Save the Redwoods/Boycott the Gap
Boycott the Gap: 'Tis the Season to E-S-C-A-L-A-T-E!!!
Posted by Mary Bull (chalicenew@earthlink.net)
Friday, December 8, 2000
Solstice Greetings, Forest and Social Justice Activists Around the World!
ZAP-the-GAP HOLIDAY CAMPAIGN 2000 is off and running, starting with 15 Gap
Demos Across the Country on Buy Nothing Day, the 2nd Anniversary of the Gap
Boycott -- including San Francisco, Palm Beach, Philadelphia, Houston, D.C.,
Raleigh, Olympia, Fresno, Denver, and Winnipeg!!! In SF, we unfurled our
MAGNIFICENT 200-FOOT Anti-GAP CLOTHESLINE, while HUNDREDS of
PROTESTORS chanted, cheered, sang, drummed, danced, and listened to the
inspired words of STARHAWK and REDWOOD MARY at rallies in front of the Gap,
Banana Republic, and Old Navy flagship stores!!! Over 6000 leaflets were
distributed! What a Glorious Kick-off!
THANK YOU, GAPTIVISTS, FOR THIS SHOW OF FORCE!!!
(Reports from around the country to be posted soon at gapsucks!)
...And MORE GAP ACTIONS are scheduled for NYC (12/7), Seattle (12/9+++),
Lawrence, Kansas (12/9), Des Moines (TBA), Boston (12/16), Cape Cod (TBA),
Denver (12/17), Wayne, PA (12/23), Gainsville, FL (TBA), SF (12/16+++),
Fresno, CA (1/8), and counting! In the Bay Area, we followed the kick-off
with leafletting at the grand opening of Gap Body in Oakland on 12/1 and are
leafletting every Sat and Sun in December at the Gap Flagship in SF--we have
also planned some VERY SPECIAL actions for December (details below)--Hey,
we've gotta show 'em on their home turf ;-)! Check out www.gapsucks.org or
email me for the ongoing list, contact and other info regarding these
actions! Let us know YOUR holiday action, so we can post it to inspire
others to action!
With Gap profits down 41%, WE ARE SO CLOSE -- We cannot over-emphasize the
importance of getting the Gap Boycott message out there RIGHT NOW, during
Gap's biggest revenue month of the year: Leafletting, demoing, postering,
running ads, writing letters to the editor -- or how about this wonderful
holiday action from the terrific student activist Olya Milenkaya in her
recent article for Earth Net News: Making COOKIES with "boycott the Gap"
ICING and taking a stroll through your neighborhood to spread the holiday
cheer!!! Marketing analysts say that this year, peak shopping will occur
from 22--24 -- so demos, leafletting, and HEART-WINNING one-on-one will be
ALL-IMPORTANT during this period!
Our web master promises that our two great GAP BOYCOTT HOLIDAY POSTERS will
be available at our web site for downloading by tomorrow evening (one has a
blank area where you can put info about YOUR action!), as well as SWEATSHOP
CAROLS (courtesy of another spirited Gaptivist on our net, Kat from
Gainsville, FL, who just pulled off the terrific action in Palm Beach!),
STICKERS, and an ALTERNATIVE SHOPPING GUIDE!!!
Let's make this the LAST HOLIDAY CAMPAIGN -- let's win the forest and a
living wage THIS HOLIDAY SEASON by telling EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE to give the
gift of life to endangered species and exploited workers by NOT SHOPPING GAP
for their holiday gifts!!!
In this newsletter, call to action, and calendar highlights:
-Join the Gap Boycott Bay-Area Holiday Campaign: ACTIVIST FUN!!!
-Write Your Local Paper: Tell Them Why People Should Boycott Gap!
-Join the Bay Area Mobilization to Defend the Mattole!!!
-Stop the Gap Fisher Logging Plan That Will Destroy a Restoration Project!
-Write the CHRON: They LIED about our TWO-PENNY ACTION!
