From the open publishing newswire: [my hero] Ralph Nader is coming to P town 4.9.12

Up in Arms: The Future of Military Force in International Peace and Security
Panel: Ralph Nader, political activist, author and attorney;
Jamie Fly, Director of the Foreign Policy Initiative

Keynote Symposium Session - The 2012 International Affairs Symposium
Lewis & Clark College
Monday, April 9, 7:30 p.m.
Agnes Flanagan Chapel 0615 SW Palatine Hill Road Portland, Oregon

From the open publishing newswire: The Portland police are continuing to use animals (horses) for tools in crowd control.
This is video footage from just one (1) incident in 2010 where these animals, are rammed into citizens protesting on a public sidewalk. The ramming of protesters with peaceful loving horses, is done until its realized (as seen in the video) that this abusive tactic is doing no good what so ever. This is repeated year after year.

Retire the Police Horses.

Free the Horses - Retire the police horses from crowd control - 2010
(3 min video)

From the open publishing newswire: Ever seen those painted intersections or small covered benches around Portland neighborhoods? Here's when they are made! This is a brief press release for a community-powered event happening May 25 - June 3. The Village Building Convergence is a 10-festival of ecological installations and holistic celebration!

SE 9th & Sherrett, Portland
The City Repair Project's 12th Annual
Village Building Convergence (VBC 12)
Ten Days & Nights: Friday, May 25 to Sunday, June 3

"To build the change that they wish to see in the world!"

From the open publishing newswire: Got mad writing skills? Live in the Cascadia Region?
Want to get involved? Want to know more about the group?

We are looking for writers and artists to contribute to our project for deepening International Class Struggle along Libertarian Communist terms.

Shoot us an email:  autonomousworkersgroup@gmail.com
 http://autonomousworkers.wordpress.com/

From the open publishing newswire: During the final hour of April Fool's Day, a small group busted all of the front windows out of a Chase bank in the Woodstock area. We want to make it clear we do not glamorize or romanticize our actions over anyone else's actions. Nevertheless, we encourage other people to make visible the conflict with capitalism in whatever manner they see fit. Manifesting a clear conflict that is not constrained to legal methods is important and necessary for not letting the anti-capitalist sentiment subside in Portland. We applaud all of the actions that have happened against banks, especially the actions prior to February 29.

We send our greetings to the comrades in the SF Commune, our comrades in Barcelona, and every one who is stuck in prison.
ALL OUT FOR MAY DAY
-anarchists

From the open publishing newswire: Street Roots, Right 2 Survive and Sisters of the Road held a protest in Pioneer Square downtown Portland on a national day of action, 'No Fooling Day' to stand up against the ongoing criminalization of people experiencing homelessness and poverty. Portland, OR, 04/01/2011.

Event Announcment: "NO FOOLING DAY" National Day of Action Against Criminalization of Homelessness

From the open publishing newswire: Portland, Oregon - Today the Fire Frashour Campaign released a statement concerning the reinstatement of Portland Police Officer Ronald Frashour. In 2010, Fire Frashour waged a community campaign to get Office Frashour removed from the Portland Police force, to strike the arbitration clause from the Portland Police Association's contract, and to keep the negotiations between the city and PPA open to the public. Below is their statement:

On Friday, we learned that Ronald Frashour, the Portland police sniper who murdered Aaron Campbell in 2010 is being reinstated. While we are disgusted and appalled at this news, we are not surprised.

The Fire Frashour campaign predicted when he was fired that he would return.

Frashour follows a long line of killer cops who murdered and got away with it. During the last 15 years, no Portland police officer has lost his job for killing someone.

There is plenty of blame to go around. The District Attorney is guilty because he didn't secure an indictment, despite the fact that Frashour shot and killed an unarmed man who posed no threat and wasn't even suspected of a crime. The Portland Police Association is guilty, because they defend abusive cops no matter what the circumstances. The City Council is guilty, because they approved a new police contract continuing the arbitration clause that guarantees that killer cops will return to the force.

Related Comment: License to Murder
Related Videos: Videos: Aaron Campbells murder - outrage by community - can you hear us now?
Pictures from Rally: Protests as Portland police officer Ronald Frashour reinstated

From the open publishing newswire: At a press conference today, [3/27/12] Bark and Food and Water Watch, members of the Keep Nestle Out of the Gorge Coalition, announced that they are appealing the Oregon Water Resources Department's (OWRD) approval of permit applications that move Nestle' one key step closer to bottling Oregon's water.

