Vol. XXXIV, Number 4 April 2014       http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/2014/April
The Fight for $15 Finally Comes to Portland »
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MORE ON:

The Ukraine
Wrong side of history’ plea
Russian billionaire sells stake in major firm a
day before sanctions
Putin completes expected annexation of Crimea
Putin bans US politicians,
Obama stiffens "sanctions"

http://www.theportlandalliance/

Lots of Poetry! 
ThePortlandAlliance.org/MaryOtte
New Poetry from  Mary Ought Six
Walidah Imarisha
Two Poems by Walidah
Buddy Bee
Three by Buddy Bee

and more...

 

ThePortlandAlliance.org/hastie

Obey
 

Living in America,
sometimes makes me think
I live in a luxurious concentration camp.  I can have anything I want as long as I obey certain rules.

Accepting Submissions!
http://wordsmithcollection.blogspot.com/2013/06/accepting-submissions.html


Breaking News

How Privatization Perverts Education

Read the Article at BuzzFlash


Drone Killing the Fifth Amendment: How to Build a Post-Constitutional America One Death at a Time

Read the Article at TomDispatch


Excessive Radiation Levels Detected at New Mexico Waste Site

Read the Article at Reuters


Active Community,
Cartoons
, Cartoons by Shannon Wheeler, Clyde List, & Steve Amy

Commentary, Critiques,
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Eyes Wide Shut!

by Yugen Fardan Rashad



By Norman Solomon

Now the shoe is on the other foot. It is Obama defending the principle of “national sovereignty”while Putin is using the military “humanitarian intervention” rule promulgated most outspokenly by Obama’s UN Ambassador Samantha Power and National Security Advisor Susan Rice.

Picture of Michael Munk Tribune Photo L. E. Baskow


Peter C. Little: Alliance Photographer




 

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Instead of armed extra-legal storm troopers, we need effective public servants who can create safe and secure streets without precipitously resorting to violence and acrimony. We need peace officers who
can live up to the name and do us proud.


Shamus Cooke /
"Stumping for Justice
in Stumptown
"

The Fight for $15 Finally Comes to Portland

by SHAMUS COOKE

Like the Occupy movement before it, the “fight for $15” came to Portland as a transplant. Portland activists watched events in Seattle with a skeptical eye, but Seattle’s “fantasy” of $15 was transformed into an emerging reality, now replete with the support of the Mayor and City Council who are working on a plan to implement the new minimum wage. 
Tom Engelhardt /
Tom H. Hastings theportlandalliance.org/hastings
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Salt and Terror in Afghanistan

by Kathy Kelly

In late January in a room in Kabul, Afghanistan, I joined several dozen people, working seamstresses, some college students, socially engaged teenagers and a few visiting internationals like myself, to discuss world hunger. Our emphasis was not exclusively on their own country’s worsening hunger problems. The Afghan Peace Volunteers, in whose home we were meeting, draw strength from looking beyond their own very real struggles.

Theresa Kennedy-Dupay
Kucinich /
Michael Munk /

theportlandalliance.org/Munk

Obama won the ‘08 primary because he opposed the invasion while Hillary defended it. He tried to keep the US occupation going but the Iraqis
refused to immunize US troops who commit war crimes as Obama demanded.
Any Obamatons left after this disgraceful rant?-MM
Myers / Military Personnel
Cheating on tests!
William Reed /
Mark Schwebke /
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"the most sacred cow of the press is the press itself."
Vorpahl /
Lawrence S. Wittner
theportlandalliance.org/wittner

America’s Peace Ship

By Lawrence S. Wittner

Is there an emotional connection between the oceans and the pursuit of peace?  For whatever reason, peace ships have been increasing in number over the past century.


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The Supreme Court upheld Michigan’s ban on affirmative action at state colleges and universities. The case centers on a 2006 voter referendum in Michigan that barred race and sex-based preferences in admissions. An appeals court previously ruled the ban violates the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause. But in a 6-to-2 decision, the Supreme Court overruled the lower court. The ruling will likely bolster similar anti-affirmative action measures in several other states. In a statement, the American Civil Liberties Union said: "This case is ultimately about whether students of color are allowed to compete on the same playing field as all other students. Today, the Supreme Court said they are not."
Jim Crow in the Classroom: Segregation Lives on in U.S. Schools  /  http://www.democracynow.org/2014/4


                    Earth Day 2014 Portal

     http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/earthday


http://www.theportlandalliance.org/mayday 
The Portland Alliance
MAY DAY Portal!


