Story by Pete Shaw When considering how to spend a Friday night, particularly a sultry one in late July, likely not high on most folks’ list is attending a talk on Pan-African organizing. But even if my Friend Ahjamu Umi of the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) was not the featured speaker, the title…
Story by Pete Shaw Highlighting the growing national movement away from blanket policies to honor Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) holds, over 75 people gathered outside the Multnomah County Building on December 10th to urge Multnomah County Sheriff Dan Staton to limit the use of ICE holds in Multnomah County jails immediately. The rally comes…
Story and photos by Pete Shaw Sindy Avila is a member of the Oregon Dream Activists, a group working to advance immigrant rights and the rights of all people of color. Speaking at a forum about creating community control and putting radical politics into practice in communities of color, she noted that as the Dream…
Story by Pete Shaw “When is history not history?” asks Walidah Imarisha, at a recent Why Aren’t There More Black People in Oregon? presentation sponsored by the Oregon Humanities Conversation Project. Imarisha, a Portland State University and Oregon State University instructor, poses the question to our group after we have spent 90 minutes examining, wrestling…
Occupy Sandy volunteers feeding FEMA volunteers following Hurricane Sandy By Nolan MacGregor, Nate Perkins, and Chase Wilson Last year, Occupy Wall Street emerged from the labyrinth of concrete and steel that is New York City. Three weeks ago, Hurricane Sandy made landfall. In the wake of the storm which left millions without power, thousands without…
By Gina Ronning The Portland Action Lab is currently embarking on what is sure to be a difficult conversation exploring group purpose, structure, and other aspects of self-evaluation. This dialogue is a crucial component for any group in assessing success and goal achievement. How meaningful this discussion will be is entirely dependent upon the level…
By Pete Shaw On a summer Monday I was walking through downtown Kenton, excited at the thought of picking up John Coltrane’s Interstellar Space which was awaiting me on the hold shelf of the Multnomah County Library branch on North Denver Avenue. When I got to the library, however, it was closed. I later found…
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…
By Shamus Cooke The Great Recession and its possible continuance has brought the issue of privatization to the forefront of American politics. But most Americans aren’t even aware that this debate is happening, because the media and politicians aren’t using the word “privatization”. Instead, less threatening substitutes are used to ram through a corporate…
