I know this isn’t my usual Armchair Activist series, but i figured no one would mind if i just took a moment to remind everyone of Blog Against Sexism Day, which is coming up on March 8th - less than a week. Here’s the text from the post i wrote at BASD’s new host,Taking Place:

The first Blog Against Sexism Day, on March 8th of 2006, was a huge success, especially considering i was still very new to the blogosphere and didn’t really know many other feminist bloggers. The success is due entirely to individuals spreading the word on their blogs, through email, and other word-of-mouth methods. In the end, we had hundreds of participants from North and South America, Africa, Australia, Asia and Europe. The participants and topics discussed were so varied that it was, in my opinion, a perfect sampling of the feminist blogosphere.

I paid attention to the requests from last year. In addition to Blog Against Sexism banners, i’ve also made banners that read Blog For Gender Liberation, Blog For Women’s Liberation, and Blog for Wimmin’s Liberation. I also encourage others to create new banners and let me know if you do, so i can help spread the word about your work. Last year, i also had a lot of requests for reminders that i wasn’t able to do because i didn’t have a system in place. Although there are only a couple weeks before Blog Against Sexism Day, this year i’m ready. So if you’d like a reminder the day or two before, just let me know in the comments section of this post or drop me an email at veganwonder [at] gmail [dot] com.

Although i’m starting a little late getting the word out this year, i’d like to see even more participants than the first year. So help by spreading the word. If you’re interested in participating, all you have to do is write a post on March 8th. However, the day was also started to help spread the word about the numerous feminist and pro-feminist bloggers out there. So i greatly encourage you to add your name to the list of participants. To do so, just leave a comment here with a link to your blog or email me the url of your blog.

For more information about Blog Against Sexism Day or to get a banner for your blog, check out the new official Blog Against Sexism Day page.

The struggle in Oaxaca continues and at least 64 prisoners continue to be held incommunicado and at risk of further torture. Below is more information from Amnesty International about the case and what you can do to help.

The 138 detainees held at the remote prison in Nayarit state are now known to have been released, either on bail or without charge, or moved back to Oaxaca state prisons, on 20 and 21 December. At least 64 are still in custody. They are
in danger of torture or ill-treatment, and at risk of unfair trial.

Felipe Sanchez Rodriguez, one of the 64 detainees who works with a community education project in Oaxaca, is still detained at the Tlacolula prison, and at risk of unfair trial. He and a friend were detained on the evening of 25 November by men in civilian clothes while walking toward the main bus station. He was held at gunpoint, bundled into a car and driven to a building where he was interrogated for a day. He was kept blindfolded throughout, so he did not know where the interrogation took place. He was beaten and tortured with electric shocks by his captors, who threatened to rape him. Finally he was taken to prison, and later charged with serious offences including organized criminal activity, sedition, and damages to property (‘‘asociacion delictuosa, sedicion, y danos en propriedad ajena’‘). He claims members of the Federal Preventive Police (Policia Federal Preventiva, PFP) have constructed the case against him using false testimony.

While they were being transported to Nayarit, and while they were held there, the detainees allege they were threatened and intimidated by police and guards. According to at least one of them, a group of male detainees were sexually assaulted by police officers on the bus that took them from the airport to the penitentiary.

On 13 January, relatives of detainees and supporters of the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (Asamblea Popular del Pueblo de Oaxaca, APPO) held a protest outside Miahuatlan prison. They were reportedly attacked by police, who arrested eight of them and charged them with carrying firearms and drugs, and accused them of attacking a police officer who was filming them. They were released on bail two days later and claim that the charges were based on fabricated evidence in order to break up the demonstration.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
In May 2006 teachers went on strike in Oaxaca state calling for improved pay and conditions, and occupied the main square and surrounding streets. State police attempted to clear them from the square by force on 14 June. This made the protesters more determined, and led to the formation of the APPO, an umbrella organization of social and political groups who supported the teachers and all called for the state governor to resign. As the climate of violence in the city increased, armed police in plain clothes started to arbitrarily detain protesters, and reportedly shot dead several APPO supporters. Protesters set up barricades in many neighbourhoods in late August, to keep the police out, and armed men believed to be police officers continued to attack opposition supporters in marches and at the barricades. On 29 October, the PFP went into the city to restore order, arresting many people. There have been repeated violent clashes between police and opposition demonstrators, with some protesters throwing Molotov cocktails, stones and fireworks, and police using teargas, water-cannon, batons and firearms. The last major confrontation took place on 25 November.

Amnesty International has received credible reports that federal and state police have ill-treated and tortured many detainees. The organization is not aware of any state or federal investigation to hold those responsible to account or investigate allegations of widespread fabrication of evidence. In December the National Human Rights Commission issued a preliminary report recognising widespread abuses of human rights in the state throughout the crisis.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:
- calling on the authorities to ensure that all detainees are protected from any form of torture or ill-treatment, and given guaranteed access to their families and lawyers;
- calling on the authorities to conduct impartial and independent investigations into allegations of ill-treatment and torture by federal and state police officers of those detained on 25 November 2006, including allegations that a group of male detainees were sexually assaulted on 27 November while being transported to the Nayarit federal prison, and for those responsible to be brought to justice;
- calling for an impartial investigation of all cases in which the police allegedly fabricated evidence against detainees to ensure successful prosecution;
- calling on the authorities to ensure that all detainees are given their right to a fair trial in accordance with international human rights standards.
APPEALS TO:

Minister of Public Security:
Lic. Genaro Garcia Luna
Secretario de Seguridad Publica,
Secretaria de Seguridad Publica
Reforma No.364, piso 16, Col. Juarez, Del. Cuauhtemoc,
Mexico DF. C.P. 06600, Mexico
Fax: 01152 55 5241 8393
Salutation: Dear Minister/Estimado Secretario

Minister of the Interior:
Lic. Francisco Ramirez Acuna
Secretario de Gobernacion, Secretaria de Gobernacion
Bucareli 99, 1er. piso, Col. Juarez, Del. Cuauhtemoc, Mexico
D.F., C.P.06600, MEXICO
Fax: 011 52 55 5093 3414
Salutation: Dear Minister/Estimado Secretario

Governor of Oaxaca:
Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, Gobernador del Estado de Oaxaca,
Carretera Oaxaca - Puerto Angel, Km. 9.5
Santa Maria Coyotopec, C. P. 71254, Oaxaca, Oaxaca, MEXICO
Fax: 011 52 951 511 6879 (if someone answers, say ‘‘me da tono de fax, por favor’‘)
Salutation: Senor Gobernador/Dear Governor

