Environmental and Humanitarian Organizations

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The address is Akwesasne Notes, Mohawk Nation via Rooseveltown, NY 13683.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Amnesty International (AI)—the 1977 recipient of the Nobel peace prize—seeks the abolishment of torture and the release of prisoners detained by governments anywhere for their beliefs, ethnic origin, religion, or similar unsound reasons, provided the prisoners have neither used nor advocated violence. AI terms such persons "prisoners of conscience."

The group's work is based on the principle of international responsibility for the protection of human rights. Since its founding in 1961, AI has intervened on behalf of more than 20,000 prisoners in over a hundred countries. Since 1980, the organization has acted on 2,687 cases in 45 countries. Members send letters, cards, and telegrams to, and on behalf of, political prisoners. Group members also collect signatures for international petitions and raise money to send relief—such as medicine, food, and clothing—to prisoners and their families.

Worldwide, AI boasts 250,000 volunteers in 130 countries, with 13,000 Americans among their number.

Those who contribute any amount to AI receive three issues per year of AI-USA's publication Matchbox. Memberships begin at $20 for an individual and $30 for a couple; members receive Matchbox plus eight issues annually of Amnesty Action, which highlights AI's "prisoner of the month"—a person designated to receive a deluge of letters and attention from AI members.

The organization also publishes books. Its latest is Torture in the Eighties, available by mail for $5.95 plus $1.00 postage.

Send membership dues, inquiries, contributions, and book orders to Amnesty International-USA, 304 W. 58th St., New York, NY 10019.

EARTH FIRST!

The Earth First! (always with the "!") dictum is "No compromise in the defense of Mother Earth!" Dave Foreman, one of the founders (in 1980) of this "nonorganization" and editor of Earth First!, the movement's fine newspaper, summarizes the group's stance:

"Our primary goal is the preservation of natural diversity. This means the development of an ethic of `deep ecology' (biocentrism) and the withdrawal of human industrial civilization from vast areas (several-million-acre preserves) of Earth's surface. Our biggest triumph to date was the successful nonviolent blockade of, and lawsuit against, the U.S. Forest Service's efforts to construct the Bald Mountain logging road into the North Kalmiopsis Roadless Area in Oregon.

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