Elizabeth Atly of Code Pink Portland reports from her work with Common Ground Collective in New Orleans. Photos and blog.

Portland Greets Bush, August 21

Here's a list of some previous Code Pink Portland activities:

• International rally for peace
• PPRC weekly rallies
• Washington Square mall peace action*
• Weekly street vigils*

• International rally for peace
• Rally against Patriot Act
• Pioneer Place Mall peace action*
• PPRC weekly rallies
• Weekly street vigils*

• May Day rally and march
• Media monopoly protest, Clear Channel (twice!)*
• Pink slip presentation - Clear Channel*
• PPRC weekly rallies
• Library leafleting re: Patriot Act*
• Weekly street vigils*
• March for police accountability
• "Who's Emma?" community forum at In Other Words Books*
• Urban Action Series

• Portland Peace Fleet Parade (pre-Rose Festival Parade)*
• Paper Roses action at the Rose Festival*
• KBOO radio shows: Bread and Roses and Feminista Factor
• "Welcome Wagon" for Republican Leadership Conference*
• Weekly street vigils*

• With several hundred other Portlanders, gave John Ashcroft the welcome he deserves
• Weekly street vigils*

• Co-sponsor Medea Benjamin Portland visit (co-founder of Code Pink)
• George W. comes to Portland

Almost passing for "normal" at the Western States Republican Leadership Conference:

Six Portland Code Pinks subjected themselves to the parallel universe of the Republican Party, assembled at the Doubletree Hotel Jantzen Beach on Hayden Island Drive for a weekend conference. About 100 to 200 were there with some notables such as the Governor of Hawaii Linda Lingle, Oregon Republican Party Chairman Kevin Mannix, U.S. Representative Greg Walden, and the infamous KXL radio hate monger Lars Larsen.

The women had made reservations to stay at the hotel, to give them access and a staging area.

We had some ideas of what we would like to accomplish -- to be a visible presence, and (“ not to comfort the afflicted in this case), but to afflict the comfortable". These were modest goals, but considering the tight security, it was a daunting challenge with so many "unknowns".... until we could get there and case the joint."

Dressed in regular attire, appropriate for a conference (no pink at this time), we circulated around the hotel. One member innocently picked up a conference schedule from the registration table, returning to the lobby to share it with the other pinks. But within one minute the Republican authorities were on us, demanding that we relinquish the schedule since we were not registered for the conference and had no official name-tag. Without argument, we complied and headed back to our room, followed by a swarm of security people. The Republican security guy was polite and apologetic.

“We’re sorry about this, ladies, but the security is tight due to the presence of some VIP’s, and we don’t want a situation in which there are invaders around trying to pass themselves off as “normal”.

The implications and interpretations of that statement set off riles of laughter when we got back to the room!!

In the early evening we joined the Cascadia Magical Activists in their circle ceremony a short distance away from the hotel on a grassy open space. We got into the spirit of this ceremony, drawing from it positive energy and empowerment – to set free from her bonds the lovely cloth-draped (symbolic) Lady Liberty. We took away with us some ceremonial salt. We distributed the salt inside the hotel such that the conference attendees couldn’t help but cross it.

What we learned from our weekend experience is how much the U.S. has already become a police state. Our status as registered guests gave our presence legitimacy, but the cops, Homeland Security, and hotel security were soon on to us. They tailed us all the time. By this time we had “outed” ourselves in bright pink attire.

The Republicans were very unhappy with our flaunting of our pink presence. Many knew very well what Code Pink stands for. There we were, in their faces, a knot of bright pink women sporting our Code Pink buttons. They complained. They wanted us out of there. They were successful in getting us removed from the conference room area. We had to negotiate firmly and politely with hotel security for our territorial parameters.

The point is we weren't doing anything illegal!! We were just THERE, an uncomfortable presence in their midst. We stood talking amongst ourselves at the elevator and stairway that led down to the conference room......as the Republicans assembled for the morning session. We did not burst into one of our songs with a message, as we would have liked to.

