Ugly Law- PSU May 2013

Susan Schweik gave a lecture called “Ugly Laws Then & Now,” which explored “developments in Portland in which a new and cynical manipulation of the Americans with Disabilities Act pits disability rights against homeless rights.” The City of Portland enacted its Ugly Law in 1881:

 

“Sec. 23. If any crippled, maimed, or deformed person shall beg upon the streets or in any public place, they shall upon conviction thereof before the Police Court be fined not less than twenty dollars nor more than two hundred dollars.”

 

A 1917 LA Times article quoted Mother Hastings telling the reporter that authorities in Portland “said I was too terrible a sight for the children to see — they meant my crippled hands, I guess — and said I would either have to get off the streets or go to the country farm. They gave me money to get out of town.” As late as 1972, Vietnam veteran and noted disability rights activist Richard Pimantel and his friend Art Honeyman, confined to a wheelchair with cerebral palsy, were arrested trying to have breakfast in a Portland restaurant for violating the Ugly Law. The Americans With Disabilities Act finally ended this kind of blatant discrimination for many. Today in Portland the latest manifestations of these exclusionary laws go by names like the Sidewalk Management and Anti-Camping ordinances – laws that do not attempt to address the problems of homelessness and poverty, but seek to make them invisible.

 

Schweik is Associate Dean of Arts & Humanities at U.C. Berkeley and the author of The Ugly Laws: Disability in Public.

 

Susan Schweik is Associate Dean of Arts and Humanities and a recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Advancing Institutional Excellence. A former Presidential Chair in Undergraduate Education for Disability Studies at U.C. Berkeley, she has been involved with the development of disability studies at Berkeley for fifteen years. She was co-coordinator of the Ed Roberts Fellowships in Disability Studies post-doctoral program at Berkeley (coordinated by the Institute for Urban and Regional Development). She has taught and co-taught undergraduate courses in Disability and Literature, Discourses of Disability, The Disability Rights Movement, Disability and Digital Storytelling, Psychiatric Disability, Literature and Medicine, and Race, Ethnicity and Disability, among others, and graduate courses in Body Theory and Disability Studies and Advanced Disability Studies. Her other teaching and research interests include twentieth century poetry, late nineteenth century American literature, women’s studies and gender theory, urban studies, war literature and children’s literature. She is a recipient of Berkeley’s Distinguished Teaching Award. Her proudest honor is the name sign given to her by students at Gallaudet.

 

 

 

 

Move to Amends May 2013

This was one of my favorite lectures this year. It was so amazing, educational and inspiring. This event happened on May 3 to 5th at Portland Community College – Cascade Campus.

Move to Amend is continuing our regional gatherings across the United States in 2013. These events bring you together with Move to Amend activists and supporters from throughout your region of the country. Let’s amplify and multiply the power of all our great local organizing by building deeper organizational connections, and kick it up a notch!

This convergence for the Pacific NW is co-sponsored by the Peace and Conflict Studies Program of Portland Community College.

In attendance was David Cobb, Ashley Sanders, and Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap.

David Cobb

David Cobb is National Projects Director of Democracy Unlimited. He is a lawyer and political activist. David has sued corporate polluters, lobbied elected officials,  run for political office himself, and has been arrested for non-violent civil disobedience.  He truly believes we must use ALL the tools in the toolbox to effect the systemic social change we so desperately need.

David was born in San Leon, Texas and worked as a laborer before going to college.  He graduated from the University of Houston Law School in 1993 and maintained a successful private law practice in Houston for several years before devoting himself to full time activism to achieve real democracy in the United States.  

In 2002 David ran for Attorney General of Texas, pledging to use the office to revoke the charters of corporations that repeatedly violate health, safety and environmental laws. He did not win the office, but the Green Party of Texas grew dramatically during his campaign from four local chapters to twenty-six. In 2004, he ran for President of the United States on the Green Party ticket and successfully campaigned for the Ohio recount.

Ashley Sanders

Ashley Sanders is a long-time community activist from Salt Lake City, Utah. She began political work doing campus organizing against the Bush administration and then worked to build third parties as the Nader spokesperson in 2008. She worked for Democracy Unlimited in 2009 and helped to form the Move to Amend coalition. She founded the Salt Lake affiliate of Move to Amend and serves on the National Executive Committee.

