Save the Redwoods/Boycott the Gap

---

Boycott the Gap: A16 Call to Action! M14 BofF Shutdown! +++
Posted by Mary Bull (chalicenew@earthlink.net)
Thursday, March 30, 2000

Greetings, Forest Defenders and Social Justice Activists Around the Globe!

With our big CA Board of Forestry protest behind us, it's time to move
FULL-THROTTLE toward APRIL 16 in DC! In this update and call-to-action:

-Join Us For FURTHER ADVENTURES IN DEMOCRACY: A16, DC!!!!!
-Springtime for Davis and Forestry: A Grand Farce in Three Acts: REPORT!
-The Prison-Industrial Complex:Testimonial from the Sacto County Jail!
-BofF's Adoption of Gutted Davis Rules Package: EPIC Reports!
-April 1, Hum: Benefit for EPIC!
-April 4, SAC: Yet Another Board of Forestry Hearing & Call to Action!
-April 1--8: WEEK OF REDWOOD FOREST ACTION!!!!!
-Super-critical: Contact Clinton to Preserve Giant Sequoias!!!
-Berkeley Says NO! to World Bank Bonds: Report & Call-to-Action!!!
-Other Important Upcoming Actions and Events:
---Mar 30, SF: Bay Area A16 Planning Session!
---April 2, Oakland: IMF/World Bank/Globalization Teach-in
---April 5, Berkeley: IMF/World Bank/Globalization Teach-in
---April 6, Marin: IMF/World Bank/Globalization Teach-in
---April 7, Santa Rosa: Week of Forest Action - Gap Protest!
---April 13: Nat'l Fair Trade Day of Action (Roast Starbucks)!
---Apr 16&17, DC: ***MASS PROTEST AGAINST IMF&WORLD BANK!!!!***
---Apr 17, SF: IMF/World Bank Solidarity Rally!!!

Look forward to these upcoming events (more in the next newsletter)!
---May  1, SF: MAY DAY: Reclaim the Streets!!!!
---May 19, 10th Anniversary of the Bombing of Judi and Darryl
---May 22, Arraignment of the Citizens Board of Forestry
---May 24, SF: Fiddldown the FBI, a fiddle march to the Federal Building
---TBA, Sac: The NEXT ACTION AGAINST GRAY DAVIS & CO.!!!
---TBA, LA:  The GREENING OF L.A., Part Two!!!
---Aug 16, LA: *** MASS PROTEST AT THE REPUBLOCRAT CONVENTION!!!***

***News Flash: PETA just launched a campaign against Gap, Inc. for using
black-market cow hide from India to make its "Everyone in Leather" goods. In
this charming arrangement to maximize corporate profits, cows are treated
with abominable cruelty in the process of being made into Gap leather
jackets.***

***News Flash: the Fishers & Gap, Inc's crisis of ethics including
environmental destruction, human rights violations, and animal rights abuses
was recently reported in the London Daily Telegraph. The article is posted
at our web site: www.elksoft.com/gwa/ldt ***

*Note: Corrections to the last newsletter are posted at the end of this
newsletter.*

FURTHER ADVENTURES IN DEMOCRACY: A16, DC!
*************************************************************
DONT HESITATE!!! EXPERIENCE EMPOWERMENT!!!
EXPERIENCE COMMUNITY!!! END CORPORATE RULE!!!
GET ACTIVE!!! BE IN DC APRIL 16!!!

The MASS PROTEST against the IMF & WORLD BANK is going to make the WTO Mass
Protest last winter look like CHILD'S PLAY! WHY? Because the IMF & World
Bank are **THE** BASTIONS OF GLOBAL CORPORATE RULE! Evolving from the
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development established in 1944,
the World Bank funds the MEGA-PROJECTS that have been destroying the
environment (MASSIVE forest destruction--far worse than the effects of the
WTO to date), local economies, and indigenous cultures for DECADES to the
tune of BILLIONS of dollars, provided mostly by US tax-payers (LOBBY YOUR
REPS TO STOP THE FLOW OF DESTRUCTION!!!) According to Jerry Mander, the IMF
is even more powerful than the W.B., and very secretive (I'll be getting
more info to the net re the IMF).

