WE'RE STORMING L.A!!!***
-Forestry Reform Bill AB 717 PASSED: The Low Down!
-Other Important Actions and Events:
---Feb 2, 3. Days of Action for U'WA: Demos & Phone Campaign!!!
---Feb 5, Berkeley. Gap Demo!
---Feb 18, Berkeley. Benefit Concert for Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters!
---Feb 18: Deadline for Registering for Ruckus Action Camp, Arcadia, FL!
---Feb 22: Deadline for Comment to Congress on WTO!
---Mar TBA: BofF Hearing on Davis Rules Package/Public Comment Deadline!
---Mar 6: Deadline for Comment on Fed Plan to Exempt Coho+ from ESA!
---Apr 9--17, D.C. ****MASS PROTEST AGAINST THE IMF & WB!!!****
***Btw, 1,000 of our European comrades just gave the "World Economic Forum"-
1,000 "Captains of Industry" (Nike, Microsoft, Coca Cola...) and the
political hacks that serve them, including Bill Clinton and five members of
his illustrious cabinet--HELL at their meeting in Davos, Switzerland!!!
THREE CHEERS FOR OUR EUROPEAN COUNTERPARTS!!!!***
Jan 12: CA Board of Forestry Hearing: Report!
****************************************************
In his first year in office, Gray Davis has failed to keep his campaign
promise to ban the logging of old growth--instead, he's accepted a reported
$1 million in campaign contributions from the Timber Industry. Meanwhile,
the CA Dept. of Forestry (CDF) under his Director, Andrea Tuttle, continues
to approve one old-growth logging plan after another--or exempts them from
review altogether--prompting EPIC and the Campaign for Old Growth, a
coalition of environmental, social justice, and religious groups, including
SRBG and RCWA, to petition the BofF to consider emergency rules for
protecting old growth...
At the hearing, great testimony against the Fishers, CA Dept of Forestry
(CDF), et al, especially from the Mendocino/SRBG Block, occupying the second
row of the auditorium. We presented the Board with 20,000 signatures
demanding that CDF end liquidation logging in Mendocino County and asking
the Fishers put their overcut holdings in a conservation land trust.
At the rally, Kevin Danaher, co-director of Global Exchange (the human
rights group at the forefront of the anti-Gap sweatshop campaign), spoke
against Fisher deforestation, and our magnificent banner (showing Gray Davis
as the Grim Reaper carrying a big sack of money and trampling the Endangered
Species Act, Clean Water Act, etc.) and radiant Julia Butterfly (first
public appearance after descending from Luna) made the front page of the
national edition of the L.A Times (circulation > 1 million--I could kiss the
editor!) on Jan 13 . Mendo FD and former County Supe, Norman De Vall was
quoted in the Sacto Bee article (Jan 13), where our banner was again
pictured with Julia Butterfly.
The Board of Forestry's response to the old-growth petition was the usual
shuck 'n' jive the Public has come to expect from this pro-Timber Board:
1.) At the hearing, California Dept. of Forestry Director Andrea Tuttle said
that CDF should review exemptions for environmental impacts. Right--like
they do Timber Harvest Plans that contain old growth: review and approve
them! The solution here is not to have CDF do any more “reviewing.” The
solution is to abolish CDF.
This is the same CDF Director who told Mendocino County forest activists
last year that “CDF will not disapprove any timber harvest plans” (quote
unquote)—no matter how illegal, no matter how unsustainable, no matter that
there is hardly any old growth left in Mendocino, no matter that the Coho
salmon and the Marbled Murrelet are facing imminent extinction in this
county.
2.) Tuttle also said that if the State Parks Bond Measure doesn't pass it
will be a good indication that the Public doesn't care; to which several of
us shouted, "That's NOT what it would mean!" I'll explain that here for
Tuttle's benefit: Many of us weren't for the Hurwitz extortion/buy-out
either—does that mean we don't want to see Headwaters saved??? According to
Tuttle's myopic, self-serving logic it does. WHAT THE PUBLIC WANTS, ANDREA,
IS FOR CDF TO HAVE THE GUTS AND INTEGRITY TO DO ITS JOB: ENFORCE ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS, EARN YOUR KEEP— DON'T MAKE THE PUBLIC PAY TWICE FOR WHAT IS OURS IN THE FIRST PLACE!