-Join In Reclaiming's Winter Solstice Ritual for the Earth!!!
-Mobilize Against Corporate Economic Globalization: FTAA Summit!!!
-Other Important Actions, Events, & Alerts!
---->Dec 10, Internat'l: Prayer Circle for Leonard Peltier!!!
---->Dec 11&12, SF: U'wa Leader to Speak, Lead Rally!
---->Dec 15, Berk: Dance for the Trees: Benefit for BACH!
---->Dec 18, Nat'l: DEMOCRACY NOW: Electoral College Protest!!!
---->Jan 9, SF: Community Forum: Gap Sweatshops & Deforestation!
---->May 4-18: Permaculture Meets Direct Action: Earth ActivistTraining!
---->Alternative Holiday Shopping Guide!!!
(Lots happening: A Supplemental Calendar will be coming out soon!)
***NEWS FLASH: A GREAT VICTORY for the U'WA: Thanks to grassroots pressure,
Fidelity dumped 60% of its Oxy stock!!! THREE CHEERS for Patrick
Reinsborough, RAN, and Everyone who pressured Fidelity!!!***
***NEWS FLASH: 80,000 protestors have descended on Nice at the EU summit
there, protesting corporate economic globalization and the European
Union!***
***REQUEST for Help: Redwood Mary is looking for housing in Berkeley. Please
contact her if you have any leads: redwoodm@mcn.org ***
Join the Gap Boycott Bay-Area Holiday Campaign: Lots of FUN!!!
************************************************************************
-Sat & Sun, throughout December. SF Gap flagship, Powell & Market.
Leafletting from 12--4. Thanks to Global Exchange for organizing this
ongoing action. Call Hannah at G-Ex to sign up for a two-hour shift.
415-558-9486. Contact me for forest props, banners and leaflets!
415-731-7924.
-Sat&Sun, Dec 16, 17. SF Union Square. 12 Noon. The UNION of CONCERNED
SANTAS says, "Fishers of Gap, Inc: Extinguishing Endangered Species and
Exploiting Desperate People Just Isn't in the Xmas Spirit! We will deliver
no gifts purchased from Gap, Banana Republic, or Old Navy this holiday
season!" The Santas will be caroling, leafletting, and exhorting holiday
shoppers to give the gift of life, instead -- to the forest and its
threatened creatures and to workers in the form of a living wage!!! Meet at
Union Square then march to the Gap, BR, and Old Navy flagships. WE NEED
SANTAS (we've got the suits!) & ELVES to leaflet!!! Please contact me if
you'd like to participate in this popular action (415-731-7924)!!! Or just
show up in the appropriate attire!!!
-Sat, Dec 23. SF Union Square. 12 Noon. It's a bird! It's plane!
NO--It's the ANTI-GAP ALTERNATIVE SHOPPING VAN!!!! Joining the Union of
Concerned Santas will be our crazy, fun Anti-Gap Alterna-Van (with thanks to
Gaptivist Ron Monk--for the great idea and providing the van!) --ready to
drive ADVENTURE LOVING SAN FRANCISCANS and TOURISTS to wonderful
alternative shopping destinations -- such as the Thrift Stores in the
Mission!!! Even if we don't get many takers, we think we'll get some
good-natured media --the Chronicle Need Not Apply!-- covering this fun
action! Our Alterna-Van is going to look pretty outrageous lined up with the
Banana Republic's Xmas shuttle vans--no joke: they have shiny steel-gray,
spanking new vans topped with oversized silver bows and gift boxes to
shuttle shoppers among the three stores: Gap, BR, Old Navy! Contact me to be
part of this action! 415-731-7924.
Dec 24. Caroling in the Fishers' Laurel Heights neighborhood! Like Trick or
Treating on Halloween -- where the Fishers had their Gap security guards on
hand to dole out candy at their gate -- singing sweatshop and deforestation
carols on the Fishers' street corner will be equally effective! Please call
us to join in! 415-731-7924.
Tell Your Local Paper Why Shoppers Should Boycott Gap!
