features archive

From the open publishing newswire:"The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) demonstrates against the War in Pioneer Courthouse Square every Wednesday from noon to 1:00. When I joined them today, one of their regular participants, Bill, had just received a threat from a passer-by. Although not happy about the incident, Bill said, 'I don't intend to stop coming here.' A few minutes later another man came by and shouted 'Nuke 'em!' and then added, 'I vote.'

WILPF gets plenty of such treatment, one of the women told me. Additionally, the political climate under the Bush regime is the worst any of them remember: 'worse than the 50's' with the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings 'when we were intitiated.' [ Read more... ]

[ Women's International League for Peace and Freedom | previous WILPF demos: June 26 | July 3 | Aug. 8 ]

From the open publishing newswire: "The Ron Mandella Community Garden, residing on a half city block is Sacramento's (CA) oldest and only organic community garden, is slated for destruction. Portland developer H. Williams Advisors along with Rembold Companies, architecture firm Akrom Morsan, and the Spinnaker Companies want to destroy Sacramento's greatest treasure to build luxury condos. The Mandella Garden is downtown Sacramento's 2nd highest producer of oxygen and home to a variety of plants, animals, and a community of people. The land is owned by the Sate of California and should continue to be for public use rather than private profit. The land is managed for the state by and agency called the Capital Area Development Authority (CADA). On August 16th the developer is due to renew there contract with CADA to continue planning the destruction of the Mandella Garden."

Portlanders have two ways to help save the garden on Thursday, August 15: Calling the developers and telling them not to destroy the garden, and attending a protest in NW Portland where the developer is headquartered. [ Details ]

[ SaveTheGarden.org ]

From the open publishing newswire: "The organizers of the Green Anarchy Tour feel that at this stage it is necessary to reflect on the tour up to this point, in a way that includes self-criticism and honest evaluation of what calamities have occurred during this crazy experiment. We have hesitated to post something truly candid and direct because an honest evaluation of this tour would give our enemies too much to laugh about. We didn't want to give the oppostion power, we didn't want to admit that despite the State's belief that our movement is a threat, that in reality, North Americans will not likely pose much of a coherent or organized militant resistance to the global omnicidal industrial megamachine. Frankly, the display of ambivilence towards this tour on the part of many audiences indicates that we either have a long way to go in this country, or we may as well give up on certain aspects of resistance, i.e. grassroots movement building." [ Read more... ]

[ Green Anarchy Tour | Tour Journal online | Photos from Tour ]

Portland's Police Accountability Campaign reports that the Portland Police have refused to answer questions regarding deployment of resources and political interrogation on July 4, when over a dozen officers were deployed to a small group of political protesters while two shootings occurred nearby. In a letter dated August 6, Commander Prunk of the Northeast Precinct referred the Police Accountability Campaign to the Independent Police Review Division for further inquiry.

"Police leadership is using the blue wall of silence to evade questions regarding their allocation of resources. They've referred us to the IPR, leading us to wonder: is the IPR the public information office for the Bureau?" said Adrienne Ratner, spokesperson of the Police Accountability Campaign. [ Full story ]

[ Police Accountability Campaign | Original July 4 Press Release and Letter to Kroeker | Conversation with Portland Police Accountability Campaign about Recent Violence ]

From the open publishing newswire: "Living with addiction is a turbulent struggle. I work with people who are caught up in the web of drug and alcohol dependency. I've done this sort of work off and on for nearly a decade now, but it is a challenging field to be in; challenging because the system, like most systems, is a corrupt one. I went into the field fully aware of this, but was certain that with my idealistic and open heart, I could implement changes that could help turn it away from a revolving door business. But the money is in recidivism..."

"America is a nation of Addicts. We love things that glitter and sparkle and will go to great lengths to obtain such things. We love power, prestige and money. I am constantly amazed at what people will do for money or attention, whether it's working a 40-an-hour (plus) week or lying, stealing and cheating to get what they want. (Don't people understand the concept of karma?)

"We eat sugar by the pounds per week and consume caffeine like there is (literally) no tomorrow. Why don't we slow down, breathe, and learn how to live a little. You know, enjoy time alone, time with our loved ones, time communing with nature, time to volunteer in our communities. We do not need to rev up our adrenals to rush through life to accomplish more. More of what? Do more to buy more to have more and maintain more. And then give someone else the burden of getting rid of it all when we die. We can't take it with us." [ Full story ]

From the open publishing newswire: "'PERS' stands for 'Public Employees Retirement System'. It's the pension package that all public employees get, and well, it's sweet. A vision of what we could all get for our sunset years if wealth were more equitably redistributed. Briefly, people who work in public service (city, county, state, university, probably the willamette river keeper, forest service, etc) get about 6% of each paycheck put into a fund for retirement. A parallel account is kept (also paid by employer) that matches that fund. Simply put, at retirement, both of those pots of money are merged, spread out over your life expectancy, and you get a paycheck every month.

