Take Back September 11 for Nonviolence

Please join us on the South Park Blocks outside Smith Memorial Union at Portland State University on Sept 11, at 3 p.m., for a rally that promotes a reversal of our war culture and revenge response. We will hear music by Anne Feeney, poetry by Mic Crenshaw, and short talks by Sami Rasouli (founder of Muslim Peacemaker Teams in Iraq), Kathy Kelly (founder of Voices for Creative Nonviolence), Bernard LaFayette (major Civil Rights leader), Stephen Zunes and others. We will welcome the
Veterans for Peace and others who walk to join us from Peace Park (on the east bank of the Steel Bridge--please join them there at 1 p.m. for a peace ceremony), and we will finish with a Coronation of the Collective Heart peace ritual led by Lenore Norrgard. Contact pcwtom@gmail.com for details. Free and open from 3 p.m.-5 p.m. Also register for the following conference, Building Cultures of Peace (Sept 11-13), at http://www.peacejusticestudies.org/.

Action Alert: Your help is needed

Hi lovelys,

There is an extremely important piece of legislation being circulated and we need your help to make this a reality. Please read below and follow links for further information.

In Peace and solidarity,

The Green House Collective



Contact Your Senator About the Jubilee Act Today!

August 11, 2008 | Thanks to your hard work, your meetings, phone calls and emails, on June 24, 2008 the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation (HR 2634/ S 2166) passed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee! It must now be considered and passed by the full Senate before it can go to the President and be signed into law. Time is running short as Congress may adjourn for the year as early as September 26th.

This legislation would expand debt cancellation to impoverished countries that need it to fight poverty, promote responsible lending and require an audit of odious, illegal and onerous loans. The bill passed the House of Representatives by a 285-132 vote on April 16. TAKE ACTION! Contact your Senators and urge them to co-sponsor the Jubilee Act.

* PRESS RELEASE Jubilee Act Passes Senate Committee; House Committee Reauthorizes World Bank Funding, Calls for Reform
* Resources & Background Materials on the Jubilee Act
* Take Action on the Jubilee Act!
* Op-ED, "Debt is Modern-Day Apartheid" by Desmond Tutu (appeared in The Baltimore Sun, May 7, 2008)

Witness for Peace Columbia Report Back Workshop

Hi all you wonderful people,

Thank you to all who came and participated in last weeks discussion from the film screening of Plan Puebla Panama. Last Thursday was Part 1 of a 2 part series, but if you couldn't make it out for part 1, then you should definitely come for part 2. The film screening of Plan Puebla Panama was a lead in to this weeks event, where we will be hosting 3 amazing peace activist women from Witness for Peace who have recently come back from Columbia as part of a delegation documenting the affects Free Trade Agreements have on farmers, labor unions and organizers, the indigenous, etc. . . This workshop has been in the planning stages for some time now, and we at the Green House are very excited share this space with these amazing women. Here is a brief synopsis of what you can expect this week:

"Three Portland women will share their experiences from a recent Witness for Peace delegation to Colombia that explored the effects of U.S. military aid and the potential impacts of the pending U.S.-Colombia Free Trade agreement. The Colombia delegates will share testimonies from union workers, human rights defenders, campesinos and indigenous leaders that they met in Bogota and in the southern department of Cauca. Witness for Peace is a politically independent organization dedicated to nonviolence that stands with those seeking justice in the Americas. For more information, go to www.witnessforpeace.org."

We hope to see you all very soon.

In peace in solidarity,

The Green House Collective

What: Workshop @ 7pm, Vegan Potluck (please feel free to bring something) @ 6
Where: The Green House Collective: 4407 SE Tibbetts St. Conveniently located off bus lines # 4, 9, 75, and 14, not to mention the Clinton St bike superhighway
When: Thursday August 21st

"We have to avoid doing things that just give us pleasure as individuals but do not benefit our collective self" Carlos Fonseca
www.thegreenhousecollective.blogspot.com

Movie night at the Green House Collective

Hello beautifuls,

Thank you to all who came and participated in last weeks amazing workshop put on by Matt Bibeau, and many thanks to Matt for dedicating his time and expertise.

This last workshop was just one of many exciting things happening at the Green House Collective this month. This coming Thursday, August 14th, we will be showing a wonderful and informative documentary called Plan Puebla Panama. This documentary is part of an introduction to a workshop we are having on Thursday August 21st, put on by three amazing peace activist women from Witness for Peace (WFP) who just came back from Colombia. The women from WFP were there to document human rights violations, and talk with farmers, labor union organizers, etc. . . about how they are and have been affected by Free Trade Agreements. Plan Puebla Panama is just that, another expansion of Free Trade Agreements.

