Wetlands Works May 2002
Anti-Globalization Activists March Against Sweatshop Labor on Anniversary of Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
On Saturday, March 9th, activists from a coalition of 15 labor and human rights groups spearheaded by the Global Sweatshop Coalition marched from Astor Place to the site of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, protesting retailers along the way engaged in global sweatshop exploitation including The Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Starbucks, and retailers of Cointreau, a liqueur produced by workers in Haiti paid under $1.50 per day. The march was being organized as an event of the 3rd Annual Global Women's Strike.
By marching from the retail outlets of current sweatshop exploiters to the site of the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, activists addressed the need to continue the struggle for safe and fair working conditions and wages for women that grew out of the Triangle Fire.
According to a Global Sweatshop Coalition statement “The steamroller of corporate globalization is creating record profits for the wealthy few from the abuse of sweatshop workers, most of whom are women. US manufacturers and retailers, operating behind a web of subcontractors, hide the locations of squalid factories where their products are manufactured around the world.
Meanwhile, corporate movers and shakers wield disproportionate influence in Washington, driving a government policy of ongoing military interventions that make the world safe for sweatshops. In honor of International Women's Day, workers around the world must unite to defend their rights against neoliberal policies here and abroad, such as privatization, cutbacks, workfare, prison labor and sweatshops, and to demand an end to corporate welfare.”
Marchers united behind the following principles and demands:
• Solidarity with workers around the world, not wars for corporate domination.
• Invest in caring not killing.
• Freedom from sexual harassment, forced contraception, abuse and mandatory overtime.
• Fair wages and the right to organize. Pay equity for all.
• Healthcare, childcare, family and sick leaves, reproductive freedom.
• An end to the exploitation, racial profiling and persecution of immigrants.
• Education, training, real jobs, not workfare, and support services for women on welfare. Fair payment for all work, including homecare, elder care and child care.
• Economic democracy and the end of corporate welfare.
Sponsoring organizations of the event were The Global Sweatshop Coalition, The Activism Center at Wetlands Preserve, CISPES (Committee In Solidarity with the People of El Salvador), The Nicaragua Solidarity Network, The Socialist Party (NY Branch), The Batay Ouvriye Haiti Solidarity Network, The Coalition for the Human Rights of Immigrants, Freedom Socialist Party, Radical Women, TecNica, Network in Solidarity with the People of the Phillipines, Guatemala Solidarity Network, The Upper West Side Tipitapa Sister City Project, SCALE (Student Committee Against Labor Exploitation), and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.
Bloody-Crotched “Seals” Beaten and Skinned at Canadian and Norweigian Consulates
Part of International Day of Action Against Seal Hunts Worldwide
On March 12th, animal rights advocates from The Activism Center at Wetlands Preserve, as part of the World Day of Action Against Seal Hunting Protesters dressed as baby seals with bloody crotches and were beaten with mock bloody clubs to draw attention to the annual slaughter of 700,000 of seals whose penises are removed and sold as an aphrodisiac in Asia. The protest was one of ten in the US today, with protests also taking place in Atlanta, Boston, Buffalo, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Sonoma County, San Francisco, and Washington, DC.
The protest began at the Norwegian Consulate and Norwegian Mission to the UN at 50th Street and 3rd Avenue. A parade of seals them marched to the Canadian Consulate at 50th and 6th at 1:30 PM.
The protests were intended to put pressure on the government and tourism industries of countries still engaged in the slaughter of seals, including Canada, Norway, Greenland, Russia, and Namibia
Over 700,000 seals are killed every year. This figure does not include those caught in fishing nets, shot by fishermen, or those who are never recovered. In Canada, the quota for the annual seal hunt is 275,000 harp seals and 10,000 hooded seals – more disturbing is that around 80% of the seals killed are less than one year old.
Footage of seal hunts worldwide consistently shows that the methods of killing are cruel. Video evidence has documented just some of these examples: seals being skinned alive, others that are left writhing in agony for several minutes after either being wounded by gunfire, clubbed, or caught on sharpened steel hooks, and seals being clubbed to death with illegal weapons.
LOHV Petition Drive Hits the Lower East Side on Easter Sunday
In order to develop a strong base of constituent support in the district of the state Assembly Speaker for its anti-trapping campaign, LOHV launched a petitioning drive on Easter Sunday, March 31st on Manhattan’s Lower East Side covering the area around Essex and Delancey Streets. Petitioners wore sign board illustrating the shocking facts about animal trapping, collected signatures and passed out flyers encouraging constituents to write to their collected officials. Through petition events such as this, LOHV has build a database of thousands of New Yorkers who want laws that protect animals.
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