SPECIAL FEATURES PAGE

(New Content posted (06/06/06)
AUDIO FILE:GREG PALAST-BLOOD FOR NO OIL.
Investigative reporter Greg Palast spoke in Portland on Monday evening, June 5, 2006, to packed house at the First Unitarian Church. The event was sponsored by KBOO radio, 90.7 fm and the Portland Alliance newspaper.
His appearance was part of an international tour called, "Armed Madhouse: Dispatches From the Front Lines of the Class War."
Palast was his usual flippant, humorous and sarcastic self. Yet, under this veneer, he unleashes serious facts and devastating statistics which, at least to my mind, leave no doubt as to the deliberate fraud perpetrated on the American voter during the 2000 and 2004 general election.
For instance, 2004 exit polls showed John Kerry ahead 51% to George Bush 49 among men and 53% to 47% among women. "Okay class, what is the third sex that put George Bush over the top...... the disappeared, the uncounted."
"In American, 2004, November second, in Ohio, George Bush was announced the winner by 118, 000 votes. Not counting 239,127 votes, almost twice as many votes as the so called victory margin, were never counted. And you know, here is the nastier secret: it ain't just Ohio; and in 2000 it wasn't just Florida. That's what they want you to think. Not counting the votes is as American as apple pie and there were 3,680,000 votes cast and never counted in the United States of America, not Ukraine, not Uganda. I got this from deep in the files o the Election Information Administration of the U.S. government for which we stand."
Palast then goes on to describe the two categories of votes that aren't counted, which are spoiled votes and rejected votes. 1,389, 231 spoiled votes were not counted. "Hanging chads, they hung around from 222, they multiplied.....punch cards that don't punch, touch screens that didn't think you touched them right, they weren't in the mood." These "glitches" were to a much higher percentage non white voters. "In the United States of American, the chance your vote will be lost or rejected for a technical reason, is 900% greater if you are an African American voter than if you are white; 500% higher if you are a Hispanic voter than if you're white; and if you're Native American, about 2,000% higher than if you're white."
"In that stinking, rotting pile of spoiling votes, 88% are cast by voters of color. Almost 9 out of 10, whose votes don't count, whose votes spoil has a very dark hue." He speaks most eloquently of the war on Iraq, or more accurately, the war for the oil of Iraq. And here he brings out information that is not the usual perspective on U.S. designs on Iraq and the Middle East. Put in historical perspective, much of what the U.S. and other global corporations are doing in the Middle East is more to hold the oil reserves back, to keep the profits up as high as possible.
My intention is to wet your whistle on this excellent presentation, not blow the whistle on the many exposés and fresh perspectives offered by Palast to this eager audience of about 600 people. So, you'll have to listen to his words for yourself. This audio file is well worth the listen. Likewise with the reason I chose "Blood for No Oil," as the title for this report, taken directly from Palast, towards the end of his hour long presentation."
Greg finishes off with striking words of advice, and actually a way we can hamstring and short circuit what will surely be a well planned out attempt to steal another election in 2008.

Greg Palast, Armed Madhouse, RealPlayer
Greg Palast, Armed Madhouse, MP3

(New Content posted 04/18/06)
AUDIO FILES: Terrorism Creep, The 'Terrorization' of Criminal And Free Speech Acts.
This is audio from the first of three forums being held at the First Unitarian Church, sponsored by the Portland Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild and the Northwest Constitutional Rights Center. It is a forum on the impact of the "War on Terror" on dissent on the United States.
This first forum was organized in response to the recent indictments and arrests of individuals accused of engaging in "domestic terrorism" – specifically arson and conspiracy to commit arson. The program for the evening was introduced by Karstan Lovorn, of the Portland National Lawyers Guild. After a few remarks he introduced the speakers for the evening.
STEVE WAX, from the Oregon Federal Public Defender’s Office. Steve begins by giving the third edition of the American Heritage College Dictionary definition of Terror: an intense overpowering fear, followed by its definition of terrorism, "the unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence to intimidate or coerce a society or government, often for ideological or political.
Steve remarks that, by his view, "by definition, terror is a type of crime. Crime, by definition, being an act in violation of the law, that has a penal consequence. "Steve speaks about the range of crimes, with the varying degrees of punishment. He says that the government tends to view as the most serious crimes of all, those that "attack the social order, crimes that undermine the ability of the government to function. Terrorist acts, by definition of the government, are seen as the most serious of crimes because they undermine the rule of law...the rule of law being that which keeps us all free."
Why does the government take a kind of crime and put it "in that subset basket of terrorism? Steve states that it is inherent in the concept of government that they have the right to protect themselves when they feel threatened, and hence, crimes that they feel attacks their ability to function are easily redefined as terrorism.
Steve continues, discussing how acts of terror and terrorism have been used historically, and lays the groundwork for much of what is to follow from the other two panelists.

ASHLEE ALBIES, an attorney working with the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York spoke mainly to the issue of the NSA wiretapping, going into the background of the how the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) statute relates to Separation of Powers. "The FISA statute allows wiretapping according to regulation passed by Congress............the Executive branch gets to determine who is to be wiretapped according to these procedures, and they present this evidence to a judge, and the judge approves it and the wiretapping begins. Currently the Bush Administration is bypassing FISA completely. They say who they are going to wiretap, how they are going to wiretap and they say why they are going to wiretap, and there is no procedure from any other branch and there is no check from any other branch. "This represents a tremendous expansion in Executive power."
The Administration, through the Department of Justice, has offered up a 42 page legal justification for its actions, called the "White Paper," saying that the "President has inherent authority as Commander In Chief to warrantlessly wiretap people in this country....that the Authorization for Military Force passed right after 911, authorized the president to use all necessary and appropriate force to find the people who carried out the 911 attack." There are many Constitutional lawyers and members of Congress who disagree with this interpretation.
Ashelee continues, speaking about this ever expanding encroachment into our political lives.

STU SUGARMAN, co chair of the NLG Litigation Committee, begins by locating the first historical use of the word terrorism in the English language in France, during the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century. From here he discusses the derivation of the term "eco terrorist," as coming on the scene in the early 1970's. He believes that it began in England, "in response to acts done by early root groups that later became the Earth Liberation Front, that started in the United Kingdom. Between 1970 and 1975 that term started to be used.
Stu, as did all the speakers, stresses the importance of language. "Who is really threatened by vandalism, by eco sabotage, a word I might use to describe the same thing. I would encourage people to use as well, because language is a weapon, and it is focused on us, persistently and constantly. The government uses the word "terrorism" whenever it can; that is the very premise of this series. It criminalizes conduct that was not criminalized before."
A couple examples are then given, the first being the change in the government response to arson. "Arson was arson; however, when applied to people accused of burning a log truck near Estacada in 2001, the government was constantly using the term terrorism, these people are terrorists......Terrorists did this, not activists, not arsonists even, but terrorists. Federal judge here in Portland actually told the U.S. Attorneys office here in Portland, to stop using the word terrorism, because it did not apply to the case, whatever. He issued a partial gag order."
Another example is the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, which was originally passed in 1992 as the Animal Enterprise Protection Act, treating infractions as misdemeanors. The later law, passed in 2002, after the 911 attacks, says that" if somebody moves across state lines, either physically, over the phone or the internet, in order to physically disrupt an organization which uses animals in some way, that includes agriculture, the making of clothing, cosmetics.........they are guilty under this law of anything from a petty crime, under $10,000 dollars, to life imprisonment if someone dies as a result of that activity."
"That is another way that terrorism is being used against us and being aimed AT us." Stu continues for about another 5 minutes, before they wrap up for a Question and Answer period. Stu speaks from years of experience defending protestors, including Tre Arrow and Craig Rosebraugh.
The file is about 38 minutes in length.
Terrorism Creep, REAL PLAYER
Terrorism Creep, MP3

AUDIO FILES: But Is This Really Terrorism?" Environmental Crimes and the War on Terror.
The second of these three forums was held at the First Unitarian Church on April 5, 2006, being a response to the current government and media "Greenscare" campaign. It featured a panel discussion about the federal government's policy of ignoring and failing to prosecute violations of federal environmental laws by corporate polluters and extractive industries, while it aggressively prosecutes politically-motivated acts of property destruction by environmentalists under the "War on Terror" moniker
The program for the evening was moderated by Brenna Bell, a member of the National Lawyers Guild. After a few introductory remarks, Brenna introduced the guest speakers for the evening:
Kim Marks, Organizer with ForestEthics
Ben Rosenfeld, attorney in Judy Bari's successful suit against the FBI.
Dan Serres, Program Director for Friends of Living Waters.
Barbara Dudley, former Executive Director of Greenpeace USA and former President of the National Lawyers Guild.
To hear an audio file of the entire panel presentation at one time:
Greenscare, RealPlayer
Greenscare, MP3