In addition, the DC Mass Protest is going to be MUCH BIGGER than Seattle
because there is such a dense concentration of the population around DC;
whereas Seattle is more or less a remote backwater by comparison. The
mobilization figures are awesome (e.g., 90 alone from the city of Buffalo,
and our own affinity group has grown from 6 to 18 in a few short days)!

This Action Against Corporate Rule will be the MOST IMPORTANT ACTION, the
MOST POWERFUL, to date!!! Its SUCCESS IS AN ABSOLUTE MUST--
so BEING THERE is an ABSOLUTE MUST!!!

Activists on the SRBG network are heading from the four corners of the
country to DC in April! A contingent from the Bay Area Core Group will be
going, as well, leaving ~Apr 13 and returning Apr 18. There are still cheap
seats available through USAIR and others via the Internet and many housing
leads that we will share with you. PLEASE JOIN US--and if you do, confirm
your commitment and exchange DC contact info with us ASAP!

What is Corporate Rule? Here's a Sampler:

The Corporations are taking control of all things that were once public,
from public television and radio (KQED and KPFA here in the Bay Area) to
public schools and parks (the Edison Project and the Presidio here in the
Bay Area). The corporations have appropriated prisons and prison labor
everywhere, creating a new insidious motive to get and keep poor people-- in
particular, poor people of color-- in jail (the prison population has
increased by 80% since the 80's, the US has the highest per capita
incarceration rate in the world, and "Low occupancy is a drag on profits,"
reports Prudential Securities).

Corporate Money completely co-opted the Party of the People in the 90's--now
both Republicans and Democrats work for the corporations, NOT for the public
who elected them. Corporate economic globalization (fostered by the "free
trade" anti-ethic) is demolishing the planet, democracy, local economies,
and indigenous cultures-- especially since the establishment of the World
Trade Organization (WTO) in the mid-90's. The objects of the A16 Mass
Protests, the IMF and World Bank, lend money to desperately poor countries
with strangling strings attached--structural adjustment programs
(SAPs)--that facilitate corporate exploitation and decimate the environment
and working people by demanding, for example, that social services and
health care be slashed, national assets be privatized, food crops be
replaced by cash crops, and wages be frozen.

Further, when countries are not using this borrowed money to get out from
under the yoke of previous loans, they are forced to use it for
mega-projects, such as dam and nuclear power plant construction, that
destroy the environment and make the giant corporations contracted to build
them rich while leaving the general population poorer than before.

We're seeing democratically enacted laws that protect people and planet
overturned as "barriers to free trade," i.e., corporate profits. We're
seeing gross global injustice and environmental destruction--the scale of
which we have not seen before--and it's escalating--being meted out by the
rich heads of corporations and the governments that serve them at an
outrageous rate: e.g., entire virgin rainforests being reduced to sawdust in
72 hours at Chilean loading docks and shipped to Japan for its paper
mills...

TURN IT AROUND!!! CHANGE THE COURSE OF THE WORLD!!!
STOP THE BRUTAL PILLAGE of the Earth and its Peoples NOW!!!
******WE CAN DO IT!*** ***WE ARE DOING IT!!********
********WE ARE MAKING HISTORY!!!***********
*******************JOIN US!!!!!*****************

Check out www.a16.org for more information!

In the Bay Area, for a list of people who can speak on the World Bank and
IMF to your group or classroom, contact Eric Roman at coachric1@yahoo.com
510-528-4638.

Springtime for Davis and Forestry: A Grand Farce in Three Acts!
***********************************************************************
On March 14, the occasion of the CA Board of Forestry's final decision on
the Davis Rules Package--a rewrite of the Forest Practice Rules that is in
defiance of federal law, allowing the "take", i.e., the killing, of
endangered species, environmentalists decided to mock this despicable
Handmaid of Industry in grand style...

However, when they arrived in Sacramento on March 13, environmental activists
discovered a contingent of paid Timber Industry reps--hundreds of them!--who
had circled the hearing place with loaded logging trucks and were planning a
march the following day (Big Timber is opposed to the slack Davis Rules for
being too restrictive). The environmentalists ended up being the MOUSE THAT
ROARED, STEALING THE THUNDER from Big Timber by DEMOING SMARTER,
not bigger! Here's how...

