Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane

The Handful of Salt

is published six times a year by the Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane. Its name comes from Mohandas Gandhi’s salt tax protest in India, a successful, nonviolent, grassroots action that created significant social change against overwhelming resource advantages.

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Steering Committee

Linda Greene, Mark Hamlin, Mike Nuess, Myca Pearson, Avery Rendon, Lew Wilson

Staff

Liz Moore, Director; Terri Anderson, Vickie Scott-Woodley, Americorps Vista Volunteers;

Volunteers

Katy Koenan, Chuck Fisk, Christy Anderson, Jerry and Marilynne Mueller, Sheila Fox, Jean Harvey, Jan Nelson, Lea Chilberg, Daniel Schecter , Nancy Nelson,

Rebecca Lamb, Greg Lahti, Carla Brannan, Pamela Olson Frost,

Dale Raugust, Nancy Street, Marianne Torres, Joel Williamson, Lisa Stocker

Printing—Diamond Press

Contact PJALS 838.7870, www.pjals.net, pjals@pjals.net

Economic Justice must Include Tax Reform

The Economic Opportunity Institute, which advocates for "more flexible sources of revenue for public investments," is taking early steps toward a tax reform initiative for the November 2010 ballot. This tax reform effort is an exciting and timely opportunity to restructure our state's sources of revenues for services needed by many low-income families and to end the regressive structure that removes unfair amounts of money from the budgets of those same families. PJALS hosts John Burbank on Sept 29 at the downtown library-come and learn!

Washington state's tax system is the most regressive in the country, with no income tax and a reliance on the most regressive and unstable of revenue sources, the sales tax. This year with the economy in the largest recession in 75 years, consumer spending decreased significantly. That sales tax revenue decrease was a major contributor to Washington having to grapple with a budget deficit now larger in proportion to its population than even California's, according to The Economist. This spring, Washington legislators responded with cuts to many vital services and programs, including removing 40,000 people from Washington's Basic Health program at a time when there are 30,000 low-income individuals on the waiting list to receive health insurance through the plan.

Without a re-structuring of Washington's tax base, the prospects for improving the situation of low-income families are dim. The state economy is positioned to recover at the same pace as the nation's. However, according to the Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council, the recovery in state revenue will lag behind the recovery in economic activity because consumers need to be more confident of their economic circumstances before they will increase spending. Moreover, Washington's budget woes will outlast the recession because the state also has a structural deficit. Without raising rates or adding new taxes, revenues to support state services grow more slowly than the economy as a whole. As a result, our state is losing the ability to provide the kind of education system, low-income family services, and infrastructure that all residents and businesses need to thrive in the modern economy.

Early work to prepare the ground for this tax reform effort is critical for success in Eastern Washington. Otherwise, it is most likely that any discussion of tax reform will be caught in the net of anti-tax sentiment and will act as a trap for progressive elected leaders and candidates who may feel unsafe to publicly advocate for this critical reform. We need PJALS members, especially outside Spokane, to join our project to weave a community conversation as context for discussions of specific tax reforms and to educate voters about proposed tax reforms. Please get in touch if you're interested! - LM

Rusty on Peace and War

I vacillated for a while on whether to attempt printing in time to get you timely information on important early September events , then gave up when my computer crashed. Vickie is helping with this work and was ready to go before I was.

There is no shortage of material, and I hope you are keeping abreast of all the PJALS activity through email and the web site. If not, please contact the office to get added to the email list or let PJALS know that you need to be notified by phone.

It seems every journalist has something to say about the late Sen. Kennedy, and I’m no exception. Working in the Senate Office Building in 1963 and 1966, before security was prioritized, I often saw him in the hallways. I worked for a Southern Democrat who had not been considered a liberal for decades, but our staff had been influenced by the effort the young Kennedy had made to seek the counsel of our boss, and encountering the affable young senator in the hall, made it difficult to dislike him. It seems funny to think that my senator had just become the first to serve in the U.S. Senate for more than half his life.

A lifetime later, I find myself admiring Ted Kennedy, in spite of the changes in us both that make me think of him as a moderate and myself as a liberal. In spite of his inherited wealth, privilege and power, he steadfastly took the side of the laborer, the oppressed and the dispossessed right through the “me too era” of Reagan, the Clinton concessions to corporations, and the Bush-Cheney coronation of corporate kings. Kennedy’s tenure was incredibly long, but our country could hardly have survived without all of it, warts and all.

