Datelines
Goertzen, Kurt Kleiner, Eve Pell, Tim Vanderpool, and Donald
DATE LINES Union Victory in a Copper Refinery BALTIMORE About seventy workers are back on the job in Baltimore after winning a five-month battle with the management of Cox Creek Refining Company...
...bases...
...The hitch is this," he continues...
...The act enraged the majority of those present, and gave a local newspaper an image of Earth First...
...Unsurprisingly, the FBI used an infiltrator in this case...
...declares Roland Sim-bulan...
...Mayock could not produce evidence to the contrary...
...We will have some comments for the court...
...French says the union agreed to let the company pay only 80 per cent of the back pay it owed as part of the deal...
...He thought he was about to die...
...They're just going to blow me away.' " Instead, Foreman was taken to a Federal prison on the outskirts of Tucson, where he learned his own dramatic arrest was part of an FBI sweep ensnaring Marc Baker, Mark Davis, and Peg Millett, all environmental activists...
...In March, the NLRB scheduled a June hearing and went to the U.S...
...For instance, a seismic station on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao is used to measure the force of nuclear tests...
...None of them had experience...
...It was a disappointing climax to what had begun as a cooperative effort to restart the idle refinery...
...I would say," says Simbulan, "that the Americans have given up hope on relying on the senate...
...Given the maddening rules of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, however, Mayock could not get the record of that conversation before his client was deported...
...And Shea, Mayock, and other lawyers are planning applications of the judge's decision to other Government agencies—whose track records in answering FOIA requests are just as bad as that of the INS...
...But workers, who had come to work without benefit of a union, say increases in wages and benefits and improvements in working conditions were promised but slow in coming...
...The FBI thinks that if they can knock me out—since they think of me as the leader of Earth First!—then they can knock out the entire movement," Foreman says...
...Fed up with the unfairness of INS procedures, Mayock filed his own suit three years ago against the agency's San Francisco office, alleging a "pattern and practice" of failure to abide by the FOIA...
...Most people trying to get into this country act as though they are the phony person described in their passports, but Hassan knew there was no way in the world he could pass as a German businessman...
...In addition to his university responsibilities, Simbulan is research director for Senator Wigberto Tanada, one of the strongest proponents of a nuclear-free Philippines in the nation's senate...
...This place that we had put twenty years in, it was part of our life...
...In 1992, we will have the next presidential elections and elections for both houses of congress...
...has gained notoriety for its own monkey-wrenching—the vandalizing of logging and construction equipment and street-theater-type protests...
...It's something completely different when they come in with guns and thirty-five-year jail sentences...
...A huge backlog of many years' standing was not "exceptional," and by ignoring the urgent needs of immigrants who were faced with imminent deportation proceedings, the INS was not exercising "due diligence" as required by law...
...Tim Vanderpool (Tim Vanderpool is a freelance writer in Tucson...
...In fact, it is to be pro-American-people...
...This is my answer, this is how we can be thankful to the Americans: We can leave them more money to go to basic needs that are nonmili-tary in nature...
...Under terms of the Philippine constitution approved in February 1987 by a national plebiscite, foreign military bases may exist in the country after 1991 only by formal treaty...
...At least, some of them might waver and allow it...
...I expect a lot of pressure to be put on the agency, since people are being deported every day...
...It's trial by dossier," says Peter Williamson, an immigration specialist in Houston...
...Foreman was accused of helping to finance the actions...
...I am escaping persecution, I need asylum.'" The only parts of America Tehranijam ever saw were San Francisco International Airport and the jail where he was held for four months...
...Since its founding in 1980, Earth First...
...Kurt Kleiner (Kurt Kleiner is a reporter for Baltimore Business Journal...
...It's become so difficult, as is evident in the decline of the unions and their ability to win...
...Present and former bases also support U.S...
...The Military Bases Agreement between the two nations—the agreement under which the bases operate—expires on September 16, 1991...
...Wearing earplugs to block the racket of a neighbor's barking dog, he heard nothing before awaking to face a trio of .357 magnums, cocked and pointed in his face...
...We have to call on friends who are on our side...
...Early this year, workers contacted UE organizer Peter French and, with his help, began a campaign...
...military installations in the world—and four smaller bases...
...The current agreement is merely an executive document...
...Michael Tait (as he was known to group members) began appearing at rallies in mid-1988, secretly taping several lengthy conversations among the activists and later becoming a regular figure at meetings and protests...
...The Filipino peace activist and professor is speaking of the military bases the United States maintains in the Philippines...
...INS offices across the country are going to have to pay attention," he says...
...The arrests came as a shock to the members of Earth First!, a loose-knit group taking its cue from the late Edward Abbey's 1975 novel, The Monkey Wrench Gang...
...And management proceeded, according to a complaint later filed with the National Labor Relations Board, to engage in numerous illegal actions—threatening to fire workers, forcing them to remove union buttons from their clothing, keeping them under surveillance...
...Cox Creek officials gave up the fight in June and agreed to recognize the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America Local 125...
...Donald Goertzen (Donald Goertzen is a Men-nonite missionary who has lived in the Philippines since 1983...
...Not so, argued Mayock and Sinrod...
...The four were charged with conspiring to sabotage two nuclear power plants in Arizona and California and a nuclear-weapons facility in Colorado...
...Reopening the plant required expertise, and Murphree sought out former workers to fill many of the 175 jobs...
...Monkey-wrenching will have to be different," he says...
...Such declarations cannot override the central government's policy, but Simbulan believes pressure from people at the grass roots combined with pressure from local governments could make it impossible for such facilities to operate...
...When we succeed in removing the American military bases here it may mean that the American Government will have more money, to spend on education, health, and other basic needs of the American people...
...In my country, if you say something, you are dead," he adds...
...The others remain in jail...
...But a higher level of resistance will be needed to close Clark and Subic Bay, which together house almost 16,000 U.S...
...environmental movement...
...But Mayock knew that evidence existed: The confession the Iranian had made to an immigration official upon arrival in the United States bespoke sincerity...
...The decision imposes burdens on the Service...
...The novel follows the exploits of a renegade band of environmentalists as they plot to destroy Glen Canyon Dam...
...In June, after reviewing extensive documentation from both sides, U.S...
...DATE LINES Union Victory in a Copper Refinery BALTIMORE About seventy workers are back on the job in Baltimore after winning a five-month battle with the management of Cox Creek Refining Company over their right to organize a union...
...The company was holding out for the money," he says...
...David Ilchert, INS regional director in San Francisco, says his legal staff is studying the decision...
...According to immigration attorneys, most requests take several months...
...Judge Orders INS to Stop the Delays SAN FRANCISCO When Hassan Tehranijam decided to flee his native Iran in 1985, he hustled a German passport, bought a plane ticket, and landed in San Francisco...
...This fall, the governments of the Philippines and the United States will probably start negotiations to replace the expiring agreement, which covers Clark Air Force Base and the naval base at Subic Bay—two of the largest U.S...
...But I'm not important to Earth First...
...I'm thinking, 'Man, it's all over,' " he says...
...It is an important victory for UE, which had targeted this fight in an effort to stop the reverses it—and the labor movement as a whole—have suffered in recent years...
...It's one thing having fun tweaking your nose at the establishment," he says...
...We have to include the friends we have in political life...
...Eve Pell (Eve Pell is a staff reporter at the Center for Investigative Reporting in San Francisco...
...They say, 'No time, no money, no staff,' and they pound us...
...At times, says Mayock, the INS said it could not locate records, only to have them show up at a deportation hearing on the apposing attorney's desk...
...The scene was a copper refinery built by Kennecott Refining Company in 1959, just south of the Baltimore city line...
...Nancy Morton, Foreman's wife, says one agent suggested she leave her husband...
...An immigration judge who did not believe that his plea for asylum was genuine ordered him deported...
...in its day-to-day functioning...
...He says such Government tactics have forced Earth First...
...Imagine them being blockaded by rosary-praying nuns...
...Some agreed to work for lower wages and benefits to help get the plant up again...
...People are going to have to zip their lips—they'll have to become a lot more security-conscious...
...According to the criminal complaint filed in Federal court in Phoenix, Millett, Davis, and Baker were apprehended while attempting to cut down power lines serving a water project, in a dry run for the more serious sabotage to follow...
