Hello Everyone.

Much has happened since last week’s Statewide LBAM Strategy Summit, and the movement against the LBAM eradication program is at a crossroads. For those who were not able to attend the Summit, first a summary of what happened there from our perspective, followed by our suggestions and plans for the coming months.

 Present at the LBAM Strategy Summit were representatives of LBAMspray.com, California Alliance to Stop the Spray (CASS), Citizens for Health, California Coalition of Cities to Stop the Spray (CCCSS), Organic Sacramento, Mothers of Marin Against the Spray (MOMAS), Stop the Spray San Francisco, East Bay, Peninsula, and Marin, Ecological Options Network (EON), Californians for Pesticide Reform (CPR), Pesticide Action Network of North America (PANNA), Pesticide Watch, Pesticide Free Zone, and several autonomous activists, as well as those of us representing East Bay Pesticide Alert / Don’t Spray California. People came from as far away as Carmel, Pacific Grove, Santa Cruz, Soquel, Fairfax, Sonoma, Bolinas, and Sacramento. Some people have been working on environmental issues for decades, others are new to such activism. We spent most of the time introducing ourselves, reporting on our activities, strategies and goals.

 Our greatest common activity was a focus on informing people in general, some geared towards specific communities. MOMAS, for example, come into the movement focused especially on protecting children, while others are reaching out to adults without children, whose differing priorities may blind them to the danger of the CDFA’s LBAM program. Also mentioned for outreach were farmers at markets, indigenous communities, university students, physicians, school boards, celebrities, realtors, legislators, the UN, city and town councils, even farm bureaus and other agriculture interests to clarify how the program victimizes them as well, as well as the CDFA’s own Environmental Advisory Task Force for the LBAM program, and particularly vulnerable communities, such as residents of Bayview Hunters Point, and people with HIV. Some outreach has been aimed at informing people about the dangers of the program, at mobilizing sociopolitical opposition, at passing symbolic resolutions by municipalities and agencies, and passing government legislation. Outreach has included yard signs, videos on various aspects of the program, a Public Service Announcement and flyering outside Bay Area theaters where it is being played to remind people to get informed and involved, webpages with resources and indepth analyses about the program, local and national media coverage, petitions, letter writing, doing research and scientific review for use in community outreach, lobbying, and legal actions, and door to door visits with neighbors to collectively oppose the twist ties that were scheduled to go up in Sonoma this week, which has resulted in a postponement and a hearing before their county Board of Supervisors, and likely contributed to the big CDFA strategy change announcement yesterday. While being heralded as a victory by many, and suggestion that aerial spraying won’t happen, it is understood by those of us who lived through the Medfly program to be a diversion and deflection from the rest of the toxic program’s dangers and is not an end to aerial spraying. Meanwhile, the program flies along. But we can continue to affect that.

Other actions reported on were the march across the Golden Gate Bridge, and the fundraising concert in Sausalito and other actions suggested and being worked on are preparing for non-violent civil disobedience, economic boycotts against proponents of this program, creative artists actions, reclaiming the language used about this issue, to create our own terminology to clarify what’s really going on, such as talking about “pesticide exposure” rather than just “spray”, fundraising with merchandise including a glorifying moth pin, a petition to reclassify the LBAM, to downgrade it to a pest not requiring quarantine, which would remove the justification for the eradication program, preparing documentation to terminate the emergency program according to the at least 4 criterias we meet already under the USDA’s own emergency manual, and taking the issue into the world courts across international boundaries. There are also several lawsuits being prepared, including by Californians for Alternatives to Toxics (CATs), CASS, City of Oakland, possible together with other East Bay cities, San Francisco City and County, California River Watch, Earth Justice, and the North Coast Rivers Alliance.

