Street Roots • April 7-13, 2017
News
Page 5
UNIONS, from page 4
now,” he said.
Ben Basom, spokesperson for the
Pacific Northwest Regional Council of
Carpenters, said the carpenters’ recent
anti-hate resolution is not about party
politics.
“We are a nonpartisan organization.
We’re not tied at the hip to the
Democrats; we do support Republicans,”
he said. “We are a diverse organization
made up of all races, nationalities and
sexual orientations, and it’s at our core
principles to stand up for our
membership.”
Hate groups and Patriots
FACT SHEET: OREGON HATE GROUPS
What we learned from Southern Poverty Law Center data
In 2016, Wolves of Vinland (white
nationalist), American Front (racist
skinhead) and Black Riders Liberation
Party (black separatist) all surfaced in
Oregon for the first time.
Also new to the list was Portland’s
Soleilmoon Recordings (hate music),
which is a music label that’s been
operating out of Portland since 1987. It
got listed for selling and promoting
neo-Nazi music.
■
While it’s uncertain whether the
number of white supremacists in Oregon
is increasing, a couple of groups, one a
racist skinhead group and the other a
white nationalist group, popped up in
Oregon for the first time this past year,
according to the Southern Poverty Law
Center. But much of the organizing
around xenophobic and nativist ideologies
has been in rural parts of the state.
Oregon is also home to 28 extreme
anti-government Patriot groups, according
to the law center; only Virginia, Texas and
California host more of these groups than
Oregon. They’re concentrated along the
west and central regions of Oregon, and
nationwide, about a quarter of these
Patriot groups are militias.
Members of one listed group, the
“Three Percenters,” clashed with anti-
Trump activists at a pro-Trump rally in
Salem on March 25. One man, who was
hiding his face behind a yellow and black
mask, verbally attacked and threatened
Portland activist Cameron Whitten, who is
black and was leading a counter protest live-
streamed on social media.
According to an anonymous post recently
uploaded to an anarchist and antifa, or anti
fascist, Web platform, the attacker is
allegedly a Three Percenter, and so were
many of the other participants who were
there to support Trump.
Street Roots was able to independently
verify that there were Three Percenters at
this rally who were engaged in shouting
matches with the counter-protesters.
According to “Up in Arms: A Guide to
Oregon’s Patriot Movement,” the Three
Percenters (often shortened to 111%), along
with the Oath Keepers, participate in
vigilante border militias, spread anti-Muslim
rhetoric and “tend to be more aggressive
and violent than other Patriot movement
groups.”
Rural Organizing Project and Political
Research Associations released the Oregon
guide in 2016. It reports that there are
thousands of Patriot activists in Oregon
and that the Three Percenters surfaced
shortly after the 2008 election of Barack
Obama.
According to SPLC, 111% United Patriots
and American Patriots 111% are both a
statewide presence in Oregon, and the Oath
Keepers are present in 10 counties,
including Washington, Columbia, Lane and
Marion.
“This election has empowered people to
become more brazen,” said Basom, of
Pacific Northwest Regional Council of
Carpenters. He said he’s keeping the lines
While Southern Poverty Law Center
hasn’t found evidence of the Ku Klux
Kian in Oregon since 2011, it reports that
an affiliated group surfaced in Vancouver,
Wash., in 2016. And, as reported by
Willamette Week, a prominent member of
the KKK popped up in Lake Oswego on
March 11.
The Northwest Hammerskins (racist
skinhead) surfaced in 2016 for the first
time in five years.
The National Socialist Movement
(neo-Nazi) has been present in Oregon
steadily since 2004.
The National Prayer Network
(evangelical, anti-Semitic) in Clackamas
has been around for 10 years.
Oregon somewhat follows national
trends, which show hate groups have
been steadily increasing since 1999.
Nationally, hate groups peaked in 2011
with 1,018 active hate groups, then
dropped to 784 in 2014, and are now oi
the rise again, with 917 last year,
Extreme
anti-government groups
Oregon had 28 active extreme
anti-government groups in 2016.
Only Virginia, with 33, and Texas and
California, both with 32, had more.
Florida also had 28.