General Prosecutor of the Republic:
Lic. Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza
Procurador General de la Republica,
Procuraduria General de la Republica
Paseo de la Reforma nº 211-213, Piso 16
Col. Cuauhtemoc, Del. Cuauhtemoc,
Mexico D.F., C.P. 06500, MEXICO
Fax: 01152 55 53 46 09 08 (if someone answers, say ‘‘me da
tono de fax por favor’‘)
Salutation: Senor Procurador General / Dear Attorney General

COPIES TO:
President of the National Human Rights Commission:
Dr. Jose Luis Soberanes Fernandez
Presidente de la Comision Nacional de Derechos Humanos (CNDH)
Periferico Sur 3469, 5º piso, Col. San Jeronimo Lidice,
Mexico D.F. 10200, MEXICO
Fax: 011 52 55 5681 7199

Ambassador Carlos Alberto De Icaza Gonzalez
Embassy of Mexico
1911 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington DC 20006
Fax: 1 202 728 1698

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.

The following comes from Amnesty International’s urgent action campaign. Marcus Robinson is about to be executed by the state of North Carolina for a crime that was committed shortly after he turned 18 years old. Doubt remains as to whether it was him or the other guy present who actually shot the victim, Erik Tornblom. The other defendant is currently serving life in prison with a chance for parole. Please read for more details regarding Robinson’s case and what you can do to help save his life.

Marcus Robinson, black, is scheduled to be executed in North Carolina on 26 January. He was sentenced to death in 1994 for a murder committed when he had just turned 18 years old.

A 17-year-old white youth, Erik Tornblom, was robbed and shot dead on 21 June 1991. Marcus Robinson and another African-American teenager, Roderick Williams (17), were arrested and charged with capital murder. It remains unclear who shot the victim. Marcus Robinson told police that it was Williams (who was later sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole). At Robinson’s trial, the prosecutor argued that Marcus Robinson had been the gunman.

In arguing for a death sentence before a jury made up of 11 whites and one non-white, the prosecutor pointed to statements attributed to Robinson before the murder that he was going to rob or kill a white person. His appeal lawyers have pointed to cases of white defendants who have been sentenced to prison terms in North Carolina for the racially motivated murder of black victims. They have raised the case of a 27-year-old white man who was convicted of the 1992 stabbing to death and castrating of a black man, whom he referred to as a ”nigger”. He received a life sentence. In another case, two white racists, aged 20 and 21, were sentenced in 1997 to life imprisonment for shooting two randomly chosen African-American victims.

The use of the death penalty in North Carolina, as in the USA as a whole, is marked by discrimination. In 2001, a
comprehensive study found that ”racial factors – specifically the race of the homicide victim – played areal, substantial, and statistically significant role in determining who received death sentences in North Carolina during the 1993-1997 period. The odds of receiving a death sentence rose by 3.5 times among those defendants (of whatever race) who murdered white persons.” Forty percent of murder victims in North Carolina are white, but 77 per cent of those executed since the state resumed judicial killing in 1984 have been of people convicted of killing whites. Research with capital jurors in the USA indicates that white jurors are more likely to vote for death than black jurors, and that majority white juries make a death sentence more likely. Research has also revealed a lower receptivity to mitigating evidence among white jurors when the defendant is black.

At the time of the crime, Marcus Robinson was emerging from a childhood of severe abuse at the hands of his father. At the age of three and a half, for example, he was admitted to hospital, unconscious, having seizures and with blood streaming from his mouth and nose. An examination revealed burns, scratches, bruising and swelling. During his childhood, he also witnessed his mother being assaulted by his father. In the early 1990s, he was diagnosed with brain dysfunction, attributed to the abuse he had suffered, that impaired his ability to plan and control his impulses. Since then, medical science has established that, even without abuse, the adolescent brain is not fully developed at the age of 18 and continues its development into a person’s 20s. In 2005, when the US Supreme Court prohibited the execution of people who were under 18 at the time of the crime, it noted that ”as any parent knows and as the scientific and sociological studies… tend to confirm, a lack of maturity and an underdeveloped sense of responsibility are found in youth more often than in adults and are more understandable among the young. These qualities often result in impetuous and ill-considered actions and decisions.” Also unknown to the jury was the fact that, not long before the murder, Marcus Robinson had been prescribed Prozac after he reported mental and emotional problems. The side-effects of this drug can include mood changes, hyperactivity and aggressiveness.

The jury concluded that there were mitigating factors in Marcus Robinson’s case, including his youth, his background of childhood abuse, and behavioral or mental problems. However, they also found that the mitigating factors were not enough to outweigh the seriousness of the crime, and sentenced him to death.

Interviews with jurors after the trial revealed that during the sentencing deliberations, a juror had asked a court bailiff to bring in a Bible. Without either notifying or obtaining the approval of the judge, the bailiff did so. The juror then proceeded to read to other jurors a passage concerning the retributive notion of ”an eye for an eye” in an effort to persuade them to vote for a death sentence. The claim on appeal that this introduced an external influence jeopardizing the impartiality of the jury has been rejected and a hearing in federal court on the issue has been denied. In a 2-1 decision of the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in 2006, the dissenting judge protested that ”the majority ignores the fact that the Bible is an authoritative code of morality – and even law – to a sizable segment of our population.” He argued that it would be ”blinking (ignoring) reality not to recognize the profound influence that quotations from the Bible could carry in the jury room. Moreover, the specific passage read aloud… bears directly on the severity of punishment to be imposed for a criminal act and expressly requires the death penalty as a punishment for murder.”

Marcus Robinson’s mother has appealed for clemency. Nine months ago, her son Curtis was murdered. ”There are few words to describe the pain I feel from losing my son, Curtis, to murder,” she said recently. ”There are no words to describe the additional pain I will feel if my son, Marcus, is executed next week. I have been on both sides now. I felt the horror, the anger and the desire for vengeance after Curtis’s murder. But an eye for an eye would not bring back my beloved son.” She learned on 15 January that her third son, who is in the Navy, will be deployed to Iraq at the end of the month.