3.) And of course, Tuttle is all for forming a committee to analyze the
situation (in fact she recommended that we take the 120 days we asked for
the old-growth logging moratorium and use them for analyzing the problem. To
which several of us shouted, "And in the meantime, you'll ban old-growth
logging, Andrea???" Surprise, surprise: no such luck).
They are going to “form a committee.” Ha, ha, ha. Big Timber has plenty of
well-paid lobbyists and lawyers to help the Board of Forestry write useless
rules for old growth, as they helped the Board write useless “sustainable
logging” rules in the mid-1990s. The result of those so-called “sustainable
logging” rules is that the major corporate landowners in Mendocino County
are conducting the final liquidation of the coast redwood forest right now,
with hundreds of new logging permits issued by the California Department of
Forestry (CDF). Neither the Mendocino Redwood Company (former Louisiana
Pacific forests, now owned by the Fisher family of Gap, Inc.), nor Hawthorne
Timber (former Georgia Pacific lands) has an approved “Sustained Yield”
Plan, as “mandated” by the Board of Forestry in 1994. Both have in fact
abandoned the “Sustained Yield” Plan process.
This is what happens when the Board of Forestry “forms a committee.”
4.) Finally, Tuttle lauded Mary Nichols's resource inventory project, to
which even some of the Board members remarked that the old growth could be
down to zero by the time the inventory is complete.
So, there you have it, Forest Defenders, the OVERSIZED, HEEDLESS,
IMPLACABLE, DO-NOTHING BUREAUCRACY continues to sit on its
COLLECTIVE ASS and let the corporations destroy our watersheds.
What else is new--what did we expect? EXPECT THIS, CDF: To be trampled,
along with the grapes of wrath!
...which brings us to....
Feb 9: The Next Sacto Action!!
**********************************
The Board is meeting on Wednesday, Feb 9, 8:30 AM. If you can make it for
this hearing and rally, call me for details/carpooling info (415-731-7924).
It's going to be GREAT--I mean, ****G-R-E-A-T***** THEATER, ON and OFF the
STREET: The themes are Little Timber (Gray Davis) in Bed with Big Timber and
the Board of Forestry as Laughing Stock. Let your imaginations fly!!! You
can be part of it, or you can read about it!
TBA: And the NEXT Sacto Action!!!
****************************************
I guarantee you that the L.A. Times photo (showing Gray Davis with his sack
of money) stuck in Davis's craw. Re-reading his remarks when the media
lambasted him last July for granting favors to campaign donors, I realize
his Achilles Heel: He (ironically) cannot stand to be accused of being on
the take. Which brings me to the idea for this action, a media stunt
designed to expose him for the corrupt influence-peddler that he is:
Either one huge flatbed truck (or several small ones, depending on municipal
codes for such things--you can bet there are plenty in Sacto!) with an
E-N-O-R-M-O-U-S PAPIER MACHE SACK OF MONEY. I mean
****E-N-O-R-M-O-U-S!!!!!***** ...And on it, on both sides, is written, "Is
this enough--? Is this enough MONEY??!! N-O-W will you keep your campaign
promise?! NOW WILL YOU BAN OLD-GROWTH LOGGING???!!!
Big press conference upon leaving SF for Sacto--a spoof on the Wizard of Oz:
My God, there's something wrong in Oz--the Wizard seems to be lacking a
heart, courage, and a brain!!!! We're off to Oz to impart these to him (and
of course Dorothy just wants to get back home to the redwood forest), and if
that doesn't work, we'll try THIS (Big Sack Of Money). When we get to Sacto,
another photo opportunity for which we have primed the media: We park the
flatbed in front of the Capitol Building, open the sack, and out pop
hundreds of green helium balloons (secured to the bottom of the sack) with
dollar signs on them...
If you can help with this action, please call 415-731-7924! We need a
staging area to create the sack 'o money, activists to help create it, and a
flatbed!
Feb 5: BIG GAP ACTION: The GREENING OF L.A.!!!
