Category: Authors

Forming a More Perfect Occupation

by Janice Leber An analogy came to life in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Along a flyway, I came upon a huge cloud of geese galumphing low in the sky in no discernible pattern – wheeling and circling and getting nowhere. The only thing they had in common was the fact that they were all roughly airborne.…

The Die Is Cast

Last month we published an article concerning the most recent downgrade of the Bank of America Corporation, or BAC, by the credit rating agency Moody’s. The downgrade had triggered a demand for further collateral by the bank’s counterparties–that is, security for those with something to lose should the bank go under. The collateral offered was…

Which Side of History Do You Want to Be On?

by John O. Andersen Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted…

Park Work “Re-Occupies” Chapman and Lownsdale Parks

by Jennifer Alexander On Wednesday, December 14, Occupy Portland protestors were allowed to ‘occupy’ Chapman and Lownsdale parks once again. For this occupation, however, protestors came armed with workgloves and rakes, instead of tents and protest signs. When Steve Pixley of the Portland Parks and Recreation Department put out a call for volunteers to help…

Poor People Taking Care of Poor People

By: Sean Fleek, Portland Comedian, rabble-rouser, Socialist, writer and figurative publicist. Catch more Sean over at his blog: What They’re Feeding Me Right-wing mouthpieces have been telling us poor folk for years, “pick yourselves up by your bootstraps.”So we found a public space, and we started collecting contributions, and taking care of our fellow poor people, and…

I Am

by Kate Fitzgerald I do not comply I defy you I will not be silent Not wait my turn I will stand on tables and shout For everything you are against I will chain myself To your fences Scream when you ask for silence Leave my blood on your steps Bully and I will call…

Two Poems by Son of Suburbia

by Son Of Suburbia Age of Factions Politically correctly speaking, Begrudgingly looked away, lived. Insinuations, subtle instigations As blunted daggers written into ballots cast. But complacency settles second hand thought containers. Yet I could eat full. My children rested in a comfort majority in school yards. I had a job, But then it happened. It…

Solidarity Message from the Occupied Chicago Tribune

by Patrick Glennon My name is Patrick–I’m from the Occupy Chicago Tribune collective. We just released our first four-page broadsheet newspaper, a run of 20,000 copies. We aim to bring the movement to the broader public and to provide news and analysis the Occupy movement can use to grow and flourish: reports from the occupation,…