Aid & Abet

Well, we’ve received the official statement from American Apparel’s Media Relations Director, Cynthia Semon objecting to our coverage of American Apparel and its founder, Dov Charney. In it she attempts to bait us into a he-said-she-said battle. We’re going to pass on that invite.

The boss says the business isn’t anti-union. The boss also says that sexual harassment isn’t a problem in his workplace. The boss said the AA building was built in 1920s, not the 1940s.* Okay. Read the articles in our section. Then read some more articles (here on our blog and elsewhere), and decide for yourself.

Clamor is an independent media outlet that works with everyday people to tell the stories that are important to our communities. We stand by the articles in this special section because they are accurate and resonate with what a lot of people are feeling. We and many of our readers feel duped by a company that has made a lot of money appealing to our progressive ideals.

American Apparel is attempting to do to Clamor what it has done fairly successfully to independent (and corporate) media outlets — squash criticism through threats of legal action, intimidation, or discrediting of the source or the journalist. We’ve been gathering stories from blogs, radio programs, magazines, filmmakers, and TV shows big and small of just how American Apparel has worked to prevent critical stories from being published. It’s a solid model that works well to eliminate dissenting voices and create a chilling effect on future coverage. You’ll be hearing more from us on this when we finish our research. In the meantime, you might want to have a conversation with Weronika Cwir — one of AA’s Media Relations staffers whose current job description seems to have been rewritten to include “trolling the internet to talk trash about Clamor on various blogs.” Tell her we said “Hello!”

We take Semon’s letter as an indication that we have achieved our goal of accurately and passionately critiquing a fashionable sacred cow of liberal style. An apology will not be forthcoming. American Apparel is welcome to make the case to concerned consumers of its products that it can conduct its business without sexism or anti-union tactics. However, to do that will presumably take more substance than PR.

And that is precisely what has American Apparel’s 100% Baby Rib cotton briefs ($30 for a 3-pack) in a bunch.

*Jim Straub’s article actually said, “The company possesses a downtown textile factory straight out of the ’40s, a sexploitation ad campaign from the ’70s, and a marketing strategy so sophisticated it almost seems to come from the future.”

Well, this morning I was interviewed on KPFK’s Uprising Radio with one of our authors, Keely Savoie. You can listen here.

The problem is that what we’ve reported in Clamor isn’t new – any search of the Internet will find numerous stories on all the angles we covered – that American Apparel is anti-union, objectifies women in their advertising, and has had several sexual harassment suits against the owner, Dov Charney.

The real story here is that American Apparel has a pattern of pressuring media outlets who are critical. We’ve heard from several major progressive news outlets off the record who don’t want their name used for fear of inviting more attention from AA. We’re currently negotiating with them about using their names publicly, and looking for other outlets that have similar stories.  Have you had a run-in with their Media Relations department? Email me.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jen Angel, Co-Publisher/Founder
Email: jen (at) clamormagazine.org
Web: www.clamormagazine.org

American Apparel Issues Ultimatum to Clamor Magazine

Toledo, OH — In response to advance previews of Clamor Magazine’s forthcoming special section on American Apparel, the Los Angeles-based clothing company has issued a letter of demands from its Media Relations office.

Cynthia Semon, Media Relations Director at American Apparel, sent an email to Clamor Politics co-editor (and editor of the American Apparel section) Mariana Ruiz and Clamor co- founder Jen Angel, citing inaccuracies and accusing Clamor of shoddy and amateur  journalism. Ms. Semon demanded, “if the article is not immediately removed online, along with  a retraction and an [sic] public apology posted online and published appropriately, we will be  forced to seek legal action in light of such gross, blatant, negligent and irresponsible journalism.”

“We have issued a correction of unintended factual inaccuracies,” stated Angel, “However, we have no intention of retracting the stories or the issue in which they appear.  Apart from the correction we have made, we stand by those stories as they appear.” The correction is noted below.