Stated goals by various participants, not all of which we all saw eye to eye on, included getting the moth reclassified, developing documentation of sociopolitical opposition, not pitting urban versus agricultural communities against each other, agreeing to a common platform to oppose the entire eradication program, not only the aerial spray, disclosure of “inert” ingredients in pesticides, getting mayors to jointly request meeting with the governor, stopping this spray and all spray forever, collaborating on other pesticide issues in general, exposing underlying motivation of pesticide programs, protecting human rights, including the right to unpolluted food, water, air, and soil, and solidarity actions with others assaulted with pesticides. Organic Sacramento pleaded for all to look at the bigger picture. They have been sprayed for mosquitoes in the name of West Nile Virus for years now with little outside solidarity, and they need support. We find this particularly noteworthy as some areas threatened by the LBAM pesticides, are also in the mosquito spray zones. Neighborhoods in San Jose, for example, were sprayed only days ago.

CPR reported that they have about 185 organizations working with them, yet gave no concrete information about what they do, except that they are developing a position on the LBAM program along the same lines of PANNA's position. When PANNA presented their focus on pesticides that specifically fall under the category of organophosphates and organochlorides, and on fumigant drift. They brought a draft of a petition to halt the aerial spraying of the LBAM program, which calls for disclosure of all ingredients of pesticides used. It also calls for the use of “biocontrols”, which they clarified include Bt and spinosad, both used in the LBAM program, and the use of the same synthethic “pheromone” used in the aerial spraying in other forms, such as twist ties. They did not address that there are members of our community who have already been sickened by the twist ties and traps. They request a reclassification of the moth, but simultaneously call for the Department of Homeland Security to develop border procedures to more effectively keep exotics out of the country, a contradiction that was quickly pointed out by other participants of the summit. If PANNA recognizes that the LBAM is no threat, then why recommend such extreme measures as the DHS and toxic chemical cocktails? While pleading with participants to make a connection between urban dwellers and farmworkes, they had no concrete suggesions as to how. Their petition mistook the permethrin containing SPLAT for pyrethroids, a mistake particularly disturbing in the light of PANNA’s chemical database being one many reach for when in need for toxicological information. Unfortunately such errors are not uncommon in their database, such as misspelling Carbaryl in the middle of the Glassy-winged Sharpshooter program, in which it was used, and omissions of possible and probable cancer risks due to lack of absolute evidence. It does not comfort us that PANNA was invited to meet with the CDFA, which they proudly reported at the Summit, considering their obvious tendency to compromise. We believe that groups such as PANNA, Pesticide Watch (who claimed not to be heavy weight lobbyists at the meeting), and as of this week, Helping Our Peninsula Environment (HOPE), should look carefully at what it is about their public statements that appeals to the CDFA that they are invited to tea with them, and rethink their alliances.

Discussion ranged from building membership and individual organizational infrastructure, to building alliances, sharing resources and research to avoid burning out on duplicating work, and supporting each other. LBAMspray.com is a community based website, for example, which set up a calendar early on in the struggle, that is accessible to all LBAM activists who want to post  there (contact@...). And CASS went through the process of becoming an official non-profit in order to be able to help other activist groups fundraise. They are now the fiscal sponsor of East Bay Pesticide Alert/Don’t Spray California, and we much appreciate the help in being able to receive donations that are tax deductible, as the people who work with us are largely poor and disabled, and we never have enough flyers, and ink and paper to print more, on hand. Also addressed was that conflict resolution in the movement should be approached with the assumption of good intention, a revisiting of purpose, and making sure everyone is being represented, to keep an eye on inclusion. Some activists are organizing Democracy School sessions. We were also cautioned about negotiating for rights we have already, which are currently being deconstructed in front of our own eyes, and to work to restore individual rights, not majority rule. No one should be able to vote for anyone else to get sprayed. Max represented our collective, and talked about decentralization, that we are finding that people are burning out as volunteers doing tasks for various groups claiming leadership. She described how over years those who organized around the Nevada Test Site had thousands of people come out to the middle of the desert, and worked together in affinity groups, and spokescouncil meetings, deliberately without leaders. She also pointed out that the majority of people with whom we are working closely are autonomous activists who are working with materials we have available on our website, and with whom we spend a lot of time on the phone and via email and snail mail to strategize and share information, and they are doing a lot of door-to-door, face-to-face activism to reach out to people who otherwise might not be aware or involved.