There is no official information about the documentary as it is an underground documentary. But there is no lack of information to be found over the internet. Global Exchange has this to say about Plan Puebla Panama, which is a great description what you can expect to see in this documentary:

"Plan Puebla Panama (PPP) is a mega project which seeks to open up the southern half of Mexico and Central America to private foreign investment and establishing the foundation for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). The plan depends upon multi-lateral development bank support and private investment to create infrastructure that will attract industry and expand natural resource extraction. With the Inter-American Development Bank as the head of the PPP's financial structure and major credit and technical assistance coming from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, among others, controversial projects have already begun."

"This is the first step in the latest push to globalize the Americas with the end goal of incorporating all of the Western Hemisphere (except Cuba) under the FTAA. Essentially the PPP will create development corridors from the 9 southern Mexican states of Puebla, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatan, and Quintana Roo, through the most southern Central American country of Panama. The PPP will create an elaborate infrastructure of ports, highways, airports, and railways aimed to connect the development of the petroleum, energy, maquiladora, and agricultural industries. While the PPP's proponents assert that its main objective is to improve the quality of life for area inhabitants, critics of the Plan see it as an attempt to exploit the abundant, cheap labor force and precious natural resources in order to attract foreign investment eager to reap the benefits of an area stricken with poverty and rich in biodiversity."

"Environmental activists fear that the exploitation of primary materials (minerals, timber, petroleum, biodiversity, and water) will lead to environmental degradation for exportation without profit being dispersed to local communities. Mexico currently ranks 2nd in the world in rate of deforestiation (National Forest Inventory 2000) and 73rd in environmental sustainability among 122 nations (La Jornada, 7/23/01). The PPP, many organizations have warned, will lead to further environmental degradation due to the planned deforestation, overexploitation of natural resources, inefficient laws, and extreme poverty. "

"In the end, critics conclude that the PPP will lead to massive displacement of campesino and indigenous communities, further environmental degradation, and development with the end goal of exportation for profit rather than eliminating poverty. As a result, in less than a year since the announcement of the PPP, hundreds of organizations and communities have formed campaigns of resistance in order to pressure global powers to support alternative economic development models. "


We look forward to see all your beautiful faces this Thursday at the GHC.

Where: 4407 SE Tibbetts St
What: Vegan Potluck (please feel free to bring a vegan dish) @ 6pm followed by
Plan Puebla Panama documentary at 7pm.
When: Thursday August 14th

In peace and solidarity,

The Green House Collective

Local Food Systems, Farm to School & School Gardens: The Importance of Food Security and Garden-Based Education

Hi Loves,

We hope you are all doing wonderful! This Thursday August, 7, we will be hosting a workshop led by Matt Bibeau, recent graduate of PSU's Leadership in Ecology, Culture & Learning program and current resident at Tryon Life Community Farm. We will begin the evening at 6:00 with a vegan potluck, and the workshop will begin at 7:00.

We look forward to seeing you! Please read on for a taste of what is to come this Thursday!

Local Food Systems, Farm to School & School Gardens:
The Importance of Food Security and Garden-Based Education

The Willamette Valley is an incredibly fertile region for growing food, and Portland's local food economy thrives as a result. What's unique about this city is that the farming isn't just happening near its borders--it's happening within them, and it's not just happening on large corporate farms--it's happening through many smaller family-owned farms and Community Supported Agriculture organizations. In addition, what distinguishes Portland from many cities around the country is how farms, gardens and food are tied into school and community eduction. There are many organizations that have found a role in supporting access to and education about healthy, local food, one of these being Portland State University's Learning Gardens Project.

In 2005 I joined the Learning Gardens Project--a project of PSU's Leadership in Ecology, Culture & Learning program--and have spent the last three years partnering with schools and communities to improve our understanding of the relationships between what we eat and where it comes from as well as between what we learn and how this influences the health of our bodies, our communities and environment.

We will take an exciting look at how much agriculture has changed in the last century to give us a unique perspective on how much we've gotten away from knowing our food and knowing our bodies. We'll take a look at how the United States differs from other countries around the world and then zoom back into our beloved home in Portland where so much is happening right now to bring our understanding of food back to an awareness of our bodies, our communities and and the environment.

Peace.

Matt Bibeau,
Graduate of PSU's Leadership in Ecology, Culture & Learning program
and current resident at Tryon Life Community Farm

WHat: Workshop on Local Food Systems and the Importance of Food Security and
Garden Based Education.
When: Thursday, August 7th: Vegan Potluck @ 6, Workshop @ 7.
Where: The Green House Collective
4407 SE Tibbetts St
*off buslines 14, 75, 9, and 4, and the Clinton St. Bikeway.

Have a great week and we look onward to seeing you this Thursday!

In Peace, Love, and Solidarity,

The Greenhouse Collective

"Now is the time. Needs are great, but your possibilities are greater."
- Bill Blackman