Sign up here to support immigrants in our community as they attend mandatory hearings, or sign up here to train to be a Legal Observer and join the Rapid Response Team.
If you think you see ICE and/or anyone you know is detained, call the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition hotline: 1-888-622-1510. It’s answered every day until about 8pm!
“We are a group of Jews in Oregon’s 3rd congressional district who believe that AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee) is prolonging a broken and destructive status quo for both Palestinians and Israelis, and actively undermining progressive causes in the United States. We want to make accepting AIPAC endorsements or money as unthinkable as receiving them from the NRA or the oil and gas industry. We’re starting in our district, by calling on our representative, Maxine Dexter, to publicly reject AIPAC from this point forward. Such a public rejection would be a powerful message to AIPAC, and to other Democratic lawmakers.” Read the rest and sign here.
How you can help:
Background:
Since June, PSU-AAUP members have been bargaining upwards of 170 hours to have their needs met. On the table are cost of living adjustments, multilingual pay differentials, salary progression for workers who have no promotion paths, layoff protections, cost of living increases to be able to afford to live where we teach, support for research-funded workers who’s funding is being attacked by the Trump administration, and more.
Despite practice pickets, Board of Trustees speakouts, and public letters of support from Oregon State Treasurer Steiner, Rep Muñoz, Portland City Councilors Morillo, Koyama-Lane, Green, and Avalos, the Cudd Administration remains intransigent. Workers could strike as early as March 31.
With over $1B spent since 2010 on construction and developers and construction CEO holding sway over the PSU Board of Trustees and PSU Foundation, it is clear: the University’s priorities are in the wrong place. Instead of prioritizing and investing in students, Administration and the Board are hurting students and are hurting the workers who support students to thrive.
There are so many awesome upcoming local events! Protests at Tesla, Forums on women’s issues and climate, Workshops on how to write testimony, a Rally and March to Tax the Rich, a Repair fair, and more!
As always, click the Events tab above, visit www.berniepdx.us/events or join our email list for more info.
The nuclear industry is teaming up with big tech to overturn Oregon’s moratorium on nuclear power. Taking a “flood the zone” approach, nuclear proponents have now introduced thirteen bills in the 2025 Oregon legislative session, many of them nearly identical. We need your help to stop these dangerous bills and keep Oregon nuclear-free. Please sign Columbia Riverkeeper’s petition to stop new nuclear reactors in Oregon.
Please email City Council and Mayor Wilson to tell them that we strongly oppose the City’s “economic development” agency, Prosper Portland’s, recent decision to waste seven million dollars on a development project that has been rejected by other local governments, community leaders, and private investors.
As Sophie Peel recently reported in Willamette Week, a group called “Made in Old Town” persuaded Prosper Portland to provide them with a loan on terms that violate Prosper Portland’s own guidelines for commercial loans — for a greater amount, at a lower interest rate, and with a longer payback period than they advise.
We need to spend our valuable resources on safe and healthy classrooms, emergency services, affordable housing, Portland Street Response, Parks and recreation, police accountability, and all the other projects that keep our city livable!
1. Prosper Portland should rescind this offer, and
2. Prosper Portland should be audited, to prevent it from making further damaging giveaways.
Contact:
Mayor Keith Wilson: mayor.wilson@portlandoregon.gov; mayor@portlandoregon.gov
District 1 Councilors: councilor.avalos@portlandoregon.gov, councilor.dunphy@portlandoregon.gov, councilor.smith@portlandoregon.gov
District 2 Councilors: councilor.pirtle-guiney@portlandoregon.gov, councilor.kanal@portlandoregon.gov, councilor.ryan@portlandoregon.gov
District 3 Councilors: councilor.morillo@portlandoregon.gov, councilor.koyamalane@portlandoregon.gov, councilor.novick@portlandoregon.gov
District 4 Councilors: councilor.green@portlandoregon.gov, councilor.clark@portlandoregon.gov, councilor.zimmerman@portlandoregon.gov
From ONA: In a major victory for the nearly 5,000 ONA represented frontline Providence nurses, all eight RN bargaining units voted overwhelmingly to ratify their contracts and end the strike. The historic agreements come after 46 days on the strike line and more than a year of bargaining, and will set a new standard for wages, staffing, and patient safety at one of Oregon’s largest healthcare systems.
“These contracts represent a major victory for frontline caregivers, but more importantly it’s a victory for Providence patients and the communities we serve,” said Virginia Smith an RN from Providence Willamette Falls and leader of the bargaining unit. “As RNs, we believe that these contracts will lead to greater recruitment and retention of frontline nurses as wages become more aligned with other health systems, and we have staffing language that will allow us to spend more time with the patients that need the most care.”
February 17, 2025 on portland.gov
“It is time for us as Portland City Councilors to weigh in on this matter. At this point, it’s not just affecting the jobs of community members, but also the care of our community members. Providence is one of the largest providers of health care in our community. Our message is clear: Providence, settle this so our constituents can get what they need.” Read the rest here.
By Robin Opsahl, Iowa Capital Dispatch
“Sanders…announced Wednesday the launch of his ‘Fighting Oligarchy: Where We Go From Here’ campaign.
…The new campaign will target areas won by President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election that elected a Republican to the U.S. House in 2024. Events will focus on issues facing working-class people, according to a news release, and will ‘outline how Americans can fight back against President Trump and Elon Musk.’
In the release, Sanders called for political action as Trump and Musk take actions that are ‘quickly moving the country toward authoritarianism, oligarchy, and kleptocracy.’
‘Today, the oligarchs and the billionaire class are getting richer and richer and have more and more power,’ Sanders said in a statement. ‘Meanwhile, 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and most of our people are struggling to pay for health care, childcare, and housing. This country belongs to all of us, not just the few. We must fight back.'” Read the rest here.