****************************************************************
Please take a moment to send this email to your local paper!
--275 words--
Dear Editor,
I want to encourage readers to shop with conscience this holiday season. The
way we spend our consumer dollars can change corporate policies that are
destroying the environment and exploiting desperately poor people.
For example, Gap, Inc (Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy), the biggest
clothing retailer in the US, is notorious for using sweatshop labor to
produce its goods, while putting on a caring, progressive face. Similarly,
it is well documented that the Fisher family, founders and major
shareholders of Gap Inc, is damaging redwood forestland in California with
clearcutting, old-growth logging, toxic herbicide application, and
overlogging. Though they recently bought a "green-label" that is supposed to
mean they are logging "sustainably," the "certifiying" documents reveal that
they got the label on a mere promise that they will stop these damaging
practices years down the road. Meanwhile, they are logging the last viable
forest habitat--and extinguishing the endangered species that are hanging on
by a thread there.
It appears that the two-year-old consumer-pressure campaign is working, with
Gap profits down 41%. Organizers say that if enough shoppers avoid Gap,
Banana Republic, and Old Navy stores this holiday season, the Fishers will
make their forestland a wildlife refuge and Gap, Inc, will improve
conditions and pay for their contract workers.
Wouldn't it be a great if we all gave the gift of life to these endangered
species and a living wage to these poor workers? Isn't that what the
holidays are supposed to be about?
For more information on the Gap Sweatshop Campaign, check out
www.globalexchange.org . For more information on the Save-the
Redwoods/Boycott the Gap Campaign, check out www.elksoft.com/gwa
--John/Jane Q. Activist, Address, Phone Number
Join the Bay Area Mobilization to Defend the Mattole!!!
************************************************************
The Mattole Valley and Rainbow Ridge are part of the Lost Coast in Humboldt
County, California. Join in the noble struggle to save the second largest
ancient coastal Douglas Fir forest remaining in California from by
Maxxam/P-L!!! Contact Acorn (415-337-1609) or Lynx (510-656-7767) to find
out about Bay Area carpooling to the Mattole; contact the Mattole Defenders
to get there on your own and for additional information/other action you can
take: 707-441-3828 mattoledefense@yahoo.com Additional contacts: Josh Brown
707-825-8435; Jane Lapiner 707-629-3670.
Stop A Fisher Logging Plan That Will Destroy a Restoration Project!
***************************************************************************
The reality of Gap Fisher logging can be witnessed in the 200+ logging plans
they bought or filed since taking over this forestland and in the ones they
keep filing... In the Albion, they recently took two out of three known
nesting sites belonging to a pair of endangered northern spotted owls (these
owls nest in big trees and that's what the Fishers are targeting, as
evidenced in their timber harvest plans: the last of the big trees, ). The
callousness of this act, when these birds have so little habitat left...
In Greenwood Creek this week, we expect that CDF will approve a Fisher plan
to clearcut an area spanning steep, unstable slopes directly above the
fish-bearing creek (I reconned this plan and swore protection to the
salmonid fingerlings I greeted there!). Further, the Greenwood Watershed
Association and other members of the community restored this area of the
creek a few years ago (to the tune of thousands of dollars and thousands of
volunteer hours!!!), including replacing a blown out culvert with a bridge!
The Fisher logging company also plans to appropriate our bridge--expand
it--for their logging trucks and equipment! Even the Dept of Fish & Game
sent a letter objecting to this plan on the basis that it will add silt to
this restored area.
The icing on the cake is this: The plan says that in addition to clearcutting the tanoak, they intend to take 52% of the redwoods, in support of their transition to uneven-age management...?! Why not leave ALL the redwoods, and REALLY support that transition??
A perfectly legal BRIDGE SIT is being planned--tents, etc! If you would like
to help, call 707-877-3405.
Write the Chron: THEY LIED ABOUT OUR TWO-PENNY ACTION!!!
