National Day of Action for a Real Economic Recovery

While working Americans suffer a massive jobs crisis, many in Congress and the media gin up worries about debt and the deficit. Their response is to advocate cuts in our social safety net including Social Security. Rather than cut our vital safety net, Congress needs to focus on jobs creation such as the Local Jobs for America Act.

Join us in this national day of action as we deliver hundreds of petitions to our local Congressional delegation calling on them to take serious leadership in jobs creation and to oppose forces calling for cuts Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Even if you can't join us, sign our online petition calling on our Congressional representatives to take serious leadership on jobs creation and to oppose safety net cuts.

Lauren Regan, founder of the Eugene Oregon based Civil Liberties Defense Center (www.cldc.org)speaking at the recent Roots of Resistance Conference held in Portland Oregon, organized by Jesus Radicals.(www.jesusradicals.com)

The Conference, held in Portland Oregon on the week end of August 6th and 7th, explored themes of Christian Anarchism, violent vs non violent strategies, among others.

Lauren, along with Tre Arrow, spoke Sunday morning on a panel entitled, "Navigating the Security Culture, Activism in a Posts 911 World."<BR>
According to the flyer for the event, "the aim of this session is ................to inform people about laws that criminalize dissent and that make it exceedingly difficult to work for social change."

Regan, who is a public interest attorney specializing in civil rights, criminal defense and environmental law, has successfully represented hundreds of political activists in both civil and criminal litigation.

After first discussing some of her cases, she enumerates 4 main methods used by law enforcement to infiltrate, intimidate, marginalize and discourage organizations seeking to bring about social change as well as ways that activists can evade and neutralize these methods.

Please join us for "Remember Hiroshima & Nagasaki, Create a
Nuclear-Free Future", an event commemorating the 65th anniversary of the
atomic bombings of these two Japanese cities. We will have special
guest speakers, music, art, dance, and a chance for you to get involved
in creating a nuclear-free future!

When: Friday, August 6th, 2010, 6:00pm

Where: Japanese American Historical Plaza on
the Portland waterfront (NW Naito Parkway and Couch Street)

Sponsored by Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, American Friends Service Committee,
Peace and Justice Works, Ecumenical Ministries of Portland, SGI
Buddhists, Multnomah Friends Meeting, Women's International League for
Peace and Freedom, Oregon Hiroshima Club, Japanese American Citizens
League, and others.

Please download the flyer for the event and help us spread the word!

The American Iranian
Friendship Council presents

Iran Forum:

No
to War! No to Crippling Sanctions!

Yes
to the Iranian Civil Rights Movement

Room190, School of
Business Administration,

Portland State University

631 SW Harrison St.
Portland, OR 97201

Saturday, July 10, 2010
at 6 PM

While US and EU expanded the United Nations
Security Council’s resolution to impose further sanctions on Iran,
reports from many sources including a recent article by Noam Chomsky are
indicating that the threats of a military strike on Iran is as close as
it has ever been.  The President Obama’s campaign promises
of engagement with Iran have now replaced with Secretary Clinton’s
campaign promises of toughening sanctions against the country and so
called “massive retaliation”.

Dr. Hamid Dabashi is the
Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies
and Comparative Literature at Columbia
University in New York. He was born in Ahvaz, Iran . After
attending college in Tehran he received a dual Ph.D. in Sociology
of Culture and Islamic Studies from the University
of Pennsylvania in 1984, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship
at Harvard University.

Since last year’s disputed elections in Iran Professor Dabashi
has become a prominent voice in major media outlets, such as CNN
and the New York Times, to narrate “the civil rights
movement” in Iran, a term he used for the first time to define the Green
movement. In explaining the Green Movement he wrote: “With the ring of that simple but resounding question, "Where
is my vote?" millions of Iranians have forced the hand of the Islamic
Republic, exposing its naked brutality. If the world were to listen and
watch carefully, it would see that the ancient Greek theory of
democracy; the French Revolution's cry for liberty, equality and
fraternity; the American revolt against despotism and tyranny; and
ultimately the American Civil Rights
Movement of the 1950s and 1960s are today all resonating in the Iranian
cry for freedom.”

Dabashi believes that “This movement has been decades, if not centuries, in the
making. And it needs no American money to sustain itself. The only thing
it needs is the moral voice of the American civil rights movement to come to its
aid.” In objecting to US funding of interference in Iran’s
internal affairs Dabashi writes: “Whatever the fate of
the Islamic republic, the noble cause of civil liberties will remain
constant in Iran and will emerge as a model for the region. By wedding
the freshly cut flower of Neda Aqa-Soltan's young life in the fertile
soil
of Rosa Parks' memory, Iranians and Americans will finally come
together in their common dreams of basic human decency.”

