Evil Corporation of the Month: The Gap

WHY NOT VOTE WITH YOUR MONEY AND STOP ENRICHING THE PEOPLE THAT HELP CREATE AN UNJUST WORLD? PLEASE BOYCOTT THE GAP, BANANA REPUBLIC AND OLD NAVY.

The GAP? But they have all those rad commercials with the dancers and the khaki and the soul and all that other cool stuff! Couldn’t be! Well, my friends, think again. The GAP Corporation, which also includes Old Navy and Banana Republic, is owned by a man named Donald Fisher, who wields more than a bit of influence in San Francisco as well as nationally.

LABOR EXPLOITATION
The GAP resists releasing the locations or names of their overseas factories, as workers’ conditions there violate international workers’ rights treaties. They strongly resisted efforts for third-party monitoring of the factories. Lip service is paid to GAP’s “commitment”; to fair wages and working conditions, but Mr. Fisher would prefer that you not know what actually goes on in their foreign sweatshops, where wages are substandard and conditions are dehumanizing (see National Labor Committee - www.nlcnet.org )

FOREST DESTRUCTION
The Fisher family recently purchased a logging company, Mendocino Redwood, and they’ve been aggressively clearcutting the last of the old-growth trees on 230,000 acres of severely depleted Redwood forest in Mendocino and Sonoma Counties. To ease scrutiny and criticism, their public relations campaign has increased, but sustainable operations and old growth protection have not. When local people met with John Fisher (Donald’s son) and asked for a conservation easement in one small area of the Albion River where there are just a few old-growth jewels left, he replied, “We’d be happy to consider it, but somebody has to pay for it”; The Fisher family is reported to be worth over 12 billion dollars. (see WSJ 2/23/00. Also, type “elksoft.com”; into your search engine and peruse the many documentary sites regarding this issue)

PRIVITIZATION OF PUBLIC ASSETS
Mr. Fisher was a major proponent of the privatization of SF’s Edison Elementary school. Once a public school, it is now run by a private firm, for profit, and hence is not subject to many necessary laws regarding curriculum, accountability or disclosure. Will commercial advertising be increasingly present on school grounds or in textbooks? Mr. Fisher already has the children wearing uniforms made by Old Navy, thus learning brand-name loyalty at an early age. (see SF Bay Guardian ) GOP BIGWIG - Mr. Fisher is a registered Republican. He is politically very active, and lobbies City Hall and Washington constantly in order to have Big Business concerns (further tax breaks, continued corporate welfare, lower governmental oversight, pro-NAFTA, GATT, etc.) take precedent over the needs of the majority. He is also a major contributor to the Republican Party’s national efforts, in order to help their program become policy and law. You would be forgiven for thinking that GAP actually stands for “Grand Auld Party’. Do you wish to have your money go to support the Republican agenda?