Greetings, New Activists on Our Network!
Thank you SO much for wanting to take action to protect the Earth's redwood
forests from corporate despoilers, such as the Fishers of Gap, Inc.! In this
welcome email, we outline several ways you can help! Please pick and
choose the ones that appeal to you--and ACT NOW! Here are the categories, on
which we elaborate below:
-Boycott the Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy, Of Course!
-Boycott All Redwood Products, Including "Certified" Redwood!
-WHERE WE NEED YOU MOST: Help Spread the Word!
-Plan a Demo!
-Sign and Circulate Our Petition!
-CA residents, Ask Your State Senator to Vote Aye On AB 717!
-Write CA Governor Davis and/or Other Key Officials!
-Write the Fishers--Send Them the Labels From Your Gap Clothes!
-Donate to Our Work: Lawsuits, Demos, Ads, Etc. (tax deductible!)
-FYI: Fisher Family Logging Fact List
***NEWS FLASH: In Jan. 2000 we had two MAJOR COURT VICTORIES over the
Fishers of Gap, Inc., effectively halting 4 of their worst logging
plans!!!***
***NEWS FLASH: On Feb 23, 2000, the struggle to save the redwood forests of
Mendocino and Sonoma Counties from the Fishers of Gap, Inc. hit the front
page of the Wall Street Journal ( http://www.elksoft.com/gwa/history/wsj/ )!
***NEWS FLASH: On March 11, the Gap Fishers' crisis of ethics, including
environmental destruction, human rights violations, and animal rights
abuses, was reported in the London Daily Telegraph
(http://www.elksoft.com/gwa/ldt)!***
***NEWS FLASH: On June 5, the BBC featured the Save the Redwoods - Boycott
the Gap Campaign in an international news spot!!!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/775000/video/_777998_david_willis6am_vi.ram ).
...FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS: WE'RE REACHING CRITICAL MASS!!!***
Boycott the Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy, Of Course!
********************************************************************
The Fishers of Gap Inc bought 230,000 acres of redwood forestland in July of
1998--and they have been overlogging, clearcutting (of their more than 150
logging plans, 2/3 of them contain all or partial clearcuts!), highgrading
(taking all the big trees), cutting the last of the old growth, applying
herbicides, and systematically destroying watersheds (such as, taking 25% of
their annual cut from 5% of their holdings, instead of distributing the cut
over the entire area) ever since.
In addition, Gap Inc. uses sweatshop labor--people living in abject misery,
making as little as 11 cents/hour, with no civil rights--to sew its clothes.
The Gap has been named in a class-action suit filed on behalf of garment
workers in Saipan--one of many third-world countries where Gap clothes are
made. For more info on the Gap sweatshop campaign check out
http://www.globalexchange.org or email leila@globalexchange.org
Since the Fishers have made it clear that they care only about the bottom
line, no matter what the price in environmental destruction, human misery,
or animal cruelty, we launched the boycott and it's going strong!
Boycott Redwood Products and Be Wary of "Certified" Wood!
*********************************************************************
Please don't buy redwood products (as beautiful as they can be!) because ALL
industrial redwood timberland is being ravaged by the timber
corporations--especially don't buy Mendocino Redwood Company--the Fishers'
liquidation logging company--products, which are sold at Home Depot.
Certified lumber (lumber that has a "green" label on it for being harvested
in a "sustainable" fashion, with deference for the environment) has
problems, too, because certification guidelines 1.) do not prohibit cutting
old growth or logging in stream zones, with critical consequences on
endangered species that depend on these trees, such as marbled murrelets and
coho salmon, 2.) allow even-aged forest management--which effectively turns
the forest into a tree farm, with disastrous consequences on biodiversity
(forest species), 3.) do not allow the public to monitor either the
procedures or the results--the certification process is private, and
finally, 4.) certifiers have admitted that in order to promote
certification, they often loosen the already loose guidelines--allowing
timber companies to meet only some of the certification criteria on a wink
and a promise that they will try to meet the rest in the future.