Speaking of Kennedy leads us to Health Care Reform. Only the timing of our publishing keeps this issue from the front page. We will have had lots of activity with the Mad Doctors in town for a rally and a presentation, but we are restless and angry about the way reform has been distorted and demonized.

In the 5th District, those of us who have longed for a single payer system, feel unrepresented by Congress. Our senators, it seems, may be willing to support a public option in the reform bill, but they’ve been quiet and cautious about offending the in surance industry. Meanwhile, Rep. McMorris-Rodgers gives us reams of explanations for her position, sounding as if she fits perfectly within the circle of those who might benefit most from a public option. Then, she soundly rejects any notion of the public option and makes the concept of single-payer sound like a communist plot. Her emails and phone conferences have been as frustrating as some of the obscenities being repeated ad nauseam on talk shows and email.

Even more disturbing than the possible wrecking of much-needed reform in the insurance-oriented health care field, is the specter of racism behind so much of the national dialogue. As someone raised in the segregated South, I cannot help feeling that many of the complaints about President Obama begin with the belief that it is a bad thing to have a black man at the head of our country. There is really no other explanation for the furor over birth certificates and religion.

Now, the curse has even hit plans for forming a greener national policy, and Van Jones has felt compelled to resign as a presidential adviser. I refuse to believe that a white man in that position would have faced such pressure for positions on unrelated matters, expressed long before he joined the administration.

At the same time, I am distressed that Obama clings to the idea that we are involved in something necessary and honorable in Afghanistan. It remains out task to inform him and others in the government that military solutions are the biggest problems on the global scene. I continue to long for a president that will understand that war is always the wrong choice and that there are always better ways to address conflict than adding violence to violence. - RN

Proposition 4, The Community Bill of Rights

        This November, Spokane residents will have an opportunity to vote on Proposition 4, the Community Bill of Rights. Developed over the past year by PJALS and other grassroots and community organizations, Proposition 4 is a citywide ballot measure which will amend the city’s Home Rule Charter, the fundamental governing framework for the city.
        Proposition 4 was drafted by a coalition known as Envision Spokane. PJALS joined the coalition last year along with labor union locals, neighborhood councils, the local Sierra Club, the Spokane Homeless Coalition, and others. Through a series of over 60 meetings, the organizations developed a draft Bill of Rights which was approved unanimously by the member organizations last fall.
        The coalition then began a massive canvassing effort, distributing literature to nearly 40,000 households. Through the canvass, residents were invited to participate in Town Halls across the city from January to March. The Town Halls were an opportunity for people to debate and discuss the draft proposal and give feedback to Envision Spokane. In March, the coalition took that feedback and made over 100 changes to the document and decided to move it forward for the ballot.
        This spring, the coalition gathered signatures to qualify the Bill of Rights for the ballot. Over 5,100 people signed, well exceeding the number needed. Despite efforts by the Spokane City Council to keep the initiative off the ballot, the coalition prevailed.
        Proposition 4 addresses some critical problems in Spokane, including the inability of residents to control development within their own neighborhoods. Neighborhoods such as Southgate, Peaceful Valley, Grandview, Thorpe, and West Central have fought big-box stores, high-rise condominiums, and other developments

incompatible with the character and needs of those neighborhoods. Despite years of struggle, residents find they’re not able to stop these projects. Prop 4 will empower neighborhoods – for the very first time – to decide what happens in their own neighborhoods.

Proposition 4 also addresses the health care crisis in Spokane, where one in four people is either uninsured or underinsured. It ensures residents’ access to affordable, preventive healthcare services on a fee-for-service basis, thus covering the cost of care. This will save money for us all, as those without coverage will no longer need to rely on expensive ER visits (the Inlander estimates an average visit costs $25,000) - overall cost of which is generally supported by increasing healthcare premiums and taxpayer funds.
The measure also addresses affordable housing for those most in need. We’ve lost over 1,000 units of low incoming housing in downtown in the past few years. Prop 4 ensures an adequate supply of affordable housing by requiring the City to use existing zoning and land use provisions to ensure a range of housing options. Proposition 4 also contains provisions to clean up the Spokane River and protect our aquifer, provisions to ensure residents’ access to affordable and renewable energy, and protections for workers. PJALS has worked for years to bring fair, livable wages to Spokane. Proposition 4 establishes that workers be paid the prevailing wage on private construction projects, to the extent they are now paid on public projects. In addition, the Proposition ensures that workers will be free from interference by employers if workers try to organize. These are critical steps for the rights and protections workers deserve, and mirror efforts at the federal level, like the Employee Free Choice Act.
Learn more or contribute in support of the Proposition: www.envisionspokane.com

Reach Out for Peace and Justice

I'm so excited to ask you to join me in welcoming Terri Anderson and Vickie Woodley to PJALS. They'll be working with us for a year as Americorps VISTA workers, helping to build our capacity and strengthen our work. And in late September, our team will expand again to include Erica Scott and Shar Lichty, undergrad social work students at EWU, doing their practicum with us. We'll be able to do so much more each week with a larger team.

