View source for N3: Solidarity Against Austerity Call to Action - Enough is Enough

{{Occupy Portland Event
| event name = N3: Solidarity Against Austerity Call to Action - Enough is Enough
| page = N3: Solidarity Against Austerity Call to Action - Enough is Enough
| date = Saturday, November 3rd 2012
| time = Rally: 1:00 p.m. - March: 2:00 p.m.
| location = Southwest corner of [[Holladay Park]] ([[NE Holladay Street]] &amp; [[NE 11th Avenue|11th Ave]].), Portland, Oregon ([https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Holladay+Park&hl=en&num=100&gl=us&hq=Holladay+Park&t=m&z=16 map])
| purpose = ''Our Dreams Don’t Fit in Their Ballot Boxes!''
;No to austerity! Yes to reclaiming our communities!

[[Occupy Portland]] and [[Portland Action Lab]] invite all people to participate in a national call to action to say '''NO!''' to Austerity and '''YES!''' to building our collective power. Business and our governments hoard wealth, privatize our communities, and burden us with enormous debt. This is AUSTERITY and we say '''Enough is Enough'''!

<big>On November 2nd and 3rd '''(N3)''' we will mobilize and march, voting with our feet by taking direct action to interrupt the normal course of business. Our power is in our neighborhoods, building alternatives, and taking to the streets!</big>

We call on all participants in the Occupy movement, rank-and-file union members, students, our elders and people-at-large to organize creatively and return to our public spaces with this message on the weekend before the election. Our communities will make our own decisions and control our own resources, no matter who is elected.

We are not alone; austerity is a consequence of a failed economic system and people around the world are rising up. We act in solidarity and take inspiration from the peoples of Greece, Spain, Italy, France, Portugal, Iceland, Ireland, South Africa, Quebec, Chile, and beyond<ref>[[CA/Continuations/Discussion_Group|Anti-Austerity Study Group]]</ref> who are fighting austerity and the destruction of their communities.

<big>'''WHAT IS AUSTERITY?'''</big>

AUSTERITY is a program within our economic system made up of:
#Cuts to public services and benefits
#Increase in debt people must take on to survive
#Privatization of all public resources
Politicians say that austerity is needed to reduce the deficit, which was created by a combination of 2 “wars on terror” and tax cuts for the wealthy. Really, austerity is based in cutting the social safety net and forcing working people to carry the burdens while the 1% hoard wealth.

<big>'''WHO BENEFITS?'''</big>

Politicians from both parties work with big business to hemorrhage money from the public into the pockets of the wealthy. Business and our governments hoard wealth, privatize our communities, and burden us with enormous debt.<ref>[http://www.portlandactionlab.org/austerity/ Austerity (Portland Action Lab)]</ref>

<big>'''WHO SHOULD PAY?'''</big>
[[File:Resist-Austerity_1000px.png|thumb|200px|left|Resist Austerity!]]
<blockquote>Rapidly rising deficits at both the federal and state and local government levels, along with prospective long-term financing problems in the Social Security and Medicare programmes, have triggered a one-sided austerity-focused class war in the USA and around the globe. A coalition of the richest and most economically powerful segments of society, conservative politicians who represent their interests and right-wing populist groups like the Tea Party has demanded that deficits be eliminated by severe cuts at all levels of government in spending that either supports the poor and the middle class or funds crucial public investment. It also demands tax cuts for the rich and for business. These demands constitute a deliberate attempt to destroy the New Deal project, begun in the 1930s, whose goal was to subject capitalism to democratic control.<br /><br />(The current) deficit crisis is the result of a shift from the New Deal-based economic model of the early postwar period to today’s neoliberal, free-market model. The new model has generated slow growth, rising inequality and rising deficits. Rising deficits in turn created demands for austerity. After tracing the long-term evolution of our current deficit crisis, (the report's author argues) that this crisis should be resolved primarily by raising taxes on upper-income households and large corporations, cutting war spending and adopting a Canadian- or European-style health care system. Calls for massive government spending cuts should be seen as what they are—an attack by the rich and powerful against the basic interests of the American people.<br /><br />--[http://cje.oxfordjournals.org/content/36/1/79.full The great austerity war: what caused the US deficit crisis and who should pay to fix it?]</blockquote>

<big>'''Solidarity against Austerity!'''</big>
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<span class="plainlinks">[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=295536663881845&set=oa.366851853400164 <img size=300>http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/383425_295536663881845_1684691184_n.jpg</img>]</span>
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<span class="plainlinks">No time to march? [http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=295536663881845&set=oa.366851853400164 Ride your bike] instead.</span>
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; Further Reading
* [http://www.globalresearch.ca/portland-oregon-pre-election-anti-austerity-protest/5309099 Portland, Oregon: Pre-Election “Anti-Austerity Protest”]
; Endorsers
* [http://www.thealliancefordemocracy.org/ Alliance for Democracy]
* [http://www.facebook.com/CascadiansAgainstWar Cascadians Against War]
* [http://cpwunited.com/home Communities and Postal Workers United]
* [http://www.nocoalexports.org/ Community Alliance Against Coal]
* [http://www.cwa7901.org/ CWA Local 7901]
* [http://www.individualsforjustice.com/ Individuals for Justice]
* [http://www.jwjpdx.org/ Jobs with Justice]
* [http://www.liuna483.org/ LiUNA! Laborers’ Local 483]
* [[National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 82 Supports Occupy Portland|National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 82]]
* [http://occupyportland.org/ Occupy Portland]
* [http://www.facebook.com/pages/Occupy-St-Johns-Portland-Oregon/261788043864015 Occupy St. John's]
* [http://www.oregoned.org/ Oregon Education Association]
* [http://oregonsaveourschools.blogspot.com/ Oregon Save Our Schools]
* [http://www.organizedpower.org/ Organized Power]
* [http://www.pdxbikeswarm.org/ PDX Bike Swarm]
* [http://www.facebook.com/groups/363075950399031/ People’s Budget Project]
* [http://www.portlandrethinkingschools.org/ Portland Area Rethinking Schools]
* [http://www.facebook.com/seeportland Portland Area Social Equality Educators]
* [http://www.patpdx.org/ Portland Association of Teachers - Representative Assembly]
* [http://portlandiww.org/ Portland IWW]
* [http://defendeducationpdx.wordpress.com/ Portland Student Organizing Coalition]
* [http://www.seiu49.org/ SEIU Local 49]
* [http://www.seiu503.org/ SEIU Local 503]
| image = [[File:N3 Solidarity Against Austerity Call to Action - Enough is Enough.jpg|right|350px]]
| other details = <br />
* [http://SolidarityAgainstAusterity.org Solidarity Against Austerity] (National call to action site.)
* [http://www.facebook.com/events/411130928950021/ Enough is Enough! Solidarity Against Austerity Day of Action!] (RSVP page.)
* [http://www.facebook.com/N3.solidarity.against.austerity N3: Solidarity Against Austerity Call to Action - Enough is Enough] (Facebook event page.)
* [http://www.facebook.com/events/281100108670409/ Anti-Austerity Study Group Session #4] (Follow-up study group event.)
| link to more info = http://www.facebook.com/N3.solidarity.against.austerity
| categories = [[Category:Occupy Portland Events]]
[[Category:Past events]]
[[Category:Occupy Portland]]
[[Category:Street Protests, Rallies, Demonstrations]]

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