9/17/2000: More of this and that....

Sent FIRST to the more then 1,900 recipients of CUADPUpdate,
then to other abolitionist lists....


CONTENTS
A Call For Data from Margaret Vandiver
Getting on Anti-Death Penalty Lists
Another Good Idea
AbolitionWear & Labor Issues
Another plug for the Progressive Secretary


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CALL FOR DATA (From Margaret Vandiver)

Hello all,

Last April, I related the following anecdote in my report on the *almost* killing of Robert Glen Coe in Tennessee:

> I learned of another indicator of confidence in
>the stay when Margaret later relayed a story told by
>Mrs. Ingle - spouse of the Rev. Joe Ingle (another
>long-time abolitionist). Upon arriving home from work
>she checked the answering machine. Apparently there
>was a very vulgar message - some poor soul bent on
>vengeance was cussing them out. "OH, we must have
>a stay!" was Mrs. Ingles' response! hahahaha.

Of course, with the oldest and most-publicized toll free phone number in the anti-death penalty movement, CUADP has amassed a number of tapes of this sort of message: people cussing us out for our opposition to the death penalty.  I hear that others also have such a collection. Margaret and I discussed the fact that such tapes would make for an excellent sociological study, and it looks to me like Margaret has gone ahead and found the support to make it happen! She sends the following:

===========================

We are professors at The University of Memphis interested in studying extreme support of capital punishment. Extreme support is manifested by unprovoked verbal or physical aggression, hostility, or confrontational behavior against opponents of the death penalty when opponents make public statements or demonstrate against capital punishment. If you have personal experiences, anecdotes, recordings, letters to the editor you’ve collected, or any other type of evidence of extreme support for the death penalty, please contact us so that we can include it in our study.

We seek this information to explore and extend what is already known about the death penalty and brutalization. Several studies have demonstrated an increase in homicides following highly publicized executions, and many people have noted a general coarsening of behavior by a small number of death penalty supporters who feel free to act aggressively toward those who oppose capital punishment.

The identity of persons responding to this inquiry will be treated as entirely confidential. If any information submitted is used in any academic paper, all names and possible identifiers will be removed to ensure complete confidentiality.

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.

David J. Giacopassi
Margaret Vandiver
Dept. of Criminology and Criminal Justice
University of Memphis
405 Mitchell Hall
Memphis, TN 38152
901/678-2737
dgiacpss@memphis.edu
vandiver@memphis.edu

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Hi Abe,

I hope this note finds you well. I enjoy receiving your updates. I have a question for you. I know there are many DP mailing lists out there. How can I get on one or two? Can you send me info? I assume we will be seeing you in November, yes?
 
Thanks in advance for your help. Stay with the struggle.

Linda

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Linda & All,

Here's a few lists to consider...

The Abolish List

For dedicated abolitionists ONLY. You won't find any pro-death penalty people here. This moderated discussion list is for those seeking regular news updates and discussion of tactics and issues from an abolitionist standpoint. Some of this will bore you, it may overwhelm you, but it will definitely educate you.

Here is how to get onto the "abolish" list:

The administrative address is <listserv@maelstrom.stjohns.edu>

To subscribe, send a message to the above address reading ONLY: subscribe abolish Your Full Name

To unsubscribe, send a message reading ONLY: unsubscribe abolish

The website is: <http://dialup.oar.net/~Pcarelli/abolish/>

*****

FROM RICK HALPERIN

If you wish to (continue to) receive any or all of the items, please see the following instructions and subscribe to the appropriate list(s). These are ANNOUNCEMENT-ONLY lists.