Of course, the most essential members of our team are actual members, by which I mean you! This fall and winter will be so busy--here are the most important ways you can help us make the biggest difference possible:

1. Hold a PJALS party: introduce your friends, acquaintances, or colleagues to PJALS and invite them to join you as a PJALS member.

2. Become a sustaining member: give $5, $10, or $20 a month--www.pjals.net or call the office.

3. Be a connector: help us strengthen our relationships with groups you're a part of. Are you a teacher or professor who advises a student organization, or will you invite us to speak in your classroom? Are you a student activist? Does your faith community have a social justice group? Are you part of a community or political group, or a union, that we should work with more closely?

4. Give your time: we need your friendly voice on the phone to invite PJALS members to upcoming events. We need your smiling face at our table at community events. We need your lightning-fast (or not) fingers to keep our database in tip-top accuracy. We need your ideas at meetings or on the pages of the Handful.

This fall we welcome new Steering Committee members and thank those leaving that role. Maurina Ladich, Marianne Torres, and Christy Anderson-Crosen have all served for several years, Marianne and Maurina for multiple terms. Their time, great energy, and leadership has meant so much for PJALS, and I've deeply enjoyed working with them. Now, long-time member Linda Greene has returned to the Steering Committee, joined by former PJALS INWE organizer Carla Brannan and EWU MSW student and activist Myca Pearson. Please bring a friend to our membership meeting and potluck to meet and chat with our great team.

“PJALS is the place to be," according to our returning SC member, Linda Greene. I am so impressed with the new and long-term volunteers that make that true, and so moved by the great work and long-term commitment of the Nelsons and of long-time PJALS members. Thank you! - LM

POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY
Spokane's first Police Ombudsman, Tim Burns, has started his work, and we met with him at PJALS, with other groups committed to police accountability. We intend to work with Burns to create as much change and progress as possible given the limits on his authority, while advancing our efforts to increase the position's authority.

At a June meeting, every member of the Spokane City Council spoke of their support for the Ombudsman to have full independent investigative authority (a position reflected by many council candidates as well). The step needed to reach that full authority is to negotiate for it with the Police Guild, and the city of Spokane and the Spokane Police Guild have begun their negotiations. Will you contact your council member to ask for their yes vote on a resolution to require the Mayor to include independent investigative authority in the contract negotiations? - LM

F-22 Funding Cut

Without Help From 5th District

Peace Action West sent the message that, thanks to our help, Congress cut wasteful funding for the super-expensive jet fighters that even the Pentagon didn't want. Thank you very much, but we weren't much help.

Look at the votes of our representatives, all women who claim to solidly support a lean, mean military for the United States. Cathy McMorris Rodgers might be expected to go along with the Republican caucus, and maybe she thought having some brand new fighters for which there is no mission would somehow benefit Fairchild Air Force Base, which really doesn't have a very exciting mission right now, anyway. Senators Cantwell and Murray, however, have no such excuses. Their votes not to cut this outrageous project clearly show that it is not the military or its personnel who rate their care and concern, but military contractors.

Any member of Congress who claims building these hi-tech dinosaurs would be good for the economy should be held accountable for supporting exactly the kind of business that beat our economy nearly to death during the Bush administration. We cannot afford this kind of thinking. The only reason anyone would support lavish weapons systems the Pentagon doesn't want, is that the jobs and money are spread out among almost every congressional district in the country, and military contractors have way too much power, money and influence.

If our senators are this generous to Lockheed Martin, what’ll they give Boeing? - RN

Gaza Still Smolders

According to the BBC, the United Kingdom has revoked five licenses for exporting equipment to the Israeli navy because of Israeli use of British products in the invasion of Gaza. The action was taken after the government was pressured by human rights groups.

Amnesty International and other organizations challenged parliament to consider the evidence and defend its policy against selling weapons for "internal repression or external

aggression."

