Story and photos by Pete Shaw The contract being offered to the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) by the Pacific Northwest Grain Handlers Association (PNGHA) has little effect on wages, but seeks vast changes to workplace rules, particularly those dealing with hiring and safety. Though the contract signing deadline of November 28 has been…
Story and photos by Pete Shaw Sindy Avila is a member of the Oregon Dream Activists, a group working to advance immigrant rights and the rights of all people of color. Speaking at a forum about creating community control and putting radical politics into practice in communities of color, she noted that as the Dream…
Story by Pete Shaw “When is history not history?” asks Walidah Imarisha, at a recent Why Aren’t There More Black People in Oregon? presentation sponsored by the Oregon Humanities Conversation Project. Imarisha, a Portland State University and Oregon State University instructor, poses the question to our group after we have spent 90 minutes examining, wrestling…
Story and photos by Pete Shaw November 20 — “As you can see, I’m packed up and ready to go.” Debbie Austin doesn’t quite have the sarcasm thing down, at least by my Northeast pedigree, but nonetheless her sardonic tone is underscored by a quick look around the house which bears the hallmark of a…
Story and photos by Pete Shaw Banging pots and pans and getting the support of passing cars honking horns, 160 supporters of workers from the Fund for Public Interest, the paid fundraisers for OSPIRG and Environment Oregon, marched along SE Grand and Morrison on November 14th, demanding employees be treated with dignity and respect. Fifteen…
Story and photos by Pete Shaw Fifty supporters of the eviction resistance movement gathered outside City Hall on November 16 to demand the City of Portland and Multnomah County declare a moratorium on evictions and the use of city police to help the sheriff enforce evictions. “We are bringing the fight to City Hall,” said…
Story and photos by Pete Shaw Just after her husband had driven away to take their granddaughter to school on November 6, Heather Sirotak found herself confronted by 40 officers, some brandishing guns. Prior to entering the house with the aid of what she described as a battering ram, Sirotak said she heard one “bellowing”…
Story and photos by Pete Shaw Seventeen students converged on City Hall November 7 for a press conference to discuss the damage they recently endured at the hands of the Portland Police department. Their message to both the cops and City Council was that they will not be intimidated and intend to keep fighting. On…
Story by Pete Shaw “I love these people more than anything.” Those words were uttered by a young man who was smiling beneath red and watery eyes at the end of the November 3 action to end austerity cuts. He was among the fifteen or so people directly pepper sprayed by the Portland Police during…
By Pete Shaw On a summer Monday I was walking through downtown Kenton, excited at the thought of picking up John Coltrane’s Interstellar Space which was awaiting me on the hold shelf of the Multnomah County Library branch on North Denver Avenue. When I got to the library, however, it was closed. I later found…
