THIS IS JIM HIGHTOWER SAYING . . . .
The great thing about America--is Americans! You can always trust the ordinary folks of this country to do the most extraordinary things. One example is in Bangor, Maine, where some of the locals were outraged by the fact that about half of the clothing sold in American stores now comes from sweatshops. While Washington politicos and brand-name CEOs merely pay lip service to dealing with this growing problem, people in Bangor are actually doing something about it. And so can you.
In 1997, a retailer/consumer partnership in town launched the Bangor Clean Clothes Campaign, putting the city on record against having sweatshop-stained clothes on its store shelves. Of course, saying it and doing it are two different things. So the Clean Clothes Campaign put the walk to the talk, with stores in Bangor, Bar Harbor, Belfast, Blue Hill, and elsewhere in the area researching the working conditions of their clothing suppliers . . . and developing a "clean clothes inventory" in their shops. This means that the retailers highlight clothing that has been certified by independent monitors to be produced in non-sweatshop conditions, emphasizing those garments with union labels. It also means that these shops have knowledgeable sales people who can talk with customers about where the stock has come from--much like a good grocery can identify organic food for its customers. This system provides a positive incentive for garment makers to produce in humane conditions.
In addition, the Bangor campaign has just persuaded the city council to enact a purchasing policy that requires local government purchasing agents to buy police uniforms, soccer league equipment, jailhouse sheets, and so forth from non-sweatshop suppliers. Bidders for city contracts for these products must certify that they are sweatshop free.
You can do this in your town, too. Contact the Bangor Clean Clothes Campaign to learn how: (207) 947-4203.
Col. Handy Says No to
Anthrax ShotsAs a John MellEncamp song puts it: "You've got to stand for something, or you'll fall for anything." Col. Redmond Handy has taken his stand, refusing to fall for the Pentagon's lie that its anthrax vaccine program is perfectly safe and will protect soldiers from a biowarfare assault with anthrax bacteria. The Pentagon brass has ordered all 2.4 million members of our armed forces to take a series of six anthrax shots--an order that has led to a growing rebellion in the ranks. Col. Handy and hundreds of other soldiers are just saying no to the shots.
Why? Start with the fact that the vaccine has not been tested for its health effects on humans; the military got a special waiver from the Food & Drug Administration to use our soldiers as anthrax guinea pigs. Many who have taken the shots have become severely ill with blackouts, severe pain, immune-system failure, and worse--the same debilitating symptoms of soldiers who have Gulf War Syndrome.
Second, the sole maker of the vaccine, Bioport Corporation, has failed safety inspections, produced contaminated vaccine, and more than doubled the price it charges the Pentagon for each dose. In an odd unreassuring move, the Pentagon also has exempted Bioport from any liability for health damages caused by its product. The company just happens to have a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on its board.
Third, few military experts believe that anthrax is a real threat, and even if an enemy used it, they would not be stupid enough to use the variety our soldiers are being inoculated against.
So Col. Redmond Handy, named the nation's top reservist in 1996, decided he couldn't require those under his command to take the shots, so he was compelled to retire. To learn more about the military's anthrax madness, contact Col. Handy at (202) 554-5994.
Helping to Stop
Drug-Price GougingHere comes the Little Engine That Could--it's powered by the extraordinary creativity and gumption of America's ordinary folks. This case begins with a report showing that the prices on top-selling prescription drugs jumped by double digits again. The drug makers enjoy extraordinary profits from these price hikes, but those of us who are forced to pay the price (since there is little competition in making many of the medicines), not only find these constant increases unenjoyable, but we can be severely burdened.
Consider the 4 million Americans infected with Hepatitis C, a deadly disease that kills 10,000 people a year. To avoid death, infected patients need a treatment kit that involves two drugs taken in tandem. The giant drug-maker Schering-Plough is the sole maker of one of these drugs, Ribavirin, and it charges more than $1,100 a month for it. That's more than people's rent or mortgage payments. In one year, Schering-Plough pocketed $214 million in sales of this Hepatitis C kit.