************************************************************
Southern California Fair Trade Network has planned a demo for 1 PM, Sat, Feb
5 at the Gap on the 3rd Street Promenade, 3rd and Santa Monica Blvd., Santa
Monica (from the Gap, we'll head to the Banana Republic for a repeat
performance). SRBG, Global Exchange, & UNITE, among others, are heading
south!
L.A. is a hard nut to crack when it comes to forest and environment, but is
essential if we are to save our forestland! We have been talking about a
campaign specifically to bring L.A. on board the Fisher deforestation
issue--and the plight of the redwoods in general. This will be a great
opportunity to start creating inroads, meet key activist groups down there,
and get the ball rolling!
JOIN THE CARAVAN!!! WE NEED ACTIVISTS!!! Housing and carpooling will be
provided (however, if you have leads on either, let us know! 415-731-7924.)
We'll be leaving Friday, the 4th, and returning Sunday, the 6th. SRBG plans
to do our CUBE ACTION and has tentative plans to do the STRIP ACTION (always
optional), as well, if the police and other organizing groups are amenable
(we do NOT want any arrests)! So far we have 10 committed activists--we'd
like at least 15!!! IT'S GOING TO BE FUN!
Forestry Reform Bill AB 717 PASSED: The Low Down!
*************************************************************
AB 717 (Keeley) passed the State Assembly last week. In order to get the
conservative Democratic caucus to vote for the bill, the enforcement clauses
(defining criminal penalties that the timber industry would suffer for
violations of forestry rules) had to be dropped.
However, other important sections of the bill remained intact: Namely the
"intent clauses" outlining Assemblymember Keeley's intent to introduce
legislation that speaks to the process of defining watershed analysis
standards, which up until now have been defined by the timber industry
without oversight. Keeley's legislation will have the Public, scientists,
and government agencies critically involved in the process. There is also an
inner agency relationship provision that addresses enforcement reform and
increased accountability involving ALL pertinent agencies, not just CDF.
The full language (as opposed to the intent language) will be forthcoming in
the next couple of weeks. The bill will then face passage in the State
Senate, where, historically, it is much easier to move bills.
Feb 2, 3. Days of Action for U'WA: Demos & Phone Campaign!!!
***********************************************************************
The U'wa of Colombia are in a life and death struggle to stop oil drilling
on their homelands. The situation has escalated with the recent mobilization
of 2000 Colombian soldiers to the drilling site occupied by the U'wa. Of
course the U'wa are entitled to their land by law, but the Greedy and
Powerful have cleverly devised a "creative" interpretation of the law to
divest them of it.
DEMO!!! Show your support by demonstrating against the project underwriter,
FIDELITY INVESTMENT:
***IN SF: Wednesday February 2, 2000 12PM. Outside Fidelity Investments -
Market and Post, Downtown SF. Beside the Montgomery BART/MUNI.***
Find the Fidelity office nearest you and picket it:
http://personal400.fidelity.com/gen/centers/invstctr.html.tvsr
PHONE CAMPAIGN!!!
1.) Call Al Gore's campaign HQ in NH: 603-622-8303. Gore owns $.5 MILLION in
Occidental Petroleum stock. Demand the he use his personal and political
influence to make the Colombian Military and Occidental pull out of U'wa
land!!!
2.) Call your Congressional reps and tell them to vote against Clinton's
$1.3 Billion MILITARY AID package to Colombia!!!
FDs, PICK UP THAT PHONE RIGHT NOW & MAKE THESE CALLS--I JUST DID!!!
For more info, contact Rainforest Action Network 1-800-989-RAIN
rags@ran.org or Greenaction 415-252-0822 or Action Resource Center
310-392-7656.
Feb 5, Berkeley Gap Demo!
*******************************
For those of you in the Bay Area who cannot make the L.A. Gap Demo (see
above), please go to the Berkeley Gap (Telegraph and Bancroft Way) on Feb 5
at 12 noon and join the protest there, organized by STARC and Students
Against Sweatshops! Contact Eric for more info: earomann@amherst.edu
Feb 18, Berkeley. Benefit Concert for BACH!
**************************************************
THE FUNKY NIXONS & THE GARY GATES BAND+++
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18TH, 8PM-2AM @ ASHKENAZ
$9-15 1317 San Pablo @ Gilman in Berkeley. Kids under 12 FREE.