There have been 1,060 executions in the USA since judicial killing resumed there in 1977, 43 of them in North Carolina. There are signs that the USA is slowly turning against capital punishment (see USA: The experiment that failed: A reflection on 30 years of judicial killing, 16 January 2007). There is strong public support for a moratorium on executions in North Carolina. Approximately 1,000 faith group congregations, businesses and community groups have passed resolutions calling for a moratorium, including almost 40 local governments in the state. In addition, more than 40,000 people in North Carolina have signed the moratorium petition.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:
- expressing sympathy for the family and friends of Erik Tornblom, and explaining that you are not seeking to excuse the manner of his death or to downplay the suffering caused;
- opposing the execution of Marcus Robinson, noting that doubts persist as to whether he was the person who actually shot Erik Tornblom;
- noting that while the prosecutor’s arguments for a death sentence in front of an almost all-white jury included evidence that Robinson had acted with racist motivation,research indicates that North Carolina’s capital justice system is itself tainted by racial discrimination;
- noting that Marcus Robinson’s involvement in this crime came when he had just turned 18 years old and when he was emerging from a childhood of severe abuse, abuse which led to severe injuries and brain damage that impaired his planning ability and impulse control;
- noting that the death penalty extends the suffering of the murder victim’s family to that of the condemned inmate, and expressing sympathy for Marcus Robinson’s mother, who has lost one son to murder and is facing the prospect of losing another to execution, as well as facing another son being deployed to Iraq;
- calling on the governor to grant clemency to Marcus Robinson in the name of compassion and justice;
- calling on the governor to support a moratorium on executions in North Carolina, noting the large public support for such a measure based on concerns about the reliability and fairness of the capital justice system.

APPEALS TO:
Governor Michael F. Easley,
Governor’s Office, 20301 Mail Services Center,
Raleigh, NC 27699-0301
Email: governor.office@ncmail.net
(via website) http://www.governor.state.nc.us/email.asp?to=1.
Fax: 011 1 919 733-2120 / 011 1 919 715-3175
Salutation: Dear Governor

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the Urgent
Action Office if sending appeals after 26 January 2007.

I doubt its any surprise that i support stem cell research. For me, there’s really not much of a question. As you can see below, there are 71 known diseases that may be treated or cured through stem cell research. Many of these ailments affect people i know and love. How can you argue with allowing someone you love to live and to live without unnecessary pain?

Then there is the animal lib perspective. For a specific example, one of the diseases on the list is HIV/AIDS. Numerous chimpanzees and other primates have been and continue to be injected with HIV, then killed in a failed attempt to find a cure. Thing is, chimps can’t get HIV (hello, its the HUMAN immunodeficiency virus). So why are we killing so many animals to find a cure for a disease they can’t get? Well, there’s a lot of money and academic prestige in animal testing (even if you fail), but that’s another topic. (editor’s note: see comments. thanks again, RonF) Surprise, surprise, the most effective research methods are also the most humane. No one has to die in the name of stem cell research.

Yet for years, stem cell research has been attacked and its development hindered. On January 11, however, the House will vote on HR3, possibly overturning the hindrances. Because it is suspected that Bush will veto the bill if passed, StemPAC is asking people to contact their representatives to push for a two-thirds majority.
Read the rest of this entry »

The following solidarity campaign comes from Amnesty International. As is obvious from reading the details, AI has marked this campaign as urgent and ask supporters to take actions ASAP.

Armed men, reportedly security guards and off-duty military police officers, have been threatening to kill members of the Tremembe indigenous community of Sao Jose and Buriti in the north-eastern Brazilian state of Ceara. The Tremembe are attempting to stop the construction of a vast tourist resort on what they consider to be their ancestral lands. The company is continuing work on the site in defiance of a court order.

Some 200 Tremembe have been blockading an access road to the site since 10 October, to prevent trucks from delivering materials and equipment. They say that on 4 November a group of armed men, including two off-duty police officers, came to the blockade, saying they were there to matar, prender e algemar (”to kill, seize and handcuff”) them, and drive them off the land. Members of the Tremembe indigenous community have also accused police and company security guards of repeatedly blocking up their well, which they depend on for water, threatening to kill indigenous people fishing in a nearby river, and cutting down banana trees planted by the Tremembe, who are subsistence farmers. The Tremembe have lodged official complaints at their local police station, and the State Attorney of Ceara, but they allege that armed police have been driving around the Tremembe village in company cars, harassing them.
Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, there is a pun in that title, but before i get to that let me explain a few things first. You’ll notice the name change from Letter Writing Sunday. This is due partially to the fact that i rarely post this on Sunday and partially because most of the actions were actually emails, not letters. I haven’t posted a letter writing campaign in quite some time. my apologies, i’ve just been busy with other things. But i’m gonna get back in the habit of posting a regular action (ideally every week, but don’t hold me to that). With the formalities aside, let’s get to it.

Due to my absence, i’m highlighting two campaigns. The first is in solidarity with the 1,700 office cleaners who are currently on strike in Houston, Texas. The office cleaners, who were tired of scraping by on $20 a day and no benefits, decided to unionize with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). On October 23rd, the workers went on strike. They are fighting for a wage increase to $8.50/hour, more working hours, and health insurance in a citywide union contract (which would benefit all 5,300 office cleaners in Houston, not just those on strike). The workers are up against companies like Chevron, which pays office cleaners in other big cities $10/hour or more and managed to bring in $14 billion in profits last year. Here’s a video from Ercilia Sandoval, a striking worker in Houston living with breast cancer and raising two daughters:

You can get more information about the campaign and watch several more videos at the Houston Justice for Janitors website. You can head over to LabourStart and send an email to Chevron CEO David J. O’Reilly. November 15th is Chevron Day of Action, but feel free to call them any time and ask them to support the striking workers.

The second campaign is to stop the annual dolphin slaughter in Taji, Japan. From Oceana:

From October to April, Japanese fishermen will kill more than 20,000 dolphins and porpoises as part of their annual hunt. Officials claim the slaughter is a form of “pest control” to offset the amount of fish the dolphins eat. But, the reality is, the butchered dolphins are sold off to supermarkets and grocery stores.

Yes, that includes grocery stores in the US. The campaign to stop the slaughter has really been gaining momentum and the international uproar has just about shut the practice down. A simple email to the Japanese Embassy can help make this the last dolphin slaughter in Japan.

(warning: this video has some graphic images. and it may make you scared of that old Simpsons episode)

You can get more information from the Earth Island Institute.

