“Our dreams don’t fit in their ballot boxes” On November 3rd Occupy Portland and the Portland Action Lab invites all people to mobilize, march, and take direct action against austerity. Corporations control our governments, hoard wealth, privatize our community resources, and burden us with enormous debt — this is AUSTERITY and we say Enough is…
By Shamus Cooke With the November elections right around the corner, the millions of unemployed and underemployed have little reason to care. Aside from some sparse rhetoric, neither Democrats nor Republicans have offered a solution to job creation. Most politicians seem purposefully myopic about the jobs crisis, as if a healthy dose of denial might…
By Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer The International Association of Machinists just succeeded in negotiating a humiliating defeat with Caterpillar after a 15-week strike. Workers lost considerable money by striking, and then lost even more with the new contract, accepting almost every concession the company demanded despite the fact that the company was sitting on…
By Mark Vorpahl The unions remain the only organizations in this country built by and for workers to be a collective fighting force to defend and improve the members’ standard of living. While only a minority belong to unions, all workers’ fate depends on their strength. Unfortunately they have been taking a serious beating. How…
By Shawn Fleek This article is written in response to the Cynthia Alvarez piece, “Progressives Must Move Beyond Occupy”. It has been a year since the first cries of “We are the 99%” rang out in Portland, followed by much commotion, ropes strung between trees, pepper spray, large assemblies, a kitchen full of food and…
By Cynthia Alvarez Average citizens evaluate political organizations based on how those organizations actually function. They know a political organization is a microcosm of the society it wishes to create. So after ten months of heavy involvement in Occupy, I have this question for Occupiers: would you honestly want to live in a society that…
Story and photos by Pete Shaw In coordination with actions in 11 other US cities, and in the spirit of the one-year anniversary of the Occupy movement, over 100 people gathered in Portland on September 17 to demand justice for General Motors workers on hunger strike in Columbia. “The fact that General Motors is firing…
Story and photos by Pete Shaw Holding signs reading “fairness,” “dignity,” “voice,” “security,” and “respect,” supporters of Metro’s seasonal park workers attended the September 13 Metro council meeting to demand it stop interfering with worker attempts to organize as part of Laborers Local 483. Metro seasonal workers have been trying to organize since December, 2011.…
By Adriane, Chops and the B:Media Collective After a weekend of 20+ hour days spent on the streets and then at home compiling and editing footage, things got hairy towards the end, to say the least. We are happy to report that our videographer Chops is out of jail, safe and sound. He has tons…
By Mike Losier The Pacific Northwest coal export debates are providing a subtle reintroduction to Brian Gard, a familiar Oregon quasi-political engine, formerly of the notorious ad agency Gard & Gerber. Now president of PR firm Gard Communications, he currently serves as one of the spokespersons for Ambre Energy’s Morrow-Pacific Project, an export proposal…