It's sometimes assumed
by neo-orientalist commentators that people who are struggling in the
Middle East are either white man's agents, or ignorant
fundamentalists against the outside's world.  Hamid Dabashi
has said it so perfectly: “Perhaps the single most important problem
with American politics, policymakers and pundits -- left or right,
liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican -- is that they think
that anything that happens anywhere in the world is about them or is
their business. The imperial hubris that seems definitive of the DNA of
this political culture wants either to invade and occupy other people's
homelands and tell them what to do, or else disregard people's
preoccupation with their own issues and impose, demand and exact
"engagement" with them, whether they want it or
not." 

Professor Dabashi has written more than 20 books, edited 4, and
contributed to many more. Dabashi’s books include Authority in Islam; Theology of Discontent;
Truth and Narrative; Close Up: Iranian Cinema; Staging
a Revolution: The Art of Persuasion in the Islamic
Republic of Iran; and Iran: a People Interrupted. http://www.hamiddabashi.com

Mehdi Saharkhiz is a
graphic designer, photographer, journalist and blogger from Iran who now
lives in the United States. Initially not political, he was inspired by his father, Isa
Saharkhiz, to become involved. The elder Saharkhiz, a prominent Iranian
journalist and former spokesman for Mehdi Karroubi, is an
outspoken leader in the pro-democracy Green movement.  He
was arrested last July in follow up to the disputed presidential
elections and remains in prison.

A unique feature of the Green movement is the
fact that in the absence of the professional reporters citizen
journalists report first-hand accounts from the streets of Iran,
responding to the movement’s call for “everyone to be the media”.  Since
the beginning of the uprising Mehdi Saharkiz has uploaded more than
2,600 separate “citizen journalism” video clips to his
YouTube site. http://onlymehdi.saharkhiz.net

This event is made
possible in part by a generous grant from

 the McKenzie River
Gathering Foundation (www.MRG.org) .

Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility offers free
tickets to see Countdown to Zero

Reserve your free tickets to see Countdown to Zero, the new film about
modern nuclear threats from the makers of An Inconvenient Truth.

When: Friday, July 30th, 7:00pm
Where: Cinema 21, 616 NW 21st
Avenue, Portland, OR 

Film screening followed by discussion with local peace and
anti-nuclear activists about what we can do to demand zero.

Reserve your free tickets now!

As part of our Summer of Anti-Nuclear Activism campaign, Oregon PSR
is offering a limited number of free tickets to the
film opening on a first come, first served basis.

Email the names
in your party and your phone number, or call 503-274-2720 and leave the
names in your party, phone number and email address. Limit 4 tickets per
person. 

Countdown to Zero traces the history of the atomic
bomb from its origins to the present state of global affairs: nine
nations possess nuclear weapons capabilities with others racing to join
them, with the world held in a delicate balance that could be shattered
by an act of terrorism, failed diplomacy, or a simple accident. Written
and directed by acclaimed documentarian Lucy Walker (The Devil’s
Playground, Blindsight), the film features an array of
important international statesmen, including Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev, Pervez Musharraf and Tony Blair. Countdown to Zero
makes a compelling case for worldwide nuclear disarmament, an issue more
topical than ever.

May Day Workers' March
Stands up for Civil Rights from Portland to Arizona to Honduras.

May Day March and Rally: Jobs for All! Immigrants' Rights Are Workers' Rights.

Saturday,May 1, International Workers' Day

SW Park and Salmon

11am: Entertainment and Sign-making

12pm: Rally

1pm: March

Portland, OR-- April 27, 2010 – With the recent passage of the racist anti-immigrant bill SB1070 in Arizona, which gives police the authority to stop anyone who looks undocumented, Portland labor, immigrants' rights, and community groups will be gathering in solidarity with people all over the world facing economic crisis, discrimination, and police brutality.

Organizers aim to draw attention to alarming developments locally: Already programs aiming to use police as an arm of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) are underway, starting in Clackamas and threatening to spread across the metro region. Their role is largely unregulated and unchallenged, resulting in programs that lack transparency, accountability, and oversight.

From bean-bagging twelve-year-olds to off duty road rage to outright murder, police violence has increased over the past few months, aimed at the most oppressed groups, including African Americans and the homeless. Portlanders are demanding more citizen oversight and real consequences for police officers responsible, most of whom have a history of violations.

