Our Voices
In response to Hurricane Dorian
September 2019
Thousands of survivors of Hurricane Dorian have fled the Bahamas seeking refuge in the United States, only to be met with chaos and cruelty. First, over 100 survivors of the category 5 hurricane, who had waited in line for hours, were forced off a ferry boat to the Fort Lauderdale, FL because they didn’t have proper documentation. The next day, President Trump said that he wouldn’t grant Temporary Protected Status to climate refugees from the Bahamas because they included “some very bad people,” characterizing them as drug dealers and gang members. (Temporary Protected Status affords legal status to people fleeing war or natural disasters and allows them to live and work in the United States for a period of time.) Those seeking safety were required to have a passport and “police record” proving they do not have a criminal record. Salon observed, “It is a requirement that puts the impetus on people to proactively prove their innocence, and pay for the privilege of doing so, in order to receive humanitarian assistance.”
It is unreasonable to expect survivors of any natural disaster to have documentation after their homes have been destroyed. Moreover, all people deserve care and access to safety. We support all those fleeing parts of the world made especially vulnerable to the climate change caused by industrialization and unchecked, extractive capitalism and globalization. Many of our community members who have been forced to flee come from highly exploited countries and deserve compassion and respect. Instead, government policy is to criminalize and detain them. We are in solidarity with our refugee siblings and demand that they be treated with dignity and humanity.
In response to the recent wildfires in the Amazon rainforest
August 2019
We are in solidarity with currently over a million indigenous people whose ancestors have protected and managed the Amazon rainforest since time immemorial as they face the worst devastation to their land in 50 years.
The 2016 US-backed “soft coup” that ousted democratically elected Brazilian president Dilma Rouseff made way for a conservative president such as Jair Bolsonaro to take office. Since becoming president in 2019, Bolsonaro has implicitly and explicitly encouraged farmers, ranchers, miners, and loggers to exploit the Amazon rainforest for its economic potential.
Indigenous people are speaking out. They warned that Bolsonaro was the biggest threat in decades, with plans for deforestation of the Amazon and displacement of indigenous communities. Now, there are 72, 843 fires blazing (which were started by humans) and indigenous people are being violently displaced from their land in what some are calling a tactic of genocide.
August 13th, 3,000 indigenous women leaders came together to march against President Bolsonaro’s genocidal policies, saying:
“We call on the international community to support us, to amplify our voices and our struggle against today’s legislative genocide, where our own government is authorizing the slaughter and ethnocide of indigenous peoples. This is also an opportunity to join our voices to denounce this government’s ecocide, where the killing of mother nature is our collective concern."
Indigenous people have defended the rainforest through hundreds of years of colonization and will continue to defend the land after international attention has moved on. We need to remember that deforestation of the Amazon will significantly contribute to climate change, a form of genocide that will disproportionately affect communities in the global South. Tropical forests can mitigate up to ⅓ of climate change impacts, so fighting for the people who protect them is essential.
We call on everyone to take action against the systems of racist, capitalist colonialism that have exerted control over Latin America for hundreds of years and continue to wreak havoc on indigenous communities and the land they protect.
In response to the Hong Kong protests
September 2019
You may have seen Hong Kong protestors using hand signals to communicate, images of teargas being used against protestors, or millions of people in the streets with umbrellas, fighting for democracy. Here’s what’s been going on: It began with a protest about a bill that would further threaten Hong Kong’s independent legal system. This bill would allow for people who have committed crimes to be extradited to stand trial in mainland China, where the right to a fair trial is not guaranteed. Although Hong Kong is part of China, it has its own separate identity and legal structure dating back to British colonialism (which only ended for Hong Kong in 1997). The Hong Kong constitution guarantees freedoms such as “the right to protest, the right to a free press and freedom of speech.” These are not guaranteed in China. The protestors have five main demands. They want:
In response to the Title X federal “domestic gag rule”
August 2019
Planned Parenthood receives $60 million per year from Title X to provide cervical cancer screenings, breast cancer screenings, STI testing, birth control, and pregnancy testing. Title X is a federal program that pays for reproductive health services. In March of this year, the federal government initiated a “domestic gag rule,” prohibiting any facility that receives federal funding from providing or telling people where they can obtain an abortion. Federal monies already cannot be used to pay for abortions--most people pay out of pocket, though a handful of insurances or insurance riders cover the service. This administrative rule goes a step further and interferes with doctors’ abilities to even counsel patients about all of their options. The rule is being litigated, but the Department of Health and Human Services said that agencies that don’t show a good-faith effort to comply will have to leave the program. Because of this, Planned Parenthood has decided to stop accepting Title X dollars. This could jeopardize low income people’s ability to get healthcare. If Roe v. Wade is overturned, like many conservatives are fighting for, poor people who can get pregnant are most likely to suffer, while more affluent people will be able to travel to have safe abortions. Reproductive freedom means having the right to choose whether and when to parent: it means the right to have children or not have children on one’s own timeline, and the right to raise the children one has. No one can have reproductive freedom without access to the full range of options available to them.
