By Adam Rothstein On Wednesday, February 1st, Occupiers from across Oregon gathered at the Oregon State Capitol in Salem, to greet the legislators on the first day of the new session, and to make their case against corporate influence in the legislature known. The tone of the rally and lobbying session represented the diversity of…
Month: February 2012
Saving the Home of Angelah Hill
by Ahjamu Umi Meet Angelah Hill. She’s a 49 year-old mother in Portland, Oregon, and like plenty of people today, she’s fighting to save her home from foreclosure. What makes Angelah’s case worth noticing is that, as a black woman, she is the poster child of racism and predatory lending when it comes to foreclosures.…
Letter to Oakland Mayor Jean Quan
Armed riot cops hunt Occupy with weapons drawn at the YMCA while members work out. by Arlo Stone Dear Mayor Quan, I would like to thank both you and the many police officers you summoned from the greater Oakland metro area for their excellent work this difficult weekend. In particular, the calming, measured presence displayed…
Narratives of Police Brutality and Persecution: Occupy Portland Media Reports from Oakland
by Adam Rothstein, Paul Cone, and Occupy Portland Media Correspondents Arlo, Mike, and KMT On January 28th, Occupy Oakland attempted to occupy a long-shuttered convention hall, for the purposes of starting a community center. The result was an all-out assault on the protesters of Occupy Oakland by the police force of that city, resulting in…
Strange Wisdom
by Zachary Bosart An informative series of chaotic events. It was seeming like the start of another day of perpetual mistakes. Upon awakening at 4 AM, I was supposed to drink coffee and prepare myself for a mandatory work meeting at 6 AM. To get there in time, I would have to grab the first…
(Video) #F29 Shut Down the Corporations
Occupy Portland calls for a national day of non-violent direct action to reclaim our voices and challenge our society’s obsession with profit and greed by shutting down the corporations. We are rejecting a society that does not allow us control of our future. We will reclaim our ability to shape our world in a democratic, cooperative, just and sustainable direction. Already 30+ cities are planning actions. Get involved and find out more at www.shutdownthecorporations.org.
The Portland Action Lab is a direct action spokes council organizing as part of Occupy Portland. More info at www.portlandactionlab.org.
Money is Not Free Speech
by Nicholas Caleb “MONEY! IS! NOT FREE SPEECH!” “MONEY! IS! NOT FREE SPEECH!” I spent three years of my life at the University of Oregon School of Law painfully internalizing the finer details of the tortured pro-corporate / anti-human tripe that passes for judicial legal reasoning in the Supreme Court. Outside of some significant decisions…
Occupy Disillusionment
by Michael Schultz There are some hard truths that we must swallow in order to be free of some of the shared illusions that have infiltrated our subconscious and unconscious minds. In this short essay, I’ll be expressing some of these truths. Once Occupy has fully swallowed these hard truths, they can be spread out…
Right 2 Dream Too – Rally at City Hall
By Shawn Fleek The evening of January 31st, 2012 saw a rally on the steps of City Hall intended to draw attention (and eventually overturn) to the city-wide “camping ban,” a city ordinance which makes it illegal to pitch a tent in a public park. The rally was organized independently of Occupy Portland’s official GA…
Citizens and Candidates Participate in Democracy
By Christina Schüll I walked into Portland’s 2012 Town Hall “Voices of the City” meeting in Hoffman Hall at PSU, expecting to see half a dozen candidates in the middle of discussing their grand ideas of how they promise to make our city a better one. What I found was the soft buzzing of people…
