News from Portland (OR) Alliance for Democracy

Past events and upcoming actions from the Portland Alliance for Democracy include movement-building in response to economic crisis, a critical look at tar sands exploitation, and a video presentation on the "birthplace" of the atomic bomb. Portland AfD'ers are also working on legislation to support renewable energy development, and will be part of a demonstration marking the sixth anniversary of the Iraq war.

At the end of January, AfD successfully co-sponsored and co-organized an Economic Town Hall on the Economic Crisis attended by over 800 people. Delivering the keynote talks were Marty Hart-Landsberg, economic professor at Lewis and Clark College and Veronica Dujan, sociology professor at Portland State University.  Those talks were followed by about a dozen workshops including one on building democracy led by AfD Portland President David Delk.
 
The Portland chapter now has two public events coming up. 
 
The first is a talk by Andrew Nikiforuk on Tuesday, March 31st at the First Unitarian Church, SW 12th and Main Street in Portland.  Nikiforuk is the author of Tar Sands, Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent.  Canada has become America's largest foreign oil supplier and what we import is largely tar sand oil. But the environmental and economic impacts of extracting tar sand oil are so extreme that our reliance on this supply is the chief indicator that peak oil is here and the age of cheap fossil fuel is over.  

If you are concerned about peak oil, water supplies, nuclear energy, petro-state "democracy" or a whole host of other issues, this presentation is for you. See the flyer here.  Co-sponsoring this event is the Economic Justice Action Group of the First Unitarian Church and KBOO, community-supported radio (additional co-sponsors listed on the flyer). 
 


The focus remains on environmental issues in the chapter's second scheduled event, a presentation of "Arid Lands," a video made by two local Oregon residents several years ago about the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State. Hanford was the "birthplace" of the bombs which fell on Japan at the end of WWII and has since been the principle dumping ground of nuclear waste from both weapons production and peaceful nuclear uses.

The Department of Energy has plans to increase the worldwide production of nuclear waste and to use Hanford as a "recycling" site; recycling produces yet more nuclear waste to be stored at Hanford.  Gerry Polett, Exec Director of Heart of America NW, will be there to talk about current threats and calls to action.  Event is scheduled for Wednesday, April 1st but that might change.  Please check our Portland website for updated information.
 


The Portland chapter also continues to make progress with spreading the word on the many benefit of Renewable Energy Payments (Feed-in Tariffs), through their "Democratize the Grid" campaign. The use of Renewable Energy Payments (R.E.P.) by Germany has propelled that nation into the forefront of renewable energy production worldwide.  It accelerates the rapid development of renewable energy as well as greatly increasing good paying green jobs. Energy utilities are required to buy all the energy produced by R.E.P. projects for set prices higher than rates customer pay the utility, thereby guaranteeing a profit for the project owner.  That in turn makes it easy to get a loan to pay for it as the bank knows that the project is very low risk.  The whole process favors small producers as opposed to the multinational corporations which have dominated the wind farm development which rely heavily on complicated tax-credit mechanisms. 

The chapter has written a legislative bill for presentation to the current session of the Oregon legislature.  Please visit their website to learn more on this exciting project. 
 

The chapter is also co-sponsoring and co-organizing a rally and march on Sunday, March 15, starting at 1 PM at the steps to the State Capital Building in Salem, to observe the 6th anniversary of the beginning of the war on Iraq.  The rally demands we "Stop the Wars at Home and Abroad - Keep Oregon's Guard Home from Iraq and Afghanistan!" All are welcome to march with the chapter--download a flier here.

Lastly, our project to change the electoral system continues with efforts to enact Local Option Instant Runoff Voting in Oregon. Instant runoff voting allows voters the option of ranking candidates in order of their preference and, if no candidate has a majority of votes, then eliminates the lowest vote getting candidate, followed by a recount of the vote.  The process continues until one candidate has a majority and is declared the winner.  IRV is a great way to increase the number of candidates as the charge that third party or independent candidate are “spoilers” is eliminated. 
 
The Local Option legislation (SB29) would allow cities, counties and special service districts the option of using IRV in their elections.  Please contact your Oregon state senator or representative; ask them to support SB29.  More information is here on our website.

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News from Portland Alliance for Democracy

In September and October, Portland Alliance for Democracy will be showing a series of films on non-violence, and hosting Ohio election expert Richard Hayes Phillips--and co-sponsoring a forum on fair trade--and continuing to campaign for Instant Runoff Voting...oh, and organizing a conference on water.

Here's the details: "Movie Nights" kick off Wednesday, September 10 at 7 p.m. at the Bridgeport United Church of Christ, 621 NE 76th Ave. The series, "A Force More Powerful", focuses on non-violent resistance as one of the most important but least understood means of overcoming oppression and authoritarian rule. The first films look at the life and work of Gandhi, and the sit-ins and boycotts that desegregated downtown Nashville. Future film topics include Yugoslavian resistance to Slobodan Milocevic (Sept. 24), Danish resistance to the Nazis and the Polish Solidarity movement (Oct. 15) and anti-apartheid movement in South Africa and anti-Pinochet organizing in Chile (Oct. 29).

