We have the solution for you: The Occupy Portland e-Newsletter has been going out every 2 weeks since December 2011 and contains a juicy mix of recent news, future events, feature articles and videos, all at your fingertips.

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Do you have an event or action you’d like us to add to our next newsletter? Email us at opdxnewsletter[at]gmail.com with the details every odd-numbered Monday of the month.

Happy reading!

1. The Occupy Portland Design Collective is hosting an Occupy Design Contest for designs to put on t-shirts, posters, stickers, patches, flags, buttons, bandanas…See here for more details. Deadline: March 14.

2. The Portland Central America Solidarity Committee & community partners are calling on artists to submit their artwork to be presented at an upcoming art exhibit- Tomando Las Calles. Deadline: March 20.

Here are the details:

Occupy Design Contest

Occupy Portland is calling for occupy related or inspired designs we can use to put on t-shirts, posters, stickers, patches, flags, buttons, bandanas… you name it. Ideas for slogans are also welcome. They don’t have to be Portland specific.

These items will either be handed out for free or exchanged for donations (100% of the profits will go to Occupy projects).

If your design is chosen you will receive:

• One of each item that features your awesome image
• Recognition on the official occupyportland.org website, facebook and twitter feeds!
• The warm fuzzy feeling of contributing to the revolution

 The details

Submission Deadline: March 14, 12 noon

Send your name and designs as attachments to:

Occupy Portland Design Collective opdxdesigncollective[at]gmail.com

OR hand them to the info desk at the Occupy Office (1131 SE Oak, Portland, OR)

 Format and size: yes please. All images should be submitted as vector graphics.

*By sending in designs you automatically acknowledge that it is your original work and give permission for Occupy to duplicate and distribute your designs.

CALL FOR ARTISTS

Tomando las Calles / Taking the Streets

A Community Art Exhibit on April 6th, 2012.
Submissions Deadline: March 20th, 2012

The Portland Central America Solidarity Committee & our community partners are calling on artists to submit their artwork to be presented at an upcoming art exhibit.

TOMANDO LAS CALLES (“Taking the Streets”) is a community art exhibit which creates space for dialogue and exploration of the current social, cultural and political moment we are living in.  Around the world people are rising up in resistance to the failed models of neoliberal economics and militarization. From Cairo to Madrid, and from Santiago to Portland our city streets have emerged as the veins of our people’s movement.  The exhibit invites the artist to communicate this experience of social transformation.  It is a celebration of survival, resistance, hope and the dignity of the human spirit.

Calling all artists! At a time when we are bombarded by media misinformation that play on our fears, it is important to create space to tell our own stories, our own profiles of resistance.

We invite you to submit work that breaks down political boundaries, reflects on our diversity, highlights autonomous resistance movements, and introduces a vision of a world we struggle for.

Guidelines:

• ALL MEDIUMS WELCOME. Artwork may include, but is not limited to painting, drawing, photography, video, sculpture, performance art, interactive art, design, and other site-specific installations.
• Please include with your submissions: Artists’ Full Name, Phone #, Title or Artwork, Dimensions of Artwork, Artists’ Biography (1 paragraph), Statement of Intent (1-2 paragraphs).
• Submit images of artwork electronically to Craig (at) pcasc.net in Jpeg format: no more than 1200 pixels at the longest dimension and no more than 72dpi in resolution.
• Artwork invited to participate in the show must be ready to hang on the gallery walls. Artists are responsible for preparing their work for the exhibit.

Deadline:

• Submissions must be received no later than Wednesday, March 20th
• Artists invited to participate in the show will be notified and receive instructions regarding installation procedures by Thursday, March 29th.

Submission form available at  https://tomandolascalles.wordpress.com/

If you have any questions contact: Craig Hennecke – Craig (at) pcasc.net or visit https://tomandolascalles.wordpress.com/ for more details

ABOUT US:

PORTLAND CENTRAL AMERICA SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE
PCASC is a grassroots organization with the mission to educate and mobilize community members, workers and students around struggles for human rights and social justice throughout the Americas. As a local solidarity organization, we strive to foster cooperation between Portland social justice movements and their Latin American counterparts.

Visit: www.pcasc.net

This event is cosponsored by: B Media Collective, Voz, AFSC, ONSM, Oregon Jeruchi West Portland Skate Project, Portland Rising Tide.
[Oaxaca] – Arte Jaguar, Demos Taller, Estación Cero.

Submissions are now being accepted for the NOW DC Social Forum workshops in early April.

“We see a presence in outdoor physical space an intrinsic aspect to voicing our concerns and enabling conversation to find solutions. By facilitating discussions with our neighbors, we can address the many issues the 99% of Americans face to create a future that is livable, sustainable and allows us all to live and thrive fruitfully. It is time the voice and interests of the people be heard and accounted for” said Alex Pio, a member of the PR group.