ACT I: The Bed

At 12 noon in front of the Capitol Building, Gray Davis in suit, tie, and
Emperor's crown, was frolicking on a money-stuffed canopy bed with three Big
Timber Babes--scantily clad, bewigged men in drag, wearing beauty-queen
sashes that read "Miss Campbell Group," Miss Sierra Pacific," "Miss Pacific
Lumber," "Miss Gap/MRC," and so on (see SF Chron 3/15 pic). Andrea Tuttle,
Davis's pro-timber Director of the CA Dept of Forestry, was also there--she
(also a man in drag) created a sensation marching in the Pro-Logging Parade
with a sign that read "Transgenders for Big Timber."

The Media was all over the scene, racing to keep up with the bed on wheels
flying down the center of the street and to get that rare, in-bed interview
with the Governor--he finally capitulated when a breathless Reporter offered
him a sizable campaign contribution.

What followed even had the loggers laughing, especially when the Timber
Babes breathily confided to the Reporter, "He lets us clearcut... He lets us
cut big...profitable...old growth... He let's us do it on steep...
slippery... slopes!" Environmentalists performed this skit at four different
points, including in front of the Capitol Building, the Resources Building,
the intersection of P and 8th Streets, and the hearing place plaza. When
they weren't mocking Davis's checkbook politics, they were mocking his
sell-out of the environment with the following Broadway show tune,
"Springtime for Davis and Forestry":

LEAD SINGER
Big Timber, it was having trouble, what a sad, sad story!
Needed a new leader and  more forests to destroy-oy!
Where, Oh where was he? Where could that man be?
We looked around, and then we found  the man for you and me!
And now it's...

ALL
Springtime for Davis and Forestry
Big Timber is happy and gay
They're logging at a faster pace
Look out, there goes the human race!

Springtime for Davis and Forestry
Winter for wildlife and fish
Springtime for Davis and Forestry
Big Timber, you're getting your wish!

ANDREA, DAVIS, & BIG TIMBER BABES
Party time for corporate loggers - trees are falling everywhere -
Chainsaws roaring, stocks are soaring - global warming, we don't care!

ALL
Springtime for Davis and Forestry
Coho are dying today!
Choppers are in the skies again!
Yarders are on the rise again!

Springtime for Davis and Forestry
Chainsaws are buzzing galore!

Springtime for Davis and Forestry
Means that soon they’ll be going
They’ve got to be going
You know, there’ll be forests no more!

ACT II: The Laugh-In

The hearing began at 1 PM, and the Timber Babes and Andrea Tuttle created a
tizzy by attending it in full drag. Environmentalists had choreographed a
Laugh-In for the Board, in which their public comment at this meeting
consisted of particularly hypocritical and outrageous quotes from the CA
Dept. of Forestry's Official Responses to Public Comments on Timber Harvest
Plans, minutes from Board of Forestry meetings, and excerpts from Andrea
Tuttle's hysterical "old growth" letter to concerned citizens (to be read by
the Andrea Tuttle look-alike)--which, it was planned, would be greeted with
much laughter from the audience (they even had a laugh prompter, an activist
with the word LAUGH! printed across her t-shirt).

Environmentalists had to wait their turn, however, while dozens of Timber
reps, who had signed up the day before, gave truly laughable testimony,
trying hard to create a case for liquidating the last of California's
forestlands.

The Laugh-in was finally launched by a funny re-write of the Noah's Arc
parable, where God becomes so frustrated by environmental destruction and
the human bureaucracy that oversees it, he commands Noah to forget the Arc
and start making Earth First! t-shirts. However, the rest of the show was
pre-empted when a member of the audience stood up and shouted, "This Board
is a farce! You're all Fired! We hereby establish the Citizens Board of
Forestry!"

ACT III: The Shut Down

As Security forces moved to silence the woman, NINE CITIZENS walked to the
front of the room and locked fingers using Chinese straw fingercuffs. They
then stated what they called the "new Forest Practice Rules":

"No logging Old Growth,
"No Clearcutting,
"No cutting on steep slopes or in stream zones,
"No Herbicides."

and ended with, "It's that simple. Meeting adjourned."