We didn't chant or attempt to hand out anything. We spoke only when spoken to, and a few conferencees in fact did come up to us to ask about our pink t-shirts with Emma Goldman on the front. "Who is Emma?" they wanted to know. And we were happy to tell them that she is our heroine and role-model, a radical social reformer in the U.S. in the early part of the 20th century. Actually these conversations were mutually engaging. We have learned that even in "enemy camp" it is an error to assume that all of them think alike and are in total agreement with the party. We sustained a friendly, cordial, positive demeanor. We stood tall. We were cheerful and smiling, very mainstream, ordinary, “normal-looking”??? women.

Maybe we had the Republicans running SCARED. The apparently felt THREATENED by our IDEAS, because there certainly was nothing threatening about our bodies! But they do have good reason to be scared, not of our peaceful approach, but of our rationality and compassion. These are powerful “weapons”, too.

This makes it VERY difficult for the law-enforcement and surveillance staff to deal with us. On what grounds can they throw us out? For mingling as hotel guests in the lobby wearing pink!!! For conversing with Republicans and hotel staff? Oh, but several of those mean-spirited neocons did complain and wanted us out.

The night before, the surveillance staff (plain-clothed and in uniform) followed us to the bar and disco scene. There we were, those wild pink ladies out there flaunting our presence and dancing up a storm. It isn’t likely that there were many Republicans in the disco. The crowd seemed to be mostly locals who had come for a Friday night of drinks and dancing. But there we were, true to our t-shirts which say on the back, "If I can't dance, I don't want to be a part of your revolution." Emma Goldman

This was such an unusual scene for all of us pink ladies. We never go out disco dancing on Friday night or any other night for that matter. Several of the women say they are normally in bed by 9:30. They have husbands, jobs, kids -- disco dancing is not their thing. We don't like smoked-filled atmospheres, or music so loud that you can't talk to anyone. But we do do like dancing though, so we endure late into the night. All in the name of PEACE and POLITICAL ACTIVISM. We are trying to save the world!

The disco was followed by our first Code Pink “slumber party” What a rollicking good time we had!

During this adventure, we encountered people who didn’t mind talking with us. Even hotel staff, operating on orders from above, seemed not only willing to listen to us but also quite sympathetic about our rights being trampled. They regretted having to follow the Republican orders to clear us out, but needed to keep their jobs. We appreciated both their position and quiet solidarity.

Was the venture a success? We think so. We had succeeded in infiltrating the conference. We had "Pinked" the Republicans – IN YOUR FACE -- an act of defiance against those who would foster war-mongering, greed, racism, neo-conservative Christianity, pious self-righteousness, arrogance, fascism. We stood up to those who would shred our civil rights, whose policies perpetrate misery, poverty and suffering around the world. We lent opposite energies to the gathering. Like stealthy pink panthers we marked the territory and left our "scent". Surreptitiously we dropped pink paper roses with "thorn messages".....here and there.....at telephone booths, in the rest-rooms, in the gift shop, on an end-table. Our calling cards.

A lonely pink rose laying there....with a thorny message attached to the stem: "While the government increases military spending, over 41 million Americans have no health insurance."

Another --"There are 1.5 billion people in the world who do not have access to safe drinking water." And numerous other messages were dropped."

All in a day's and night's work/play for Code Pink, and all in the spirit of following ones passions, and another lesson in living more courageously and outrageously!

The times call for it.

