The Interfaith Justice League and the Palm Beach County Environmental
Coalition is holding a candidate forum on the Ag Reserve and other environmental
issues for all candidates for the County Commission on Thursday August 25, at
7:00 p.m. at Congregation L'Dor Va-Dor, 3475 Woolbright Road, Boynton Beach,
Florida on the northeast corner of Woolbright and Military Trail next to
Enterprise Leasing.
The format will be as follows: Each candidate will make an opening
statement and then a follow up statement after all the candidates have spoken to
respond to the others. We will then take questions and comments from the
audience and we will conclude with each candidate making a closing
statement.
Sept 9th is the 45th anniversary of the Attica Uprising in New York,
where national attention was drawn to the problem of prisons in this
country. This year there will public demonstrations in support of
prisoners who have a called for a coordinated national work strike in
response to extreme abuses they face, including toxic environments,
discrimination and literal slavery based on the 13th Amendment which
wrote prison slave labor into the U.S. Constitution.
We are spreading the word to our prisoner contacts to invite friends
and family on the outside to participate in these necessary efforts to
address the violations of civil rights and environmental justice that
still occur behind bars.
FCC Coleman, which warehouses over 7,000 prisoners, surrounded by mining operations.
This location is the largest prison factory in the entire country,
producing material goods for government agencies nationwide. Much of the
very furniture which accommodates the offices of the bureaucrats that
we live under is made by prison slaves at this facility.
Federal Prison Industries, also known as UNICOR, has over $34 million
in contract obligation coming out of Bureau of Prison (BOP) facilities
in Florida. This is three times higher than any other state in the country.
Protestors were seen once again in front of Kolter's downtown West Palm office last week, but it wasn't PBCEC or Everglades Earth First! This time is was residents of the San Matera condo in Palm Beach Gardens fighting over construction defects at a Palm Beach Gardens condominium complex which are at the center of a $40 million lawsuit. We extend our sympathies to people who got ripped off by the crooks at Kolter. Read more here.
Our presence was noticed. Thanks to the folks who came to help hand out flyers and hold a banner out front of the event.
We got over 200 flyers out to Gardens residents at the library and people attending the forum.
At
least one person noted that he had also received the
mailer we sent in December, and encouraged us to keep him and his
neighbors in Palm Beach Country Estates in the loop as the development creeps further west, closer to their community.
We
had a brief encounter with law enforcement, which resulted in library
staff explaining that we could request permission to table any time we
want out front of the high traffic library (for future reference...
could be a great general outreach spot).
A local activist from PB Gardens, who has come to several meetings and
protests, went inside the well-attended event and got in a question about
development, with much support from the audience.
at Gardens Branch, Palm Beach County Library, 11303 Campus Drive Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410
Tell Palm Beach Gardens Political Candidates to
address the issues of Scripps' toxic biotech waste, United Technology's
cancer clusters and the destruction of endangered species habitat in the
Briger forest for animal testing labs.
The candidate's forum begins at 6:30pm. It is sponsored by local Republican and Democratic Party groups, as well as the PBC Tea Party and other groups, so we anticipate a large crowd attending.