The other Board (we'll call it the Board of Deforestation to avoid
confusion) exited in a huff, while Security sprang into action, clearing the
room of everyone, including media, and arresting the CITIZENS BOARD OF
FORESTRY. The Board of Deforestation reconvened an hour later, and enacted
the Davis Rules Package the following day. (See EPIC report below.)

The Prison-Industrial Complex:Testimonial from the Sacto County Jail
****************************************************************************
Regarding the arrests that occurred at around 3:30 at the Board of Forestry
hearing in Sacramento on March 14:

After they were taken into custody, the nine people calling themselves the
Citizens' Board of Forestry, who were arrested for exercising their First
Amendment rights for fifteen minutes at the hearing, were moved from holding
tank to holding tank for 32 hours (deprived of sleep, rest, or adequate
protection from the cold) and subjected by the jailers to dehumanizing and
humiliating treatment at every opportunity.

This standard treatment of prisoners (no different from SF County, I can
attest) was capped by an indecent STRIP SEARCH that was clearly a gross and
disgusting violation of human rights, during which the prisoner is told to
strip naked, spread their legs, bend over, spread their buttocks and labia
apart as far as possible and cough three times while a guard examines them.

As you are standing there naked in front of these dehumanized guards (at
this point, prior to the rectal/vaginal search, all of the women were
HUDDLING naked trying to cover themselves in abject humiliation, like
frightened, herded animals), who in a slightly more fascist state--the one
we are most definitely headed  toward--would be the ones applying the
electrodes to your genitalia without a pang of conscience--because they
CLEARLY CONSIDER YOU SUBHUMAN in this situation, you cannot help
but wonder how far around the corner the atrocities of the Holocaust really
are... This new, slower burning holocaust targets the poor--primarily poor
people of color--and also anyone, such as political activists, who bucks the
system.

During these 32 hours, I took every opportunity to empower myself and to
demonstrate self-empowerment (non-violent--without angry posturing or
abusive language, which, in fact, is not empowering) to my fellow inmates
through example and education (I know that many of you have done the same
thing in similar situations). For example, I bore witness to police
brutality, shouting "The whole world is watching!" and pounding on the glass
as five jailers (men and women) brutalized a woman in a tank across the hall
from us. When the guards attempted to punish me for this, I turned the
tables on them, consigning them into a position of moral weakness and
effectively silencing them. This created a sensation among the women in my
tank afterwards--one of them was so delighted, she re-enacted the entire
scenario.

Regarding the strip search: From Hour One, in one way or another, every
woman who had been in before, got around to nervously alluding to the strip
search ahead of us--with MUCH DREAD.  Many told stories of protracted
searches, in which women were laughed at and further humiliated while
assuming this posture; some spoke of  the styles of various guards who were
into prolonging and exacerbating the humiliation. It was clearly the nadir
of humiliation for everyone who had experienced it. From various tanks, you
could hear the guards and women going through these paces, often with
gratuitous laughter and remarks on the part of the guards. It was very
demoralizing, and the women who had the resources (in the minority) did
everything they could to get bailed out before that moment was upon them.

When I refused to submit to the rectal/vaginal search, the guards were
incensed: I was told to stand against the wall, while the other women
submitted to the humiliation; then I was left there alone, naked, in the
cement cell for 10 minutes; then I was passed a towel through the bars and
told that the Sargent was coming to speak to me. (I wish I had had the
presence of mind to refuse the towel--such an absurd and hypocritical
gesture after the treatment I'd received up to that point.) The Sargent
appeared and one of the guards recorded our interaction on video, which went
something like this:

Sargent: "I understand you refuse to be searched."

I: "I will not cooperate in this gross violation of my human rights--this is
an indecent and disgusting invasion of my privacy."

Sargent: "We're doing this for your own good--we're searching for contraband
that could cause harm upstairs--"

I (cutting him off): You're doing this for your own convenience. I suggest
you find a less invasive way of determining the whereabouts of contraband.
You could use ultra sound, metal detectors, whatever--but I will not be
violated in this way without protest. Do you realize that every woman here
considers this the ultimate humiliation?!

Sargent (muttering): "Yes, I know..."

I (overlapping--though, in retrospect I wish I had called him on this
acknowledgement--I will next time): "If you do this by force, I will write a
report and send it to EVERYone (I plan to do this anyway).  I will not let
this drop, and I WILL NOT COOPERATE in this disgusting and dehumanizing
violation of my rights."