We strongly feel that although our State agencies are run by political
lackeys and our politicians have been bought by the corporations including
corporate timber and related development interests, privatizing the
regulating process is not the way to go. Better to keep the process public
and to make our political leaders and agencies enforce environmental laws.
******Note that on August 2, 1999, the Gap Fishers' liquidation logging
company, MRC, was denied certification by not one, but two, Forest
Stewardship Council (FSC) certifying groups because they do not log
sustainably. Further, the Fishers have publicly announced that they have
abandoned the Sustained Yield Plan process. Yet, despite these two glaring
facts, the Fishers and their spokespeople continue to tell the Public that
they are logging sustainably. *******
Spread the Word!
********************
This is where we need you most: spreading the word! Our forests are in a
state of crisis and we desperately need to make the public aware of the
situation! We have no budget for outreach--almost all grant money,
donations, and proceeds from fundraisers go into lawsuits to keep trees in
the ground while our public-pressure campaign matures--we've even put aside
our restoration work to focus completely on stopping the overlogging. So, we
rely on word-of-mouth from other environmentalists and concerned people like
you!
To aid you in spreading the boycott message, we have a compact, informative
leaflet with fun graphics that I can fax or snail-mail you (unfortunately,
this is the one item in our Gap Picket Packet that cannot be downloaded from
our web site): http://www.elksoft.com/gwa. We can also snail-mail you the entire
packet. Let me know! I'll need an address or fax number.
If you want to do even more in the outreach department, you can REALLY HELP
by boning up on the situation (by reading the document titled "Concerns
About Fisher Family Logging in Mendocino County" appended to the end of this
email), and then contacting one or more of the major environmentalist and
activist groups in your city or county--including student and religious
organizations--and letting them know about the campaign.
Plan A Demo!
***************
People in over 30 cities participated in simultaneous rallies to kick-off
the Gap Boycott in November 1998. And we have been demoing ever since!!! In
October 99, we celebrated the redwoods and workers rights with International
Zap the Gap Week, featuring our now famous "We'd rather Wear Nothing Than
Wear Gap!" action on both coasts! On November 26--the anniversary of the Gap
Boycott--demos were held in Michigan, Florida, California, and Amsterdam,
while many of us were in Seattle at the Rally of the Millenium to protest
the World Trade Organization!
The success of that mass rally that brought the WTO (an elitist corporate
club that meets secretly and over rules environmental, human rights, and
labor laws that are viewed as barriers to free trade, i.e., corporate
profit) to its knees has empowered us: There will be many more mass rallies
on the horizon of this new millenium! We hope you will join us in reclaiming
our government and our planet from pillaging global corporate interests to
which the Fishers of Gap, Inc. aspire to be major players!
Here are some chants for your Gap demo:
Fisher Family, get a clue:
Logging old growth just won't do!
Donald Fisher, Don't you know--
Corporate Greed has got to go!
Shoppers, Beware!
The Gap is unfair!
Here's a good slogan for your banner:
For Redwoods and Workers
Boycott Gap!!!
(note: you can substitute Old Navy or Banana Republic, depending on where
you are having your demo!)
***Contact me for info on demoing and your First Amendment rights and for
help with media to publicize your demo!***
Sign and Circulate Our Petition!
***********************************
Please sign our online petition at http://www.elksoft.com/petition . If you
want to do more, download a petition and circulate it! Nearly 20,000 people
worldwide have signed our petition thus far. This is a powerful tool to let
our political leaders, agency heads, and the Fishers know that a significant
number of people do not want to see our redwood forestland in Mendocino
liquidated.
On January 12, 2000, we presented the California Board of Forestry with
these signatures!
Ask Your State Legislator to Vote Aye on AB 717 (Keeley)!
******************************************************************
If you live in California, please contact your state Senator and gently
ask her or him to vote Aye on a very important forestry reform bill: AB 717
authored by Assemblymember Keeley. It will be up for a vote in very soon.
Check out http://www.senate.ca.gov to find out who your reps are and how to
email, phone, or snail-mail them. Check http://www.forestsforever.org for
more info on this bill--or take my word for it: It will help save our
overlogged forests!!!