...He recalls the brutal deaths he witnessed and the awful task of collecting the bodies of massacred villagers for the municipal "trash truck" on which he worked...
...another activist claims the agents threatened to take away custody of his children...
...Now the company and the union are negotiating a contract, with a self-imposed deadline of December...
...French enlisted the support of state and U.S...
...These are the remains of twenty-three bases American forces retained when the United States granted independence to the island nation on July 4, 1946...
...Foreman denies culpability in the current case, however, asserting that nuclear power has never been one of his top priorities...
...The only means immigration lawyers have for prying loose documents about a client's case is the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA...
...So he said, 'I am Iranian...
...Because Cerros was able to correct misinformation in his INS file before the hearing, the judge was convinced of his credibility and granted political asylum...
...The reason, the company says, is he left his station outside his normal break time...
...They cite an example: Sulphuric acid fumes generated by the refining process destroy their clothes in weeks, but the company has refused to provide special clothing or even to operate the plant laundry...
...Every now and then, a client whose documents arrive before his deportation hearing is able to use those documents to gain asylum...
...District Court for an emergency injunction for the workers until it could resolve the case...
...Accused criminals are entitled to information the prosecution has in its possession, but immigrants fighting deportation are not...
...Murphree even threatened to close the plant down if a union came in...
...More than one-fourth of the nation's nearly sixty million people live in provinces or cities that have been declared nuclear-free zones by their local or provincial governments...
...That's my answer to the World War II Filipino veterans who say we should be thankful to the Americans, we shouldn't try to remove their bases...
...But more than legal problems face Earth First...
...The INS has used this exemption as a black hole to evade the ten-day rule...
...Clamor Over Philippine Bases MANILA, THE PHILIPPINES "Public clamor could remove them...
...He is a contributor to "Call for Peace and Prosperity," the official publication of the Nuclear Free Philippines Coalition...
...We'd take some issue with the judge," he adds...
...These days we have to organize the community to win these struggles," says Bob Kingsley, a UE official in the union's Washington office...
...The INS argued that since it was faced with a large backlog of unanswered FOIA requests and an increase in the number of requests, it was entitled to use a loophole in the law: The agency claimed the backlog constituted "exceptional circumstances...
...The company, through lawyer Gil Abramson, denies the violations and says the workers were never fired but walked out on strike...
...Some of the others have been phased out, but many—ostensibly communications facilities and weather stations—continue, says Simbulan, to have military functions...
...military personnel and their dependents...
...Halfway through the week-long gathering, a dissident element began making its presence known among the 300-some revelers, eventually burning an American flag brought by the Arizona contingent...
...In 1982, Carlos Rabe Cerros fled El Salvador, arriving in California with virtually nothing...
...Though his order refers only to the San Francisco area, Judge Legge's interpretation of the law has broad implications, says Sinrod...
...Since it was processing the requests in the order received, it said, a wholesale exemption from the time limits was warranted...
...Four years ago, he heard what all undocumented workers dread—the INS knock at his door...
...Judge John R. Hargrove ruled in favor of the union, saying there was reason to believe the company had engaged in unfair labor practices...
...He coordinated a leaflet campaign to inform the community about the strike...
...I kept thinking about what's going to happen to me when I go back to my country—day and night, day and night," says Cerros...
...Faced with the ruling, management decided to settle with UE, although it continues to deny any wrongdoing...
...and deliver a warning to the entire U.S...
...The INS has no procedure for making such information available...
...Being antinuclear or antibases," he says, "is not to be anti-American...
...Hassan spilled his guts to the first customs person he saw," says local immigration attorney James Mayock...
...He and Eric Sinrod, the attorney who represented him in the case, painstakingly documented INS delays in hundreds of cases, showing that the Government had never once answered a request on time...
...Monkey-wrenching for Planet Earth TUCSON Early on the morning of May 31, three FBI agents went to the Tucson home of Dave Foreman, long-time activist and co-founder of Earth First!, the radical environmental group...
...When we were brought back we literally pieced the place back together," says Jerry Hamilton, a spokesman for the workers...
...We really wanted to make a statement...
...By 1988, the refinery was up and running...