I'm pretty sure that virtually no one has ever spoken to the Sargent in this
fashion--there are many reasons for this: jailers can make life very
unpleasant if you do not cooperate, and the pervasive atmosphere of
intimidation undoubtedly goes a long way toward making prisoners routinely
acquiesce to human rights violations. I'm sure the fact that I am white,
well-educated, and otherwise privileged, had a lot to do with what followed:

The Sargent left, the guards took the towel, and I again stood naked for 10
minutes. The guards returned, and said that since I was soon to be released
on my own recognizance I didn't have to be strip-searched. I was given back
my clothes and put in the Release Tank--a small room in which I waited
another 6 or 7 hours with 16 other women for release. I told the women in
the Release Tank that I had defied the Power over the strip search and
won--I told them exactly what I had said, and they were impressed. By the
time we were leaving, my fellow inmates were saying, "We should protest this
treatment...this isn't right!" They were beginning to feel empowered.

If this type of abject humiliation and de-humanization is the status quo in
holding tanks where people are being held for petty crimes (such as bouncing
checks or possession of small amounts of marijuana) for which they have not
even been convicted, is it any wonder when horror stories erupt, such as
Pelican Bay, where guards forced prisoners into gladiatorial competitions
resulting in deaths, or New York City, where a guard sodomized a prisoner
with a broom handle, or the Louisiana state juvenile facility, where the
corporate owners were caught taking money from the federal till and imposing
scandalous conditions on adolescents, or the corrupt LAPD Rampart Division,
where hundreds of fraudulently convicted people are being released from
prisons, or the routine police killings of people of color in cities across
the country, where there is no police accountability.

The prison system is also a bastion of corporate rule, with corporations
running them for profit and prisoners being used as a captive and cheap
labor source by corporations such as IBM and Dell. Meanwhile, Gray Davis
endorsed Proposition 21 (herd 'em in younger and longer), is pushing for
millions of dollars for added benefits for prison guards (a powerful union
that he is wooing), and is constructing a new misdemeanor prison in
Sacramento.

When does one take a stand in a fascist state: When people
are singled out with yellow arm bands--? When they are targeted as the
rapidly growing bottom rung of the prison-industrial complex--?

NO MORE JAILS! TEAR THEM DOWN!
BRICK BY BRICK! TO THE GROUND!

EPIC Reports on BofF Adoption of Gutted Davis Rules Package
**********************************************************************
Following a contentious but mostly cosmetic two day public hearing, the
California Board of Forestry on March 15 adopted an eviscerated version
of Governor Gray Davis's logging rules proposal.  Touted as a package of
rules for protecting salmon and water quality from the impacts of
logging, the measures were roundly criticized by conservation and
fisheries organizations as well as the National Marine Fisheries Service
for not going far enough to meet the requirements of state and federal
law.  The logging industry also opposed the rules, ignorantly claiming
that logging has nothing to do with the decline of California's salmon
despite decades of evidence to the contrary.  In the end, the industry's
pseudo-scientific prattle, property-rights rhetoric and massive campaign
contributions seem to have won the day.

At issue were rules that would have widened buffer zones and increased
forest retention (though logging would still be allowed) along all sizes
of streams in watersheds where salmon are already on the endangered
species list.  As originally proposed, the rules also would have changed
the primary objective of near-stream forest management to aquatic
protection.  The rules also would have prohibited net increases of
logging-related sediment, net losses of "large woody debris" that
provides structure to streams, and net gains in fish-killing water
temperature.

Although these measures were widely regarded as insufficient to protect
salmon from harm as required by the Endangered Species Act, timber
barons were successful in convincing the Davis administration and the
Board to sink even lower.  The package proposed on March 15 scraps
expanded buffers on smaller creeks that can deliver sediment to
fish-bearing reaches downstream, ignoring a scientific consensus that
these areas must be protected.  The Board also jettisoned the change in
management objectives for near-stream logging.  Finally, instead of
prohibiting activities that might cause "net" increases in temperature
or sediment, the Board chose to prohibit "measurable" impacts.  Of
course, the state almost never requires such measurements.  Even if
samples were taken, by the time such impacts are measured, potentially
irreversible damage will have already occurred.

