TODAY: Call To Save Lynne Stewart!

Dear Friends and Supporters:

One month ago I made a request for compassionate release which was honored by the warden at Carswell Federal Medical Center.  Today the papers are still on a desk in Washington, D.C. even though the terminal cancer that I have contracted requires expeditious action.

Although I requested immediate action by the  Bureau of Prisons, I find it necessary to again request immediate action from you, my  friends, comrades and supporters  to call the three numbers listed below on Thursday, May 30 and request action on my behalf.

This could result in my being able to access medical treatment at Sloan Kettering so that I can face the rest of my life with dignity surrounded by those I love and who love me.

Please do this.

Yours truly

Lynne Stewart  FMS CARSWELL-53504-054 & Ralph Poynter
Lynne Stewart Defense Organization

CALL TODAY!

Attorney General Eric Holder -  1 202 514 2001

White House President Obama – 1 202 456 1414

B.O.P. – Director Charles Samuels – 1 202 307 3250

Turning Up the Heat

Following the lead of the national Gap Deathtraps campaign, and in solidarity with Bangladeshi workers, a small group of workers and students in the Hudson Valley has formed to pressure Gap, Inc. to sign a legally-binding fire and building safety agreement for their operations in Bangladesh.

The Backstory
On December 14th, 2010, a fire in Bangladesh at a factory producing Gap apparel killed 29 workers. After one and a half years of negotiating with labor groups in Bangladesh, Gap walked away from the bargaining table without signing a legally-binding agreement.

On April 24th, 2013, a factory collapse in Bangladesh claimed the lives of 1,227 workers. Scrambling to deflect questions over whether the same type of catastrophe couldn't happen at a factory manufacturing Gap apparel, the company initially agreed to sign the 'Accord on Building and Fire Safety in Bangladesh'

Then, the company promptly backed out once again, releasing a statement announcing that they would be continuing on the path of self-regulation, accountable to no one.

Turning Up the Heat
Sensing an opening to pressure Gap into ensuring the safety of its workers in Bangladesh, organizations including United Students Against Sweatshops, International Labor Rights Forum, and Clean Clothes Campaign launched Gap Deathtraps, a national effort to pressure Gap into respecting workers' safety.

The campaign features a petition demanding that Gap sign on to the Building and Fire Safety Agreement. It also urges activists to deliver letters to the managers of their local Gap stores in an effort to bring home their message.

I had been speaking theoretically about the need for solidarity between workers here and in Bangladesh following the April factory collapse, and this campaign provided an opportunity for practical, concrete action. I shot off an e-mail to Activist Radio host Fred Nagel asking if he would like to deliver the 'Deathtraps' letter to a local Gap store, and he responded enthusiastically. After strategizing a bit, our Facebook page was set up, and local activist Darett Roberts was roped into the campaign along with County Legislator Joel Tyner and his partner.

The five of us delivered our letter to the Gap store at the Poughkeepsie Galleria. The letter was also signed by my mother and a family friend who had actually printed the letter out after I had characteristically forgot my first copy at school.

The store manager gave us enough time to speak, and although she was uncomfortable with the topic, the company had fed its representatives enough talking points so that she was able to deflect our main criticisms. She talked about how Gap was working hard on its own to ensure safety standards and about how it had thrown a relatively paltry sum of money toward a women't empowerment program in Bangladesh. She also threw in some irrelevant insinuations for good measure, hinting that because she is from Woodstock she naturally cared about the well-being of Bangladeshi workers, and that because the CEO of Gap is on the board of directors of the Boys and Girls Club of America, the company could do no wrong.

Not Buying It
There's no doubt that Gap is getting frightened that this campaign could hurt its bottom line. With major retailers like H&M and PVH, the parent of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, signing on to the safety agreement, Gap is losing its standing as a responsible company. If we continue to push now, we have a unique opportunity to win a victory that will have a real impact on people's lives. Even if you can't devote a lot of time to this campaign, there are some crucially important things that you can do right now to make a difference.

*Visit the Gap Deathtraps website. Here, you can sign the petition calling on Gap to act and find out more about the national campaign.

*Visit Hudson Valley Watch the Gap. By liking us on Facebook, you can add your voice to those in our area putting pressure on the Gap. We'll also post updates and future actions to keep you informed

*Contact leftunited@gmail.com if you would like to to help coordinate future actions in our area.

Together, we can make Gap listen and win a very real victory in solidarity with workers half the world over.