...Instead, they were kept out of the office building by security guards, and one of them was fired...
...The strike began on January 26, when about fifty workers tried to approach Murphree to ask that he bargain with them...
...However, these same agencies are notorious for disregarding the time limit, and INS is no exception...
...May Wong contributed to this article...
...Accusing the FBI of harassment, he charges the agency with a variety of tactics designed to intimidate group members...
...Simbulan insists that he is not anti-American...
...As his wife opened the door to the agents' insistent pounding, Foreman remained in bed, still sound asleep...
...In theory, FOIA should work...
...legislators from the area to hurry up the NLRB process...
...In 1986, Cox Creek president Tom Murphree, backed by Mitsubishi Metal America Corporation and other investors, purchased the plant and began rehiring...
...According to Foreman, the FBI operation is a blatant attempt to destroy Earth First...
...People Power blockades in mountain communities have closed roads and hampered illegal logging activities, and similar tactics might work against the minor U.S...
...I am pretty sure, given the critical role of the senate in the bases decisionmaking process, the American Government is going to try hard to pack the senate with pro-American senators to assure them of a longer-term treaty...
...We had to show maintenance how to do it...
...Seventy-seven workers walked off the job to protest, and the company then fired them—illegally, according to the NLRB complaint...
...In his own book, Eco-defense: A Field Guide to Mon-keywrenching, Foreman details various methods of disabling bulldozers, spiking trees, and downing power lines...
...The judge has now issued a nationwide declaration that removes the biggest weapon from the agency's arsenal in avoiding its FOIA obligations...
...District Judge Charles Legge decided in favor of Mayock...
...But as soon as he was on the ground, he dropped the pretense...
...most of its media-conscious members would prefer to avoid...
...Once the largest in the eastern United States and a major employer of area workers, the plant shut down in 1984 during a world depression in copper prices...
...The professor is also a frequent speaker at peace conferences here and throughout Asia and the Pacific...
...I'm afraid to go back to my country...
...command, control, communication, and intelligence networks that enable the United States to wage nuclear war...
...However, if they propose a short-term phase-out treaty for a few years beyond 1991, that might appear acceptable...
...We felt we owed it to the place...
...He ordered Cox Creek to rehire the workers with back pay and to bargain with the union...
...The Justice Department, which has filed a formal notice of appeal to keep its options open, says it has not decided whether to proceed...
...facilities...
...Any treaty must be approved by two-thirds of the twenty-three-member senate, and the votes don't appear to be there for a long-term treaty...
...The law specifies that any person is entitled to Government records which aren't classified, and it requires Government agencies to respond to requests within ten days...
...It was Tait who allegedly overheard plans to sabotage the power plants...
...In A Guide to Nuclear Philippines, Simbulan's latest book, the University of the Philippines political scientist identifies these facilities and their probable functions...
...In our mind, union recognition was the important thing...
...to reevaluate its own modus operandi...
...A refugee can be deported, as Hassan Tehranijam was, because the Government will not hand over documents before the hearing takes place...
...He sees it as part of the free-wheeling group's maturation process...
...One is a heightened sense of paranoia among members, a feeling that came to a head at the group's tenth annual Round River Rendezvous, held in New Mexico toward the end of June...
...Over the next five months, the UE waged a campaign that depended not only on picket lines outside the plant but also on pressure applied by local officials and the community at large...
...I expect immigration lawyers all over the country are lining up to file for relief," he says...
...Foreman thinks the act was encouraged—even provoked— by undercover FBI agents...
...He ordered the San Francisco office of the INS to stop violating the FOIA time limits...
...The NLRB, however, drawing on company documents and testimony, alleges the strikers were indeed fired...
...Across the Philippine political spectrum—from the revolutionary National Democratic Front and New People's Army to such centrist groups as the Liberal Party and even some right-wingers such as Ferdinand Marcos's former defense minister, Senator Juan Ponce Enrile—a growing number of Filipinos are taking stands against the U.S...
...Two days after his arrest, Foreman was released on $50,000 bond...
...some take more than a year, and a few are never answered at all...
...Quinlan Shea, an attorney with the National Security Archive in Washington, D.C., hails Judge Legge's decision...
Vol. 53 • September 1989 • No. 9