***************************************************************************
As many of you know, we were recently slammed in the SF Chronicle -- they
deliberately misrepresented one of our actions to make us look bad. The
first negative press we have EVER received in this two-year campaign, and
the first time the Chron has ever covered one of our Gap actions! Very ugly,
very petty, very pro-Fisher. By the way, OTHER THAN the Chron, we got
EXCELLENT media coverage of our wonderful Two Penny Action (signifying the
Gap missed its projected earnings mark by two cents): 3 TV and 2 radio
stations!!!
Chron Business Editor Ken Howe said he'd publish the following letter,
but has not made good on his word (this has happened with me before with the
Chron and anti-Gap letters). If you have time, please drop him an email and
encourage him to print the SRBG Letter in response to their 11/18 article:
khowe@sfchronicle.com
Dear Editor,
Regarding Carol Emert's article "The Rally That Wasn't" (11-18-00), I take
exception to its gross misrepresentation of our demonstration against
redwood forest logging by the Fishers of Gap, Inc., and the Gap's use of
sweatshop labor.
I organized the 11/17 protest and was the media contact for it: It was never
billed as a rally, nor did I indicate that large numbers were expected. They
weren't. This was designed as a small, symbolic action, with a few of us
rolling giant pennies up to the door of Gap HQ to dramatize Gap's recent
loss of profits, as consumers learn about the Gap Fishers' destruction of
redwood forests and Gap's use of sweatshop labor. We planned this protest
four days prior to its execution--so obviously it wasn't planned as a rally,
which takes weeks of lead time. We wanted to do the action quickly, while
the ink was still wet on Gap's third-quarter earnings report. We didn't even
alert our network of hundreds of Bay Area activists.
During the two years of this campaign, we have organized only three rallies
targeting the Fishers and their Gap empire: the boycott kickoff, San
Francisco, 11/98, 300 participants; Seattle, 11/99, 2000 participants;
Washington, DC, 4/00, 500 participants.
Otherwise, we pride ourselves on small, powerful actions, like the one in
front of Gap HQ on 11/17: These actions have garnered national and
international media coverage (e.g., CNN, BBC, NBC, LA Times, WSJ) of the
important issues of Fisher deforestation and Gap sweatshop labor, and have
inspired support for the Gap Boycott worldwide.
We invite you and your readers to visit our web site,
http://www.elksoft.com/gwa to study these important issues.
Join In Reclaiming's Winter Solstice Ritual!!!
*************************************************
Wed, Dec 20, Internat'l. People around the globe will be joining in
Reclaiming's beautiful and powerful Winter Solstice Ritual and Prayer/Spell
to heal the Earth and her Creatures!!! In SF: Gather at 3, ritual at 4 pm,
Ocean Beach south of Taraval. Check out www.reclaiming.org for directions,
and other locations where the same spell will be cast/prayer will be prayed.
Also, check out Starhawk's Permaculture/Direct Action Training this Spring
(described below!).
Dec 10, Internat'l: Demand Clemency for Leonard Peltier!!!
*****************************************************************
SF, NY, LA. Geneva. Prayer Circle for Leonard Peltier!. In SF: 3-5PM, UN
Plaza, Market & McAllister at 7th St. All Drums Welcome. 415.648.8472.
Contact Leonard Peltier Defense Committee 785-842-5774 www.freepeltier.org
for other locations!
***Good News: The letters and phone calls are helping--lots of media and a
renewed commitment from Clinton to make a decision before he leaves
office! Let's step up those calls and emails: president@whitehouse.gov
202-456-1111***
Mobilize Against Corporate Economic Globalization: FTAA!!!
******************************************************************
Quebec City, April 21, 2001. Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA)
Summit .This is it, the NEXT Mass Protest Against Corporate Economic
Globalization!!!