 Unfortunately the input we got from people who did not make it to the summit was that the organizing process did not feel welcoming of newcomers, that the secrecy of the location and the requirement to register for a meeting of a grassroots movement was alienating and represented unnecessary and discouraging obstacles, and that there was too much of a delay in the summit time being confirmed that some could not keep all the possible times available, or change their schedule at work. There was also a concern that the agenda was too vague to properly prepare, or ensure a targeted outcome, that it seemed to focus on general movement building rather than on something more concrete and relevant to the emergency we’re in. There was a wish for a group brainstorm of everyone together, without fragmenting off into smaller break-out groups, which is a problem we’re already facing because of the physical distance between our regions. Among the approximately dozen people we know of, who wanted to participate but did not in part because of alienation from the process, were several labor organizers, chemically injured, and long-time activists. Additionally, Max ended up giving the incorrect address to a couple people who planned to attend, having had only the copy with the address of the location deleted. Without the address in front of her, and not knowing that there was even a second State Bldg., even having been an SF resident in the past, she directed those two to the building on Van Ness, where we went (and then posted a sign when we discovered the mistake). If instead we could have sent along an invite with the address listed, while Max may have missed that it was a different building, others may well have noted the address.

Add to that, that in the midst of the organizing conflict over access and inclusion without obstacles, it surprisingly didn’t occur to us that there would of course be a security check point with metal detectors and x-ray machine in a government building, which resulted in one chemically injured person to walk away after making the long treck to contribute her perspective to the meeting, when the machine kept beeping and she was told to put her asthma inhaler, on which she depends on for her life because of pesticide poisoning, into the tray. For her, it was the last straw, and she hadn’t even gotten down to the basement, where there were no windows, and lousy air flow. Unsurprisingly, there were also cameras all over the room we met in, prompting one absent activist to suggest that all that secrecy about the summit’s location was for naught, since the CDFA surely had access to a live feed… Security culture is an odd bird. It more often serves to keep activists apart. This was one of those times. The point is that a government building on many levels is not an appropriate venue for a grassroots movement to strategize against a state program. Our collective will not participate in keeping the location of such important meeting of the minds secret from the public again, and we will take an active role in helping search out a venue that is as accessible as possible, so that the next Summit, which was already being discussed as the meeting was ending, will be truly inclusive.

 Our position for the next Summit, as stated at this one, is that we would like to see this movement unite on a common platform:

-To oppose the entire program on the basis that it’s unnecessary and unsafe.

-To unite in action across regional borders on the basis that this is a civil rights issue.

Thursday’s news that aerial spraying for the LBAM eradication has been suspended over “urban” areas, reaches us with mixed feelings. While we are breathing a sigh of relief that many people’s homes will not be sprayed directly by air, the reality is that the tax assessor told us in 2000, in the middle of organizing around the similar Glassy-winged Sharpshooter program that, Sonoma is 95% rural. Monterey and Santa Cruz would weigh in with similar numbers, as would many counties statewide. When pesticides are used, drift happens. We will not allow the state and feds to divide and conquer. There is not a place in the state devoid of people or wildlife. We are not an acceptable risk, nor do we stand aside as wildlife is threatened. Those of us in the Bay Area or Sacramento are not more important than those in Monterey, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, Sonoma or elsewhere.

We are looking ahead with dread to the pesticide applications that are still scheduled to happen, and their similarly violent impact on our communities. We have dreaded this moment from the start as the focus on aerial spraying has distracted people’s attention away from the other toxics planned for this program. We are concerned that now that the eradication and monitoring methods the CDFA has announced do not involve aerial spraying of urban areas, nor spraying at all, that people will walk away from this movement and allow the CDFA to saturate our air supply with the same synthetic “pheromone” chemicals sprayed from the air, but now in the form of 250 twist ties, and a minimum of 3000 globs of it mixed with permethrin per square mile, on every utility and tree in sight, while continuing to place and replace in easy reach of climbing children and animals, in lures in endless traps that target neighborhoods for possible expansion of the pesticide program.

