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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 5, 2010)
street roots • Jan. 22,2010 Tenant Rights Project and some West Coast coalition-building BY LEW CHURCH Lew Church is an organizer for Portland’s Tenant Rights Project and Coordinator of PSU Progressive Student Union, and can be reached at , lewchurch@gmail.com or 503-222-2974. closed to tenants, and where board minutes are secret (which is illegal). s one of the organizers who was able Tenant Rights Project meets at 6 p.m. to go on the Sisters of the Road/ every Sunday in the Biltmore Hotel lobby, Street Roots four-van caravan to San 310 NW Sixth, in Old Town. So far, Tenant Francisco in January to protest the Obama Rights Project has held one picket in administration’s insufficient funding for downtown Portland protesting landlord decent, affordable housing and protect poor practices. people from “crimes of status,” I was happy In .the past, at Portland State, the to see hundreds of protesters (including 40 Progressive Student Union and the. Student of us from Fortland) march in the rain down Rent Strike Committee organized a six Market Street ip San Francisco and present month rent strike against student housing Nancy Pelosi’s office a letter advocating for (then run by a contracted-for landlord, not housing and human rights. “House keys not the university itself) which protested handcuffs” was a great slogan used on many persistent pest control problems of the protest signs on Market Street. (cockroaches, silverfish, mice), frequent As an organizer in Portland, since rent increases, harassment of tenants by September 2007, for Tenant Rights Project managers, and lack of transparency and (supported by Portland State University accountability to tenants. We picketed twice Progressive Student Union), our campaign at the landlord’s other businesses, and got has focused on advocating for the rights of the concessions of one abusive building tenants and other poor people to have manager being fired, and, eventually, the decent, habitable, safe housing. Tenant university taking over student housing Rights Project was happy to endorse the directly (a much better solution). Western Regional Advocacy Project’s San As someone who used to do anti-poverty Francisco march. organizing on tenant rights and housing as a Here in Portland, Tenant Rights Project VISTA volunteer with the Southern has met every week since early 2009. Our Christian Leadership Conference (Dr. King meetings are open to tenants interested in Jr.’s organization), in Macon; Ga., several organizing against slumlord practices, years after Dr. King’s assassination — I including: persistent pest control problems appreciated that the San Francisco pro- K (cockroaches, mice, bedbugs), crime (drugs, housing protest by WRAP focused on the prostitution, violence and kickbacks which one-year anniversary of President Obama’s inauguration and on Dr. King’s birthday, as come in off the street into single-resident occupancy housing, frequently)r and in the well. Many of us were hopeful when a liberal, case of one landlord campaign — protesting Democrat senator (and the first African a local, large, nonprofit landlord’s practices which include board meetings that are American) became elected president. > CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST M However, as we have seen in the year since, Barack Obama’s lofty rhetoric doesn’t,' ipso facto, translate into anti-poverty work or social justice on the ground, locally or globally. Despite it’s purported liberal or progressive image, when it comes to jobs, health care, the economy, schools, and things like tenant rights and housing for people, Oregon gives short shrift to economic justice. For example, Oregon’s' K-12 classroom size ratio is second worst in the country, second only to Arizona. What is to be done? As groups like Sisters of the Road, Street Roots and WRAP join forces on the west coast, nationally, and even globally (Tenant Rights Project has been getting emails from a Squatters Movement in neoliberal South Africa despite there being a black-majority government in Pretoria for many years now) — we have a chance, as Robert F. Kennedy once said (quoting Aeschylus), “to make gentler the life of the world.” Dr. King Jr.’s last campaign in 1968 was the Poor People’s March on Washington. In Portland, we need to sfort holding the City Council to a higher standard than the present “go along and get along,” pre capitalist “consensus,” which seems pervasive between Commissioners Fritz, Fish, Saltzman, Leonard and Adams. In. Salem, in Washington, D.C., and at the WTO (World Trade Organization) we need to start organizing in coalitions m order to put some teeth in all that “liberal” Obama rhetoric. Is Portland “the city that works” for yuppies, or the city that belongs to all of us? Writing unlocks a world of expression for the incarcerated ood news. The writing class at Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem is going to add another writing class in addition to the class that l’vé been teaching for more than a year. The new class will be an evening class, so that sòme folks who can’t attend the FROM THE V’ original afternoon class . OESK OF "S' because, of their work _ _ hours will now be able Ruth Kovacs . = * to enroll. Thanks to Uhuru Sa-Sa for their Ruth Kovacs is a Portland activist, former teacher and host of request that made this , Prison Pipeline on KBOO, 90.7 fm. She writes regularly happen. about the issues surrounding the. millions of individuals and Also haoneninfi for B families affected by the U.S. prison system. : - . . ..... ...-------------------------------------- prisoners everywhere, is the current short story - contest that Shot Caller Press has out there. The deadline, April 31, is still three months away, so there is time for folks to write their story and submit it in the contest There will be three cash prizes and the possibility . of publication. The maximum number of words is 5000. There is no minimum, however recently there was a contest with a 1,500 word maximum, so quite a few shorter stories have already been selected. I encourage those, who are eligible (prisoners - and ex-prisoners) to enter this contest Of course, the cash prizes may.motivate Some, but I think there’s a better reason to prepare an entry. The contest requires not only that the If you like the shirt JoeyHarringtonò wearing on page 5, you can order them at www.wordpress.streetroots.com stories he about prison life, but also that they are true stories. Now, many of us who work for prison reform and other issues that focus on crime and punishment, have never - been incarcerated. The way we will help folks who, so far, don’t seem interested in these issues, to become interested (and eventually active participants in the work that needs to be done) is to present a real picture of the facts about incarceration. Since I am among those who have never- been in lockdown^ I’m the first to admit that I don’t really Imów what it would be like to be sentenced to many years in prison. I rely a great deal on the stories that prisoners tell me. I realize that only those who have been there, done that, can tell those stories. Therefore, I’m always glad to hear the stories of prisoners and ex-prisoners so that more of its can understand the issues that I present in this column and on the KBOO radio program, Prison Pipeline. It explains why so often I share my personal experiences. I believe that if someone can feel a little bit of what I feel, they’ll better understand why I take the position I so often Voice. Usually any personal story I might share somehow ; connects with an experience of other folks, and we indeed, truly share out feelings. Writing students easily tell stories about their life (in or out of prison) but there is always a bit of rambling, and the point or lesson gets lost However, when they are asked to write it down, they tend to focus more. That wonderful tool, the eraser, allows them to get hack to the point when thoughts stray. And when the written product is to be presented to others, the writer steps back and becomes the critic. This rewrite process really brings focus, - eliminates untruths, and always helps the writer gain insight into a moment that had not been seen before. Most of us have heard that therapy often involves keeping a journal. It is a widely accepted healing device. In the writing classes I suggest, just to help me make my point, that the students write down an account of one of their experiences. Then wait a few days, and read it as if it was someone elsè’s story. They often tell me how much they enjoyed the reading. After two visits in one week to Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, I’ve had the opportunity to talk to quite a few prisoners. I encouraged each of theta to enter the Shot Caller Press contest, òr at least to write a true story about life in prison. At first the prisoner would claim they didn’t have a story. So I’d ask if they ever had any interesting cell mates or jearful events. Soon the stories would flow and they would agree that they are the only ones who can tell about prison life if they want the truth to be told. After these conversations, I believe there will be some contest entries . from Salem. For more information about the contest, go to www. shotcallerpress, com. - embrace piuotu diversity portiandhearingvoiœs. net
