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Activist Times Inc. Issue 068
this is ATI, activist times, inc.
Sunday, 23feb97 11:40pm
Start with the numbers run?
Sure, this is /P/ /A/ /P/. With the pap #'s run for this week.
www.lollapalooza.com/history/1991 has really neat things about the violent femmes.
www.newageinfo.com/prod/20.htm will tell you whether baba Ram Dass is "here now,"
or "somewhere else now."
www.ratical.com
www.adbusters.org
www.algonet.se/~Annapa
1800-39guess. Tell Mr. Marciano to sew his own clothes.
1800-Meatout. Info about the Great American Meatout.
1800-anarchy is still artrock t-shirts and paraphanelia shop.
Bucks County Pennsylvania last I knew. AH's hometown.
516-922-wine is still Jackie Martling's jokeline.
619-239-king is still mojo nixon's home phone. (Answering machine.)
1800-eatshit is always busy. (I didn't like their driving anyhow.)
DENNIS RODMAN IN A MILK MUSTACHE: Now That's Complex.
a poem by Marc Weisenheimer
Tormented? Driven Witless? Whipsawed by Confusion?
Don't wait for your mustache to remind you.
Cravings.
It won't leave you feeling fat.
Moos you can use; only in the refrigerated section.
True to the original recipe; the finest blend of Wool.
Think about it.
Suddenly, things are getting personal.
Milk.
Where's your mustache?
Wait 'til you taste us now.
Yum.
Mommy, when I grow up will I get breast cancer?
America has been asking for it for thirty years.
All the rules have changed.
I had no idea it would grow the way it did,
SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: Quitting Milk
Now Greatly Reduces Risks to Your Health.
Hey, let's talk about the "F word."
Drink 3 glasses of skim milk a day and you'll be
Fat.
Milk.
Where's your mustache?
SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: Quitting Milk
Now Greatly Reduces Serious Risks to Your Health.
Http://www.whymilk.com
THIS IS THE CALENDULAR SECTION
February is fashion bashin' season.
Feb 26. Welfare Walk, Boston. 1800-939-4600 for info. Ask for Grace.
Mar 1. March Against Hunger. sananda@northcoast.com for info.
Mar 20. Great American Meatout. 1800-meatout for info.
Apr 24-30. International TV Turnoff week.
Jun 21. March from Philly to NYC. Storm the UN. (Date Tentative.)
Jul 27 to Aug 6. World Youth Festival. Havana Cuba.
Nov 28 Buy Nothing Day.
Oct '97. Media & Democracy Congress. common@icarus.weber.edu for info.
YET ANOTHER SLAPP: A Guess Inc. Lawsuit
Against A Literary Reading in Los Angeles
by Julia Stein
Guess Inc., the designer jeans company, is suing the literary reading I
organized September 8, 1996, at Midnight Special bookstore in
Santa Monica, CA.
Their suit charges libel and slander, and is part of a large
libel/slander suit against the garment workers' union UNITE and Common
Threads, a women's group to which I belong which is trying to help improve
working conditions for garment workers. Common Threads and the Los
Angeles/local/National Writers Union co-sponsored the literary reading. The
lead lawyer for Guess Inc. is Daniel Petrocelli who recently represented
the Goldmann family in the O.J. Simpson civil trial. Petrocelli is part of
a 100-lawyer legal firm Mitchell , Silberberg and Knupp.
In spring, 1996, I joined Common Threads; UNITE, the Union of Needle
trades, Industrial and Textile Employees, was starting a campaign to
unionize Guess Inc., the largest garment manufacturer in Los Angeles. My
grandmother was a garment worker. I've written poetry about garment workers
publishing them in my two books of poetry as well as written a long piece
of literary criticism about American fiction on garment work dating from
1810 to the present.
On September 5, 1996, I attended a Labor Day Picnic Common Threads put on
for Guess garment workers at Echo Park Lake. I heard at least five workers
give testimony that they had been fired for trying to organize a union and
one woman said she had been harassed on the job. The National Labor
Relations Board sued Guess Inc. for illegally firing workers; in February,
1997, 12 workers were recently reinstated on their jobs and received
backup.
At the Sept. 8, 1996, "Justice for Garment Workers" literary reading at
Midnight Special I was M.C., read my poetry. Mary Helen Ponce, a
Mexican-American prose writer, read from her acclaimed autobiography Hoyt
Street.. Carol Schwalberg, fiction writer and treasurer of the National
Writers Union/Los Angeles local, talked about the N.W.U. and read her
story. story. None of us spoke about Guess. Edna Bonacich, a full professor
of sociology at the University of California at Riverside and co-author of
a book in the apparel industry, spoke at the reading for Common Threads
about the campaign against Guess. The lawyer for Common Threads, Larry
Rosenzweig, said that he read a legal declaration from one Joe Vargas who
spied on the literary reading on behalf of Guess.