Compassionate Release Recommended for Lynne Stewart!

Thanks to the activism of 13,000 concerned people across the globe, including several from the Hudson Valley, imprisoned lawyer Lynne Stewart has been recommended for compassionate release while she continues to fight stage 4 cancer.

Stewart, now 74, acted as terror suspect Omar Abdel Rahman's lawyer in the mid-90's. In mounting a vigorous defense for her client, she broke one code of conduct in facilitating the publication of a press release. Following the hysteria leading up to the War on Terror, this single violation was used as pretext for Stewart's prosecution on the charge of providing material support to terrorists.

At a time when the United States continues to turn up the screws on so-called terrorists, such as former Black Panther Assata Shakur, the recommendation for Stewart's release comes as a welcome respite.

However, she is certainly not of the woods yet. If you haven't already signed Stewart's petition, please do so now to keep the pressure on the powers that be to facilitate her release

Below, we reprint the Associated Press article discussing Stewart's case. It was syndicated in all major U.S. newspapers, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.

------------------------------------------------------------

Ex-Lawyer Convicted in Terror Case Seeks Release

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press
NEW YORK May 1, 2013 (AP)

Buoyed by supporters and a petition with nearly 13,000 signatures, a once-prominent New York civil rights lawyer said she has received a federal prison's backing for compassionate release from her terrorism case sentence while she fights advanced-stage cancer.

Lynne Stewart said in a statement released by her husband this week that Texas prison medical authorities recommended she be released from her 10-year sentence, an application that would need approval by the courts and the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Stewart, 73, said the medical authorities recommended to the warden at the Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas that her treatment would benefit from compassionate release, a rarely granted provision of regulations letting inmates leave prison early for "extraordinary and compelling reasons." The warden then forwarded the application to Washington, Stewart and her supporters said.

Stewart has been imprisoned since late 2009 when a federal appeals court in Manhattan called a judge's two-year, four-month prison sentence too lenient. She was resentenced to 10 years for a 2005 conviction on conspiracy charges for providing support to terrorist organizations by letting an Egyptian terrorism defendant serving a life sentence communicate with followers.

At her first sentencing, U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl cited her more than three decades of dedication to poor, disadvantaged and unpopular clients, calling the work that left her destitute a public service "not only to her clients but to the nation."

She said prison employees had doubted her chances at early release.

"Then I had this white blood cell setback, making me super-vulnerable and was quarantined for a week," Stewart said, citing a medical result that concluded she was vulnerable to the germs of others. She said she learned upon release from quarantine Friday that prison authorities concluded compassionate release was warranted.

"I must say that I was in a state of bliss," Stewart said.

Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Traci Billingsley said Wednesday that privacy concerns prevent the bureau from providing information about Stewart's case.

She said the bureau's compassionate release policy makes some inmates eligible for release if they have been diagnosed with an incurable disease and life expectancy is 18 months or less.

In a study last year, Human Rights Watch and Families Against Mandatory Minimums said only about two dozen cases from among more than 215,000 federal inmates are recommended for compassionate release annually. A report called on Congress to enact legislation to let prisoners seek early release directly from courts.

Mya Shone, a Stewart supporter in Vallejo, Calif., said nearly 13,000 signatures had been collected to support Stewart's early release. Those signing include Archbishop Desmond Tutu, actor Ed Asner, singer Pete Seeger and Bianca Jagger. Comedian and activist Dick Gregory went on a hunger strike to show support.

She said Stewart had battled breast cancer before her incarceration, along with diabetes and high blood pressure, but it seemed in remission until it was found last June to have spread to the lungs.

Stewart's husband, Ralph Poynter, said Stewart had lost about 60 pounds in recent months but not her humor.

Close Guantanamo: 1,250 Sign Hunger Strike Pledge

Over 1,250 people, mostly in the United States, have pledged to go on hunger strike for at least one 24-hour period in solidarity with those imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp. The pledge was facilitated by the women's anti-war organization CODEPINK, and specifically called on Pres. Obama to free the 86 prisoners already cleared for release. Signatories will make phone calls and/or write to U.S. officials at meal times to express their anger.

Recently, even the U.S. government has admitted that at last 100 of the 166 prisoners are currently on a hunger strike, with at least 20 prisoners being force-fed.

Although Barack Obama campaigned on closing Guantanamo in 2008, he has taken virtually no concrete steps toward doing so. In the last week, the President held a press conference calling for the camp's closure, citing congress' failure to act on his previous proposals. This blame-shifting, however, is simply not good enough for most human rights campaigners. Pardiss Kebriaei, senior staff attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, said the following in an appearance last Wednesday on Democracy Now!