This booth is up and running anytime from 7am-10pm. We need more volunteers to staff the booth for 2 and 4 hour shifts! Contact Wade at 702-204-5676 or carnivorecafe[at]yahoo.com to help out.

On February 3rd, 2012 Mayor Adams introduced a resolution on Responsible Banking practices “to address some of the founding frustrations of the Occupy Movement, including economic inequity, banking practices, and the influence of corporations and money in politics.”

The resolution outlines ways in which the city of Portland can increase their investment in credit unions and community-based banks; including community investment practices in the evaluation criteria utilized to select banking services in upcoming contracts. You can find Mayor Adams’ post about it here and the full draft of the resolution here.

Occupy Portland has been asked to provide feedback on this draft, to which the Solutions Committee has responded: “Without in any way diminishing the critical significance of this resolution, the Occupy Portland Solution’s Committee believes there are changes which can make the resolution stronger. Additionally, we want to stress, that this resolution is just the first step on a path we believe Portland must forge.” You can find the full response below.

We encourage you to weigh in with your comments on this by emailing Sam Adams at mayorsam@portlandoregon.gov by Friday, February 10, at 5 pm.

Statement RE: City of Portland’s Draft Responsible Banking Resolution

Developed by the Solutions Committee of Occupy Portland

In 2008, the economic crisis known as the Great Recession came to a head with the collapse of the national housing market. The very same Wall Street banks and financial institutions that played a leading cause in the crisis were deemed “too big to fail”, and received billions of dollars in bailouts.

On National Bank Transfer Day, November 5th, 2011, Americans from all walks of life transferred their money out of the big banks.  According to the Credit Union National Association there were more than 650,000 new members added leading up to Bank Transfer day, and more than 1 million new credit union accounts opened in the last quarter of last year.

National Bank Transfer Day helped diminish the power of these Wall Street traded banks, but they are still too big to fail. They are so big in fact, that it remains difficult for credit worthy small businesses and farmers to obtain necessary business loans, just as it remains difficult for fiscally responsible Portlanders to obtain mortgage loans. These loans are just too small for the big banks to bother with. Instead, those banks invest our money overseas, or in questionable ventures such as the private prison industry, mountain top removal, and natural gas fracking. Even in rare cases when they do make these loans, they sell them as commodities and derivatives, which is exactly how we got in this mess in the first place.

The City of Portland, our Mayor Sam Adams, our Commissioners, the Treasurer, and their staff, understand that while bringing our personal money home to community banks and credit unions is critical to addressing the national issues we face, bringing our City’s money home, bringing the tax payer’s money home, is just as important.

The Responsible Banking draft resolution put forth by the Mayor and his office is an important first step to “Move Portland’s Money”. We applaud their efforts. It is a step towards ending “too big to fail”, and we believe that it will help protect, and possibly grow, our local economy.

Without in any way diminishing the critical significance of this resolution, the Occupy Portland Solution’s Committee believes there are changes which can make the resolution stronger. Additionally, we want to stress, that this resolution is just the first step on a path we believe Portland must forge.

In terms of “Move Our Money” it is important to recognize that this resolution only addresses a fraction of the city’s approximate $53 million in “checking and savings”, which in turn is only a fraction of the city’s total short-term liquid funds. The City’s current investment policy covers a total balance of investments that ranges over time from $600 million to $1.2 billion and, the city’s total net budget for FY 2011-12 is approximately $2.78 billion. This resolution is a necessary step, but there’s still much more we can do.

Ways to make this resolution better:

Support the Oregon State Bank.  A state bank along the lines of the Bank of North Dakota could handle the deposits of all Oregon municipalities. Such a bank would be able to partner with local institutions to enhance their ability to lend, it would keep our money local, and it would return bank profits to Oregonians instead of dividends to the 1%.  Secretary Bradbury proposed such a bank in 2010, and similar legislation passed committee in both the Oregon House and Senate last session.  We believe that explicit support for an Oregon State Bank from the City of Portland would significantly help in moving such legislation forward.

In addition, we suggest adding language to this resolution that would make it clear that after the formation of a State Bank, or other similar public institution, the Treasurer should make investment with that institution a priority.

Support an investigation into a Portland Municipal Bank.  A municipal bank along the lines of same lines as the Bank of North Dakota but at a local level, would be able to lead the way for municipalities throughout Oregon, and around the nation, to take positive action without having to wait on state legislation. Such a bank would not supplant a State Bank, they would in fact be able to help support each other. With our similar population sizes, it is possible, that in time, a Portland municipal bank could grow to a similar asset capitalization as the current Bank of North Dakota, truly growing our local economy.