Obama Puts CIA in Charge of Deciding Which Parts of CIA Torture Report Will Stay Secret...  The Senate Intelligence Committee agreed to declassify the executive summary and major findings of the 40 million, 6,300 page report on how the CIA tortured people for no good reason and then lied about it.  Senator Mark Udall noted that the White House had a choice: they It could handle the declassification efforts, give it to the director of national intelligence or give let the CIA investigate itself. Well, they decided to put the fox in charge of the hen house.  The CIA gets to choose which parts of the incriminating report remain secret.
Read the rest of the story
http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/CLG


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"Commemorating" the Vietnam War: One Marine's Perspective

Camillo Mac Bica, Truthout: "March 29 has been designated 'Vietnam Veterans Day,' according to a proclamation issued by President Obama in 2012. Now, I have no problem acknowledging the debt owed to all whose lives were affected by this war. What I find intolerable is that our leaders are incapable of telling the truth about the war."

Read more about this and other issues:       http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/truthout


Urban League of Portland's Career Fair on Tuesday April 22nd, 2014.
 
This event gives job seekers the opportunity to meet face to face with recruiters from over 60 employers including representatives from: corporate, professional, clerical, work-from-home, construction, manufacturing, healthcare industries, and the non-profit and government sectors.

A New
Postal Alliance!

A new postal unity

Retired letter carrier Jamie Partridge reports on a new alliance that aims to combine the rank-and-file power of all four postal workers' unions.
Gathered in Chicago for the APWU national day of action in 2012 (Carole Ramsden | SW)
"THE U.S. Postal Service is under unprecedented attack...The four postal unions stand together to end the attack." The mid-March proclamation of "A Postal Union Alliance" might seem just common sense to the outside observer, but to rank-and-file postal workers and their allies, it was a huge breath of fresh air.
http://uspsactivismresource.blogspot.com/2014/03/a-new-postal-alliance.html
 

Whitelandia Teaser, March 2014

Facebook: facebook.com/pages/Whitelandia/1438458399705603?ref=hl
WHITELANDIA is a 90-minute documentary examining the history of state sanctioned discrimination against Black Americans in Oregon and how that discrimination continues to be a destructive force today. ...Watching their homes and businesses disappear one by one, the film reveals the ongoing displacement of Black Americans as their neighborhoods succumb to a nonstop in-migration of upper-middle-class White families. With a city government favoring the higher income residents for the increased tax base they bring with them, and a foreclosure rate nearly double that of whitesWHITELANDIA is a 90-minute documentary examining the history of state sanctioned discrimination against Black Americans in Oregon due to the targeting of Black Americans for predatory mortgage loans, traditionally Black neighborhoods are all but gone…and Oregon's Black population seems to simply be vanishing. The film leaves us to speculate whether Oregon's original goal of establishing a white homeland may well be close at hand. As one Black resident interviewed asserts, "I don't live in Oregon, I survive in Oregon."



1gcc2


There is a call for ‘deglobalization’ which refers to orienting our communities to build local economies, to produce goods that are needed and to become more self-reliant. A detailed plan for this is outlined in the blog on systemic alternatives.

We have an opportunity right now while trade deals are stalled to redefine global governance. Collectively, the people can confront the dominant paradigms and global power structure and rebirth a world grounded in the principles of human rights and protection of the planet. Resistance is not only protest, but includes acts of creation. When you get involved in your community to build democratized economies, you are part of the global transformation.   http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/occupation


http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/aflcio

Stand with Darigold Workers

On Sunday, March 2nd at 1:00pm workers represented by the United Farm Workers from Darigold Dairies will hold a rally at Portland State University in downtown Portland.    These workers aren’t crying over spilled milk.


NW Alliance Portal to NW Labor Press:

http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/nwlaborpress

Union Organizing

After obstruction and delay,
City of Portland ordered to proceed with union election
for park rangers

City obstructed and delayed for a year, but now park rangers get to join DCTU…

More on these stories... http://ThePortlandAlliance.org/nwlaborpress/
Pictures above include work by W Labor Press associate editor Don McIntosh, as published in NW Labor Press.


A Portal to OCPP!
http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/ocpp

News Release
 
March 19, 2014 
 
For more information contact:  

  

  • Jason Gettel, Policy Analyst (541) 285-1751
  • Juan Carlos Ordonez, Communications Director (503) 310-7138
  • Chuck Sheketoff, Executive Director (503) 873-1201 
Profitable Corporations Pay No Oregon Income Taxes
 
State corporate income tax avoidance spans the nation

 

Some highly profitable corporations are finding ways to avoid paying any state income taxes, Oregon and national data show.
 
At least 24 corporations that made a profit in Oregon in 2011, including eight with profits of over $5 million, paid no Oregon income taxes for that year, according to the Oregon Center for Public Policy's review of the most recent Oregon Department of Revenue data.
 
In total, 38 profitable corporations paid less than Oregon's corporate minimum tax for tax year 2011, said Jason Gettel, policy analyst with the Silverton-based think tank. The corporate minimum tax increased from $10 to a sliding scale ranging from $150 to $100,000 when voters approved Measure 67 in 2010.
 
Meanwhile, a national report released today found that, when adding up the income taxes paid to all states, 90 profitable Fortune 500 companies paid no state income taxes in at least one recent year....

NOTE TO REPORTERS AND EDITORS:

Read a copy of this news release here (HTML) or here (PDF).

