At a press conference, leaders from national environmental and
civil liberties groups called on Attorney General John Ashcroft to
drop a criminal case against Greenpeace USA pending in Miami, which
could set a dangerous precedent threatening Americans' First
Amendment right to peaceful protest.
The criminal prosecution of an advocacy group for the free
speech activities of its members -- and the chilling effect on its
activities -- is unprecedented in the U.S. A Greenpeace motion to
dismiss will be heard in Miami federal court tomorrow in the case,
which charges Greenpeace with criminal conspiracy and unlawful
boarding.
The federal charges were filed one year after two Greenpeace
activists boarded a ship carrying illegal mahogany from the Amazon
and attempted to unfurl a banner that said "President Bush: Stop
Illegal Logging." In bringing the charges, the Justice Department
dredged up an obscure 1872 law against "sailor-mongering" that
legal experts believe has not been used since the 19th century.
"Instead of prosecuting the smugglers, the Justice Department
wants to brand Greenpeace a criminal operation," said John
Passacantando, executive director of Greenpeace USA. "Greenpeace
will resist this overreaching by Mr. Ashcroft's Justice Department.
We hope that all defenders of endangered freedoms, as well as
protectors of endangered forests, will stand with us."
Longtime civil rights activist and chairman of the board of the
NAACP, Julian Bond, discussed how such selective prosecution would
have devastated the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
"If John Ashcroft had done this in the 1960s, black Americans
would not be voting today, eating at formerly all-white lunch
counters or sitting on bus front seats," Bond said. "This is a
government assault on time-honored nonviolent civil disobedience as
practiced by Martin Luther King and thousands of other
Americans."
"Dissent has a long history in America. But this noble tradition
has come under withering attack from the White House and the
Justice Department of John Ashcroft," said People For the American
Way Foundation President Ralph G. Neas. "Permitting the selective
prosecution of a group like Greenpeace merely because the
government disagrees with their point of view would irreparably
harm the free speech rights of all Americans. Protecting the right
to disagree with the government is what the First Amendment is all
about. Indeed, it is profoundly patriotic to engage in peaceful
dissent when you think the government is wrong."
Also speaking out against the Greenpeace prosecution was Joyce
Miller, the director of the National Community Relations Division
of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization
with nearly a century-long history of working for peace and social
justice.
"The AFSC, Greenpeace, and other advocacy organizations enable
the American people to speak truth to power, through ideas and
action, including civil disobedience -- essential ingredients of a
living democracy," Joyce Miller, American Friends Service
Committee.
And the head of Greenpeace International urged the Justice
Department to focus on the real criminals -- in the illegal
mahogany market.
"Seventy percent of Brazilian mahogany is destined for the U.S.
market, most of it illegal," said Gerd Leipold, executive director
of Greenpeace International. "This is what Ashcroft should be
stopping."
The entire press kit is available on EMS' website at,
http://www.ems.org/greenpeace_trial/press_kit.html