FEED THE RICH!

Call for
solidarity with
'Cherrie Pie 3' 		On February 24th, San Francisco judge Goldsmith sentenced three people to six months in prison. The 'crime' the three had beed found guilty of, was that in November 1998 they had thrown a pie at Willie Brown, the mayor of San Francisco.

The pie action was meant as a protest against the mayor's extremely bad policy regarding the city's thousands of homeless people. Instead of offering them cheap housing, he hard-handedly removes them from the inner city. By the way: mayor Brown and judge Ernest Goldsmith happen to be close friends . . . 		Two of the three pie-activists (members of the Biotic Baking Brigade, which performed quite frequent pie-actions throughout 1998), Rahula and Justin, have been held in custody tor two months and were taken to prison immediately after the verdict. The third activist, Jerry, was temporarily released to undergo treatment because of a benign brain-tumour, but will have to join the others after the operation.

Naturally we understand that the state has to do its job; catching and convicting people who perform actions for idealistic reasons undoubtedly is part of that job. 		We also put up with the fact that our taxes are used to pay a lot of people for performing useless tasks. Afterall: judges, police officers, mayors and prison guards need to be kept busy. But there are things which overstep the mark by far. Keeping three friendly idealists hostage for 180 days, when all they did was throw a pie, for very good reasons too, is an unforgivable stupidity. Besides that, it creates a dangerous precedent: what will happen next? Three weeks jail for shouting an unwelcome slogan? Six days for hanging up a poster the authorities don't like? One year for stopping a limousine during a sit-in? Pie actions or comparable direct actions are performed all over the world. In a certain sence we are connected because we aim at the same targets, or 'fight' for the same or comparable reasons. International solidarity is our answer to such a form of abuse of power. As protest and to draw attention to this crime, WE CALL FOR A WORLDWIDE CAMPAIN AGAINST LOCAL MAYORS until the Cherrie Pie three are released.

Naturally, also local reasons can play a part in this campain. This should teach them that sick tricks like this one do not diminish the number of actions, but on the contrary will increase it.

Freedom for Rahula, Justin and Jerry!
All Power to the pie-throwers!
Fight for your right . . . to pastry!
A pie for an eye!

Autonome A.F.R.I.K.A. Gruppe
Actiegroep T.A.A.R.T
BBB-NIJMEGEN
Luther Blisset
Commando Kwekkeboom
Liberal Animation Prods.
Sonja Bruenzel
And many others
(feel free to join the call . . .)

P.S. It seems there are cities with mayors who handle things rather progressively. We leave it up to everyone to spare their mayor and choose an alternative target (chief of police, head of multinational, etc.). And please spread the message around after the cream hit the man.