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Democracy 'Caried' Away

by Emily E. Kalweit

In late October, the group Citizens Opposing Fluoridation in Pierce County filed suit in Pierce County Superior Court against the Tacoma Pierce County Health Department regarding its plan for mandatory county water fluoridation. The group alleges that in adopting Resolution No. 2002-366.A-2, ostensibly to deal with "dental caries", health board members exceeded their authority, violated certain civil rights statutes, failed to follow SEPA procedures, and failed to provide a plan for emergency relief. The complaint listed substantive factual and procedural errors in the environmental assessment conducted by the health department. In the area of human health, it raised questions regarding total fluoride exposure, diseases related to ingested fluoride, medical uncertainty of individual dosage, and health risks from co-contaminants such as lead and arsenic.

An official survey conducted by Pierce County water utilities demonstrated that more than 80 percent of the affected citizens believe that people should have the right to vote on this issue. Marianne Lincoln, director of the group remarked, "In hard economic times, the Health Board is causing a burdensome increase in everyone's water bills for a substance with dubious credibility at best. It's bad public policy, and it came without representation of the people impacted by it." An earlier written request to discuss the issue, submitted in writing by Bob Young, Mayor of Bonney Lake, was ignored, as the department voted to mandate fluoridation for Pierce County communities with 5,000 or more water customers.

Living Wage victory in Bellingham

by Jamie Newman

After months of hard work by the Jobs with Justice Whatcom County Organizing Committee, the Washington Association of Churches, and the Northwest Washington Central Labor Council, the Bellingham City Council approved the first living wage ordinance in Washington State. The ordinance calls for city contractors to pay a minimum of $10 an hour to employees who receive health benefits or $11.50 an hour to those without benefits.

The ordinance was a major victory for Washington State Jobs with Justice, an organization founded in 1993 by local community and labor leaders to unite diverse organizations in a multi-issue coalition. JWJ activists in Bellingham collected over 1100 signatures in support of the ordinance, made hundreds of phone calls, and showed strong support for the ordinance at numerous city council hearings.

According to The New York Times, 83 communities in the nation have enacted similar living wage laws.

ANTIWAR MOVEMENT AT WASHINGTON'S 'GROUND ZERO'

The Port Townsend Peace Movement has held eight successful antiwar events since our recent founding. We are in a lovely old Victorian town of 8,500, nestled on the cliffs overlooking Puget Sound, where people are drawn to make their homes. We live in paradise, but we also live at Ground Zero, across the bay from a US Navy munitions facility. Trident submarines and all manner of naval vessels are a regular sight here. As we watch the harbor, we know we're gearing up for war, but many feel the urge to resist this juggernaut. So we planned a series of local peace events. With no budget and little lead-time we easily ignited a growing local enthusiasm for peace. Ten percent of our residents participated. We hope our experience can serve as a model for other peace-minded Americans who live in small towns across the country. What has united us is the desire to express our resistance to a worldwide institutionalized escalation of violence. We paid for a full-page ad about our events, and word of mouth worked especially well, building broad support and participation. Two local events led to over 100 of us participating in the Seattle demonstration of some 4000 people. Then over 800 turned out for another event, and 900 signed the Not in Our Name Pledge of Resistance. Since then we have had many other events with more and more people getting involved in hearing speeches, writing postcards and the like. As America's political leaders push the world toward war, Port Townsend residents will be gaining skills in leadership, education and nonviolent conflict resolution, while continuing to broaden and deepen our peace commitment to each other and our fellow residents of planet Earth.

For more information go to ptforpeace.info.

INS: Murder by Deportation

by Pramila Jayapal, Hate Free Zone

Early in the first full week of last November, Hate Free Zone Campaign of Washington (HFZ) was told by several members of the Somali community that some of them had been lured into reporting to the INS under pretext of signing papers regarding "employment authorization.". On reporting, those particular members were detained. The INS stated at the time that they would be deported to Mogadishu November 14. The day prior, HFZ and a team of pro-bono attorneys from Perkins Coie LLP filed a habeas corpus petition in Federal court requesting an emergency injunction challenging the unlawful detention and deportation of Somalis. US Federal court Judge Marsha Pechman granted a temporary restraining order staying the deportation of the five named petitioners.

