Amnesty International Cries Foul at the Fair

Amnesty International, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977 and the bane of dictators around the world, is accustomed to overcoming what seem like insurmountable obstacles. They have helped to free political prisoners from the psychiatric wards of the Soviet Union, the torture chambers of Argentina and the dark isolation of countless jail cells around the world.

But the Amnesty International chapter in the city of Orange, an eclectic group of about 20 human-rights activists, has come up against one authority that appears unlikely to be moved: the Orange International Street Fair Committee.

The chapter’s application for a booth at the fair, scheduled for Sept. 2 to 4, has been turned down, its $325 deposit returned with a letter from committee president Gail Hewitt suggesting that an Amnesty International booth would clash with the fair’s “hometown camaraderie of neighbors.”

‘Special-Interest Group’

Adele Graves, the fair’s spokeswoman and vice president of administration, said the Amnesty members’ request was “not accepted because they did not meet our definition of a service group.”

“We felt that they were a special-interest group,” Graves said. “Anybody who deals with any government, whether they are registered or not, they are still dealing with political governments. They are lobbying by sending out letters. They have come out against capital punishment.”

But to the local members of the London-based organization, which writes letters to press for the release of nonviolent political prisoners around the world, such explanations have the ring of double-speak. Both the Orange chapters of the Republican Women’s Federated and the Democratic Party will have booths at the fair, as they have for years.

“I suppose they just see us as some kind of kooky political peace group,” said David Hartman, the Orange Amnesty chapter’s treasurer and the dean of the political science department at Rancho Santiago College in Santa Ana.

“And anything that deals with politics--and obviously this does--is seen as controversy. (But) if they are going to (let) the political parties have booths, my goodness, certainly we should be allowed to have a booth.”

Wanted to Promote Concert

Before its application was denied, the Amnesty chapter had planned to sell T-shirts and buttons imprinted with a simple drawing of a dove carrying an olive branch in its mouth and rising above a crumbling prison wall. Stationery featuring a rose, with barbed-wire thorns, also was planned.

The group thought the fair would also be a good way to let people know about the upcoming Amnesty International benefit concert Sept. 21 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, featuring Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Peter Gabriel and Tracy Chapman.

“Being at the street fair, we felt, would help raise the consciousness of the people in Orange County to things that are happening in the world at large,” said chapter member Patrick Redden, a mailman in Orange. “That is our main goal. We didn’t intend to make any money.”

“Amnesty has absolutely no government ties, either in the United States or elsewhere,” added Tami Jacoby, one of the group’s coordinators. “We operate strictly on donations. We are a nonprofit organization. This whole thing is so silly.”

Yet no one on either side of the dispute is laughing.

Wholesome Atmosphere

Graves said that the 16th annual fair, expected to attract 350,000 to 400,000 people over its three-day run, is striving to preserve its wholesome, small-town atmosphere. There will be more than 100 booths featuring ethnic foods, arts and crafts, community groups and live entertainment.

“It is so important nowadays to let people know that there are groups with a cultural heritage,” Graves said. “Living here, perhaps we have lost some of that. And we have a lot of fun doing it.

“But we try to be very careful,” she added. “We want to keep it a fun, entertaining event. We are very family oriented and we want everybody to come on out.”

However, Jacoby, who spoke twice with fair organizers before making the Amnesty chapter’s application, said she was told there would be no problem with her organization’s booth. She said she stressed that Amnesty, which takes no partisan political stands, would not demonstrate or in any other way interfere with the fair’s atmosphere.

So when Jacoby received the fair committee’s rejection letter, dated July 21, she said she was stunned.

“And I was very angry--very, very angry,” she said. “But also I felt kind of naive. I thought everything was just fine.”

Death Penalty Stance Cited

The letter sent by committee President Hewitt did not elaborate on the rejection beyond saying that “your type of endeavor would be better served in an atmosphere different from that which is representative of the Orange International Street Fair.”

Graves, however, stressed that Amnesty International “is opposed to the death penalty here and all over” and mentioned that one of the group’s Orange members previously had participated in a political demonstration.

“If you want to base it on that solely, they would not be able to come in,” she said.

Graves said that the fair committee’s guidelines, published in May, 1985, forbid the distribution of propaganda “or intervening in any political campaign, including the publishing or distribution on behalf of any candidate for public office.”

She added that the Democratic and Republican parties do not violate the guidelines because their booths register voters.

“And that is what we like to see, that every American be registered to vote so that we can have a say in our government,” Graves said. “That is what America is all about.”

Officials for both the Democratic and Republican parties said the main purpose of their booths at the Orange fair is to register voters.

No Problems for GOP

“We aren’t there to push anything,” said Anne LaPoint, president of the Republican Women’s Federated in Orange. “We do have material with us. If somebody wants it, it is there. We are merely providing a service to the people.”

LaPoint, who was not familiar with Amnesty International, said her group has never had any problems with their own booth at the fair.

John Hanna, the chairman of the Democratic Party in Orange County, said that he understood that the organizers of the Orange fair were concerned about preserving a community atmosphere.

“But a community atmosphere involves a lot more than sauerkraut and Norwegian beer,” he said. “The fact that there are political prisoners around the world, I think that the people of Orange would be interested in that. They are an even-handed group that would be an asset” to the fair.

Hartman, the Amnesty chapter’s treasurer, sent Orange Mayor Jess Perez a letter earlier this week asking for his help in reversing the fair committee’s rejection but has not yet received a response.