From the open publishing newswire: Tacoma is hosting its second anarchist bookfair, a fun get-together for anyone interested in or curious about anarchy. It is open to all! There are splendid workshops and skill-shares on a diversity of topics, discussions, friend-making, and a plethora of booksellers and distributors (featuring literature, music, crafts, etc), games, free food, and music and dancing in the park. Basically, the bookfair is a literary gathering of epic proportions.

2nd Tacoma Anarchist Bookfair.
Friday-Sunday, July 11-13, 2008 / King's Books in Tacoma, WA.
Admission: Free!

From the open publishing newswire: Dear Friends,

There is a comment period that ends May 26th for a rule change being proposed by the Oregon Department of Corrections that would greatly benefit Oregon prisoners. This rule change would also make the efforts of Books to Prisoners volunteers a whole lot easier!

This rule would allow prisoners to receive USED books! Please voice your support for this rule change by copying and modify the sample letter below and getting it in the mail by no later than Saturday May 24th, so it is sure to arrive by the deadline of May 26th - Even if you don't have a stamp or the time, please just write the letter (now) and email it to us at: pdxbookstoprisoners@riseup.net with your name and address - then we'll print it off and mail it for you!

These have to arrive by next monday May 26th, so
letters need to be in the mail by saturday may 24th.

From the open publishing newswire: Taking Place at the U of O Law School in Eugene, the four-day Conference includes over 125 panels, workshops, and multi-media presentations addressing a broad spectrum of environmental law and advocacy. Topics include: forest protection and ecological restoration, grazing and mining reform, labor and human rights, air and water pollution, Native American treaty rights, globalization and "free" trade, environmental justice, corporate responsibility, marine wilderness, international environmental law, water rights and dam removal, oil and gas litigation, genetic engineering, and urban growth.

EARLY AFTERNOON PANELS FRIDAY • 2:15 - 3:30 P.M.
Indigenous Sacred Estates: Protecting the Climate at Home
Land Use, Energy Depletion, and Climate Change: Opportunities for Action.
Solving the Energy Crisis: Are We Making the Right Policy Decisions?
Pacific Northwest Old Growth Protection and Forest Restoration Legislation
Bends in the River: New Developments in Clean Water Act Policy and Litigation

From the open publishing newswire: PSU Students,
Stand in Solidarity with the Professor's Union tomorrow at 11AM.
As the struggle continues between the professors and administration, your support of the faculty is critical. The Oregon University System (OUS) is holding a Board Meeting tomorrow. The union will be making a statement. Show that you care about quality higher education!

Date: Friday, March 7
Time: 11:00 a.m. (the meeting is 8:30-1:00, but the union is planning on making a statement)

Place: PSU, Smith Memorial Student Union rm. 328

From the open publishing newswire: This is a little known opportunity for any activist group to crack a mainstream populace. A little known "freedom of information" policy at the Portland airport (that they somehow left out of the patriot act) allows for virtually any political, activist, or information group to set up a table and hand out material of their choice. A permit must be acquired at the Port of Portland office in the airport which involves a brief meeting and submission of the material to be distributed. They are very friendly and gracious and after the first permit is acquired it can be faxed in subsequently. The permit is good for a week and has to be renewed each week. At this time the POP supplies the table and chairs however they won't after the end of march.

From the open publishing newswire: Radical Botany: Arising from or going to a root or source; Arising from the root or its Crown: radical leaves. Favoring or effecting fundamental or revolutionary changes in the current practices.

GRASSES,REEDS, RUSHES and SEDGES- The plants of utility

For Thousands of years First Nation people's created everything they needed in their lives from plants, rocks, earth, water and fire. They used fire and rock to forge the tools they needed for harvesting the raw materials. Plants gave them the bulk of the materials they needed to create clothes, shoes, blankets, hats, protection from the elements, home furnishings, storage containers and cookware. These people lived simple lives, uncluttered with "stuff" that would poisoned their world. Everything they created decomposed back to the earth, so there was no need for collecting and discarding garbage into unsafe environments. There was no collection of vast islands of plastic and metal collecting in landfills, oceans and streams. People kept these utilitarian objects for years, patching them and only creating new when absolutely necessary. Elders passed on favorite tools or baskets to youth. The young felt blessed by such a gift. Along with the gift of the tool or basket came wisdom and valued knowledge about the natural or spirit world. How were plants used?

From the open publishing newswire: The Social Permaculture Advocacy Collective is hosting a community discussion on whether or not it needs a nonprofit status to accomplish its goals- first and foremost to assemble a library, study and meeting place. What is the S. P. A. C.? It's a new collective based in Portland, interested in researching what REAL sustainability will look like and then making it happen- not "going green," buying energy efficient light bulbs, but replacing civilization itself with community, equality & sustainability; learning how we as the descendants of imperialism can take responsibility for our and our ancestors wrongdoings on this land.

The S.P.A.C. wants to do a number of things, like assemble a library and host free workshops dealing with how we as inhabitants of an increasingly degraded ecosystem and social environment can learn to change our behavior in order to stop destroying nature and in order to survive without civilization.

From the open publishing newswire: We are on the threshold of a major class battle in Puerto Rico. Every day new preparations are announced for the coming strike of the Puerto Rican Teachers Federation (FMPR). With 42,000 members, a majority of them women, the FMPR represents almost all of Puerto Rico's teachers and is by far the largest union on the island. The Shock Force of the Puerto Rican Police and National Guard are being readied to go after the strikers. The struggle of the Puerto Rican teachers affects everybody. The working class as a whole, students and parents, teachers and defenders of workers' rights around the world must come out in defense of the FMPR! If there are mass arrests, the response must be massive blockades and spreading the struggle to the point of shutting the island down. In order to win this strike, it is necessary to prepare for a struggle not only of the teachers but within the whole workers movement against the pro-capitalist labor bureaucracy that sabotages the workers' struggle. Above all, it is necessary to fight against illusions in and ties with bourgeois parties and politicians. It's high time to begin building a revolutionary internationalist workers party.