"Well, money just doesn't sit in a cellar... it's invested while it's waiting for you to retire. A law was passed that said, for some (older) employees, that their account would grow by a mandatory 8% each year. Well, when the stock market was going well for about 15 years, those accounts were growing FASTER than that... that's great. But, there's a little savings account, too, in case an economic downturn happened. When everything is zooming, some of that extra growth should be put in savings. For the last few years, not enough money was put in the savings account to match the amount lost by recent stock deflations.

"It's horribly complicated... but the point is, there's a legal obligation to pay people the benefits they're promised. But there's not enough in the PERS account to cover the next few years - to the tune of 8 Billion dollars. And the law that guarantees people's retirement benefits says: If there's no money in the reserve to pay current benefits, the taxpayers will foot the bill. So, this is a huge issue... it's related to Enron & Worldcom; people's legal rights; and the fact that all of us are going to pay for mediocre savings decisions." [ Full story and AUDIO ]

[ Background: AFSCME-Alert! ]

From the open publishing newswire: "Allyn Ford is the sole owner of Roseburg Forest Products/Scott Timber. RFP/Scott wants to log some of the last remaining fragments of our native forests. Mr. Ford has failed to listen to the overwhelmeing sentiment of the public that wants to see permanent protection for these native forests. RFP/Scott is one of the largest purchasers of public lands old growth timber sales in the Pacific Northwest... At a recent meeting between the Forest Service, RFP/Scott, Congress, and the environmental community, the Rogue River National Forest was identified as the sacrifice zone for the replacement volume program. In the words of an RFP/Scott employee, the citizens of the Rogue Basin should, 'Take one for the team!'"

Carpools from Ashland have been arranged. [ Full story ]

Like the other sites in the global Indymedia network, the portland indymedia website utilizes open publishing, which empowers anyone to post whatever they want to the newswire. The Indymedia network relies on the people who post to present their information in a thorough, honest, accurate manner, but has no control over what people post. After an article has been posted, it can be removed from the newswire by the editorial group, but only under specific circumstances and usually with much discussion. Indymedia also encourages community dialogue through the "add your own comments" link at the bottom of each post. This link empowers people to add further information, refute stated information and/or discuss the post. The comments are then added in chronological order to the orignal post, sometimes making for lively discussion.

A disadvantage of open publishing is that misinformation can be posted to the newswire, either by accident or maliciously. On Monday, August 12, two articles were posted to the newswire -- by someone(s) using the names "The Engineer" and "Martha Stewart's good twin" -- that contained misinformation about several subjects, including how to deal with tear gas at street actions [ 1 | 2 ]. Utilizing the "add your own comments" feature, a member of the Black Cross Health Collective corrected the misinformation point-by-point and wrote: "Portland activists, anarchists, organizers and concerned citizens: We have to make preparation for Bush's visit. We have a wealth of experience in recent years on how to deal with police. Let's use it. Don't allow silly stuff like Engineer's posts deter us from bringing thousands of people who will embrace a number of different tactics to make Bush and Smith wish they had not come to Portland. Members of Black Cross Health Collective will be at organizing meetings and, as always, will help train those who wish to learn first aid for demonstrations and police riots. You can take advice from those of us who have been in the streets with you for the last three years or you can listen to anonymous garbage posts."

The following links offer solid, reliable information about health and safety at street actions: [ Black Cross Health Collective | How to deal with pepper spray and tear gas | Action-Medical.net | Montreal Street Medics | More links ]

Comment on this feature

Today a group of thirty-some young people rode in a Critical Mass to the noon rally of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) at the union's hall, to show their solidarity with the workers and their struggle. The ILWU was holding rallies in West Coast cities today to call attention to their contractual struggle with the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA).

From the open publishing newswire: "I just got back from the ILWU rally at the ILWU local 8 on front ave. Along the way, a bunch of people on bikes were pulled over by a NUMBER of police. I saw at least two people get arrested. The cops were (surprise!) remarkably rough. They were also unclear about what violations were being accounted for, but they took people in nonetheless. Down at the rally, it seemed a couple of the ILWU organizers were reluctant to allow some of the non-union activist/supporters in. Ultimately, a number were present inside." [ Read more... ]

