From: mtoups@andrew.cmu.edu
Date: Mon Mar 04 2002 - 00:00:52 EST
News on the pirates anti-sweatshop campaign:
four PWR members from CMU went to PNC park saturday morning
to spread the movement to pirates fans and narrowly missed
getting arrested. however some of our friends from other
schools were not so lucky, read more below. let us know
if you want to go to the court date and support.
Also, Tim Vining, director of the thomas merton center,
has invited PWR to speak to a group of high school students
interested in activism about USAS and the larger student/labor
movement. this will be thursday (first day of midsemester break),
in lieu of our weekly meeting. email me if you can come along.
we mainly want to speak about what we've been up to and help
inspire young people to make a difference.
Anyway, have a good midsemester break. when everyone
gets back we'll have a date for the keady/kretzu speaking
engagement, the living wage workshop, and maybe even
sweat-free t-shirts (by the way, keep working on those
design ideas).
peace
matt
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 04 Mar 2002 04:51:41 +0000
From: Michelle Gaffey <gaffeymb@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: piratessweatshopplan@yahoogroups.com
To: piratessweatshopplan@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [piratessweatshopplan] the day of infamy
hi everyone on this beloved list! i was hoping to update all of you on our first action
against sweatshops this glorious pirates baseball season. as you all know, last saturday
from about 9:30 am until 1:00 pm, our group gathered at pnc park for the pirates open house
to EDUCATE pirates fans about sweatshops, new era, chris kock, etcetera. we did the
following:
1. passed out leaflets containing info about sweatshops.
2. were asked by police officials and park security to go across the street and halfway
across the bridge to continue our work. we were told not to pass out petitions inside the
park. we obeyed each of these orders without refusal or hesitation.
3. were invited back to the original sidewalk by the police. we returned.
4. were asked once again to go across the street and halway across the bridge. again, we
obeyed.
5. many of our group members departed for home; four of us stayed to gather info from the
labels of merchandise in the pirates store. we bothered NO ONE. we passed out NO LEAFLETS.
and we showed NO PETITIONS. we simply wrote our info down so we could then research
statistics.
6. a cop came over to us and had a stand on the side of the store while he called for extra
security. he hand cuffed us in the middle of the park and then paraded us around the
stadium. we entered the security office at pnc park where we waited for the cops to concoct
a scheme to charge us with something (since we did nothing illegal). we were charged with
defiant tresspassing because, according to mr. fisher (i thinkthat's his name), we REFUSED to
leave when he asked us to LEAVE THE PARK FOUR TIMES. uhem...we were never asked to leave the
park, and we did not refuse anything. and we were defiant because, according to the officer,
we passed out leaflets and petitions inside the park. again, we did no such thing. we were
simply copying labels. and no one asked us the entire day what happened. everyone believe
that officer who lied completely.
7. went to jail for about 8 hours. had some nice bologna sandwiches. wore cuffs around or
hands and feet. the usual day in the life of a demonstrator.
just so you all know: the people who are against what we did are saying that we were
PROTESTING. we were not, although protesting is not bad either. we were EDUCATING. we were
never asked to leave the property. we DID NOT leaflet in the stadium. the cop's story is
totally bogus. TOTALLY.
our trial is march 12th at 8:30 am. i think people can come to watch. any support would be
great. we already have two priests from duquesne who would like to stand with us. i think
that's wonderful.
ok, i have rambled enough. for those of you who went saturday, could you please send kenneth
a copy of your interactions with the officials. we have to document everything for our case.
thanks so much! have a great day!
michelle:)
p.s.
again, sorry that i don't proofread my e-mails. forgive the errors.
| People for Workers' Rights
| United Students Against Sweatshops affiliate
| web: http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/org/usas
| email: pwr@andrew.cmu.edu
| bboard: assocs.pwr-usas
| to unsubscribe go to http://www.cmu.edu/lists
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