Since this file is about and hour and five minutes in length, I've also broken the program up into a separate file for each speaker.
KIM MARKS gave an overview of the Corporate pillaging of the Earth for profit. She spoke both generally and particularly about the pollution of the air, water, and earth, perhaps dwelling most often on the damage done to forests and our eco systems which depend upon the forests. Her talk, including the introduction by Brenna Bell, is about 15 minutes in length.
Introduction and Kim Marks, RealPlayer
Introduction and Kim Marks, MP3

BEN ROSENFELD begins by speaking directly to the issue of the Greenscare, quoting FBI assessment of Green Anarchists, people who have a vision of sustainability and respect for all living beings as posing the greatest domestic security threat to our country right now. He believes that this might be a time for some folks "to lower their profile, lower their signature, to not stand out, and to not be repeater stations for information and gossip and innuendo about who did what. But it's also a time to form solidarity, to hold public meetings, town halls-like this, to get each others back, and to drag this cockroach of a process out into the light because it thrives on darkness and secrecy."
Ben states that the reason the FBI can attend and spy on meetings such as the one then taking place, "was because John Ashcroft liberalized what is known as the Attorney General Guidelines. Essentially what he (Ashcroft) said was that the FBI will now have the right to go everywhere the public goes. And that doesn't just mean onto the internet, but that means churches like this, into peoples homes, into group meetings and so forth.
"Now, they can claim they have that authority with a whiff of legitimacy... ....it's built on a very faulty premise, I think legally, but they're claiming that legitimacy based on this change in the Guidelines, and so some of my talk is dedicated to explaining some of the specifics about how this arises."
The present situation is the Red scare of the past coming back around. Ben states that he wants to go into the mechanics and provisions of the Guidelines, "because none of this arose in a vacuum."
This presentation lasts for about 20 minutes total.
Ben Rosenfeld, RealPlayer
Ben Rosenfeld, MP3

DAVID SERRES goes directly to the gross difference between government treatment of crimes for the environment versus crimes against the environment, speaking primarily about the corporate pollution of water, but also mentions soil and air pollution as well.
By way of example, Serres talks about the Blue Heron Paper Company, formerly Smurfit, situated on the Willamette River in Oregon City. They have a permit from Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to discharge turbid water into the river, at 40 NTU's, that pretty cloudy water. "They were given over 4 years to comply with this, during this time they were allowed to discharge water at 5 times that level. And that was 4.75 years ago, and instead of bringing them into compliance with the compliance schedule, they wre given another 4 1/2 years to discharge at the higher level. It's just an example of how the rules are bent to favor the polluters."
According to Serres, the DEQ is proposing to formalize this type of flexibility for permit holders, by changing our water clarity laws. "They want to take areas of our public rivers where they'll let them discharge any water at any clarity, and those will be open sewers to allow this mixing area for industrial effluent to come to compliance without rules. This seems counter intuitive to me, that any public resource would be used in that manner.....these changes in the rules are funded by the Pulp and Paper Industry."

This talk is about 11 1/2 minutes in length.
David Serres, RealPlayer
David Serres, MP3

(EDITORS NOTE)In November of 2005 a Press Conference was held in front of the Oregon DEQ, to draw media and public attention to this change of rules.
Speakers at this Conference, in order of their appearance, were:
Mark Riskedahl, Executive Director of Northwest Environmental Defense Center
Rhett Lawrence, Conservation Advocate with Oregon State Public Interest Research Group
Erica Maharg of Oregon Sierra Club and
Brent Foster of Columbia Riverkeeper

Water Quality Press Conference,RealPlayer
Water Quality Press Conference, MP3

BARBARA DUDLEY spoke eloquently from her experience with Greenpeace USA and the National Lawyers Guild. She demonstrates with specific examples how prosecution of civil disobedience direct action tactics have frequently moved from misdemeanors to felonies since the election of George W. Bush.
"One of the things that we try to do within the environmental movement is enforce whatever pathetic environmental laws we do have in this country, because the government is not enforcing them................so many environmental organizations take it upon themselves, one way or another to enforce the laws that exist. And we can do that in a number of way; you can do it through litigation..........you can do it through bearing witness, you can do it by calling media and other public attention to the fact that these laws are not being enforced, or you can put your body in the way of those who are trying to destroy the planet. All of those are valid tactics." "Between 1971 when Greenpeace was formed and 2001....... Greenpeace regularly took inflatable boats and blocked nuclear submarines, got in the way of nuclear missile tests, got in the way of whaling ships, got in the way of chemical shipments, shipments of hazardous waste and so on. We never during those years faced felony charges anywhere in the world." Barbara continues, saying that after George Bush became president, In August of 2001, before the 911 attacks, Greenpeace, temporarily blocked an illegal test of the star wars missile that were being shot off somewhere near Vandenberg Air Force Base. "They were charged with felonies, they were facing 11 years each, and $500,000 in fines."
Consequently, as a result of the changed climate in this country after the 911 attacks, Greenpeace was forced to accept a Civil Injunction, agreeing not to go near any missile tests in any U.S. naval or Air Force facilities.
Barbara continues, detailing other similar examples concerning Greenpeace in the current greenscare climate, and also brings up parallels from the days of the government Red Scare against the American Communist Party. This talk is about 20 minutes in length.
Barbara Dudley, RealPlayer
Barbara Dudley, MP3

"But Is This Really Terrorism?": The Chilling Effect.
The series is intended to educate the public about the U.S. Government’s increased spying and surveillance of environmental, animal rights, and anti-war groups and its negative effects on civil society and democracy in America. The upcoming panel discussion, the third and last of the series, will focus on the chilling effect on political participation of labeling as "terrorism" acts of civil disobedience and constitutionally protected activities.
The forum was moderated by Alan Graf, attorney. After a brief introduction he introduced the speakers. Featured speakers included:
David Fidanque, Executive Director, ACLU Oregon Hope Marston, organizer with Bill of Rights Defense Committee;
Karen Coulter, Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project.

The entire presentation lasted about 47 minutes.
The Chilling Effect, RealPlayer
The Chilling Effect, MP3

Due to its length, I've broken the presentations into separate files for each speaker.
The first audio file includes the initial introduction by Alejandro Queral, Director of the Northwest Constitutional Rights Center as well as Alan Graf, who, after a few brief comments, introduced the speakers. First to speak was David Findanque. This file is about 20 minutes in length.
David Fidanque, RealPlayer
David Fidanque, MP3

David was followed by Karen Coulter, who spoke for about 12 minutes.
Karen Coulter, RealPlayer
Karen Coulter, MP3

And last to speak was Hope Marston, who spoke for about15 minutes.
Hope Marston, RealPlayer
Hope Marston, MP3

(New Content posted 03/26/06)
NATIONAL SUMMIT TO SAVE OUR ELECTIONS.
Over the week end of September 30-October 2, 2005, a National Summit To Save Our Elections was held at the First Unitarian Church in Portland Oregon. This Summit provided information on how corporate-owned electronic election systems are affecting our vote as well as the ways we can help restore citizen ownership of our elections. Top election reform advocates and renowned independent media personalities led the Summit and presented strategies to restore election integrity in America.

Representative Earl Blumenauer provided the opening remarks for Saturday, the second day of the three day session.
Earl Blumenauer, RealPlayer
Earl Blumenauer, MP3

This was followed by a short presentation by Thom Hartmann introducing a three person panel speaking to the theme, "Corporate Ownership Of Our Elections: The Threat To Our Democracy."
Thom Hartman, RealPlayer
Thom Hartman, MP3

Panelists:
John Gideon, of Voters Unite
An alphabet soup of organizations, both public and private, control voting systems technology. The misinformation and money is clear when seen on a flow chart. The misinformation, and sometimes the money, extends down to state and local elections officials, and the misinformation flows from the vendors and those elections officials through the media to the voting public. The vendors have been left to regulate themselves, but that self-rule is beginning to crumble as the public and election officials are gaining information about how the system works and are challenging it.

Nancy Price of The Alliance For Democracy
Trade agreements can prevent jurisdictions from enforcing local or state standards or laws which are more restrictive than national or international laws. Due to trade agreements, Canada lost its ability to rule out Federal Express as a contender for its state-run package delivery service. California lost its rights to outlaw a Canadian-made gasoline additive that violated the state’s environmental standards. If these actions can occur and be upheld by the World Trade Organization in the name of free trade, then voting systems, both hardware and software, may be subject to the same rules.

