Save the Redwoods/Boycott the Gap
Save the Earth >>> Ring in the NEW!!! <<< Bring Down the Empire
Posted by Mary Bull (chalicenew@earthlink.net)
Wednesday, December 31, 2003
Greetings, Peace, Earth, & Social Justice Activists Around the Globe!!!
WHAT A YEAR!!! At the end of this greeting and invitation for 2004 strategy
input, is a list of our collective accomplishments on a global level,
courtesy of MEDEA BENJAMIN. Please read it for inspiration! If you are in
the San Francisco Bay Area this New Year's Eve, there are TWO GREAT PARTIES
/ fundraisers: one for DIRECT ACTION TO STOP THE WAR (DASW) in SF and one
for the ZAPATISTAS in the East Bay (details below)! There is also a DASW
VISIONING / Strategy session on January 10 in SF, to plan the best course of
action for supplanting the Empire with peace, justice, and ecology: All are
invited (details below)!!! MARK YOUR CALENDARS for the mass mobilization
against corporate food policies at the BIOTECH EXPO in SF in JUNE 2004
(details below)!!!
GAPATISTA ROADSHOW!!! While we were all busy trying to stop the war and end
the occupation, THE GAP gained ground--after 24 consecutive months of
declines & losses (good work, Gaptivists!!!)--with heavy discounting and
three celebrity ad campaigns, including MADONNA hawking sweatshop clothes!
SOOOOO, we decided to TOP OFF this exhausting year with a cross-country
roadshow: the GAPATISTA ROADSHOW to STOP the FREE TRADE AREA of the AMERICAS
& Jump-Start the Gap Boycott Campaign! Despite two vehicle break-downs, the
roadshow was a success media-wise and coalition-building wise (e.g., we made
good friends at the El Paso Central Labor Council and the Centro de los
Trabajadores Agriolas Fronterizos). HATS OFF TO THE GAPATISTAS!!! Once in
Miami, many of us dropped our Gapatista sashes and donned KILLER TOMATO
costumes to march with the COALITION OF IMMOKALEE WORKERS on November 18,
and with the EARTH CLUSTER on November 20. We'll get some pics up at
www.gapsucks.org soon. Also, look for our full year-end report for updates
on all our efforts, including the environmental and civil rights lawsuits!
2004 STRATEGY to SAVE the REDWOODS!!! We are inviting input from the members
of this network to form a 2004 strategy to save one of the most magnificent
ecosystems that Nature has ever created from imminent destruction by
developers and corporate profiteers.... How should we focus our resources???
Should we continue with grassroots demos??? Should we try something
radically different??? Should we outreach to Labor??? Should we make a
professional video and try to air it on public television stations across
the land??? Should we focus on the CRAP gear??? Should we focus on a redwood
boycott??? Should we focus on state legislation??? Please let us know your
views!!!
-->TONIGHT, SF. Dance Down the Empire: DASW PARTY / fundraiser! 8pm--2am.
$20--50 sliding scale donation recommended / no one turned away.
Mind-altering words and booty-shakin' African rhythms!!! EL RIO. 3158
Mission, 2 blocks south of Cesar Chavez. www.actagainstwar.org
-->TONIGHT, Oak. New Year's Eve ZAPATISTA PARTY / fundraiser! 8:30 PM - 2:00
AM. Admission: $15.00 - Food and Drinks Available. Humanist Hall, 390 27th
Street, Oakland Live Music and Dancing, featuring: ORIXA - Rock en Espanol
Bodhi Busick Band - World Conscious Latin Folk Rock Son de la Tierra -
traditional son jarocho from Veracruz PLUS: Aztec Dancers - Cuauhtonal and
Spoken Word - Rolando Carrillo All proceeds benefit our sister Zapatista
county of San Manuel Near 19th Street BART Off Street Parking Wheelchair
Accessible Sponsored by the Chiapas Support Committee as part of Rebel
Magazine's global campaign EZLN: 20 & 10, Fire and Word; celebrating the
EZLN's 20th Birthday and the 10 year Anniversary of the Chiapas Uprising.