Portland Rose Festival Actions:

Saturday, June 7th: Pink Splashes disrupt parade-watchers placid gaze"

"We are Portland's Peace Fleet; we say war is obsolete!" rang the chant in the early hours of Saturday morning, as faithful parade-watchers lined the streets of rose city/cum warship harbor for the annual rose/warship festival parade. Just as streets were closing in preparation for the Grand Floral parade, a dozen or so pink-clad activists, mostly women, appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Six of the interlopers wore cardboard boats, all bearing the logo "Portland Peace Fleet" and sporting names like "PMS Pinkafore", "SS Minnow", and "PeaceMa". The boats were steered by keels consisting of fishnet-clad legs, around which small pink fish appeared to be swimming. Sails for the ships bore legents such as "We do not have Torpedo Envy," "Warship Worship is Anti-Family," "Depleted Uranium Shrunk my Ship," and so on. The pink fleet sang "There's no business like War business" and other songs, and chanted for nearly the entire parade route, meeting little resistance, some hostile chants of "support the troops" (which some of the pink boaters joined, adding "bring them home!"), some thumbs up and peace signs, but mostly somewhat bewildered and seemingly oblivious parade-watcher stares. Police at one point attempted to direct the Peace Fleet down a non-parade-route street, but their directive was ignored, with no untoward consequences (ponder this: what would have happened if the boaters had been 21, male, and clad in black costumes and boats . . .)

Later that day, the formal pinkly-outfitted "senior rose festival court," led by a fiery-pink (some would say red!) bikini-clad young angel, graciously handed out hand-crafted roses to festival-goers milling around the battleship site. Each rose carried a "thorn" -- a fortune-cookie-sized message calling attention to some of the hard facts of "gun-boat diplomacy" and other aggressive military behaviours. Strangely, those lined up to visit the high security fenced area surrounding the battleship fleet were the least receptive to the flowers and the messages they bore. (What, isn't this a Rose Festival, and weren't these roses being offered? But no! We wanna show our kids these big ships with their big guns . . .!) One woman showed her appreciation by crumpling her rose, messge and all, and throwing it back over the chainlink fence at the pink princesses. One of the latter, curious to see what had offended the flower's recipient, uncrumpled the flower and read the message, which enumerated countries bombed by the U.S. since 1945 (quite a lot to condense into a fortune cookie format!) Which all goes to show . . . well, just what is it Portland is celebrating here? ? ?

Code Pink wants to know! Code Pink, we make you think!

See the photos on our gallery page.

Clear Channel Actions:

Thursday, May 8th Code Pink Portland instigated a blitz appearance in front of the Clear Channel offices on Macadam Ave. The Code Pink banner and line of pink-clad protestors caught the attention of the rush-hour commuters as well as the staff of Clear Channel. Curious staff came outside to find out what was going on. They hadn’t a clue why Clear Channel was as the focus of this event! We politely explained. “We are here because the media consolidation that is going on (and about to increase) is of great concern to us. More media outlets in fewer and fewer hands does not bode well for a democracy. Clear Channel already owns over 1600 radio stations.

The expression of diverse opinions and the addressing of community needs and concerns are forfeited under conditions of mass media consolidation. Since 9/11 Clear Channel has censored the music played over the air as well as complied with the government propaganda and the stifling of news on current events.” The Clear Channel spokesman denied this. “No one tells us what to air. We take no directions from anyone.” The Code Pinkers have reason to be skeptical about this position. As part of our protest we were ready with boom boxes (and our voices) to play songs “banned” by Clear Channel during the invasion of Iraq, such as Lennon’s “Imagine." The goals of Code Pink in any and all of our actions are to raise public awareness, to bear witness, and to take a visible stand against unjust and illegal actions of the government. We are well aware that on June 2nd the FCC and the Congress will be forging the future of mass media in the US. Up for consideration is the issue of “de-regulating” the media enabling large media conglomerates to buy up even more. Local ownership restrictions will be removed. This applies to radio and tv stations, newspapers, magazines, internet media, and the entertainment media. That is why the Code Pink action at Clear Channel is both timely and urgent. The Congress is just hearing from the media lobbyists. We hope, as an outcome of our protest at Clear Channel, that the public voice will be heard. We do urge active political involvement. We hope people will let their Congress persons know their opinions on media de-regulation.

