Category: News
Road through Paris – Portland March for Climate Justice
December 12th, the day after the UN Paris Climate Talks end, people all across the world are taking to the streets to make sure the people, not the politicians, have the last word. Regardless of what gets decided in Paris, we know that climate leadership is coming from the ground up with the grassroots and cities leading the way.
In Portland, we’ll gather at the base of the Tilikum Bridge, the Bridge of the People, for a short rally with music and speakers, before marching across in a call for climate justice. See below for map of meetup location.
Co-sponsored by: 350PDX, Bark, Biosafety Alliance, Climate Action Coalition, Friends of the Gorge, Greenpeace PNW, Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, OEC, Portland Audubon, Portland Rising Tide, PDX Bike Swarm, Soil Not Oil Coalition, the Sierra Club and more!
This peaceful, family friendly event will be outside, so dress to stay warm and dry. There will be warm drinks – tea, coffee, hot cider – and some snacks available.
11:30 AM – Gathering starts with music – Love Bomb Go Go
12:00 PM – Short rally featuring Kathleen Dean Moore & other local leaders for climate justice
12:30 PM – March across Tilikum Crossing
Here are ways you can help make Dec 12th a powerful action:
Volunteer on the 12th:
We need your help with clean-up, warming stations, unloading signs, and other odd jobs! Fill out the volunteer form and we’ll be in touch about roles.
http://
Join the Flash Mob:
Watch the video, learn the moves and then show up early on December 12th ready to dance: https://www.facebook.com/
Make a donation to help cover costs. Anything is appreciated!
https://
WEEK OF ACTION — TURN IT OFF!!
From December 6th through 12th, Portlanders are planning a week of action targeting many of the things we are trying to TURN OFF in order to TURN ON a world of climate justice.
Thursday December 10th: #StopTPP PDX – Road through Paris Action
https://www.facebook.com/
Friday December 11th: What LNG Means for Oregon: A Visual Representation
https://www.facebook.com/
Saturday December 12th: March for Climate Justice
#StopTPP PDX – Road Through Paris Action
This December, leaders from around the world are decending on Paris to forge new climate agreements that will inevitably be written and supported by the fossil fuel industry. We need system change, not climate change!
The Trans-Pacific Partnership is the ultimate example of the a capitalist system that seeks to subvert democracy with corporate control of our communities. Land and people around the world will be impacted by the erosion of human rights and natural rights while increasing the rights of the 1% to profit at all costs.
Join us on the week of NAFTA’s anniversary to say NO to new free trade agreements that threaten people and climate. We will have a short rally followed by an action to go after a local champion of the TPP right here in our own backyard. Wear blue!
When: Thursday, December 10, 12 PM
Where: Portland City Hall, 1220 SW 5th Ave, Portland, OR 97204
For more info on the TPP:
http://
The full week of action:
https://www.facebook.com/
2nd Annual International Human Rights Day Solidarity Night
2nd Annual International Human Rights Day Solidarity Night: Rising Up for Self-Determination & Liberation
International Human Rights Day is observed by the international community every year on December 10 to commemorate the United Nations General Assembly adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. It is a day to honor all who continue to be oppressed by human rights violations and all who continue to fight and resist systems of oppression for self-determination and liberation all over the world. RISE with us in solidarity on December 10th to transcend boundaries and connect communities to raise awareness of these truths occurring nationally and globally.
This night includes solidarity statements and cultural presentations from organizational representatives and community members. Also featured are progressive community organizational tables, a wall of remembrance honoring victims of human rights violations, a silent auction, and a selected no-host dinner and drinks from the in-house Kuya’s Filipino Cuisine.
Event co-sponsors:
Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights (SUPER)
Portland Rising Tide
Pcasc Solidaridad
PSU Kaibigan – Filipino American Student Association
UP FASA – Filipino American Student Association
Performers:
Rochell D. “Ro Deezy” Hart
Emily Rice
PortlandCHRP – Portland Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines
PCHRP Womxn’s Desk
Portland Raging Grannies
PSU Kaibigan – Filipino American Student Association
UP FASA – Filipino American Student Association
Young Woodley
Organizations in Solidarity:
All African People’s Revolutionary Party – Portland, Oregon
ALLY – API Leaders for the Liberation of Youth
Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice
Black Lives Matter Portland
Pcasc Solidaridad
The Coalition for Healing Chinook-Kalapuya Earth and Water (CHCKEW)
Marilyn Buck Abolitionist Collective
Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights (SUPER)
Portland Rising Tide
PSU Kaibigan – Filipino American Student Association
UP FASA – Filipino American Student Association
Emcees:
Patrick B. Villaflores
Angelica Marie Aragones Lim
This event is free and available to the public. Free childcare will also be available. For more information, please contact PCHRP Solidarity Officer Drew Elizarde-Miller at dcsmiller@gmail.com or (503)476-2179.