She helped to organize Occupy DC Freedom Plaza and was involved in Occupy Salt Lake. Ashley is one of the people interviewed in the award-winning film, “American Autumn: An OccuDoc”, a documentary about the Occupy movement.

Ashley’s passion is street theater and creating community spaces for discussion and collaboration, and she spends her free time doing freelance writing and (recently!) storytelling.

Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap

Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap is Executive Director of Democracy Unlimited. She grew up in Santa Fe, NM and came to Humboldt County in 2001 by way of Western Massachusetts where she was studying education and community at Hampshire College. 

She served as a member of the national Leadership Team of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom’s campaign to Challenge Corporate Power, Assert the People’s Rights and the STORY (Strategy Training and Organizing Resources for Youth) Board of the SmartMeme Project. She is also a Principal with Program on Corporations Law and Democracy and Local Democracy Fellow for the Liberty Tree Foundation.

In November 2004 Kaitlin was elected to serve on the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District Board. She is the youngest member to serve in this position, as well as the the first woman to take this office. She was re-elected in 2008 and now serves as Board President.

Kaitlin serves as the National Director for Move to Amend. She oversees the national field organizing operations for the campaign, the affiliate support program and provides internship program supervision. 

All I have to say is You have to be there to understand everything that was said. If you have an opportunity to attend in your city. I recommend it. It great to learn about what the organization is about. Ashley Sanders taught us how to run campaigns. It was very informative and she is an amazing speaker  But to summarize: Corporations should not have constitutional rights. Money isn’t speech. One thing I learned is how in 1789 when corporations wanted to develop they had to get a majority vote in the state house of representatives. It then had to get majority vote in the senate then the governor had to signed it. Just like how a bill is passed today. The corporation only could do the type of business that they had applied for. They were a limited liability which lasted only 5 to 10 years. Today corporation have an easy process they fill out an application pay $50 dollars and that’s it and it last forever there is no time limit.  When corporations have constitutional rights that means they can use their power and privileged to hurt people. When I was in the convergences. I was relating it to how the housless community runs. Corporations are taking away the voices of the houseless people and their supports because they have the money and power to do so. One thing that I kept on thinking about is the sit/lie bill. Portland business alliance and Transitional projects are both corporations and entities. They shouldn’t have the power to govern, have a voice in what they believe should be the voice of the people, and have the power to regulate how public spaces are run.  If corporations didn’t have the power to influence the city then the city would have to rely on what the citizens have to say. They would make laws, ordinances and regulations based on how it would affect the people instead of representing corporations and money. 

Sounds interesting to you. Get involved with Move to Amends In Portland at:

https://movetoamend.org/or-portland

Thanks for coming out there. Let build together. 

 

 

 

Job with Justice Annual Dinner Basta Ya! Take Back The City

First and foremost Thank you to Job of Justice for the invite, dinner and entertainment. It was amazing and inspirational. Thank you for all the support you give to other organizations, supporting us and being there for us. 

There was over 60+ people there. The food was amazing. (sorry was too hungry I forgot to take pictures of it.)  We had Dikweed and Jessica from Right 2 Dream too attend. Jessica and Ibrahim were part of the skit that they had about actions and causes that people could join.  Jessica said,”The event was informative and educational.” “Donating an amount of money and anyone wants to match it at the dinner. We should do something like that.” Jessica said about her skit role, ” I got to do a funny skit and they laughed their ass off.”

Dikweed at the Mandatory meetings at Right 2 Dream too said to the dreamers, ” They had us answer how many actions we were involved in. There was 80+ actions last year? If we send one person to every action imagine we would have over 1000 people to support each other. It was so awesome I want to be apart of a lot more. I can’t wait to go to the next thing.” 

More Pictures: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.658601957499435.1073741834.100000489117182&type=1

To keep up with Job of Justice find them here: http://www.jwjpdx.org/ or https://www.facebook.com/pages/Portland-Jobs-with-Justice/134450800882?fref=ts

 

 

 

Oregon Coalition on Housing and Homelessness (OCHH) May 2, 2013

Oregon Coalition on Housing and Homelessness Annual Conference

ADDRESSING HOMELESSNESS AS A COMMUNITY

MAY 1 -3, 2013 Hood River, Oregon

Right to Survive Members Ibrahim Mubarak and Sophia Kinhnarath went to speak to at the OCHH on May 2, 2013 Their presentation was on 

Empowering the Voiceless:
Homeless Leadership: This section went through how to empower homeless community to
speak up for their legal, constitutional and civil rights. Learn how laws and regulations affect
the community and how as a group we will combat the conflicts and how to see a future
without homelessness. Presentation included examples of Right 2 Survive, Right 2 Dream
Too and Dignity Village.

