Vol. XXXV, Number 3  March 2015      
http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/2015/March

The Fight for $15 Finally Comes to Portland »
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Featuring: Healthcare, War & Peace, Earth Day-Mayday, Wal-mart, Postal, News Bytes, Immigration, a fossil free future for Portland: ThePortlandAlliance.org/anybody

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, Letters, and more! Join our FREE Email Mailing List For Email Marketing you can trust Arts & Culture Visual Arts, Music, Theatre, Cartoons, Movies, Books, Writing Community Calendar Local actions, events, rallies, etc. Eyes Wide Shut! by Yugen Fardan Rashad King: I Have a Dream. Obama: I Have a Drone 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 aza octaviA'S BROOD is a new release by Walidah... Buy Walidah's book from Powells by clicking on icon!

Join our FREE Email Mailing List For Email Marketing you can trust Jobs theportlandalliance.org/jobs Idealist Jobs Portal theportlandalliance.org/idealist
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Speaking Truth to Power & Distressing Portland's Elites Since 1981! 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. Kucinich / Michael Munk / theportlandalliance.org/Munk 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

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The fate of the socialist left is tied
to that of the working class movement—and the last four decades of one-sided class war have had dire consequences for both. The thread linking today’s generation of young workers to U.S. labor’s proud history of class struggle has been effectively broken and must be developed anew. This is a daunting but necessary task for rebuilding the working-class movement. Get the whole story:  
http://www.theportlandalliance.org/iso  
                  An ISO View of the Future of the Left  by Jennifer Roesch and Sharon Smith

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     A community forum of  
     leaders and activists
   discussing vision and 
   strategy for liberation

   Sunday, March 1 at 1pm - 4pm at   
          3536 SE 26th Ave,
        Portland, Oregon 97202
more info:
http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/blacklivesmatter

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WinterBlues4

"Winter Blues" Music Festival is pleased to announce that after three successful years, 
WBMF is returning with another weekend of great music to chase away the wintertime blues.

The Fourth Annual "Winter Blues" Music Festival will be held on
March 14, 2015

more info: http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/winterblues
                    A Portal to Winter Blues Music Festival

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Native American Tribes
Take on Pot, Consider Gambling on Legalization:

Studies and possible votes loom on American Indian lands. 

The Department of Justice has said federally recognized tribes may grow and sell marijuana. 

By Steven Nelson Jan. 27, 2015 | 12:01 a.m. EST + More

Native American tribes are eyeing marijuana legalization as a potentially lucrative business opportunity in the wake of a green light from the Department of Justice in December.


                  more info: http://www.theportlandalliance.org/nativeamericanportal

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China Is Building a

$1.85B Methanol Plant
in ‘Cancer Alley’ Louisiana 
but nobody bothered to inform
the Predominantly Black Community

 The company slated to run the plant in St. James Parish, Yuhuang Chemical Inc.,
      is seeking expedited permits to construct and operate a plant on the sprawling
      1,100-acre site and is awaiting the Louisiana Department of Environmental
      Quality’s determination of the environmental impact of the project, a decision
      that is expected on March 6, 2015.

more info:  http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/blacklivesmatter

and here more info:      http://www.ThePorlandAlliance.org/aljazeera

Single-Payer: It's What the People Want

Will the U.S. Government Stand Alone
in Rejecting Children’s Rights?

By Lawrence S. Wittner

Within a matter of months,
the U.S. government seems likely to become the only nation
in the world still rejecting the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights
of the Child.  Sometimes called “the most ratified human rights treaty in history,” the Convention has been ratified by 195
nations, leaving the United States and South Sudan as the
only holdouts.  South Sudan is expected to move forward
with ratification later this year.   But there is no indication
that the United States will approve this children’s defense treaty.

find out why at: http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/wittner

How the US Helped
Create Al Qaeda and ISIS

Much like Al Qaeda, the Islamic State (ISIS) is made-in-the-USA, an instrument of terror designed to divide and conquer the oil-rich Middle
East and to counter Iran’s growing influence in the region.

The fact that the United States has a long and torrid history of backing terrorist groups will surprise only those who watch the news and ignore history.

...The director of the National Security Agency under Ronald Reagan,
General William Odom recently remarked, “by any measure the U.S. has
long used terrorism. In 1978-79 the Senate was trying to pass a law against international terrorism – in every version they produced, the lawyers said
the U.S. would be in violation.”

         the rest of the story:  http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/counterpunch
                              at the NW Alliance Portal to Counterpunch

By ALEXANDER BURNS

With a vote on Sunday, the organization became the latest liberal group to back the Massachusetts senator as a potential primary challenger to former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. But Warren's views on Israel, Gaza, Iran & U. S. backed military adventurism is a concern.
                                     rest of the story in The NW Alliance Portal to the NY Times!    

http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/nytpa

LABOR RADIO SHOW
Of, by and for the people.
      http://www.ThePortlandAlliantce.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 30, 2015
Host: Michael Morrow and Lane Poncy-- 5^th Monday
Conversations: Working people and the economic crisis!
Guests, (TBA) are active union organizers, activists and allies.
http://laborradiocollective.blogspot.com/2014/03/taxfairnessandincomedisparity.html

03/06/2015 7:30 pm

Behind the Badge in River City;

A Portland Police Memoir,

with foreword by crime writer Phil Stanford, is a fascinating first-hand account of the Portland Police Department during the gritty 60s & 70s. DuPay's compassionate and insightful book paints compelling--and sometimes disturbing-- portraits of a cop, a police department and a city.  Join us for the launch of this book, enjoy treats with us, and hear Don's anecdotes about the St. Johns of 40 years ago.

Location: 8622 N Lombard St / Portland, Oregon

97203-3731   /   United States

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Sterling Trial Opens in Security-State Matrix

By Norman Solomon                           ExposeFacts.org original publisher. 

January 14, 2015

When the trial of former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling got
underway Tuesday in Northern Virginia, prospective jurors
made routine references to “three-letter agencies” and
alphabet-soup categories of security clearances. In an
area where vast partnerships between intelligence
agencies and private contractors saturate everyday life,
the jury pool was bound to please the prosecution.

...From what I could tell, none of those with direct connections to intelligence agencies ended up in the jury box. But affinities with agencies like the CIA seemed implicit in the courtroom. Throughout the jury selection, there was scarcely a hint that activities of those agencies might merit disapproval.
                  more info:  http://www.theportlandalliance.org/solomon

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Fact-checking Bibi and Company’s

Talking Points on Iran

by Marsha B. Cohen

There’s been considerable media buzz in the past several days about Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer’s role in engineering an invitation from Republican leaders for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address both Houses of Congress about Iran. Dermer’s partisan machinations deliberately excluded the White House and State Department from any knowledge of the invitation.

... Netanyahu is scheduled to speak before Congress on March 3, two weeks before Israel’s parliamentary elections.

MORE INFORMATION:  Bill Beeman Portal

        http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/beeman

Bill Beeman Presents Commentary and Information on Persian Affairs,
International Events, and Middle Eastern Political Machinations