Produced by:
KBOO
Program::
Air date:
Wed, 03/28/2012 - 12:00am
How and why to support worker owned co-operatives
The United Nations has declared 2012 the International Year of Cooperatives, Congress may be considering the National Cooperative Development Act, and worker-owned co-operatives could play a role in creating an economy that treats people as human beings. One inspiring example is the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation which began among the Basques of Spain in the 1950's and 2010 generated revenues of roughly $20 billion, with nearly 100,000 worker/owner employees. Here in Portland, City Bikes has been operating as a worker-owned cooperative since 1990. "In a nutshell, this means that the workers own and run the business. We share responsibility and profit equally among the worker-owners." City Bike worker-owner Tim Calvert talks with host Stephanie Potter about his own experiences, how worker-owned co-ops could help build an economy and society that works for all its members, and how and why they should be supported.
- KBOO
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Comments
Tim Calvert is antisemitic organizer
It is quite astounding to see Tim Calvert and Citybikes being promoted as positive examples of worker co-ops.
Since 2009 Citybikes President Tim Calvert has been criticized by anti-racists for his extreme antisemitic activism and organizing with white supremacists. Despite this matter having been repeatedly brought to the co-op's attention, Citybikes tacitly supports Calvert's bigoted organizing, allowing him to continue.
Most recently, anti-racists are pointing out that Citybikes President Tim Calvert helped to organize a couple of events for an extreme-Right bomber/convicted bank robber, see the information here:
http://rosecityantifa.org/1/post/2012/09/portland-911-truth-alliance-hos...
The story of Calvert's antisemitic organizing alongside white racists and Holocaust-deniers goes back much further than these recent episodes, however. A full chronology, including the disgraceful response of Citybikes Co-op, is available here:
http://rosecityantifa.org/1/post/2012/09/911-truth-timeline.html
Antisemitism and organizing with white supremacists do not represent any sort of “humane” values. It is wrong to promote Calvert as a role model for co-op activism, just as it is wrong to support Citybikes as a business while they refuse to properly deal with their President’s oppressive organizing.
Rose City Antifa are Fascists who Promote Vigilante Violence
The Rose City Antifa are Fascist, Zionist, Cointelpro Brownshirt provocateurs whose method of operation is to harass, smear, harm, and disable the real Leftist activists and Leftist activism in the Portland area.
The Rose City Antifa wear masks to hide their faces, they do not use their real names, and they openly threaten physical violence against those they label and libel as "enemies of the community."
The Rose City Antifa never participate in pro-Palestinian rallies or events, because the Rose City Antifa are closet Zionists. The Rose City Antifa have savagely attacked and harassed the well-known Portland Leftist activist Tim Calvert because Calvert is pro-Palestinian and a proponent of 9/11 Truth.
The Portland 9/11 Truth Alliance includes, and welcomes, members who are gay, lesbian, black, Hispanic, Jewish, Atheist, and whatever. The Portland 9/11 Truth Alliance is anti-war, anti-Imperialist, and predominantly Leftist. The Portland 9/11 Truth Alliance meetings and membership have always been open to anyone who wishes to attend.
The Rose City Antifa and their allied organization, Anti-Racist Action, both threaten vigilante-style violence, and both the Rose City Antifa and Anti-Racist Action express their contempt for the Rule of Law. Just Google "antifa violence".
"We don't believe in waiting for the police to handle the fascists and racists, either. We know their job is to protect and serve us with harassment, beatings and arrests. We know that institutions like the police and prisons can never be “fixed” or “reformed” if their function is to maintain a racist and homophobic power structure. We believe that we need a dedicated and large force of militant antifascists with great intelligence, analysis, and dedication to crushing emerging extreme Right and fascist movements." - Rose City Antifa website.
“If you can get away it [sic], carry weapons, or if there’s a chance you might get searched by cops, carry items that can be used as weapons in a pinch (hefty flagpoles, thick placard sticks, batteries, maglights, bike locks).…And don’t forget your masks—nothing makes the fascists tremble like a group of black-clad, balaclava-wearing Antifa bearing down on them.” - Anti-Racist Action website.
"On May 19, 2012, up to 20 people wearing masks and black clothes entered the Ashford House Restaurant in Tinley Park (a suburb of Chicago) and used bats and hammers to beat patrons who were attending the fifth annual White Nationalist Economic Summit and Illinois White Nationalist Meet-and-Greet. Five members of Hoosier Anti-Racist Movement, which is part of the Anti-Racist Action Network, were subsequently charged with felony counts of mob action, aggravated battery and criminal damage to property." - Anti-Racist Action Wikipedia page.
"On April 15, 2011, ARA members confronted the National Socialist Movement's annual conference in Pemberton, New Jersey. A melee ensued with reports indicating that four members of the NSM being hospitalized and the conference being shut down." - Anti-Racist Action Wikipedia page.
The Rose City Antifa and their allied organization, Anti-Racist Action, are violent extremists who want to replace the Rule of Law with Mob Rule under the Diktat of the anonymous Antifa and Anti-Racist Action thugs and their anonymous leaders.
Rose City Antifa - A History of Violence Against the Community
August 16, 2009 - Someone (probably a member of the Rose City Antifa) spray-painted a Swastika and wrote "Tim is a Nazi" on the Citybikes shop in Southeast Portland.
November 14, 2011 - Antifa members smashed several windows at the Umpqua Bank at NE 18th and Alberta in Portland.
Feb 6, 2012 - Antifa members smashed shop windows, including the Genoa Restaurant, and "tagged" (spray-painted) or broke windows of random cars throughout the Buckman neighborhood between Southeast Hawthorne and Stark Streets in Portland.
Feb 28, 2012 - Antifa members smashed several windows at the U.S. Bank branch near the intersection of Southeast Cesar E. Chavez Boulevard and Main Street in Portland.
Feb 29, 2012 - Antifa members smashed several windows at a Key Bank branch and a Starbucks coffee shop at the intersection of Northeast Broadway and 39th Avenue in Portland.
April 24, 2012 - Antifa members smashed nearly a dozen windows, some of them stained glass, at the historic Mars Hill church on Southeast 32nd in Portland.
April 24, 2012 - Antifa members smashed several windows at the US Bank at 1225 Southeast 32nd in Portland.
July 25, 2012 - The FBI arrested four Portland Anarchists for their alleged participation in the May 1st, 2012 Seattle riot.
October 11, 2012 - Antifa members smashed windows at four banks in Southeast Portland, including rocks through multiple windows at an Umpqua Bank, a large metal chair through a Wells Fargo window, and
rocks through windows at a Chase Bank and a U.S. Bank. A Walgreens window was also smashed. Portland Anarchist websites announced that their October 11, 2012 riot was in retaliation for Grand Jury proceedings against the four Portland Anarchists who were arrested by the FBI on July 25, 2012.
November 5, 2012 - Antifa member Sergey Yefimobich Turzhanskiy, 24, was arrested just after police said he threw a fire bomb at an unoccupied police cruiser parked in the North Precinct parking lot in the 400 block of NE Emerson Street in Portland.
The members of the Rose City Antifa, who have frequently vandalized banks, shops, restaurants, and cars throughout Portland, and who despise the Police and the Rule of Law, claim to be the protectors of justice in the community. In truth, the Rose City Antifa have a history of vandalism and violent threats against the law-abiding citizens of the community. No one should support the Rose City Antifa or their smear campaigns and mob violence.