Hello, Oregon Progressive Party members and supporters. Welcome to the latest of our monthly newsletters on what the Oregon Progressive Party is up to and other items of interest to the Oregon Progressive community.
Oregon Progressive Party joins Jewish Voice for Peace in letter to Portland City Council asking that they not extend the 5 year contract with G4S, which currently provides security guards at Portland City Hall. G4S is partial owner of Policity, the national police academy, which conducts what are known as "Deadly Exchanges": “bringing together police, IE, border patrol and FBI from the US with soldiers, police, border agents etc from Israel….to promote and extend discriminatory and repressive policing practices that already exist in both countries.”

Read the letter here. Contact the Portland City Council members to voice your support for this as well. Find them here.
OPP supports efforts to write and enact ordinance to combat harassment of tenants

The OPP state council has decided to support efforts by the Portland Tenants Union to enact an ordinance cLearn more about this ordinance and how you can help make it happen here.

Note that the ordinance is not yet written but examples of such ordinances already exist in Santa Monica, West Hollywood, Berkeley.
The Progressive Party War and Peace Report

American war drums beating against Russia

The Russian massing of troops at the Ukrainian border continues to be justification for the beating of the drums of war in the US, in the media and by Democrats in the halls of Congress. What the US media does not inform the American people about is that that the Russian nation has a justifiable fear an expanding NATO to surround Russia since the broke up of the Soviet Union. It is the US and their European partners in NATO that pose a military threat and are the aggressors, perhaps leading to a nuclear confrontation between the two nuclear powers, a confrontation which cannot end well for the peoples of the world.

Columnist Norm Solomon writes about the drum beat and the likely consequences of war between the United States and Russia.in his article: The United States to Russia: Do as We say, Not as We Do. Included in this column is a link to the historical records of what Russia was promised when the US, Russia and others were negotiating the unification of East and West Germany - the US and allies promised Russia that NATO would not move " one step closer to Russia." Yet following that time, it has moved hundreds of miles right up to the border of Russia, engulfing most of the former Soviet bloc nations of eastern Europe. And now the United States is not willing to seriously negotiate with Russia.

Please contact our OR Senators and Representatives with the message: The US must negotiate with the Russians, not threaten them with either military action or economic sanctions. Part of our negotiating position must include a commitment to not allow Ukraine to join NATO.

IN the meantime, a bill (S3488 & HR6470: Defending Ukraine Sovereignty Act of 2022) is being promoted by Democrats in Congress which would authorize the President to impose economic sanctions on Russia. Our Senators Merkley and Wyden are both co-sponsors, while none of our OR Representatives have signed on as co-sponsors of the House version.

All co-sponsors in the House and Senate are Democrats
except for one Independent in the Senate.

Please contact Senators Wyden and Merkley, asking them to remove themselves from the list of co-sponsors. Find their contact information here.
$15/hour - not any more; Demand now moving to $20/ plus union

The movement for $15 minimum wage has been quite successful but is no longer sufficient. $15/hour is just not a living wage.

The call now developing in California is now for $20 min wage plus a union. Details on this movement here.

Naturally, the federal government is still trying to play catch-up to $15. House and Senate Democrats have introduced the Raise the Wage Act of 2021 to increase the national minimum wage from the decade old minimum of $$7.25/hour to $15/hour between now and 2025 with that subject of an inflation increase as the years pass by. Bill number HR603 (co-sponsored by OR Reps. Blumenauer, Bonamici, Defazio) and Senate number S53, introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders and co-sponsored by OR Sen. Merkley and Wyden. These are identical bills. Fact Sheet is available here.