In 1964, Hugo “Yogi” Pinell, an immigrant from Nicaragua, was accused of raping, assaulting and kidnapping a White woman. Knowing the charges to be false, Hugo turned himself in so that he could clear his name and prove his innocence. The officers on duty beat him several times. The Judge and Public Defender told him that if he continued to assert his innocence, then he’d be sentenced to death. However, they assured him that if he simply plead guilty, then he would be eligible for parole in six months. 42 years later - 34 years in solitary - Mr. Pinell still sits in prison. But he finally has a chance to be free.

Hugo’s story is a fascinating one. He has never backed down from the violent face of racism that has plagued his life in the US. He became famous in the early 70s, as a member of the San Quentin Six - six young Black prisoners who faced charges for assaulting racist prison guards. He later became involved with George Jackson and his prison organizing efforts. Despite Pinell’s inspiring strength, however, he needs our help. Hugo is scheduled to go before the parole board sometime in November and needs people to right letters of support to the Board of Prison Terms. Here is some info from Hugo’s support site:

Please write letters, now, to the Board of Prison Terms to encourage them to grant Hugo parole. You may mail your letters to Gordon Kaupp, Attorney at Law, who will be representing Hugo at the parole hearing. Gordon works in the Law Offices of Dennis Cunningham. See below for details.

All letters should include specific offers of help and/or support for Hugo to re-enter society. The Parole Board commissioners are interested in the following offers:

* job training
* offers of employment including temporary work
* assistance in writing a resume
* help networking and job searching
* a temporary or a permanent place to live, preferably in San Francisco or the Bay Area

In addition, describe other ways you can support Hugo’s transition back into society after spending over 42 years in prison, 34 in solitary confinement. Please mention your relationship to Hugo, what impact he has made on your life, how long you have known him or about him, and any other positive comments you might have. For those of you with job offers, please be aware that Hugo is fluent in English and Spanish, which should be a feather in his cap in regard to employment. Also, Hugo is very personable, intelligent and athletic and is in tip top physical condition. Highly disciplined, Hugo is a vegetarian and continues to work out regularly. He would be an excellent mentor for at-risk youth.

Please include the date and the subject of your letter, which should be Hugo L.A. Pinell (A88401) and use his prison number, e.g.:

Date

Dear Parole Commissioners:

Re: Hugo L. A. Pinell (A88401)

Your letters should be sent to Hugo’s lawyer:
Gordon Kaupp, Esq.
Law Office of Dennis Cunningham
115 1/2 Bartlett Street
San Francisco, CA. 94110

This week’s letter comes via Sokari over at Black Looks. I think Sokari has said it well enough, so here are her words:

The horrific events taking place in Uganda should be a wakeup call for everyone. People may think that they are safe from harassment and arrest because they are heterosexual. Not so, a witch hunt affects everyone irrespective of their sexuality. Your neighbour takes a disliking to you and before you know it you are being accused of being gay or a lesbian. People may think this is not their problem because they are not Ugandans. Think again, it happened in Cameroon, its happening in Ghana right now and with the new laws in Nigeria it may soon happen there. The fundamental human rights of African citizens are slowly being eroded in Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Cameroon as religious extremists and repressive governments join in a pact against freedoms.

Today Red Pepper went ahead with the threat to out Ugandan lesbians.

“Give us the name of the lesbian in your neighbourhood and we will shame her”

All over the blogosphere I read the talk, the theories of this that and the other on race, on gender, on sexuality, on feminism. The human rights violations that are taking place in Uganda and elsewhere are not theory but reality. A reality that has today destroyed the lives of men and women in Uganda and in whose name? Religion and Repression - homosexuality is touted as being unAfrican but Chrisitainity, Islam, Repression and Bigotry are?

Some background into the present gay hunt taking place in Uganda.

For close to two years, Human Rights Watch said, officials have regularly threatened and harassed lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Ugandans. In October 2004, the country’s information minister, James Nsaba Buturo, ordered police to investigate and “take appropriate action against” a gay association allegedly organized at Uganda’s Makerere University.

State-owned media have repeatedly called for stronger measures against homosexual conduct. On July 6, 2005, a writer in the government-owned New Vision newspaper urged authorities to crack down on homosexuality, saying, “The police should visit the holes mentioned in the press, spy on the perverts, arrest and prosecute them. Relevant government departments must outlaw or restrict websites, magazines, newspapers and television channels promoting immorality – including homosexuality, lesbianism, pornography, etc.” Later that month, local government officers raided the home of Victor Mukasa, a lesbian activist and Chairperson of Sexual Minorities Uganda. They seized documents and other materials, and arrested another lesbian activist and held her overnight.

On September 29, 2005, President Museveni signed into law a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. The amendment says that “marriage is lawful only if entered into between a man and a woman,” and specifies that “it is unlawful for same-sex couples to marry.” A parliamentary spokesperson said at the time that criminal penalties for engaging in such marriages would be imposed later.

The government has also silenced discussion of gay and lesbian rights and lives. The Broadcasting Council, a board of government censors, fined a radio station 1.8 million shillings (more than US$1000) for hosting a lesbian and two gay men on a talk show, where they protested against discrimination and called for repeal of the sodomy laws. In February 2005, the Media Council – a state censorship board – banned a staging of the play, “The Vagina Monologues,” by the U.S. author Eve Ensler, because it “promotes illegal acts of unnatural sexual acts, homosexuality and prostitution.

Men named in the Red Pepper’s August 8 article have reportedly already been threatened and harassed. Ugandan activists point out that, in a deeply patriarchal society, accusations against alleged lesbians could subject them to violence in the family and community. U.N. statistics in 2000 showed that 41 percent of Ugandan women had suffered domestic violence.

A March 2005 Human Rights Watch report on “abstinence-until-marriage” HIV programs in Uganda found these programs were denying young people accurate information on HIV transmission and on sexual health. These programs also intrinsically discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. With a legal ban in place against gay or lesbian relationships, the programs promote only permanent abstinence and are uniformly silent about safer sexual practices. Promoting abstinence until heterosexual marriage is the continuation of an outright denial by the Ugandan government that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people exist. In March 2002, while accepting an award for his country’s HIV/AIDS prevention programs, President Museveni said simply, “We don’t have homosexuals in Uganda.”

“Uganda’s once-successful HIV/AIDS prevention programs are already reeling from the impact of silence and bad science,” said Stern. “Driving vulnerable people underground can only hamper those programs further.”