Endorsements: Mexico Solidarity Network (MSN), Marin Interfaith Task Force
(MITF), and Global Exchange. Info: Chiapas Support Committee - (510)
654-9587 or cezmat@igc.org.
---> JAN 10, SF: DASW VISIONING / STRATEGY SESSION!!! If you agree with
Direct Action to Stop the War goals/points of unity posted at
www.actagainstwar.org, then you are enthusiastically invited to join in this
visioning/strategy session! Saturday, January 10, 2004, 11am-5pm, St.
Boniface Church, 133 Golden Gate, San Francisco, CA. Food provided. Please
plan to come on time and stay for the afternoon; bring ideas in any stage of
development! RSVP: daswmeetings@riseup.net. Check out www.actagainstwar.org
for the full invitation and guidelines. This should be AWESOME!!! SEE YOU
THERE!!!
---> JUN 8, SF: MASS PROTESTS Against Corporate Control of the World Food
Supply!!! Excerpts from a call-to-action from members of the GREEN BLOC: On
June 8th, the first day of the G8's behind-closed-door meetings, the biotech
industry's largest meeting of lobbyists will be gathering along with their
pharmaceutical co-conspirators in san francisco. RECLAIM YOUR DEMOCRACY:
This is a call to take the next step; this is a call to create the next
world; this is a call to action; this is a call to charms...they will be met
by a demonstration unlike any the world has ever seen. Will Golden Gate Park
become a food forest? Will bicycle taxis shuttle people around car-free
streets? Will the streets burst with public art? Will we dig up Market
Street and plant a garden? Will people from around the Bay begin using a
local currency? Will Bechtel finally be shut down? Will victims of
environmental racism, the economic draft, and the war on the poor stand
united and realize their power? Will one thousand local struggles come
together in solidarity to realize that their power is greater than that
which opposes them? ...make your plans early. come out west and help make a
bold, beautiful, delicious statement that we the people have finally arrived
and we will not back down. send an email to:
sf.june8-subscribe@lists.riseup.net to get plugged in.
________________________________________
May this be a Great Year for each of you, and much better one for the Earth
and all her creatures!
Medea's message follows!
Mary Bull
Save the Redwoods/Boycott the Gap Campaign
252 Frederick, San Francisco, CA 94117
http://www.gapsucks.org 415-731-7924 chalicenew@earthlink.net
For Global Ecology & Global Justice, End Corporate Rule!
http://www.ifg.org http://www.canadians.org http://www.citizen.org
http://www.foodfirst.org http://www.globalexchange.org
10 Good Things About a Bad Year
by Medea Benjamin
No two ways about it, 2003 was a demoralizing year for those of us working
for peace and justice. With George Bush in the White House, Arnold
Schwarzenegger in the California State House, and Paul Bremer ruling Iraq,
it was a chore just to get out of bed each morning. But get out of bed we
did, and we spent our days educating, strategizing, organizing and
mobilizing. As we greet the new year, let's remember and celebrate some of
our hard-fought victories in a time of adversity.
1. We organized the most massive, global protests against war the world has
ever seen. On February 15 alone, over12 million people came out on the
streets in over 700 cities in 60countries and on every continent. So
impressive was this outpouring of anti-war sentiment that the New York
Times, not known for hyperbole, claimed there were now two superpowers: the
US and global public opinion.
2. Over the last few months, mainstream Americans have been buying
progressive books-by the millions. Authors such as Michael Moore, Al
Franken, Molly Ivins, Paul Krugman and David Corn have seen their books soar
to the New York Times bestsellers list. With humor and biting exposes of the
Bush administration, these authors helped our movement gain legions of new
converts. No more preaching to the choir this year!