Lawrence Lessig's March to End Corruption

Bill Moyers, Moyers & Company:In the footsteps of Doris "Granny D" Haddock, activist Lawrence Lessig led a two-week, 185-mile trek through the winter cold in New Hampshire to raise awareness of corruption in American politics.

Watch the Video and Read the Transcript


Cover Photo

t
Socialist Council member Kshama Sawant's response to Obama's
State of the Union address in January. Please listen!

 

Ibrahim Bilal Mubarak came up with the idea, that those who embrace community might get together and embrace one another.


Donna Boyd of Portland, Oregon,
Joins International Delegation of Women to Visit Women of Gaza

In a response to a call from the women of Gaza, Donna Boyd is joining an international coalition of 100 women traveling to Gaza to witness the hardships facing the 1.7 million residents, deliver humanitarian aid, and call attention to the need for a longer-term strategy to achieve peace and justice for Palestinians.  The delegation will attempt to enter Gaza through Egypt at the Rafah border on March 6th.  They will be in Gaza for International Women's Day, which is on March 8th, and return to Egypt on March 12th.  The delegation will be delivering solar lamps to the women of Gaza, who have been facing severe electricity shortages.
 
This is the first time since the overthrow of Egyptian President Morsi that a large delegation has attempted to enter Gaza through the Egyptian border.
"The women of Gaza are needing now, more than ever, a show of support from the outside world.  They are enduring hardships that have been imposed upon them by conditions beyond their control.  These hardships have been created by a power that has kept them under siege, restricting free movement, depleting their economy, water, electricity, and most of all, human dignity.  It is our responsibility to expose this situation to the people of the world, to create international pressure to right this situation."
 

Unveiling the Dangers of GMO foods and Toxic Food Dyes

   by Don Dupay    http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/toxicfood
 

    All my life (until now) I have been eating packages of yellow cheese puffs. I love the damned things, the cheesy taste and all. Absentmindedly I recently put on my reading glasses and looked again at the pretty pictures of the cheesy things displayed on the package. I noticed one of the ingredients was yellow dye #6, what the hell, I thought? I always believed they were yellow colored because of the cheese on them. But no...they are dyed yellow. Now my detectives mind went into action, I discovered there are other dyes, including blue #1, blue #2, green #3, red #3, red #40, yellow #5, yellow #6 and citrus red #2. Worse yet, the cheesy things were cooked in corn oil, a GMO poison created by the Monsanto company. 


Portland Films: The Alliance Film Guide:  Scheduling, Reviews, and More...
Check it out! Finally Got the News- (1970) a filmCheck it out! about the revolutionary struggle of Black autoworkers in Detroit... watch it as a double feature with the documentary about the injured GM workers in Bogota. Don't miss these films! Connects the struggle of the autoworkers in Bogota with the struggle of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers in Detroit in 1970.
Both links are available at http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/film

Inequality for All

Published on October 8th, 2013

inequalposterAt the heart of the film is a simple proposition: what is a good society, and what role does the widening income gap play in the deterioration of our nation’s economic health? We are endeavoring for Inequality for All to be a paradigm-shifting, eye-opening experience for the American public. We want to accurately show through a non-partisan perspective why extreme income inequality is such an important topic for our citizens today and for the future of America.

Starts Friday October 11th

60

- See more at: http://hollywoodtheatre.org/inequality-for-all/#sthash.MLjShSBy.ZqntgYHh.dpuf

Inequality for All

Published on October 8th, 2013

inequalposterAt the heart of the film is a simple proposition: what is a good society, and what role does the widening income gap play in the deterioration of our nation’s economic health? We are endeavoring for Inequality for All to be a paradigm-shifting, eye-opening experience for the American public. We want to accurately show through a non-partisan perspective why extreme income inequality is such an important topic for our citizens today and for the future of America.

Starts Friday October 11th

60

- See more at: http://hollywoodtheatre.org/inequality-for-all/#sthash.MLjShSBy.ZqntgYHh.dpuf

 

By George Curry,
NNPA Columnist

Another Florida Man Gets Away with Murder

Bobby Worthy, CEO and President of The Justice League, leads a chant outside of the Duval County Courthouse as the jury enters the fourth day of deliberations in the trail of Michael Dunn, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, in Jacksonville, Fla. Large crowds gathered outside the courthouse to wait for a
verdict in the Dunn trial. Dunn was convicted Saturday of attempted murder in the shooting death of a teenager during an argument over loud music, but jurors could not agree on the most serious charge of first-degree murder. (AP Photo/The Florida Times-Union, Kelly Jordan) http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/skanner

 

"People have only as much liberty as they have the intelligence to want
and the courage to take.”
Emma Goldman


The right to rebellion is the right to seek a higher rule... GEORGE ELIOT

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Too Much Coffee Man

http://wordsmithcollection.blogspot.com/2013/06/writing-creative-arts-cutting-edge-of.html