Peace Community

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“Is Everyone Disabled? ...”

Elizabeth Ison to speak at Human Resources Conference

Today it seems like everyone can claim a disability under the conflicting and confusing set of rules, laws, policies and practices on the job. Ms Elizabeth Ison has spent much of her career exploring this topic. Wednesday, October 24th, at Brookside Country Club, Stockton, she will speak on, “Is Everyone Disabled?: Untangling the Varied and Evolving State and Federal Disability Laws" from 8:30 AM to 1:30 PM, for the San Joaquin Human Resources Association's and the Central Valley Human Resources Association's joint seminar titled “Best Practices in Human Resource Management."

Continental breakfast and lunch will be served. Registration for HR Associations’ members is $35.00, for non-members, $45.00. Everyone is welcome. Call Nicole Wells, 209-926-3347 or Judy Callahan, 209-943-5411 xt 201 for registration information. Vendor tables are available by phoning Dawn Standart at 209-545-1111 xt 327 or Mary Ann Henriques at 209-467-6230.

GAP sweatshops challenged by persistent activists

By MIKE RHODES

Demonstrations against the clothing retailer GAP’s use of sweatshop labor have happened the first Saturday of every month for almost two years. On May 6, 2000, nineteen (19) nonviolent activists were arrested at the Fresno Fashion Fair Mall by over 100 Fresno City police officers, with a police helicopter hovering overhead and a riot squad blocking the mall’s entrance.

Why has Fresno become a focal point of anti-sweatshop activity and what have we learned from this experience? The Fresno Police over-reacted to the peaceful protest and conspired to violate activist's civil rights by infiltrating the group. The informant attended group meetings, monitored  email messages, and led the police to believe that there was a good chance that hundreds of protesters would engage in a violent protest.

I am one of the protest organizers arrested at the May 2000 demonstration. I was surprised to get a call from Sergeant Mercado of the Fresno Police Department late last year asking me about plans for a demonstration he said he had heard about. The strange thing about the call was - we had not even decided to hold it, but he already seemed to know details that only a handful of people knew.

The group was confused about how the police knew inside information about plans until the informant was reveled at the court hearing, through a discovery motion. Everyone, of course, wanted to know the identity of the informant. Everyone was a suspect and mistrust grew between activists. Some of the more experienced members of the group counseled to not over react to the information - that you have to assume that the police know what we are doing and that they have done this to disrupt us. Months later we are find people who stayed away from the demonstrations out of fear or because they thought they were suspected of being the informant.

The government’s use of informants in community groups has far reaching implications to our First Amendment and Civil Rights. Any attack on fundamental democratic rights of Free Speech must be confronted. The massive police presence intimidated and threatened citizens who would speak out against sweatshops and unjust working conditions.

The Fashion Fair Mall, owned by the Macerich Corporation, decided to take total control over events at its property. Even though Fashion Fair Mall defined itself as “the new town square,” it demanded the right to censor any flier handed out, insisted on a list of all participants at the May 2000 demonstration, and refused to make any compromises that could have avoided arrests. Their lawyers determined how and why people would be arrested and called on their allies at the Fresno Police Department who gladly supported Fashion Fair property rights over our civil rights. The police laughed when we suggested that they should be protecting our rights against those of the soulless corporation.

In the months following the arrests, protesters returned again and again to demonstrate against GAP’s use of sweatshop labor. The media coverage surrounding the arrests and subsequent demonstrations has led to an understanding by most Fresnans that the GAP has its clothing made at sweatshops. When protests are held now, motorists honk support and people wave to the demonstrators.

Fresno anti-sweatshop activists have now negotiated with Fashion Fair to set up a table inside the mall. The table is set up right where Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny are seasonally located. Protesters are free to hand out fliers to shoppers, distribute literature from the table, and while Fashion Fair tries to limit the number of protesters in the mall, we can and do bring in as many protesters as we want.

There was an incident when protesters started distributing “Stop GAP Sweatshops, The GAP can afford to pay a living wage” helium filled balloons in the mall. Fashion Fair security at first threatened to have balloon holding protesters arrested and took the balloons out of the hands of children as they entered the mall. Persistence once again paid off, and now balloons can be seen everywhere at the monthly demonstrations outside and inside the mall. The sight of security guards taking balloons out of the hands of crying children was not the kind of PR the mall wanted.