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Event Objectives:
1) To reach a broad audience in Portland and raise awareness about human rights violations globally and nationally.
2) To build bridges across communities and discuss the oppression we experience on a daily basis.
3) To highlight the ways in which communities are resisting and vibrant despite the heavy burden of oppression.
4) To draw from the rich global community/individuals/
5) To build a united front between organizations in Portland that are working towards liberation of oppressed nations.
What LNG Means for Oregon: A Visual Representation – Dec 11th
While our policy makers engage in CLIMATE TALKS in Paris, Oregonians will engage in CLIMATE ACTION in Portland. Oregon is threatened by two massive Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) export projects that would radically increase the amount of fossil fuel that is trafficked through the state.
These projects would entail tremendous localized impacts such as clear cutting and bay dredging; however, the greatest threat is to our climate. The project in S. Oregon would require a new power plant that would become the largest carbon emitter in the state! Another fact: 5-10% of this natural gas leaks during extraction (fracking) and transportation (pipelines), and since leaked gas traps 86 times more heat than CO2, it’s obvious that exporting gas across the globe is not a viable climate solution!
What can Portland do about this climate disaster? A candidate for Portland Mayor, Ted Wheeler, currently sits on the State Land Board which oversees a crucial element in the LNG permitting process. Join us as we make it clear to Wheeler that in order to be elected in this city, he must be a climate leader and take a stand against LNG exports!
Join us!
Huge Artistic Display of the LNG Life Cycle
Friday December 11
10:30AM Sheraton Hotel
8235 NE Airport Way, Portland
12:00PM Oregon Convention Center
777 NE MLK Jr. Blvd, Portland
Contact Bonnie McKinlay: (503) 705-1943
For more info on LNG:
www.nolngexports.org
Protect Oregon from LNG! Rally Dec 8th in Salem
The Oregon Department of State Lands (DSL) is currently reviewing multiple applications for the Jordan Cove LNG terminal and Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline. The applications include requests for easements to build the Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline through Coos Bay. Because the State of Oregon owns the submerged lands in the pipeline route, either the Department of State Lands or the State Land Board can deny the Pacific Connector Pipeline. The State Land Board is comprised of Governor Kate Brown, Secretary of State Jeanne Atkins, and Treasurer Ted Wheeler.
On Tuesday, December 8th, activists will attend the State Land Board meeting in Salem to send a message to Oregon’s top elected officials about why Oregon should reject LNG. Assemble at 9am outside the Land Board meeting, gather at 9:30 AM for a brief media event.
Carpooling from Portland to Salem: 503-705-1943. Please contact by 9PM on Dec 6.
When: Tuesday, December 8th, 9:30 AM Where: Oregon Dept of State Lands, 775 Summer St NE. Salem, OR
WEAR RED!
This map shows the proposed route of the Pacific Connector Pipeline Through Coos Bay’s Haynes Inlet. Pacific Connector seeks an easement through state-owned submerged lands for the pipeline from Oregon Department of State Lands.
The Land Board will not be taking public comment about LNG, which is not on the agenda. However, we will send a message with our presence that the State of Oregon should use all of its authority – including its proprietary rights – to protect Oregon from destructive LNG projects. Our attendance will also support local oyster growers and private landowners who will be traveling from Coos Bay to convey their concerns to the media and the Department of State Lands.
We already know that the Jordan Cove LNG terminal would be the biggest greenhouse gas polluter in Oregon, so it clearly conflicts with the best use of state resources. For this reason, Oregon Department of State Lands (DSL) should reject all of the permits and easements for the Jordan Cove LNG terminal and Pacific Connector Pipeline. Furthermore, the Pacific Connector and the terminal would harm salmon habitat, condemn the private property of Oregon families, degrade water quality, and damage oyster beds located very close to the proposed Jordan Cove Terminal and pipeline. As a result, the project does not protect existing uses in the area, and DSL and the State Land Board should reject the Jordan Cove LNG terminal and Pacific Connector Pipeline.
