Cameron told us:

>Lockheed Martin is retaliating against 52 arrestees who blockaded

>its entrances on 4/22. They and the Sunnyvale DA are not only fully

>prosecuting us with misdemeanor charges, but are demanding that

>we pay $41,000 DIRECTLY TO Lockheed Martins restitution for their

>alleged legal and security costs.

>

>This will be an important fight not only for the Lockheed arrestees,

>but for the movement. If Lockheed and the DA succeed, a legal

>precedent will be set that says a corporation can sue protesters

>for costs the company associates with protests. It's like charging

>Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights activists for the

>hoses used to scatter their marches. It's crap. So we're fighting back.

> And we need your help.

>

>The first pre-trial hearing is THIS THURSDAY, July 17 at the

>Sunnyvale Courthouse. We're holding a press conference at 1 PM in

>response, and need as many people to come out and support the rights

>of protesters to speak up (against empire and everything else) without

>being charged for their dissent. They're the ones who are criminals,

>not us. And they're the ones who should be paying restitution - to all

>the children, lovers, families and communities they've helped destroy

>with landmines, DU, cluster bombs, and nuclear missiles

>

>Don't let them get away with this.

>

When I got to the press conference, there were already about 40 or 50 people gathered, including many of the people from South Bay Mobilization and other groups like the greiving mothers with the big heads. There were many people with signs that said things like "LOCKHEED: MILITARY PARASITE" and "WMDs FOUND AT LOCKHEED". The speakers started soon after, so I decided to listen.

First the legal team explained what was happening. The first speaker was Riva Entine from the National Lawyers Guild, and she talked about how Lockheed's suit was part of a pattern to strip us all of our rights. She cited an example of a case from the East bay, where a High School teacher had been scolded by the Principal for passing out copies of the Bill of Rights. She said that if we don't win this battle it will be a dark day for democracy. She was followed by a pair of lawyers that talked about how they had tried to settle the case, offering to plead guilty or no contest to misdemeanor charges as is routine in San Francisco. Lockheed had decided to play hardball, so today's activity would mark the start of what could be a long battle. They finished by reminding us that the battle was with Lockheed and their lawyers, not with the people that worked in the Courthouse, so please be polite and respectful in your dealings with them.

They were followed by Rush Rehm, the director of Lysistrata, a play that opens this evening at Stanford. (He was one of the 51 people that had been arrested on Earth Day.) He explained that by pushing the matter Lockheed was taking on the arts community and the peace community. He had been there to be arrested because he felt it was important to say that he did not like knowing that Lockheed's bombs, landmines, missiles, and fighters were a major part of the equipment used by American Soldiers.

Another one of the speakers was Henry Norr, who explained that this was a SLAPP suit. He explained that stood for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. Lockheed is hoping to create a precedent that they can use to chill public participation all over the map. He said that this was what had been happening in Germany in the early 1930s, and that we needed to protect our public commons by fighting it. There were other speakers that spoke in the same vein, but those were the most memorable ones.

Tian Harter

For more information, please visit www.scpj.org/lockheed