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On Saturday December 10th approximately 40 participants of Portland's Black Bloc, and a number of Anti-Imperialists marched in solidarity with democratic labor against the forces of the WTO and its minions. Shortly after the march began we broke off and stormed the libertarian Cascade Policy Institute in order to demonstrate our disgust with their private market, think tank activism. Libertarian think-tank Cascade Policy institute "leads the way locally in confronting smart growth myths and presenting alternative policy solutions." In contrast to community-based democratic planning, the Institute's alternative solutions rely on property rights, and market incentives. Cascade Policy's stand on unbridled "laze faire" capitalism, and their statement of principles illustrates that even the thinly-enforced, loosely defined environmental protections still in effect are too much for this hard-right think-tank. With statements like: "Over the last three decades America has increasingly looked to the federal government to protect the environment. Yet laws such as the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, Superfund, and The Endangered Species Act have proven costly and disappointingly ineffective." CPI clearly demonstrates their intent to rob us of our few hard won gains. CPI's president and CEO published the following classics: Free Market Environmentalism: Not an Oxymoron Wheels to Wealth: Why Low-Income Workers Need Cars, Not Transit Save the World, Ignore Global Warming These are just a few examples of CPI's efforts to normalize the hard rights conspiracy to privatize our common resources. Their efforts stem from a bipolar worldview of America's political landscape. Recently libertarians ran a $100,000 Enron-funded campaign to keep "Portland's" General Electric private. The people of Portland need to ask our selves: What do we stand for:
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