“We’re publishing articles here that are critical of American Apparel’s business practices and challenge the credibility of their carefully crafted ‘progressive’ identity, and they’re not happy about that,” said Clamor co-founder Jason Kucsma. “That a social justice magazine with a yearly operating budget of less than $150 thousand is being issued an  ultimatum by a company that turned $250 million in profit last year seems a little incongruous to me.”

Three articles, one photo essay featuring a former American Apparel employee, and a series of parody American Apparel ads make up a 10-page section analyzing American Apparel’s business model, sexual harassment claims made against founder and CEO Dov Charney, and the co-opting of progressive values to hype an otherwise less-than progressive workplace.

The Fall 2006 issue in which the special section appears is scheduled for a newsstand release of September 1, 2006.

A prior press release on this special section can be downloaded at:
http://www.clamormagazine.org/temp/ClamorAARelease.doc

An advance preview of the special section is available in PDF form at:
http://www.clamormagazine.org/temp/ClamorAAsection2006.pdf

*Advance Correction:
In this Fall 2006 issue, we incorrectly reported that Mary Nelson, a store manager at American Apparel, had withdrawn her sexual harassment suit against CEO Dov Charney. It has come to our attention that the suit by Mary Nelson, a sales manager, is still pending, and that an unnamed store manager withdrew her suit against the company.

Sept 8 – San Diego, CA
For more information: contact Farhad.

Sept 9 – Venice, CA
Venice Peace & Freedom Center, 8 p.m.
1720 Main Street, Venice 90291
310-399-2215 or 310-428-8685
Tickets available in advance

Sept 10 – La Verne, CA
Barbeque and Concert to commemorate the lives lost on Sep. 11, 2001. Join David, local candidates for office and other activists for a discussion on Civil Liberties and human rights in a post-9/11 world. Contact Robert Byrne for more information. 12 – 3 p.m. BBQ will have meat-free options. $10 at the door.
Sept 10 – Los Angeles
ATEC, 4730 Marine Ave, Lawndale, CA 90260
Free admission, donations accepted 7 p.m. For more information: Jae Sobel

Sept 11 – TBA

Sept 12 – TBA
Sept 13 – TBA
Sept 14 – TBA

Sept 15 – Oakland, CA
AK Press Warehouse, with Folk This!
674 A 23rd Street, Oakland, CA 94612-1163
Phone: 510 208 1700
7 p.m., $7

Sept 16 – San Francisco, CA
Station 40, 3030b 16th Street, San Francisco, CA 94115
www.3030b.org, 8 p.m.
$5-10 sliding scale
Will include a speaker on Israel/Palestine

Sept 17 – TBA
Sept 18 – Rohnert Park, CA
Sonoma State University, The Cooperage
7 p.m., $10.00 (No one turned away)
For more information: 707.664.3373
Co-sponsored by Project Censored

Sept 19 – TBA
Sept 20 – TBA

September 21 – Seattle, WA
6:00 pm Snacks and Networking, 7:00pm Concert
CD Release and Celebration of Local Counter-Recruitment Efforts. Community of Christ Church in Highland Park, 8611 11th SW, West Seattle. Suggested donation $10 ($5 students/ low income). Contact Christian or Jenna for more info.

Sept 22 – Vancouver, BC
Hosted by StopWar.ca, Vancouver’s anti-war coalition
Email contact for more info: contact@stopwar.ca

Sept 23 – Port Townsend WA
Indian Island Weapons Depot Protest/Rally
For more information contact Liz

September 24 – Edmonds, WA
House Show, 7 p.m., $10
Kurt and Anne Kutay, 20507 88th Ave W, Edmonds, WA, 98026, 425-673-4856
October 7 – New Paltz, NY
Ulster County Fairgrounds, 4 p.m.
Harvest Fest and Freedom Fair

October 10 – Pittsburgh, PA
For more information: Francine
October 11 – Toledo, OH
Mickey Finn’s Pub, 602 Lagrange (at Huron), 419-246-3466
9 p.m. 18+, $10
October 12: Private Event

October 14: Chicago, IL
Heartland Cafe
October 19: Minneapolis, MN
Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) Fundraiser
For more information, contact: Amy

October 21:Springfield MO
For more information, contact: Mark

October 28: Houston Texas
Green Party event
For more info, email Donald Cook.