It is no accident that the CDFA downplays the aerial spraying they still plan to do, still as early as August 17, over “non-urban” areas, and don’t mention the spraying of Bt and spinosad with all their undisclosed synthetic “inerts” still allowed under this program. It’s time to follow the example of the East Bay Regional Park District, both its workers, AFSCME Local 2428, and its Board of Directors, as well as the Berkeley City Council and its Peace and Justice Commission, and as reported at the Summit, the Santa Cruz Teachers Union, and take a clear stand against the entire LBAM eradication program.

 We encourage you to attend the East Bay Community Town Hall this coming Monday, June 23, from 7-9 PM, at the Lakeside Garden Center, 666 Bellevue Avenue, at Lake Merritt in Oakland, sponsored by Stop the Spray East Bay and Pesticide Watch. Presenting will be Dr. Daniel Harder, Director of the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum and co-author of the New Zealand report that revealed the LBAM was only a problem there during their extensive pesticide regime, Dr. Larry Rose MD, formerly with the state Department of Occupational Safety and Health, who has analyzed the ingredients in last year's LBAM pesticide, Douglas MacLean from Assemblymember Sandre Swanson's office, and Oakland City Attorney John Russo on possible East Bay legal action around the LBAM. Please tell City Attorney Russo to take legal action against the entire eradication program, across regional boundaries. Remind him that the City of Oakland has an ordinance that is supposed to protect residents and visitors from toxic pesticides, and not to weaken it further by compromising with the State’s manufactured LBAM crisis. Demand he join the federal suit planned by CASS, against USDA, CDFA, APHIS, EPA, and the whole program.

 Also mark your calendar for a Non-violent Civil Disobedience Training around the Apple Moth Eradication Program, coming on Saturday, July 19th, from 10am-5:30pm at 1924 Cedar Street (at Bonita), in Berkeley. It is co-sponsored by East Bay Pesticide Alert / Don't Spray California and the Social Justice Committee of the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists www.BFUU.org. You can take a look at the handbook we have on our site used as part of the Santa Cruz trainings awhile back in preparation. Anyone on this list have access to free copying? If so, please let us know if you can run off some copies of this handbook.

The image described by one participant of the Summit summarizes our task well: We are standing before the "thrashing beast of the dying empire". Let’s hope so.


East Bay Pesticide Alert / Don't Spray California

www.EastBayPesticideAlert.org
www.DontSprayCalifornia.org

And that frustrating plug for money. We hate to ask but are still many hundreds in the red. What we get goes into copying, ink cartridges, phone costs, gas costs, Paratransit costs. Everytime we get closer to being in the black there are more phone and copying costs, another empty cartridge. No one’s paid here, but everyone’s working very, very long hours to get out facts. Apparently to very good use.

CASS is acting as a fiscal sponsor for us, so we encourage you to be as generous as you can via check, or please send HP #15 and #78 ink cartridges to support this work. Also, CASS recently gave us money to get extensive files (671 pages, more to come) regarding pesticide use by Alameda County, all the cities, PG&E, EBMUD, Caltrans, school districts, etc. These pesticide use reports are crucial for clarifying the extensive pesticide use we face daily and must get stopped, and also completely clarify the toxic “IPM” program of the county (we had called for a ban, they stuck with toxic IPM). Please step forward if you want to join us over time in a campaign to ban toxic pesticide use by the county once and for all! And please contact us to be involved in work to stop Caltrans’ roadside spraying.

And if you are able, and would want to fund a very special project which could really make a very important difference in this situation, we have already designed buttons with a photo of the moth, saying Save The Apple Moth. I’m not sure we have the graphic on our site yet, and the buttons are underway, but it would make a wonderful t-shirt and would reframe the issue appropriately. Contact us if you might consider funding a whole run of t-shirts as one of your many contributions to this work.  