From the open publishing newswire: We can go longer afford to cut down trees for shelter. Soon we will have none of the blessings that healthy forests give us. We will have lost our water, our air, our soil health, all the food and healing plants, and other diverse species. So how shall we live? How shall we build shelters? We do what humans have done for millons of years. We use stone, earth and fast growing plants.

First, you should know that this phenomenon of cutting forests down to build "things" is not new, it happens in times of cultural collapse, and empire building. It is a sign that the culture is headed toward devastation, desertification, and possible famine. You have only to look at places like the middle-east (ever hear of the cedars of Sinai) or Ireland (the myth of Robin Hood and his merry tree dwellers happened here). In both cases amazing forests, that supported populations of humans, animals, plants and other living beings were razed to that humans could make war on others. It was an act of greed and genocide that these forests were destroyed.

From the open publishing newswire: I once lived in the Coast Range of Oregon. I had a farm with a large garden and a few fruit trees. My children and I were happy there. My farm was surrounded by land owned by a family who made their living harvesting forests. They used the most terrible type of tree extraction - clearcutting. About a year after I moved onto my property, the family decided to clearcut the forest just above my farm. I could hear the chainsaws take down the forest. It was a sad time for me. I loved that forest above me. It was diverse: Douglas fir, red alder, a wonderful array of wild native berry plants, ferns, and many herbs and wild flowers lived in that place. My children and I had identified three types of wild orchids in that forest: Fairyslipper (Calypso bulbosa) Mountain Lady Slipper (Cypripedium montanum) and Western Coralroot (Corallorhiza maculate).

One afternoon a year after the extraction of the forest I walked up the mountain to see what damage had been done. My heart was broken. I kneeled on the ground with my hands over my face. I saw a land that had been broken.

I did not go back up that mountain for another month. It was late spring when I sat in the muddy field of the clearcut. I looked around. I did not see anything unusual. I closed my eyes and asked for healing. I opened my eyes. I saw not far from the outer edge of the clearcut a bright green plant. I went to it. It was beautiful with waxy round leaves and a little white flower attached to a stem that shot up through the leaf. I sat for a long time and observed how it seemed to be spreading all around the edges of the wounded earth. It seemed to be creeping from the darker edges of the forest.

I took a sample of the plant to a local native plant lady and she identified it as Miner's Lettuce. She told me the story of how the plant was supposedly named by Miners who were suffering from scurvy and were able to find this plant, where hardly anything else grew, including in piles of mine tailings. They ate the plant and felt very much better. My friend called the plant a major healer of the earth. Where ever it grew there was work to be done. It grew heartily along abandoned logging roads, in clearcuts, and in other disturbed areas.

From the open publishing newswire: Radical Botany Week 3- Learning the lay of the land: floods, volcanoes and ocean uplifts - Plant: Oregon Grape

Before you search Cascadia for the great healing plants, you should understand the lay of the land. What formed this amazing place? What kind of soils and geology will you encounter and you hike through the forest, valleys and high deserts. I am going to give the big picture here. I will write more about orienteering and how not to get lost at a later time.

Why should you learn the geology of a place? Why understand the lay of the land?
- You will be able to know where to find the plant communities.
- You will not get lost in the woods or the mountains or the desert. You will be able to find your way from any point on the land.
- You will know how to find food, water and shelter when you need it.
- You will see wonderful things and will not be afraid to wander in paradise. You will remain open to the adventure and encounter unusual plants and their communities.

Where else on earth could you live near a ocean, active volcanoes, conifer rain forests, high desert, marsh lands, sea estuaries, fertile valleys, high mountain glaciers and so much more. Cascadia is a place of earth, water and fire. It is a place whose geology is new, old and ever forming.

From the open publishing newswire: I am long-time Cascadian - I was born here in the valley and group up pretty much feral child. As a child, I attended school, but every other moment of my life I spent close to the earth and the plants. I live close to a white Oak forest and learned about the plants from the plants themselves. I loved the animals and birds also. I lived close to the foot of Mary's Peak in the Coast range (Tamanawis- place where the spirit dwells). I ran wild on the slopes of the mountain - especially the North Trail. This is a trail where Kalapuyan children were sent for their vision quests. I had a father who loved the earth and helped me to understand the plants and learn to identify them. He encouraged me to draw them and paint pictures of them as a way of understanding them. He did not know about their healing abilities but sensed that some knowledge had been lost about these plants. My father was an organic gardener from way back and our family raised about 50% of our food from the earth. I learned a great deal about drying, preserving and harvesting from my parents.

In my early teens I was able to attract two great plant teachers to me. "Grandma" who lived not far from me, across a couple of fields and taught me to harvest the tiny purple center of Queen Anne's lace as a natural dye. She was my most important teacher. She told me about the spirit of each plant. I was not taught that a certain plant family always reacted the same for each human dose. I was taught that each human attracted plant healing in different ways. This is upside down from what corporate medicine teaches today.

From the open publishing newswire: Olympia SDS presents the Northwest DNC/RNC Resistance Conference! On February 9th, 2008, activists from around the Northwest are cordially invited to participate in a day full of workshops, networking, and food! Workshops will focus on topics ranging from street tactics to supporting the protests, even if you aren't going. Other workshops will include shields, lockboxes, a presentation from street medics, and other tactical and strategic workshops. In the evening, we will have speakers from Recreate 68 (Denver, CO) and RNC Welcoming Committee (Twin Cities, MN) discussing their plans for the conventions. The conference will be held at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA