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Slant: Short opinion pieces and rumor-chasing notes News: Happening Person: Tyler Thomas & Peggi Bosworth
ACTIVISTS PREPARE FOR THE GOP BASH Conservative bigwigs across America are gearing up for the Republican National Convention (RNC), to be held in Madison Square Garden from Aug. 30 to Sept. 2. But if America's powerful right is packing suits for the trip to NYC, the radical left is packing protest gear. Yes, as in Cancun and Seattle for the WTO ministerials, as in Miami for the FTAA meeting and Quebec for the Summit of the Americas, activists are mobilizing to make their presence known in New York during this year's RNC. Several hundred organizations, from local anarchist collectives to national nonprofits, are planning workshops, marches and actions to take place during the convention. United for Peace and Justice is organizing a march on Aug. 31, and the NYC Radical Cheerleaders — outfitted with pom-poms, short skirts and hairy armpits — will cheer on the activists. Rally organizers haven't had an easy time securing the necessary permits. United for Peace and Justice applied more than a year ago for a permit to rally in Central Park, but the NYC police refused to grant it. NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that the permit process helps police control the crowds, but UPJ is suing the city. Several Eugene locals will be in New York for the RNC. Bob Avery, chairman of the Lane County Republican Party, will attend as a delegate. "I'm excited about the president. I'm excited about his campaign," says Avery. But he's not excited by the prospect of protesters. "I'm a little disturbed by the absolute hate that's coming out of the Democratic Party and its activists. That's no way to be civilized," he says. For Eugene activist Peter Chabarek, it's not hate, but patriotism that propels him and Carol Melia to New York to oppose the convention. Chabarek and Melia — whose group is called Enemy Combatants — plan to perform protest songs outside the RNC to send a message to the nation. "We have to take back the country from the ideologues that have taken it over," says Chabarek. "We have to fight for peace and for justice, and we have to apply force without violence. We're trying to convey that message with music and with humor." Chabarek and Melia play original and re-worked political songs. A ditty called "Neo-con Job," which Chabarek wrote, includes this stanza: The president's half-baked For more information on the mobilization against the RNC, visit www.rncnotwelcome.org or www.counterconvention.org — Kera Abraham
ENVIRO LAWYER SPEAKS ON NIGERIA OIL EXPLOITS Simon Amaduobogha, a Nigerian environmental attorney taking on the oil industry in the oil-rich Niger Delta, recently arrived in Eugene as a working exchange fellow with the U.S. office of the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (E-LAW U.S.). At the end of his two-week fellowship, Amaduobogha will give a brown bag lunch presentation titled "Fueling the Devastation: Oil Drilling in Nigeria." The presentation, sponsored by E-LAW U.S. and the Wayne Morse Center, will explore the disastrous effects of the oil industry — from spills to natural gas flaring — on Nigeria's poor.
Amaduobogha works pro bono for Environmental Rights Action, a Nigerian advocacy nonprofit that supports communities suffering from environmental contamination and human rights abuses at the hands of multinational oil corporations. He is also founding a public interest law organization, the Community Defense Law Foundation, to protect Nigerian communities from exploitation by multinational oil companies. The foundation will become Nigeria's only NGO filing lawsuits on behalf of communities against oil companies. Such a foundation is critical support for communities struggling against not only exploitation by oil companies, but also a corrupt judiciary system. In 1995, the Nigerian government executed Ken Saro-Wiwa, an outspoken Ogoni leader fighting for the rights of his community in the face of Shell Oil's environmental and human rights abuses. Saro-Wiwa's defense lawyer, Oronto Douglas, is Amaduobogha's law partner and co-founder of the foundation. "With so much focus on energy needs and the Middle East, it's important not to lose sight of other countries that are supplying oil," says E-LAW U.S. Communications Director Maggie Keenan. "A lot of people might not be aware of the problems caused by oil companies in Nigeria. To hear Simon talk about it first-hand is truly shocking." Amaduobogha's presentation will be from noon to 1 pm Tuesday, Aug. 31, at the UO Knight Law School, Room 243. — Kera Abraham
BEAUTY SHOPS TARGET NAILING THE ELECTION More than 100 people volunteered this week to join a campaign to get local beauty salons to participate in a non-partisan "Nail the Election" national voter registration drive.
"When we learned that 22 million women had not voted in 2000," says Stacey Conlon, part owner of Bello Salon, "we jumped at the chance to participate in this innovative campaign to get out the vote." Other shops involved early on the campaign were Lexy's Salon and Spa and Salon Delange. Those 22 million nonvoting women are the target of a number of local and nationwide campaigns to get out their votes. The original study of the 2000 election conducted by Women's Voices, Women's Votes revealed that single women were the largest group of nonvoters. And if they had voted at the same rate as married women, six million more votes would have been cast. "Elections shouldn't be nail-biters," says Becky Bones of Salon Delange. "Everyone should be exercising their right to vote." Local salons will draw attention to the untapped power of women's votes by providing voter registration forms and encouraging clients to register. Nail files emblazoned with catchy slogans telling women to "Shape the Oval Office" will be available at participating salons. The group behind this initiative is 1000 Flowers, whose goal is to recruit at least 1,000 salons to register at least 10,000 women. Says Francesca Vietor of the organization. "We're targeting beauty salons because it's one place where women hang out and have time to discuss important issues." The campaign will run until Oct. 12, which is the last day to register in Oregon. For more information, visit www.1000flowers.org or call 344-9948.