Matthew Pascarella, researcher for Greg Palast
The Help America Vote Act requires all states to have a centralized voter registration database in place by January 1, 2006. Electionline, a non-partisan research group, has noted that this will be “the most complex and arguably most significant mandate for federal election reform.” Based on recent history, and on states that have already started preparing these centralized databases, most of these databases will be compiled and managed by private companies rather than the state. Only a few short years ago, county-level boards that fed data up to the state level managed many voter registration databases, but now many states have chosen to outsource these systems to private companies such as Accenture, ES&S, and Diebold. Under a backdrop of conflict of interests between politicians and private election companies working to administer our elections, Matt will discuss examples from Florida, Wisconsin, and New Mexico, and how these relate to what we all need to know about the privatization of our voter registration databases.
Matthew Pascarella, RealPlayer
Matthew Pascarella, MP3

The Keynote speaker for the afternoon session was David Cobb, Green Party candidate for president in the 2004 general election.
He spoke to the Lessons Learned from the 2004 Presidential Election & the Ohio Recount. He also discussed his party's leading role in instigating the Ohio recount, focusing on lessons learned. Deeply concerned over allegations of racial discrimination, voter disenfranchisement and unreliable electronic voting machines, Cobb and the Green Party pursued an unprecedented statewide recount of the presidential vote, creating the climate that made the historic Electoral College vote challenge possible. David concluded with specific actions that citizens can take to help build a genuine democracy movement in this country.
David Cobb, RealPlayer
David Cobb, MP3
This was followed by a presentation on The Carter-Baker Commision, Voter ID, and How Ordinary Citizens Can Make A Difference by Brad Friedman, Brad Blog
Brad Friedman, RealPlayer
Brad Friedman, MP3

(New Content posted 01/29/05)
National Day Of Action.
On Thursday, January 27, 2005, a Vigil and Press Conference was held at Terry Schrunk Plaza in Portland Oregon to draw attention to a steady increase in violent attacks, civil rights abuses and workplace rights abuses against Day Workers in this country. This Portland event was one of many such actions taking place around the country.
Before the Press Conference, 14 candles and 14 crosses were handed out to the gathering representing 14 documented incidents of violence directed at day laborers. According to information distributed in the media packet, these were only a few of the examples of hostility directed at day laborers across the country. During this vigil, 14 people from the community read one incident each from one of 14 different areas of the United States. This reading was in both Spanish and English.
Some examples of the abuses:
In Jacksonville Florida, two day laborers lay dead after 27 robberies and attacks in the last three months. Many of the attacks were brutally violent with multiple victims. In Canton, Georgia, on at least two occasions, high school students offered day laborers work, drove them away from the corner, cruelly beat them, and robbed them of their salaries. In Portland, Oregon, two day laborers die in the past two weeks. One of them in a work accident, and the other one is still under investigation. In San Diego, California, workers were robbed while waiting for work on the corner.
From the Media Packet literature:
"In many municipalities day laborers were victims of robberies, violent assaults, and in some cases murders. In others, day laborers experienced massive civil rights violations as local police harassed, arrested, and imprisoned workers merely for seeking work in public, in blatant disregard for the Constitutional rights. In most neighborhoods where day laborers congregate to solicit employment throughout the country, they experience high rates of unpaid wage incidents, discrimination, and other law violations committed by abusive employers."
"A significant number of these brutal attacks were racially motivated crimes and mistreatment. Initially, reports of criminal activity against day laborers appeared to be random and sporadic, but as reports continue to surface, workers and advocates begin to detect an alarming trend of escalating violence."
"Day laborers represent the face of the immigrant community and the working poor. As they stand on corners seeking work, their labor is accepted but their physical presence is not. Each instance of abuse against day laborers further disenfranchises a group of people who are already the most disenfranchised among us." This reading of the 14 incidents is featured in an 8 minute video:
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After the Vigil, a Press Conference was held,, during which several members of the community spoke out against the abuses and the need for the community to join together and repudiate such actions. This is an an 18 minute audio file from that Conference..
Press Conference
This event was put together by VOZ, Workers Rights Education Project. whose mission is to secure and protect immigrant workers' rights through education, leadership development and community organizing. They can be reached by phone at 503-233-6787.

(New Content posted 01/22/05)
MIXED MEDIA REPORT FROM INAUGURATION PROTEST, 1/20/05.
One of several activities protesting the Bush Inauguration which took place at Terry Schrunk Plaza in downtown Portland was a series of Tibetan Prayer Flags, hung to represent the loss of life in Iraq. Flags were strung out on a rope, one for each U.S. soldier, and one for each 1,000 Iraqis. It was a dramatic reminder of the enormous loss of life and the suffering of those who remain behind to morn the extravagant waste of human life, for whatever reason.
This visual display was organized by Compassion Action League, and other local groups. These displays are especially important because of U.S. regulations prohibiting photographing the coffins, or anything which might portray the tragic side of this war. And tragic it is, for the soldiers, their families, the Iraqi people, and too, for the American people, whose ignorance has permitted and often supported this "preemptive" invasion of a foreign country.
For a one minute video of the Tibetan Prayer Flag display at Terry Schrunk Plaza:
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Last summer another visual display was organized at Laurelhurst Park. It was called Rise In Remembrance. At that event, the loss of life was represented by a release of black balloons carrying the name tags of soldiers who had lost their life in Iraq. This Thursdays display had more flags than balloons, as we can be sure that in the near future, the next display will certainly feature more names than were on the prayer flags.
For a short video of that event:
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The rally at Terry Schrunk Plaza, from 11:00 to 1:00, featured many speakers. A 14 minute audio file of Linda Marshall, speaking for Military Families Speak Out Linda gave a perspective of what many of the soldiers and their families are going through. She also speaks to the lack of proper equipment, the incidence of PTSD, and finishes with what the citizens of the U.S. can do to assist in ending this war.
Also, there is a drive to convince Governor Kulongoski to pull our troops from service in Iraq. Postcards were handed out asking the Governor to do this, in hopes that this might start an avalanche of other states doing the same.
Linda Marshall

(New Content posted 01/01/05)
AUDIO FILE: TRE ARROW INTERVIEW FROM HOSPITAL IN 2001.
In October of 2001, Tre Arrow was injured in a fall from a tree sit in the Acey Line Timber Sale in a region called God's Valley, near Nehalem, at the Oregon coast. He was injured protesting an Oregon State Forestry sale of a public forest, which was opposed by many of the local people as well as activists from the Portland area.
Tre states that "the reason we were out there at God's Valley......was because we care; we care about this state, we care about the state forests, we care about wildlife, we care about human beings and air and water quality. Things that we want people to know is that this is a habitat for spotted owl and marbled murrelet, despite what ODF (Oregon Department of Forestry) claims. This is an area that has old growth qualities and old growth trees, despite what ODF claims. This is also the backyard to many people's homes, individuals that have families and children, that get their drinking water from this area that we are trying to protect. And there actually has been a history and a record of peoples drinking water being contaminated by the very logging operations in this area because they are so close to the streams that these people get their drinking water from."
The loggers in the area were very critical of these protests in general and of tree sits in particular. They exclaim that there must be other, better ways to achieve the goals prompting the protests. In response to such comments from one of the loggers who chopped off the branches below his perch on the tree he was protecting, Tre says, "there are other ways, and every other way has failed. Every other tactic, every other legal action, every other action has failed.....There were focus groups, there were letters, there was a comment period, there were several other measures that were taken, legal measures as well, to try to prevent this, to prevent the cutting, to try and prevent some tragedies, like what has happened now. And again, ODF was completely unresponsive, and all of our other actions have fallen on deaf ears. And they even had the audacity to start cutting in one of the area, area three, before the comment period was even up."
Tre continues discussing this particular sale, and how government officials aren't concerned about the safety of activists, who often put their life and limb in jeopardy in defense of public lands. "What happened up there was that they were cutting trees right around where we were. There was no buffer zone; there was no protection of safety, and the fact that I'm not dead is truly a miracle." He continues: " I think that this is outrageous, and that people must do as much as they can to hold these agencies accountable for their actions."
Towards the end of the interview, Tre makes a special effort to emphasize that this protest began in the local area, and the assistance of outside activists was specifically requested. "The public in the God's Valley area were so concerned about their forests, about the state of their air, water quality and wildlife there, that they sought out direct action activists because there were not that many people in that area to take on those kinds of responsibilities..........local businesses, local residents, community members that were in all walks of life, in government agencies, in schools and other occupations, were all in support of what all of us were doing out there, in an attempt to halt ODF in their lies and in their destruction, and to try to save some of the last remaining ancient forests that is along the coast."
The total length of this file is about 13 minutes.
Hospital Interview with Tre Arrow