One thing we could have done differently was to have gone inside the GAP store in May 2000 to hand out fliers. That action would have forced GAP to make the decision to arrest us or not. The Free Speech fight with the Macerich Corporation has taken an enormous amount of resources and has taken the focus off the GAP. If the GAP had called the police and had us arrested the sweatshop issue would have been more central in the criminal proceedings. Since our arrest, this has become a two pronged struggle against sweatshops and in defense of Free Speech rights.

Global Exchange www.globalexchange.com coordinates the national campaign to Stop GAP sweatshops. Co-director Media Benjamin, former GAP sweatshop worker Chie Abad, and other GX staff have participated in numerous Fresno demonstrations. The protests at Fashion Fair are coordinated by activists from the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, the Green Party, Labor/Community Alliance, and United Students Against Sweatshops.

Fresno activists focus on the GAP’s use of sweatshop labor because GAP located their West coast distribution center here. We found out from Global Exchange that Saipan is a US territory replete with sweatshops where the GAP does the most business of any company on the island—over $200 million a year, contracting in six factories. Whereas these companies import without tariff or quota restrictions and label their clothes ‘Made in the USA,’ they do not adhere to US labor laws. Workers and the anti-sweatshop groups UNITE, Global Exchange, Sweatshop Watch and the Asian Law Caucus filed a billion dollar lawsuit against GAP and 17 other retailers for labor abuses in Saipan.

The sweatshop problem extends beyond Saipan. In Russia, GAP pays factory workers just 11 cents/hour and keeps them in slave-like conditions. Workers from Macao complain of abusive treatment by factory managers, who forced them to work excessive overtime and cheat them out of pay. A delegation from the National Labor Committee in June 1999 reported that Honduran GAP factory workers are subjected to forced pregnancy tests, forced overtime, exceedingly high production goals, locked bathrooms, and wages of $4/day, which only meet 1/3 of their basic needs. The workers said that if they tried to organize a union or even become more informed of their rights, they would be fired. They had never heard of GAP’s code of conduct. In Indonesia, 700 workers went on strike in July, 1997, protesting miserable wages and factory management’s refusal to recognize their independent union.

As with other major apparel retailers, GAP must be pressured to pay workers a living wage, ensure their right to organize, disclose factory locations and allow independent monitoring.

The campaign in Fresno to expose The GAP’s use of sweatshop labor has been an unqualified success. While the criminal proceedings drag on in court, the message about sweatshops gets to more and more people. A civil rights lawsuit filed by several defendants is challenging the Macerich corporation’s right to have people arrested for exercising their First Amendment rights.

ACTION: To contribute to the GAP 19 legal defense fund, or to learn more, contact: the Labor/Community Alliance, P.O. Box 5077, Fresno CA 93755, call (559) 233-3978, or email LCAeditor@mediaone.net. Information is also available at http://www.fresnoalliance.com/home/GAP.htm.

Volunteers needed

The Stanislaus County Children and Families Commission and the United Way of Stanislaus Co. are seeking volunteers who represent our multi-cultural community and reside in Stanislaus Co.   They will serve on teams to review and make recommendations for programs to improve the well-being of families and their children.  It is called the “Undesignated Pilot Program.

            Orientation is scheduled for Monday, Sept. 10 , 6:30 pm, alternate date is Tues., Sept 11 at 6:30 pm.  Contact Dorali Rueda, 209-523-4562 or e mail drueda@uwaystan.org.

Pictsweet: negotiate an UFW contract with your workers!

More than 300 workers at Pictsweet Mushroom Farms in Ventura County north of Los Angeles need help convincing their employer to negotiate a United Farm Workers contract.

 The workers at Pictsweet earn substantially less than their fellow workers employed at fresh mushroom ranches where there are UFW contracts. Meanwhile, company management continues to ignore the concerns of the workers and demonstrates a total lack of respect to the workers. On-the-job injuries result from the company’s indifference towards the workers. Workers are asking for decent wages, an end to on-the-job favoritism and to improve their medical plan. So far, Pictsweet has resisted reaching an agreement with its workers.

 Help these workers by emailing Pictsweet today urging them to negotiate a fair contract. Let Pictsweet know that you will boycott all Pictsweet products until workers have an union contract.

 For a comparison between two mushroom plants — Monterey Mushrooms Watsonville, a plant w/a union and Pictsweet Mushrooms Ventura a plant w/o a union go to: http://www.ufw.org/ufw/pscomp.pdf, then go to http://www.ufw.org/ufw/e-mail.htm and send Pictsweet your online letter today!

