The People's Record

The People’s Record coming to Portland the 20th, leaving the 23rd!

Need recommendations for groups, activists, community leaders etc who would make good interviews that we can reach out to ASAP.

Also need housing offer. We may or may not having something worked out…waiting to hear back. If not, then we have a pretty narrow period of time to find housing for the nights of the 20th, 21st and 22nd. If you can house us for any/all nights, please don’t hesitate to reach out. There are two of us, friendly, easy-going, not-too-weird! Pets are fine, 420 friendly, etc. Really, we’re not fussy at all. The closer to transit the better.

Also looking for recommendations for Seattle interviews!

Email: thepeoplesrec@gmail.com

First of all, dismissing info-activism as ‘just sharing pictures’ is so early 2000s. I’m only a little bit kidding. Because in all seriousness, in the age of digital information, spreading awareness by sharing images & information actually is important. And as much as older generations (who must not be paying attention to rapidly changing cultural shifts in how information is digested or who simply don’t understand the opportunities that creates) like to foolishly repeat the dismissive notion that anything done on the internet isn’t really doing anything ‘real’, that simply isn’t the case. Virtual space is where many of the meaningful social dialogues in our society are now happening. Whether that’s a good or a bad thing, if you care about the future of society, you have an obligation to participate in and affect that space.

That’s why these campaigns work so hard to get people to take quality photographs & to edit photos and maintain pages for the campaigns. The images are taken, made & posted so that we (the world/internet) will share them. It affects turn out to direct actions, it magnifies the impact, etc. Awareness is the whole point of these actions, so instead of the action only being seen by three people driving by that day (plus the workers at the construction site,) thousands will get to see what a few have done in these actions. It affects national consciousness and conversations around the world. It’s important. And every day as more people turn to the internet over TV, and turn to the internet for news over print media, it becomes more important, more relevant, more essential. Virtual spaces are not going away. They are increasingly relevant and increasingly helpful for sharing visual information, and that will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future. Affecting the consciousness, being vigilant in making sure that the left is more involved than others, is important for shaping our society and the possibilities of our society going forward.

Direct action is extremely important, for obvious reasons. If you specifically want to get involved with direct actions regarding the keystone XL pipeline, the states that have the pipeline are probably your only option. If you have a free weekend and the capacity to travel, they relatively often have campaign events calling for participants to arrive for a series of coordinated actions over a weekend. Gracie & I were recently able to go to a blockade in East Texas; we were there for three days. See the above map for ideas of where you might be able to travel to get involved with some pipeline resistance. If there isn’t a campaign related to your nearest pipeline, you can organize with others to build one. You really can. No, really. You can. You can use this blog for help finding like minds if you decide to go in that direction.

But there are many other direct action campaigns in Portland, Oregon that you can get involved with. Here a few starting resources for finding environmental organizations in your area that you could potentially get involved with:

• Get in the action with Portland Rising Tide
• West Coast Environmental Law: Tar sands, tankers & pipelines
• Portland environmental & animal activism

Southwestern Marxism Conference

Leftists in the Austin area should try and go to this - there’ll certainly be a few interesting talks and lots of like minds to talk about various issues on the left - predominately economic, from an anti-capitalist perspective. 

Saturday, November 10, 2012 * 10 am until 8:30 pm  University of Texas - Austin (Mezes 1.306 for Registration and Info) 

Online registration: http://isoaustin.blogspot.com/p/texas-socialist-conference.html 

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/events/391471837589104/?fref=ts

Here’s the full list of regional conferences hosted by the International Socialist Organization:

June 26, 2012

Six environmental activists were arrested on Monday at Oregon’s state capitol, two of them for climbing up flagpoles, while protesting a plan they said would sharply increase clear-cut logging of old-growth timber in a state forest.

Four protesters were cited for “unlawfully occupying the entrance to two state office suites” after locking themselves together at the offices of Oregon’s secretary of state, Kate Brown, and state Treasurer Ted Wheeler, state police Lieutenant Gregg Hastings said.

Source