Later on the same day that Tre was injured, a large gathering of people marched to the site and crossed the line into an area which ODF declared was out of bounds for the public. Many people were arrested, some very brutally. A media person, wearing her press pass in plain sight, was pulled from the legal side of the line of protestors, and thrown forcibly to the ground. She was not arrested, probably due to the press pass, yet the pass was in plain sight and many questioned if this was an accident, or an instance of intimidation tactics used by local law enforcement personnel.. After these arrests, I interviewed a local resident who also remarked on how this protest had local roots. She also speaks to the tactics of intimidation used by the ODF to suppress local dissent during the time that comments on the sale were being gathered.
I post this video to demonstrate that, though Tre is accused of Eco-Terrorism, this accusation is not proven, and that law enforcement officers employ methods every day to suppress and control dissent that are, in every definition of the word, terrorism. To intimidate is to terrorize. They both have the same goal, and justify their use of these methods with similar rationalizations. One of the definitions for intimidate is "to coerce by intimidation or fear." Whether this intimidation is used to suppress dissent or achieve particular political goals, the effect upon those who are subjected to this behavior is similar, if not identical. And, this is not the "American Way" I was raised up to believe in and support. This is not a feature of "the land of the free and the home of the brave" taught in our schools and churches. It is not a family value and the acceptance of such methods is truly an example of a gradual moral decline in this nation.
Video file is 5 minutes in length:
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(New Content posted 11/08/04)
AUDIO FEATURE: THE NATIONAL SECURITY STATE
Friday evening, November 5, 2004, a presentation was held at the First Methodist Church in Portland Oregon concerning the erosion of Civil Rights and the emergence of the National Security State in this country. After giving a brief biography of both speakers the moderator introduced the first speaker, Elden Rosenthall.
Elden Rosenthall, according to the moderator, is the premier civil rights lawyer in Portland. "He's been involved in serveral police accountability cases over the years. He represented the family of Mulugeta Seraw, an Ethiopian man who was killed by....a Neo Nazi group back in the early 90's, and obtained a multi million dollar verdict on behalf of the family....." Rosenthall is also currently involved with the Perez case, James Perez being an unarmed African American man murdered by the Portland Police Department during a routine traffic stop. And most recently, along with Jerry Spence and a Newport attorney, he is representing Brandon Mayfield in the civil rights case he has filed against John Ashcroft and the U.S. government.
He begins, referencing Joseph McCarthy, by speaking of the history of American intolerance, Xenophobia and the jailing of dissenters. "Our history is replete with alien and sedition acts; efforts to declare Marshall Law; restrictions on minorities, and in the 50's, redbaiting.....My view of American history is that whenever the U.S., either rightly or wrongly, perceives the existance of real threats from foreign powers or organized minorities, that oppresive Federal legislation is inevitabley enacted, which seeks to protect America by restricting the Civil Liberties of Americans." Rosenthall then speaks about CIA and FBI infiltration of the Black Power and Civil Rights movements of the 60's, including Martin Luther King, using electronic surveilance and informants. Not mentioned were similar infiltrations and sabotage of the American Indian Movement.
Due to these widespread abuses, in 1975-76, the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations With Respect To Intelligence Activities...... conducted an investigation of the U.S. Intelligence Agencies to determine the extent to which U.S. citizens had been subjected to invasion of their privacy by the American Government." This committee discovered that the CIA had illegally spied on as many as 7,000 citizens throughout the 1960's and early 1970's, during what was termed "Operation Chaos," and that the FBI, as part of Operation COINTELLPRO, had authorized illegal wiretapping of dissenters and anti war protestors.
"As a result of these investigations, the Foreign Intelligence Security Act was adopted. FISA was actually an effort to reign in governmental abuses. FISA required for the first time a showing of probable cause before allowing domestic surveilance, where the purpose of surveilance was to obtain foreign intelligence information from an American citizen or resident. Because prior to the adoption of FISA, every Attorney General and President since Roosevelt had claimed the inherent right to wiretap American citizens and residents, as long as it was a foreign intelligence purpose. FISA changed that and said 'wait a minute,' you've got to go through some steps before that type of surveilance."
"After 911 however, the government took FISA and turned it on its head." Rosenthall continues speaking about the PATRIOT Act, empasizing the current misuse of the Material Witness Statute and finishing up discussing the forced incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War 11.This was an engaging and illuminating presentation, which, along with his introduction, lasted about 17 minutes.
Elden Rosenthall

The second speaker was Michael Avery, national president of the National Lawyers Guild Avery, a Professor at Suffolk University in Boston, is also one of the founders of and active with, the National Police Accountability Project,
a project of the Lawyers Guild.
Beginning with some remarks about the recent election, Avery asks if any of those present were tired of voting for the Democrat because they weren't as bad as Nixon, or Reagan, or Bush's one and two. He the says that "we're liberated from the Democrats as far as I'm concerned; as progressive people we need to chart a different course, and now is the time to do it, and now is the time that we have to do it. Let's talk about whre our country is right now."
Avery says that all forms of government suirvuve for a certain amount of time and pass away. But, here in AMerica, we seem to think that our experiment in Constitutional Democracy would will survive forever. "Well now we're ;looking straight in the teeth of the fact that it may not go on forever, that our experiment in COnstitutional Democracy may be coming to an end.....(that) it may be replaced by an American form of a National Security State, and we are already well down that road.........."
He then quotes C. William Michaels's book, No Greater Threat, , which analyzes the PATRIOT Act, chapter by chapter, "And also talks historically speaking about those elements of society and government that are necessary and characteristic of National Security States. He points out that if we have a NSS in the United States, it's not necessarily going to look like a police state, or a Latin American dictatorship or exactly like the Third Reich, it's going to have a particular American character of it's own. But if you review National Security States over a period of history, these are some of the characteristics he says they have." Avery then goes on to list 12 of these characteristics of a National Security State and asks "where do we stand in America today in regard to these 12 things?:"
"First, visible increase in visible security;
Lack of accountability in law enforcement;
Reduced role of the Judiciary, and instead, Executive treatment of suspects;
Secrecy on the part of the ruling authority;
Media that operates in the service of the State;
Natural resources devoted almost single-mindedly to the aledged security threat;
Patriotism that gallops towards Nationalism;
Lack of critical response by Religion, to what's happening on the part of the State;
A wartime mentality and a permanant wartime economy;
Individuals and groups that are targeted for special treatment;
A direct attack on dissent;
Increased surveillance of the citizen."
"I hear nothing in that list that is unfamiliar to me, in terms of the American landscape. There are certain rights that our Constitution has always protected that are essential to the exercize of other rights. I would mention just three. One is the right of Habeus Corpus....second Freedom of Speech.... third, protection of your privacy. And all three of these......are the prime target of the PATRIOT Act; of the Executive Proclamations that President Bush issued; of the Memoranda that Attorney General Ashcroft issued."
From there Avery discusses the importance of National Security Letters, which are in a different section of the PATRIOT Act than the FISA Provisions, mentioned earlier by Elden Rosenthall. They are in section 505 of the Act. Few in the room were familiar with these so he goes on to define them and explain their importance.
"National Security Letters are letters that the F.B.I. can send out to telephone companiues, telecommunication companies, and financial institutions, requesting information which they internally certify is significant to counter terrorism or foreign intelligence investigation." To do this, "the F.B.I. does not need the permission of any court. The person has to respond to the National Security Letter by furnishing whatever information they have in their possession about the subject of the letter....In December of 2003, with very little fanfare, the definition of finacial institutions was expanded.so that it now includes almost anything." He goes on to illustrate how this could be used, citing the recent terror alert which took place in Las Vegas Nevada, between December 23, 2003 and New Years. The government sent National Security Letters to every hotel in Las Vegas, asking for all the information those hotels had about anyone who had stayed in their hotels during that period. Anyone sho flew in and out of Las Vegas, and anyone who rented a trcuk during that tiome period were also scrutinized. "To justify this, all the F.B.I. has to say is that this is pursuant to a counter terroism or foreign intelligence investigation."
Avery continues on for a total of about 28 miunutes, further defining and explaining the proximity of the National Security State to our daily lives.
Michael Avery

And finally, Dr. Frankel, spoke concerning what people in Portland and Multnomah Country are doing about the PATRIOT Act. Frankel opens his remarks directly to the point: "December 9th, Thursday morning, 9:30, the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners will unanimously pass a resolution expressing a committment to protect civil rghts and reduce discrimination and harassment in the era of the USA PATRIOT Act." This resolution will soon be published "together with a set of appendices, one of which will be a brief history abd a detailed content of the Bill of Rights. Another will be a detailed analysis of the effects of the USA PATRIOT Act on civil rights."
"But the most important part of the set of appendices will be letters that are currently being written by groups of many sorts in Multnomah County: lawyers groups; professional groups in other professions; national minlrity groups; peace and justice groups; academic groups' trade union groups; business peoples groups." These letters will be thanking the Commissioners for generating a Resolution addressing these topics, "and an explanation of why the individual or the organization that is sending the letter regards this as being of great importance."
Dr. Frankel encourages people to give serious consideration, either as individuals or members of organizations, to write letters directed to the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners, "saying that you're pleased that a Resolution of this sort is being passed and spelling out why you consider it to be important." The purpose for this is not only to be raising consciousness about this issue, "but to establish connections, to be establishing a basis for us to exercise our rights and our responsibilities to be active citizens."
The website for this action is Rights 101Oregon
After a few more remarks Dr. Frankel concluded his presentation, which lasted about 7 minutes.

