From the open publishing newswire:
UPDATEs: NEW BROADCAST POSTED TO PIMC ON: VIDEO: Meeting 11.6.13

The monthly meeting of the Portland Human Rights Commission This months topics at the meeting were on police training, IPR introduction and proposed changes, also there is the Director's Report Back, HRC leadership roles, Memorial Awards and Portland Housing Board information.

The monthly meeting for the Portland Human Rights Commission (HRC) filmed on October 2 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwcE_I55O64 (Video: 2 Hours 35 Minutes)

The commission meets on the first Wednesday of the month at 4PM. 421 SW 6th Ave, Suite 500 Portland, OR 97204 Mission:
The Human Rights Commission works to eliminate discrimination and bigotry, to strengthen intergroup relationships and to foster greater understanding, inclusion and justice for those who live, work, study, worship, travel and play in the City of Portland. In doing so, the Human Rights Commission is guided by the principles embodied in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

[Related Post] Video Out-Take: Video: Report Back by Human Rights Director regarding Police Training Scenarios
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2013/10/425372.shtml"

A full Archive of their past meetings is here:
http://www.joeanybody.com/id4.html

From the open publishing newswire: On October 5th, communities across the country will bring families into the streets to press for dignity and respect for immigrant families and to send a message to the House of Representatives to: "Get Immigration Reform Done; and Get it Done Now. For our families, for our communities, for our country!" Join over 14 organizations in Portland at Director Park on October 5th at 3pm for the National Day of Dignity & Respect for Immigrant Families.

Immigrant rights organizations and allies nationwide will continue escalating pressure on members of Congress to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill by holding more than 100 events nationwide on Oct. 5 as part of the "Day of Dignity and Respect" for all immigrant families.

In Portland, people will gather for the October 5th National Day of Action by holding a rally for immigration reform in Director Park at 3pm.

"The Day of Dignity and Respect will show House Republicans why they must act quickly on passing an immigration reform bill that contains a path to citizenship and keeps families together," said Andrea Miller, Executive Director of Causa Oregon. "We will continue to put pressure on members of Congress until immigration reform is won."

October 5th National Day of Dignity & Respect for Immigrant Families
Saturday, October 5, 2013 - 3:00pm
Director Park (SW Taylor and SW Park) Portland, Oregon
homepage:  http://www.causaoregon.org/oct5

From the open publishing newswire: 20 years of Portland Cop Watching in this Portland Area

Celebrating and moving forward. Portland Copwatch (PCW) is a grassroots group promoting police accountability through citizen action. Portland Cowpatch, originally known as POPSG* was formed as a project of Peace and Justice Works (formerly Portland Peaceworks) in June, 1992.

Portland Cop Watch PCW has been for 20 years keeping an eye, cameras and their legal trained eye on what the Portland police have been doing, and then sharing updates and reports in their quarterly newsletters.

Current issue #60 is available [only in print at this moment], at various locations (my favorite is the Red & Black cafe) and the current issue #60 is available by snail mail subscription (private) contact PCW for subscription.

Usually the latest issue goes "online a few months after the printed issue. These "Peoples Police Report" newsletters go out four times a year. August 22 was the latest day, and one of the days for new information from PCW to go out to subscribers and limited newsstands.

Check the website for the latest available online issues here:  http://www.portlandcopwatch.org/index.html

From the open publishing newswire: The monthly meeting of the Portland Human Rights Commission
A 2.5 hour meeting on local issues
This meeting had a presentation from Sisters of the road
The public gets 3 minutes to comment about concerning issues

The latest HRC meeting was video recorded and now posted on PIMC:
"Portland Human Rights Commission Meeting 9 4 13"
 http://youtu.be/3kSYgfPbsuw [Video 2hr 36 minutes]

The HRCommission is made up from volunteers who meet publicly on the first Wednesday of the month at 4pm on the 5th floor of the Common Wealth Building at 421 SW 6th Avenue Suite 500 Portland, OR 97201 <Google map>  http://g.co/maps/4y56w

In this meeting [19:35 in the video timeline] Sisters of the Road gave a special 30 minute presentation around the ideas of the Western Regional Advocacy Project, "Without Housing". The website www.wraphome.org has more information. Their known slogan is "House Keys Not Handcuffs". They handed out a thick packet of info {"Without Housing"} which Michael from "Sisters" said would soon be made into a "slide show".

