NEWS BRIEFS
Why stick to Earth Day when you can have Earth
Week? LCC is hosting events throughout this week,
ranging from a “wellness ecology walk” to a sustainable
landscapes talk. There will also be a chance to tour LCC’s
“greenest” building on the campus, which uses less energy,
less water and is built from eco-friendly material. April
20-22 the school will be hosting a Peace Symposium
entitled “People Powered Democracy Confronts Corporate
Rule.” See Activist Alert.
Not to be undone, UO is having an Earth Week, too,
and this year’s 30 events put on by 20 student groups are
under the theme of “Activating Collective Energy.” You’ve
already missed Monday’s No Coal Eugene action with a
hand-crafted coal train releasing “dust” as it tootled
through campus, so don’t miss the rest. For more
information visit: http://pages.uoregon.edu/uosc
If you’re in the Corvallis area, don’t miss the Hoo Haa
on a student-run organic farm just east of the OSU campus
on Sunday, April 22. In its 10th year, the event allows
attendees to tour the farm and even participate in tilling
soil. It’s sponsored by OSU’s Organic Growers Club.
Local musicians will play and Michelle Anderson, a
nationally renowned poet, will be giving a reading. For
dinner, bring a bowl and silverware because vegetarian
chili grown and made on the farm will be provided. For
more information visit: http://bit.ly/OSU_AgNews873 A
free shuttle will run from the OSU Beaver Store.
—Ted Shorack
LABOR MUSIC
IN THE WHIT
Unions. They brought you the 40-hour, five-day
workweek; they fight for health care and they’re a font of
music you can sing along to. “Solidarity forever/ solidarity
forever/ the union makes us strong.”
George Mann will be bringing his labor and folk music
to Eugene at 8 pm Friday, April 20, at the Whiteaker’s
Reality Kitchen. The show is sponsored by Eugene-
Springfield Solidarity Network/Jobs with Justice,
AFSCME Local 3214 and the Lane branch of the Industrial
Workers of the World (IWW).
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics about
270,000 Oregon workers belong to a union. Union
membership is on the rise in this state — it was 17.1
percent in 2011; up 1 percent from the previous year. The
BLS says Oregon is tied for seventh place with California
for union membership rates.
If you want to know more about the labor movement,
Mann says his show is part sing-along and part history
lesson. Mann’s perhaps best known for his anti-George
Bush CD compilation series “Hail to the Thief” that
features the likes of Billy Bragg and Utah Phillips.
George Mann performs at the Reality Kitchen, 245 Van
Buren; $5-$10 or donation. For more info call 357-5325.
— Camilla Mortensen
BUS FOR ENVIRO JUSTICE
Bus tours generally take you fun places; they take you
sightseeing. But a recent bus tour took Lane County
participants on a trip into environmental justice — or the
lack of it. Small houses cringed in front of smokestack
plumes and neighborhood residents told of days the smell of
chemicals have them hiding in their houses, their children
stricken with asthma attacks. This isn’t happening in some
big dirty city in some other state. It’s in west Eugene.
Lisa Arkin of Beyond Toxics led two schoolbuses
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EUGENE WEEKLY APRIL 19, 2012 9