Press Conference: Coalition Protests Decision Transferring Public Water to Nestle Waters North America

bark-out.org

From the open publishing newswire: Next Sunday, April 1, 2012, Street Roots, Right 2 Survive and Sisters of the Road invite you to join us in a national day of action to stand up against the ongoing criminalization of people experiencing homelessness and poverty! "No Fooling Day" will also serve as the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP's) launch date for a national campaign to protect the basic civil and human rights of people without housing and to ultimately stop the inhumane and wasteful process of criminalization. Over fourteen cities will have simultaneous actions to bring people together to say we must change how we treat those in our communities who have nowhere to go.

WE WON'T GET FOOLED AGAIN! Fighting for our Right to Exist! This is also the day that the fines being leveraged against Right 2 Dream Too double. Stand with the Dreamers at Fourth and Burnside who are working to keep people safe and dry!

2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. -- Leafletting the Public (Gather at S.W. Sixth and Morrison) 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. -- Rally in Pioneer Courthouse Square

Sponsored by Street Roots, Right 2 Survive and Sisters of the Road

Local contact: chani@sistersoftheroad.org 0r (503) 222-5694 (x 16)

From the open publishing newswire: [...] Returning to the streets on March 25th though it came ready with its own reinforced banners, militant tactics and folks blocked up chanting things [...] The crowd of Occupiers who I'd seen only a few weeks previously so passionately protesting Anarchist Co-option and Militant Street tactics were now they themselves sympathetic, if not ardent participants. But there were those nostalgic elements of Occupy that don't always fit in with the Anarchist praxis that were successful and shouldn't be overlooked: older folks with their kids whom coordinated the march from the sidewalk, aesthetically welcoming signs to those with bourgeois mentalities and creative puppets or costumes which make the pigs think twice before breaking a march and 99% - 1% rhetoric.

I don't think it's useful to argue against Occupiers. They are stubbornly Liberal until we show by example, how we ought to March and act. Until they feel Police oppression, they won't become radical. Until they see firsthand the corruption of elected representatives they won't become radical. But I suspect they are coming around and this action is testament to the positive role radicals can play in escalating tactics and ideology within the movement.

homepage: homepage:  link to autonomousworkers.wordpress.com

From the open publishing newswire: Join us at the St Francis Dining Hall at SE 10th and Oak this Friday starting at 8 PM

B Media Collective's 5th Variety Show "Occupation Nation" slams the new era of global uprising into a 1/2 hour episode of political remix videos and documentary shorts that plays Jung to the mycelia mind of the Occupy Movement.

Remixing interviews with the anti-leader of the Occupy Wall Street movement, David Graeber, with the historical perspective of Darryl Mitchell and the Black Revolutionary Auto Workers, it ties together national actions like #F29 with the Eros effect, Obama in Disney World, music videos, and a special guest appearance with Corporal Savage that is hotter than mace in your face.

Check out the trailer here:  http://youtu.be/edxCPbIL2Qo
Homepage:  http://www.bmediacollective.org
Phone: 503-662-2185

From the open publishing newswire: Last week the government again authorized the killing of sea lions on the Columbia river. The traps are set. It has begun again.
Yesterday, monitors with the Sea Lion Defense Brigade made the annual pilgrimage to the dam. It was strangely silent. Even the hazers were standing down, as it was Sunday. We saw no California sea lions up there yet at all. We did see two Stellars playing in the current just below the dam, and at least two others resting in the slower water down by Strawberry Island. Despite the government's best effort to get the Stellars de-listed from their threatened and endangered species status, the gentle and gigantic Stellars are still protected this year, and cannot legally be killed. (They are not safe, though. Vigilante fishermen kill more sea lions illegally every year than the government killed last year. These huge, friendly animals make easy targets for their predations.)


We also saw two beautiful bald eagles, hunting fish from a tall tree just below the dam. Nature is beautiful. But irony stings: a friend, upon hearing about bald eagles eating salmon, remarked, "What are they gonna do, kill every predator on the river? Why can't they just stop over-fishing?!" Indeed.

From the open publishing newswire: The Hilton Hotel Workers had a "Workers Rights" Hearing in the Vancouver Library - this is the film from the event organized by Jobs With justice.

The Workers Rights Board, was held on 2.23.12, and the room was full of concerned community members. Workers from the hotel tell of their unjust contract, and the greedy push back by management. Hear from the hotel workers how management works hard to push back against the workers struggle for fair wages, food to eat, their homes and health.


The City of Vancouver, through their organization the Downtown Redevelopment Agency, owns the Vancouver Hilton. For six years, the workers at the Vancouver Hilton have been in struggle. This is a struggle of becoming union, staying union, and fighting for respect and the ability to rise out of poverty wages - making good jobs for all in the service industry.


Workers' Rights Board:  http://www.jwjpdx.org/workers-rights-board
Video from the hearing:  http://youtu.be/KgtHDnqMPVM