Progressive Democrat Issue 104: INDIANA FOCUS

This comes from the forums on Indiana Progressive:

I work for the International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) and we are working with a coalition of groups in Liberia and the US (including the NAACP, the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, Friends of the Earth, the Institute for Policy Studies, TransAfrica Forum and others) to call attention to the Firestone company’s irresponsible behavior on its rubber plantation in Liberia. Firestone has very high rubber production quotas which force workers to bring children to work and the pay is very low. They also provide little safety equipment for workers and the houses for workers are extremely substandard shacks without working toilets. Schools in the area are in very bad condition and are often too far for young people to access. Additionally, the company dumps toxic chemicals used in production into a local river used by workers and their families for bathing and fishing. For more information, you can look at our website at www.stopfirestone.org or feel free to contact me. I am also including links to several articles, including a letter to the editor I had published in the Indianapolis Star, at the bottom of this e-mail. Here is a link to a radio interview I did yesterday with Roxanne Lawson from Friends of the Earth.

In order to encourage Firestone to change their policies in Liberia, the members of the Stop Firestone Coalition are calling for a Day of Action on January 24. We are hoping to have small events at Firestone locations around the world to call attention to the company’s abuses. I am currently finalizing a packet of information and resources which will cover all the materials needed to hold an action. Would anyone be interested in working to plan an event in Indianapolis? I would be happy to come meet with you in person in the beginning of January if that would be helpful. If you are interested and/or you know other groups or individuals in Indianapolis who would be interested in participating please contact me.

Timothy Newman
Campaigns Assistant
International Labor Rights Fund
2001 S St., NW Ste 420
Washington, DC 20009
202/347-4100

Check out the News and Press section of the ILRF website here.

I should note that anyone who has read the book King Leopold's Ghost will find this chilling. A major genocide was committed in Africa first in the name of ivory profits, but ultimately in the name of rubber. You can read a bit about this in a wider context here. But we really have to stop this kind of economic terrorism.

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