We stand with Planned Parenthood. Reproductive freedom is a human right.
In Response to Recent Legal Attacks on Reproductive Freedom
Spring 2019
We stand in solidarity with people who can get pregnant and live in Ohio, Mississippi, Georgia, and Alabama. The first three states recently passed six-week abortion bans, which make abortion illegal at a stage of pregnancy when many people do not yet know they are pregnant. Alabama just passed a law that makes abortion illegal at all stages of pregnancy except when the pregnant person’s life is threatened or if the unborn child has a fatal anomaly. There are no exceptions for cases of rape or incest. Under the Alabama law, an abortion provider can face life in prison for performing an abortion and 1-10 years in prison for attempting to perform an abortion.
Supposedly, the person receiving an abortion will not face punishment, but we already have examples of low income people and people of color who have faced jail or prison time for having a miscarriage or abortion. For example, Purvi Patel (Indiana, 2013) was sentenced to 20 years in prison for having a miscarriage. She was charged with feticide for allegedly having an abortion, even though no abortifacients were found in her blood. For more examples, check out this New York Times opinion piece, “Pregnant, and No Civil Rights.”
Although Oregon passed the expansive Reproductive Health Equity Act in 2017, it’s still our responsibility as Oregonians to support reproductive freedom in other states. If you want to help people access abortions, get in touch with your regional abortion fund. In the Pacific Northwest, check out the Northwest Abortion Access Fund. If you want to support reproductive justice in southern states, check out SisterSong. We also call on our elected officials to speak out against these blatant attacks on Roe v. Wade.
In Response to ICE sanctioned separation of families
Summer of 2018
We stand in solidarity with our Indigenous Family Members and Community who are being unjustly, unlawfully, and immorally detained, denied legal representation, and deported. We support the abolition of ICE and call upon law and policy makers to right these wrongs. We are stunned and horrified by the ways in which United States officials have subverted the values they promise and profess to uphold.
The United States was founded on stolen land and build up with stolen labor. Everything we have here is thanks to a legacy of what black and brown bodies have had to sacrifice. The United States then, in order to continue supporting the habit of capitalist growth, exploited and profited from the wars it created by overthrowing democratically elected governments throughout the world. The United States Government is now choosing to intentionally bar community members that it has hurt in order to maintain that power and control.
At The UPRISE Collective, we believe in calling things what they are and using our privileges to amplify the voices of our community members.
We demand action from elected officials.
September 2019
Thousands of survivors of Hurricane Dorian have fled the Bahamas seeking refuge in the United States, only to be met with chaos and cruelty. First, over 100 survivors of the category 5 hurricane, who had waited in line for hours, were forced off a ferry boat to the Fort Lauderdale, FL because they didn’t have proper documentation. The next day, President Trump said that he wouldn’t grant Temporary Protected Status to climate refugees from the Bahamas because they included “some very bad people,” characterizing them as drug dealers and gang members. (Temporary Protected Status affords legal status to people fleeing war or natural disasters and allows them to live and work in the United States for a period of time.) Those seeking safety were required to have a passport and “police record” proving they do not have a criminal record. Salon observed, “It is a requirement that puts the impetus on people to proactively prove their innocence, and pay for the privilege of doing so, in order to receive humanitarian assistance.”
It is unreasonable to expect survivors of any natural disaster to have documentation after their homes have been destroyed. Moreover, all people deserve care and access to safety. We support all those fleeing parts of the world made especially vulnerable to the climate change caused by industrialization and unchecked, extractive capitalism and globalization. Many of our community members who have been forced to flee come from highly exploited countries and deserve compassion and respect. Instead, government policy is to criminalize and detain them. We are in solidarity with our refugee siblings and demand that they be treated with dignity and humanity.
In response to the recent wildfires in the Amazon rainforest
August 2019
We are in solidarity with currently over a million indigenous people whose ancestors have protected and managed the Amazon rainforest since time immemorial as they face the worst devastation to their land in 50 years.
The 2016 US-backed “soft coup” that ousted democratically elected Brazilian president Dilma Rouseff made way for a conservative president such as Jair Bolsonaro to take office. Since becoming president in 2019, Bolsonaro has implicitly and explicitly encouraged farmers, ranchers, miners, and loggers to exploit the Amazon rainforest for its economic potential.
Indigenous people are speaking out. They warned that Bolsonaro was the biggest threat in decades, with plans for deforestation of the Amazon and displacement of indigenous communities. Now, there are 72, 843 fires blazing (which were started by humans) and indigenous people are being violently displaced from their land in what some are calling a tactic of genocide.
August 13th, 3,000 indigenous women leaders came together to march against President Bolsonaro’s genocidal policies, saying:
“We call on the international community to support us, to amplify our voices and our struggle against today’s legislative genocide, where our own government is authorizing the slaughter and ethnocide of indigenous peoples. This is also an opportunity to join our voices to denounce this government’s ecocide, where the killing of mother nature is our collective concern."
