Opinion
May Day Strike Against the War Shuts Down All U.S. West Coast Ports
Internationalist Group, 04-05-2008 - 20:51
On May 1, every port on the West Coast of the United States was shut down to demand an end to the U.S. war and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. The historic May Day walkout by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) is the first time ever that an American union has struck against a U.S. war. The union ranks defied the rulings of an arbitrator, who twice ordered them to go to work. They overcame the capitulations of the ILWU leadership, which didn't want the work stoppage in the first place, tried to water it down and cowered before the threats of legal action while waving the flag. The employers' Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) declared the May 1 port shutdown an "illegal strike." But after all the huffing and puffing from the bosses' mouthpieces, the dock workers pointed the way to defeating the imperialist war by mobilizing working-class power. In the end, it was more than a work stoppage. The dock workers' May Day strike against the war was a first step, a show of what it will take to bring down the warmongers in Washington. Their "symbolic" action was felt all the way to Iraq, where dock workers in two ports stopped work in solidarity with the ILWU. But it was only a beginning. What is needed is not only industrial action but a political offensive against the Democrats and Republicans, the partner parties of American imperialism, to build a class-struggle workers party.
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Something smells different in Cuba
Movimiento Libertario Cubano, 01-05-2008 - 11:19
ººº With respect to the situation in Cuba these past few weeks, the Cuban Libertarian Movement – MLC (affinity group of Cuban anarchists in exile) speaks up to answer the unknowns and the challenges facing Cuban society. Ours is the voice of uncompromising commitment to freedom, equality and solidarity that has always been the sound of the Cuban anarchists.
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MAYDAY! March for Immigrant Rights and Fight Wal*Mart!
S O U T H E R N * O R E G O N * J O B S * W I T H * J U S T I C E, 29-04-2008 - 21:36
Join us on May Day at 4 pm at Alba Park for a march and rally in downtown Medford, Oregon to support our immigrants.
"May 1 march for immigrants rights"
http://www.rogueimc.org/en/2008/04/11838.shtml
And at 7 pm also on May Day! (is this orwellian or what?) we see the Wall*Mart fight come back to the City of Medford from Oregon's LUBA. Join us for a strong delegation that demands a traffic study and whatever it takes to keep this mega anti-worker employer the hell out of Southern Oregon. WALL*MART will NOT gain more roots here! ! ! !
"May Day! May Day! Wal-Mart is back!"
http://www.rogueimc.org/en/2008/04/11876.shtml
Wal-Mart is back! Public hearing this Thursday May 1st at Medford City Council 7 pm
What are you doing on May Day? Think of a way, even if you can't skip out from work to help us do the suggestions above, find your own way to do something positive! May Day! May Day! May Day! is a universal warning. Stand Up and join us now!
In solidarity,
Wes Brain, Chair
Southern Oregon Jobs with Justice
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All Out on May Day!
Internationalist Group, 26-04-2008 - 06:24
On May 1, all 29 ports on the U.S. West Coast are to be shut down by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) in protest against the U.S. war on Afghanistan and Iraq. This is a historic event of international significance: labor action against imperialist war by a major American union. The strategically placed port workers in the ILWU can bring commerce with Asia to a grinding halt, and they’re about to demonstrate it. The maritime employers are already screaming, and you can bet it’s got the attention of the warmongers in Washington. All labor should take up the challenge this poses: For workers strikes against the war! Meanwhile, immigrants’ rights groups are once again mobilizing on May Day. And on April 30 and May 1, the independent truckers who move cargo to and from the docks may play an important role in a shutdown. The imperialist war on Afghanistan and Iraq is also a war on immigrants, minorities, working people and democratic rights “at home.” We need to defeat this attack here and abroad, in opposition to both the capitalist war parties. The “antiwar movement,” whose aim has always been to pressure the Democrats, is at a dead end. What’s needed is working-class action independent of the bosses. What that takes is a fundamental break from the Democratic Party and the pro-capitalist politics that infuse the labor bureaucracy.