Support loan participation and line of credit programs. These programs partner with local banks and credit unions that make local investments. These programs strengthen local banks by building their capital, which makes them them safer, able to do more lending, and more secure from take-overs. The Oregon Investment Act takes steps towards loan participation programs at the state level, we believe the City of Portland can use our local investment funds in a similar manner.

Increase Transparency. Just as the city currently provides The Budget Book and Portland Budget 101 summaries for revenue and spending, we request that the City of Portland provide financial summaries on annually about where it holds its money, and through what institutions it invests. The mayor’s office has taken steps towards that already with its Responsible Banking FAQ showing an institutional breakdown for bank deposits as of Nov 30th, 2011. We would like to see similar breakdowns in the aforementioned publications annually.

Advocate for Local Banking.  In the spirit of the draft resolution’s existing statements of support for “the smallest banks” and “community-based financial institutions”, we recommend additional language be added to guide the investment locally. We suggest incorporating the language used by Multnomah County in Resolution 2010-160 which states that “Local Community Banks are banks with headquarters in the State of Oregon that have less than $1 billion in assets, are located throughout the State of Oregon and provide valuable financial services to the small business and agricultural sectors.” We further suggest that investments be prioritized in such institutions.

Advocate for Responsible Banking. Because there are very few national metrics that can be used to guide good local investment practices other than simply rate of return ( which is currently the city’s primary mechanism ),  we suggest some specific language to replace the penultimate resolution in the city’s draft.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Treasurer will research national best practices, and, develop and publish additional selection criteria for banking services, including but not limited to; community re-investment practices, small business loan programs, workforce data, in addition to mortgage and interest rates and terms. These criteria should favor local community banks and credit unions if readily available. These criteria for selection should include metrics to disfavor institutions with a history of actions damaging to the community, including but not limited to; failure to record titles properly, failure to negotiate refinancing, and failure to provide options which prevent foreclosures.   These criteria will provide a reasonable basis of comparison to the extent the law allows.

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The solutions committee is a crowd-sourced, open-source, fully transparent progressive policy think tank dedicated to developing concrete and tangible approaches to achieving the social goals of the 99%.

This committee Meets Tuesdays, 6:00 PM at St. Francis (1131 SE Oak st. Portland, OR)
Contact the Solutions Committee at:  occupyportland-solutions@googlegroups.com
Follow our progress by email updates. Send email to: opdx-solutions-update-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

Portland, OR — Ten protesters were arrested yesterday during a march against police brutality and in solidarity with Occupy Oakland.  The tone and tenor of the Portland Police is of heightened aggression toward protesters and even bystanders, pulling individuals from the sidewalk to arrest them. Two windows were broken during the march; the police responded by violently arresting those not associated with the property destruction.

Eight days ago Occupy Oakland protesters were attacked with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash grenades when they attempted to use a long vacant building to provide community services. Over four hundred people were arrested en masse.

This national action, called for by Occupy Oakland, was not officially an Occupy Portland event and was organized by others in the Portland community. The Occupy movement is a non-violent movement and has not engaged in violence or property destruction during its four months of existence. Recent and past incidents are the acts of autonomous individuals.

The only violence during the evening was committed by the Portland Police Bureau who responded violently during the march. The police did not immediately respond to the breaking of two windows, nor did they target people who had participated in those actions. After the incidents, they forcefully arrested anyone who lingered in the street as well as pulled people from the sidewalks. Protesters were thrown to the ground, some visibly bleeding, and had their hands and feet tied by riot police.

Riot police showed a new level of aggression at the protest and made arrests in at least four locations in SE Portland. In all instances but one protesters were marching almost entirely on the sidewalk. The majority of those arrested were released within an hour on minor violations.

“I was with part of the march after riot police rushed at us,” said Emmalyn Garrett, a member of the Occupy Portland PR committee who was there to observe the march.  “I was standing on the sidewalk on Belmont Street, when an officer ran up behind me, grabbed me by the hair, and shoved my face into the pavement, breaking my glasses in half and cutting my face.  I was arrested for standing on a sidewalk at an anti-police brutality march. The police are out of control.”

For the sake of transparency, Occupy Portland Livestream will be posting video of police aggression that was captured by its cameras. While Occupy Portland did not organize this event, we once again call on Portland Police Chief Mike Reese and Police Commissioner Sam Adams to release all the video from their own cameras, uncensored and uncut for all the community and taxpayers to see.

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Interview with one of those arrested can be found here.

What: Potluck Picnic in Our Park! Bring food to share, musical instruments, art material and signs reminding the city of your freedom of speech and assembly.

When: This Sunday, Feb 5 at 12 Noon.

Where: Chapman Square at SW 4th and Main st.