By law, the INS is required to obtain "acceptance" from the government of the country to which people are being deported. In a previously similar case in Minneapolis, the Federal court judge ruled that, "The silence of a non-functioning government in a lawless territory- with grave risks to the deported... cannot constitute acceptance." Shortly after that decision, the INS deported several other Somalis living in Minnesota not named in the original petition. One of them has been murdered, and the other has fled Mogadishu. Minnesota attorneys are challenging the deportations, but of course, a challenge cannot return a deportee to life.

On November 26, Seattle lawyers filed an amended petition in Federal court for certification of a nationwide class that would include all Somalis that have final orders of removal and deportation. A letter was sent to the Asst. US Attorney for Western Washington assigned to the case, Christopher Pickerell, requesting the INS suspend deportations during the pendency of the class action.

On December 10 Judge Pechman granted an emergency motion for temporary restraining. The Judge's written order prevents the deportation of all Somali's nationwide. This halts the deportation of at least 39 Somalis currently held in INS detention and may affect 2700 others.

On December 12 HFZ held a press conference addressing these recent developments and also the special registration of individuals from 18 countries. Only 62 people have registered in Seattle, with a deadline for registration of December 16th, those not registering subject to deportation.

Contact: HFZ- (phone) 206-723-2203-(web) www.hatefreezone.org

Not In Our Name Project-Seattle (phone) 206-984-6256 (web) www.notinourname-seattle.net (email) [email protected]

New book on Shell Oil's Environmental Abuses

by Rodger Herbst

The new book Riding the Dragon: Royal Dutch Shell & The Fossil Fire, written by noted researcher Jack Doyle, catalogues an astounding range of environmental abuses by Shell Oil that contradict the company's multi-million-dollar advertising and PR campaign to position itself as an environmentally and socially conscious oil company. Refinery Reform Project Coordinator Denny Larson said: "The new independent research set out in [this book] confirms widespread failure on the part of Shell's managers to follow their own corporate high standards in many countries ..." The extensively researched book identifies a number of steps that the world's second largest oil company can immediately take to improve its poor record on the environment, community relations, and worker safety.

The book and its author have formed a centerpiece for community activities in San Francisco, as well as an international teleconference. Excerpts appear at www.shellfacts.com.

New Government Snoop Tool

from ACLU

The American Civil Liberties Union has called on President Bush to disavow a new system being developed at the Pentagon that would be able to track every American's activities. The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is developing the system, which it has dubbed "Total Information Awareness," in its Information Awareness Office. That office is directed by former Reagan Administration official John Poindexter, who once said that it was his duty as the national security advisor to withhold information from Congress.

The Total Information Awareness (TIA) program will be -- by Poindexter's own public admission -- the infrastructure for what the government hopes will be the most extensive electronic surveillance system in history. That vision is encapsulated in the logo for Poindexter's office: the all-seeing eye and pyramid (prominent also on the one dollar bill) spying from above on the entire world.

The TIA program would use the technology called data-mining -- which is totally untested in the national security context -- to ostensibly detect terrorist threats before they occur. Data-mining, currently used by private industry to track buying habits and target telemarketers, among other things, involves the computerized scrutiny of vast amounts of unrelated information in the hope of finding patterns that can predict future behavior. But the TIA program goes further than any corporate cyber-snooping: it would link a huge number of commercial and governmental databases, both in America and overseas. These databases could presumably range from student grades to mental health histories to travel records. "Just as he scaled back the program that would have had neighbors spying on neighbors, President Bush must stop the Total Information Awareness program now," said Katie Corrigan, an ACLU Legislative Counsel. "And if he refuses to act, Congress should step in quickly and pull the plug on this dangerous idea."

For further information, contact [email protected]