PORTLAND: BIKE CO-OP HAS JEW HATING PRESIDENT...AND TOO MANY PEOPLE JUST DON'T GIVE A DAMN

SOMETHING IS VERY WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE

Portland, Oregon always sound like a nice progressive town.  And in this nice progressive town we find Citybikes, this great worker co-op.  Uh, well, what if you were told that in this nice progressive town, this nice happy worker co-op's President Tim Calvert was a nasty anti-semite who hangs out with white supremacists.  Doesn't just hang out with them, he organizes crap?  Then what if you heard that Citybikes, although it had been presented with evidence of this rather unprogressive behavior  over three years ago still refuses to do diddly about it?  What if I told you that Citybikes President Tim Calvert helped recently, like three weeks ago,  to organize a gatheirng of the Portland 9/11 Truth Alliance along with a nice fellow named Fritz Springmeier who as reported on IndyMedia is:

...an Oregon-based conspiracy theorist and author of such books as Bloodlines of the Illuminati. Springmeier's works attempt to draw attention to what he perceives as massive conspiracies for global domination by hidden cabals and their "Illuminati" bloodlines. Springmeier's research focuses in particular on family names such as the Rothschilds, commonly used as stand-ins for "the Jews" within antisemitic conspiracy discourse. However, Springmeier is far from shy about his beliefs concerning Jewish power, arguing for example that "the core of the conspiracy of power is Jewish" in Bloodlines. 

Oh , yeah, Springmeier also did nine years for a bank robbery with his partner Forest Bateman, anice neo nazi.

Oh, and about that 9/11 Truth Alliance, IndyMedia reports:

The Alliance has previously organized support for other racist extreme-Right organizers, as our organization for example pointed out in 2009 when the 9/11 Truth Alliance hosted self-described "white separatist" Valdas Anelauskas in Portland, and when a few months later the Alliance sent a contingent to support the Portland tour stop of notorious Holocaust-denier and Naziphile, David Irving.

And about Tim Calvert of the progressive bikes IndyMedia says:

 Calvert's activism involves both organizing of events for far-Right speakers, and also his own spreading of antisemitic propaganda. Rose City Antifa believe that a key factor enabling Calvert's activism is the support he receives from his workplace at Citybikes Workers' Cooperative, as well as the apathy and tacit acceptance of large segments of the regional co-op movement towards Calvert's Judeophobic organizing. 

What is really disgusting is, again from IndyMedia, the following:

In general, the co-op movement on the West Coast has stood with Calvert. Many attempts were made by genuine anti-racists within the Western Worker Cooperative Conference (WWCC) to discuss Calvert's activities and to educate about antisemitism. Some members of the WWCC were sympathetic, but Calvert was never formally asked to leave the WWCC Board. The WWCC Board formally refused to discuss any reprimand for Calvert. Calvert nonetheless resigned from the Board of his own free will in early 2011, having never been censured. The clear majority position within WWCC leadership was that Calvert's star power within that community trumped his questionable political trajectory. In fact, Calvert's clout in these circles enables him to more effectively recruit and gives his proto-fascist leanings both cover and credibility. The WWCC website continues to pay tribute to Calvert as a conference founder, stating nothing about Calvert's extreme politics. 

Something is horribly wrong with an alleged "progressive" cooperative bike operation sitting comfortably in the biggest city in the "progressive" state of Oregon whose "boss" is a notorious anti-semite.  Something is horribly wrong that so few people seem to understand this.  How can something that smells so putrid draw so little attention?  I don't get, and maybe I am missing something, how the bike workers in a bike coop are going about their business as if all is well in the little corner of the world.  

