Vol. XXXIV, Number 3 March 2014 http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/2014/March
Scroll Down: Healthcare, War & Peace, Earth Day-Mayday, Wal-mart, Postal, News Bytes, Tax Reform, Immigration, Unions, PDX Black Leaders, etc.
|
Wrong side of history’ plea
Russian billionaire sells stake in major firm a
day before sanctions
Putin completes expected annexation of Crimea
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,
Letters, and more!
|
Arts & Culture
Visual Arts, Music,
Theatre,
Cartoons, Movies,
Books, Writing
Community Calendar
Local actions, events, rallies, etc.
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
Buy Walidah's new book from Powells
by clicking on icon!
|
|
|
Jobs
theportlandalliance.org/jobs
Idealist Jobs Portal
theportlandalliance.org/idealist |
Help Support Alternative Media!
|
Navigation:
FrontPage / Activism /
BlogPortal / Calendar /
Ongoing Calendar Events
Donate / Flyer/
Pictures on Picasso:
picasaweb.google.com/
theportlandalliance /
PDX Music /
Poster / Subscribe /
Place Ad / Ad Rates /
Online Ads /
Advertising /
Twitter / News! /
Previous Issues /
Blog/ Myspace /
Facebook1 / Facebook2
Waterfront Blues Fest
Alliance on YouTube:
youtube.com/theportlandallianceBlog/ Myspace /
Facebook1 / Facebook2
Waterfront Blues Fest
Alliance on YouTube:
youtube.com/theportlandalliance
Features:
Joe Anybody!
Active Community /
A Few Words /
Arts & Culture /
Book Reviews! /
Breaking News /
Cartoons / Steve Amy /
Too Much Coffee Man /
Community Calendar /
Cover The Real News! /
Fifth Monday LaborRadio!
Jobs / Labor History /
Letters / Music /
NewsBytes /
Poetry/
Mike Hastie Poetics
Progressive Directory /
Secret Society /
Viewpoints & Commentary
Columns:
William Beeman /
Ellen Brown /
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 /
Norman Solomon /
Vorpahl /
Lawrence S. Wittner
Partners
AND/OR Peacemakers:
ACLU
AFD / AFL-CIO
Alliance for Democracy
AMA / Backspace
B-MediaCollective
Bread&Roses /
CIO / CAUSA/
CLG / Code Pink
Common Dreams /
CWA / DIA /
Democracy Now /
First Unitarian Church
FSP /ISO /
Jobs w\ Justice /
KBOO /Labor Radio /
LGBTQ / MRG / Milagro /
Mobile T's Cover the News
Mosaic / Move-On /
NWLaborPress
Occupy /OEA /
Occupy PDX /
Oregon Peace & Justice /
Peace House
Peace worker /
PCASC / PPRC /
Right 2 Dream Too /
Sisters of The Road
Street Roots / Skanner /
SocialistAlternative.org /
SocialistWorker.org /
The Nation / TruthOut /
The 99%
Urban League /
VFP / Voz
We Are Oregon
Whitefeather
Witness for Peace /
Topics: A-F
Arts & Culture /
AIPAC / Beatles /
Books /
Bradley Manning /
Cartoons /
Civil Rights / Coal /
Death Penalty /
Department of Home Security /
Drones /
Economic Justice /
Education /
Election 2012 /
Fascism /
Fair Trade / F-29 /
Environment /
Film / Fluoridation
Foreclosure /
Topics: G-R
Health Care / Homeless / Iraq
J-Street / Jill Stein /
Justice Party / Middle East /
Music /
National Security Administration
Occupy Blog / Peace /
Persian / Police /
Post Office / Quotes
Topics: S-Z
STRIKE! / Theatre /
The Pongo Fund /
Torture / TPP /
Tri-Met / Union /
Unionresource / VDay /
Viewpoints
Visual Arts
Voices in Action
War & Peace /
Women / Writing /
WritingResource
Yell
|
Today, a top US military official candidly admitted
what we have known for years...
The war in Iraq was about oil.
Because of Oil-Based Importance of Region."
At the
U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing titled,
“The Geopolitical Potential of the U.S. Energy Boom,” Admiral Dennis Blair — former Director of National Intelligence, President and
CEO of Institute for Defense Analyses and Commander in Chief of
U.S. Pacific Command —
admitted the Iraq war was about oil. more:
http://desmogblog.com/ (Old News!)
LABOR RADIO SHOW
http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/laborradio
KBOO Community Radio 90.7 FM presents: Labor Radio Show
6:00-6:30 pm Every Monday Night!
CALL-IN and join the conversation! : 503-231-8187 March 31st, 2014
Host: Michael Morrow-- 5th Monday
Guests Juan Carlos Ordonez and Scott Moore
http://laborradiocollective.blogspot.com/2014/03/taxfairnessandincomedisparity.html
What the U.S. really needs is
universal single-payer nonprofit health care!
http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/healthcare
Checkout The Alliance Healthcare Portal
Anesthesiologist Samuel Metz addressed the crowd at a rally in Pioneer Square in 2009. He was joined by a number of doctors, all in white caps, who support healthcare reform. And right now, in March 2014, nothing has changed. We need and deserve universal single payer nonprofit health care. And this does not require anything but courage and a presidential signature.
(Picture above and story excerpt below by Faith Cathcart & The Oregonian)
on March 17, 2014 at 4:00 PM,
By Samuel Metz, M.D.
Imagine all your medical information imprinted on one wallet-sized card. Then you lose it. Is this an inconvenience, or a catastrophe?
In France, Taiwan and other countries providing universal health care at lower cost, it’s an inconvenience. Get a replacement, and all is well. No harm, no foul.
But not here. In Oregon, and anywhere in the U.S., your medical records determine the kind of care you get, and maybe if you get any care at all.
It’s a life or death issue. http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/healthcare
"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
Connecting Earth Day to May Day
Next month's convergence calls for "a solution as big as the crisis barreling down at us."
March 27, 2014
Nurses protest the possible Keystone XL Pipeline as a threat to the health of people and the planet (Steve Rhodes)
"PEOPLE, PLANET and peace over profit."
That's the slogan for the Global Climate Convergence, a campaign of education and activism set for later this month, with 10 days of action running from Earth Day on April 22 to May Day, the traditional holiday celebrating workers' struggles.
The Global Climate Convergence marks an important moment in the broadening ecological struggle--a recognition that climate change is inextricably linked with capitalism, and that our struggle for environmental justice must be just as closely linked to the struggle for social justice and workers' rights.
http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/socialistworker
The Walmart Portal at The Alliance
http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/walmart
At the world's largest and most profitable retailer, low wages, unpaid overtime, and union busting are a way of life. Now Wal-Mart workers are fighting back.
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.
March 25, 2014
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."
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
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
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.
March 24, 2014
With just days to go before the first strike in its history, the Portland Association of Teachers (PAT) won a tentative contract agreement from Portland Public Schools (PPS) officials that achieved the teachers' most important demands.
The victory was the product of a hard-fought campaign stretching back months, against a school district that was determined to push concessions on teachers in line with its commitment to the corporate school "reform" agenda. But the PAT countered with a determined struggle that united rank-and-file teachers--who, in the face of all the intimidation served up by the district and the media, voted almost unanimously to authorize a strike--and that mobilized support from students, parents and the community.
http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/socialistworker