There are different ways people can help and it is important that as many Africans as possible take action. Since time is running out, the most efficient action would be to call directly the editor of Red Pepper in Uganda:
Arinaitwe Rugyendo; Tel: +256 712 973 077, +256 772 760 106, +256 312 279410

The journalist who wrote the article with the list of names is called Denis Sabiiti. You can call him on +256 312 26 1813.

You can also send a protest to the editor’s. Email rugyendo@mail.redpepper.co.ug

With a pseudonym like vegankid, i really haven’t written many letters regarding typical vegan ethics. Well, let’s go ahead and fill my quota for a while.

In response to a rabies outbreak, Chinese officials called for the mass killing of dogs in July. Within a few days, more than 50,000 dogs were killed. Many dogs, including those that had been vaccinated, were strangled, clubbed, and electrocuted to death while the dogs’ caretakers and passersby watched in horror. The plan was to kill hundreds of thousands of dogs in order to erradicate the rabies outbreak - a measure that is cruel and completely unneccessary. People in China organized to fight the government policy. They were able to stop the killings in Jining and possibly Mouding, but they are asking for help from those throughout the world to stop the unneccessary killing of their loved ones and the strays that roam about their neighborhoods. You can find more information and pictures, as well as an easy way to send an email to Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong, at the PETA Action Center (i know, i know, but just cuz i take issue with PETA doesn’t mean they don’t have a good campaign every now and then).

And since i missed last week’s letter, due to moving, i’ve chosen to go ahead and send a quick second. The next campaign entails millions of tax-payer dollars, cruel animal experiments, eugenics, and something so beyond homophobia that i’m having a hard time thinking of a word to describe it. Those of us that have been in the animal rights/lib community for awhile have come to know the infamous Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU). But now the facility has come to the attention of Queer activists, as well. Slated to foot the multi-million dollar bill until 2008, taxpayers are unknowingly supporting animal experiments at OHSU to identify the biological basis for homosexuality in sheep with the ultimate goal of being able to “cure” humyns of homosexuality. Stopanimaltests.com says the experiments are being carried out as follows:

OHSU experimenter Charles Roselli is killing scores of sheep and cutting open the brains of rams he calls “male-oriented” (homosexual) in an attempt to find the hormonal mechanisms behind homosexual tendencies, so that they can subsequently be changed.

You can find out more about the experiments and their link to Oregon State University (OSU) experimenter Frederick Stormshak at stopanimaltests.com, which asks that we write polite letters to OSU president Dr. Ed Ray and OHSU president-elect Dr. Joseph Roberston. You can find their email and snail-mail addresses below.

Dr. Ed Ray, President
Oregon State University
634 Kerr Administration Building
Corvallis, OR 97331-2128
ed.ray@oregonstate.edu

Joseph Robertson Jr., M.D., M.B.A., President-Elect
Oregon Health and Science University
3181 S.W. Sam Jackson Park Rd.
Portland, OR 97239-3098
Robertjo@ohsu.edu

This week i’m writing a letter that i don’t get to write very often - a thank you letter. As you may well be aware, on February 16, 2005 the Kyoto Protocol took effect in the 114 countries that ratified it. The US, as is well known, is not one of those countries. Many folks here in the US were pissed. After all, we have only 5% of the world’s population and yet we produce more than 25% of the world’s greenhouse gases.

One of the more notably pissed off citizens was Seattle’s Mayor Nickels. But rather than just hold a press conference to express his rage, he decided to organize. On March 30, 2005 Nickels and nine other mayors across the US, representing more than 3 million people, sent a letter to more than 400 US mayors asking them to take action to stop global climate change. On June 13, 2005 the Mayors Climate Protection Act was passed unanimously by the US Conference of Mayors. As of today, 279 mayors, representing 48.5 million people, have signed on to the agreement, including my own mayor, Mark Kruzan.

So today i’m taking the time to write a letter to the mayor thanking him for taking action to protect the planet that gives us life. If you would like to know if your mayor has signed the agreement, just enter your zipcode on stopglobalwarming.org. If your mayor has not signed the agreement, there is a button you can push that will send a pre-written email to them urging them to sign.

If you would like more information about global climate change, you can get started at OneWorld.net’s Climate Change 101. By the way, the most effective ways for you to take persynal action to stop global climate change are to drive less and bike more, eat locally grown foods, and go vegan. Stopglobalwarming.org has lots of other ways to help out (most are much easier, but not as effective). And if you want a very informative look at how your living choices effect the ecosystem, check out the Earth Day Footprint Quiz.

We got a few quick letters this week to make up for my absence last week. First, brownfemipower brings us an email writing campaign from the United Farm Workers about the animal abuse at Threemile Canyon Farm. To make things interesting, supervisors at the dairy “farm” (i use that term lightly here) have been passing around a petition that denies that any animal abuse has taken place. Well, they have the right to petition, but what they don’t have the right to do is to threaten to fire any worker that doesn’t sign the petition. If you want some testimony from workers about the animal abuse and some of the legal background, you can check out the Humane Farming Association’s report [pdf].

Also on the worker front, but this time from Earthjustice, we have another email writing campaign. The EPA has proposed the phase-out of Azinphos Methyl and Phosmet over the next four years. Here’s what Earthjustice has to say about these two pesticides:

Five years ago, the Environmental Protection Agency found that two pesticides — azinphos methyl and phosmet — pose “unacceptable” poisoning risks to workers exposed to them when they work in orchards. These two pesticides are highly toxic neurotoxins, derived from nerve agents used during World War II, and attack the human nervous system. Exposure can cause nausea, dizziness, vomiting, seizures, paralysis, loss of mental function, and even death. Farmworker families and communities are exposed to organophosphates through “take-home” exposures on clothing, cars, and skin.

The EPA is now holding a comment period to hear from the public. They have already waited five years to even think about taking action to protect workers, don’t let them wait any longer.

And last but certainly not least, another campaign from the UFW. As we all know, its been a hot summer. A really hot summer. But most of us don’t have to spend the day bent over in the middle of a field without so much as a tree within walking distance. That’s the fate of many California farmworkers. And that’s why on June 15, the state issued the first permanent heat stress regulation in the country. The regulation states that companies must provide workers with shade, water, training for working safely in the heat, and the right to take paid breaks when feeling the effects of such high temperatures. This was a huge victory for farmworkers, but of course its not an easy one.