A Wobbly writes: "I'm a member of the Industrial Workers of the World. I've been active as an organizer in the Retail/General Distribution industry of PDX for about a year, and currently work in a Retail environment. I also am among those from the I.W.W. who are ready and willing to lend our support to the struggles of others, regardless of the business unionism/anarcho-syndicalism tug-of-war that has hindered the progress of the PDX labor movement. But my experiences from today's action have left me a little bewildered. There was only one place to enter the parking lot of the ILWU's Northwes PDX union hall: a small doorway with a sign stating 'Bags subject to search'. 'O.K.', I thought, 'No telling what a cop or some other thug might bring into this place.'" [ Read more... ]

Reporter arrested
From the open publishing newswire: "Just so everyone knows, I was the guy arrested today during the critical mass. [Pictured in photo, above] It concerns me especially because I felt like at the time I was singled out, possibly because I visibly carried a camera and was taking pictures of the rally. I have been working this summer doing freelance reporting for the Portland Mercury. Just before the ride I turned in a brief on the rally so that it would be published in this week's issue. I decided to go on the ride to see what happened and perhaps see what was said at the rally itself in case there was anything to add to the story." [ Full story with photos ]

[ Critical Mass Photos | ILWU Rally Photos ]

[ "cmass & ilwu rally: everywhere there's lots of piggies" | Police Statement about Critical Mass on Monday | Conversation with Portland Police Accountability Campaign about Recent Violence | Critical Mass Analysis ]

From the open publishing newswire: "Nestled this past weekend next to the Montgomery Ward was a National Guard exhibit, inviting consumers to buy into the national dream of righteousness through force. There were uniforms. There were machines of intimidation. Every purchase was rewarded with free gifts of blissful ignorance and false security!"

"Our shopper was looking for strappy shoes and was extremely displeased with this product and its high visibility placement. She told the death vendor that there are any number of products that should be on display in a mall. A few of her suggestions: the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, the human rights treaties that have been of-late 'unsigned,' pictures of those unfortunates on the business end of the death product. However, the marketers weren't interested in her suggestions since they could only hurt their marketshare. The mall manager, Mr. Paul DeMarco, was not only disinterested but hostile." [ Read more... ]

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), long a defender of human rights, is in an historic battle with the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA). The PMA bosses are trying to slash hard won health benefits and break the union.

The PMA accuses the union of being anti-technology. But in reality the PMA is trying to use technological advances to take control of the union hiring hall, eliminate jobs, and outsource work to more exploited, non-union labor. Isn't this what corporate America is doing to the entire labor movement?

The PMA's allies are the corporations that make up the 'Waterfront Coalition,' a front group for the bosses. This Coalition includes Nike, Walmart, The Gap, and others who import $260 billion of goods through the West Coast ports each year from their sweatshops in exploited countries. Some groups are targeting the West Coast Waterfront Coalition (WCWC) for protest. [ Read more... ]

[ Seattle Feature - Action | SF Feature - Action | Portworker Solidarity 2002 | Few more articles on the issues | White House signals it will move to forestall union strike ]

[ The ILWU Story - Six Decades of Militant Unionism | 1934 SF General Strike | Historic Photos from 1934 SF General Strike | Labor History | Oral History | A Journalist Describes the 1934 San Francisco Strike | Harry Bridges Institute | Old Protest poster ]

From the open publishing newswire: "I have lived in Oregon for all my life. I lived in the deep forests until recently. I came to the city to try to wake the people up. My main community is the people who live in the mountains between the valleys and the oceans. These areas were once great rain forests. Most of the humans who live in these mountains and forests are considered to be poor. Many do not possess electricity, indoor plumbing, or good drinkable water. But we have a connection to the earth. We must trust the earth for our survival. So we listen and watch. I am writing this message from that connection with the earth.

"We are in grave danger... We believe that the fires were set to create a political climate in which the rainforests of the West Coast will be permanently destroyed." [ Full story ]

[ portland indymedia's forest activism page ]

The week of August 19th (the papers say "tentatively the 22nd") pResident of the US will be in Portland, to support Gordon Smith and his Fundraising campaign. One activist writes: "We must Squash them. Bring signs, pretzel, bouncy balls, affintiy groups, bikes, horns, whistles... you know what to do, big demo lots of fun." A post to SF Bay Indymedia says: "come to the beautiful northwest as portland hosts the worlds most dangerous man, george w. bush, in august huge protests, civil disobedience, street theater, nonviolent demonstrations, and general anarchy is planned for the week of august 19th, when dubya visits the city his father called 'little beruit.'"

Strategy meetings have been called for Tuesday in SE and Wednesday in NE.

portland.indymedia.org/bushprotest has been set up to track updates and the latest information as it is announced to this website.

