Category: Barbara Ellis

City Takes Whack At Populist Services; Golf Unscathed by Austerity Cuts; Part 2

By Barbara G. Ellis and Pam Allee The Taxpayers’ Budget Committee The real values and priorities of City leadership tend to be revealed when hard times force significant financial cuts. Research by the Taxpayers’ Budget Committee into the Portland Parks and Recreation’s Enterprise unit—the Golf Fund—strongly indicates that city wide reach in recreation activities continues…

City Takes Whack At Populist Services; Golf Unscathed by Austerity Cuts

By Barbara G. Ellis and Pam Allee The Taxpayers’ Budget Committee First of Two Parts Civic leadership’s real values and priorities tend to be revealed when hard times force significant budget shortfalls. This study of Portland’s Bureau of Parks and Recreation’s Enterprise unit—the Golf Fund—by the Taxpayers’ Budget Committee has concluded that City values and…

OP Session for Long-Term Jobless Pushes WPA

by Barbara G. Ellis Occupy Portland’s Labor Solidarity committee’s first effort at helping the area’s long-term unemployed restart the Great Depression’s public-works program didn’t pack SEIU/503’s ballroom on a sunny Sunday afternoon (April 15). But participants from East County/Clackamas County received significant advice and materials from area experts on two successful routes to launch a…

Fertile Winter Yields Pay Dirt for Occupy Portland

By Barbara G. Ellis Portland, Oregon, is a city so packed with progressive activists that the two Bush presidents angrily dubbed it “Little Beirut”, because whenever they dared to drop in they were targeted by hundreds of vociferous protesters from many organizations. Issues that drew dissident ire included: the Iraq war, single-payer health insurance, impeaching…

Labor Solidarity Commitee Plans Job-Finding Assembly

by Barbara Ellis A Job-Finding Assembly for the long-term unemployed in Multnomah’s East County and Clackamas county by Occupy Portland’s Labor Solidarity Committee is scheduled for Sunday afternoon, April 15. It will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. at SEIU Local 503’s headquarters, 64th and SE Holgate Boulevard. The purpose is to organize this…

Nonviolence Still Wins the Public—and Major Changes

Czech dissident/president, Václav Havel (1936-2012), after nonviolent ouster of Soviets by Barbara G. Ellis In mid-December, a man died who for years worked for a nonviolent overthrow of Soviet control over Czechoslovakia that finally happened in 1989. He was Václav Havel, playwright, leading dissident against Soviet domination, and long-time political prisoner. He was the “voice…

Progressive Party Joins Occupy on Longview Strike

by Barbara G. Ellis By a unanimous vote of its executive board last Tuesday the Oregon Progressive Party became the only political party so far to join the Occupy movement in condemning the upcoming use of U.S. Coast Guard ships and helicopters as an armed scab force. The federal action is designed to protect a…

Occupy Greeting Card!

From Barbara Ellis comes this free design of a greeting card for Occupiers to use during the holiday season! You can download a PDF of the card here, and print as many as you like! From all of us here at The Occupier, happy holidays!