Carl Borden, a lawyer for the California Farm Bureau, told a newspaper, “That could pose compliance issues for employers in certain situations where you may have dozens [and] dozens of employees out there working (and asking for shade) and essentially it requires the erection of a number of shade canopies, for example…That can be somewhat daunting if we’re talking about a field situation.” Cry me a river, Mr. Borden. Is it really asking that much for agribusiness companies to take some of the billions of taxpayer subsidies they’ve received to buy a few tents? Its in their interest, too. At least six California farmworkers have died this summer because of the heat. And it doesn’t take a genius to know that a living farmworker can harvest more produce than a dead one. But the California Farm Bureau is not Mensa, its a bunch of lawyers and, well, bureaucrats, so they need you to send them an email to inform them that you are paying them to treat their workers fairly, not so they can buy themselves a second Hummer.

You may remember the letter from a few weeks back when we wrote to the executives of Krug-Mondavi Winery. Krug-Mondavi was threatening to fire all of its workers in an attempt to flush out the United Farm Workers union. Despite public pressure, the company went through with the mass firing a couple of weeks ago.

I’m not the kind of persyn who writes a letter then forgets about the campaign. So i’m revisiting the issue again this week to support two letter-writing campaigns of the United Farm Workers. The first is a letter to the offices of Krug-Mondavi Winery regarding the boycott against the company. You can send an email (there is, of course, a form email you can send) from the UFW’s campaign page. The second letter is to Longs Drug Stores, a distributor of Krug-Mondavi wines, asking them to put pressure on Krug-Mondavi to bring back the workers and return to the negotiating table. Longs purports a tradition of “treating others as we, ourselves, would like to be treated.” Take a minute and send the company an email from this page.

I used to live in the Southern Appalachian mountains. While there, i became aware of the struggles going on in coal country. It was while involved in these struggles that i learned of the true hystory of the term Redneck. Before, i had believed that the word was a derogatory term for farmworkers. Now, i know that it was the name of the coal miners who took over Blair Mountain in the Fall of 1921. One of the largest armed uprising in US hystory, some 10,000 coal miners confronted state and federal troops in an attempt to unionize the coal mines of West Virginia. The month-long battle was deemed the Red Neck Wars because of the red bandanas that the miners wore around their necks. One of the most notable of the battle’s union organizers was Mother Jones.

Although the miners lost the battle and more than 900 were indicted, they never lost their spirit for struggle and justice. To this day, the coal fields remain a tense ground for struggle between miners, the corporate executives, and coal company thugs (yup, they still got their own thugs).

One things that has changed, however, is the battle. While safety standards remain high on the list of priorities, a new era in coal mining has brought together union and environmental activist. The new foe, mountaintop removal (referred to as strip mining by the industry), threatens the region’s biosphere on a very large scale by cutting off the tops of mountains to access coal and filling nearby valleys with the rocks and soil removed. To see one of these projects up close is heart-wrenching.

As you can imagine, the soil is completely destroyed leaving the land unable to regenerate. So what do you put in nature’s place? Coal companies have a quick response to that one: the new flat ground is perfect for a Walmart or a new prison facility. And that is exactly how the industry is marketing these newely destroyed lands to local and state officials.

Unfortunately, that is also the future for the coal miners, as well. With mountaintop removal, a job that used to take over a hundred people can now be done with just three low-skilled workers. This has reeked havoc on union membership and the ability of the union to increase health and safety standards. Coal companies are also finding it easier to undermine unions by exploiting the undocumented immigrant workforce. Considering the fact that mountaintop removal has destroyed not only land but also homes, schools, roads and entire towns, the many former coal miners that are unable to find work as Walmart greeters or prison guards are sure to find themselves filling one of the privately-owned prison cells.

This week’s letter will not be written to the coal companies. As powerful as they are, we will be writing to a far more powerful influence in our nation: Oprah. This month’s issue of O Magazine featured a story, entitled “You fight for what you got, even if its only worth a dime,” of some of the incredible wimmin in Appalachia who are standing up against the devastation of mountaintop removal. I’ve had the privilege of meeting and working with several of these wimmin and that’s why i want to continue to support them even if i no longer live in the area.

The letter-writing campaign is being organized by EarthJustice. It is a positive campaign in that it is meant to thank the people at the magazine for including the report, but also to encourage Oprah to have some of these wimmin on her show so that millions of others can hear their stories of loss and struggle (one family’s three-year-old son was crushed to death in his sleep by a boulder that was knocked loose by a coal truck that was working illegally one night - the company was given a small fine for working illegally but was not implicated in the child’s death).

As brownfemipower stated months ago, Oprah can be a tool for radical change. She sees herself as such a tool. It is up to us to bring to her attention the struggles of working-class wimmin so that she may share their stories with the nation. Please take a moment and visit EarthJustice’s campaign page to see a sample letter. Then head over to Oprah’s website and submit your letter to the producers. It will take you five minutes for something that can change the lives of thousands and help protect the world’s oldest mountains. le

Last week i focused on the U.S. Congress’ attack on Net Neutrality. Sticking with the theme of the internet, i’ve decided to highlight a case involving Yahoo!, the Chinese government, and a journalist. The following information is from Amnesty International:

Shi Tao, a Chinese journalist, is serving a ten-year prison sentence in China for sending an email. Writing about a Communist Party decision, Shi Tao sent the email to the USA using his Yahoo account. The Chinese authorities accused him of “illegally providing state secrets to foreign entities”.

According to the Court transcript, the evidence that led to Shi Tao’s sentencing included account-holder information provided by US internet company Yahoo. Disturbingly, it has recently come to light that Yahoo may have also released data which could have contributed to the arrest of another dissident, Li Zhi.

Shi Tao was accused of sending an email summarizing an internal Communist Party directive to a foreign source. The Communist Party directive had warned Chinese journalists of possible social unrest during the anniversary of the June 4 Movement (in memory of the Tiananmen crackdown), and directed them not to fuel it via media reports. Imprisoned for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression, a right entrenched in international law and the Chinese Constitution, Amnesty International considers Shi Tao a prisoner of conscience.

Companies must respect human rights, wherever they operate. Yahoo’s actions are not justifiable: the company unconditionally met the Chinese government’s request for information on Shi Tao, and allegedly contributed to Li Zhi’s detention.