In short, most of the provisions that could have been considered
incremental (if wholly insufficient) improvements in the rules were
either deleted or rendered unenforceable.  To top off this day of caving
in to special interests, the Board proposed adding a "sunset" provision
to the entire package.  As a result, even this barely perceptible rules
package will only apply from July 1 to December 31, 2000, after which
time existing rules will again take effect.

Board members stated that the administration and the industry will use
the rest of the year to devise a "watershed analysis" process allowing
large industrial loggers to write their own site-specific rules.  The
only standard offered for these industry-crafted provisions was a
requirement that they provide protection "equal" to that of the Board's
paper-thin package--in other words, no real protection at all.

Once again, the logging industry has cut a deal with Governor Gray
Davis, paving the way for a large-scale effort to roll California's
logging laws back 30 years to a time when timber companies wrote their
own rules.  The industry has always viewed self-regulation as the next
best thing to non-regulation, and Governor Davis appears prepared to
hand them this victory--something that seemed unthinkable even during
the darkest years of Pete Wilson's administration.

Careful watershed studies, carried out with credible scientific input
and full public participation, might ultimately produce the best
measures and practices for protecting salmon and water quality from
harm.  On the other hand, a backroom deal between the logging industry
and the state could result in bad science justifying continued bad
logging practices.  The wrong choice today could literally spell
extinction for salmon tomorrow.

The Board of Forestry meets again on April 4 to finalize the rules
package and add the "sunset" provision.  It's critical that concerned
citizens from all walks of life let the Board know that only a sound,
open, scientific process will clean up our rivers and bring our salmon
back from the brink.  See the ACTION! item below for details...

April 1, Hum: Benefit for EPIC!
*********************************
EPIC is proud to present "OH MY GODDESS!" -- starring Mendocino County
actress Sherry Glaser, who broke box office records off-Broadway with
her hit Family Secrets, and received rave reviews in the New York Times,
the LA Times, Variety and the SF Chronicle.  In an amazing solo
performance, Glaser plays both "Miguel" (a street-smart but somewhat
unenlightened waiter whose epiphany comes via a call to a psychic
network), and "Ma", who is a combination Earth Goddess, Jewish Mother
and Co-Creator of the Universe whom Miguel is chosen to channel.  A
deeply funny drama that is NOT to be missed!

The benefit will begin promptly at 6pm, with a vegetarian dinner, beer
and wine.  This will be accompanied by a rare audio treat - the
psychedelic improvisational musings of two highly acclaimed San
Francisco-based ensembles, "Om Attack" and "Species Being".  Both bands
feature the amazing virtuoso drummer Frank Grau , who
promises to spice up your dinner and spike your drink with rhythmic
hallucinations deftly colored by his cohorts using an unpredictable mix
of instruments and electronic gadgetry.

Join EPIC for this on-stage celebration of spring!  It is especially
important right now for local residents to unite with EPIC's efforts to
stop the newly proposed Timber Harvest Plans for the ridge above Redway!
Tickets are $15 at the door, $12 in advance, and may be purchased at
Wildhorse Records or the EPIC office in Garberville.  EPIC members may
purchase advance tickets for only $10 at EPIC.  Vegetarian dinner, wine
and beer will be served at additional cost.  All proceeds will benefit
the work of the Environmental Protection Information Center.

The benefit will be  held at the Mateel Community Center in downtown Redway
(2 miles north of  Garberville in Southern Humboldt County).  Hope to see
locals (and anyone else who may be traveling to or through the area) there!

April 4, SAC: Yet Another Board of Forestry Hearing: Call to Action!
***************************************************************************
From EPIC: ^ ACTION!  BOARD OF FORESTRY HEARING APRIL 4 ^

WHAT: (Another) Public Hearing on Proposed Forest Practice Rules Changes
WHEN: Tuesday, April 4, 1 PM
WHERE: Auditorium, Resources Building, 1416 Ninth Street, Sacramento

The Board of Forestry and the Davis administration need to hear from
you!  Please voice the following concerns in your written or spoken
comments:

- The state has a legal and ethical responsibility to protect salmon
from harm caused by logging operations.
- California's salmon need lasting, scientifically sound protection, not
a temporary political fix.
- Water and fisheries are public resources held in trust by all
Californians, and conservation efforts should be developed with the full
participation of the public--not in Sacramento back rooms by industry
lobbyists!

