By Pete Shaw Right 2 Dream Too (R2DToo) has found a new home. The rest stop for people without housing whose successful model has helped people find not only rest, sanctuary, and safety, but jobs and housing has reached an agreement with Bureau of Development Services (BDS) Commissioner Amanda Fritz that will see it moving…
Category: News & Current Events
Jobs and Freedom Remain Powerful Touchstones 50 Years after Historic March
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Story by Pete Shaw When Barack Obama took the podium at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, the then Senate candidate from Illinois told the nation, “There’s not a Black America and White America and Latino America and Asian America. There’s the United States of America.” It was an affirmation of the myth of inclusion, hardly…
City Workers Fight Privatization; Demand Fair Contract
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Story and photos by Pete Shaw Over 300 people converged in downtown Portland on August 14 to to demand that city managers negotiate in good faith with the District Council of Trade Unions (DCTU), the 7-union coalition that operates jointly in bargaining with the city. DCTU members–who hail from AFSCME Local 189, Laborers Local 483,…
R2DToo In Court Fighting for Housing Rights
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Story and photo by Pete Shaw The thought of camping conjures images of freedom, romance, and perhaps even daring. Pitch a tent, lie under clear skies, sit in front of an open fire telling stories or picking a guitar. Forage for food that will become dinner. Hike down a trail to a pristine lake and…
Postal Activists Blockade Private FIrm USPS Sliding Out of Public Hands
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Story by Jamie Partridge Ten protesters blocked a private mail truck leaving the Mt. Hood Distribution Center (US Postal Service) today, demanding that postal management stop subcontracting the trucking of “the people’s mail.” Claiming concerns about safety, cost and corruption, the blockaders left after police ordered them to disperse. No arrests were made. ”Postal truckers are losing…
Portlanders Gather in Support of Justice for Trayvon Martin
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Story and photos by Pete Shaw A crowd of over 400 people gathered in Peninsula Park on Sunday July 14th in response to the verdict that acquitted George Zimmerman of second degree murder and manslaughter charges. Zimmerman was on trial for killing 17 year old Trayvon Martin on February 26, 2012 in Sanford, Florida. At…
People Rally Around the Country in Support of Pelican Bay Prison Inhumanity
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Story and photos by Pete Shaw On July 8th in Chapman Square over 100 people joined numerous rallies around the country in support of the Pelican Bay Prisoners Hunger Strike. The hunger strike–the third called by inmates in Pelican Bay prison in California–was called over the same demands that propelled the other two strikes. Those…
Immigrants Rally to Keep Their Families Together
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Story and photos by Pete Shaw Gathered around pairs of shoes representing fathers and father figures who have been detained and deported, over 70 people assembled in front of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office at 511 NW Broadway on Monday June 17th to demand Congress and President Obama create and pass immigration legislation…
California Inmates Undertake Hunger Strike to Protest Inhumane Conditions
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Story by Pete Shaw In July, 2011, approximately 1000 of the 1100 prisoners in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) of California’s Pelican Bay State Prison began a hunger strike to protest conditions. The strike lasted three weeks, spreading to another 13 state prisons to include over 6600 inmates. The Pelican Bay prisoners issued five core…
Protesters Target Postal Privatization, Demand Corporate Mail Theft End
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Story by Jamie Partridge • Photos by Jerry Atkin Over forty demonstrators, ten of whom blocked the entrance to the Portland Air Cargo Center (US Postal Service), declared victory against “postal privatizers” today. According to postal service managers, several morning mail runs by subcontractor Dill Star trucking were disrupted by the protest. ”Postal truckers, mail…