AI's report, entitled "Fuelling conflict: Foreign arms supplies to Israel/Gaza," includes a description of the role of U.S. arms, including white phosphorous shells, in the destruction of the Gaza Strip. Amnesty has also issued accusations of war crimes by the Israeli military and Hamas forces during "Operation Cast Lead."

Given the role of U.S.-provided weapons in Israel's brutal 22 day attack on Gaza, and that our laws prohibit countries receiving U.S. weapons from using them in acts of aggression, the pressure on the British government can and must be applied to our own government.

Please tell your congressional representatives that it is not alright to ignore human rights violations by Israel just because we are footing the bill for those violations.

PJALS Wish List 
Shredder
Posterboard
or foamcore for
sign-making       
3-hole punch
Sponsor
refurbished computer
for $169
Monitor, or
sponsor used
monitor for $35
 
Sponsor
operating system for
$8
Sponsor MS
Office for $20 per
license 
(we need 4
licenses for a
total cost of $80)
Microwave
Toaster oven
Flipcharts

Good for Troy Davis

On the abolition front, there's good news and bad news: Troy Davis is still on death row in Georgia. This is bad news for all Americans because it has been clear for years that Davis' conviction for killing an off-duty police officer 20 years ago was based upon tainted and incomplete testimony. It's good news because Davis hasn't been executed, yet.

PJALS has followed this case closely, and we're delighted that the U.S. Supreme Court has finally called for a new hearing for Davis.

A reasonable person might expect a hearing based upon recantation of testimony by most prosecution witnesses and sworn statements of others that another man had confessed. Perhaps the Governor of Georgia had something other than justice in mind when he refused to delay Davis' execution. An appeals court gave Davis a little time to continue his appeals, but then joined other courts in denying a new trial.

In August, the Supreme Court said, “The substantial risk of putting an innocent man to death clearly provides an adequate justification for holding an evidentiary hearing.” Not so clear for Scalia and Thomas. Their dissent said this action will only “delay the state's execution of its lawful criminal judgment.”

Scalia and Thomas believe persons condemned to death after a “fair trial” should be executed. Innocence is not cause to stop an execution. Unfortunately, there is legal precedent for this position, and it means Davis could be exonerated at his hearing and still be executed.

If this hearing results in the release of Troy Davis, it will be a cause for celebration. It will not be proof our system works, but a brief glimpse into the reality of a brutal and extravagant system that compounds grief and misery in every executing state, including Washington.

PJALS has handouts on the Troy Davis case and, like Amnesty International, we have information on the death penalty in Washington

and other states. If you wish to be involved in Troy’s case, a letter to Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue is a good starting place, and your participation in INDPAG, PJALS’ abolition section, is always welcome. - RN

Referendum 71: Equality and Fairness.

Make sure voters understand that they must vote "APPROVE" on Ref. 71 to prevent the Domestic Partnership law from being repealed. The law provides essential protections to the families of gay and lesbian couples and couples where one partner is age 62 or older.

Fuse joins with Washington Families Standing Together to make sure voters approve this critical law. We need all who believe in equality and civil rights to help us win this one. https://secure.fusewashington.org/

The Domestic Partnership law provides committed senior couples and gay and lesbian couples and their families the same legal protections given to married couples and their families under state law. Washington's voters believe in fairness and equality, and they support Domestic Partnerships. We will win if we make sure they understand Referendum 71, and make sure they are not deceived by our opponents. - Aaron Ostrom, Exec, Dir., Fuse Washington

NO ON 1033

Initiative 1033 will be truly devastating to Washington if it passes. It puts a limit on revenue growth, based on a flawed formula of inflation plus population growth – and it locks in this year’s budget as baseline for future spending.

The Washington State Budget and Policy Center did an initial analysis of I-1033 that lays out the key problems with the Initiative – including the fact that it will drastically prohibit long-term investments in education, transportation, health care, and economic security.

- Mindie Reule, mindie@no1033.com

PJALs Welcomes

Americorps Vista Volunteers

To Serve One Year in Community Outreach and Volunteer Management

Volunteer Management and Development

Terri Anderson Tororsian, Americorps Vista, Ready Corps volunteer, joins the PJALS staff as Community Outreach Coordinator. Terri has been involved on many community boards including multi racial and environmental. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the SHAWL society, former member of the Japanese American citizens league of Spokane. She is involved with the Police Accountability issue, with a history in social, economic and environmental justice. “I am excited about working with PJALS and hope to be able to connect with the communities of color on our mutual concerns.