A copy of the proposed rules ("15-day Notice Protection for Threatened
and Impaired Waterbodies, 2000") can be obtained by calling the Board of
Forestry at (916) 653-8007 or by visiting their web site, located at
http://www.fire.ca.gov/bof/board/board_proposed_rule_packages.html.

Written comments are due no later than 5 PM on Monday, April 3, and can
be sent to the following address:

Board of Forestry and Fire Protection
Attn: Dennis O. Hall
Regulations Coordinator
P.O. Box 944246
Sacramento, CA 94244-2460

Comments may also be faxed to the Board's office using the following
number: (916) 653-0989

WEEK OF REDWOOD FOREST ACTION: April 1--8!!!!
*************************************************************
California's Northern Coastal Counties will be the stage for a series of
great demos and protests from April 1 through April 8, including:

--Apr 1, Eureka: Demo Against Gap, Inc.
--Apr 3, Ft. Bragg: Demo Against Hawthorn Timber
--Apr 7, Santa Rosa Demo Against Gap, Inc.
--TBA,   Humboldt: Demos Against Pacific Lumber, Simpson, etc.

Experience the empowerment of Action Camp!!! Contact North Coast Earth
First! for details: 707-825-6598 ncef@humboldt1.com . We'll be heading up to
participate in some of these actions; please contact 415-731-7924 or
chalicenew@earthlink.net for carpooling info!

Super-critical: Contact Clinton to Preserve Giant Sequoias!!!
******************************************************************
ALERT FROM Plant-Native-Trees: Many of California’s giant Sequoia groves are
on National Forests, not National Parks. But now President Clinton is
considering steps that could help make sure that these remarkable trees
never face the chainsaw. President Clinton is exploring the prospect of
granting National Monument status to the giant Sequoia groves. This is an
excellent time to send President Clinton a letter or email encouraging him
to provide complete protection for the Sequoias and their surrounding
watersheds from logging and other forms of commercial extraction.

Write a letter to President Bill Clinton, The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania
Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20500  president@whitehouse.gov . Points to make in
your letter:

-People have been urging protection of the giant sequoias for over a
century.  Let's finish the job.
-The monument should be similar in size and management to Sequoia National
Park.
-Protect the whole ecosystem and watersheds, not just the groves.
-There's no place in a national monument for commercial logging or other
destructive uses.
-Off-road vehicle use should be restricted to existing roads, and no new
roads should be built in the monument.
-The primary uses for the monument should be ecosystem preservation and
non-damaging recreation.
-It's great that the President is considering this monument. It is long
overdue and will be a permanent legacy of his administration for generations
to come.

For more information contact Scott Hoffman Black, Sierra Nevada Forest
Protection Campaign, 916/442-3155, Fax: 916/442-3396,
http://www.sierraforests.org

City of Berkeley Says NO! To World Bank Bonds!
*******************************************************
Rosalyn Fay at Global Exchange reports:

ONE DOWN, HUNDREDS TO GO!!!!!

Last night the Berkeley City Council passed the resolution against
purchasing World Bank bonds!!!!  This is a small but important step in
gaining the support of public institutions to join the international
campaign against the World Bank and the IMF.

YOU CAN DO IT TOO!!  The more City Councils, universities and unions that
pass this resolution, the heavier the pressure will bear on the WB and IMF
to clean up their act.

IT'S SO EASY- just get your district Council member or another sympathetic
Council member to put the resolution on the agenda for the next Council
meeting, line up a couple of speakers to speak the night of the Council
meeting and of course publicize your efforts widely to get people to call
their Council member to ask them to vote for it!  We would like to get as
many resolutions passed as possible before the protests in D.C in April so
that we can bring them to our Congressmembers directly!!  Below is a copy of
the resolution for you to use (personalize it to your area if you wish).

Let me know if you get a resolution passed so I can help you to organize a
meeting in D.C. with your Congressmember.  Thanks and remember we only have
a few weeks left.

