Miami Beach- More than 1,200 people gathered today on Miami's
South Beach to create a massive "human art" image in creative
protest against the unprecedented prosecution of Greenpeace by the
Bush administration. Supporters of the international environmental
organization gathered Saturday afternoon to form a replica of a
1959 Picasso work of art, enormous in scale, which was photographed
from a helicopter above Miami Beach.
"This is a chance for the people of Miami to show their support
for Greenpeace, and to creatively protest the Bush administration's
decision to silence its critics," said Rose Young, Greenpeace
Director, in Miami. "The people gathered here today represent the
desire of people all across the world who are willing to take a
stand for the world's forests and for the right of people to
peacefully protest," affirmed Young.
The event, the largest of its scale to take place in the Miami
area, comes as Greenpeace faces a federal indictment in South
Florida, stemming from an April 2002 protest that occurred off the
coast of Miami. The protest, in which Greenpeace activists boarded
a ship containing illegal mahogany from the Brazilian Amazon, was
part of Greenpeace's continuing campaign to save the world's
forests from destructive logging.
The Government charged Greenpeace in July 2003 under an obscure
1872 law originally intended to prevent boarding house owners from
luring sailors to their establishments. The administration's use of
the law, whose last known use was in 1890, demonstrates the Bush
administration's desire to silence Greenpeace, long a vocal critic
of the administration and some of its policies. Greenpeace has been
raising awareness of the prosecution and the continuing Amazon
campaign in Miami since October, when local officials denied the
Greenpeace ship MV Esperanza a dockspace.
This aerial art image, produced in conjunction with
SpectralQ Productions, is aimed at inspiring people all over
the world to voice their concern over the continuing destruction of
our endangered forests, and the increasing erosion of the American
public's endangered freedoms. The event will include music, dance,
and remarks.
Numerous high profile individuals and groups have publicly
condemned the prosecution, including Al Gore, Julian Bond and the
NAACP, the ACLU, People for the American Way, the Sierra Club, the
National Resources Defense Council(NRDC), the Miami Herald, and the
San Francisco Chronicle.