When asked how it went Ibrahim Mubarak said, ” I have an oxymoron view about it because in most of those events you have agencies that don’t have the grassroots aspect with the people and the everyday knowledge and experiences that goes though. They can’t understand.” The event has many organizations that with houseless community, but  the organizations are only understanding and having one type of houselessness. such as organizations working with just youth or dhs or seniors. They don’t have organizations such as Right 2 Survive who have all aspects of backgrounds coming through. So as an organization we have to learn about all different type of people, different rights and laws that affect the houseless community. The houseless community includes pretty much everything because there isn’t one type of houselessness. This is what Sophia Kinhnarath had to say about the event, ” It was interesting. The organizations comes from a different perspective of where they want statistics, wanting to know how Right 2 Survive operates. When told we teach and empower them and don’t discriminate on their past then wait and sees what outcomes comes out. I don’t believe the organizations understand that concept or believe if you give people the opportunity to empower themselves, make their own decisions, they will take that empowerment and change their lives.”  We are not saying Right 2 Survive is a perfect organization or a model organization that is going to work for everyone. It works for those who want it to work and who want to speak up for themselves, their human, civil and constitutional rights. 

 

May Day 2013

International Workers day

May Day is an annual march on May Day (May 1st) in a celebration of International Workers Day.

This year we gather at O’Bryant Square at 3:00 for a Rally with over 2000 people who attended. First we heard speeches from organizations and supporters. This year topic was International workers day for working families; people over profit. The goal was to encourage everyone to join an organization working for Justice. Thank you to all the organizations that attended and Thank you for all their hard work that they do throughout the year. There was one organization that caught out eyes which was the We Are Oregon Float or what we are learning now a network of people called HIFE. 

Housing Is For Everyone! HIFE was formed in April 2013 as a network of individuals and organizations committed to carrying out the work of Housing Justice in Portland Oregon. HIFE was formed in April 2013 as a network of individuals and organizations committed to carrying out the work of Housing Justice in Portland Oregon. Many of the members of HIFE are longtime social justice activists others have joined housing justice work in the last two years of struggle for housing in Portland. Life them on your fb: https://www.facebook.com/HousingIsForEveryone

Welcome and we look forward to working with you. 

After our rally we then took to the streets and marched from O’Bryant square towards PSU then down towards Right 2 Dream Too and back to O’Bryant square. 

Reco from Right 2 Dream Too said, “That felt great.” in reference to the march and see the thousands of people in the streets supporting one another. 

We hope you have joined an organization and we are looking forward to working and being in solidarity with all the organizations. 

 

“Injustice to one is injustice to all.”- Martin Luther King Jr. 

Thank You Michael Dembrow- Why I Voted NO on HB 2963

Why I Voted No on HB 2963

It’s rare that I vote no on a bill that comes out of committee 9-0, but it happened last week. The bill was HB 2963, which would allow local jurisdictions to expand their regulation of sidewalk use. This is an issue that is wrapped up in the question of how we deal with the homeless individuals who live in our cities. It was brought tous by the Portland Business Association. I partner with the PBA on many education and workforce issues, but on this one we’re not aligned.

As I researched the issue, I saw a number of letters from downtown businesses with legitimate complaints about individuals congregating outside their shops or offices. On the other hand, I am concerned about potential discrimination against the homeless. I want to make sure that any local ordinances are fair and balanced to the greatest extent possible. HB 2963 does not guarantee this. In fact, we received a letter from the Oregon Law Center, which caused me a great deal of concern about the bill.

Furthermore, I saw no evidence of support for this bill from the City of Portland or from the League of Oregon Cities. This made me wonder about the value of the legislation, since the cities didn’t seem interested in having this tool. 

So, I voted no. To be honest, I was surprised to be one of only two no votes, but I’m glad that the record will show a lack of unanimity on the bill as it moves over to the Senate for its next phase.

Background By Anne Trudeau

Portland Business Alliance lobbying for a return of sit-lie laws

 

Four years after Portland’s sit-lie ordinance was declared unconstitutional according to Oregon law, Portland Business Alliance is in Salem lobbying for a change in state law that would make bans on sitting or lying on the sidewalk possible again.