Enrique Flores, a garment worker who lost his job when Guess took their
clothing away from his employer, Kelly Contractors, spoke at the reading
about his working conditions and losing his job. The December 16 issue of
U.S News & World Reports has a cover story titled "Sweatshop Christmas"
which includes material on Guess, particularly Kelly Contractors. At this
shop the owner said that "he was paying his employees the minimum wage
(about $200 a week), but they say they often made a little as $120" per
week. Kelly workers Cristobel Perez and Emilia Hernandez said they had
"forced overtime with no pay" and that "to avoid falling short {in pay}
Perez and Hernandez took work home." Industrial homework is illegal in
California.
The lawsuit denies that Guess does business with sweatshops saying that
plaintiff has "been praised and recognized by the DOL (federal Department
of Labor) for its efforts on behalf of gamrment workers. On January 31,
1997, the DOL announced that for the first time it was taking a company,
Guess Inc,. off the Trendsetters List, a list of companies who monitor its
contractors adequately to avoid sweatshops. Guess Inc. was put on
probationary status indefinitely. In mid-January Guess Inc. announced that
it was moving its production from Los Angeles to Mexico, Peru and Chile.
Harry Youtt, lawyer/writer and grievance chair for the LA local/N.W.U has
characterized this suit as a S.L.A.P.P suit (Strategic lawsuit against
public participation), a suit corporations are frequently filing to harass
and shut up critics. So many of these suits have been filed that the
California state legislature has passed an anti-S.L.A.P.P. statute. Both
the lawyer for UNITE and the lawyer for Common Threads have asked the judge
to throw out this lawsuit, invoking the anti-S.L.A.P.P suit statute.
The first court hearing for this Guess lawsuit occured December 23, 1996,
at the Santa Monica courthouse. The judge postponed ruling on the motion
from UNITE's lawyers to dismiss the case.
If you want to help, please write or call Paul Marciano, president of
Guess. Ask him to end the lawsuits against Common Threads and UNITE :
1-800-39Guess or www. Guess.com
snail mail: Paul Marciano
Guess? Inc.
1444 S. Alameda St.
Los Angeles, Ca 90021
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
hey all kind brothers and sisters committed to ending poverty and
homelessness:
at one time, slavery was legal in the united states. it took the
abolitionists 100 years, but their movement succeeded, despite the fact that
they were fighting a capitalistic empire, racism and intolerance.
there's a new breed of abolitionists out to conquer slavery again. this time
people aren't chained to individual masters but to an unrealistic, corrupt
and greedy society that keeps them imprisoned in poverty. and just like our
predecessors, i know we're going to win.
and, like our predecessors, we have established an underground railroad to
support the movement. this modern day version supports the poor people's
movement. in philly, we're most committed to the kensington welfare rights
union, but the model supports any grassroots organization of poor and
homeless working in the movement. the idea is that poor people are leading
the way with members from the underground railroad as allies in every way.
we are committed to the struggle to not only build a movement, but to making
very real changes in the social structure. we participate in rallies, civil
disobedience, marches, educationals, strategy sessions and procurement of the
basic needs for members in the movement. the underground railroad meets
every monday night at temple university, main campus, ritter annex, broad &
cecil b moore aves, room 580 at 6:00pm. for more info call 724-1908 or email
me...stay kind...theresa
"Winning means that I've defeated all the negative bullshit in my life.
Because it's not just winning. You can work your ass off and not win
and still be a healthy and successful individual, as long as you gave
everything you had to give."
--Dennis Rodman. Interview magazine. Feb '97
LIBERATION THEOLOGY CORNER:
Or Was That Libation Theory???
by Prime Anarchist
Two concrete thoughts come from the metaphor of original sin.
1) Clothing.
2) Meat.
(ed. note. The Anarchist chooses to leave it at that for now.)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
THIS BROUGHT ON BY A RELENTLESS NEED TO KNOW:
Does anyone remember when Reagan or Bush passed legislation allowing
a president to TAKE OVER ANY NETWORK he so chooses in times of national emergency?
Was that an ammendment, or an emergency order, or what? Does anyone
remember? Let us know if you're clear on that. I just remember the event. First I
thought about network as CBS, NBC, CNN etc. Then about 5 years ago I was
thinking it might be ambiguous enough for someone to commandeer MCI or
AT&T, GTE and/or SPRINT.
Then just the other day I was taking a Prime Anarchist Moment of Thought
and it occurred to me the letter, proclamation or edict or whatever it is might even
be open ended enough to allow the requisitioning of say the entire infosupohiway.
Just a prime example of thinking too much.
Well this has been another issue of ATI, a prime anarchist production.
ATI subscriptions will always be free.
Address all correspondence to
marco99@juno.com
