Story and photos by Pete Shaw The Oregon DMV currently allows driver’s licenses to be issued only to documented US citizens and immigrants with work permits under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) a 2012 executive order issued by President Obama. Various immigrant rights groups and other groups supportive of immigrants’ rights have been pushing…
Category: Pete Shaw
Activist Targets Need to Reform Unchecked Police Power
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By Pete Shaw Jo Ann Hardesty, a local activist and tireless voice in the struggle for police reform, was the featured speaker at a recent Justice Social Happy Hour. The March 12 gathering, hosted by the McKenzie River Gathering Foundation (MRG) at Portland’s Queen of Sheba restaurant, included a discussion on the movement to hold…
ILWU Strength Imperiled by Dangerous Course
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Story and photos by Pete Shaw A crowd of over 200 Longshore workers, other union members, and community supporters rallied at Esther Short Park in Vancouver, WA, on March 8 in support of ILWU Local 4 grain handlers locked out of their jobs by United Grain Corporation in late February. After some speeches, the assembly,…
Former Black Panther Remains Committed to Legacy of Party
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Story by Pete Shaw There are few groups in the annals of US history more willfully misunderstood than the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. According to the FBI line pushed by the corporate media, the Black Panthers became the face of everything white people should fear: black men with guns. The Panthers hold a place in…
Judge Releases Grand Jury Resisters; Declares Their Due Process Rights Violated
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By Pete Shaw Matt Duran and Katherine “Kteeo” Olejnik, the two grand jury resisters who were imprisoned in September 2012 after refusing to testify about the anarchist movement, were released from the Sea-Tac Federal Detention Center on February 28. Maddy Pfeiffer, who also was found in civil contempt, remains in prison. United States District Court…
Rise Up, Strike Down Sexual Violence Against Women
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Story and photos by Pete Shaw Only Alaska has more dismal state statistics regarding women and sexual violence: Fifty-five percent of Oregon women will be the victims of sexual or domestic violence and 27% will be raped. With numbers this mind-numbing, it would have been heartening to see thousands flooding the streets in protest. Still,…
Taking Responsibility for Racial Injustice a Necessity for All Americans
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Story and photo by Pete Shaw Not one person in a Portland crowd of over 1200 dissented when Michelle Alexander recently told them, “We’ve got to admit we’ve allowed a human rights nightmare to occur on our watch.” Alexander, an associate professor of law at Ohio State University and the author of The New Jim…
Students Test School District Will To Maintain One Size Fits All Standards
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Story and photos by Pete Shaw Standing in solidarity with Seattle’s Garfield High School teachers and all instructors in the Seattle Public Schools who have refused to administer Washington’s Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) Test, a crowd of 30 Portland Public Schools (PPS) students and about 5 parents gathered in front of PPS headquarters on February…
Houseless, Immigrant & Worker’s Rights Rally Showcases MLK Legacy
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Photos and story by Pete Shaw By the end of his life, Martin Luther King had come to the conclusion that the gains of the Civil Rights Era were nothing if they were not part of a larger human rights movement, one that brought together all the disparate struggles for justice. On January 19, over…
Sheriff Staton’s Loyalty to ICE Leaves Local Groups Cold
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Story by Pete Shaw Activists Coming Together For Justice and Dignity (ACT) has issued a response challenging Multnomah County Sheriff Dan Staton’s December 20, 2012 statement claiming that he has no discretion in deciding whether or not to comply with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) holds. Speaking for the local faith groups and member organizations that…