Dr. Herman Frankel

New content posted 07/08/04
AUDIO AND VIDEO FILES: Defending our Precious Forests
Tuesday, July 6, 2004, simultaneous rallies were held in Portland and Medford to protest the largest public lands timber sale in modern history in the Siskiyou Wild Rivers area in Southwestern, Oregon. The Portland rally first gathered at the Greenpeace ship, Artic Sunrise, and then moved the brief distance to the Battleship Memorial in Waterfront Park.
The brief program was moderated by Joe Keating of Witnesses Against Lawless Logging. Joe first introduced Rolf Skar, of the Siskiyou Project, who gave a synopsis of the threat to this unique area. Next to speak was Laura Etherton of OSPIRG, followed by Jake Krielick of the National Forest Protection Alliance
From there all marched down to the US Forest Service office chanting "shame on you." At the building they were greeted by about 4 officers, one armed with some kind of high tech paint gun, who kept the crowd back away from the doors of the building, which was, as usual, in shut down mode. This is the first time I've seen this scenario, where the people were kept back away from the doorway of the building, Again, the event was moderated by Joe Keating, first introducing Rolf Skar who announced the winnder of this years "Golden Stump Award. The winners were George Bush, Linda Goodman, regional Forest Service supervisor, and Mark Rey, a former timber lobbyist for 25 years who is now in charge of the Forest Service
. Following the award ceremony burnt biscuits were lined up on the sidewalk to emphasize dissatisfaction with current Forest Service plans to log 372 million board feet in the Biscuit post-fire project, filling 70,000 logging trucks.

For a 9 1/2 minute video file of the rally and march, including the award ceremony and burnt biscuit offering:
DSL/CABLE Stream

56 K Stream

While at the Greenpeace ship I interviewed two of the crew members, Ginger Cassady and Jeremy Paster.
Ginger spoke about Grenpeace that the ship had just arrived in Portland from the Amazon and will be heading to the Tongass National Forest in Alaska when it departs downtown Portland. Jeremy spoke about the threats to the Tongass National Forest and the efforts to protect this area. These are two audio files of those interviews:
Ginger Cassady
Jeremy Paster
Besides Greenpeace, some other web resources concerning the Tongass:
Southeast Alaska Conservation Council
Alaska Coalition
Alaska Conservation Alliance

Finally, a Press Conference was held on the ship, moderated by Carol Gregory. First to speak was Scott Paul, Forest Campaign Coordinator for Greenpeace. "The US is currently experiencing the most significant dismantling of environmental laws in our history. Simultaneously, we are experiencing unprecedented restrictions in the ability of the American people to participate in publioc lands management decisions." His remarks were followed by Rolf Skar, of the Siskiyou Project. Rolf addressed the controversial Biscuit Fire Recovery Project. This mega-sale is unfortunately located squarely over the Siskiyou Wild Rivers, a landscape graced by pristine rivers, steep, rugged mountains, huge roadless forests and world-class biodiversity.
Last to speak was Sandi Scheinberg of Bark who spoke about the threats to the Mt. Hood National Forest, including at least 50 timber sales, about half of which are up to be cut at any time. Some have already been cut already this spring and summer. Mention was made about designating Mt. Hood a National Park. Mt. Hood National Park

About an eleven minute file:
Press Conference

New content posted 06/20/04
OUR DEMOCRACY, OUR AIRWAVES CONFERENCE
Saturday afternoon, June 19, 2004, a conference on media areform was held at Portland State University, sponsored by the Money in Politics Research Action Project.
This Conference was a prelude to a Future of the Media Town Hall to be held at the Oregon Conference Center, located at 777 NE MLK Jr. Blvd. This event will be from 5-7 pm in Room 204.
The following is taken from an e-mail alert sent out by Julie S. Omelchuck, assistant director of the Mt. Hood Cable Regulatory Commission, which oversees cable television operations in Multnomah County.
"Two members of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are coming to a Future of Media Town Hall in Portland on June 24, 5:30 until testimony ends. Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein are interested in hearing from communities and individuals about the connection between media and the local community. The Commissioners, and local panelists, will explore how the local media are serving the public interest, addressing local needs and providing diverse voices.
A central feature of the Town Hall will be the opportunity for people to testify or comment on these issues.
It's important that community access be represented at the Town Hall. David Olson will be a presenter on a panel and he will address the importance of a local regulatory structure to ensuring public benefits in our communities, including access benefits. Curt Henninger, Comcast, will also present on the same panel.
For more information, The Future of the Media, Town Meetings or call Andrea Cano at 503-731-8874. To "pre register" for public comment, call Janice Thompson, 503-283-1922. There is also a Testimony Coaching and Resource opportunity on June 23, 6:00-8:00 pm at Portland Community Media, 2766 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. You can stop by in person or call-in between 6:00-8:00 pm to talk with someone about your testimony or to receive resources to help you craft your comments. The call-in number is 503-288-1515 ext. 17.
Let's rally our communities to speak out about localism in our media."
This is a rare opportunity to speak truth to power, and the Saturday Conference was organized to prepare individuals to speak their truth clearly to the FCC on Thursday evening. The first speaker was Janice Thompson, executive Director of Money in Politics Research Action Project, who gave about a seven minute Overview and Introduction.
Janice Thompson
A Resource Panel, consisting of five speakers, followed her remarks. First to speak was Bruce Fife, President, American Federation of Musicians, Local 99, who spoke for 10 minutes about radio deregulation and venue issues facing local musicians. Bruce speaks particularly about Clear Channel and how hey are able to control what gets played over the airwaves.
Bruce Fife
David Olson, Director of the Mount Hood Cable Regulatory Commission spoke next for about 16n minutes, about community benefits from local regulation of media.He is a fountain of information about cable television and the history of local regulation of the media.
David Olson
Next, Jeanne Carpenter, an organizer with the Communication Workers of America, Local 7901 and Margaret Butler, Director, Jobs With Justice, with a power point presentation addressed Comcast corporate responsibility, as well as worker and consumer issues.
Jean and Margaret
Following this power point presentation, Sarah Wetherson,Research and Outreach Associate for Money in Politics Action Project, addressed public interest obligations and political coverage of the media. Political news shrinks while political ad volume and costs go up.
Sarah Wetherson
And finally, Rick Seifert, Board Member, Northwest Media Literacy Center talked about media literacy and unmet public interest obligations.
Rick Seifert
The information contained in these audio files will be invaluable to anyone who plans to testify before the FCC at the Town Hall meeting next Thursday. But, even for those who do not attend, these files give an education in the need for media reform, both locally and nationally.

(New Content posted 04/17/04)
AUDIO FILE: OXYGEN COLLECTIVE'S FIRE AND FORESTS ROAD SHOW
Wednesday evening, April 14, 2004, the Oxygen Collective held their Fire and Forest Roadshow at Portland State University.
The Oxygen Collective, from Ashland Oregon, are touring the West Coast from San Francisco to Seattle spreading awareness about devastating projects proposed by the Forest Service and the BLM. Specifically, the Bush Administration's proposal to "salvage" the 2002 Biscuit fire, seeking to log 20,000 acres of old growth reserves. This timber sale would be be the largest timber sale in modern history. Quoting from Rolf Skar, who also works with Siskiyou Project. Excerpted from an information page on the Oxygen Collective website:
"How large is this extreme scheme? Hold onto your climbing harness. The Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) contains proposals for up to 1.02 BILLION board feet of logging across 60,000 acres. That's enough to create a chain of log trucks 2,700 miles long - stretching from Oregon's Siskiyou Mountains to the East Coast. The preferred alternative proposes 518 million board feet of logging including 12,000 acres of Inventoried Roadless Areas."

Fast Facts About the Wild Siskiyou
The Siskiyou Wild Rivers area:
(Taken from the Oxygen Collective's Fire and Forest pamphlet)
* boasts the highest concentration of Wild & Scenic Rivers in the US;
* includes the most botanically diverse National Forests in the US;
* contains the largest collection of unprotected roadless forests on the Pacific coast between Canada and Mexico;
* includes Oregon's most botanically diverse watershed;
* is the heart of the most diverse conifer forest in the world;
* is proposed for protection as a National Conservation Area.
The "Biscuit Fire Recovery Project" would:
* log 20,000 acres of old growth reserves;
* log 12,179 acres of inventoried roadless forest;
* create 50,200 acres of artificial, flammable tree plantations;
* lose $100 million of tax dollars;
* violate the Clean Water Act, and degrade salmon-rich rivers of the Siskiyou;
* hurt natural rejuventaion and spread invasive weeds and diseases;
* harm rare and threatened wildlife;
* increase fire risk for communities.