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Anarchism in Venezuela, past and present
El Libertario, Venezuela, 18-04-2008 - 08:52
* This is a brief outline of the libertarian footprint in the history of Venezuela, prepared by members of the Collective Editorship of El Libertario www.nodo50.org/ellibertario. We hope that this serves as a useful point of reference for those who are interested in the subject.
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Jackson County Commissioner Candidates Speak Out
Brain Labor Report on KSKQ, Ashland's lpfm radio station, 09-04-2008 - 12:56
Jackson County, Oregon
All three Democrat candidates for Jackson County Commissioner who face off in the May 20 primary are interviewed this week on the Brain Labor Report. Listen to the voices of Scott Keith, Jim Olney and John Morrison as each answers the same set of questions which cover topics such as privatization of public services, economic development and the value of independent media.
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Jackson County votes for Censorship & Ignorance
INDEPENDENT MEDIA WEEK - 2008, 06-04-2008 - 11:07
Jackson County (located in Southern Oregon on the California border and I-5 corridor) gained new distinction in April, 2008 when elected officials decided NOT to support a proclamation for "Independent Media Week - 2008". By a vote of 2 to 1 Jackson County Commissioners were succinct with their 2007 decision to embrace censorship. Last year the entire Jackson County Library System was shut down for 6 months with officials citing a "lack of funds" as the reason. The library system later opened with greatly reduced hours and services, but only after privatizing the entire operation.
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Mobilize the Working Class to Free Mumia!
Internationalist Group, 30-03-2008 - 18:51
On March 27, the U.S. appeals court in Philadelphia reaffirmed the frame-up conviction of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the former Black Panther Party spokesman and world-renowned radical journalist who has been locked up on Pennsylvania’s death row for more than a quarter century. After previously rejecting Mumia’s request to present evidence of his innocence, as well as a host of issues showing that he was railroaded by a racist court, the Court turned down Mumia’s request for a new trial. It upheld the 2001 ruling by a federal district judge that ordered a new hearing on the sentence, but limited the “choice” to the living hell of life imprisonment without parole ... or execution. Mumia is innocent. He was declared guilty and sentenced to die because of his revolutionary politics and because for years he had been a thorn in the side of the racist rulers of the misnamed “city of brotherly love.” Around the world, millions have come out in defense of Jamal. This latest ruling, like all those that preceded it, shows that the exploited and oppressed must have no faith in the racist injustice system. We call on the workers movement to mobilize its power to free Mumia now!
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Being It Eco Village
Vegan1forPeace, 05-03-2008 - 17:42
I'm proposing a name for the proposed eco village up at the old quarry site, "Being It Eco Village" in honor of Bennett Tanner. I've also begun trying to picture what the village might look like, with a 24 foot dome as the community center, 10'x10' huts on 12'x12' spaces, and a garden which is drip irrigated by a pond on the site.
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Venezuela 2008: A libertarian proposal for...
El Libertario, Venezuela, 02-03-2008 - 10:17
* The Collective Editorship of El Libertario, www.nodo50.org/ellibertario, expounds its vision of which path to follow in the current situation in Venezuela, summed up in the slogan, “Against the (B)oligarchy, demagoguery and corruption: Autonomous struggle of the underdogs!
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Panel On Homelessness In Ashland Consensus?
Vegan1forPeace, 23-02-2008 - 09:09
The League of Women Voters of Ashland's panel discussion on "Homeless in Ashland" seemed to reach a consensus that the current paradigm of how services are provided doesn't have a solution. The leading promises are programs that give the homeless power and responsibility in providing services.
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Crisis in Kenya and the hypocrisy of the WSF
Rafael Uzcategui, 05-02-2008 - 09:29
*A member of the collective editorship of the Venezuelan publication El Libertario (www.nodo50.org/ellibertario, in Spanish & English) exposes the inconsistencies of the bureaucracy that manipulates the World Social Forum through a reading of their evasive silence with regards to the tragedy that Kenya is experiencing today.
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Who Killed the Constitution? Should We Care?