Together, we can persuade the State of Oregon to stand up for Oregonians against the largest, most destructive, and greenhouse gas-intensive fossil fuel proposal in Oregon.
Portland City Council Passes Fossil Fuel Resolution!

Portland passed a second resolution specifically opposing oil trains rolling through our region on November 4, 2015.
The city council meeting were packed with hundreds of folks in support of these resolutions, and of course were preceded by years of action against fossil fuel projects in the North West. The fight for a clean energy future is not over, but this is a step in the right direction!
For more information, watch this short video by Balance Media.
Imperialism, Climate Crisis, and Struggle – An evening with Harsha Walia & Luz Rivera – Nov. 14
Sunday, November 8th, 5 to 7 pm
Eliot Chapel – First Unitarian Church
1011 SW 12th Avenue
“Climate change is the vicious end result of an international class war that started with slavery and imperialism and is now manifest as neo-liberal globalisation.”
– Paul Sumburn, “A New Weather Front”
Climate destabilization, resource privatization, cultural genocide, forced migration, repression, gentrification, incarceration, displacement, struggle, survival: while we live in this storm of crises, the connections between them can sometimes feel subterranean, veiled by the shadowy machinations of capitalism. Join us as Harsha Walia and Luz Rivera Martinez, both deeply skilled anti-capitalist organizers with decades of experience, articulate these crises as interconnected and escalating symptoms of a system rooted in neo-liberalism and neo-colonization.
Harsha and Luz will speak about their work and experiences cultivating fierce, loving, and sustainable communities of resistance within a transnational analysis of capitalism, settler colonialism, state building, and racialized empire, and how “climate change” threatens to or is already compounding the forces of state and corporate violence against which they struggle.
Harsha Walia is a South Asian activist, writer, and popular educator rooted in migrant justice, Indigenous solidarity, Palestinian liberation, antiracist, feminist, anti-imperialist, and anticapitalist movements and communities for over a decade. She is the author of Undoing Border Imperialism and works with No One Is Illegal – Vancouver/Unceded Coast Salish Territories.
http://www.akpress.org/
https://
Luz Rivera Martinez has 20 years of experience constructing autonomy, organizing outside the electoral system, and resisting genetically modified corn while protecting millennia-old varieties. Luz is an amazingly inspiring speaker with a wealth of experience and her talk will have important lessons for anyone interested in human rights, women’s, peasant and labor movements. She works with the Consejo National Urbano Campesino (CNUC).
https://www.youtube.com/
GOVERNOR BROWN OPPOSES LNG EXPORT IN OREGON
Please give Governor Kate Brown a call and let her know you oppose natural gas exports! Her phone number is 503-378-4582.

Portland, OR – Governor Kate Brown made a public declaration of opposition to the transportation of natural gas for liquefaction and export in Oregon today at the downtown Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) offices. Additionally, Brown used her executive powers as governor to use the power of eminent domain to issue a Notice of Condemnation of FERC’s presence in Oregon.
Brown stated “The legal right of eminent domain is government’s right to take private property for public good. I wouldn’t seize a federal agency office without good reason unlike, for example, FERC’s willingness to give multi-national corporations the power to use eminent domain to build export pipelines for corporate profit. In this case, it is in the clear public good of the state of Oregon to use my power as governor to oppose FERC’s rubberstamping of destructive pipeline projects.” A broad coalition of Oregonians across the state object to FERC’s September 30th approval of a Final Environmental Impact Statement on the Pacific Connector Pipeline Project and Jordan Cove liquefaction plant in North Bend and to the plans for the Oregon LNG project in Warrenton.
Governor Brown further stated “Clearly the public good of the state of Oregon is combating climate change by keeping fossil fuels in the ground and the protection of forests, watersheds, and rural communities.” Brown’s decision to use eminent domain against FERC is unprecedented but nonetheless follows in the footsteps of Governor Kulongoski who in 2010 threatened to sue FERC over the Jordan Cove project. “I stand today with other shining examples of historical Oregon leadership on environmental issues.” said Brown.