For more info contact BACH @ 510.548.3113.
***PLEASE!!! Turn out for this Great Organization that has worked TIRELESSLY
to save Headwaters!!!!***
Feb 18: Deadline for Registering for Ruckus Action Camp!
****************************************************************
The Ruckus Society, Rainforest Action Network, Ozone Action, and Free The
Planet are pleased to announce the ALTERNATIVE SPRING BREAK ACTION CAMP
2000!
WHEN: March 11-17, 2000,
WHERE: Peace River Campground, Arcadia, FLORIDA
WHO: University/ College Student activists from all over the United States
How: Apply on the Ruckus Web site
APPLY NOW! http://www.ruckus.org
PLEASE APPLY BY FEBRUARY 18th. The sooner your application is in the better!
The Ruckus Society, Ozone Action, Free the Planet, and Rainforest Action
Network have teamed up to co-sponsor the first Alternative Spring Break
Action Camp. This groundbreaking training will bring a vanguard of student
activists from throughout North America to Florida for a spring break
celebration markedly different from the standard fare. The training is
designed to increase the overall effectiveness of student advocacy by
providing participants with a new set of technical campaign tactics and
strategies, while building stronger ties of cooperation. We will emphasize
campaign work that challenges the corporate culture that has laid claim to
colleges and universities alike.
Feb 22: Deadline for Comment to Congress on WTO!
***********************************************************
On February 8th--per an alert that I sent out recently--Congress is having a
special hearing to discuss "what went wrong" in Seattle. It is extremely
important for us to submit oral or written testimony CONDEMNING THE WTO as
an UNDEMOCRATIC, ILLEGAL organization, and demanding that the US dump the
corporate free trade agendum and adopt a FAIR TRADE POLICY, in which planet
and people are considered first!
We will be emailing a sample letter and the ridiculous
formatting/duplication requirements in the next week or two. If you want
more info before then, please contact me or, better still, Antonia Juhasz
antonia@americanlands.org
Mar TBA: BofF Hearing on Davis Rules/Public Comment Deadline!
*************************************************************************
>From the EPIC newsletter:
In another Board of Forestry development, the Governor's controversial
package of changes to state logging rules regarding salmon and water
quality protection was once again released for 45 days of public
comment. The rules, which were never strong enough to comply with
federal laws prohibiting harm to salmon and degradation of water
quality, have only become weaker since their introduction last July. A
public hearing will probably take place in early March, and the text of
the rules will be available soon from the Board of Forestry web site:
http://www.fire.ca.gov/bof/board/board_proposed_rule_packages.html
Public comment on this rules package will be extremely important in
coming weeks. We'll make a summary of the package available very soon
and keep you posted on further developments!
Mar 6: Deadline for Comment on FedPlan to Exempt Coho from ESA!
****************************************************************************
>From the EPIC newsletter:
Just before the end of last year, the National Marine Fisheries Service
(NMFS), in response to citizen lawsuits, finally extended basic
Endangered Species Act (ESA) protection to several threatened
populations of salmon and steelhead trout across four Pacific Northwest
states. The rules, known as "4(d) rules" after the section of the ESA
that requires their adoption, nominally outlaw activities that kill or
harm (in legalese, "take") the threatened fish. Certain logging and
agricultural practices, dams, water diversions and other projects that
kill salmon theoretically could be restricted following finalization of
the proposed rule.
These particular 4(d) rules, however, also provide massive exceptions
from this so-called "take prohibition." Among these are exemptions for
urban development, fisheries management, and even logging on private
lands in the state of Washington. In order to qualify for these
exemptions, state and local governments simply have to devise ordinances
or regulations that comply with extremely vague criteria set forth in
the 4(d) rule.
It remains unclear whether scientific and public input will influence
NMFS' decisions to grant these exemptions. Conservation and fisheries
advocates who have reviewed the rules are calling on NMFS to protect
salmon and steelhead by providing strong guidance and enforcement, not
more creative loopholes for urban developers and big timber. Public
comments on the 4(d) rules will be accepted until March 6, 2000, and
public hearings are underway throughout Washington, Oregon, Idaho and
California. For more information, visit NMFS' web site:
http://www.nwr.noaa.gov/1salmon/salmesa/4drules.htm
American Lands Alliance also has information on the 4(d) rules available
at http://www.americanlands.org/forestweb/esainfo.htm
Apr 9--17, D.C. MASS PROTEST AGAINST THE IMF & WB!!!