Mar 30, SF: Bay Area A16 Planning Session
*************************************************
Mar 30, 7 PM, Global Exchange. 2017 Mission at 16th. WANNA GET
SUPER-CHARGED??? COME TO THESE MEETINGS!!! To get on the local list:
A16-bayarea-request@economicjustice.org with the word subscribe in the body
of the text. Or contact greg_asay@hotmail.com 415-421-6443 ext 13 for the
date and time of the next meeting.

April 2, Oak: IMF/World Bank/Globalization Teach-in
**********************************************************
4PM HERE Local 2850, 2850 20th Street, Oakland

April 5,Berk: IMF/World Bank/Globalization Teach-in
*********************************************************
7PM, 101 Morgan Hall, UC Berkeley

April 6, Marin: IMF/World Bank/Globalization Teach-in
************************************************************
7:30 p.m.Fine Arts building, Room 120 College of Marin, 835 College Avenue,
Kentfield. Cost: Free. Sponsored by: Students for Social Responsibility,
College of Marin, Social Justice Center of Marin, Global Exchange.

Speakers: Victor Menotti - International Forum on Globalization, Laura
Livoti - Economic Justice Now / 50 Years is Enough, Suzanne Wong -
International Rivers Network, Moderator: Joe Mueller - Biology professor,
College of Marin.

April 7, SR: Week of Forest Action Gap Protest!
*****************************************************
Contact Hope for details: veganluv@sonic.net

April 13: Nat'l Fair Trade Day of Action (Roast Starbucks)!!!
******************************************************************
From Global Exchange: ROAST STARBUCKS! National Day of Action! Join the
fight for Fair Trade and demand that Starbucks sell Fair Trade  coffee.
Kick off the Fair Trade Coffee at Starbucks campaign!

Bay Area Fair Trade Advocates: Come out to the demonstrations at three Bay
Area Starbucks stores:

San Francisco: 4094 18th Street @ Castro, 5:30PM Berkeley: Corner of Center
and Oxford, 5PM San Rafael: 4th Street. Contact Dian at the Marin Peace and
Justice Center  for details.

For more information on the campaign and where to demo in your town, visit
www.globalexchange.org/economy/coffee or call 415/255 7296.

Apr 16&17, DC: MASS PROTEST AGAINST IMF & WORLD BANK!!!
****************************************************************************
See first article in this newsletter for details!

Apr 17, SF: IMF/World Bank Solidarity Rally!!!!
****************************************************
From the SF A17 Committee: Monday 17 April 4pm. Meet at Justin Herman Plaza
(Market and the Embarcadero). For those of you who won't be able to travel
to Washington, DC for the April protests against the World Bank and the IMF,
don't despair. There will be a solidarity action here in San Francisco on
Monday, April 17, the day the World Bank is having its meeting. (The IMF
meeting is A16). The plan is to stop business as usual in the financial
district. For more information on the SF demo, contact: Greg Asay
(415-421-6443x13)

Check out www.a16.org for the solidarity rally in your town--or stage one of
your own!

Corrections to the last newsletter...
***************************************
The first two corrections come courtesy of SC's Kathy Bailey, who has been
hot on the JDSF issues for a long time now:

1.) The 18,000 acres of late-seral forest in Jackson Demonstration State
Forest (JDSF) that the CA Dept of Forestry plans to log contains only
scattered old growth. But please note: At this point late-seral forest
(forest with characteristics such as multi-layered canopy and downed woody
debris that can support biodiversity) is itself as rare in Mendocino County
as old growth.

2.) As of two years ago, the proceeds from logging JDSF no longer go to
subsidize the Timber Industry's permit processing--this processing is now
subsidized by the State's General Fund.

3.) Finally, all those colorful references to Hitler, Germany, Sieg Heil,
and the like were my personal contribution to your reading pleasure!

SEE YOU IN DC--OR SOONER!!!

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
----------------------------
Mark Hilovsky, Builders Action Network
415-550-6850 mhilo@aol.com
----------------------------
Mary Bull,
Save the Redwoods/Boycott the Gap Campaign
415-731-7924 chalicenew@earthlink.net
----------------------------
----------------------------
Gap Labor Exploitation URLs:
http://sweatshops@globalexchange.org
http://www.globalexchange.org
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
----------------------------
"God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there!"

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