Portland Business Alliance is our city’s Chamber of Commerce, an organization of business people that wields a lot of power, or tries to. The PBA started the “Clean and Safe” program downtown, which has been described as a private police force for business owners

The proposed House Bill 2963 says that the state cannot pre-empt city law regarding sidewalk “management”. It is not clear yet whether the bill will make it out of committee and come up for a vote.

The housing rights movement will continue to speak out against the criminalization of homelessness. Safe, decent affordable housing and a jobs program are the answers, not harassment and assaults on people’s basic rights. Right 2 Survive and our allies know that we have to be strong and stand up for people’s constitutional rights to be in public areas, for the human right to sleep, sit, lie, dream and survive and more. —A. Trudeau

 

Lets send thank you emails to both Michael Dembrow repdembrow@gmail.com and Sara Gelser

 Rep.SaraGelser@state.or.us.

 

 

Seattle Road Trip for the Social Justice Forum

Our trip to Seattle Social Justice Forum began early morning 6 am. Traveling Ibrahim and Sophia from Right 2 Survive and Cara Shufelt, from Rural Organizing Project (ROP). With lots of chit-chat we found out that ROP works to strengthen the skills, resources and vision of primary leadership in local, autonomous human dignity groups — including queer-identified groups, PFLAG chapters, and GSA’s — across Oregon with the goal of keeping such groups a vibrant source for a just democracy. Although LGBT issues have always been central to ROP’s mission and campaigns, its analysis is multi-issue, its activities are multi-tactic, and it strategically coordinates statewide organizing with key partners to counter the Right on every front in rural Oregon. 

We arrived to over 70 eager grantees. We broke out into groups. Our first group was the economic justice group. 

Economic Justice:

• Indian People’s Action (Michaelynn Hawk (Crow), director) – IPA works in Montana’s urban areas, rural and border towns of several Indian reservations to organize for social, economic and racial justice. IPA’s economic justice work includes organizing for health care access and voting rights, working to stop online payday lending on reservations, and fighting racial discrimination in health care and insurance.
• Right 2 Survive (Ibrahim Mubarak, co-founder/member) – R2S educates, organizes and mobilizes the unhoused community and allies to defend their civil, human, and constitutional rights; empowers houseless folks to challenge policies, practices, and laws which criminalize people for carrying out survival activities; organizes to create alternative and collective solutions to the lack of affordable housing; makes its own media to amplify the voices of unhoused Portlanders, and supports its members with fighting citations and accessing resources.
• Voz Workers Rights Education Project (Romeo Sosa, exec. director) – Voz  is a worker-led organization that empowers immigrants and day laborers to gain control over their working conditions through leadership development, education and community organizing. Organizing activities take place in the MLK Worker Center which works as a non-commission hire site for day-laborers where disenfranchised day laborers get support to become leaders in fighting their economic struggle, discrimination, oppression and wage theft.

Our afternoon session was 

“Valuing Our Lives: Targeting State and Local Budgets”: What our governments choose to fund — or not — says a great deal about our values and priorities as a society. Community organizing strategies that target budgets highlight those choices, ask important questions, and provide an opportunity for those most impacted by budget decisions to offer solutions. These three organizations all have very different – but innovative and effective – strategies for budget reform that values lives. 

• OPAL Environmental Justice (Jon Ostar, exec. director) – Exposing the hypocrisy of the transit authority’s budget by putting forth a fairer, more feasible, alternative budget created by the bus riders themselves. 
• Partnership for Safety and Justice (David Rogers, exec. director)  – Pushing for a radical change in the Oregon state budget which would curb the unsustainable growth of the prison system and invest those funds in sensible sentencing reform, drug and alcohol treatment, and victims’ services.  
• Right 2 Survive (Ibrahim Mubarak, co-founder/member) – Creating a self-sustaining village (by and for houseless people) while the City of Portland cuts shelter budgets, and advocating that the city fund mental health services, stop no-cause evictions, and turn empty buildings into shelters to address the homelessness crisis.

The event was amazing. All the grantees were excited and motivated to be involved in the giving project. We want to thank all who were involved in making the forum happen, the grantees who will be working to fundraiser and give out the grants. We appreciate all your hardwork. Thank you for involving us. Check out more of our picture from the event on our FB page. 

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.651344488225182.1073741828.100000489117182&type=1