Checks can be made out to California Alliance to Stop the Spray with Don’t Spray California written in the memo line. Checks and cartridges can be sent to Maxina Ventura

2399 East 24^th St. #24

San Leandro, CA 94577.

*An Injury To One Is An Injury To All*

The details of the strategy summit happening on Saturday, are below.

Just before sending this follow up to our previous announcements, we received an email from John of Stop the Spray, asking us not to divulge the location of the meeting, and to tell people to call him to “register” with him. While we appreciate the work John has put into this, this is not the approach we would have taken, and several activists have expressed concern about how it might interfere with inclusion of everyone.

 At John’s request, we have removed the address of the meeting, except to say that it is near San Francisco City Hall, and we encourage you to contact him for directions. If you cannot reach him in time to make your arrangements for transportation, such as paratransit or carpools, or are in any way discouraged from participating, please contact us so that we can put heads together about access.

 East Bay Pesticide Alert/Don’t Spray California want to remind everyone that grassroots movements are built by the people, and that any strategy meeting in response to a threat on people’s health must be open to all affected, and therefore must necessarily be a “public meeting”. As far as we’re concerned, all are welcome to join in the discussion and strategizing against this toxic assault at any time.

 In the event that more people come than the room provided can hold, there are several other options, including outdoors, all in walking distance of a couple of blocks. We recommend bringing a chair or blanket, and a sun hat, just in case this happens. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us by email, or if at the last minute on Saturday, please call me at (510) 798-5630.

 We will be present beginning at 11am, and we encourage all to come share their creative strategy ideas in this urgent struggle for our health and safety.

 See you there!

 Max Ventura

www.DontSprayCalifornia.org

--- John @ StopTheSpray.ORG <john@...> wrote:

Folks,

Here are some details of the Statewide Summit on Saturday:



Time: 9am - 5pm

        People unable to make 9am for health reasons, may arrive at 11am, see

agenda below.

        We will take a special break to welcome late morning arrivals at this time.



Date: Saturday, June 14th, 2008



Location: XXXXXXXX

        Parking and transit information attached below.



Agenda Highlights:

        9:00    Breakfast

        9:30    Foundation work

        11:00   Special break for late morning arrivals

        11:00 Group presentations w/ lunch and breaks

        2:00    Breakout groups / break

        4:00    Breakout groups report to whole

        4:30    Wrap-up

        5:00    Meeting adjourn



Agenda Description:



I am still working details

 of

 the agenda, but the above will hopefully serve

as a template for people to plan their time.  Basically, I want to realize

the goals of the summit as stated:



1) a respect of each other and each of our unique contributions and

viewpoints

2) a desire to learn about each other and their viewpoints

3) a hope that we can continually improve how we work together going forward



During the process, I would like people to think about the following:



We have before us, an incredible opportunity to show the strength and

resolve of the People of California to those that wish to misuse their

leadership power against ourselves and our environment. If we can develop a

model for reaching out across our own differences, and the boundaries that

separate us, be it age, race, economic status, profession and tap that which

is common to us all, then we will be building something not just to stop the

spray, but

 something that

 could be used as a model for many of the

challenges that we humans will encounter in the future.



Therefore, in the beginning foundation work, I would like to use the time to

explore ideas on how we can work best together. How can we be our best, and

work together while offering our friends the ability to express themselves

and be their best as well. I would like to collectively come up with a few

groundrules that we feel are important for achieving this aim.



In group presentations, I would like each group (or individual if not

affiliated) to get 5-10 minutes (depending on how many presentations) to

express themselves, what they are about, and their vision for the future of

the movement.



PLEASE: TELL ME IF YOU WILL OR WILL NOT BE PRESENTING, I NEED TO KNOW IN

ORDER TO PLAN TIME!



In breakout sessions, I would like to determin a set of issues (probably

around 6 - 12) that people

 feel are most

 important and wish to discuss /

work together on. There will be most likely two rounds of breakout sessions,

so each person will have the opportunity to participate in at least two such

groups.



PLEASE: TELL ME IF YOU HAVE IDEAS ON WHAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE AS BREAKOUT

SESSIONS!