CORRECTIONS/CLARIFICATIONS The name of a source in last week's story on the Torrey write-in campaign was misspelled. The state elections division compliance specialist's name is Josi Travinski. In our "Do Something" blurb Aug. 12 we misspelled the name of the newly appointed Eugene coordinator for the Kerry/Edwards campaign. Shum Preston is his name. Campaign HQ is at 114 E. 16th.
There's one really important thing Jennifer Woodruff wants a reporter to know: "I know nothing about the fire." The fire in question was in the spring of 2001, the second arson at a Romania car dealership in Eugene, lit by someone ostensibly intending to support activists Jeffrey "Free" Luers and Craig "Critter" Marshall as they were prosecuted for torching Romania vehicles two years earlier. Knowing nothing about the fire is important to Woodruff — a single mother living in the Whiteaker with her 9-and-a-half-year-old son — because any week know she expects a grand jury to force her to answer questions about it. More to the point, the grand jury can also compel her to disclose any details it wants about her law-abiding friends in a secret proceeding, without her lawyer present. If she refuses, she could face half a year in jail, separated from her son, potentially losing her housing and her job. Grand juries meet in secret to gather evidence in support of officially indicting someone for a crime. The secrecy is intended to protect both witnesses and those erroneously thought to be involved with the crime. But grand juries also have been used throughout their history as a secretive, threatening weapon against activists — on causes ranging from peace and independence to the environmental and animal rights movements. Activists subpoenaed to appear before the juries find themselves faced with the choice of relinquishing their right to privacy and free political association or months of jail time for contempt of court. "We're living in a time period when big brother is attempting to get stronger and stronger, and will cloak itself in as much legitimacy as it can," say Lauren Regan, local attorney and executive director of the Eugene-based Civil Liberties Defense Center. "By calling it a grand jury investigation, there is some legitimacy to dragging law abiding citizens into court like McCarthy-era inquisitions to give up information on their neighbors or their political associates." "If it's secret and government power is unlimited, there are no checks and balances; they're able to get away with a lot of abuses of our civil liberties," she says. Government investigators turn to grand juries, activists charge, to compel testimony when traditional, informal questioning is rebuffed. And often, Regan explains, the questions asked in secrecy are very general, having little to do with the crime ostensibly being investigated. "Sometimes they really are as broad as 'do you know this person,'" she says. That "puts the person who is subpoenaed in just a terrible position. You then have to give up personal information about someone who is potentially a friend of yours without knowing what they're getting at, why they're asking for information about that person." And, she adds, the witness "has no right whatsoever not to answer." That's what Woodruff faces in upcoming weeks. "It's just a crappy decision to have to make," whether to comply or face jail, she says. At one point, she and two other women who'd been called to appear were offered a deal: an informal interview in which each could have her lawyer in the room, after which she'd sign an affidavit about her testimony. Woodruff says she was so scared that she initially agreed. "That was the first time I cried," she explains, "when I said yes. I bawled for giving in. It felt really wrong in my gut. So in the morning I said called my lawyer and I said no. It's kind of like, if someone's going to screw you, you're not going to volunteer to let them screw you." In the end, Woodruff says, the woman who agreed to the informal interview had to appear before the grand jury anyway, where she was asked not only to confirm her affidavit but also questioned "quite a bit" further. "They tried to fool us," she concludes. "If you watch the behavior of a predator like a shark, that's kind of how they behave," she says. "They come in and they circle you, and then they nudge you and see how you react. Then they retreat, and then they come in for the kill. They subpoena you and they drive by your house at least once a week with all your friends around, listen in on your phone conversations." Woodruff says she hasn't fully decided what she'll do when she gets a final date to appear before the grand jury. She says she has community support for her son should she end up jailed for refusing to comply. And while she prefers to think as little as possible about the coming ordeal, she remains philosophical about it. "As Americans, as resisters to anything, the biggest thing we have to worry about is incarceration, and granted that's a horrible experience." But, she adds, jail "is nothing in comparison to what people are having to deal with in Iraq right now, and many other places. The human rights violations that happen in other countries are devastating. And all we have to worry about, really, is getting locked up." U.S. Attorney Kirk Engdall did not respond to an interview request for this story.
TYLER THOMAS AND PEGGI BOSWORTH Recent visitors to the West Moon Trading Company on 13th near the UO campus may have noticed a hand-lettered "Rock the Vote" sign on the entrance door and a stack of voter registration forms on the counter. "If we get into a conversation, we'll ask if they are registered," says West Moon employee Catharine Army. Store owner Peggi Bosworth observes that much of her clientele is of high school and college age. "I'm really concerned about young people not registering to vote, especially girls," she says. "We've gotten a good response." A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bosworth moved in the late '70s to southern Oregon, where she worked for Rare Earth, an import business based in Ashland. She ran the Medford store. After eight years as a waitress in Eugene, she opened West Moon, based on the Rare Earth model, in 1995. The family business also employs her daughter Jamie Decker — "she's my buyer" — and her son Tyler Thomas, who manages a two-year-old second store in Corvallis. "Participation feels good," Bosworth says. "I like being around kids. We don't encourage them to vote one way or the other."— Paul Neevel
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