The Oregon Progressive Party supports the minimum demands presented in these federal bills but finds the $15/hour to be inadequate. Instead we join the movement for a living wage of at least $18/hour. And we support the efforts in Congress to empower the labor movement. We support the PRO Act (Protect the Right to Organize), bill number S420 in the Senate and HR842 in the House. Senators Merkley and Wyden are both original co-sponsors. The House has already passed their bill with OR Reps. Bonamici, Blumenauer, DeFazio and even Rep. Schrader voting Yes.
Peoples' Action to enact
campaign finance limits legislation
update
The Senate Rules Committee in the Oregon Legislature held a legislative committee hearing on January 13, '22. OR Progressive Party legal counsel, Dan Meek, provided testimony outlining the various initiative petitions which have been filed with the Secretary of State as well as a legislative counsel for campaign finance reform. His testimony is available here. The main actions to date have been that the OR Progressive Party has with our allies at OR Honest Election filed three strong and effective proposed ballot initiatives (IP 43, 43 and 44). That filing was followed by the filing of three additional initiatives by labor unions. We do not support those additional initiatives. Why we don't is explained in Dan Meek's testimony.

Included in his testimony is a OR Honest Election flyer on why We Need Campaign Finance Reform in Oregon.

If your organization wants to endorse, that can be done at the above link as well as individual endorsements

Sign up to help get this on Nov 2022 ballot.

Oregon voters clearly want effective limits on political campaign contributions and spending in Oregon elections.

Oregon Progressive Party and our allies at Honest Elections have filed initiative petitions with the OR Secretary of State asking that Oregon Voters enact effective loophole-free limits on campaign contribution.

WE WILL NEED YOUR HELP getting this on the Nov 2022 ballot. Sign up here to help the OR Progressive Party help with the campaign gathering of signatures when the time comes.
Sign initiative Petitions by
Printing and mailing them yourself
Several initiative petition campaigns now allow individual supporters to sign their initiative petitions by printing them from their websites, signing them and then mailing them in. No reason to wait to find a signature gather at some event or on the street. You can do it yourself.

Three initiative petition campaigns which OR Progressive Party supports for the Nov. 2022 ballot are among this group.

  • Lift Every Voice Oregon has two petitions to end gun violence. Gun violence is ever increasing. The last OR legislature was encouraged by citizens to enact new laws aimed at decreasing gun violence. But as is so often the case, they failed to act. So, the Lift Every Voice Oregon coalition formed to do the legislature's job - enact laws to protect the people of Oregon by writing two initiatives to end gun violence. IP 17, titled Reduction of Gun Violence Act aims to stop the proliferation of assault weapons, and IP 18, the Reduction of Harm from Weapons Act, aims to create safer gun owners and less lethal ammunition.

  • Oregon Peoples' Rebate has one petition which will increase the Corporate Activities Tax on corporate revenue starting at over $25 million on sales in Oregon and redistribute the resulting increased revenue to each resident of Oregon equally, resulting in a rebate of about $750 per individual Oregon resident annually. That is money which would leave the state, going into the pockets of some of the largest corporations in the nation. It would not affect mom and pop businesses.


General instructions on signing these sheets:
  • Print the sheets on standard white office paper (20 pound paper)
  • Provide this information and signatures in either black or blue ink. Never sign with a pencil.
  • Sign each sheet with your signature twice - once as the voter and once as the circulator. Include your printed name and address on each sheet.
  • Do not write in the space labeled "Sheet Number".
  • Mail the sheet to the address provided on each sheet. The IP6 sheet has a different mail to address than the IP 17 and 18 sheets.
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Connect with the OPP

OPP has a monthly public party meeting on the fourth Monday each month at 7 PM. Currently we are meeting via Zoom; we might be moving to in-person again soon in Portland, but we will continue to have the Zoom option. To receive notification of future meetings, please join our Google Group. Complete the form on the OPP home page or click on this Sign Up Link.

Visit our website at www.progparty.org, We are on Facebook here.

Check out our Renewed OPP Website

Check out the OR Progressive Party website. It has a new look, thanks to the efforts of our legal advisor, Dan Meek. While mostly the same information is there, it is all reformatted so it looks like it belongs in this century. And that also means that if you check it on your cell phone or other web devise, it is usable. Check it out at www.progparty.org.

As an Oregon registered voter, you can give a tax refundable donation of up to $50 once a year and then deduct it off your Oregon income taxes. There is no reason to wait to the end of the year. Do it now. Learn more and make a donation here.