Hello,
I’m the Managing Partner of Waking Up, the sweatshop-free clothing store in Warren, MI. We are a Co-Op America Approved business (www.coopamerica.org) Prior to dedicating our radio ad (click here to listen) to our closing on October 5th, I sent an email out to members of the Co-Op America Business Network regarding the date and event. Some of the responses I received were pretty remarkable.
A number of business leaders had not heard about the event, but followed-up by visiting your website.
Others expressed what they were going to do. Below are excerpts from the emails I received:
“I
live in Blaine County, the only blue county in Idaho, where virtually
nothing happens…so it felt lonely and hopeless to actually take the
day off….I decided to sign up and start a WCW chapter here…and form
a group that will get out together that day and make a stand! I will
close my business…and tell people why I am doing it.”“We are going
to the rally in NYC. We are hanging flyers to advertise the day. Our
business will deliver….but I will put a flyer in each customer’s bag
to letthem know how and where to show up. It’s not everything, but it
is something.”“I have cancelled my patients and will not even
drive that day. Decided to keep all electrical appliances off, and also
will fast and meditate for these horrible situations in our world to be
over.”“I think that spending October 5 in the streets and
encouraging my friends and associates to do the same is a great example
of the something else I could do….I will be out on the streets on
October 5th, and I’ll be urging everyone I know and a few people I
don’t to be there with me.”“I am paying my staff to attend the
march if they want to…It is so important to have a giant protest that
cannot be missed by anyone in the country especially here in Seattle
where the WTO protests were so highly publicized and
misrepresented…Our company supports this action.”
Thanks.
Sincerely,
Mike Kitchen
9/27: Radio ads for Waking Up,
a co-op sweatshop-free clothing store in Detroit, announce to listeners
that the will be closed on October 5th to participate in the protests
called by The World Can’t Wait – Drive Out the Bush Regime. Click here to listen to the commercial.
If you own a business:
Imagine if on store windows
across the country, right next to the business hours, there were large
signs reading “We will be closed on October 5 to participate in the
nationwide protests to drive out the Bush regime. Join us at (local
protest information). worldcantwait.org”
Imagine if more commercials like the one from Waking Up appeared on the radio and TV.
Imagine if employees got a paid “protest day” on Oct. 5.
You don’t just have to imagine.
The future is unwritten. WHICH ONE WE GET IS UP TO US.