From the open publishing newswire: Audrey Terrell & Tony Funchess are both from the NAACP.
They spoke for 14 minutes at the "March on Washington DC 50 Year Anniversary" in Portland on 8.24.13

This march in Portland was a march and rally to celebrate the Historic 1963 March on Washington DC

http://youtu.be/zxNDMGn5vz4 [14 minutes video on YT]

Audrey mentions to the crowd that you would think these same issue 50 years later after that march on Washington, would not still be a problem. (yet) We still need today to demand civil rights accountability, a stop to racial profiling, and to duplicate that enthusiasm from the civil rights movement.

Tony brings the conversation around to the nightmare on hand now. He brings up the challenge of today, 50 years later the same issues are still prevalent and require our attention. In a riveting sincere call out... he asks us all:

How long ...

Related PIMC post: http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2013/08/424680.shtml

From the open publishing newswire: "The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom took place in Washington, D.C., on August 8, 1963. Attended by some 240,000 people, it was the largest demonstration ever seen in the Nation's capitol and one of the first to have extensive television coverage.

"Fifty years later, the issues of jobs, justice and equality for African Americans have not been realized. With the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling gutting Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act and the acquittal of the neighborhood volunteer in the death of an unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin, we know there is still a lot of work to be done."

Saturday, August 24 (THIS Saturday)

Commemorative March and Rally
Gathering at Terry Shrunk Plaza at 10:00 a.m. for a rally and march.
Speakers and music at South Waterfront Park at 1:00 p.m.

From the open publishing newswire:
Statement by Brutha Sitawa: "I would like to reiterate that the Agreement to End All Hostilities, August 12, 2012, is significant for all prisoners because CDCR has encouraged prisoners in their 33 prisons to not only engage in self-destructive behavior but have also helped heighten racial hostilities - the catalyst for internal warfare, racial warfare and gang warfare. all of which all has been magnified inside the prisons and throughout our communities."

"We decided to address these contradictions head on by engaging in a dialogue that was meaningful, sincere and honest with each respected entity. We realized that our responsibility was to end actions that were contrary to the growth and development of each and every prisoner..."

Sitawa Jaama has been held in the "Security Housing Unit" (SHU) of California's Pelican Bay State Prison for 29 years. Along with hundreds of other prisoners throughout the California prison system Sitawa has been on hunger strike for 43 days. Sitawa is a member of the Short Corridor Collective, an interracial group of prisoners based in the Pelican Bay SHU. The Short Corridor Collective has been influential in calling for 3 hunger strikes in the past 2 years, as well as authoring the 'Agreement to End Hostilities' document (Full PDF), a political call for prisoner unity, and an end to all violence between different groups of prisoners throughout the state, from maximum security prisons to county jails.

read more >>

Prisoner Hunger Strike: Day 44 - Outrage Over CDCR Force Feeding Plans

"CDCR justifies asking for the order to force feed by claiming that the widespread hunger strike is 'orchestrated' by gangs, that the massive participation and support for the demands is coerced and that prisoners have signed 'do not resuscitate' directives under duress," according to Claude Marks of the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition. "This order violates all international laws and standards and gives the medical director of each prison authority to violate human rights laws instead of reasonably negotiating with prisoners." Thousand of prisoners have united to challenge the torture of prolonged isolation, demanding an accountable process to challenge the gang validations that have kept them in security housing for decades.

read more >>

Related Articles: Action Alert: We need a Emergency Hearing to address the Hunger Strike | My Friend Todd Ashker, Hunger Striker at Pelican Bay

Previous Features: Latest on California Prisoners' Hunger Strike | Largest Prisoner Rights Protest in California History Ongoing

From the open publishing newswire: Mediators working on behalf of California prison hunger strikers just concluded their meeting with CDCR Secretary Jeffrey Beard. Today's meeting comes on the heels of nearly 100 family members of hunger strikers visiting the Capitol Tuesday, where they presented a petition signed by over 60,000 people demanding negotiations with hunger strikers to Governor Brown's office.

The hunger strike mediators' statement included, "We gave [Secretary Beard] ideas that would help bring the prisoners' hunger strike to a just end in short order. We provided input for revisions to CDCR's Security Threat Group Policy and Step Down pilot program. Our revisions are intended to create more humane conditions and circumstances. We urged him to follow the lead from other states, such as Illinois, Colorado and Mississippi, to end harsh and long term isolation practices."