Tuesday, May 27th: A group of three Code Pinks, unable to get an interview with the station manager, obtained an interview (albeit under false pretenses) with the Sales Manager of Clear Channel (in the true style and spirit of Michael Moore). At first the questions were of a general nature, about the history of Clear Channel in Portland. The ladies listened and learned about Portland Clear Channel’s 21% of the market shares (advertising) locally and its 17% listener share. Early on, the sales manager suspected the intentions of his interviewers. All parties carried on as if this were a regular ol’ interview by sweet ladies (and they were sweet), who wanted to learn how those guys run our information world. Before long he asked if this “interview” had something to do with “consolidation”. The women admitted, yes, that was much on their minds.

That said, they gradually introduced more challenging topics until they were actually debating media monopoly, profit as the basis for news decisions, and the issues of local control. All participants rolled around the complex question as to what degree television and radio influence public taste, opinion, and buying habits vs. to what degree of the media merely responds to the will of the public…. which was the view of the marketing and sales manager. Someone mentioned “Wag the Dog”.

One of the interviewers asked the sales manager if he had read the recent column in the New York Times by William Saffire, right-wing pundit writing on the upcoming FCC rulings. Though the interviewers rarely agree with much of anything that William Saffire writes, they are in complete agreement with him on his warnings about the new FCC rulings.

The manager was asked if he agreed or disagreed with the opinion of William Saffire who writes: “We’ve already seen what happened when the F.C.C. allowed the monopolization of local radio: today three companies own half the stations in America, delivering a homogenized product that neglects local news coverage and dictates music sales.”

The manager said he did not agree with William Saffire. He believes that the increase in Clear Channel stations in Portland since the big deregulation in 1996 proves that deregulation increases diversity. His idea of diversity, apparently, was in the sense of a plethora of stations playing national music, catering to lots of different music tastes.

“That kind of diversity is like having 189 shampoos to choose from” said one of the interviewers. “But that’s not the diversity we are here to talk about.” We’re talking about a media climate that perpetuates a rich and robust democracy, nourished by diversity in the expression of opinion. It’s a diversity that gives a voice to various minorities groups and to the powerless. It’s a diversity that reflects community interests, fosters open dialog and a free exchange of information.” This gets to the very heart of a Democracy.

“It is important that you know that we don’t trust Clear Channel to guard our rights for us. What we want to protect is a democracy based on broad participation in information and control of natural resources like the airwaves. That is why we are here.”

And then these cool and graceful ladies told him how much they appreciated his attention and humor. At this point, in closing the interview, the woman in the black business dress told the sales manager that since the group was unable to speak to the manager, would he pass along something from the group to the man at the top.

At that moment she delicately lifted her black dress waist-high to reveal a pink slip that said, “YOU’RE FIRED! From Code Pink” Yes, they had accomplished their mission…to deliver a Pink Slip, the “calling card” of Code Pinks across the nation!

Thursday May 29th: At 4:30 this afternoon we started gathering in front of the Clear Channel office on Macadam Avenue. It was a great turnout -- Code Pinks and Radical Cheerleaders and the general public, about 50 strong, with messages for commuters during rush hour to turn off Clear Channel stations, turn on the Dixie Chicks, and call the FCC! This was a national day of protest to stop media monopoly; similar protests took place in Washington DC, New York City, San Francisco, Phoenix, L.A. and many others.

We had good feedback from passersby, this time the ratio of waves and peace signs to single digits was about ten to one. At one point a couple of young men came out of the CC building to "interview" the protesters. Their questions were quite hostile and everyone interviewed was asked why they didn't get a job (there seems to be some general opinion that all protesters are unemployed and have nothing better to do). KBOO and Indymedia were there for coverage; and even though press releases went out to mainstream media, no one from the Oregonian or KGW was there. Hm, what a surprise.

The Radical Cheerleaders led us in some cheers, what great energy they bring to rallies! There were kids and dogs (wearing pink bandanas); the boom boxes blared some of that "dangerous" music, like Get Up, Stand Up and Power to the People; protesters wore gags over their mouths.

We all agreed it was a successful afternoon, a lot of Portlanders saw our messages and we had fun! After all, "if I can't dance I don't want to be part of the revolution!" Photos from this event

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