Brown also made it clear that the state agencies who would also have to approve LNG projects in Oregon including the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and the State Land Board would stand with her in promoting the best interests of Oregon communities. Both agencies have previously rejected LNG proposals in 2010.
Supporters of a livable planet and thriving rural communities throughout the state were overjoyed by the wave of public opposition to LNG. Portland Rising Tide activist Katie Behrendt said, “I am glad that our state leadership is standing with us to confront root causes of climate change, like the collusion of government agencies and corporations, but I confess I’m shocked that Governor Brown is actually willing to join us in using direct action.”
In Medford, members of Southern Oregon Rising Tide addressed Senators Wyden and Merkley at a climate change conference this morning. Activists and community members called on the Senators to “walk their talk” on climate change and to take a public stance against the Jordan Cove LNG export project.
Rising Tide is an international, all-volunteer, grassroots network of groups and individuals who organize locally to promote community-based solutions to the climate crisis and take direct action to confront the root causes of climate change.
LEARN MORE ABOUT LNG EXPORTS IN OREGON at our panel discussion on October 22nd.
#nolng #nolngexports #stopjordancove #nopipelines #floodthesystem
Jordan Cove Resistance Heating Up
Emmalynn Garrett — October 2, 2015 — Hey Portland! On Wednesday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued its Final Environmental Impact Statement on the Pacific Connector Pipeline and Jordan Cove energy project ignoring requests of elected officials and community members to reassess the impacts of this project.
Federal data shows that if the Jordan Cove facility were to go online, it would be the largest single source of carbon pollution in the state of Oregon in 2020 when the Boardman coal facility shuts down.
When the project was an import pipeline and a similar statement was issued by FERC in 2010, then Governor Ted Kulongoski publicly vowed to go to court to stop the federal government from moving forward with the proposal and that proposal did not proceed. This time around, Governor Kate Brown has yet to take a public stance on this project. Oregon elected officials, especially Democrats like Gov. Kate Brown, look to the politically active metropolitan Willamette Valley communities for cues on environmental policies and priorities.
While FERC continues it’s blatant rubberstamping of destructive pipelines projects across the country and Oregon’s elected officials refuse to take a stand, resistance to this project is growing in southern Oregon. In the last week alone, southern Oregon has seen corporate office shutdowns in Medford and rallies of several hundred people in the Coos Bay area– the wrap up of a protest hike along 315 miles of pipeline route. And yet, at the time I’m writing this, to my knowledge no Portland news source has covered any of the major actions happening in southern Oregon.
Southern Oregon might seem far away from metropolitan Portland geographically, economically, politically and culturally, as a person who has lived in both places, I can say it often is. But in our current state system, rural Southern Oregon is economically and politically influenced by the much larger population in urban Portland. In an era of climate change, we cannot ignore devastating projects of this nature happening anywhere but especially those that we, as residents of urban Portland, have immense power to help stop.
Portland’s vibrant and active activist community can make or break this fight if we join Southern Oregonians in holding the thin green line against fossil fuel destruction and export in our region.
Here are several easy things you can do this week:
PRESSURE THE NEWS MEDIA
*Write a letter to the editor*
We want to put a lot of media pressure on the Governor and make sure the public knows about how the state can take action to stop LNG and how a previous governor challenged FERC on LNG. This is especially important for folks in the Portland area targeting Portland newsources. More information on writing a letter to the editor here.
*Donate to and share the Indiegogo Campaign to fund an Oregonian ad*
The statewide coalition against LNG is crowdsourcing a full page ad to get the word out about Gov. Kate Brown’s ability to stop this project. Please donate if you can and share across social media channels.
*Call the Governor on Monday Oct. 5th at 503-378-4582 and Spread the Word*
We need to keep the pressure on the Governor and make it clear the action we expect her to take in the face of FERC’s grossly inadequate review. It only takes a few minutes to join in to weigh in on the importance of a LNG export-free Oregon. More information and talking points here and join and share on Facebook here.
*Light up Social Media with No LNG!*
Even if you’re not much for social media in your personal life, let’s make it a part of your organizing life! We need to saturate Gov Brown’s twitter and facebook feeds with pictures of us rallying and being awesome! You can get messaging suggestions and pics to send the Governor here.
Check back here and with Southern Oregon Rising Tide for the latest updates and plans for resistance!