Why: Most people agree that there’s a lot wrong with our world. We share your of frustration towards its many injustices and our politicians who don’t work towards the people’s interests. The time has come to say enough, to change this by organizing together, sharing resources, knowledge and ideas.

What better way to do this than in an open, accessible, public space with a history of political protest? The city took away the public’s right to assemble in these parks for more than two months when they fenced them off. Those fences are now down and we must reassert those rights and engage the people of Portland in that dialogue so that we can affect real change together, as a community.

*Please Note: It is not our current intention to re-occupy or set up an encampment.*

Join the facebook invite here.

See the press release here.

This is a press release from the PR committee.

Occupy Portland refutes the city’s damage claims and celebrates the parks’ return to the public.

PORTLAND, OR- After months of having Chapman and Lownsdale squares closed off to the public, the city of Portland has finally decided to remove the surrounding fences. The parks have been fenced off to the public for more than two months, since Novemnber 13, after the forced eviction of Occupy Portland protesters by the Portland Police Bureau, which resulted in several injuries including that of the still-recovering Justin James Bridges. The two parks have a long history of being used for political protest and citizens were disappointed that fences rendered them inaccessible for more than two months this winter.

The dire predictions of Commissioner Fish’s office of “ground contamination” never bore true nor has the claim of $85k of damage been truthful either. Dan Forner, retired Parks and Recreation employee and member of Laborer’s Local 483 released a statement on Dec 21st stating that $28,000 of bathroom repairs were needed prior to June 2011 and many other repairs were part of the backlog of maintenance needed. The disparity of the repair list Fish’s office published and the actual costs of items are still being determined, but after initial investigation of backlog of repairs provided by request by the parks and rec department that the costs of repairs were wildly inflated. For example to assess and repair a single bollard and chain prior to the Occupation the total cost was $153.96*. The repair list from Fish states that repairing 5 bollards and one chain will cost $4,000**.

“Replacing two benches and repairing seven others will cost $16,500? Are the benches made of platinum?” said Kip Silverman, Occupy Portland volunteer “The majority of the repairs needed were already in the city backlog prior to the Occupation. The city inflated costs of the repairs without explanation and attributed them to damage caused by Occupy Portland without merit. The city used the occupation in a false narrative about damages to the parks to discredit the movement and hide the fact that city continues to tighten its public services budget due to poor management and planning and also its irresponsible banking practices- the very thing Occupiers are protesting against.”

Occupy Portland continues to organize from its indoor community space on SE 12th and Oak St. A place to meet, organize, discuss and learn. However, open public spaces are seen as crucial to fostering dialogue about improving our society’s failings and Occupy Portland intends to make use of such spaces to strengthen the movement and push for collective solutions.

“We are thrilled to see the public parks re-opened to The Public. Chapman and Lownsdale Squares -and Terry Schrunk plaza as well- are in the heart of Portland’s Justice and Economic center. They play a critical role in the history of this city. We will celebrate their return.” said Kip.
* Portland Parks and Rec Work Order 156063 Issued 9/14/2011
**http://www.katu.com/news/local/Lownsdale-Chapman-repairs-to-cost-estimated-85850-134771708.html

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Today from 4pm-7pm.

Meet at the Park next to St. Francis at SE 12th & Stark.

We have musicians, compost & seeds! We need a couple of wheelbarrows,tools, including drill, screws, starts…etc.

Brief description of issue:

On January 31st, family farmers from across the county will take part in the first phase of the OSGATA et al. v. Monsanto court case filed to protect farmers from genetic trespass by Monsanto’s genetically modified (GMO) seed, which can contaminate organic and non-GMO farmers’ crops and open them up to abusive lawsuits.

As a result of aggressive lawsuits against farmers with contaminated crops, Monsanto has created an atmosphere of fear in rural America and driven dozens of farmers into bankruptcy.

But farmers are fighting back!

The Federal District Court judge has agreed to hear oral arguments in this landmark case to decide whether or not this case will move forward.

We create in solidarity with them.

More info here: https://www.facebook.com/events/219865624771061/ and the flyer is here.

Occupy Portland has moved into St Francis and would like you to come warm the place up with us!

We will throw our doors open, eat Occu-pies together, have information about how to plug into the movement & get involved with everything from direct action, to feeding people, to fighting foreclosures, to your neighborhood assemblies, to legislative wrangling, to keeping a well stocked library, and more.

• music
  
• food
  
• workshops/ breakouts (Breakout session include tiny-tent making, non-violent resistance tactics & strategies, online activism, kids activities)
  
• committee booths
  
• raffle…and fun!

This is a family friendly event. Feel free to bring pies to share and donations of supplies for the new office.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/306012759438103/

Here is an excellent guide from the Mercury on getting plugged in to the new Occupy Portland.