Indigenous people have defended the rainforest through hundreds of years of colonization and will continue to defend the land after international attention has moved on. We need to remember that deforestation of the Amazon will significantly contribute to climate change, a form of genocide that will disproportionately affect communities in the global South. Tropical forests can mitigate up to ⅓ of climate change impacts, so fighting for the people who protect them is essential.
We call on everyone to take action against the systems of racist, capitalist colonialism that have exerted control over Latin America for hundreds of years and continue to wreak havoc on indigenous communities and the land they protect.
In response to the Hong Kong protests
September 2019
You may have seen Hong Kong protestors using hand signals to communicate, images of teargas being used against protestors, or millions of people in the streets with umbrellas, fighting for democracy. Here’s what’s been going on: It began with a protest about a bill that would further threaten Hong Kong’s independent legal system. This bill would allow for people who have committed crimes to be extradited to stand trial in mainland China, where the right to a fair trial is not guaranteed. Although Hong Kong is part of China, it has its own separate identity and legal structure dating back to British colonialism (which only ended for Hong Kong in 1997). The Hong Kong constitution guarantees freedoms such as “the right to protest, the right to a free press and freedom of speech.” These are not guaranteed in China. The protestors have five main demands. They want:
- Carrie Lam to step down as Chief Executive of Hong Kong
- An investigation into police brutality against protestors
- The release of protestors who have been arrested, and
- Greater democratic freedoms.
- The demand that sparked this year’s movement--for China to withdraw the controversial extradition bill--has been met, for now.
In response to the Title X federal “domestic gag rule”
August 2019
Planned Parenthood receives $60 million per year from Title X to provide cervical cancer screenings, breast cancer screenings, STI testing, birth control, and pregnancy testing. Title X is a federal program that pays for reproductive health services. In March of this year, the federal government initiated a “domestic gag rule,” prohibiting any facility that receives federal funding from providing or telling people where they can obtain an abortion. Federal monies already cannot be used to pay for abortions--most people pay out of pocket, though a handful of insurances or insurance riders cover the service. This administrative rule goes a step further and interferes with doctors’ abilities to even counsel patients about all of their options. The rule is being litigated, but the Department of Health and Human Services said that agencies that don’t show a good-faith effort to comply will have to leave the program. Because of this, Planned Parenthood has decided to stop accepting Title X dollars. This could jeopardize low income people’s ability to get healthcare. If Roe v. Wade is overturned, like many conservatives are fighting for, poor people who can get pregnant are most likely to suffer, while more affluent people will be able to travel to have safe abortions. Reproductive freedom means having the right to choose whether and when to parent: it means the right to have children or not have children on one’s own timeline, and the right to raise the children one has. No one can have reproductive freedom without access to the full range of options available to them.
We stand with Planned Parenthood. Reproductive freedom is a human right.
In Response to Recent Legal Attacks on Reproductive Freedom
Spring 2019
We stand in solidarity with people who can get pregnant and live in Ohio, Mississippi, Georgia, and Alabama. The first three states recently passed six-week abortion bans, which make abortion illegal at a stage of pregnancy when many people do not yet know they are pregnant. Alabama just passed a law that makes abortion illegal at all stages of pregnancy except when the pregnant person’s life is threatened or if the unborn child has a fatal anomaly. There are no exceptions for cases of rape or incest. Under the Alabama law, an abortion provider can face life in prison for performing an abortion and 1-10 years in prison for attempting to perform an abortion.
Supposedly, the person receiving an abortion will not face punishment, but we already have examples of low income people and people of color who have faced jail or prison time for having a miscarriage or abortion. For example, Purvi Patel (Indiana, 2013) was sentenced to 20 years in prison for having a miscarriage. She was charged with feticide for allegedly having an abortion, even though no abortifacients were found in her blood. For more examples, check out this New York Times opinion piece, “Pregnant, and No Civil Rights.”
Although Oregon passed the expansive Reproductive Health Equity Act in 2017, it’s still our responsibility as Oregonians to support reproductive freedom in other states. If you want to help people access abortions, get in touch with your regional abortion fund. In the Pacific Northwest, check out the Northwest Abortion Access Fund. If you want to support reproductive justice in southern states, check out SisterSong. We also call on our elected officials to speak out against these blatant attacks on Roe v. Wade.
In Response to ICE sanctioned separation of families
Summer of 2018
We stand in solidarity with our Indigenous Family Members and Community who are being unjustly, unlawfully, and immorally detained, denied legal representation, and deported. We support the abolition of ICE and call upon law and policy makers to right these wrongs. We are stunned and horrified by the ways in which United States officials have subverted the values they promise and profess to uphold.
The United States was founded on stolen land and build up with stolen labor. Everything we have here is thanks to a legacy of what black and brown bodies have had to sacrifice. The United States then, in order to continue supporting the habit of capitalist growth, exploited and profited from the wars it created by overthrowing democratically elected governments throughout the world. The United States Government is now choosing to intentionally bar community members that it has hurt in order to maintain that power and control.
At The UPRISE Collective, we believe in calling things what they are and using our privileges to amplify the voices of our community members.
We demand action from elected officials.