Previous Feature: Largest Prisoner Rights Protest in California History Ongoing

From the open publishing newswire:
And Obama is cut precisely out of that mold of Clinton. The Democratic party, in Europe, would be considered a far-right party. Obama's assault on civil liberties has been far worse than under George W. Bush: an absolutely remarkable fact. The FISA Amendment Act, which retroactively makes legal what, under our Constitution, has traditionally been illegal: the warrantless wiretapping, monitoring, and eavesdropping of tens of millions of American citizens. The radical - and I think most dispassionate legal scholars would go, inappropriate -interpretation of the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force act as giving the government the right to assassinate American citizens... and of course I'm speaking about Anwar al-Awlaki, the Yemeni cleric... and not, incidentally, his 16-year-old son, two weeks later, who was on no terrorism list at all.

Watch Video

read entire talk >>

From the open publishing newswire:
Earlier this month, a group of prisoners in the Pelican Bay Supermax facility just south of the Oregon border organized the largest prison protest in California history. At the time, it was reported that an estimated 30,000 inmates in two-thirds of California's 33 prisons had opted to refuse meals in a mass hunger strike. And it's still going on.

On June 20, 2013, prisoners held in solitary confinement at Pelican Bay State Prison Security Housing Unit in Oakland, CA announced their plan to embark upon nonviolent peaceful protest on July 8. According to the Prison Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition (PHSSC), a group committed to amplifying the voices of prisoners on strike, prisoners had maintained since January that they would be willing to starve themselves unless the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) agreed to negotiate honestly about prisoners' demands, "the heart of which mandates an end to long-term solitary confinement."

Prisoners' demands have been represented in five core points:

• End group punishment and administrative abuse
• Abolish the debriefing policy, and modify active/inactive, gang status criteria
• Comply with the US Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons 2006 Recommendations Regarding an End to Long-Term Solitary Confinement
• Provide Adequate and Nutritious Food
• Expand and Provide Constructive Programming and Privileges for Indefinite SHU Status Inmates

From the open publishing newswire: The monthly meeting of the Portland Human Rights Commission.
Open to the public on the first Wednesday of the month, agenda attached as a photo.
The meeting was video recorded and is now online.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Pw0hV_UAx0 (video 2 hours 37 minutes)

Agenda Items:
--> public comment "Bring Our War Dollars Home" Resolution
--> VOZ presentation - Workers Rights Education Project

From the open publishing newswire:
Blog post from Turkish protester
http://defnesumanblogs.com/2013/06/01/what-is-happenning-in-istanbul/ To my friends who live outside of Turkey:

I am writing to let you know what is going on in Istanbul for the last five days. I personally have to write this because most of the media sources are shut down by the government and the word of mouth and the internet are the only ways left for us to explain ourselves and call for help and support.

Four days ago a group of people most of whom did not belong to any specific organization or ideology got together in Istanbul's Gezi Park. Among them there were many of my friends and students. Their reason was simple: To prevent and protest the upcoming demolishing of the park for the sake of building yet another shopping mall at very center of the city. There are numerous shopping malls in Istanbul, at least one in every neighborhood! The tearing down of the trees was supposed to begin early Thursday morning. People went to the park with their blankets, books and children. They put their tents down and spent the night under the trees. Early in the morning when the bulldozers started to pull the hundred-year-old trees out of the ground, they stood up against them to stop the operation.

They did nothing other than standing in front of the machines.

No newspaper, no television channel was there to report the protest. It was a complete media black out. [...]

From the open publishing newswire: Guantanamo Hunger Strike/Vigil
Begins May 16th at 3:00 PM in front of Portland City Hall

(Look for a large colorful banner and people wearing prison-style orange jumpsuits.)

Seventy-one-year-old S. Brian Willson, a Viet Nam veteran member of Veterans For Peace, Portland Chapter 72, beginning Sunday, May 12 reduced his food intake by more than 85 percent, fasting on 300 calories a day in solidarity with the 130 uncharged Guantanamo prisoner hunger strikers now in deteriorating health, many of whom are being force-fed. Willson, a trained lawyer and criminologist, anti-war activist and author, lives by the mantra: "We are not worth more; They are not worth less." He joins 65-year-old grandmother Diane Wilson, a fifth-generation Texas shrimper, anti-war activist and author, who began an open-ended, water-only fast on May 1 outside the White House, and intends to fast until the prisoners are freed. There are more than 1,200 people around the country participating in a rolling hunger strike to bring attention to the plight of the fasting prisoners at Guantanamo, who have been illegally detained for over ten years with little recourse. May 16 is the 100th day of the hunger strike. The hunger strike/fast demands President Obama take immediate action to close the prison and release the prisoners. [...]

A total 166 prisoners from 25 countries remain housed in the U.S.-constructed and operated gulag (2002) at Guantanamo, located on Cuban soil without Cuba's permission. [...]

 http://www.brianwillson.com/guantanamo-hunger-strikevigil/