Forest Resources:
The Biscuit Fire
Some Website resources:
Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center
RainForest Action Network
National Forest Protection Alliance
Native Forest Council
Biscuit Fire Recovery 2003

The following are five audio files of speakers, poets and musicians who appeared at the event. There was much more than this, but this gives an idea of the talent, passion and dedication these folks bring to their audience.
The first is Laurel, who gives an overview of what the collective is doing and why. About 11 1/2 minutes.
Laurel
Next is Ryan who sings a song about the Buscuit fire and the intentions of the Forest Service to "salvage" the timber. About 3 1//2 minutes.
Ryan
Next is Becky who sings and plays guitar. About 3 1/2 minutes.
Last Days of Empire
Next is Nathan, a poet. About 2 1/2 minutes.
Listen
And last is Peg, singing a song, for about 4 1/2 minutes.
Peg

(New Content posted 02/23/04)
MIXED MEDIA FILE: SURVEY AND MANAGE PROTEST
Monday morning, February 23, 2004, people gathered in downtown Portland to protest the forest policies of the Bush Administration, which protesters claim will seriously undermine species protection in Northwest forests.
This event, planned by the Cascadia Rising Eco Defense Network and Back to the WALL, was part of a regon wide protest, taking place simultaneously in 9 cities in three states, Oregon, Washington and California.
(Taken from the press release) "Bush and Mark Rey (former timber industry lobbyist / Undersecretary of Agriculture in charge of the federal, public lands timber sale program) just released a final draft of a plan to eliminate "Survey and Manage" species protections. Survey and Manage was created as a result of the Spotted Owl controversy of the 80's and 90's mandates that surveys be made for rare and little known species before any timber sale in western California, Oregon, or Washington takes place - a basic "look before you log" requirement.
Survey and Manage has been a lynchpin of combating timber sales under the legal system for years and was the basis of the Straw Devil / Solo / Clark timber sale victories last summer."
Contact Back to the WALL 503.649.8493 / back2thewall_pdx@yahoo.com
Cascadia Rising Eco-Defense Network 503.493.7495 / action@cascadiarisin.org
Some information about this issue:
Cascadia Wildlands Project
Alliance For America
Environmental News Network
After marching to the Forest Service office from Waterfront park, the gathering was addressed first by Joe Keating of Back to the WALL and then Brian Frank of Cascadia Rising. During their brief remarks, four people representing 4 endangered species performed a symbolic dying, lying on the sidewalk for the remainder of the event. At the end they were resurrected, again symbolically, demonstrating the strength and determination of the community to resist this latest assault on the lands owned by the American people, and adminsitered by the U.S. Forest Service.
For a five minute video of the march and rally:
DSL/CABLE Stream
56K Stream
For an audio file of the event:
Survey and Manage Rally Audio

(New Content posted 12/8/03)
AUDIO FILE: MIAMI REPORT BACK
On December 7, 2003 at the Portland First Unitarian Church members of the community gathered to witness a multi media report back from the Free Trade of the Americas protests in Miami Florida which took place in late November.
The program was introduced by Kate Lore, Social Justice Director of the First Unitarian Church, who, along with many other members of her congregation, were in Miami. The program began with an overview of the FTAA and the significance of what happened behind the closed doors in Miami by Barbara Dudley. Following Barbara, six people who were in Miami addressed different aspects of the Convergence: a lawyer, Brenna Bell talked about the arrests, the police abuse and disregard for civil rights; Chris Ferlazo of Cross Border Labor Organizing Coalition spoke about the labor organizing; Will Levin and Djen Whitney spoke about the direct actions; M2, of Portland Indymedia and Bette Lee, an independent photographer and journalist, spoke about media perspectives.
Following an 11 minute slide show and 2 minute excerpt from a 1 hour indymedia rough cut video, three people spoke briefly about where to go from here. At this point people either broke into groups for spontaneous discussions, or watched the 1 hour Indymedia rough cut video of the Convergence.
This a 1 hour and 6 minute audio file of those presentations.
Miami Report Back
To facilitate the understanding of this material, I've broken the talks up into individual audio files for each speaker, beginning with the introduction by Kate Lore and overview by Barbara Dudley, who began by stating that what happened behind the closed doors with the FTAA negotiations in Miami really began last month in Cancun Mexico, and even further back in Seattle in late 1999. "What happened was the developing countries found their footing. It started in Seattle......and what was going on in that meeting was that the developing countries were refusing to go along with the green room meetings, the undemocratic nature of the negotiations, and were really starting to say no to a number of aspects of what the US and the European Union were putting forward in the negotiations."
This trend continued through the meetings in Dohar, Cancun, and finally through the FTAA Meetings in Miami. Barbara continues with her analysis for about a total of 12 minutes.
Introduction and Overview

Next to speak was Brenna Bell, a lawyer working with the Miami Activist Legal Defense, the group that did much of the legal organizing for the Convergence, as well as defending those who were arrested and also will be pursuing a multitude of civil suits resulting from police use of excessive force before and during the protest. She speaks from personal experience, as she herself was attacked and arrested.
"The main thing that people are coming away from Miami with is a sense of complete and utter repression...........the people who got arrested weren't just some Black Block kids who tried to take down the fence.......people were getting arrested everywhere. If you were in Miami and you were downtown, you were a target. The way that the police chief John Timoney, who was also responsibile for the amazing respression at the Republican National Convention in 2000, the way that he described it was that "they were hawks picking mice off of fields.' And that's what it felt like."
Brenna continues her presentation for a total of 10 minutes, about police violence and disregard for civil rights and civil liberties.
Brenna Bell

Following Brenna is Chris Ferlazo with the Portland Cross Border Labor Organizing Committee. Before Kate introduced Chris, she commented on how she "was clearly marked as a church lady,", as were other Unitarians, some of the younger who were shot with rubber bullets and one arrested. Following this Chris spoke to some of the coalition building in Miami. He attests to the fact that Miami witnessed some amazing advances in this area.
"In Miami we saw some of the most sophisticated efforts ever to divide us in our coalition work." Efforts were made to paint a picture of good protestors and bad proestors, seeking to divide loyalties and create dissention.
Chris then read some quotes from after the protests. One was from Tony Fonsetta, president of the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans, which is mostly retired union activists. Tony complains that, "thirteen of the buses he helped organize were turned away and many of the others were diverted, forcing senior citizens to walk up to two miles to attend the permanant rally.....and only 5 out of 25 buses were actually able to get in to pick people up at the end of the day."
Chris continues for a total of about 13 minutes.
Chris Ferlazo

Next, two speakers talked about the Direct Action hat took place during the Convergence. First was Will Levin, who was in Miami for 17 days, before and after the main day of action. "To me Direct Action is much more than just storming barricades, although that is an important part of it....direct action to me means coming in to a town and not just breezing in, doing our thing and then leaving, but working on outreach. In Miami, for example, there was a trememdous campaign by the police, a propaganca fear campaign, that was very effective." Storeowners in the business corridor were showed video footage of Seattle and told the protestors were going to break windows and burn their shops down. People were afraid. "And many of us spent a great deal of time literally going from door to door with a flyer in both Spanish and English....Great pains were taken to reassure the community of the intentions of the protest and encourage the business owners to remain open.....People were overwelmingly supportive, I would say, of us being there."
Will continues for a total of about 5 1/2 minutes, giving many other examples of ways in which the visiting protestors reached out to support and reassure the local communities.
Will Levin

Following Will talking about the many facets of Direct Action, Djen Whitney spoke for three minutes or so about where, in her opinion, the movement needs to think about going from here.
"I really believe that the idea of Direct Action, the idea of taking what we want, demanding it, rather than asking and petitioning for it, is crucial and incredibley empowering." She quotes an IWW slogan that "Direct Action gets the goods," and feels that perhaps we've lost sight of what those goods are. She says that Direct Action is a philosophy and not merely a tactic.
"I feel that our actions are becoming more spectacular and more symbolic and less goal oriented, and I really want to win this battle, this struggle, and I don't think that's possible if we don't start thinking and asking more questions."
Djen Whitney

Next came two speakers from the independent media. First was m2 of Portland Independent Media Center, who began his remarks by giving a brief synopsis of what Indymedia is as a global network, and then some personal experiences in Miami about the repression of free speech and freedom of the press.
"This was a well orchestrated, extremely coordinated media blockout and corporate media controled." He says that this was the most oppresive police state environment he'd ever witnessed. Police deliberately discrimated against the independent media, singling them out for abuse and arrest, especially, it seems, members of the Indymedia collectives. "They make a clear distinction between the media that is controlled and controlable-we call it the corporate whore press,....and the media that is free and open and trying to get the word out about what's going on to the people."
m2

Next Bette Lee, independent photographer and journalist, read a prepared statement. "....There's nothing new about the Miami model police state tactics that the police haven't used before against us. But it's already being sold with a hefty price tag to other cities....ask any African American in Miami or any American city and they will tell you that their civil rights are violated daily by the cops.....what happened in Miami was that the illusion was shattered, and we saw the guns and the fist pointed at our head, openly."
"The police are the instrument of class power, and they have been used as a very effective means of social control throughout history. Whenever the interests of the ruling elite are threatened, we can be sure that the police will be used to repress us, and to hell with our constitutional rights. History is full of accounts of attacks by police and armed forces against workers, the poor, people of color, immigrants and protestors."
Bette Lee's commentary was a penetrating analysis of state repression, not just here or there, but everywhere. Among other activities, Bette writes for the local The Portland Alliance
Bette Lee

Following an eleven minute slide show and two minute video collage of the Convergence, three people spoke briefly on some strateges on where to go from here.
Lynn-Marie Crider, of
Oregon AFL-CIO, spoke almost four minutes. SAhe began by saying how encouraging it is that the developing nations are working so successfully to overcome the dominance of the developed nations. "But, we can't rely on the developing world to do our fight for us.First of all, it's not fair." She goes on to say that these developing countries, China, Brazil, etc. are goig to be coming under tremendous pressure, externally from the E.U. and the U.S., but also internally, "because in each of these countries there is going to be some sectors that are going to want particular things, like the various agricultural interests in Brazil.....It seems to me that we have to figure out how we are going to carry on the fight here"
Lynn-Marie Crider

