Santa's Deliver Lump of Coal to the GAP Saturday 12/16

--12 Noon, December 16, Union Square, San Francisco -
--1 PM - Gap flagship, Powell & Market--
--2 PM - Old Navy, 4th & Market--
--3 PM - Banana Republic, Grant and Sutter--

When the Fisher family of San Francisco purchased 235,000 acres of cutover
redwood forestland in July of 1998 and continued to log it,
environmentalists launched an international consumer-pressure campaign
targeting the family business, Gap, Inc, including Gap, Banana Republic, and
Old Navy clothing stores. The announcement last month that the Fishers'
logging venture now has a "green label" has not lessened their critics'
insistence that the Fishers turn their redwood holdings into a wildlife
refuge, while taking a handsome tax deduction.

Mark Hilovsky, a Bay Area general contractor and green builder explained
why, "We have
long suspected that the Forest Stewardship Council 'green-label'
certification process cannot be trusted as a guarantee of sustainably logged
wood. Their certification of the Fishers is the final blow to their
credibility."

"The green-label is just another P.R. gimmick-paid for by the Fishers" said
Mary Pjerrou, President of the Redwood Coast Watersheds Alliance. "The P.R.
doesn't work with us: Our group reads the Gap Fishers' timber harvest plans,
we know exactly how they are destroying the last viable forest habitat on
their holdings, how they are extinguishing the endangered species hanging on
by a thread here, and how they are polluting our watersheds with silt and
herbicides."

"We're escalating our campaign for the redwoods and workers' rights-all Gap
clothes are made in sweatshops-this holiday season," said Mary Bull,
coordinator of the Save the Redwoods/Boycott the Gap Campaign, "There have
already been over 20 demonstrations at Gap stores around the country,
including places as far away as Winnipeg! And we are expecting to see over
50 Gap protest actions by the end of the holiday season-maybe more!"

This could be bad news for the Fishers, and Gap, Inc, with the ailing
corporation's third-quarter profits already down 41%.

The Union of Concerned Santas joined the Campaign last December, when nine
members locked down in front of the Old Navy flagship store in San
Francisco, preventing customers from entering. This year the Santas and
elves will be handing out alternative shopping guides while singing
customized Christmas carols that educate shoppers about deforestation and
sweatshops.

Bull added, "It's great to have the Santas back with us this year-they have
very good hearts, you know, and they're great judges of character-**they**
know who's been naughty or nice."