Write Letters!
****************
Contact CA Attorney General, Bill Lockyer, and Mendocino County Deputy DA
Barry Vogel and demand they bring criminal charges against timber
corporations and government officials who have destroyed our forests and
fisheries:
Bill Lockyer, A.G.
1300 "I" Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
1-800-952-5225
fax: 916-323-5341
Barry Vogel, D.A.
100 No. State Street
Ukiah, CA 95482
707-463-4211
Contact CA Gov. Gray Davis and cc his Resources staff and tell them of your
concern for the redwood forest, in particular, Mendocino's which have been
so overlogged that they are on the verge of collapse and their endangered
species, such as coho salmon, on the brink of extinction! Tell Davis to make
good on his campaign promise to stop the cutting of old growth!
(Unfortunately, the new Democrat administration has also been co-opted by
the corporations, including the timber industry. However, we must keep
hammering away at them to protect the public trust--WE MUST RECLAIM OUR
GOVERNMENT!)
Gray Davis
Governor of California
State Capitol Building, Sacramento, CA 95814
Voice: 916-445-2841 Fax: 916-445-4633 (no email address yet)
Mary Nichols, Secretary of Resources
California Resources Agency
1416 Ninth Street - Room 1311
Sacramento, CA 95814
fax (916) 653-8102 mary@resources.ca.gov
Andrea Tuttle,
Director of the CA Dept of Forestry
1416 Ninth Street
Sacramento, California 95814
voice: 916-653-7772 fax: 916-653-4171 andrea_tuttle@fire.ca.gov
You can write to the Fishers at the following address:
The Fisher Family
c/o Robert Fisher, Gap, Inc.
900 Cherry Ave
San Bruno, CA 94066
tel. (415) 427-2449
tel. (415) 427-2075
If you want to have a stronger impact, send them the labels from all the Gap
clothes you currently own!
Note that many people and reputable organizations (such as the Sierra Club,
RAN, and Forests Forever) have tried to intercede with letters, meetings,
and/or press releases to the Fishers to no avail.
Side Bar: Facts Vs. Greenwashing!
If you do write to the Fishers, the Fisher family frontman, Sandy
Dean, President of the Fishers' logging company, Mendocino Redwood, will
send you their very personable and convincing four-page greenwash
boilerplate letter. They're very good at PR (the Gap spent a reported 300
million on advertising last year), and this letter misrepresents what they
are doing with great subtlety. That's why I'm including our rebuttal to this
letter at the end of this email. You can also get this and more info,
including pictures of Fisher clearcuts, at our web site: http://www.elksoft.com/gwa
Donate to Our Work: Lawsuits, Demos, Ads, Etc. (tax deductible!)
*************************************************************************
If you cannot take any other action, please donate to our efforts! Lawsuits
are very expensive and very necessary to keep trees in the ground while our
public-pressure campaign matures. Media-grabbing demos also cost money, as
do ad campaigns! All donations are tax deductible!
Please make checks payable to Save The Redwoods/Boycott The Gap. Note in the
memo field of your check how you want the money spent: Legal or SRBG (demos,
ads, public education, outreach). Mail your check to SRBG (Save the
Redwoods - Boycott the Gap), 252 Frederick Street, San Francisco, CA 94117.
Join Our Network!
********************
I'd like to include you on our online network (over 60 cities in 30
states and Europe), so that you will receive regular updates and any
pertinent calls to action (demos, letter-writing campaigns, etc.) We issue a
nationwide newsletter once or twice a month. CA and Northern CA residents
get more calls to action, for obvious reasons! Let me know the city/state or
country you live in, so that I can put you on the right list.
In closing....
The fate of our magnificent redwood legacy and its dependent
species--the heroic coho, the reclusive marbled murrelet, and so many
others--is in our hands! Please continue to revere and defend these forests!
Fisher Family Logging Fact Sheet
********************************
http://www.elksoft.com/gwa/recent/memo.html
Cheers and many thanks!
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 http://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..."