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VIEWPOINT

Picketing the Poor

January 2008

This time EBASE showed its true colors. It’s one thing to target a business you

don’t like. Now EBASE has resorted to targeting a food bank that caters to the

needy.

By way of background, the Woodfi n Suite Hotel for the last several years

has sponsored an event in December called “Warm Wednesdays.” On successive

Wednesday evenings, from 5 – 7 p.m., the Woodfi n invites the public into

the hotel for free food, drinks and music in exchange for donating a warm coat,

blanket or cash to ECAP, the Emeryville Community Action Program. ECAP, at

3610 San Pablo Avenue, is a non-profi t, volunteer-run organization that struggles

to provide food and some other amenities, including toys for needy kids at

Christmastime, to the poorest among us. ECAP has no sources of income and is

almost completely dependent upon voluntary contributions, primarily from business,

to continue its good work.

None of this apparently makes a whit of diff erence to EBASE, an organization

which, to our knowledge, hasn’t contributed a single cent to an Emeryville

non-profi t organization, nor donated a single hour of volunteer time here. When

asked why they were picketing on the evening of Wednesday, December 12th last

year, a protester replied “to protest the fundraiser ECAP is holding here.” When

told what ECAP is and the work they do, the protester said, “Well, they can always

hold their fundraiser at another hotel.”

So these are the depths to which EBASE has now stooped. It’s not bad enough

EBASE wants to keep food and warm clothing from the poor. Now, EBASE

can’t even get its facts straight when it does attack the most vulnerable among us.

ECAP was not “holding a fundraiser” there; the Woodfi n was sponsoring it, for

ECAP’s benefi t. Th e Woodfi n hosted this event at its own expense and initiative.

The Woodfin has done this fundraiser for ECAP each year since it opened in

Emeryville.

There are 365 days in the year. Labor chose to picket on that day because an

Emeryville nonprofi t was the benefi ciary of Woodfi n Suites’ generosity. By doing

so EBASE targeted ECAP, Emeryville in general, and the poorest of Emeryville

residents as well as Woodfi n Suites. As a small city, Emeryville has very few

nonprofi t organizations. Our food bank provides needed assistance to very poor

people in Emeryville and Oakland.

Emeryville-based businesses continually contribute to the welfare of the city

in direct and indirect ways. Th e major non-profi t organizations based in Emeryville

– the Emery Ed Fund, the Emeryville Exhibition of the Arts, and ECAP

– get the vast majority of their fi nancial and volunteer support from business.

Without this vital support, these worthy organizations would have to greatly

scale back their operations, or possibly close their doors, and we would all be the

losers.

ECAP is in need of the community’s support, both from businesses and other

donors. Let us use labor’s misguided picket to remind us that people in our midst

need our help.

If EBASE and its allies want to attempt to disrupt a festive evening of music,

food, charitable giving and community-building at Christmas, at least they can

get their facts straight before doing so. Seems the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable

Economy can’t get even get what they do best – protesting – right these

days. Perhaps the EBASE-ers could channel some of the energy they put into

misguided protests into actually doing something constructive for the Emeryville

community. Like volunteering at ECAP.