 For information on the Farm Worker Movement visit http://www.ufw.org and/or subscribe to the Farm Worker Movement list serve by sending an email to UFW-subscribe@topica.com.

Gun Control: sound logic

By VASU MURTY

The logic of gun control can best be understood by considering the analogy of the automobile. A car is a potentially lethal weapon. To drive a car, one must be trained, licensed, and have that license periodically renewed. And a car is designed solely as a means of transportation. Guns, on the other hand, are deliberately designed to kill people. It is not unreasonable to demand their regulation. Guns are the second deadliest consumer product (after cars) on the market. By the end of the decade, firearms will likely supplant automobiles as the leading cause of product-related deaths throughout the United States. In 1990, American guns claimed an estimated 37,000 lives.

There are no federal safety standards for the domestic manufacture of guns. There are no voluntary, industry wide safety standards for the manufacture of guns. Every two minutes, somebody somewhere in the United States is shot. Every 14 minutes, somebody dies from a gunshot wound. Each gun injury involving hospitalization costs $33,159. A license to sell a gun costs 83 cents per month. A gun rolls off American assembly line every 10 seconds. America imports another gun every 11 seconds. There are 246,984 gun dealers in the United States, but only 240 inspectors to keep an eye on them.

There is a widespread myth that handgun ownership makes people safer. In reality, the New England Journal of Medicine  reports that a handgun in the home is 43 times more likely to kill the owner, a family member, or a friend than it is to kill an intruder. Over 75 percent of firearm deaths in a typical year involve handguns. The FBI Uniform Crime Statistics Report  says that nationally, there were 38,317 firearm deaths in 1992, but fewer than 300 justifiable homicides.

Another myth is that gun control laws don’t make a difference. In reality, strict handgun regulation saves lives. In Washington, DC, a tougher gun law actually reduced homicides by 25 percent through the mid-1980s. Again, the New England Journal of Medicine  reports that 47 lives were saved in Washington, DC, in a typical year studied, because of that city’s handgun ban.

Most other industrialized nations have virtual bans on handgun sales. In 1990, handguns were used in the homicides of 13 people in Sweden, 91 in Switzerland, 87 in Japan, 22 in Great Britain, and 68 in Canada, compared to 10,567 in the United States.

Is gun control constitutional? The Second Amendment refers to “the right of the people to keep and bear arms.” Roger Tartarian, professor emeritus of journalism at California State University Fresno, notes, however, that “things can change over time” with regards to the original intent of the founders.

The Third Amendment, for example, protects citizens against compulsory quartering of troops in private homes. Technology has also made obsolete the constitutional provision giving Congress the right to declare war. “No president who is warned that a hostile missile is en route...has time nowadays to ask Congress for a declaration of war before responding,” states Tartarian. “He can commit the country to an all-out war simply by pressing a button.”

Tartarian observes: “The Constitution certainly does not ban private ownership of weapons; that would have been unthinkable for a people still living in an often hostile natural environment and where many depended on hunting for a livelihood. But a tradition of owning arms is one thing and a constitutional guarantee is quite another. They ought not to be confused.”

According to Tartarian: “The Second Amendment as it now exists evolved from a draft offered by James Madison on June 8, 1789. His intent very clearly was to tie the constitutional right to own arms to service in official militias regulated by state governments.” Madison’s original proposal reads:

“The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well armed and well regulated militia being the best security of a free country: but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service in person.” The final version of the amendment which emerged from a House-Senate conference on September 25, 1789, also tied the constitutional right to bear arms to service in a militia, and stated that such militias are to be “well regulated”: “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

Handgun control is constitutional. The courts have repeatedly ruled that the Second Amendment does not apply to individuals outside the context of “a well regulated militia.” A handgun control ordinance was upheld by the U.S. Seventh Court of Appeals in 1982, which issued the following statement: “We conclude that the right to keep and bear handguns is not guaranteed by the Second Amendment.”

The Supreme Court let the decision stand by refusing to hear the appeal of the handgun lobby. The Supreme Court ruled in United States vs. Cruikshank that the Second Amendment doesn’t mean anything except “(the right to keep and bear arms) shall not be infringed by Congress.”

This 1876 ruling established that states and localities are not prevented from enacting their own gun control laws and they remain free to do so to this day. In 1980, the Supreme Court reconfirmed that “these legislative restrictions on the use of firearms do not trench upon any constitutionally protected liberties.”

Guns should be regulated like other consumer products. Handguns and assault rifles should be banned, and ammunition should be taxed heavily.