Press Contact:  Fly PR
Ilka :: flypr@flypr.net
Norma Jeane :: buzz@flypr.net
T. 323-667-1344

HALLIBURTON BOARDROOM MASSACRE
DAVID ROVICS’ PROTEST ALBUM AND DVD OUT 9/5/06
National U.S. Tour Dates September through November

Jamaica Plain, MA, August 10, 2006 – David Rovics announces his fourteenth album, Halliburton Boardroom Massacre, today.  The album is being released by Mi5 Recordings on September 5, 2006.  Distribution is via Caroline Distribution in the U.S.  A percentage of the sales from each CD goes to the anti-war coalition United For Peace And Justice.

Halliburton Boardroom Massacre was co-produced by David Rovics and Sean Staples.  It was recorded at Hi-n-Dry Studio in Cambridge, MA from December 2005 through April 2006. Staples comments on working in the studio with Rovics, saying “David’s music is IMPORTANT. It is dangerous. It is unapologetic. It lives in a place that star-driven rock and roll and folk music have forgotten about.”  He adds, “Even after numerous  listens, certain lines that he sings still send chills through me. I’m very proud of the work we’ve done together.” Rovics agrees, adding “All in all it’s the most satisfying thing I’ve ever accomplished in a studio.” He adds, “and it is a testament to events of the past year with songs like ‘New Orleans’ and ‘Song For Cindy Sheehan.’”

Rovics is a folk singer and activist.  His musical influences include traditional folk music from Appalachia, Ireland, England, Latin America, and Africa, as well as artists like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Bruce Springsteen, and Steve Earle. Recently the Nueva Cancion movement in Latin America, including artists like Silvio Rodriguez, Pablo Milanez, and Victor Jara has become a source of inspiration.

Rovics has been touring ceaselessly since the mid-‘90s.  He has played concerts around the U.S., Canada, and Europe. In addition to regular touring, Rovics plays for many thousands of people at rallies and protests a few times a year. “Those big events are inevitably highlights,” he points out, “when so many people come together to protest against the imperialist war-mongers, corporate globalizers, schools of torture, etc.” In recent years he has had the opportunity to share the stage with activists like Noam Chomsky, Ralph Nader, Dennis Kucinich, Angela Davis, Danny Glover, Desmond Tutu, Michael Moore, Susan Sarandon, Jello Biafra, Pete Seeger, the Indigo Girls, and Steve Earle.

David Rovics’ music and activism has had widespread support from media and progressive organizations around the world.  Amy Goodman, the host of Pacifica Radio’s nationally syndicated program, Democracy Now!, has said “David Rovics is the musical version of Democracy Now!” Folksinger legend Pete Seeger has endorsed him, imploring “…listen to David Rovics.” Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan has called him “the peace poet and troubadour for our time.”

David Rovics tours and performs solo.  He is supported on the album by Sean Staples on acoustic guitar, harmony vocal, mandolin, electric mandolin, electric guitar, bass, piano, pump organ, and bouzouki; Dave Westner on drums, upright bass and electric guitar; Jabe Beyer on organ, pump organ, accordion, and piano; and Eric Royer on banjo.  The twelve tracks on Halliburton Boardroom Massacre are 1. “Crashing Down” (2:25), 2. “How Far Is It From Here to Nuremberg” (2:15), 3. “New Orleans” (4:18), 4.  “Tsunami” (2:14), 5. “Halliburton Boardroom Massacre” (2:23), 6. “When Johnny Came Marching Home” (3:15), 7. “RPG” (2:21), 8. “Four Blank Slates” (3:45),  9. “Song For Cindy Sheehan” (3:02), 10. “Waiting For The Fall” (3:16), 11. “Paul Wolfowitz” (1:58) and 12. “Life is Beautiful” (2:36).