*********************************************************************
If you didn't make it to Seattle, now's your chance! Caravans are forming!
>From Global Exchange:
COME TO WASHINGTON DC APRIL 9-17!
IMF & World Bank in Washington April 16, 2000
Stand Again for Economic Justice!
Oppose Oppressive Globalization!
A powerful US movement for economic and human rights and fair
trade had its coming-out party at the WTO meetings in Seattle
A range of forces who value human and ecological dignity over
corporate profits and trickle-down economics came together there.
We challenged one of the most insidious tools of unaccountable
profit-driven rule, the World Trade Organization, and we
scored an important series of victories against some daunting
odds.
In April, the struggle continues in Washington, DC - the very
heart of political and institutional control over the global
economy: the U.S. Treasury, the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) and the World Bank. They are the chief instruments used
by political and corporate elites to create today's unjust,
destructive global economic order. The World Bank and the IMF
have been quietly writing the rules that keep the world safe
for multinational corporations while economically depriving
billions around the world.
Your presence in Washington is needed! The finance ministers
and international bureaucrats who shape the world economy to
make the rick richer and the poor poorer need to know that
Seattle was not just a bump on their road to global
domination. What we asserted at the WTO must be repeated to the
rulers of the global economy. We must make clear, again, that
the peoples' movements of the world will not not stand by while
those holding power continue to impoverish and oppress the
majority of the world's peoples and ravage the earth's environment
and resources while enriching themselves and corporations.
Activists in the United States must insist - firmly and consistently
until the system is changed - that decisions about the fate of
the planet and its peoples must not be made behind closed doors.
The IMF and World Bank are in many ways the "parents" of the
WTO; today, they form and "unholy trinity" to preserve corporate
power and constrain the rights and opportunities of the majority
of the world's people. Because of that, many of the groups that
helped organize the victories in Seattle are already preparing
for days of protest, education, training, and direct action during
the week of APRIL 9 - 16 in WASHINGTON.
The week begins on Sunday, APRIL 9TH with a Jubillee 2000/USA
mobilization for cancellation of the debts of African, Latin
American, Asia-Pacific, and Caribbean countries, and continuing
with teach-ins and trainings on the global economy. It will
culminate with a MASSIVE RALLY AT IMF HEADQUARTERS ON SUNDAY,
APRIL 16TH.
* Save the dates!
* Endorse the Call for Protests and Spread the Word!
* Start organizing - how many people can you bring to Washington?
* Educate yourself and others about the IMF and World Bank
* Visit http://www.50years.org
For more information, contact the 50 Years is Enough Network
(Washington DC) at:
202-IMF-BANK or
Global Exchange (San Francisco)
415-558-9486, X.254 Juliette Beck
____________________________________________
LONG LIVE THE SEPARATION OF CORPORATION AND STATE!
(It's up to us to make it happen!!!)
Mary Bull
Save the Redwoods/Boycott the Gap Campaign, SF
_________________________________________
Other Contacts/Information Sources:
www.elksoft.com/gwa
----------------------------
Mary Pjerrou, Redwood Coast Watersheds Alliance
707-877-3405 pirohuck@mcn.org
----------------------------
Norman de Vall, Greenwood Watershed Association
707-877-3551 ndevall@mcn.org www.gapsucks.org
----------------------------
Redwood Mary
Plight of the Redwoods Tour redwoodm@mcn.org
http://sites.netscape.net/redwoodmary/redwoodmary
----------------------------
Mary Bull,
Save the Redwoods/Boycott the Gap Campaign
415-731-7924 chalicenew@earthlink.net
----------------------------
----------------------------
Gap Labor Exploitation URLs:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/01/14
/MN19190.DTL
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/01/20
/MN49132.DTL
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/01/22
/MN49806.DTL
http://www.house.gov/resources/105cong/democrat/cnmifin.html#contractlabor
----------------------------
http://sweatshops@globalexchange.org
http://www.globalexchange.org
"God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there..."
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