THE LAST WORD
Cizewski, Leonard
THE LAST WORD Leonard Cizewski The Coffee Connection United States of America vs. Light Green Residence with Dark Green Trim, located at 1232 Rutledge Street, Madison, Wisconsin, Specifically the...
...intervention in Central America...
...For as little as $ 1, Americans would be able to commit an act of civil disobedience that the Government took seriously...
...One year after the embargo began, we held a news conference and public sale...
...We cannot bolster the badly damaged Nicaraguan economy with a small volume of civil-disobedience trade...
...There was no official response...
...After careful deliberations, we decided to continue importing and selling Nicaraguan goods...
...At the suggestion of a local minister and peace activist who is also a stamp collector, we chose stamps as our first import...
...We envisioned ourselves crafting a civil-disobedience strategy for the 1980s by taking Reagan's free-market and free-trade rhetoric literally...
...He quickly called the media, and within thirty minutes, newspaper photographers, reporters, and a television crew were on my front lawn...
...We have chosen not to commit further violations of the embargo, but we have not left the struggle...
...Attorney in Madison sent us a letter ordering us to stop trading with Nicaragua or face prosecution...
...Customs office in Milwaukee and two were dispatched from Chicago...
...Box 3190, Madison, WI 53704-0190...
...citizen in Managua and shipped to a sympathetic Canadian peace activist who sent them on to us in Madison...
...We are working with the Wisconsin legislature to study the impact of the embargo on the state's economy...
...Trade for Peace also drew inspiration from the U.S...
...I was at work when the raid began...
...Large quantities could be purchased at small cost, easily slipped through Customs, and resold at minimal charge...
...We also urge support for Congressional action to end the embargo and other economic sanctions against Nicaragua...
...No arrests were made...
...We are working with the American Civil Liberties Union to prepare a lawsuit challenging the embargo of items protected by the First Amendment, such as the oil paintings that were seized from us...
...Neighbors gathered to watch...
...But we can keep the lack of normal U.S.-Nicaragua relations actively on the political agenda and hasten the day when the embargo is lifted...
...The agents also took business and personal files, and searched my children's room...
...Since the raid, we have issued an "Un-catalog" of unavailable Nicaraguan imports...
...Our deficit was covered by donations and loans from supporters...
...The embargo is easy to break...
...We declined products made from endangered species such as black coral, turtle shell, alligator, or crocodile...
...Trade for Peace and I remain under surveillance and face a continuing threat of prosecution...
...The groups resold the goods in public displays of civil disobedience as part of a national "Dump the Embargo Day...
...Our sales revenue never exceeded our expenses, so we had no tax liability...
...Chuck Schobert, another Trade for Peace member, arrived in response to a telephone call from my wife...
...Drawing inspiration from Gandhi's salt march, we organized a "buy-in" of Nicaraguan goods...
...We are continuing political and educational work protected by the First Amendment...
...Our first stamps were purchased by a U.S...
...In July 1988, we sold Nicaraguan stamps and Nicaraguan coffee—roasted and unroasted, whole bean and ground, labeled Coffee Break the Embargo—to fifteen groups across the country...
...Items purchased in Nicaragua can also be brought back under the same exemption or sent to supporters in other countries for reshipment into the United States...
...Light Green Residence with Dark Green Trim, located at 1232 Rutledge Street, Madison, Wisconsin, Specifically the Ground Floor Apartment of 1232 Rut-ledge Street, Identified as Apartment 1." That was the heading on a search warrant presented to me on August 30, 1988, when six U.S...
...Another member, Paola Scommegna, assisted with preparation of this article...
...The state's economic-development office put us on its mailing list...
...To purchase a Nicaraguan import item from us would constitute an act of nonviolent war resistance, but would be a positive assertion of a desire for peaceful, normal relations between the United States and Nicaragua...
...Four of the agents came from the U.S...
...organization, depoliticization, and disem-powerment that seem to paralyze the public on such issues as U.S...
...We hoped that Trade for Peace could break through the apathy, cynicism, disLeonard Cizewski is a member of Trade for Peace, Inc., P.O...
...The raid followed in August...
...The Customs agents grumbled that the cameras were compromising their undercover status and undercover cars...
...tradition of civil disobedience as practiced by Henry David Tho-reau, the suffragette movement, and especially Martin Luther King Jr...
...We urge people to send the order form to President Bush...
...Four days earlier, one of the raiders, using an assumed name, had bought a Nicaraguan oil painting and two packets of green coffee from me...
...We started Trade for Peace within hours of President Reagan's declaration of a trade embargo against Nicaragua in May 1985, when several members of the Dane County Pledge of Resistance began planning a civil-disobedience response...
...We wanted to give people a chance to challenge Reagan's so-called low-intensity warfare against Nicaragua...
...Embargo violations carry criminal and civil penalties of up to ten years in prison and $50,000 in fines...
...In May 1988, we held our third news conference to proclaim we were still in business...
...Anyone visiting Canada, Sweden, Great Britain, Germany, or Holland can buy Nicaraguan goods and mail them into the United States or carry them in within the personal- and gift-item exemption allowed by Customs...
...Customs agents spent two hours raiding my home, seizing green and roasted coffee beans, handmade art items, and postage stamps, all imported from Nicaragua by the civil-disobedience organization I work with, Trade for Peace...
...We chose to break only laws relating to the embargo, so we incorporated as a small business, paid our state sales tax, and filed our state and Federal income-tax forms...
...In March 1988, the U.S...
...We had compiled a mailing list of more than 500 names, the result of news coverage, advertisements, and announcements in national publications...
Vol. 53 • November 1989 • No. 11
