Riva Enteen: NLG meeting 9/22

The National Lawyer's Guild Board is having a meeting to talk with activists concerned about the Riva Enteen matter, on 9/22 (not 9/24). Included here is a statement by their board members and one from ANSWER. (their most recent one). You may have seen an earlier version of this response which has evolved as thru discussions between the Guild and ANSWER. At the end of the Guild's response below, there is an invitation to a community meeting with the NLG. The NLG Board is hoping activists who have concerns will come to a meeting on Monday evening, September 22, at 7 p.m. at 558 Capp Street, to talk with board members (rather than to the Guild's September 24 membership meeting which is an annual internal meeting with a packed agenda.) Please circulate this on your lists. Thanks.

September 10, 2003
Dear Guild Members, ANSWER Members and Comrades in other progressive organizations,

We, the Bay Area National Lawyers Guild's Executive Committee, were greatly dismayed at the Aug. 25, 2003, posting on ANSWER/ IAC and other activist groups' email list, forwarded to various other progressive organizations, accusing the Guild leadership of not supporting the anti-war movement and making other false accusations. At the time when the left needs to be pulling together, this type of clearly divisive campaign attacking the leadership of the Bay Area Guild stands in the way of the Guild doing the progressive work it always does.

We are very concerned that the Guild, a progressive legal organization, has been attacked based on misinformation and lack of full knowledge of the facts. We believe the signers of the letter may have been misled by others who are attempting to undermine the leadership of the SF Guild chapter through disinformation about the Guild, its leadership, and its work. The effect of this has been that a tremendous
amount of time has been spent by the SF chapter and other activist groups having to deal with this-- time and energy that should be spent on fighting real issues facing us and the left brought about by the Bush
administration's policies and actions and those of other right wing entities.

We have been in discussions with ANSWER and some of the other signers of the letter since that letter was sent out two weeks ago. Our delay in responding has been due to those discussions in which we attempted to inform the signers about the misinformation contained in their letter and tried to work out appropriate responses to the problems the letter created. As many of you may know, ANSWER sent out a subsequent letter, apologizing for some of its statements and insinuations. We are appreciative of ANSWER doing that and hope others of the signers will do the same. We are attaching that new letter in
case you have not seen it. In it, ANSWER acknowledges the excellent work the Bay Area chapter of the Guild does in many progressive areas (including the ones that were criticized in the first letter), apologizes for the tone and method of communication of the letter, and recognizes that the job performance issues regarding our program
director, Riva Enteen, are issues that the Guild leadership cannot comment on publicly and must resolve internally.

We appreciate that ANSWER has both recognized this and sent out the second letter stating so. We hope it will go a long way to putting to rest any accusations or questions about whether the Guild has been acting improperly in any way. At the same time, however, we had hoped that ANSWER would distribute our response to the same people who had received the first letter. We believed that, attacked the way we were, we should be allowed the opportunity to respond in our own words and try to set the story straight. ANSWER has declined to allow us to do that. We believe it is only fair that we be allowed to respond to those recipients.

WE THUS ASK THOSE OF YOU WHO RECEIVE THIS RESPONSE, TO CIRCULATE IT AS WIDELY AS POSSIBLE TO THOSE WHO MAY HAVE RECEIVED THE FIRST ANSWER ET AL EMAIL.

We know that there may be both Guild and non-Guild members out there who may have concerns about the accusations against the Guild made in the recent posting and, thus, wish to respond briefly to the extent
we are able to:

1. The Guild is run by an Executive Board (EB) elected by our members. The EB is made up of committed, engaged progressive members. Lawyers, legal workers and law students all serve on this Board and its committees which have started and run numerous programs around a variety of progressive issues. Contrary to the accusation that we have equivocated in our opposition to the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
and have not supported 9/11 work, the Bay Area EB has designated post-9/11 and demonstrations work as priority work for the chapter, has encouraged the use of chapter resources including staff time for this
work, has approved virtually every proposal to further build this work, has designated its fall fundraiser this year to supporting the anti-war demonstrators, and has actively supported and participated in every
ANSWER demonstration. Though we salute our Program Director's work in this area, we equally salute our membership and our Board in their support of this work. The statement that we equivocated in our
opposition to the wars against Afghanistan and Iraq are simply false.

Other statements in the posting were equally false-- the Board isn't out to get its Program Director, Riva Enteen, and isn't a bunch of Zionists. The Board has actively supported numerous demonstrations protesting Israel's actions in the occupied territories, including working in coalition with ANSWER, hosted a Middle East forum last year to hear from our delegation to Palestine, devoted last year's annual membership meeting to these issues, and is actively involved in organizing against the Bush administration's attacks on Palestinians and other Arab nationals in this country.

