State Green Party Press Release

PGP Endorses Walk for Truth, Justice and Community.

Pacific Green Party of Oregon
www.pacificgreens.org

April 25, 2005

Contacts: Joanne Cvar, PGP Media Co-Coordinator: cvar@oregonvos.net 541-563-3615
George Hutchinson, PGP Media Coordinator, gbhutch@charter.net
PGP: http://www.pacificgreens.org
USGP: http://www.gp.org

PGP endorses Walk for Truth, Justice and Community

The Pacific Green Party of Oregon, in keeping with its advocacy for social justice and nonviolence, officially endorses the Walk for Truth, Justice and Community, June 12-18 2005. PGP participants encourage other Greens to join them, in solidarity with the Rural Organizing Project (ROP) and other progressive groups, in the Walk from Turner (near Salem) to Portland, including a stop for a rally at the State Capitol on Monday, June 13, joined by progressive legislators and other Salem allies.

ROP is organizing the week-long Walk for Truth, Justice and Community to advance the vision of Martin Luther King for a "beloved community," united across lines of race, gender, sexual orientation, and economic class. MLK's nonviolent vision stands in stark contrast to the neo-conservative vision of War as an alternative social program. As Marcy Westerling, spokesperson for ROP, points out: "The neo-conservative vision usesthe politics of culture war, gay-bashing, and scapegoating of immigrants to divert and confuse the American public. It is a 'total' program that reaches from Washington D.C. to Salem and into our own neighborhoods to block progress and divide us." The Walk will be a response to this program of endless war.

Participants can take in as much or as little of the Walk and its related activities as they are able. Caravans from around the state will meet in Turner at 3 p.m. on Sunday the 12th to commence the week-long journey. Each night they will set up in designated sites as a tent city-in the spirit of resistance and community created in the face of oppression and poverty throughout history and today in tent cities that house our nation'shomeless. Good food, music, theatre, and the sharing of stories will take place in the evenings.

Each day's Walk will focus on a different issue, with actions that advance the struggles for justice and democracy, such as healthcare and the rights of farm workers, ending in Portland on Saturday June 18 with a ceremony of continued commitment to the struggle for justice, democracy, and community.

For more information about the Walk, visit www.rop.org or call 503-543-8417.