[olympiaworkers] Pierce County Jobs with Justice Post on Feb. 10th Peltier March

 

In this message: 1) March & Rally - Justice for Peltier Feb.10    2)Protest for Justice at Macy's Feb.17

 

Pierce County Jobs with Justice Organizing Committee Calls on All of Us to…

14th Annual March and Rally: Justice for Peltier

starts Saturday, Noon, February 10, from Portland Ave. Park, Tacoma

(on Portland Ave. between E. 35th and E. Fairbanks Ave. Take Portland Ave. exit off I-5 and head east)

RALLY 1pm, U.S. Federal Court House, 1717 Pacific Ave

For more info, contact the lead organization Tacoma Leonard Peltier Support Group at bayou@blarg.net.

 

Background

The struggle for justice for Leonard Peltier is a struggle about all of our civil rights, not just Native American people.  He organized to challenge corporate greed just as he had organized previously and locally for workplace, union, and economic justice rights.  That's why labor councils and major unions in Canada have prioritzed Peltier's struggle for justice.  To see this labor support, check out the statement of the Chair of the Canadian Labour Congress, the Canadian public sector union webpage, and the Ontario Federation of Labour Human Rights honor, two Long Lists of International Supporters including Nelson Mandela and other celebs,.  Why does Canadian labor specifically support Peltier and for more details about the event and background? see below…

 

Protest for Justice at Macy's

Saturday, February 17th, Noon

Gather at the Food Court of the Tacoma Mall

If you have any questions please call us at 253-459-5107

 

We are protesting Tacoma Macy's because it is

• Trying to convert South Sound residents into Macy's debt-slaves.  Macy's is imposing on workers that at least once every 30 hours they must lure Macy's shoppers to apply for a credit card.  If Macy's workers fail to meet this quota, they could be fired.  To make it easier to go into Macy's debt, the company recently lowered the credit rating so that low-income and already indebted people are eligible.  Macy's credit cards have notoriously high interest rates (about 25%) and they exported the service jobs on these credit cards to countries with high poverty to avoid paying living wages locally. 
• Refusing most Tacoma Macy's workers a raise in the last 3 years.  Now Macy's is proposing no future wage increase for over half of the employees and then cutting wages by increasing medical premiums by 11 to 29%
• Denying over half of Tacoma Macy's workers an affordable healthcare plan and relying on taxpayers to pick up the tab
• Corporate Greed gone wild.  Macy's parent company Federated has doubled its profits while it cut costs on workers' and shoppers' backs.  Federated sales rose to over $23 billion, driving profits well over $1.4 billion this year.  Federated CEO Terry Lundgren's 2006 salary & bonuses are $5,029,256 and other compensation amounts to Vested Stock Options of $7,050,530; Nonvested Stock Options of $8,190,810; Exercised Stock Options of $98,344. 

For more background, see the Tacoma Weekly Op-Ed article in response to the story (click on this link) and our website link (click on this)

 

More Background on the Peltier Event

PARKING:  If you get to the park early we will organize cars being moved up close to the rally site. You could also park at the Tacoma Dome Station and catch a bus. There is also parking at the park and LPSG will try to find drivers to take people back to the park after the rally.

 

For CARPOOLS from Olympia, be ready to leave from the parking lot at Harrison and Division at 10:30

 

RALLY PROGRAM:  Performances by The Aztec Dancers, United Nations Native Rap Activists, Albert Combs.  Speakers: Matilaja: Yu'Pik/Yakama and Steve Hapy and Arthur J. Miller, Tacoma LPSG; Robert Robideau Co-Director of the LPDC and Co Defendant, Shelly Vendiola: Indigenous Women's Network; David Duenas Puyallup; Juan Jose Bocanegra Jobs with Justice and Every Worker's Movement; Frank Reynolds Native American Coalition; Bill Bichsel Catholic Worker and Jobs with Justice; Zoltan Grossman Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace and Faculty Evergreen's Native American Studies

 

More Background on Peltier

Canadian labor specifically supports Peltier because the Canadian government extradited Peltier for US federal prosecution when many believed him to be a political refugee at a time that the US federal government was corrupted by Nixon's Watergate and domestic espionage.

 

Leonard Peltier is a Native American activist and was a union member in Washington State.  He went to South Dakota to support local Native American people defending land and local democracy rights from large radioactive uranium mining corporations that were trying take away reservation land in the 1970s.  The corporations hired armed guards to visit the Reservation unannounced and the situation got tense, violent, and deadly often.  The FBI intervened and also made unannounced armed visits to the reservation and during one visit, a firefight took place with differing views of how and who was responsible.  Two FBI agents were killed. 

 

In the first trial of two American Indian Movement (AIM) members who had been in the firefight, the jury came back with a verdict of not guilty by reason of self-defense.  Then the government re-charged and convicted Leonard Peltier using new judges, evidence, and witnesses.  Through appeals, Peltier's lawyers have been able to disprove the case against him to the point that the U.S. Government prosecutors have stated that they don't know what role he played in the firefight -- he was just there that day and thus aided and abetted in the deaths of the agents.

 

The federal courts have recognized the repressive nature of the government actions against American Indian Movement and Leonard Peltier. Federal Judge Heaney stated, "The United States Government overreacted at Wounded Knee. Instead of carefully considering the legitimate grievances of the Native Americans, the response was essentially a military one, which culminated in the deadly firefight on June 26, 1975."  And last year the Tenth Circuit Court found that, "Much of the government's behavior at the Pine Ridge Reservation and in its prosecution of Mr. Peltier is to be condemned. The government withheld evidence. It intimidated witnesses. These facts are not disputed."  The Eight Circuit Court of Appeals ruled "There is a possibility that the jury would have acquitted Leonard Peltier had the record and data improperly withheld from the defense been available to him in order to better exploit and reinforce the inconsistencies casting strong doubts upon the governments case."  Peltier continues to await a fair trail in prison.

 

Thirty-one years later, the FBI has refused to release over 140,000 pages of material evidence to Leonard Peltier or his attorneys.  Documents are supposed to be automatically declassified after 25 years under Executive Order 12958. The FBI is arguing that this material should not be subject to automatic declassification because it could damage or cause serious damage to national security and the war on transnational terrorism.

 

"Mr. Peltier's unjust incarceration remains a festering sore that impedes better race relations in America. Surely the time has come to promote healing and a spirit of trust and genuine goodwill toward the Indian peoples of America with an act that serves both compassion and justice."

  - Coretta Scott King

 

 "In a nation which so prides itself on a strong and incorruptible judicial system and a human and responsive government, it is sad indeed to think that in nearly a quarter of a century, justice has been elusive for this man. If the matter continues without remedy and action, it will soon be too late for any justice at all. A tragedy of this magnitude cannot be allowed."

 - Archbishop Desmond Tutu

 

South Sound Office of Washington State Jobs with Justice

3049 S. 36 St, #201

Tacoma, WA  98409-5801

(253) 459-5107

website:  wsjwj.org  Seattle office: wsjwj@igc.org

 

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