Second to speak was Brush, who first offered what he and many others learned from both the Cancun and Miami Convergence. "This is a struggle about the future of the planet and about our future as human beings and our relationship with the world. Irt's a struggle about an empire that has to collapse, and is in many ways already collapsing. But if something's really going to happen, it's because we, as a multitude of people and of movements have come together to create something different."
A brief, under 3 minutes, but clear, poignant analysis of what those living in the developed nations must do to establish a world Democracy.
Brush

Last to speak was Djen Whitney, who also addressed this subject in her earlier remarks. She says that she had helped organize for 7 months before the Seattle protests, and that since then many have told her that this success "could never happen again because we've lost the element of surprise, as if that's the only thing we had going for us in Seattle.....we organized, we were in the universities, the community colleges, the high schools the workplaces, the neighborhoods....the other thing we were doing was innovating. To innovate you need to think, you need to ask questions."
Djen Whitney

Many have been saying that Another World is Possible, and organizing around this theme. To be sure, there is a better way than the many being ruled by the few, whether these few be priests, kings and aristocrats, or generals, as the case has been throughout history. Today we have a corporate aristocracy slowing emerging upon the world scene seeking to reduce the everyday life of all people to consumerism-to appetites deliberately enflamed and impossible to satisfy. In grasping to increase the bottom line of profit, no notice is taken of our relationship to Nature, to each other, or even to ourselves.
Yet, another World is Emerging, chronicaled by events in Seattle, Chiapas, Quebec, Genoa, Bolivia, Cancun, Miami, and countless other places where the people have stood up in the face of violent oppression and demanded that their voice be heard, their existance acknowledged and their rights as human beings protected. People have spoke up for the Earth, for the workers, for local sovereignty, for the spiritual values of brotherhood and equality which are at the heart of all Spiritual Paths and of Democracy itself.
Indeed, Another World is Emerging, right alongside the world of Free Trade, corrupt capitalism, and the drive to dominate and enslave. But no, rather, this Will to Democracy is rising up through the corruption and ignorance, demanding that the human reality is much deeper than how we feed, shelter and cloth ourselves. The human reality is respect for one another, reverence for life and for the Earth, and recognition of inherent spiritual values that superceed values founded in nationalities and trade.
This tradition is deep amongst traditional indigenous people. They have much to teach, and we of the developed nations have at least as much to learn as we have to teach. Miktakwe Oasyn, all my relations, from the Lakota Sioux; Namaste, we are one, from Nepal. Both attest to a truth and a perception lacking in priests, aristocrats and generals as they seek to work their personal will upon the People.
As this value arises through the greed, the racism, the mace and percusson grenades and tear gas, it will slowly warm the cold heart of those who consider always first their own comfort and habitually disregard the basic dignity of others. Another World is Possible.
Another World is Emerging.

Posted 09/22/03
AUDIO FEATURE: USA OUT OF IRAQ RALLY
Sunday afternoon, September 21, 2003, a gathering of about a thousand strong met at Terry Schrunk Plaza in downtown Portland Oregon to demonstrate for Peace and protest the continuing war in Iraq. From there they marched through downtown Portland, joining up with the Immigrant Worker Freedom Ride rally taking place at Pioneer Courthouse Square.
I arrived late, due to attendance at the Immigrant Workers Freedon Ride rally taking place almost simultaneously at Pioneer Courthouse Square. Just as I walked up a small group of people wrapped in American flags burst into the center of the Plaza and ignited a Palestinian flag, seeking, presumably to encite conflict and divert attention from Peace to anger and animosity. Jo Ann Bowman, master of Ceremonies for the rally, more than rose to the occasion by leading a chant, "we're here for peace," which rose from the crowd and lasted long after the provocateurs were led by the police from the Plaza. Thank you, Jo Ann Bowman.
Then Jo Ann introduced Zaher Wahab, a professor at Lewis and Clark College and Afghan native, recently returned from a ten month visit to his homeland, who spoke for about 7 minutes. Zaher states that the U.S. has spent approximately 1 billion dollars a month for two years, while spending less than 50 million on economic development. "Many people initially welcomed the Americans, but now they are perceived and treated as an occupying force."
He finished by enumerating a number of things that the U.S. should do in order to stabalize Afghanistan. Foremost, is to increase the International Security Force from 5,000 to at least 30,000 in the next 10 months. Among others is "expanding the de-mining program; there are still some 8,000,000 mines in Afghanistan, killing and maiming people every hour."
And finally, "we call on our government......to switch from emphasizing consumerism, militarism, imperialism, in it's old and new forms, and to switch to world peace, justice, democracy and sustainable development, here at home and throughout the world."
Zaher Wahab
Next, Liz Samuels from Jews For Global Justice introduced Zaha Hasan, from Americans United for Palestine Human Rights, who in turn introduced Liz. Zaha was the first to speak, and dedicated this speech to her daughter who was forced off a bus recently, accused of being a terrorist.
She then detailed a number of Occupations in which the U.S. is engaged, first listing the obvious, Iraq, which is supposed to be a "benign occupation, that is meant to help the Iraqi people to get back on their feet, set up Democratic institutions and establish peace in the country. Well, I'm a Palestinian American, folks, and I've lived in the occupied West Bank, and there is no such thing as a 'benign occupation.' Occupation by definition is the wholesale deprivation of an entire people."
Next she talked about her homeland, Palestine. and then detailed how our government, both the Presidency and Congress, are occupied by corporate defense contractors and the pro Israel lobby.
Liz Samuels spoke about the strategic role Israel plays in, first the British, and then U.S. Foreign Policy in the Mid East. "In addition to economic aid, the U.S. gives over 2 billion dollars a year in military aid alone."
She then talks about a wall currently being constructed around the West Bank, a 360-435 mile long wall that cuts into and divides Palestinian land. "The Warsaw Ghetto started with a wall. Will we wait until a ghetto is established in Palestine, or will we stop it before it is completed"
Both talks take about 11 minutes
Liz and Zaha
Before a few concluding remarks, Jo Ann introduces the President of the Islamic Center of Portland, who spoke about civil rights, post 911. He begins his 7 minute presentation by saying "that we are all here today because we know something is wrong. There is something wrong in the world and there is something wrong with our country. In the past three years we have been through two wars already."
The Bush Adminstration is claiming that they are trying to bring liberty and freedom to those countries. "At the same time they are taking away the civil right and freedom of citizens and immigrants here in the United States of America. Is this hypocrisy or what?"
He finishes by saying that we all should object to the so called PATRIOT act, following the example of cities that have already done so.
Portland Bill of Rights Defense Committee

Jo Ann concludes by stating that this is not a Muslim issue, it's not a Palestinian issue, it's not a black issue, it's not a white issue; it's a human rights issue."
NO WAR, NO MORE; NO WAR, NO MORE; NO WAR, NO MORE.
Islamic Center of Portland Speaker

When the march reached Pioneer Square, Ramon Rameriz, of PCUN briefly addressed the crowd, explaining a little about the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride to the east coast over the next two weeks and asked for their support.
Ramon Rameriz

Posted 09/13/03
AUDIO FEATURE: THE WTO: CAN GLOBAL TRADE BE FREE AND FAIR?
This is the third in an ongoing series of Community Action Forums presented in Portland exploring peace and justice. This event took place at the First Unitarian Church on Friday, September 12, 2003, and features two speakers who support global free trade and the WTO and two in opposition.
Moderated by Allison Frost, producer and host of OPB radio's regional new show, "Oregon Considered." Allison opens with a fwe remarks and then introduces the panel
Allison Frost
First in support, Scott Goddin, Director of the Portland U.S. Export Assistance Center, which is an office of the U.S. Department of Commerce, helping small and medium sized companies get into export markets. He speaks to what the WTO is about, in terms of what U.S. negotiating objectives are, and the context in which U.S. trade policy is formulated.
Scott begins by going into a narrative defining historically where the World Trade Organization came from, defining the three institutions responsible for globalization,the WTO, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank. "After WW ll, there was supposed to be a three pillared multi lateral system: one was the United Nations; one was International Monetary Fund/World Bank; and the third was..the..was supposed to be something which they hoped would become the U.N. of trade. What that turned into was the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which really up until 1990, and the formation of the WTO, was a fairly weak institution."
Not the easiest listening in the world, but a good sketch of the goals of the WTO and strategy of globalization.
Scott Goddin
Next, in opposition, is Martin Hart-Landsberg, who also gives a brief overview and speaks to what is wrong with the WTO. Martin is Professor of Economics and Director of the Political Economy Program at Lewis and Clark College.
Martin Hart-Landsberg
Next, in support of the WTO, is Jonathan F. Schlueter, executive Vice President of Paific Northwest Grain and Feed Association, an association which represents over 210 companies that comprise a $$ billion industry accounting for 23% of U.S. grain exports
Jonathan F. Schlueter
And finally, speaking in opposition, is Brent Foster, a public interest environmental attorney working in Portland Oregon. He currently serves as the Conservation Chair for the Oregon Chapter of the Sierra Club.
Brent Foster
Each presentation is roughly 15 minutes in length.
Websites on this issue:
Local to Global
Focus on the Global South
Portland Alliance for Democracy