“Generally, such groups define
themselves as opposed to the ‘New
World Order,’ engage in groundless
conspiracy theorizing, or advocate or
adhere to extreme antigovernment
doctrines,” according to Southern
Poverty Law Center. They are not
necessarily racist or criminal.
There are 623 of these groups
nationwide, and 165 of them, including
a handful in Oregon, are militias.
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Oregon’s history o f hate groups
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2012
of communication open with other unions so
that “when and if” hate groups initiate
actions in Portland, they will be ready.
“We need to take proactive steps,” Basom
said.
Rebuilding strength
Part of how the resolution materializes
will likely be through education. Basom said
this would take the form of teaching the
regional council’s 20,000 members, some
who live in Oregon’s rural areas, about the
history of the labor and civil rights
movements working together. But most
importantly, it’s about teaching members
how fighting for union standards for all
workers helps keep those standards up for
everybody, he said.
Differences in opinion among
membership of the regional carpenters
union, is evident on its Facebook page.
Numerous union carpenters voiced
dissent below a post of photos from a protest
outside the Oregon GOP’s Freedom Rally at
the Oregon Convention Center on Feb. 25,
while many other commenters voiced their
support. That day, the regional council
“stood up for the dignity of immigrant
workers,” according to the post’s author.
“I have a hard time seeing why we support
the very labor force that takes our jobs and
drives down wages in our industry,” one
commenter wrote. “Too many illegal aliens
inside our unions already,” another wrote.
“Today I’m embarrassed to say I’m a Union
carpenter,” another commenter wrote.
But as labor history experts and union
leaders argue, these attitudes are a result of
2013
2014
2015
2016
í í SfSSi
Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees
union busting efforts to pit workers against
Local 28, which represents about 200
one another - which deflects attention from
workers in Portland.
the likelihood that low wages and poor
“The resolution is important to my
working conditions are the fault of the
union,” she said, “because it gives us the
employer rather than other workers.
The Pacific Northwest Regional Council
framework to mobilize using our power as
of Carpenters’ resolution stated, “If the U.S.
workers against the KKK and other white
labor movement is to rebuild its strength
supremacist groups. It can also act as an
during this period of crisis of racist
example to other unions who want to
organizing and attacks, it must take up the
confront fascists.”
struggle against white supremacy/white
Some members of the carpenters union
nationalism, not as an abstract debate, but
showed up to help on March 13 when
as part of its social, political, and organizing
Southeast Portlanders woke up to swastikas
agenda.”
painted all over property along 33rd Avenue.
The resolutions passed by local
Basom said regional union membership also
carpenters and painters unions show a “sea
showed up in Redmond, Wash., to help
change” has taken place in some of the
repair a mosque’s sign that was vandalized
more traditionally conservative unions, said
in November. When the same sign was
Widener, who taught at UO’s Labor
re-vandalized in December, they showed up
Education and Research Center before
again.
retiring in 2012.
His union has been working to organize
“When I see a resolution like this,”
immigrant workers for some time, as Street
Widener said of the carpenters’ statement,
Roots reported in October. (See “Worker
“I think: Wow, that’s a lot of progress!
Exploitation in Portland’s Building Boom” at
Because the construction unions have a
news.streetroots.org/construction-worker-
history of being more conservative than the
exploitation.)
industrial unions or the public employee
But lately, said Juan Sanchez, the union
unions, so I think that this marks a
representative leading that effort, the union
transition for them.”
has also been participating in a lot of
Wyatt McMinn, vice president of the
marches and immigrant rights rallies -
International Union of Painters and Allied
Trades Local Union No. 10, believes decisive including a recent rally asking the city not to
cooperate with U.S. Immigration and
action is needed from the labor movement.
Customs Enforcement.
He said his local union has created an Anti-
The Portland office issued a letter urging
Racist Mobilization Committee.
other carpentry locals to pass similar anti
“We have a lot of Latino brothers and
hate resolutions, Basom said, and
sisters,” he said of his union’s membership.
“We figured it was important to take action.” carpenters in Eugene and Renton, Wash.,
have already followed suit.
Becca Lewis is a member of International