Success to Report
Submitted on Sun, 09/10/2006 - 2:02pm
Do Internet campaigns work? Can solidarity be successful? Are the old time values expressed by members of the Industrial Workers of the Word-- "An Injury To One Is An Injury To All"-- still applicable in this era of globalization?
There is a school of thought that the Internet "isn't real life," and therefore, isn't nearly as vital as face to face organizing. While this assessment retains much validity, events this past week in Colorado and, in a sense, all over the world suggest that using the Internet can have a significant impact on the lives of working people. Online activists from Israel, Canada, Turkey, Sweden, Australia, the UK, Portugal, the Czech Republic, and Russia joined Americans to "write" a wrong committed against two American workers, using Internet messaging as their favorite solidarity tool.
On the way to the annual Rainbow Family Gathering near Steamboat Springs, Colorado, Giles Charle of Somersworth, New Hampshire and David Siller of Wayne, Pennsylvania went dumpster diving in the heart of the popular ski resort. Police detained them with a few fruits and vegetables liberated from the trash at Sweet Pea Produce, and promptly jailed them. They bonded out after three days to await trial.
The Rainbow Family has a very mixed reputation among the citizenry in upscale Steamboat Springs. The so-called "neo-hippies" are viewed as outsiders, and the fine citizens of middle America tend to be uncomfortable with alternative lifestyles. The Rainbow Family also routinely thumbs its collective nose at authority by ignoring forest service requirements for camping permits. Some clashes with authorities were reported at this gathering, as in the past, so the Assistant District Attorney prosecuting the dumpster diving case wanted to "make examples" in order to "send a message to the community." Under the circumstances, defense lawyers advised the two men to accept a misdemeanor plea bargain with a six month jail sentence, in order to avoid much more serious felony charges resulting from a reported, but non-existent burglary.
Individuals from the Rainbow Family were incensed with the penalty and began to deluge city officials and the Steamboat Springs newspaper with emails and phone calls. The Drudge Report linked to the community newspaper's website, which momentarily crashed as thirty thousand people tried to read the story. Meanwhile, one of the co-owners of the produce establishment spoke out in support of the two men, and against their sentence.
Yet the Routt County District Attorney's office aggressively defended their actions. On Tuesday District Attorney Bonnie Roesink and her assistant met before county commissioners and appeared pathologically obsessed with the idea that the only "true" facts in a prosecution case are those described in the initial police report. The D.A. also decried the media attention, calling it misguided and ill-informed, and lashed out at the owners of Sweet Pea Produce for not supporting the lengthy sentence after having (mistakenly) reported a burglary.
There seemed to be every indication the D.A. planned to stick by the outcome of the case. But more than anything else, that September 6 presentation to the county commissioners called into question the accuracy of a police report riddled with false allegations.
Fellow Worker Richard Myers has never been to a Rainbow Family event, but his awareness of this year's gathering was heightened when he performed some bindery work for the group's membership guide at an IWW print shop in Denver. An experienced graphic designer and denizen of the Internet, he elected to play a role in this drama. Myers believed that in order to be successful, the protest needed to go well beyond the Rainbow Family, so he launched an Internet campaign to free the two from jail. On Sunday afternoon, two days before the District Attorney's office went public, Myers set up an online petition, created a web page calling for action, and bombarded cyberspace with hundreds of emails, initially circulating the alarm on nearly fifty email lists. FW Myers reports having spent several eighteen hour days at the keyboard to get the word out. Wobblies, peace and justice folks, SDS'ers, Food Not Bombs, and many other activists joined the Rainbow Family protest, responding to the simple declaration that "Hunger Is Not A Crime!"
In Tuesday's Steamboat Pilot, ski resort spokeswoman Riley Polumbus alluded to the industry's growing concerns about a possible boycott. On Wednesday morning Rocky Mountain News Columnist Bill Johnson picked up on the protest campaign and observed that "something's rotten in the story of the 'stolen' trash," and "somewhere, somehow, someone is flat lying their face off." Also on Wednesday, the Steamboat Pilot editorially recommended reversing the plea agreement. Steamboat Springs residents and a couple of city council members had become vociferous in their criticism, and the Pilot reported that "several community members have started a group to recall District Attorney Bonnie Roesink."
Under intense public pressure, the district attorney volunteered to set up a citizen's oversight committee to watch over her department's activities. On Wednesday afternoon the Assistant D.A. finally caved to the outcry and released the two young men, citing "what the public believes" as partial justification for his decision. Altogether, the pair served just ten days of their 180 day sentence.
FW Myers has since met David and Giles and describes them as polite, thoughtful and articulate. They're interested in careers in social work and teaching, but their thoughts are also turning with interest to this world of solidarity and activism that helped to spring them from jail. Meanwhile the struggle to free them is recounted on the webpage used to rally the Internet campaign:
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/coloradofreedom.html