Richard Hayes Phillips will speak Wednesday, September 17, at the First Unitarian Church, Eliot Hall, SW 12th and Salmon Streets, Portland. No one turned away, but a $5-10 donation is appreciated. The church's Democracy Action Group and KBOO community radio(90.7 FM) are co-sponsoring.

Phillips began investigating the Ohio election when he received an e-mail containing obviously erroneous election results from Cleveland. He quickly found that hundred of votes in certain precincts had inexplicably shifted from John Kerry to other presidential candidates. His investigation is detailed in Witness to a Crime: A Citizen's Audit of an American Election..

Next moonth, the Trade Forum will take place on Tuesday, October 14, at 7 p.m. at Portland's First Unitarian Church (note--new date! If you copied the original Sept. 24 date onto your calendar change it now!). Representatives of the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign will discuss past failures of "Free Trade" agreements, examine the Trade Act of 2008, and hopefully get commitments of support for the bill from the two candidates running for Oregon's open Senate seat. Candidates Gordon Smith (R-incumbent) and Jeff Merkley (D) have been invited. Mr. Merkley has accepted and will be present. No word yet from Smith.

Good news, too, on IRV--the chapter's Instant Runoff Voting campaign has commitments from both their state senators and representatives to introduce local option IRV into both legislative chambers when they convene next year.

Lastly, the chapter is planning a water conference for October 17-18 at the First Unitarian Church--details to follow!

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Portland AfD gears up for IRV campaign, shares past events online

AfD-Portland is actively re-engaging in the effort to bringing Instant Runoff Voting to Oregon cities and counties.

The newly elected mayor of Portland, Sam Adams, is a firm supporter of IRV and will support in the Oregon legislature a bill giving Oregon cities and counties the local option of using IRV in their election. Additional support is already present on the Multnomah County Council and the Metro Council board.

Legislation for the local option has been introduced in past legislative sessions but in large part due to the opposition by the Oregon Secretary of State's office, it has not gone beyond the hearing stage. However, with the election of a new Secretary of State, we expect that such legislation can be passed during the next session. Kate Brown, the Democratic party nominee for SOS is expected to win this election and has voiced support for local option IRV.

Portland Alliance for Democracy is organizing a campaign of outreach to all candidates running on the November ballot asking for their support for local option legislation. Outreach will not only be to candidates running for the state House and Senate but also to candidates running for city and county position. We will ask them to write the legislature expressing their support for IRV when the legislation comes for legislative hearings.

If you can help with this outreach, please contact David Delk at davidafd@msn.com or at 503-232-5495.

And two recent Portland events are available at the chapter website: a forum for candidates running for Secretary of State and a talk by Canadian author and activist Maude Barlow.

In early May, three of the state’s Democratic candidates for Secretary of State spoke on election integrity, campaign finance reform, instant runoff voting, fusion voting, corporate control of vote counting machines, the initiative process and more. You can see video of part of that forum by clicking on the video link href="http://www.oregonvrc.org/2008/05/oregon_vrc_news_walker_has_integrity">here. For copies of the information presented at
the forum, visit www.afd-pdx.org/SOS.html.

The chapter also hosted Maude Barlow, author of Blue Covenant, the Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water. Listen to her remarks online at the Portland Chapter website. (you can also hear Maude's good words for AfD’s Defending Water for Life’s Campaign!)

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Portland Chapter fights for recently-passed referendum and Instant Run-off Voting

David Delk, Portland AfD, writes:
The Portland (OR) AfD chapter continues to work on election issues. In the November general election, we supported the passage of two ballot measures which would have placed strict limits on campaign contributions. One of those measures passed; the other failed. Some of the provisions of the successful measure should have gone into effect except that the Oregon Secretary of State has decided not to enforce it. Both Co-Chairs of the Portland chapter (David Delk and Joan Horton) are now plaintiffs in a suit to force the SOS to enforce the law. The voters approved it, and the SOS should not decide to disregard it. Remember, in Massachusetts the Legislature blocked funding of a campaign finance measure that voters passed there a few years ago.

On another democracy issue, the Portland chapter is actively promoting the use of Instant Run-Off Voting (IRV) as a local option in city and county elections. Activists have formed a statewide coalition to promote IRV and are encouraging all state voters to contact their state representatives and senators, asking that they support it as a local option. Oregon State Representative Jackie Dingfelder will soon introduce legislation and she needs to be supported in this effort to rid voters of the "spoiler effect" and to require candidates win with a majority, instead of just a plurality, of the vote. Visit the Portland Chapter website for more information. Co-Chair Nancy Price was active in the IRV Campaign in Davis, CA that passed in November 2006.

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