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.

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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.