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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Denver Grand Jury Targets Chentex Union Supporters |
Current rating: 0 |
by Daisy Pitkin, Campaign for Labor Rights
Email: CLRmain (nospam) afgj.org (unverified!)
Phone: 202-544-9355 |
31 May 2001
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Last December, as a part of a U.S. national effort to support union organizing at the Chentex factory in Nicaragua, members of the Denver Justice and Peace Committee organized a peacful protest at their local Kohl's store. Now one activist is in jail with others on the way as a result of repressive police and investigative tactics. |
During the year 2000, there were several hundred leafleting actions (that you may have been a part of!) at Kohl’s department stores in support of Nicaraguan sweatshop workers. As a part of this series of action, in December 2000, the Denver Justice and Peace Committee organized a peaceful leafleting action at a local Kohl’s outlet. During the action, four people dressed as Santa Claus entered the store and spray painted some of the merchandise. Despite their eye-catching costumes, the Santas were not apprehended by security guards or police.
On December 15, police entered the DJPC office with a search warrant. They seized the organization\'s computer disks, donor and membership records, and thoroughly body-searched the only person-of-color present at the time. In the attempt to find the four Santas by disrupting Denver’s local activist community, investigators interviewed at least 50 financial and activist supporters of DJPC--sowing fear and discord among activists and virtually destroying the local committee. Now, in what may be part of a national strategy to target anti-corporate globalization activists, or the action of an overzealous local prosecutor, a grand jury has been convened to determine criminal charges in this case. One activist, Doug Bohm, was jailed on May 17 for refusing to cooperate with the grand jury, meaning that he has refused to testify in this case. Former DJPC Executive Director David Martin, is also expecting that he will be imprisoned for his stance of non-cooperation. The grand jury next meets on Thursday, May 31.
The grand jury system is a fundamentally undemocratic tool of the government used to persecute minorities and adherents of unpopular ideologies. Only the government can present evidence to a grand jury. And witnesses who invoke their Fifth Amendment right not to testify, as in the Denver case, can have that right taken away by a grand jury by being ordered to testify anyway. Failure to obey the court order to testify can result in up to a six-month sentence, even though the grand jury may ultimately bring no charges in the case.
If the DJPC activists are prosecuted in this case, the implications will be far reaching and may affect the ability and willingness of activists across the country to be in solidarity with sweatshop workers as they attempt to organize unions. The possible international impacts of this case are simply too important to ignore.
Denver activists have asked for our solidarity and action—just as Chentex workers did last year. We must show the Denver authorities that we are aware of the tactics they are using against activists who demonstrated, simultaneous to many of you, at Kohl’s. If the repressive actions of the Colorado authorities deter communities from supporting the organizing efforts of workers around the world, then those actions can be seen as an indirect assault on union organizing efforts.
A group called the Free Speech Defense Committee has been set up to coordinate support for the Denver activists targeted in the case. **Contact Luis Espinosa-Organista at 303-864-9303 or lespinos (at) ouray.cudenver.edu for further information on the case and on ways to support the Denver-based labor rights activists.
**Donations for legal defense can be made to: Building Bridges, 3533 Tejon, Denver, CO 80211.
The Free Speech Defense Committee has asked us to contact the Jefferson County (CO) District Attorney to demand that he dissolve the grand jury and stop using it to undermine Free Speech rights. **Contact: David J. Thomas, District Attorney, First Judicial District, 500 Jefferson County Parkway, Golden, CO 80401, ph. 303-271-6800; fax. 303-271-6900.
People are also asked to contact the judge in the to demand that he protect First and Fifth Amendment rights, end the abuse of the grand jury for political purposes, and release all those now in jail for defending their rights. **Contact: Chief Judge L. Thomas Woodford, 100 Jefferson County Parkway, Golden, CO 80401-6002; ph. 303-271-6110; fax: 303-271-6271.
The Committee is also asking people to contact Kohl’s. During the Chentex struggle Kohl’s did very little to support of the workers that sew their jeans in the Chentex factory. Those workers won a victory despite Kohl’s inaction. Let\'s keep Kohl’s phone, fax, and email lines burning until they agree to stop claiming excessive property damage in this case and to use their influence to end the political witch-hunt. **Contact: Larry Montgomery, CEO, Kohl’s Corporation, N56 W17000 Ridgewood Dr., Menomonee Falls, WI 53051, ph. 262-703-7000, fax 262-703-6796, email larry_montgomery (at) kohls.com. It would not be a bad idea either to let your local Kohl’s store manager know how upset you are that Kohl’s is contributing to the trampling of our constitutional right to free speech as it had contributed to the trampling of the Chentex workers’ right to organize a union.
<><><><><> Sample Letter to the D.A. and the Chief Judge
Chief Judge L. Thomas Woodford 100 Jefferson County Parkway Golden, Colorado 80401-6002 (303) 271-6110 · FAX (303) 271-6271100
cc: David J. Thomas First Judicial District Attorney 500 Jefferson County Parkway Golden, CO 80401
Dear Chief Judge Woodford:
I am writing to express concern about the police investigation of the Denver Justice and Peace Committee (DJPC) and the subsequent establishment of a grand jury in the case of vandalism at the Kohl’s clothing store on December 9, 2000.
Our First Amendment rights—as a foundation to democracy—are a vital instrument for citizens to educate one another and to improve our society. Therefore, any threat or infringement on these rights can not be taken lightly. The Golden police have undermined the exercise of DJPC members’ First Amendment Rights in the following ways: [1] by serving a search warrant to obtain any protest related-materials [2] by seizing membership lists of the DJPC and other organizations with no connection to the demonstration, and [3] by interrogating large numbers of people on those lists (guilt by association).
Police investigation methods such as these are meant to intimidate and inhibit the exercise of our basic freedoms, and this is something that I, as a human and labor rights supporter, can not and will not ignore.
The grand jury is a powerful tool for prosecutors that is funded by tax dollars, and I believe it is being used in this case to cost those same citizens their Fifth Amendment rights. These tactics are sadly reminiscent of similar tactics used against dissent in the 1960s and 1970s, which were exposed and condemned by the United States Senate.
There is a real crime at issue here--but it is not the minor vandalism of clothing at the Kohl’s store. The true crime is Kohl’s use of sweatshop labor. Kohl’s is a purchaser of clothes made by Nicaraguan workers, who receive 20 cents for every $30 pair of jeans they sew. Most of these workers are women. They toil for long hours under dangerous conditions for wages that do not provide for the basic necessities for them and their families.
When the workers organized a union to demand better wages and conditions, the factory managers fired over 700 of them and jailed their organizers under bogus charges. The union workers recently won a victory in their struggle for labor rights with no help from Kohl\'s. If the Jefferson County DA is really interested in the pursuit of justice, he should be investigating Kohl’s corporate crimes against humanity, not attempting to criminalize free speech.
We ask you to protect the First and Fifth Amendment, end the prosecutorial abuse of the grand jury for political purposes, and release all those now in jail for defending their rights.
Sincerely, (your name)
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Labor Alerts (11,500 subscribers), a free service of: Campaign for Labor Rights Phone: 202-544-9355, To subscribe/unsubscribe, contact clrmain (at) afgj.org
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