Terri was born in Japan and has lived all over the world as an Army brat, including Tehran 18 months – but considers Skagit County her home. She started her career in Spokane as a paralegal, working with the Coeur d’Alene tribe, also with the community college in multi cultural student services. Her diverse experience and skills will be a great asset to PJALS as she serves in this volunteer capacity. Her hobbies of origami art and hunting for mushrooms provide a respite from her busy activist life.

Vickie Scott-Woodley joins PJALS as the AmeriCorps/Vista/ReadyCorps Volunteer Coordinator. She returns to service following two years as an AmeriCorps Volunteer Coordinator for Habitat for Humanity. Born in Butte, Montana, she grew up in Spokane. She entered the Peace Corps in 1994 and served four years in Jamaica, working as a business consultant and serving the needs of at-risk youth. She gained more than service experience during her Peace Corps term for it was there that she met her husband, Barry Woodley.

Vickie earned her bachelor’s degree in Communication from EWU. She has two daughters, four grandchildren and five greatgrand-children. She served on the Spokane Human Rights Commission; and is on the Wash. State Aged & Long Term Care Commission and serves as an Ombudsman for the Washington State Senior Care Program. Prior to her Peace Corps service, Vickie spent 35 years in business management; is a published writer and accomplished public speaker. Her hobby is stained glass.

Vickie brings her unique combination of public and private experience as well as her dedication and passion for human rights to PJALS and will be a welcome and needed addition to the growing staff.

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Vickie is getting right onto the long-awaited PJALS Speakers Bureau. If you want to be involved or want to suggest someone for that project, contact her right away.

Volunteers Make It Happen

The charge to be responsive on all issues facing our world, country and community takes many hands, in the form of staff and volunteers. PJALS has been richly served by many who participate sitting at information tables during events, working on committees, and helping out in a variety of areas in our office. If you are not able to go out to be involved we have phone calling committees who can work from their homes.

If you have some time to become a part of the action team, making it happen, contact Vickie Scott-Woodley, 838-7870.

Sri Lanka’s Bloody Civil War

Sri Lanka's bloody civil war ended over 3 months ago, but almost 300,000 civilians are being held captive in military-run internment camps that operate like prisons. Trapped between the Sri Lankan Army and rebel Tamil Tigers during the final months of combat, they've been interned with no government plan for setting them free or returning them home.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the camps as "by far the most appalling scenes I have seen."

End their suffering. Unlock the camps.

At least 50,000 of the detainees are children. Every day, lives are lost to poor sanitation and lack of food, water and access to medical care. Few independent aid workers or journalists are allowed in. Without independent monitors in the camps, further abuses are continuing.

These innocent civilians have broken no laws but are treated like criminals. They are essentially prisoners, locked up in violation of the Sri Lankan constitution and international law. Lend your voice to those who have suffered. Sign a petition to the Sri Lankan government demanding freedom of movement for displaced civilians.

It's time to step up pressure on the Sri Lankan government. With your help, we can set these Sri Lankan civilians free, and give them an opportunity to rebuild their lives. - Amnesty Internationa l

Honduras

The coup regime in Honduras has now clung to power for two months. The U.S. response remains sluggish and two-faced. In late July, the State Department finally revoked the diplomatic visas of four coup-plotters, but then sent a letter to the Senate that incredibly names President Zelaya, not the coup-plotters, as responsible for his own ouster. The U.S. response to the coup should not be a matter of supporting or rejecting the prior actions of Manuel Zelaya; it's a matter of supporting or rejecting the flagrant usurpation of Hondurans' right to exercise their democratic will. The illegitimate coup regime merits clear, consistent condemnation from the U.S., not the schizophrenic response seen thus far.

While the U.S. delays and equivocates, Hondurans are suffering a level of repression not seen since the death squads of the 1980's. One week after the coup, the military fired 160 rounds of live ammo into a nonviolent crowd, killing a teenager. Since then, the coup regime has overseen at least nine politically-motivated murders, countless military attacks on peaceful protesters, the arbitrary arrest of over 1,300 people, and the systematic military occupation and shutdown of most independent media outlets.

Yet, such repression has failed to silence Honduran social movements. Indeed, those movements are actually gaining strength, according to on-the-ground sources. Thousands of Hondurans from across the country marched on Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula (the country's two biggest cities), organized by The National Front of Resistance Against the Coup, a large coalition of Honduras's diverse social movements. The National Front declared a "Global Day of Action for Honduras." Honduras's social movements are calling on us to act in solidarity with their efforts to restore democracy and dignity. How can you demonstrate your solidarity? Here are three ways:

1. Send a letter to the editor that exposes the violations in Honduras and dispels myths about the coup. Mainstream media coverage of the coup has been laden with misinformation, while human rights violations have gone largely unreported.