Subscription instructions:
To subscribe to list(s) send a blank email to the list you want to join at the following address:

For general death penalty news and updates:
deathpenaltynews-subscribe@onelist.com

For Texas death penalty news only:
Texasdeathpenaltynews-subscribe@onelist.com

For human rights news:
humanrightsnews-subscribe@onelist.com

For Holocaust news:
Holocaustnews-subscribe@onelist.com

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ANOTHER GOOD IDEA

From: Matreshka@aol.com
Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2000 16:01:02 EDT
Subject: Hope this is okay....
To: abe@cuadp.org

Dear Abe,

Recently I had a rubber stamp made which says "Abolish the Death Penalty" and I put the CUADP 800# on it, as well as the website.

I hope this was okay--I didn't ask you first and I don't know why I didn't as I certainly intended to do so.

I've been using it on mail I send. Please let me know if this is all right. And what do you think of stamping removable labels with it and posting them.....oh, gee..... everywhere?

Peace and justice,
Suzanne

*******

Sounds great to me! Thanks for the idea!


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ABOLITIONWEAR & LABOR ISSUES

After I sent the last edition of the AbolitionWear e-catalog, I received the following message:

>I am interested in this project. However, many DP
>activists are also anti-sweatshop activists and union
>activists. I cannot buy shirts without knowing their
>history. Could you: a) inform me if these graphics
>are printed on union-made t-shirts? and b) Amend your
>page to show country of origin of the shirts, hopefully
>something like "Union Made in the USA?"
>Thx Mark Harris
>Tampa Bay Wobblies
 
First, Thanks Mark, for raising the issue. I asked Rick Roth, who owns the shop which prints most of the items available from AbolitionWear, for his comments. Here is a condensed version of his response:

Mirror Image has been a union printing shop, UAW Local 1596, for twelve years. It is one of the only real unionized major t-shirt printing facilities. We also have one of the best benefit packages and salaries in the industry. As the owner I am proud to have a union shop and proud that management and workers don't have an adversarial situation here. I also have some of the most talented artists and printers in the world and our work demonstrates that. In addition we have an environmentally responsible shop and a safe shop. You can read about our business on the web at http://www.mirrorimage.com and in an upcoming issue of Solidarity there will be an article about us.

As for shirts, we were one of the first companies to use organic cotton shirts (also made in USA). We have also pushed our suppliers to give us USA-made goods. This is increasingly difficult as all the mills have moved the sewing overseas, mainly to Mexico and Central America. As printers we are in a difficult spot since the printing is moving to Mexico as well. I went to a couple printing shops in Mexico City and as you probably could guess, they are not nice places - guards with machine guns, unsafe, etc. Actually one shop seemed to treat the workers pretty decently and was clean and safe, but that was an exception.

We can procure union-made goods upon request. This is a very difficult process. Probably the lowest point was when a supplier offered to send me shirts and union labels that I could sew in (thankfully, the sleaze balls went out of business.) On a more mundane level availability is limited and the quality of some sources is mediocre or outright bad. Options for styles and colors are limited as well. UNITE has been less than helpful. Generally the people I have talked to there have been surly and/or disinterested. Their information about unionized vendors is usually out of date as well. The last major mill with union-made t-shirts was Oneita Knitting Mills and they went out of business two years ago.

It also is a difficult sale to most of my customers. The price difference is currently two dollars more for a union-made shirt than for a Hanes or Fruit of the Loom shirt. In the case of someone re-selling the shirt that usually would mean that they would have to charge their customers $4 more per shirt. [....]

later,
Rick Roth

****

Rick also elaborated on related issues, as well as on the vast array of human rights work done by him and others in his shop. CUADP uses Mirror Image, Inc. in part because they are friends, in part because they are good abolitionists, in part because they are a union shop, and perhaps most important, because they do GREAT work and they back it up. If you are looking to have shirts made, be sure to contact them via <http://www.mirrorimage.com>.


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'nough said. Be well &

paz!

--abe



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"Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act of 1999. This bill will abolish the death penalty at the federal level. It will put an immediate halt to executions and forbid the imposition of the death penalty as a sentence for violations of federal law."

--U.S. Senator Russ Feingold,
Statement on The Federal Death Penalty
Abolition Act of 1999

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