The first eight tracks on the DVD were created by filmmakers Chris Chandler and Karen Kilroy and include: 1. “Occupation Iraqi Liberation,” 2. “Drink Of The Death Squads,” 4. “New Orleans,” 5. “Behind That Gate,” 6. “Nagasaki,” 7. “Battle Of Blair Mountain” and 8. “Reichstag Fire.” The DVD also contains live concert footage filmed by various professional filmmakers in different parts of the world.  The nine tracks comprising the live segment are 1. “Wal-mart,” 2. “Saint Patrick Battalion,” 3. “Halliburton Boardroom Massacre,” 4. “Song For Cindy Sheehan,” 5. “Jenin,” 6. “Evening News,” 7. “They’re Building A Wall,” 8. “I’m A Better Anarchist Than You” and 9. “Life Is Beautiful.”

Check the website, www.davidrovics.com, for regular updates.

David Rovics Tour Itinerary (all dates may be subject to change)
Tue., 9/5 TBA in Prescott, AZ
Thur., 9/7 TBA in Tucson, AZ
Fri., 9/8 TBA in San Diego, CA
Sat., 9/9 at Venice Peace and Freedom Center in Venice, CA
Sun., 9/10 at ATEC in Los Angeles, CA
Fri., 9/15 at AK Press in Oakland, CA
Sat., 9/16 at Station 40 in San Francisco, CA
Mon., 9/18 at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, CA
Thur., 9/21 at Community of Christ Church in Seattle, WA
Fri., 9/22 TBA in Vancouver, BC
Sat., 9/23 at Indian Island Weapons Depot Protest/Rally in Port Townsend, WA
Sat., 10/7 at Harvest Fest and Freedom Fair  in Upstate, NY
Tue., 10/10 TBA in Pittsburgh, PA
Wed., 10/11 at Mickey Finn’s Pub in Toledo, OH
Thur., 10/12 private event in Clare, MI
Sat., 10/14 at Heartland Cafe in Chicago, IL
Sat., 10/21 TBA in Springfield MO
Sat., 10/28 TBA in Houston, TX

For press materials or additional information on David Rovics or the
Halliburton Boardroom Massacre please contact Fly PR:  T. (323) 667-1344 ::
flypr@flypr.net

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jason Kucsma, Co-Publisher/Founder
Phone: 419.410.7744
Web: www.clamormagazine.org

Clamor Magazine Lets the Air Out of American Apparel

Toledo, OH – Revered by many as the progressive and hip go-to source for sweatshop-free t-shirts and gear, American Apparel is the subject of scrutiny in a special investigative section of the Fall 2006 issue of Clamor Magazine (to be released September 1, 2006 on newsstands nationwide).

Three articles, one photo essay featuring a former American Apparel employee, and a series of mock American Apparel ads make up a 10-page section analyzing American Apparel’s business model, sexual harassment claims made against founder and CEO Dov Charney, and the co-opting of progressive values to hype an otherwise typically exploitative workplace.

“Calling out Dov Charney for being a smarmy creep with a propensity for sexually harassing his employees is not news – and frankly it’s just a little too easy,” says Clamor co-founder Jason Kucsma. “We’ve gone one step further to look at the porn industry tradition inherited by American Apparel as well as the savvy union-busting tactics employed by the head offices at American Apparel – and of course we couldn’t leave the sexual harassment charges unexamined.”

In his article “Who’s Your Daddy?” Jim Straub explores how Charney has taken the economic principal of vertical integration (the combination in one company of two or more stages of production normally operated by separate businesses) to a new lower level:

The company possesses a downtown textile factory straight out of the ’40s, a sexploitation ad campaign from the ’70s, and a marketing strategy so sophisticated it almost seems to come from the future. Old-world manufacturing paternalism meets sexy transnational marketing: has American Apparel vertically integrated different eras of capitalism?

Keeley Savoie’s article “F*cking Progressives” details how American Apparel used the sweatshop-free angle to bolster the image of what would otherwise be just another t-shirt company:

The real story of American Apparel’s ads is how the company has used the bodies of its barely legal employees to shore up its appeal to the progressive left by implanting anti-sweatshop shtick into every article generated by its low-budget, sexist ads. And the AA demographic – low-wage-worker-defending (but high-wage-earning), guilt-ridden lefties who want nothing more than to assuage their own angst-ridden middle-class anxiety about having succeeded in the capitalist world by consuming with conscience (and the more conscience, the better: sweat-free, fair-trade, organic, vegan, and sustainable) – ate it up.