Addressing the Questions: Bruce Fein, 04-02-2008 - 14:55
BRUCE FEIN RADIO INTERVIEW
Constitutional scholar and author Bruce Fein was the guest interview Monday, February 4th, 2008 on the Brain Labor Report radio show. Here is the show- http://www.kskq.org/brainlabor/?p=219
The Brain Labor Report is "live" at 7 a.m. Monday through Friday mornings and can be heard as computer radio via the internet or as broadcast in the South Ashland area via KSKQ, lpfm at 94.9
Brain Labor Report
http://www.kskq.org (listen live at 7 a.m.)
http://www.kskq.org/blr (archive with almost all past shows)
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"The Story of Stuff"
Annie Leonard, 25-12-2007 - 06:33
http://www.storyofstuff.com/
This is not a "bah-humbug" message this holiday season, but one of reflection that I wish to share... We can enjoy the holidays while at the same time considering "The Story of Stuff" I say this with self-reflection because to be perfectly honest I ran over to the Rogue Valley Mall just two days ago looking for "last minute stuff"--wes
What is the Story of Stuff?
From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.
Watch This Video
http://www.storyofstuff.com/
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Bali: A Missed Opportunity
Dr. Walden Bello, 24-12-2007 - 17:43
The gap between the urgent threat of global warming and the collective will to do something about it has never been greater. The recently concluded Conference on Climate Change in Bali was a grand opportunity to act. Instead, it was another missed opportunity. Unfortunately, the United States played a very negative role, standing in the way of consensus at every turn. And unfortunately, the rest of the world thought that seducing the US into a new agreement on climate action was top priority, resulting in a Bali Roadmap that was very sketchy.
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VICTORY: Daily Tidings Dumps Hate Speech!
* N O * H A T E * S P E E C H * S E L L S *, 17-12-2007 - 18:32
In a demonstration of community well being the Ashland Daily Tidings did the unFOXy thing and 86'd the hateful speech that it harbored on it's website. The worst of the hate comments have been taken down, background story here http://rogueimc.org/en/2007/12/9550.shtml This is a Good Thing at the Right Time. The newspaper is for sale. Its not like you drive by the Tidings' offices on Siskiyou Blvd. in Ashland and see another real estate sign planted in the front yard, but be no mistake about it: our local newspaper since 1876 has been put up on the auction block right along with the Mail Tribune ( they dumped the name "Medford" recently) and the Nickel (the rag you look in to buy a used car or washing machine). All three are up for sale now. Rupert Murdoch has declared it.
The Ashland Daily Tidings very likely just improved its standings in the business world, a world that cares first and foremost for the bottom line, that world we live in where news is for sale and is driven so deeply by the payers and players, the advertisers. We know this world where increasingly everything is for sale, we live in it. Victory for the Tidings is for a newspaper that might have a life down the road and continue the long tradition of a community paper that has been here reporting our news since 1876... The other road for the Tidings' future has it being found on a rack at the grocery store, right next to the woman who just gave birth to a 17 pound baby with hair on its lip.
Never mind for just a minute, the economics of selling a local newspaper in the United States. We all have heard that newspapers across America are taking a dive. Lets instead focus on our community and what it means when our Ashland Daily Tidings does the unFOXy thing and dumps hate speech. This is community news that is truly worth reporting.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE ASHLAND DAILY TIDINGS, RUPERT MURDOCH BE DAMNED!
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Ron Paul and the Employer/Employee Relationsh
richard myers, 16-12-2007 - 06:37
Ron Paul's Blimp is Flying High — How About His Reputation Among Working People?
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Free Trade: Do Smith & Wyden support Oregon workers?
Derek Volkart, 03-12-2007 - 08:25
Peru Free Trade Agreement threatens jobs
The U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement, if passed in the Senate, would offshore even more Oregon jobs while accelerating poverty in Peru. One might call the Peru Trade Agreement a lose-lose for American and Peruvian workers.
We have seen Congressman Walden vote against Oregon worker interests and soon we will see where Senators Smith and Wyden stand. Perhaps readers have an opinion for the senators (Smith, 503-326-3386; Wyden, 503-326-7525).
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Let's not be gullible - No war on Iran
Beth Gould - author, posted by Rogue Indy vol, 28-11-2007 - 17:40
The following letter was written by peacemaker Beth Gould who lives in Medford, Oregon. Beth is an activist with Citizens for Peace and Justice. She has been spotted many times standing on a special corner in Medford (Barnett and Riverside) as part of the ever-growing movement for Peace!
