From the Hanford Anti-Nuke Day Working Group:

We will hold a rally in Richland, WA, April 15, 2011, to bring information to the public about the largest nuclear waste site in the world.  We are asking specifically for Oversight for the Cleanup by someone other than the DOE and for the  US Government/DOE to honor the Tri-Party Agreement.  We have speakers lined up from Hanford Watch, Physicians For Social Responsibility and from AIM/Warriors Society.  Music will be announced in the next few weeks.We at Occupy Portland need your help to make this an incredible rally!  We are gathering speakers, music, and each other each day!  Please send me a msg w/ a contact person and way to reach them.  Make sure to secure a seat on the bus if needed. Thank you so much!
Beth
Occupy Portland
runningmare27ATgmail.com

Follow us on Twitter: #OccupyNuclear

Event Page:
HANFORD:  North America’s Fukushima –  A15
April 15, 2011 – Richland, WA.
https://www.facebook.com/events/292844004098460/

Want to plug-in to the action on February 29th? Want to pull-off more fun and more effective direct action? Come for the whole day, choose your favorite workshop, or just come for the benefit party at the Red and Black!

Saturday Feb. 4th

Schedule:

Heard about Occupy Solidarity Social Forum (OSSF)? Not the US Social Forum but inspired by the format, what the OSSF is is a smaller Occupy Wall Street conference to be held in Olympia, WA. February 18th and 19th, Occupy Olympia is hosting the weekend of events, forums, actions, workshops and strategy sessions on and for the 99% movement. This will be a mostly regional audience but the OSSF is being co-sponsored by the Alliance For Global Justice who is reaching out to Occupy organizations all over the US and encouraging their participation. We think that Olympia, between the two power houses of Occupy Portland and Occupy Seattle, will be a good meeting place to have a face to face conversation that moves us towards next steps. That is why I am writing you:

I want you to present a workshop at the OSSF. Register your workshop!

February 18th and 19th is not far away, fortunately there are plenty in the northwest with skills and knowledge to share. This is the first national face to face since the Occupy movement began, we think that it will be a chance to develop the movement during a time when most encampments have gone and the winter weather has slowed us down.  This is a chance for trainings and meetings that can help make the whole stronger and weave together the strands of the movement into a cohesive fabric. This is a chance for you to get your message out to the rest of the country and build your network.

So please take the time to register as a participant and give some thought towards a workshop, training or facilitating a discussion. If you would like to table during the event please let me know.

Solidarity,

Bruce Wilkinson
360-742-0864
http://ossf2012.org
Occupy Olympia member
Alliance For Global Justice Board Member

Members of the Portland-based collective known as the Cascadia Center offers the Collectives, Teams and Affinity Groups workshop as way of conveying basic principles and practices for group work.  In a three hour workshop, we share ideas, resources, and group exercises that will help you:

• avoid burn-out
• engage interpersonal conflict with success
• decentralize leadership and empowerment
• be effective at getting things done
• feel supported as a human being in your group.

We will cover a range of topics related to setting up and maintaining healthy groups, such as:

• Types of groups and their functions
• Issues around membership
• Defining purpose, vision, and strategy
• Meeting design
• Relationship building
• Decision making
• Follow-through and accountability
• Communication
• Documentation
• Reflection and evaluation
• Collaboration with other groups

The Cascadia Center collective is a project of Tryon Life Community Farm, a sustainability education and demonstration center.

MOVE TO AMEND AND ALLIANCE FOR DEMOCRACY OCCUPY THE COURTS

National Day of Action for a Constitutional Amendment Making Clear that Corporations are Not People and Money is Not Speech

Portland, Oregon – On January 20, 2012, at 11:30 a.m., hundreds of citizens will gather at Pioneer Courthouse Square for a rally and march calling for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which makes clear that corporations are not people and money is not speech. This is a national day of action just one day before the second anniversary of the infamous Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which held that corporations (as people entitled to the rights protected by the U.S. Constitution) can spend unregulated sums of money in order to influence elections. The Portland event is one of over 130 rallies in cities and at federal courthouses around the country, including the U.S. Supreme.

Neither the Declaration of Independence, nor the Constitution mentions corporations, which were rare entities at our nation’s founding. However, thanks to decades of rulings by Justices who molded the law to favor elite interests, corporations today are granted rights that empower them to deny citizens the right to full self-governance. Armed with these rights, corporations wield ever-increasing control over jobs, environmental protections, elected officials, even judges and the law.

“Corporations are not persons and possess only the privileges citizens and their elected representatives willfully grant them,” said David Delk of Move to Amend Portland. Move to Amend, supported by hundreds of thousands of people, across the county proposes a Constitutional Amendment that will overturn the Court-created legal doctrines of corporate personhood and “Money Equals Speech.”

On January 12, 2012, the Portland City Council adopted a resolution supporting such a Constitutional Amendment. With passage of this resolution, Portland joins the city councils of Los Angeles, CA, New York, NY, and Duluth, MN, which have all passed similar resolutions. “The resolution is a huge first step toward giving power back to the people and restoring democracy for the 99%; now it’s Congress’ turn,” said Erin Madden of Occupy Portland. Occupy the Courts is a manifestation of the frustration of citizens with the increasing corporate control of our government and the momentum building across the country for an amendment that puts the power back in the hands of “We the People.”