Paradoxically, Yahoo has stated that it believes in the core values of “excellence, innovation, customer fixation, team work, community and fun”. Yet, the company has signed the Public Pledge on Self-Discipline for the Internet Industry, effectively agreeing to implement China’s draconian system of censorship and control.

Amnesty International has raised its concerns with Yahoo. The company has responded but has not addressed all the concerns raised.

Find out more about Yahoo’s and Amnesty International’s position on the Shi Tao case

Learn more about human rights in cyberspace from Amnesty International

Write to Yahoo now, expressing your concern about the company’s role in assisting in the violation of Shi Tao’s rights. Yahoo must use its influence to secure Shi Tao’s release. You can check out this page for a sample letter or you can write your own letter and send it to the following (send all emails to both Jerry Yang and David Filo):

Jerry Yang and David Filo
Co-founders, Chief Yahoo & Directors
Emails: jerry@yahoo-inc.com; filo@yahoo-inc.com
Alternative emails:
Michael Callahan, Senior VP General Counsel: callahan@yahoo-inc.com
Gregory Coleman, Exec VP Global Advertising Sales: gcoleman@yahoo-inc.com

Yahoo Customer Care
Yahoo! Inc.
701 First Avenue
Sunnyvale, California 94089
USA

If you can, call Yahoo Customer Care to make your points over the phone: 001-408-349-1572

(Early Wednesday Morning Edition)

I’d like you to take a moment and think of your favorite websites. Are they, by any chance, mtv.com or cnn.com or maybe michellemalkin.com? No? Well you may want to consider them as your favorites, cuz soon you may not have much of a choice. Or you could take a moment, educate yourself about net neutrality, and start making some phone calls, writing some letters, and signing a petition.

If you aren’t familiar with Net Neutrality and the threat against it, check out Save the Internet. Here’s the jist of it. Net Neutrality is basically the First Amendment of the Internet. It states that every site is given equal access. Basically, you are able to search for and look at a small site just as easily as a big corporate one. That’s what the internet is all about, right? Not if the big telecommunications companies and their enormous team of lobbying attorneys has anything to do with it. AT&T, Verizon, Time Warner and Comcast are spending millions of dollars to create a tiered internet where money determines how fast your site loads or if it loads at all. The bill to destroy Net Neutrality is being considered by the Senate right now.

You can think of the internet as one big public access channel, but these telecommunications companies are hoping to turn it into something more like cable tv. Instead of being able to choose from millions of websites, you’ll have to choose from your internet provider’s menu. And those that don’t pay to be on the menu, won’t be accessible.

So if you like reading this website, it is of the utmost importance that you take action to save it and the millions like it. This is not something we can forget about. The telecommunications lobby is one of the strongest in the U.S. and has a long hystory of victories against what’s best for the public. But we can stand up against them and win. So take a moment and call your senator, sign the petition, write a letter to your local paper, and do whatever else you can to ensure an open internet.

Its hard to imagine that a company with 850 acres in Napa Valley, California is in the midst of poverty. Its hard to imagine because it isn’t true. Charles Krug-Mondavi vineyards are undergoing a $21.6 million capital improvement drive and part of that drive is to fire all the workers on July 1 and turn the land over to a land manager. Krug-Mondavi announced the decision shortly after the 20-year-old union contract expired on December 31, 2005.

Krug-Mondavi is a member of the Peter Mondavi family of wines. They are one of the most well-known California wine producers, bottling such wines as CK Mondavi, St. Helena Zinfandel, Charles Krug Napa Valley Merlot, and several others. The front page of their website encourages its reader to “peruse our pages and discover for yourself the history and tradition that our Family is proud to uphold.” But what they don’t want you to peruse are what they refuse to print on their pages - decades of worker exploitation, numerous allegations of sexual harrassment, formal charges of bad-faith bargaining and discrimination.

The farmworkers have never had an easy time representing themselves under Krug-Mondavi. It took six years for the company to agree to a union contract after the workers had voted in 1975 to be represented by the United Farm Workers in one of the first union elections under California’s pioneering farm labor law. Ten years after the original contract was signed, the workers found themselves in the midst of an eight-year battle to renew their contract, finally emerging victorious in 2000.

These contract victories have proven to be successful because of the dedicated work of the farmworkers and their ability to organize boycotts. Once again, they are asking the world to help them by boycotting Krug-Mondavi wines. As 29-year veteran Krug Mondavi worker Aurelio Solorio says, “The company simply wants to do away with our union that has represented us and fought for our benefits. The company wants to implement a younger work force that will carry lower wages, no benefits, and will hold a lesser amount of knowledge of their labor rights.” Krug-Mondavi is not threatening to fire its entire workforce because they are reaching bankruptcy. They are doing it so that they can raise their bottomline and maintain a highly exploitable workforce.

So help the Krug-Mondavi farmworkers. Boycott the company’s line of wines and visit the UFW’s website to send an email to Charles Krug. Because Krug-Mondavi has continued to ignore the workers’ pleas, despite the thousands of emails sent to Mr. Krug, UFW is also asking supporters to get on their website and send an email to Beverages and More, one of the largest distributors of Krug-Mondavi wines with 45 stores throughout California.

I’m honored and pleased that Amp has asked me to cross-post my Letter Writing Sunday series here on Alas. For those that are unfamiliar, every Sunday i write at least one letter of social importance. The letters range from contacting members of congress, to local elected officials, to corporations, and, as you’ll see this week, to political prisoners. While this is the first letter writing sunday at Alas, it is #8 in the series. The idea is to raise awareness about a different issue every week, to provide a simple outlet for action on that issue, and to create a sense of collective action. I sometimes write letters in the middle of the week and label them such things as letter writing sunday #5.2, but here i will only publish the official Sunday edition. So let’s begin (i assure you that they usually aren’t this long. This is simply a topic that is very near and dear to me.)…

I should have posted something about this earlier, but today is the last day of the International Weekend of Resistance Against the Green Scare. And for those that aren’t quite in the mental space to go out and participate in some direct action or if you’d like to highlight your other action(s), i’m dedicating this week’s letter to solidarity with the weekend of resistance. But rather than write yet another letter to yet another corporate office, let’s show some love for those who are in prison.

