Tuesday, March 20

CASUALTIES OF IRAQ NINE YEARS LATER:  U.S. OUT!

Visibility  action on the ninth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq

3:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.

S.W. Yamhill and Broadway in downtown Portland

Even with American Troops gone, 16,000 U.S. personnel (including 8,000 "contractors" and 700 "military advisors") remain in the largest embassy in the world (the size of the Vatican).

A victory for peace advocates and Portland students!   At its October 24^th board meeting, the Portland School Board voted unanimously to allow “equal access” in Portland high schools for counter-recruitment activists and other advocates for peace.  The equal access resolution was placed on the board’s agenda and pushed forward by school board co-chair Martin Gonzalez.  This resolution is the result of at least five years of lobbying school board members at board meetings, election forums and coffee shops.

The Equal Access Committee is now working to implement the new policy at each of Portland’s nine high schools, giving particular attention to those schools in poor neighborhoods where disadvantaged students are targeted and hounded by military recruiters.  We need to order counter-recruitment pamphlets and brochures, buttons and stickers for school visits and career fairs.  We also must cover the costs of locally produced literature, information packets about non-military post-high school opportunities, and student newspaper ads.

We are currently submitting a grant request for $1,000 to cover some of these costs but expect to receive only about half that amount at best.  In recent years, we have had to count more heavily on the generosity of our friends and supporters since grant funding for grassroots political organizing has become increasingly difficult to obtain.

We ask for financial support only when we really need it to keep this important work going.  The Military & Draft Counseling Project is an all-volunteer organization, and some of our projects (speaking in high school classrooms and lobbying the school board for better policy) cost nothing beyond the time and energy of our volunteers.  We are confident that enough of you will lend your support and encouragement, as in past years, so that we can continue to advocate for students and educate them about the realities of military enlistment and the true costs of war.

Please do what you can:     $100____     $75____    $50____     Other____.

Make your checks payable to the Military & Draft Counseling Project and send to 2000 NE 42^nd Ave., Suite 224, Portland, Oregon 97213.   Together we can make a real and substantial difference in the fight against militarism and corporate exploitation and inspire the next generation to carry our banner forward.

The end of the Iraq War, & what it means to me

By Casey Elder, December 15 2011, originally posted at Face the Fin

Saturday, December 17th 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM, Director's Park at SW Yamhill and Park Ave.

This year's National Defense Authorization Act, which is a bill passed every year for the past 48 years to fund the United States Department of Defense, has some particularly disturbing aspects to it.  While this bill is always objectionable because of its hand outs to political cronies and wasteful spending on the bloated war machine, this year it has provisions attached that would allow for the indefinite detention of American citizens without charge by the military.  All the government would have to do is label someone a terrorist to strip them of all their constitutional rights to due process.  Today, December 14th, the bill passed the House of Representatives and President Obama has withdrawn his veto threat and said he will sign the bill.  We must register our outrage of this blatant attack on by our government on basic rights and the constitution.  See you in the streets!

For more information and to sign a petition, please click here.