From Juliette Beck: "Next April 2001 Quebec City will play host to the
Summit of the Americas, where political, economic and financial elites will
try to put the final touches on the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas
(FTAA). FTAA will bring the destructive effects of NAFTA to the entire
hemisphere, becoming yet another engine for the expansion of the neoliberal
free trade agenda. While activists in Quebec are planning to shut the
meeting down, local communities throughout South, Central and North America
will be organizing over the next several months to build diverse and
broad-based local/global coalitions in support of a people's alternative to
corporate-driven globalization in the Americas. "
A Bay Area Stop FTAA listserve has been set up. To join, send mail to
with the following command in the body of
your email message: subscribe stop-ftaa
For more info on the FTAA: http://www.tradewatch.org/FTAA/ftaahome.html
Dec 11&12, SF: U'wa Leader to Speak, Lead Rally!!!
**********************************************************
-Monday December 11, 7:30 pm. Community Forum: The U'wa Struggle for
Survival The Women's Building 3543 18th St (btw Valencia and Guerrero)
-Tuesday December 12, 12pm Rally to stop Sanford Bernstein Corporation from
investing in genocide! Join U'wa leader Roberto Perez in confronting
Occidental Petroleum's largest investor Sanford Bernstein. 555 California
(cross street Kearney) downtown SF near Montgomery BART
Last April Sanford Bernstein president, Roger Hertog assured the U'wa that
he would look into his companies investments in Oxy and come to a "just and
fair" solution. Well his solution was to buy 10 million more Oxy shares!
Now its time to hold them accountable and get another major Oxy shareholder
to divest. Bring your instruments, banners and signs supporting the U'wa
and calling on SB to stop investing in genocide and destruction.
Work parties are being planned. For more information contact
Rainforest Action Network at 415-398-4404 or email organize@ran.org
DANCE FOR THE FORESTS: BACH Benefit!!!
***************************************************
Friday, December 15, 8 pm. Ashkenaz: 1317 San Pablo Ave (at Gilman),
Berkeley. Sliding Scale Admission. For info: Bay Area Coalition for
Headwaters' office 510-835-6303
The Alice Di Micele Band from Ashland, Oregon will perform a benefit concert
for the Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters at Ashkenaz in Berkeley. Longtime
activist and Headwaters forest supporter, Alice Di Micele has released seven
CDs during her 12 year musical career. Her soulful five-octave voice and
groove acoustic guitar is complimented by a rock-solid band whose funky
tunes will make you want to get up and dance. Alice's passion and love for
the environment is evident in her powerful and earthy song-writing; she'll
have the audience swimming like "a wild Chinook salmon, ain't no hatchery
child and when you dam up my river you cramp my style." Berkeley native
Rachel Garlin, and the acapella group Making Waves will open the show.
DEC 18: DEMOCRACY NOW! Clean It! Fix It! Build It!
************************************************************
Dear Friends,
Please join us in a call to hold rallies/press conferences in state capitols
around the country on Monday, December 18, when members of the Electoral
College will gather in the 50 state capitols to cast their ballots for the
President of the United States. The theme of protests will be Democracy Now!
Clean It, Fix It, Build It.
It is very likely that the electors voting on December 18 will select the
candidate who did not receive the most votes. This illogical outcome, the
result of a constitutional anachronism, is just the tip of the iceberg in
terms of the flaws in our electoral system. Others include: the legalized
bribery that constitutes our campaign finance system, the disenfranchisement
of ex-felons in many states, the institutional obstacles facing third
parties, the unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles placed before voters, and the
partisan control of institutions that determine electoral rules.
The changes needed to remedy these ills are well known--clean money
elections, voting rights for ex-felons, open debates, truly non-partisan and
independent electoral commissions, and new voter registration. The
heightened attention on our electoral systems offer a once-in-a-generation
opportunity to gain greater public support for these reforms.
Letıs start our call for a more democratic political system on December 18.
Will your organization endorse this action?
Will you help organize a protest/press conference in your state capitol?
As time is of the essence, weıd appreciate hearing back from you as soon as
possible. To respond or request more information, contact Nick Suplina at
nick@globalexchange.org or 415-255-7296.
