GAEA joins protesters in the fight against Staples

Members of GAEA stage a protest outside a local Staples office supply store on November 15th. Photo courtesy of GAEA

On November 15, 2000, students from across the nation united in the fight against office supply giant, Staples Incorporated. Staples is the fastest growing corporation in the paper industry, with over 1100 superstores nationwide and opening as many as 22 retail stores in a single day. Headed by grassroots organizations that stopped the buying of old growth in do-it-yourself superstores such as Home Depot, Lowes, Wickes, Minards, 84 Lumber and others last year, WPI students applied similar tactics as those in this last successful campaign.

Activists are demanding that the company:

1. Stop using virgin wood in their paper products. Virgin forests include temperate and tropical rainforests as well as old growth, 96% of which has already been logged in the US. These forests are home to 78% of the world's indigenous tribes and support 50% of the world's plant and animal species, many of which are endangered species whose survival depends on these forests.
2. Stop selling paper that is produced from trees in our National Forests. Contrary to what many believe, National Forests are not protected from logging and other destructive activities. As a taxpayer, you pay for the care of those lands and then pay to subsidize the companies to log them. Then we are sold the paper made from the trees that we paid to have cut down.
3. Stop violating human and labor rights. We have all been appalled by Nike's sweatshops across the world but ignore the fact that companies such as Staples have sweatshops too, and right in your backyard! Just because their factories are in the US doesn't mean that they aren't sweatshops!
4. Sell 100% post consumer recycled paper. Other than one brand of envelopes, Staples sells no products that are more than 30% post consumer recycled paper. We want the option to buy better products.

The $9 billion retailer has refused requests from environmentalists and human rights activists for the past year.

In response, GAEA went to the corporate headquarters in Framingham, Ma, early Wednesday morning armed with posters, an 8 ft sign, and informative flyers. Having been alerted about the protests, the building was well guarded and protesters were quickly spotted and detained by security guards while they called in police.

While being escorted to their car, the first guard became infuriated as Pamela Graybeal continued to place flyers on parked cars and talk to employees going to work. After almost an hour, the protesters were removed from the site and warned not to return. Later that night, ten members returned to their protest at a nearby store in Auburn. Dressed as everyday Staples customers, the students entered the building in a covert operation to leave flyers by all paper products for customers to read. An attempt was made to speak to as many people in the store as possible.

After a customer revealed the identities of the protesters to a store clerk, the students were rudely confronted and forced out of the store with threats of arrest. After protesting along the edge of the store's property line, the students confronted the manager and told him that until the police were called and arrests were made, they believed they had every right to be there and would stay picketing in front of the store's entrance.

After a few hours, the police had yet to be called and the students were able to speak to dozens of customers, handing out flyers and stickers to adults and children. They were asked to speak to the manager about Staples' misconduct and were extremely responsive. One customer actually left and went to buy her products at another store after Jason Nelson informed her of the products she was buying. In the end, GAEA believed their civil disobedience was worth the effort, as people became aware of the issues at hand and went home with an idea of alternatives to these environmentally unfriendly products.