The iconic Olympia bookstore, Orca Books, will be expanding its ownership to the community as it transitions into a cooperative business model. The staff, along with current owner Linda Berensten, have been working with the Northwest Cooperative Development Center (NWCDC) to create a plan for the conversion which will occur…
Posts published in “–”
Streams are rated healthy when they support many kinds of life. For a salmon stream, that means benthic invertebrates —little “bugs” that live in sediments and have evolved over thousands of years in the cold, clear-running streams of the Pacific Northwest. The best conditions for stream bugs also tend to…
Things happen for a reason It is easy to vilify the left. Effective vilification requires only money, political power, and access to the media. Those presently involved in the current campaign of defaming the left have had access to those three necessary ingredients for such a long time that engaging…
Congressman Albert Johnson, one of the Pacific Northwest’s most influential politicians, struck many of the same themes in relation to immigrants as does the current commander in chief. Johnson’s greatest legacy was the 1924 Johnson-Reed Act...
The Social Security Board of Trustees released its 2019 report to Congress in April. Right now, the average annual Social Security benefit is about $16,000. The new Trustees Report confirms that expanding vs. cutting Social Security’s modest benefits is a question of values and choice, not affordability. What the report…
Amitav Ghosh, an Indian novelist and winner of numerous honors and awards, including honorary doctorates from the University of Puget Sound and Maastricht College in the Netherlands, is a brilliant novelist and thinker....
Four days of debate in June may yield a progressive Democratic platform focused on addressing systemic inequality. If so, that change will be in no small part because of the ongoing grassroots activism across the country....
The Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace & Justice (RFC) is a grassroots, 501(c)3 non-profit organization that conducts and supports programs that foster connections between people, that build understanding, respect, and appreciation for differences, and that promote cooperation within and between local and global communities. The foundation encourages and supports grassroots…
The May 2019 interview on “Glen’s Parallax Perspectives” series promotes an increasingly popular electoral reform. Everybody knows that our nation’s electoral system is broken. The problems prevent us from having an honest, vibrant democracy. The May 2019 interview on “Glen’s Parallax Perspectives” focuses on an exciting, practical remedy for one…
In the December 2017 issue of Works in Progress we reported on the trial of people involved in a four-state action to shut off a pipeline carrying oil from Canada....
To labor to heal the earth with no direct compensation is the great work of our generation, based on morality, law, and treaty. There is nothing more infuriating and humiliating than were our efforts to be undermined by the very governments obligated to support and protect our work.“ Paul Cereghino…
This issue is dedicated to Labor in all its forms, from waged to unwaged, labor that takes place in traditional settings such as factories, hospitals, construction sites, offices, schools, etc. to less recognized forms of participation in the economic relations of society like reproductive female labor, rearing children, and caring for elders....
Local entities like Slow Food Greater Olympia, the Community Farm Land Trust, regional tribes, and the dozen nearby seasonal or year-round farmers markets all affirm that we live in a community that treasures its thriving small farms. We are a community that likes its local food. Slow Food Greater Olympia…
On a chilly Friday morning in March, before the sun rises, activity begins to stir at Thurston County Food Bank’s Client Services Center in downtown Olympia. Staff drivers depart the Center at 6 am to begin their Food Rescue routes, collecting donated food from local businesses....
Fish matter! Not only because people depend on fish for jobs, but because plants and trees and marine animals depend on nutrients from fish to live. Fish feed on the insects that populate our lakes and streams, playing a critical role in maintaining insect populations. Fish store nutrients in their…
”Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”- —Frederick Douglass Harbor Roots is a program with a bold vision:…
Here today, gone tomorrow? It may surprise many people that sales in the Bulk Departments at both of Olympia’s Food Co-ops have been in steady decline for many years. Many of the goods that are in bulk can also be purchased packaged —often in plastic—in the aisles. Whatever the reason,…
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what’s for lunch—Orson Welles An early introduction to food geopolitics My first lesson in political economy came at an early age. Granted, it wasn’t given by an economist and it did not take place in a university lecture hall. It was…
For April, we invited articles on food: production, consumption, transformation. Inside this issue, you’ll see that writers chose to address the topic of food in many ways: efforts to support local food systems, food security in the face of climate change,...more...
When farmers lose buyers, whether a farmers’ market customer, local processing facility, or grain mill, it becomes that much more difficult to make a living by farming. Our region’s farmers reflected this reality in 2017 when they identified gaps in the food system infrastructure such as food processing facilities, storage…
The 2008 Farm Bill ushered in a suite of programs that support the development of local and regional food systems, market diversification opportunities for farmers, healthy food access initiatives and other innovative programs that seize upon the great potential of food to bolster local economies, create jobs and deepen the…
Remember Harry Branch’s article last September about the fact that no one could argue for daylighting Moxlie Creek because they were not personally injured by the destruction of the creek—even though the creek couldn’t defend itself? In a special election recently, residents of Toledo, Ohio, adopted a bill of rights…
With his new budget, Donald Trump proposes to take more than $1 trillion in taxpayer money and disperse fully $750 billion to the military. Out of every taxpayer dollar, in other words, 62 cents go to the military and our militarized Department of Homeland Security (Veterans’ benefits take another seven…
Cutting through the bullshit...
“The farm bill and trade policies are geared around the idea that farmers should get big or get out and depend on export markets to make their ends meet,” Karen Hansen-Kuhn, Director of Trade and Global Governance, Progressive Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy Stabilizing farms and food supply The…
Courts and politicians won’t beat the border In the immediate aftermath of Trump’s national emergency declaration, condemnations and legal challenges have issued from numerous sources. The declaration circumvents the need for congressional authorization to obtain partial, initial funding for the construction of a southern border wall. The State of California…
The April 2019 interview on “Glen’s Parallax Perspectives” series provides fresh information and insights into the crisis in Venezuela. Venezuela is a sovereign nation —a real democracy —on the northern coast of South America. Increasingly in recent years, the US government has been causing a crisis there. The US government…