"There are things that the president can do on his own in his administration starting now. He can, number one, appoint someone within the White House with the stature and the backing and the authority to get the job done. He said Guantánamo needs to close. It is a national security liability. It is legally unsupportable. It is morally wrong. It is unjust. The world knows it. President Obama knows it. The American people should know it. It needs to close. So, appoint someone to focus on this and lead the effort to closure, signal to his secretary of defense to start certifying people for transfer under the National Defense Authorization Act, and lift the blanket ban that continues on all repatriations to Yemen—that he imposed. That is clearly within his control. So there are specific things he can do now."

Many pledge signatories wrote comments explaining why they are compelled to fast in solidarity with the prisoners.

Jean Kelly of Rochester, New York wrote that she will go on strike, "one day per week... in solidarity with these men who are tortured continually. Their treatment is inhumane."

Gloria Quinones, from El Barrio, New York wrote that she would go on strike "because with love in our hearts and thoughts for the good of all, change happens."

Joe Walsh, of Portland, Oregon wrote: "I am 71, on oxygen full time, I will fast for one day and see. Every time I think of those men in Gitmo I weep."

Click here if you wish to take the pledge. The Hudson Valley Radical is considering organizing a local day of action to close Guantanamo. If you are interested in getting involved, please write a comment for this post or e-mail us at leftunited@gmail.com

A Message for May Day

THIS MAY DAY sees the local, national, and international state of affairs continue to stall in a prolonged crisis. Since 2008, the economic crisis in the United States has become less acute, but elsewhere, such as in the EU, things have actually gotten worse. The crisis in Europe is characterized by a push to put the blame of the economic crisis on the backs of immigrants and ethnic minorities, while the working class as a whole is forced to bear its burden through deep cuts in social servies and mass layoffs. In this light, the United States looks a lot like Europe in slow motion. The corrosive effects of sequestration and the Obama administration's attempt to cut social security are America's attempt to shift the burden of economic collapse onto the working class. And although anti-immigrant hatred may not be as strong as in a place like Greece, the incessant calls for a militarized border and the deeply harmful effect of the War on Drugs, Stop & Frisk, and Mass Incarceration point to American capitalism's deep-rooted hatred of people of color and immigrants.

May Day 2013 in New York City

A hugely disturbing component of the post-2008 assault on workers in the United States is the decimation of organized labor. The victory of right-to-work, even in union bastions like Michigan, point to capital's increasing hostility to any form of labor organization. In a time of globalization, there will necessarily be a push on the part of the ruling class to persuade workers into giving up their hard-won gains in the name of competition with low-paid workers abroad. This trans-continental race to the bottom has been rightly rejected by low-wage workers in the United States who have not only refused to give up what they already have, but have actively organized for additional gains. Workers in America can either sink to sweatshop conditions or continue to struggle, standing in solidarity with our sisters and brothers in places like China and Bangladesh, who are currently agitating against exploitation by multi-national corporations.

In the Hudson Valley, we have seen the emergence of two crucially important grassroots organizations in the past year: End the New Jim Crow Action Network (ENJAN) and Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson. The first is dedicated to tackling mass incarceration, the second to halting foreclosures. These two organizations, both indirect fruits of Occupy Poughkeepsie, are committed to direct action and community organizing. In their brief existence, both have already changed the dynamics of activism in the Poughkeepsie area. Finally, both are multi-racial organizations led by those most affected by the issues they are addressing. In fighting the injustices of capitalism on the community level in a practical way, both have been remarkably successful. However, this is not to say that all of our work is finished. In fact, it's hardly begun. As our economy and our society continues to slump, we must stand united as one in order to take our destiny out of the private sector and into our own hands.

The Hudson Valley Radical will also be turning one years old soon, and we, too, are just getting started. We believe that the only way to win change is through self-organization: The self-organization of people in oppressed communities, the self-organization of workers at the workplace. Our role is simply to be a forum for these unstoppable and already existing struggles. In so doing, we believe it is possible to create an agitational news source of the highest caliber.

Given all this, I propose that we think of May Day as a radical New Years. The 2012-2013 year of hell-raising has come to a close, the 2013-2014 year just begun.

Let's get out there and make this next year one to remember.

In Solidarity,
Schuyler
Co-editor, The Hudson Valley Radical