2. Join us on a delegation to Honduras. We’re in Honduras to bear witness to the alarming human rights situation, show international solidarity with the Honduran social movements, and push the U.S. government to fully revoke support for the coup-plotters. To get information on subsequent delegations: ken@witnessforpeace.org, 773-564-9535, 202-423-3402.

3. Ask your representative to condemn the coup. House Resolution 630, echoes the resounding demands of thousands of Hondurans, the international community, and organizations like Witness for Peace: that President Zelaya be immediately reinstated.

Thanks for acting at this critical moment to support Hondurans. - Witness for Peace

Spokane’s Free Speech Fight: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and The IWW

By Dale Raugust

In 1908 Stevens Street in Spokane was lined with employment agencies that charged a dollar to the many transient workers looking for work in mining, logging or construction. Employers kept the worker for a day or two and then fired him, forcing him to go back to the agencies and pay another dollar for another job. This was repeated over and over. One company, Somers Lumber Company, hired 3,000 workers that summer to maintain a workforce of 50. Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, also known as the Wobblies) organizer James Walsh arrived in Spokane in 1908 to address this issue. At first the Wobblies tried to work within the system, but when the Spokane City Council refused to revoke the licenses of 19 employment agencies, the

Wobblies began a public speaking campaign to inform the public of the abuses.

Late in the year, the City Council passed an ordinance banning speaking on the streets. The IWW continued to cooperate with police, holding meetings indoors; but when the council passed an exception, allowing the Salvation Army to speak on the streets, Wobblies started one of the most significant actions of civil disobedience in American history, an action that would spread to 26 other cities across the nation. The Wobblies sent out a call for supporters to come to Spokane, and they arrived by the hundreds. On Nov. 2, 1909, a crate was overturned and one by one, the Wobblies got onto the “soapbox” and spoke against the employment agency abuses. One by one they were arrested until over 500 were carted off to jail.

In December, 19 year old organizer Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, a founding member of the ACLU and an extraordinary speaker, arrived to join the fight for social justice. Flynn was pregnant, and at first, Wobblies organizers allowed her to speak only indoors. When the IWW office was raided and everyone arrested, Flynn took over as publisher of the local workers’ newspaper, The Industrial Worker.

Even after the ban was declared unconstitutional, arrests continued, only now the charge was disorderly conduct. There were so many arrests the city could not afford to feed prisoners, so the men would be arrested in the afternoon or evening, held overnight, and released before breakfast. The next day, after a hearty meal provided by union organizers, they got back on the soapbox and were again arrested. Flynn continued to speak until she was arrested while walking to the meeting hall and charged with “conspiracy to incite men to violate the law”. Her arrest made headlines throughout the nation. The Spokesman-Review described her as a “frail, slender girl, pretty and graceful, with a resonant voice and a fiery eloquence that attracted huge crowds.” (S-R, 12-5-09, 8:6, 9:3). Flynn was held overnight and then released.

Upon her release she wrote of the police brutality she witnessed in jail and the deplorable conditions of the jail. She declared that two prostitutes were kept in the women’s quarters with her. During the night the jailers took the women downstairs one at a time, raped them, and then returned them to the jail.

The men also suffered from police brutality. A Spokesmen-Review reporter wrote that the men were confined 28 to a seven foot by eight foot cell, so tightly that “It took four cops to close the cell door. This was called the ‘sweat box’. The steam was turned on until the men nearly suffocated and were overcome with exhaustion. Then they were placed in ice cold cells and ‘third degreed’ in this weakened state. When the jail became too overcrowded, an abandoned unheated schoolhouse, Franklin School, was used.” The army also offered the use of Fort George Wright. A diary kept by a prisoner, James Stark, described how the men were covered with blood with teeth knocked out, eyes blackened, bones broken, and clothes torn. Three prisoners died.

When Flynn wrote of the abuses in The Industrial Worker, city police went door to door and confiscated as many copies of the paper as they could, but it was too late. The word had gotten out and the news went national.

The city of Spokane had had enough. The arrests were costing the city $1,000 a week and a lot of bad publicity. All the charges were dropped, and the licenses of 19 employment agencies were revoked.

Can you support PJALS?

PJALS is committed to involving individuals and local communities in building foundations for a just and nonviolent world.

Please join PJALS or make sure your annual membership is current. We can take your cred