Posted 07/20/03
AUDIO FEATURE: TOWN HALL MEETING ON FREE TRADE.
On Saturday, July 19, 2003, citizens of Oregon and Washington gathered at the First Unitarian Church in downtown Portland to discuss and decide what kind of trade policy will work best for the Northwest.
The event was sponsored by at least 100 groups, many of which are actively opposing globalization as members of Local to Global
This was a well organized and attended event, lasting from 1:00-4:00, with a one hour break out session afterwards, featuring 5 workshops on various related subjects, from preparing for the next WTO protest to the "connection between globalized trade and what is at our dinner table," given by Mark Des Marets of Northwest Resistance Against Genetic Engineering
This report contains two audio files. The first is Barbara Dudley, speaking on "how trade became something everybody needs to pay attention to." An excellent synopsis of both the history and long range goals of Globalization strategy.
Dudley, a Constitutional scholar, states that if you read the Constitution carefully, it is essentially all about creating a Free Trade Zone; "that and a few freedoms, but they come in the amendments, you might notice." She further says that "the essense of a real free trade zone is that you have a level playing field, which means you have to allow for workers to organize; you even have to subsidize infrastructure and education."
When the cold war ended a whole counter weight to the Globalization agenda was removed from the world scene. "There was no longer a challenge to multi national capital....and the developing world which heretofore had thought of itself as a third force, as a non aligned force, as playing a very careful balancing act between the Soviet block and the U.S....found themselves unable to pursue a third way because there was no counter weight to this superpower."
According to Dudley, the anti trust laws of the end of the last century were a response to the growing power of corporations,which had grown so strong that states could no longer control them. Now nations states "are really not strong enough......to control multi national corporations, because they can move quickly, they can move money around quickly." She concludes her 30 minute talk by mentioning the Yardstick for Assessing Trade Agreements, which is a statement of important principles which should guide trade and investment policy. Basically, in it's nine points, it seeks to put people before profits, values human beings and cultures above trade, economics and profits.
Barbara Dudley

The second audio file is Lynn-Marie Crider, of the Oregon AFL-CIO, who enumerates the 9 points of The Yardstick Project, and breifly explains them. The first states that Trade Agreements should protect public interest laws from attack by private companies and other governments. The second, that Countries should have the right to ban products or practices that may present a risk to the public. The sixth, Trade Agreements should not pit workers against each other or drive down labor and environmental standards. All pretty much common sense, right? Yet current trade agreements violate all three of these values, and any country who has signed on to these trade agreements, and then seeks to protect their citizens by labor and environmental laws, find themselves sued by corporations and trade sanctions imposed upon them. An ugly story, and one which, with new trade agreements up for approval over the next few years, could get much worse.
Lynn-Marie Crider

The remainder of the Town Hall Meeting consisted of 3 minute statements by representatives of various organizations and elected officials. Due to its length, about 80 minutes, I have broken it up into two parts of about 40 minutes each. This sounds long, but each presentation is short, no more than 4 minutes, and they give a broad perspective of the many objections people have to Free Trade. The files move quickly, full of information and examples of NAFTA, GATT, and their many components, past present and future.
Part One,is about 40 minutes and freatures the following speakers and organizations:
Dick Schwartz, American Federation of Teachers.
Michael Arkin, Oregon Alliance of Retired Americans.
David Delk, Portland Alliance for Democracy.
Brad Witt, AFL-CIO.
Nancy Stevens, Common Cause.
Kevin, Card, Letter Carrier.
David Strader, International Longshoreman and Warehouse Union, Local 40.
Don Merrick, Earth Save.
Will Newman, Oregon Sustainable Land Trust.
Nancy Newall, Eastside Democratic Club
Ray Lewis, First Unitarian Church; and Environmental Justice Action Group.
Steve Kofohl, American Federation of Government Employees
Testimonials, Part 1

Part two is also about 40 minutes in length.
Jeff Crop of Portland Green Party
Walt Brown Of Socialist Party of Oregon
Kate Brown, Oregon State Representative
Jeff Merkley, Oregon State Representative
Serena Cruz, County Commissioner, District #2
Judy O'Connor North West Labor Council
Catherine Tommassin, Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility
Chris Lang, Jubilee USA
Jason Reynolds, Oregon Consumer League
Abby Solomon, Service Employees International Union
Liisa Wale, Northwest Resistance Against Genetic Engineering
Chris Ferlazo, Oregon Jobs with Justice
Madelyn Elder, Communication Wrkers of America
Testimonials, Part 2

Posted 08/17/03
AUDIO/VIDEO FEATURE: DOVE IN. PORTLAND OREGON, 8/17/03
Sunday afternoon, August 17, 2003, members of the community gathered at Waterfront Park in downtown Portland Oregon to listen to inspirational words and music, and, as a finale, to form the outline of a dove holding a rose in its beak.
Music guests included Sky in the Road, Shantala and Sweetjuice; Peter Bergel spoke for Oregon Peace Works and Kim Antieau for Columbia River Fellowship for Peace, both sponsors of the event.
This is a two minute excerpt from those remarks:
Peter Bergel
Dan Dancer who organized the event, talked a litle about the concept and vision behind forming these large works of art. This is not the first of such pieces. For photographs of other similar artworks:
Art for the Sky
Dan then inroduced the feature speaker Granny D, who inspired the crowd for about 20 minutes before joining the Dove In as the eye of the Dove.
GrannyD began by speaking about the need for Campaign Finance Reform, the issue which prompted her to walk across the country to Washington D.C. in 2000, when she was 90 years old. She mentioned that, for the third time, Oregonians are circulating Oregon Campaign Fincance Reform Initiatives. This was put together by Money is Not Democracy, who are seeking to rein in the buying and selling of our politicians. According to GrannyD, only two states, Arizona and Maine have so far managed to accomplish this, though many states have tried in the past and many are in the process of this right now.
GrannyD then went on to a scathing analysis of the current administration, one to which no written commentary could do justice. So, here is a 19 minute audio file of her remarks.
GrannyD's Presentation
Also, included in this report is a two minute video of the Dove In, after it was formed, with a voice over of Dan Dancer, speaking to the vision and concept of the Dove In.
DSL/CABLE Stream

56K Modem Stream

Posted 08/11/03
AUDIO FEATURE: USA PATRIOT ACT FORUM
Tuesday evening, August 5, 2003 The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and the Lesbian Community Project sponsored a forum about the USA Patriot act.
Websites and information on the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 supplied by the sponsors of this Forum.
Evergreen State College
American Library Association
Electronic Frontiers Foundation: Defending Freedom in the Digital World
American Library Association
Intellectual Freedom
The Impact of the USA PATRIOT Act on Free Expression
Free Expression Policy Project

After a brief introduction by the Master of Ceremonies, Alyson Bolles, each guest gave roughly a 15 minute presentation and then the floor was opened to questions.
The first speaker was Stuart Kaplan, an Associate Professor at Lewis and Clark College, in Portland Oregon, and is currently a member of both the of the National American Civil Liberties Union and Oregon American Civil Liberties Unionboards.
Stuart Kaplan

Second was Congressman Earl Blumenauer, who serves on both the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the nternational Relations Committee.
Earl Blumenaeur's Website
Earl Blumenauer

Speaking third was KimberlyWilson-St. Clair, virtual reference coordinator for the Millar Library at Portland State University.
Kimberly Willson-St. Clair

Last to speak was Kathleen Sadaat, a community, human rights, and civil rights activist.
Kathleen Sadaat

This Forum is presently scheduled to air on Cable Access Television, at Portland Cable Access through the weeek of August 15-22 on
A Growing Concern
PCA Schedules for A Growing Concern

(New Content posted 8/01/02)
AUDIO FILE: PRESERVING DIGITAL DEMOCRACY

This is a cluster of five different audio files, taken from the recent presentation sponsored by the Oregon ACLU entitled: 'Preserving Digital Democracy-Free Speech and the Threat of Cable Monopolies.'
Quoting the press release-'The future of the Internet medium that the Supreme Court called the most participatory form of mass communication yet developed is at risk. The threat: monopolization of Internet access by cable network owners. By excluding competing Internet service providers (ISPs) from broadband networks, cable owners are extending the local monoplolies they hold over cable television to the high-speed internet.
It is essential that local voices, those that depend upon the internet to provide space for diversity of uses and viewpoints, take a lead role in making sure that values of openness and nondiscrimination remain built into the broadband networks that serve their communities.
Following are five presentations from that meeting.
The program is introduced by David Fidanque, ACLU of Oregon, who introduces the speakers and lays out what they hope to accomplish.

Barry Steinhadt, Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, Technology and Liberty Program.