Story by Pete Shaw In a boisterous show of solidarity, over 1,000 people came together Monday January 30 for a No Ban, No Wall rally. The assembly was composed of a wide array of individuals and city, state and regional organizations opposed to President Donald Trump’s racist executive orders banning immigrants and refugees from seven…
Story by Pete Shaw Over 100 members and supporters of the Burgerville Workers Union (BVWU) came out on Wednesday January 25 to stand for worker justice at the Convention Center Burgerville on NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard. The BVWU’s most recent action occurred nearly a week after fellow worker and union leader Jordan…
Story and photos by Pete Shaw “You need to stop pretending you’re not a storyteller.” With that friendly admonition, author Prisca Dorca Mojica Rodriguez began an evening sponsored by the Momentum Alliance that served as a reminder that all people–particularly Latinas–have their own stories. It was also a plea for them to tell those stories because…
Story by Pete Shaw Almost as soon it became clear that Donald Trump was going to be the next President of the United States, Democratic Party operatives, pundits, and supporters began casting blame for Trump’s victory. Much of that blame has fallen upon rural people, and integral to those accusations has been generalizing these people–variously…
Story and photos by Pete Shaw The Walla Walla onion rings–so good that they named them twice–have arrived at Burgerville. Inside its stores, signs advertise the food while emphasizing the community values Burgerville espouses to distinguish itself from the larger fast food chains such as McDonald’s and Burger King. One placard shows a farmer kneeling…
Story and photos by Pete Shaw Resistance mounted by houseless residents of the Springwater Corridor and their allies has resulted in Mayor Charlie Hales delaying sweeping away people without housing who live along the trail. Two weeks ago Hales announced that camping would no longer be allowed along Portland’s portion of the 21 mile long…
Story and photos by Pete Shaw A woman with two children walked down the stairs into Pioneer Square in the early evening of July 7 and began talking about how tired she was. Tired of seeing Black people gunned down by police. Tired of being scared every time her husband, sons, and grandsons walk outside.…
Story and photos by Pete Shaw Over 50 people affiliated with the Portland chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ PDX) gathered at the Justice Center on SW 3rd Avenue on Monday July 11 demanding an immediate end to police violence and calling upon white people to take action for racial justice. The event…
Story and photos by Pete Shaw Francisco Aguirre, the immigrant justice activist who for 81 days in 2014 took sanctuary in Augustana Lutheran Church when the US government threatened to detain and deport him, returned there on Sunday June 19. However, this time the cause was celebratory. On May 27, Assistant US Attorney Greg Nyhus…
Story by Pete Shaw The road to obtaining political power is fraught with obstacles, including a variety of institutional forms of racism. As Frederick Douglass once noted, power concedes nothing without a demand. Democracy must be wrested from the powerful through the hard work of those struggling for justice. As advocates for justice organize communities,…
