ustxtxb_obs_1997_11_07_50_00017-00000_000.pdf

HE TEXAS b T server DUMP THE NUKE. Opposition to the proposed Sierra Blanca nuclear waste dump moved northward, as Ector County Commissioners voted October 27 to oppose the dumping of nuclear waste from other states in any part of West Texas. The Odessa American reported that the commissioners had been presented with a petition opposing the dump signed by 2,500 county residents, the signatures gathered by the local chapter of the Mexican-American Democrats. Speaking for the group, Dalma Hernandez pointed out that Odessa is on the route for waste transport, and asked the commissioners, “This was a business deal, but what about the people of Texas?” Back on the border, a group of American and Mexican officials met in El Paso October 25 to organize a bi-national effort against the dump. State Representative Gilbert Serna led the meeting, joined by Chihuahua State Representative Clara Torres, Mexican Federal Senator Luis Hector Alvarez, El Paso County Judge Chuck Mattox, Mayor Carlos Ramirez, and U.S. Congressman Silvestre Reyes. Serna called on the group to “act now [to stop] those toxic tanks in our community.” They promised efforts to stop the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission from approving the site, and suggest that should they fail, the group may seek relief in the federal courts. Reyes insisted that “we have not stopped fighting,” and Alvarez, who chairs the Environmental Committee in the Mexican National Legislature, summed up the situation: “When it comes to the environment, the border disappears.” NIKE ON FREEDOM. Nike Corporation has been besieged in recent weeks by protests against their international athletic-gear sweatshops. Nike PR flacks are handing out press releases and other disinformation to repair the company’s much-damaged reputation. These include an article produced by Jardine Fleming Research \(a branch of Jardine Fleming International Securities Limacross Asia: NIKE as a leading indicator of economic success.” Next time you’re watching one of Nike’s commercial testimonies to athletic freedom, consider Nike’s version of economic history, as voiced by Jardine: “Nike likes a strong government…. For example, Nike was a major producer in both Korea and Taiwan when these countries were largely under military rule. It currently favours China, where the communists and only two men have led the country since 1949, and Indonesia, where President Suharto has been in charge since 1967. The communist party is still very much alive in Vietnam. Likewise, Nike never did move into the Philippines in a big way in the 1980s, a period when democracy there flourished. Thailand’s democracy movement of 1992 also corresponded to Nike’s downgrading of production in that country.” And the U.S.?: “Nike management found that it was very hard to make sneakers in America, primarily because of much higher labour costs and more stringent labour laws.” In other words, “Just Do It.” When Nike talks, tyrants listen. \(Thanks to Labor Alerts/Labor News, a service of the Campaign for Labor Rights. E-mail: [email protected]. Phone: 344-5410. On the web: Join Jim Hightower, Molly Ivins, Bernard Rapoport, Joe Gunn and a host of well -known and lesser known political visionaries, malcontents, and workers in the trenches for the first in a series of irregular, irreverent, extraordinary, uplifting, enlivening and mind-boggling Texas Observer Political Parties and Pach’angas Featuring one of the hardest-working men in the Senate business: Senator Paul Wellstone the Minnesota Democrat often tagged the “most progressive U.S. Senator”and proud of it. Come meet Senator Wellstone and your Observer pals, hear some short but passionate speeches, drink some beer, eat some nachos, and get ready for the millennium. Scholz Garden 1607 San Jacinto, Austin Saturday, November 22 5-7 p.m. Call the Observer for more details: 512/477-0746 NOVEMBER 7, 1997 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 17