The special section also features the work of Los Angeles-based writer and photographer Irina Contreras. Through her photos and writing, Contreras explores the difficulty in criticizing a company and aesthetic that seemingly mocks itself in the process. She writes:

Whichever way we decide to look at American Apparel ads, policies, and practices, we can also look at the fact that these are clothes that simply do not fit and do not represent our views the way we had intended them – and the fact that Charney’s hand is always present, even when we do not see his knuckles grazing a model’s shoulder or lips.

Charney and American Apparel have been the subject of numerous mainstream media reports including ABC’s 20/20 (“Sexy Sweats Without the Sweatshops”) and National Public Radio’s Morning Edition (“American Apparel, an Immigrant Success Story”). While some have soft-pedaled questions about sexual harassment claims, a majority have given American Apparel a free pass as the hip new alternative to sweatshop-made clothing.

“We hope this special section helps shed some light on a business that has hijacked progressive rhetoric when it’s useful to them and discarded the ideals whenever they become the slightest bit inconvenient,” said Clamor co-founder Jen Angel.

Clamor founders Jen Angel and Jason Kucsma and the contributors to this section are all available for comment.
Advance copies of the special section are available for download in PDF format.

Kalamu ya Salaam was featured in the March 2006 issue of Clamor – here is something he posted on e-drum, a listserv providing information of interests
to black writers and diverse supporters worldwide. Thanks to Jessica Hoffmann for forwarding this.

—

I Am Ashamed Of Myself

By Kalamu ya Salaam
Post-Katrina New Orleans

I woke up this morning. I was ashamed.

I couldn’t remember what I was doing in 1994. In April. The rainy season. Even if my life depended on it, I could not recall any specifics. I just couldn’t remember.

Over 800,000 Tutsis were slaughtered then. I don’t remember what I did but not having anything that I remember tells me that I did nothing memorable.

I don’t even have a poem specifically about the genocide. Did I write a letter, a petition, an article? Did I do anything? It is depressingly banal how often the reality registers: when the good do nothing, the bad do everything.

Why is goodness always cast as a coward? The truth is, if we do nothing, we can not be good. Doing nothing is a collaboration with the worst of ourselves.

Less than four hours earlier at three-something in the morning when I should have been sleeping I had just finished watching “Sometimes In April,” Raoul Peck’s movie about genocide in Rwanda a dozen years ago. I stagger to bed emotionally drained.

I assume while I was asleep my subconscious was taking inventory. When I awoke, a terrible truth appeared: if I did nothing during Rwanda, I had no high ground from which to expect others to do something for New Orleans.

All of the tasks I should be doing but for whatever reasons I have not done, each of them stood at my bedside and took turns whacking at my conscience.

My discomfort was not just Rwanda. Kysha, Robin and I are working on a poetry anthology appropriately entitled “The End of Forever.” Over the last couple of weeks I have come up missing in action. I am mired in a swamp of inaction, emotionally overwhelmed at times. The book is in the last stages, just a little more effort and it would be finished, but I lay in bed, dilly-dallying for no good reason-I don’t know what I’m waiting for and I’m not sleepy, it’s just…

But the book is not the only thing. More and more people are calling me about Listen to the People. If I push harder I could make more happen, faster. We should have been up and online by now. There are specifics I can not do, technical matters others have to address, but I could put my shoulder to the wheel and make things turn faster. I could, but…

My wife is patient with me, never once complaining as I leave the house every evening and don’t come back until round midnight, going to spend hours with Doug who is battling cancer and dueling with the after-affects of chemotherapy. Nia and I have not gone to the movies at all this year, and it has been some months since we have gone out to dinner together.