We will then reconvene as a larger group, and each breakout group will give

a short report on highlights of their discussion so that the group at large

will know what has happened.



Then we will wrap up by 5 at the latest.



Lunch:



I wondering if there is any interest in doing a "potluck" like affair

for

lunch? This seemed most interesting and folks can share some of their

favorite creations? I thought this could be fun. Let me know what you think.



Attendance:



If you know someone that wants to go but did not get this email, please have

them email me a note that they would like to

 attend, and which group

 (if

any) they are affiliated with. I have not restricted attendance, but I am

asking to know who intends to be present for planning purposes (i.e. this is

not an open to the public type meeting).



If you got this email from a friend and you told me already you were

supposed to come, I apologize for the oversite, please send me a note that I

have made an error and I will correct it.



Transit Information:



The Civic Center BART Station is the station for

people taking BART.  XXXXXXXXX



Parking Information:





XXXXXXXXXX





Central Parking Systems

99 Golden Gate Ave, San Francisco, CA

(415) 863-1380



ProPark - 155 Eddy Street Lot

155 Eddy Street, San Francisco, CA

(415) 981-9435



Propark America

261 Ellis St, San Francisco, CA

(415) 292-7512



Ampco System

 Parking
601 Van Ness Ave,
 San Francisco, CA
(415) 771-4776

1000 Van Ness Garage
1000 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco, CA
(415) 614-1218

Civic Center Plaza Garage
355 Mcallister St, San Francisco, CA
(415) 863-1537

Friendly Limo Service & Daily Parking
469 Eddy St, San Francisco, CA
(415) 292-5050

Turk Street Garage
175 Turk St, San Francisco, CA
(415) 885-6925

Ampco System Parking
210 Ellis St, San Francisco, CA
(415) 775-5888

Soma Grand Parking Garage
1160 Mission St, San Francisco, CA
(415) 431-8800

Please, all, go to our website’s WNV section and read the meepi report. If anyone can go to the meeting Tuesday night, you can print out this report (some 30 pages, I think) to put on record opposition from any of you, and formally from Don’t Spray California via you as long as you are specifically talking about NO use of pesticides (NOT “reduced use” or “least use” language).  www.dontspraycalifornia.org

The facts about WNV and the pesticides are clear so grab the stats and run. The pesticides make people sick, plus when you spray for mosquitoes, you end up with resistance…. The strongest survive).

 If you can’t print out the full thing, you might consider printing out the couple-pager which was from our presentation to the Alameda County Mosquito Abatement District a couple years ago. That should be on site, too. And you might read about our temporary paralysis incidents related to a neighbor spraying something like Raid outside, fearing WNV. Our symptoms, from the pesticides, were, in fact, like classic WNV symptoms. In fact, the Kaiser doctor called what happened to my older son as “classic insecticide poisoning” and right there in front of us said that it’s not the one-time exposures which are of greatest concern to them, but the cumulative exposures over time. She told us NOT to return home until after having received assurance from the neighbor that she wouldn’t spray. Suddenly forced out of our home. With mail, and her not seeing mail for some days, we were out of our home nearly a week, with no notice, having to move in with friends in another city.

That’s what we have with the LBAM program, WNV programs, the Spartina program in the SF Bay, and city, county, schools and other agencies’ use, as well as people’s personal use around homes, businesses, places of worship, community centers, etc.

Max

From our old homeopath/ MD’s newsletter:

FDA M….o….v….e….m….e….n….t on Dental Amalgam
In another example of wild-eyed crazies proving instead to be prophets, the FDA has issued an advisory on the risks of dental amalgam (mercury). Maybe it is just me, but I had great difficulty finding this on the FDA website. http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/consumer/amalgams.html   There have been competing pressures on the FDA to more tightly regulate amalgam or continue to ignore scientific concerns.  As the comment period ends in July, the appearance of this cautionary document on the FDA website suggests that they will be taking a more significant regulatory step.  Better late than never?

Max