The Weekend of Resistance started as the International Weekend of Resistance to Support Free Luers, a political prisoner at Oregon State Penitentiary. This weekend marks the fifth anniversary of his imprisonment. Here is a clip from Free’s support site:

In June 2001, 23 year-old forest defense activist Jeffrey “Free” Luers was sentenced to 22 years and 8 months in prison for the burning of three Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV’s) in Eugene, Oregon. To make a statement about global warming, Jeff and his codefendent, Craig ‘Critter’ Marshall, set fire to 3 SUVs at a Eugene car dealership. Their stated purpose was to raise awareness about global warming and the role that SUVs play in that process. No one was hurt in this action nor was that the intent. An arson specialist at trial confirmed that the action did not pose any threat to people based on its size and distance from any fuel source. Despite the fact that this action hurt no one, caused only $40,000 in damages and the cars were later resold, Jeff was sent to prison for a sentence considerably longer than those convicted of murder, kidnapping and rape in Oregon state. Jeff is a political prisoner and continues to write and agitate for his release while imprisoned at Oregon State Penetentiary. His appeal was filed in January 2002 and oral arguments before the Oregon Court of Appeals were heard on November 30, 2005. The judge has not yet issued his opinion.

I do not persyanlly know Free. We’ve never met. But i’ve been familiar with his case from the beginning. His obscenely long sentencing sent shockwaves through the radical environmental movement, of which i am proudly a part. We had always known that we were targeted for political crimes. Many of us have spent time in jail or prison for our actions. But Free’s case marked a new era for the environmental and animal rights movement. An era plagued by the same fervor as the COINTELPRO witch hunts of the 60s and 70s and the Red Scare hunts of the 1950s. An era where even a website could land you in prison for a few years. An era that is now affectionately called the Green Scare.

In a failrly recent article written by Free, he talks about this upsurge in government repression and how the FBI has dedicated more time and energy towards targeting activists (the #1 domestic terrorist threat, according to the FBI) than it has to groups such as al-Qaeda. In the article, he also reminds us that we cannot believe that this is the first time that such represssion has happened and that we must learn lessons from similar targeting that occured against groups like the Amercan Indian Movement and the Black Panther Party. And in some ways, we have all learned a lot. In fact, the FBI has discovered that its Operation Backfire has, in fact, backfired. Not only has a once splintered environmental-animal lib movement found itself reuniting, but the surge of prisoner solidarity work has spawned many relationships that otherwise may never have formed. For example, a recent animal liberation conference in the northeast US dedicated more time to the issue of prisoner support work, like that of the Jericho Movement, than it did to campaigns about non-humyn animals; centralizing a new dialogue in the animal lib movement about racism and the prison-industrial complex. In an odd way, these attacks have been one of the best things to happen in recent hystory for White radicals in the US. But that is no reason for us to allow these people who have risked so much for a better world to be left alone to rot in prison.

Free doesn’t deny the allegations against him. He simply argues that his sentencing, over twice that of the average convicted rapist, outweighs the crime considering the fact that the only damage done was to three SUVs that were later resold. The average sentence for arson, according to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, is 5.5 years, one-quarter of Free’s sentence.

Free has continued his struggle in prison. He has never allowed the cold walls to silence him. He continues to publish his words in magazines and recently published a zine, Heartcheck, with fellow Oregon political prisoner Rob “los Ricos” Thaxton (who is completing his seven-year sentance this month!).

You don’t have to agree with Free or his chosen tactics. A friend and i were talking about the recent round-up of activists in Operation Backfire and the lack of attention it has received outside of the relatively small radical environmental, animal lib, and prison abolitionist movement(s). We agreed that even scarier than the round-up was the complacency surrounding it in the larger radical, progressive, and liberal movements. Its as though people believe that activists such as Free deserve their extraordinary sentences and that people like Daniel McGowan, who has maintained his plea of innocence, deserve to face life in prison because they associate with the likes of Free.

In addition to Operation Backfire, the SHAC 7 were recently convicted of terrorism for hosting a website (the site was forced to shut down, but others have popped up to take its place. CloseHLS is one such site.). They await their sentencing, which will be between two and twenty years each. My friend and i strongly believe that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have learned a lot from the very successful Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) campaign. What they learned most is that you do not go after your target as a whole, you pick it off piece by piece. Those who believe that these arrests and repression will stop with groups like SHAC and Earth First! have not been paying attention to the news. More and more stories are coming out about the FBI infiltrating and spying on peace groups, Indymedia, SOA Watch, and other groups. What all of these groups have in common is a dedication to non-violence and social change that has proven to be successful (HLS is one the verge of its third bankruptcy, the SOA is on the verge of being closed down, Indymedia’s expansive network rivals CNN’s, and so forth). Once they have succeeded in isolating and shutting down groups like SHAC and Earth First!, they will come after others (SOA Watch, International Solidarity Movement, Indymedia, and others have already witnessed imprisonment, Grand Juries, and State repression). A current revision in the House and Senate to the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act of 2002, the Act underwhich the SHAC 7 were convicted, would make it so that so much as holding up a sign on a sidewalk could land you in prison for two years as a terrorist. Why has this received no attention outside of the animal lib movement? Do people honestly believe that this will stop with animal lib activists? According to this legislation, groups like PETA could be targeted as terrorist organizations akin to al-Qaeda or the World Church of the Creator. If PETA is a target, NOW and Feminist Majority are targets for their support of economic boycotts. United Students Against Sweatshops are a target. The American Friends Service Committee are a target. Anyone or any organization that threatens the unregulated profits of any corporation strong enough to endorse legislation, is a target.

It is for that reason that these arrests are not just relevent to the animal lib or radical environmental movement. They are relevent to all of us dedicated to positive social change. And if we cannot support those that are in prison now, then we will soon find ourselves isolated and picked off, one-by-one. Even if it is just two sentences to say hi, write a letter to Free to let him know that he is not alone. Because it is not unheard of that you too may find yourself in a Kafka-esque nightmare, hoping only for contact from a friend; contact from a slightly more sane world beyond the cold hard steel.

You can reach Free through the following address:
Jeffrey Luers
#13797671
Oregon State Penitentiary
2605 State Street
Salem, OR 97310

If you are looking for more information about the support work that is being done for the Weekend of Resistance, the Houston Indymedia Radio Project and Anarchist Black Cross teamed up this weekend and put together a nice Green Scare Special Edition (you can listen to it on my blog) full of interviews about Free Luers, Daniel McGowan, the Green Scare, the SHAC 7, the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, Eric McDavid, Zachary Jenson and other such vital topics.

You can read the letter i wrote to Free on my blog.