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Happening People:
Gloria Griffith and Joann Olivas LABORPALOOZA! TO HONOR WORKERS Labor poets, labor musicians and labor artists are joining political activists in celebrating America's working families at a free Labor Day weekend gathering Aug. 30 and Sept. 1 in Pleasant Hill. The event will be held at the corner of Highway 58 and Parkway Road, about 12 miles southeast of Eugene.
LABORpalooza! 2003 will feature arts, crafts, children's games and contests, live music and poetry. St. Vincent de Paul has donated more than 100 good used toys to be given away as prizes. Other children's activities include a poster contest where kids can depict what their parents do for work, and what kinds of work they want to do when they grow up. Organizer Carol Berg says, "All workers will be honored at our event, but a special focus on the achievement of organized labor will be emphasized," says organizer Carol Berg. She notes that union struggles resulted in 40-hour work weeks, safer working conditions, overtime pay, retirement benefits, health benefits, equal employment rights, and more. Haymarket Circle, an area of flea market and yard sale items gathered by working families will be new this year. "This is an example during the economically challenging times of people empowering themselves and their communities," says Berg. "Dollars made at this event will assist families and those dollars will stay in our communities." For camping space reservations and vendor spaces, call 746-0345.
BUSH'S OREGON TRIP STIRS PROTEST PLANS Eugene environmental and social activists are traveling to Portland Thursday, Aug. 21, to join demonstrations targeting President Bush's $2,000 a plate fund-raising dinner at the Chiles Center at the University of Portland (UP), a private Catholic college. Portland Sierra Club conservation organizer Nat Parker says the environmental community will be protesting "the Bush administration's systematic rollbacks of 30 years of environmental safeguards that protect Oregon's air, water, and wilderness." The Sierra Club and other groups will be gathering at 9:30 am Thursday at the corner of North Stafford Street and North Woolsey Avenue near UP. Some groups are meeting earlier at the Oregon Natural Resources Council office at 5825 N. Greeley Ave. The Cascadia Forest Alliance met this week in Eugene with peace, human rights and labor activists to organize their response to the Bush visit. Portland independent media (www.portland.indymedia.org)is urging Oregonians to "take the day off and take on Bush" in a widely distributed e-mail: "Bring friends, music, art, performance, dialogue, questions, solutions, food to share, and your voice ... His reign has been a nightmare: unprovoked invasion and illegal occupation of Iraq, lies about weapons of mass destruction, massive budget deficits, stolen election, tax cuts for the rich, growing unemployment, cronyism and corporate crime and corruption at all-time highs." "Yelling at or making fun of the appointed stooge is a waste of time," says Eugene pundit George Beres, commenting on the Portland events. "He understands little of what he does. He is a puppet who succeeds at one thing — keeping his jaw jutting out for all photo ops — content to implement disastrous policies chosen by those who pull his strings." — Ted Taylor
BARNHART: TIE A KNOT IN TAX LOOPHOLES How do we solve our state's economic woes? Tax breaks for corporations and wealthy individuals should be cut substantially and the money shifted to education, says state Rep. Phil Barnhart. "Tax breaks yield very questionable returns for their
cost," says the Democrat who represents central Lane and Linn counties..
"Lane County, for example, gave substantial tax breaks to large corporations
that have since abandoned the area. Companies that have stayed around
and continue to provide jobs are small, locally owned firms that benefit
far less from loopholes and tax Barnhart says businesses will choose locations based on other factors ranking far above tax breaks, such as good schools to supply a quality workforce, and good roads to deliver goods. "Tax breaks are 'icing on the cake' but hardly ever serve as the prime motivator," he says. "Do good schools attract business? Yes! " says Barnhart, noting that business owners and managers locate where their children can go to good schools. "But the bottom line is that passing an adequate school budget by closing the loopholes would kill not two, but three birds with one stone," says Barnhart. "It would fix our schools, attract business, and solve the budget problem. It's time to tie a knot in the tax loopholes."
A contingency of Eugene women have ended their three-and-a-half week fast and vigil on the steps of the Capitol building in Salem. The demonstration was in support of increased funding for social services in the state budget process. The vigil ended Aug. 14. Peg Morton began the vigil in July with a seven-day fast. Morton inspired Kathleen Piper who fasted for seven days, and the third Eugenean was Carol Seaton, who fasted for nine days. Morton says hundreds of people stopped by the vigil to tell their stories and lend their support, including a surprise visit by a Republican lawmaker, Rep. Pat Farr of Eugene. "There really needs to be a restoring of the cuts that have affected thousands of people," says Morton. She says many people don't realize that cutting social services "is just a transfer." If Oregonians don't pay now for basic maintenance social services, they will pay even more later for higher health care costs and incarceration. Eugene folk were also involved in a "cyber rally" at the Atrium Building downtown Aug. 13. Kitty Piercy, Sandra Morgan and others addressed the staggering cutbacks in social services at both the state and federal level and urged people to send e-mail messages to lawmakers. Sip N-Surf Cyber-Cafe offered free computer access for the event, which was sponsored by SOSA (Support Our Services Alliance), LILA (Lane Independent Living Alliance), JNW (Justice Not War Coalition) and WAND (Women's Action for New Directions). — TJT
Gloria Griffith and Joann Olivas
For the past six years, Springfield Schoool District employees Gloria Griffith and Joann Olivas have supplied free used clothing to district families through their volunteer project, the Clothing X-Change. "I noticed a portable classroom that wasn't being used," says Olivas, who was then Family Center coordinator at Springfield Middle School. "I asked the principal about it," she says. Springfield/Marcola Family Resource Center Coordinator Griffith brought the idea to the school board, "and that's how it all got started." Two-thirds of the X-Change's stock comes in by way of an arrangement with UO housing. Donation barrels are placed in residence halls for the final 10 days of the school year, when students are moving out. "We empty the barrels every day and haul it away by truck," says Olivas, who has spent a couple of hours daily this summer sorting through a mountain of clothes. "We guessed it was five tons." During the school year, clothing is sorted and racked by students to earn community-service credits. "They divert several tons of reusable goods from the landfill," say UO Housing Recycling Coordinator Robyn Hathcock. "It makes an impressive difference." — Paul Neevel
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