But along comes Fisher Pharmacy in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. "We're a corner drugstore, basically," says Betty Stein, one of the three pharmacists who own Fishers. They dealt with a lot of Hepatitis C patients, and they wanted to help them with a cheaper product. By studying the patent laws and finding their own source of Ribavirin powder, Fisher Pharmacy is now in the business of hand-packing capsules with this life-saving drug according to the prescriptions of individual patients' doctors. Instead of charging $1,100 a month, Betty Stein and group can do it for $225 a month--a $900 savings!
The giant drug makers tell us there's no gouging going on, but here's a corner pharmacy that can compound pills by hand, customize them to the patient's need, and beat the mass production price of Schering- Plough by 80 percent! They'll make the pills for you too. Contact Fisher Pharmacy: (888) 347-3416.
Sinking Deeper Into
Colombia's "Big Muddy"Want to know how to waste two billion dollars? Throw it into a civil war in Colombia. Surely, you say, our government isn't so stupid that it would sink money and military advisors into another Vietnam. But, yes, the US already puts $300 million a year into the elitist government of Colombia, which has been in a protracted Civil War with peasant rebels. The rebels are winning, now controlling 40 percent of the country and moving on the capital city of Bogotá. So President Clinton wants to spend an extra $1.3 billion during the next two years to try to prop up the Colombian rulers, sinking us deeper into the "Big Muddy."
For the past year, the US has had about 250 military "advisors" on the ground, training the Colombian Army. With the new funds, we'll send more troops there to train two additional 900-man battalions to fight the insurgents, putting them in the southern provinces where rebel strength is the greatest . . . and sinking us deeper into the "Big Muddy."
The Pentagon also is providing 30 fully-armed Blackhawk helicopters, 33 Huey helicopters, and other weaponry, as well as CIA intelligence and satellite surveillance data, sinking us even deeper into the "Big Muddy."
The propaganda war against our own citizens has escalated, too. "This is not a counterinsurgency program," declared Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, "it is a counternarcotrafficking program." Yes, all of this involvement in the Colombian civil war is being done in the name of our country's slapstick "War Against Drugs." True, the rebels are financed in part by the cocoa and poppy trade. But so are the right-wing human rights abusers aligned with the Colombian Army. And so are the wealthy elite living in luxury in Bogotá and controlling the inept government we're trying to save.
But Washington's propaganda machine doesn't tell us peasants about this. And we sink deeper into the "Big Muddy."
F.A.R.M. Fights
Hog FactoriesIllinois prides itself as "The Land of Lin-coln," but some of the state's rural residents say Illinois is becoming "The Land of Stinkin'." The stink they refer to is coming from gigantic hog factories that out-of-state corporations are locating throughout the bucolic countryside--factories housing some 80,000 hogs each. These animals generate more waste than a city of 300,000 people. Yet, while cities must treat human waste, the corporate owners of these hog factories are not required either by state or federal law to sanitize hog waste. Instead, they simply funnel the raw excrement into huge ponds, which they delicately refer to as "lagoons."
The stink from a "lagoon" of hog excrement is simply unimaginable. It drifts for miles, and you can't hide from it--it comes inside your home, saturates your hair, your carpets . . . your life. And with the stink come diseases. That's why Karen Hudson, an Illinois grain farmer, has joined with others to create F.A.R.M.--Families Against Rural Messes. F.A.R.M. is a grassroots group that opposes these hog factories and at least wants the legislature to stop the corporate owners from foisting their stink and health problems on everyone else.
For daring to stand up against these profiteering polluters, Karen and others have received death threats, and she has experienced the joy of having hog waste dumped on her front porch. "It's scary," she admits, "but they're not going to scare us away." Teaming up with environmentalists, Karen and the group are countering the thuggish tactics of the corporate powers with people power and creativity. For example, when told they couldn't walk a picket line at one of the hog factories, they simply put protest signs on their vehicles and drove slowly around and around the factory--a rolling automotive picket.
To learn more about this great grassroots effort, contact F.A.R.M. at (309)742-8895 or <www.farmweb.org>
Contact us directly at <hightower@essential.org>, Hightower and Associates, Inc. Copyright 1998. .