3. When the World Trade Organization met in Cancun in September to promote
global rules that give even greater power to transnational corporations,
they were met by well-coordinated opposition from countries in the global
south, hundreds of non-governmental organizations, and thousands of
activists. When our movement's sophisticated inside-outside strategy forced
the talks to collapse, there was "gloom in the suites and dancing in the
streets." And as a counter to these corporate-dominated global institutions,
the fair trade movement had a stellar year.
4. The poorest country in South America, Bolivia, proved that people power
is alive and well. Sparked bythe Bolivian president's plan to privatize and
export the nation's natural gas, an astounding grassroots movement of
peasants, miners, workers, and indigenous people poured into the streets to
demand his resignation. After five weeks of intense protests and a
government crackdown that left 70dead, Sanchez de Lozada was forced to
resign. Now that's regime change!
5. The silver lining in the budget crisis affecting the states throughout
this nation is that from Louisiana to Texas to Michigan-and even in Arnold
Schwarzenegger's California-state governments are cutting prison budgets by
releasing non-violent drugoffenders. The year has been marked by a steady
move toward treatment instead of incarceration and a greater understanding
that drug abuse should be handled in the doctors' office, not the prison
cell.
6. For so long, celebrities have put their careers above their beliefs. This
year witnessed a "coming out" of allt ypes of celebrities on all manner of
progressive issues. Jay-Z and Mariah Carey railed against the racist
Rockefeller drug laws, Bono and Beyonce Knowles called for the world to
fight AIDS, and a host of celebs such as Sean Penn, Susan Saradon and
Laurence Fishbourne courageously took a stand against the invasion of Iraq.
7. Progressives now have a powerful new tool for organizing: the internet.
E-activism through venues such as MoveOn, Working Assets, and Meetup.com
have allowed ordinary people to challenge big money and powerful
institutions. We raised millions of dollars to run ads, we've confronted
corporate-dominated institutions like the Federal Communications Commission,
and e-activism has allowed an anti-war candidate, Howard Dean, to become a
frontrunner in the 2004 elections.
8. In an unprecedented outpouring of local opposition to the assault on our
civil liberties, over 200 cities, towns, counties, and states across the
country have passed resolutions against the Patriot Act. In fact, the outcry
has been so profound that plans for a successor act, dubbed Patriot Act II,
that would further broaden federal investigatory powers, have been scuttled.
9. While eclipsed by the war in Iraq, the corporate scandals that topped the
headlines in 2002 continued in 2003,with indefatigable New York State
Attorney-General Eliot Spitzer exposing the trading abuses in the mutual
funds industry. The Enron, WorldCom and accounting scandals produced some
positive legislation against corporate crime and forced institutional
investors like pension funds to become more active. And anti-corporate
crusaders joined with peace activists to expose the obscene war profiteering
of Halliburton and Bechtel-with more exposes to come in 2004!
10. Despite the conservative takeover of the courts, this year produced
several landmark rulings we can be proud of. The Supreme Court upheld
affirmative action, giving a sweeping victory to the University of Michigan
and colleges all over the country. It struck down sodomy laws criminalizing
gay sex, affirming the constitutional right to privacy. The Massachusetts
Supreme Court ruled that gays should be able to marry. The Appeals Court
ruled that the US military could not detain American citizen Jose Padilla as
an "enemy combatant", and in an even more significant decision, found that
all 600 detainees at Guantanamo Bay should be granted access to lawyers.
There are many more-the immigrants' freedom march that crisscrossed the
nation to counter the anti-immigrant backlash, the amazing youth movement
that is bringing new culture and vibrancy to organizing, the renewed women's
activism through groups like Code Pink, the awarding of the Nobel Peace
Prize to an Iranian women Shirin Ebadi. And each one of us could add to the
list.
So while we lament the present state of the world and the present occupant
in the White House, just remember that even in the gloomiest days of 2003,
we kept slugging away-and sometimes even winning. Now let's move on to score
the BIG victory in 2004 by sending George Bush back to Crawford.
Medea Benjamin is co-founder of Global Exchange and CodePink: Women for
Peace.
For questions and comments please e-mail us!
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