Continue to see Beth's letter...
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Senator Gordon Smith Sells Out Oregon Workers
P O W E R * T O * T H E * P E O P L E *, 21-11-2007 - 17:26
DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR SENATOR IS? AND WHAT HE'S DOING THERE?
This message comes to Southern Oregon by way of Kari Chisholm and his post on Blue Oregon
http://www.blueoregon.com/2007/11/its-monday-do-y.html
We need to hold Senator Gordon Smith accountable for selling off the future of ordinary working people in Oregon.
THIS STORY IS LOCAL FOR SOUTHERN OREGON JUST AS MUCH AS ANYWHERE ELSE IN OUR STATE. WE ALL WILL FIGHT FOR LIVING WAGE JOBS & THE AMERICAN DREAM IN SPITE OF GORDON SMITH!
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Measure 50 Unfairly Targets a Minority Group
Roll Yer' Own, 18-10-2007 - 12:19
The majority of Oregon's obese motorists seem to be in favor the passage of Measure 50, which will increase the tax obligation on smokers under the guise of funding children's health care, but I have news for them- you're next!
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Venezuela: complexities and outright lies
Rafael Uzcategui, 22-09-2007 - 13:55
* A member of the editorial collective of El Libertario (www.nodo50.org/ellibertario; in Spanish & English) prepared this article for the 6th edition of the Costa Rican (A) journal La Libertad [September 2007; http://revistalalibertad.blogspot.com] in response to an inconsistent effort to establish impossible affinities between Chavism and Anarchism.
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Venezuela: Interview with El Libertario
El Libertario's editorial staff, 31-07-2007 - 14:56
* Interview with indonesian anarchist journal EMPTY HEAVEN - May 2007 ( http://otonomis.org/ -- EMPTY HEAVEN collective website; http://pustaka.otonomis.org/ -- indonesian anarchist/autonomist archive). More info in english & spanish about El Libertario: www.nodo50.org/ellibertario
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Mercy Nurses get first contract!
C O N G R A T S * T O * M E R C Y * N U R S E S, 23-07-2007 - 16:16
Our fellow nurses at Mercy Hospital in Roseburg (Oregon) finally got a first contract! As of early Friday morning (4 am) July 20th ONA has reached a tentative agreement with Mercy Medical Center. Hallelujah!! Congratulations to the Mercy nurses and all of us for our unified efforts in securing this historic first contract! We were certified as the bargaining representative in January 2006 and met for 43 full-day negotiation sessions and innumerable hours to achieve this agreement--(information for this post came from an ONA email)
Oregon Nurses Association
http://www.oregonrn.org/
Photos are from the twelve-hour-long picket outside of Mercy Medical Center on Monday July 16, 2007.
CLICK ANY PHOTO FOR LARGER IMAGE
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No More Petitions - Just Action!
Timbre' Wolf, 21-07-2007 - 16:26
But take my word for it, if you want to see a change, GIVE UP ON CONGRESS doing the right thing. As it has been said, Democrats don't want to wrench excessive, ubiquitous, executive power away from the Republicans - they simply want it for themselves in just under two years.
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NEWS INTERNATIONAL
WORLD NEWS - INTERNATIONAL, 19-07-2007 - 15:11
MINISTRA DE SALUD DE BOLIVIA DEL MAS DISCRIMINÓ A DESTACADO MÉDICO ESPECIALIZADO EN EL EXTERIOR
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Ashland City Attorney Selection Process
Southern Oregon Community Coalition, 18-07-2007 - 18:43
Southern Oregon Community Coalition worked with City of Ashland to increase transparency and public participation in choosing Ashland's Police Chief (last fall) and city attorney (this spring). After 3 community panels of attorney interviews of 4 'short list' candidates resulting in 2 recommended finalists, disagreement among councilors scuttled the entire process. City attorney selection will now start over, with a proposed higher attorney salary and executive search firm. Southern Oregon Community Coalition protested the action and recommended 4 positive steps to resolution in this open letter.
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