Bread & Rose City is the official newsletter of Portland Democratic Socialists of America. In this issue, learn about the chapter's innovative Socialist Job Fair and efforts to unionize Amazon, local tenant organizing initiatives and other chapter activities. Narrated by DSA member Laura Wadlin with audio editing by Alfredo Reyes.

Bread & Rose City | Issue 002 | Winter 2019

What can we in the Pacific Northwest do about the coronavirus health emergency in Gaza? What can we do about US sanctions that are crippling a humanitarian response to the pandemic in Iran and elsewhere?

On March 29, 2020, the Portland chapter of Democratic Socialists of America and Occupation-Free Portland hosted a Zoom video conference to hear expert testimony on the health crisis and what can be done about it. Our panelists included Asmaa Tayeh of We Are Not Numbers (reporting live from Gaza), Gerri Haynes of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility (recently returned from Gaza), Iranian-American activist Goudarz Eghtedari, and Palestinian-American scholar-activist Nada Elia. A question-and-answer and discussion period follows the panel.

Health Emergency: End the Blockade of Gaza! End Sanctions!

On April 19, 2020, the Portland chapters of Democratic Socialists of America, Jewish Voice for Peace, and Veterans for Peace hosted a Prisoners' Day webinar. 

Our speakers included Eman Nafe, a Palestinian former political prisoner and wife of the longest serving political prisoner in the world, Nael Barghouti. We also heard from Juan Chavez, director of the Oregon Justice Resource Center’s Civil Rights Project, whose law practice focuses on ending mass incarceration.

April 17 is Palestinian Prisoners' Day, a day which has been marked by Palestinians since 1974 to show solidarity with political prisoners held in Israeli jails. As the COVID crisis rages on, 5,000 Palestinians are still being held in administrative detention in Israel prisons, fighting for their survival. Prisoners in the mass incarceration capital of the world, the United States, are also demanding their freedom. Here in Oregon, Democratic Governor Kate Brown has refused to release any prisoners, despite other states already doing so and despite the escalating threat to their survival. 

The struggle of Palestinian prisoners is inextricably linked to the struggle of prisoners in the United States, and we must find ways to draw these connections and explore the true motives behind keeping people behind bars. DSA is a prison abolitionist organization, and we have also endorsed the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, a tool that can be used to pressure and expose corporations like G4S which continue to profit off of prisons in the US and Palestine. From Portland to Palestine, none of us are free until all of us are free, and we must demand to #FreeThemAll.