Speakers at the event will include Adam Klugman, host of “Mad as Hell in America” on KPOJ 620AM; David Delk with Move to Amend Portland; Erin Madden with Occupy Portland; and Barbara Dudley with the Working Families Party. The Raging Grannies will provide musical entertainment and the Supreme Court “Justices” will also attend and provide great photo opportunities.

Sponsors of the event include KBOO Community Radio, Alliance for Democracy, Move to Amend, the Economic Justice Action Group of the First Unitarian Church, and Occupy Portland.
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Occupy Portland is committed to recognizing and coming to the assistance of the peoples and organizations who have been working to address those who are most afflicted by economic and social inequality, most notably the houseless.

Recently, due to the explosive increase in need, several churches in the Portland area have opened their spaces as shelters for the housless. To continue to offer their spaces as shelters, these churches are asking the community to join them in responding to the needs of the houseless.

Many of us who are involved with Occupy Portland believe that access to shelter is an inalienable human right. We of Occupy Portland want to make sure that the community understands our commitment to promoting a more compassionate world, a world in which the needs of the poverty stricken are acknowledged and met. Also, we want the community’s trust that when we speak of “change”, we intend to be the change we want to see in the world. No more waiting for politics to address poverty and houslessness.

Working together with the faith communities who have stepped up to shelter the housless, we can ensure that more of the housless in our city have access to shelter.

What they are requesting: Shelter hosts

This is an overnight commitment to host the shelter and its guests for the evening.

Evening routine looks like:

6:30 PM Occupy hosts arrive at shelter

7pm Open doors to let guests in for evening

7-9PM Guests will have access to shower and kitchen facilities

9pm Lights out

7am Wake up call

8am Clear and lock up shelter

Where/When: Beginning in February, Occupy the Shelters working group will be hosting every Thursday evening at Common Cup shelter. The shelter is located on 35th and se Yamhill.

Other Info:

No less than two Occupiers are needed to host each Thursday.

The church provides an air mattress and sleeping space for the hosts as well, so no need to stay awake all night.

Occupy Portland is free to use the space for meetings during the hours of 7-9 so long as it doesn’t conflict with our host duties.

Please connect with Elmira to get involved in this outreach project.

971-269-7370 or at elmirodrig@gmail.com

Un Poquito de Tanta Verdad (A Little Bit of So Much Truth)

In the summer of 2006, a broad-based, non-violent, popular uprising exploded in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. Some compared it to the Paris Commune, while others called it the first Latin American revolution of the 21st century.

But it was the people’s use of the media that truly made history in Oaxaca. A 90-minute documentary, Un Poquito de Tanta Verdad captures the unprecedented media phenomenon that emerged when tens of thousands of school teachers, housewives, indigenous communities, health workers, farmers, and students took 14 radio stations and one TV station into their own hands, using them to organize, mobilize, and ultimately defend their grassroots struggle for social, cultural, and economic justice.
http://www.bmediacollective.org
503 662 2185

* Note: This is the first in a series of releases over the next two weeks explaining the role of the Occupy Movement in the struggle against EGT Development and their parent company Bunge Ltd that is developing into a large-scale action in Longview, Washington. All releases will be posted at www.OccupyTheEGT.org *

For immediate release – Jan 18, 2012
Contact: Kari Koch or Jess Kincaid - (503) 567-8694, portland-media@occupytheegt.org

Caravan, flotilla, and protest planned in response to the labor struggle, food justice issues, and environmentally destructive practices of EGT and Bunge corporations

Portland, OR – Occupy Portland and other West Coast Occupations are mobilizing caravans to converge in Longview, Washington when the first ship to be loaded for export arrives at the new EGT grain terminal later this month.  Occupy Portland, Oakland, and Longview all passed a resolution calling for the Occupy movement to come together in Longview to stop “EGT’s attacks on our communities, our food supply and the jurisdiction of West Coast Longshore workers.”

Occupy is partially responding to the call to action from the Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Counties Central Labor Council that asked “friends of labor and the 99% everywhere come to the aid” of the Longview community. EGT recently completed construction of a tax-payer subsidized grain elevator at the Port of Longview that the company is attempting to operate with non-Longshore Union workers.

EGT Development is owned primarily by Bunge Ltd, an international agribusiness holding company. Bunge has been accused of tax avoidance and of breaking labor laws in Brazil and in Argentina. Bunge North America has a history of union disputes and union busting in the United States. According to Greanpeace and Rainforset Action Network, Bunge, though soybean production, is a major contributor to rainforest destruction. They have also been accused of buying soy from plantations in Brazil blacklisted for using slave labor.

“Our demands of EGT and Bunge are based not only in worker’s rights, but also in food justice, environmental justice and international solidarity. Bunge is a Wall Street firm that has long history of bad business practices – exploiting workers and resources for profit, and now they are targeting the people in our community,” says Kari Koch with Occupy the EGT working group.

The empty grain ship is expected to arrive sometime in January with a US Military escort. This is the first known use of the US Military in a labor dispute on the side of management in 40 years. The San Fransisco Labor Council has condemned this use of the US Military.

Thousands of people, members of Occupy, union members, activists, the 99%, from all over the West Coast are expected to join Occupy Longview and the people of Longview to protest the loading of this ship and the actions of EGT and Bunge corporations.

The next meeting of the Occupy the EGT Working Group of Occupy Portland to organize Portland’s part of the West Coast caravan to Longview is at 6 pm Wednesday Jan. 18th at 6401 SE Foster.

More information can be found at www.OccupyTheEGT.org.