Story and photo by Pete Shaw After two years of attempts to receive compensation for injured General Motors workers, protesters are bringing the fight to GM dealerships, the real points of profit for GM. On Saturday November 2, a group of 15 activists gathered at Wentworth Chevrolet on SE Grand Avenue as part of the…
Category: Pete Shaw
Protest Underscores Continuing Privatization of Oregon Schools
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Story and photos by Pete Shaw The Oregon Business Association (OBA) held its annual Statesman Dinner on October 17 to honor the Statesman of the Year. The event was fraught with anomalies, not least of which was the fact that the award went to Sue Levin, the Executive Director of Stand for Children Oregon. According to the…
Portland Tax Dollars Supporting For-Profit Prisons; Group Demands Divestment
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Story and photos by Pete Shaw On Tuesday October 15th about 40 people gathered outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building on NW Broadway demanding that the City of Portland divest from the for-profit prison industry, and as well that Sheriff Staton drop the ICE Hold on Oregon Dream Activist Manny Perez. The rally,…
Fast Food Workers Forcing Fight Over Fair Wages
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Story and photo by Pete Shaw “If food is essential for survival, then why are the people who bring it to us paid so little?” That question was recently asked at a forum regarding the many fast food worker strikes across the country over the past year. Those workers, many of whom make the federal…
Immigrants Enduring Brutal Road to Citizenship; Determined to Prevail
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Story and photos by Pete Shaw The Obama Administration is barreling toward a milestone, one it probably would like kept in the shadows. Sometime in the next few weeks, the number of people without documentation deported since President Obama took office in 2009 will exceed 2 million. It’s an astounding number–far more than the Bush…
Class Warfare, Compassion Emerge at R2DToo Hearing; Move Hangs in Balance
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CLASSLESS AND CLASSIST Story by Pete Shaw Since Right 2 Dream Too (R2DToo) and the City of Portland came to an agreement in July to move the rest area for people without housing to a spot in the Pearl District, those opposed to the move have been trying to walk a tightrope. On the one…
“Dream” Move Challenged by Ugly Reality of Class Politics
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Story and photos by Pete Shaw The Portland City Council will be hearing testimony this Thursday, October 3, as it considers granting Right 2 Dream Too a permit to continue its work helping people without housing at a new location. The group is planning a move from West Burnside to NW Lovejoy Court and NW…
Right 2 Dream Too Has a New Home
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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…
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,…