From the open publishing newswire: "In order to defend the delicate ecosystems of the Salmon Creek and Salt Creek Watersheds, a small autonomous group of individuals took action at the Pryor timber sale. Dozens of trees in each of the sale units were spiked with both 50-penny and 60-penny nails. In several instances, scattered throughout the units, non-metallic spikes were used in order to elude metal detectors. All spikes were placed at a vaiety of heights on the tree, high and low. This action took place several months ago, after the contract for Pryor was officially awarded to Roseburg Forest Products/Scott Timber. We chose to delay the announcement of this action until logging was imminent. The safety of all workers now rests in the hands of Roseburg Forest Products and their partner in crime, the U.S. forest service." [ Read more... ]

[ The Secret History of Tree Spiking, Part 2 | portland indymedia forest activism page ]

From the open publishing newswire: "First we hear sirens from across Front Ave. and a unmarked SUV trys to pull across into waterfront park. They almost hit someone on their way across. They pulled up to a group of people that were at the benches and trees just south of the large silver sculputure. Then one large officer came out of the SUV and attempted to arrest one male. That person ran, go man go. He didn't get far before he was tackled, another officer helped detain him. The arrestee was pinned to the ground yelling 'I can't breathe' several times and then finally 'Help me!' 'Help!' Kids rushed down from the spectators and began to hit and kick the cops. The smaller cop pealled several people of the big cop, including a seemingly young women. He was finnaly so hurt that he was out of the game, panting and bent over, with his hand on the side of his head. Then at one point the big cop got a skateboard to the face." More details of this story are emerging as more witnesses post comments. [ Read more... ]

From the open publishing newswire: "A trip to the Growers Market is one of those things that cannot be rushed. To do so, to rush through, affords a cursory glance at best, of what the world *really* looks like. Growers is a cool place to buy wholesome organic food, with no middle person, which often means farm fresh local produce, and great prices. Open for business on Thursdays and Fridays in an old building facing the train station, Growers is a cooperative where members chip in and donate time to keep operations running smoothly. But it's a lot more than a buying excursion; it's a social experience that nourishes as deeply as the healthy, yummy food therein." [ Read more... ]

From the open publishing newswire: "Today at Pioneer square about 30-50 people gathered to show opposition to the coming war on Iraq, Israeli aggression, loss of civil rights, and U.S. foreign policy. The event opened with an open mic session of short speeches. The topics ranged from opposition to the coming war on Iraq, the anti-union activities being waged against the ILWU, and Israeli imperialism. One of the speakers emphatically denounced Bush's idea of an offensive war as warranting nearly all nations of the world to wage a similar war against America. Concerning the proposed war on Iraq the same speaker called it 'an invasion with no reason and no just cause'." [ Full story, with Photos ]

[ More Photos ]

From the open publishing newswire: "I spoke at length with Yvonne, who regularly participates in the Women in Black demonstrations. Yvonne has stood with the Women in Black in Belgrade, Serbia, in 1994, and in England and Italy. She, like many life-long peace activists, has a wealth of experience and stories to share that could fill an entire newspaper. Not that we often see such viewpoints in corporate media of course; instead 'experts on the Middle East conflict' are brought in for faux debates and 'balanced' with crooks from the military-industrial complex. Where are the voices of those who live with the consequences of war? Yvonne was in Sarajevo during the siege of that city. She has lived in Iran and Afghanistan and seen -- felt -- firsthand the effects of U.S. foreign policy." [ Full story & Photos ]

[ previous Women in Black demonstrations: August 2 | July 27 | June 28 ]

Nearly two years ago, Samantha Buck of Astoria, Oregon, bought a small coffee shop and named it Sam Buck's -- after herself. A year later, Starbucks? opened a store inside Fred Meyers, five miles away, and served Samantha with a cease and desist order demanding that she stop using her own name on her store because they claimed it was causing confusion for Starbucks? customers. Samantha refused.

Today, Samantha Buck was served a summons by Starbucks?. She is required to respond within 20 days to Starbuck?'s demand that she change the name of her shop or face legal prosecution. Samantha's Portland lawyers have told her that she needs to produce $5000 to initiate the legal batttle. Sam neeeds assistance, both material and emotional. [ Read more... ]

[ background on portland indymedia: Astoria Coffee War ]

The projet MOBILIVRE-BOOKMOBILE project is a traveling exhibition of artists' book works, zines, and independent publications housed in a vintage Airstream that seeks to strengthen pre-existing networks and inspire new connections among communities of people making things: artists, activists and writers. A group of coordinators accompanying the exhibition facilitates a series of workshops, artist talks, and educational forums at each stop. The Bookmobile's visit to Portland, which starts on Sunday, August 11, is being hosted by the Independent Publishing Resource Center (IPRC). [ Full details ]

This experiment in creativity and community was was harrassed by police when it was hosted in Illinois by the Urbana-Champaign IMC in June.

[ projet MOBILIVRE-BOOKMOBILE project | IPRC | Other IPRC events in August ]