This year's march comes in the middle of an economic crisis that has hit Oregonians with more than 10% official unemployment, which does not include those forced to work part time or those who have dropped off the unemployment rosters. Rather than scapegoating immigrants or the working poor, labor and anti-sweatshop organizers are pinning responsibility on the large corporations, like the financial industry and Nike. While speaking out against a minor tax increase, Nike was refusing to take responsibility for its subcontractor's failure to pay severance to 1700 laid off Honduran workers.

The Portland May Day Coalition is made up of grassroots community organizations, labor unions, faith communities, and individuals.

Check out the full solidarity statement at http://maydaypdx.blogspot.com

Portlanders to Protest 7 Years
Since Iraq Invasion with Rally, March and Teach-In
Saturday, March 20, 2010

11:00 am Student Feeder March & mini-rally at PSU Park Blocks
12:00 Noon at Terry Schrunk Plaza, SW 3rd and Madison
1:00 pm Teach-in at First Unitarian Church, SW 12th and Main

Details:

Rally and teach-in:
Iraq, Seven Years Later: Change US Foreign
Policy-Bring All the Troops Home!

With the uncertain outcome of the March 7 elections continuing to have the potential
to delay the withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq, Portlanders are gearing up to
protest the ongoing presence of the US military and "contractors" on the
anniversary of the 2003 invasion. On Saturday, March 20, an event titled "Iraq,
Seven Years Later: Change US Foreign Policy--Bring All the Troops Home!" begins
with a rally at Terry Schrunk Plaza at 12 noon (SW 3rd and Madison), continues with
a march through downtown Portland at 12:30 PM, followed by a "teach-in"
at First Unitarian Church from 1:00 to 3:30 PM (SW 12th and Main).

The themes addressed throughout the day will include the expansion of US military
presence and US support for military occupations throughout the Middle East:

• End the Occupations of Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine

• Stop the Expanding Attacks in the Middle East: No Drone Strikes in Pakistan

• No War on Iran

• US Out of Latin America!

The day's events are being coordinated by Peace and Justice Works Iraq
Affinity Group and cosponsored or endorsed by at least 20 other organizations.

Cosponsors include: Women's International League for Peace and Freedom-Portland;
Portland Peaceful Response Coalition; Center for Intercultural Organizing;
American Iranian Friendship Council; Women in Black; American Friends
Service Committee; International Socialist Organization; Students
United for Palestinian Equal Rights (SUPER); Metanoia Peace
Community; Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility; Portland
Central America Solidarity Committee (PCASC); Crosstrade Solidarity;
War Resisters League-Portland; Americans United for Palestinian Human
Rights (AUPHR), and The Peace Project--New Directions for American
Foreign Policy.

Endorsers include Recruiter Watch
PDX, Freedom Socialist Party, IUPAT Painters Local 10; Workers
Action, and Portland Jobs with Justice.

For more information: Peace and Justice Works, 503-236-3065 or
iraq@pjw.info

Lawrence Wittner is the historian of the world's antinuclear movement with several academic and popular books available and hundreds of articles and analysis published. He will be speaking about grassroots opposition to nuclear weapons and how that opposition has stopped nuclear war. Please join us at Portland State University's Multicultural Center, Smith Memorial Union 228, 3 p.m.

Wittner's latest book, Confronting the Bomb, is now available from Stanford University Press and will be also available at Dr. Wittner's talk. FMI: pcwtom@gmail.com

Film Screening: Jornaleros

VOZ Workers’ Rights Education Project will be premiering their new documentary “Jornaleros.” Through music, poetry, and art, "Jornaleros" documents the lives and creative work of five Portland day laborers.  The film humanizes the debates on immigration and immigrant labor in the US by showing these day laborers, first and foremost, as artists and activists in the community. The documentary will premier on March 25, 2010 at 7 PM at the Clinton Street Theatre located on 2522 SE Clinton Street. Tickets will be sold for $6 general admission/$5 Students/$4 Seniors and can be purchased at the theatre.

Jornaleros challenges prejudices, enhances understanding and gives an educational point of view of the Latin-American people and immigrants, as well as their many talents and cultural contributions. The objective is to enhance the sensitivity and awareness towards a local vulnerable group who is often used as scapegoats or deemed as “illegal” or criminals. This documentary portrays immigrants and day labors as survivors, active community members, and most importantly, humans. As humans they also form a valuable and productive workforce and have the right to a dignified life and humane working conditions.  This documentary will challenge the perception of and give positive media representation to a group who is often the back lash of anti-immigration groups. It will show the story of people’s lives, even if the rest of society condemns them for simply existing.