2. Our program director, Riva Enteen, is responsible to the elected leadership of our chapter. She is not being driven out of the organization. She is NOT under a gag order that forbids her to talk about her job performance or her employment. Riva absolutely can speak out on Guild policy and political issues. No one has ever attacked her for her politics. Indeed, it is only the EB that could possibly be under a "gag order". As her employer, we respect her right to confidentiality in personnel matters. There has been a discussion about this on the Guild's own listserv, and the Guild membership has been made aware that we can't discuss these matters unless and until Riva waives her confidentiality. Riva has been asked whether she wishes to waive her confidentiality so that the Guild membership can be made aware of the issues surrounding Riva's job performance and why the personnel committee has taken any actions, but Riva has declined to allow the EB to share the facts with the Guild membership. This is her right, but for progressive activists to lob false information and attacks at how we handle personnel matters without knowing the facts, and instead rely upon rumor, innuendo and malicious one sided statements, isn't helpful to our organization or the left in this country.

3. Personnel issues can be difficult, but they are confidential. The latter is to protect the employee. If there are issues involving performance, they can't be aired or decided by a multitude of organizations. They certainly can't be determined where the Guild, out
of respect for the confidentiality of an employee's job performance and our contractual obligations under the contract, simply can't share its side of the story.

4. We are a democratically run organization. We elect leadership once a year. We operate under a union contract and have respected all of Riva's rights under the contract and intend to continue to do so. Should she disagree, the union contract has a grievance procedure to resolve all grievances from staff and all personnel matters. As we respect other organizations' right to deal with their internal issues as they see fit,
we ask that they respect ours. If there are personnel matters, the grievance procedure will address them.

5. We understand that some of the signers of this letter may come from a good place, in their intent to
support progressive movements and workers' rights, but other organizations have absolutely no knowledge of the performance issues involving Guild staff. We were dismayed that organizations jumped to conclusions of wrongdoing without attempting to contact the leadership of the organization to even attempt to hear the other side of the story. We are confident that we have treated our staff fairly and with respect.

We wish to continue to work with and support all progressive organizations in the Bay Area. Please allow us to continue our work, supporting our motto that human rights shall be regarded as more sacred
than property interests, and our proud tradition as the legal arm of the movement. To the extent that any individual or organization has questions about this and wishes to discuss these issues further, the
Guild is going to have an OPEN MEETING AT THE GUILD OFFICE, on MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2003, at 7:00 p.m. at 558 Capp Street, San Francisco. If
you would like to attend, please contact the Guild office at 415-285-5067 X 10 so that Executive Board members can be present.

In Solidarity,
Kevi Brannelly, President
Jody LeWitter, Vice President
Scott DeNardo, Treasurer
for the S.F. Bay Area National Lawyers Guild Executive Committee

ATTACHED IS A COPY OF ANSWER'S 2ND POSTING, CLARIFYING ITS 1ST POSTING:

----- Original Message -----
From: "International Action Center"<iac [at] actionsfbay.org>
To: "IAC-SF" <IAC-SF [at] action-mail.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2003
Subject: [IAC-SF] SF ANSWER Statement on Controversy in SF/Bay Area NLG


SF A.N.S.W.E.R. Statement on the Controversy in the SF/Bay Area NLG

The San Francisco chapter of ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) was one of the six Bay Area organizations to sign a statement in support of
Riva Enteen last week. We hope that those who have forwarded that statement to other lists, will do the same with this statement.

We have great respect for the National Lawyers Guild and its Bay Area chapter and know that they have done excellent work in many progressive areas and truly are "the legal arm of the movement." It is with that in mind that we express our hope that it will be possible to ensure that Riva and everyone in the Guild are able to continue their critical work.

We know the Guild has been in the forefront of the fight against 9/11 repression and understand the Bay Area chapter has made that a priority of its work since 9/11. We also know that the Guild has been outspoken in its
opposition to the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, has endorsed many demonstrations against those invasions, and has provided tremendous legal support both during the demonstrations and in defending those arrested in them. We also know the Guild has been very supportive of Palestinian issues
over the years and been highly critical of Israeli actions in the West Bank and Gaza.

Many individuals and organizations have expressed their support for Riva, emphasizing the value of her involvement and activities over her 13 years with the SF chapter. We have all benefited first-hand from her initiative,insight, and tireless work. At the same time, we have heard from good people in the Guild chapter
who have objected to the statement that was sent out. We do understand the local NLG chapter must work through this matter itself and achieve an outcome that furthers the collective strength of the organization.
We also understand that the Guild leadership cannot comment publicly on job performance issues which are contractually subject to union grievance procedures.

It is important for the progressive movement in these circumstances to maintain a level of dialogue free of invective on any side. We extend a genuine apology if people take issue with either the selection of
language or the method of communication of the statement by the six local groups, because no offense was intended. A difference of opinion may persist on this, and many issues, but it is our hope that we can
resolve the current situation without losing sight of that which unites us. With Bush's illegal war, institutionalization of racial profiling, attacks on the right to protest, and other events of recent years, the NLG has taken up the fight and honored its legacy of defending the civil and political rights of the movement. The Guild and Riva have been a big part of that work. We look forward to continue working with
all who oppose war, racism and repression.

Sept. 4, 2003