Best regards,
Medea Benjamin, Global Exchange
Jan 9, SF: Community Forum: Gap Sweatshops & Deforestation!
***********************************************************************
Mark your calendars!!! Grassroots forest defenders and human rights
activists from Global Exchange and SRBG will be taking on Gap/Fisher Public
Relations Reps at a community forum tentatively scheduled for January 9th!!!
time and place TBA.
May 4--18: Starhawk and Stark's Earth ActivistTraining!
*************************************************************
Special message from Starhawk to Gaptivists: Here's some information about a
training I'll be doing in the spring--I'd especially like to offer it to
some of the younger activists on the GAP campaign. (I know the dates are
bad if they're in school, but if this goes well we will follow up with
others.) Love and blessings, Starhawk.
May 4-18, Western Sonoma County, California
Spend two weeks in the coastal California hills learning:
Nature and wilderness awareness.
Diversity in ecosystems and in our movement.
Pattern thinking in design, strategy, and movement building.
Solutions that exist: alternative energy, organic farming, natural
building, bioremediation and restoration.
Soil and forest ecology and ecological economics.
How to collect, conserve, and clean water.
Movement builiding, strategy and direct action principles and practices.
Consensus process, facilitation and conflict transformation.
How to transform fear, rage, grief and frustration into creative action.
How to stay grounded and centered in tough and challenging situations.
How to create ritual and weave magic into action.
...and more!
Cost: We are actively fundraising to provide this on a pay-what-you-can
basis to activists. Work trades, payment plans and scholarships available.
For those who can pay, we estimate the real cost of providing this program
to be $1200 per person who canıt. Please donıt let money keep you away
To apply, or for more information, contact: Madrone Productions, PO Box
410187, SF CA 94141-0187 415-789-7674 email: Kimjack@sirius.com
Shop Green/Fair Trade this Holiday Season: SOURCES!!!
****************************************************************
***First, Remember the Golden Rule of Consumerism:
REDUCE, RE-USE, RECYCLE!!! ...& COMPOST!!!***
--PANTY PARLOUR - Undergarments (15% Discount to Gaptivists!)
www.PantyParlour.com 415-482-6155 Green and Fair Trade!!!!
--CO-OP AMERICA GREEN PAGES - 10,000 sources!
http://www.coopamerica.org 800-58-GREEN
--REAL GOODS - Everything! http://www.realgoods.com
--PATAGONIA Clothing+
http://www.patagonia.com 1-800-638-6464
--EARTH SPEAKS - Women's clothing
http://www.earthspeaks.com info@earthspeaks.com 718-694-8338
--DECENT EXPOSURES - Women's undergarments
http://www.decentexposures.com 206-364-4540
--GLOBAL EXCHANGE - Ethnic gifts
http://www.globalexchange.org
***Of course, second-hand stores provide the coolest styles for the lowest
prices!!!***
__________________________________________
No Rest for the Righteous--not THIS holiday season!!!
PLEASE Organize a Gap Action in Your Community!!!
Mary Bull
Save the Redwoods/Boycott the Gap Campaign
252 Frederick Street, San Francisco, CA 94117
chalicenew@earthlink.net 415-731-7924 http://www.gapsucks.org
_________________________________________
Other Contacts/Information Sources:
----------------------------
Mary Pjerrou, Redwood Coast Watersheds Alliance
707-877-3405 pirohuck@mcn.org www.elksoft.com/gwa
----------------------------
Mark Hilovsky, Builders Action Network
415-550-6850 mhilo@aol.com
----------------------------
Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters
510-835-6303 Listserve listproc@envirolink.org
(message text = Subscribe BACHlist,
followed by email address, then name)
----------------------------
Info on Gap Sweatshops:
http://www.globalexchange.org
leila@globalexchange.org
"God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there..."
FOR REDWOODS AND WORKERS:
BOYCOTT THE GAP, BANANA REPUBLIC, & OLD NAVY!!!
For questions and comments please e-mail us!
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Copyright 1999 Save the Redwoods/Boycott the Gap.
