[Imc] Jim Hightower (http://www.jimhightower.com/air/read.asp?id=10694)

[david johnson]

            On Air Archives | Affiliates   
              
            THE CHARLESTON FIVE
            10/30/01

            I have six names to call out to you. Five of them walk in the footsteps of great American rebels and champions of democracy. Their names are Kenneth Johnson, Peter Washington, Ricky Simmons, Jason Edgerton, and Elijah Ford.
            
            All five are Longshoremen who do the backbreaking work of loading and unloading the huge freighters that dock at the Port of Charleston in South Carolina. In January of 2000, these five were among 150 union dockworkers who were peacefully picketing against a corporation that had brought in non-union workers to unload a Danish freighter. As the picketers were handing out informational leaflets (a form of free speech and assembly guaranteed by our Constitution), the Powers That Be of Charleston sent in 600 heavily harmed police in full riot gear to bust the picket and bust some heads.
            
            Now comes the sixth name: Charlie Condon. Look up "Neanderthal" in your dictionary and you'll see his picture. Charlie is a political opportunist and full-blown gooberhead who presently is South Carolina's attorney general. He's also running for governor, so to kiss the butt of the state's business establishment, ol' Charlie got a secret grand jury to indict the five dockworkers. He charged them with rioting and conspiracy to riot. Hello. Five picketers, armed with nothing but leaflets, "rioted" against 600 fully-armed riot police?
            
            Nonetheless, the Charleston Five, as they're now known across the country, have had their inalienable rights stripped by this power-hungry politician. They are guilty of nothing but peacefully picketing in defense of their jobs. They've never been convicted of anything, yet Charlie Condon has had them under house arrest for more than a year-and-a-half.
            
            This is Jim Hightower saying...Charlie is the kind of banty-rooster autocrat that the founders of our country declared independence against 225 years ago and fought a revolutionary war to stop. The Charleston Five are standing up for the freedom of all of us. To help them, call 202-637-5387.



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            Press Release "Justice For the Charleston 5" American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations 08/01/2001


               
             
              
    
             Jim Hightower 
            Hightower & Associates
            1802 W. 6th Street
            Austin, TX 78703
            512-477-5588
            info at jimhightower.com
             
              
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