Joe Hill Night! Fanning the Flames of Discontent

  • Saturday, November 19, 2011
  • 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm
  • Star E Rose Cafe  (NE 24th & Alberta)
  • Music by General Strike and I Wobble Wobble

A Benefit for The Alliance Newspaper
Suggested Donations at the Door: $5 – $20

Join General Strike and the IWW for a 30-year Portland tradition, celebrating the songs and spirit of Joe Hill and other radical song writers. Joe Hill, an organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was framed on a murder charge and executed by a firing squad in Salt Lake City, Utah on November 19, 1915.

Joe Hill’s famous song, “The Preacher and the Slave” was first released and sung on the streets of Portland, Oregon about 1910. General Strike will sing and lead many Joe Hill songs, along with other rabble-rousing music. General Strike, along with the Portland IWW and others, have been celebrating Joe Hill Night as a Portland tradition since 1990.

General Strike has been leading songs on picket lines and social justice rallies in Portland and the Pacific Northwest since 1987.

August Music for the Working Class!

It’s time once again for the Portland IWW’s monthly Music for the Working Class!

  • When: Wednesday August 31st at 7pm
  • Where: Red and Black Cafe, SE 12th & Oak
  • Bands: Kory Quinn, I Wobble Wobble, Ryan G, and David Small

No cover charge! Drink discounts for union members and service industry workers! So come on down to Music for the Working Class and enjoy an evening of songs to fan the flames of discontent!

Portland Wobbly Study Circle

A Portland Wobbly Study Circle recently formed as a project of the Education & Outreach Committee. About half a dozen wobblies will soon begin to read and meet a couple of times per month. The first book scheduled, Detroit, I Do Mind Dying: A Study in Urban Revolution, is directly related to the film shown last month about the radical union among African-American autoworkers during the ’70s (Finally Got the News). The study circle will continue in the future with other books on topics of mutual interest chosen by the group. This project is open to any wobbly who wants to drop in, and it aims to be open to equal participation. There is a blog for the meeting schedule and to facilitate further discussion beyond the meetings online at: PDX Wobbly Study Circle.

Stand in Solidarity with survivors of assault in the Olympia City Jail!

Please join us, Thursday April 21st, 7pm sharp @ the Red and Black Cafe, 400 SE 12th Ave, for an evening of amazing, diverse music and Stand in Solidarity with survivors of assault in the Olympia City Jail!

On November 13, 2007, 39 women were arrested during a peaceful demonstration against the war in Iraq. When taken to the jail, many were forced to remove clothing to a point that exposed their breasts, even though the circumstances of their arrest did not warrant probable cause for strip search.

They were told that they would not be allowed to put their clothes back on after stripping. Neither did they receive prison wear or blankets to cover themselves and were left under the watch of male officers in the jail’s Sally port, which is unheated.

Jail policy firmly states that prisoners must be allowed to keep pants, skirts, shirts, dresses, socks and undergarments. Other articles of clothing, such as jackets, jewelry and shoes may be held by jail staff until the prisoner’s release. The city, against their own policies, destroyed the jail’s video tape of that night and maintains that they are completely innocent of any crime. Three of the women filed suit against the city.

In any other setting, holding power over people with the threat of violence while demanding that they remove their clothing is clearly seen as a sexual assault. Why would we tolerate it in this setting?

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