There have been days when I freely gave my full attention to visitors needing assistance with this, that or the other. On more than one occasion I have spent more time with someone I may never see again than I have with my wife whom I see almost every day-you see, I can not even say I see my wife everyday because some days…

Do you understand why I am ashamed? Yes, I know that I do so many good things for the cause, but I do not remember what I did in April of that killing season occurring in a ten-thousand-square-mile country of around eight million souls. Count off eight people you know, if they had been Rwandan, most likely at least one of them would be dead-and not just dead, but smashed like an insect. Thus the marauders crowed, explaining why they used machetes: we do not waste bullets on cockroaches.

I have not completed the book we planned to have ready by the end of August. Our Listen to the People website is not fully operational yet. My wife and I eat separately. Do you understand how it feels to see yourself like that?

I tell myself to get up. Get moving. It is another day. We’re alive. There’s so much we can do. But… it’s raining outside, just like April in that breathtakingly beautiful land of a thousand hills.

Most of us never know when our end will arrive. I stared at my computer screen as actors under Peck’s direction portrayed people who knew they were about to die. At one point I hit the space bar to pause the action. I reached up, wiped my eyes, and then continued watching. If I had been there, what would I have done?

Lying on my side, face to the wall, a hard answer severs my sense of self half-in-two: Had I been in Kigali, I may have done nothing but watch, that is, if I were lucky enough not to be a Hutu hacking a Tutsi, or a Tutsi being hacked, I probably would have been a so-called innocent onlooker… after all that is what I was as I sat in Houston in my brother-in-law’s living room watching on CNN as the Tutsis of my city were abandoned at the Ernest Morial Convention Center.

When we evacuated, our car was full but I left a working automobile behind. I can say: I did not expect the levees to break, I thought I would be back in a few days. I can say if I had stayed I would have been one of the locals, like Malik and Jerome, rescuing people before outside help arrived. But regardless of what I say or want to believe I might have done, the hard question remains. What did I do? When the deal went down, there I sat, just watching.

Now, I realize: every day is April. Whether it’s Rwanda or New Orleans, the same question wakes me: what am I doing about it today?

A dozen years from now will I have done anything worth remembering?

Email Kalamu here.

Last week I attended a lecture which included a talk by Gar Alperovitz, author of America Beyond Capitalism. The talk was the opening plenary for the Summer Institute of the Center for Popular Economics, which I’ll explain later.

Anyway, I loved Gar’s talk. Essentially his main point was that all these people who talk about social change, they need to know what they want the world to look like, to have an idea of what another world would be. While this is nothing new, he related it to understanding economics and how we need to know how people will relate to each other in this new world, how materials and goods and services will be exchanged in a way that is better. What defines a society is who controls the profits, or the surplus or excess. In the US, it’s the owning class, and that is capitalism. When the state controls the profits, that is socialism. When the people control the profits, what is that? The fact that there are individuals out there considering this idea is so exciting.

Gar, and others, advocate a multi-level society based primarily on local control of worker and consumer coops, but with a mechanism to deal with larger issues such as running airlines and distributing energy resources. Anyway, you can read more about it in his book.

What I also got from the talk is that economists think that this is a really exciting time in our history, and that there is potential for massive change in the next few decades. In the introduction to America Beyond Capitalism, Gar talks about how the people he admires the most in the Civil Rights Movement were not those who made change happen in the ’50s and ’60s, but those who laid the groundwork for that change to happen by fighting for change in the ’30s and ’40s – at great cost to themselves.  We are at that same point now, creating the “preconditions” for economic change to happen in the coming decades.

Throughout his whole talk, he emphasized that each of us must be dedicated to change, and that the cost of that dedication is decades of our lives.

—

A word about the Center for Popular Economics. The Center, and the Summer Institute, exist to demystify economics for activists. I cannot recommend this program highly enough! After attending the institute I have a much better understanding of basic concepts of how our society works, how and why money changes hands, things like what are inflation and unemployment, how do they work together and why should we care? Plus important things like what are the IMF, World Bank, and WTO, and how are they different from each other? And of course, there were many other amazing speakers besides Gar Alperovitz.

One of the best aspects of the week-long program was the staff and other students. It was so inspiring to be around people working for social change from such diverse backgrounds. Half of the value of these programs is introducing you to people you might not otherwise meet.

Please visit their site, and support them in any way you can.