And something is also horribly wrong with those "free speech" advocates who think spreading a Jew hating message is something to defend.  I am sick of that nonsense.  I am sick of those who will come back at me and equate fighting Jew hating and racist speech with the government cracking down on anti-racists, or on those who stand up against injustice.  Get a life!  We live in a real world where real things really happen.  We live in a real world where hate speech, hate organizing, racism and white supremacy are things to destroy not to coddle and defend in the name of freedom.  Maybe for some nice middle class white people, or for happy white hippies, or for whites bicycling around the park hate speech seems somehow removed from the results of white supremacy, racism, anti-semitism and the like out here in the real world.  Maybe those people can feel good about themselves as they make a "courageous moral stand" for freedom of speech and "objectivity".  I am NOT one of those people.  I know what those who give fiery speeches against others because of their race, or their religion, or their ethnicity, or their gender, or their sexual orientation ultimate goal is.  What I can't understand is how many times does history have to prove to everyone that organizing in the name of racism and white supremacy, and all the other bigoted hatism has to be stopped at the get go, has to be met everywhere it rears its ugly head by those committed to erasing it from history.  

A Jew hating president of some local bike co-op in Oregon may seem like nothing to get excited about, but then neither did the first guy to don a white sheet, or the first German to put on a nazi armband.

I applaud the work of Rose City Antifa.

I should mention that the posting on Indymedia was from Rose City Antifa.  You can read lots more at   http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2012/09/417943.shtml

Meanwhile the following I found at the One People's Project, but you can guess where it came from originally.

PORTLAND BIKE CO-OP MAINTAINS ANTI-SEMITIC PRESIDENT; ANTFA CALL FOR BOYCOTT OF BUSINESS

Rose City Antifa

Since 2009, Citybikes Workers’ Cooperative in Portland, Oregon has known about the deep involvement of a key figure of their co-op in antisemitic organizing--political work done in collaboration with white supremacists, Holocaust-deniers, and others on the extreme-Right. Tim Calvert, the Citybikes President at the time of writing, is defended and promoted by the rest of the co-op, who attempt to maintain a progressive image while propping up their antisemitic President. Anti-racists first raised the issue of Calvert’s antisemitic organizing in 2009, after Calvert and his cohorts in the Portland 9/11 Truth Alliance hosted a speech by Valdas Anelauskas, a racist organizer who proclaims that evidence for the Holocaust is “shaky.” Citybikes mishandled its response during 2009, making excuses for Calvert and declaring that no problem existed after Calvert issued a bogus apology, even though Calvert’s organizing against Jewish people continued unabated. In September of this year, anti-racists again drew attention to Calvert’s antisemitic organizing. In particular, we noted that Calvert twice gained venues for Fritz Springmeier, an antisemitic author convicted of bank robbery charges alongside a white supremacist accomplice. (Springmeier’s 1997 robbery plot also involved detonating a bomb at an adult video store as a diversion.) Footage of the Citybikes President giving an extreme antisemitic speech was also pointed to at this time, and Rose City Antifascists provided an extensive chronologyof organizing by Calvert and his Portland 9/11 Truth Alliance organization. Now, Citybikes having discussed their President’s organizing yet again, the co-op has refused to take substantive action on this escalating community problem.

On the morning of Monday, September 24, 2012, Citybikes held a meeting regarding the latest revelations concerning their President’s antisemitic organizing. A representative of Rose City Antifascists contacted Citybikes later that day, asking for clarification about any plan of action the Citybikes co-op may have to finally address Calvert’s bigoted activism. Citybikes refused to give any clarification regarding the co-op’s position, despite having several years ago made an empty statement that it “recognize[s] the need for communication” on this matter. Silence from this business is unsurprising, given that Citybikes has already spent three years being negligent on this issue and supporting its antisemitic President. Citybikes' refusal to take any action (even in the face of much new information on Calvert’s political work and associates) now compels an anti-racist response.

When we first alerted the community to Tim Calvert’s extreme-Right organizing back in 2009, the initial response of the Citybikes Board of Directors was not only to side with and praise Calvert, but to label our organization as “fascist” for criticizing Calvert’s antisemitic activism. This Citybikes statement accused anti-racists of “shutting down disparate voices” by mentioning and speaking out against Calvert’s work with a white supremacist. Ironically, it was the Citybikes collective who shut down disparate voices: their business later retracted its first statement because it was “was not released with consensus from all members of the Board, nor did it pass through the hands of each and every worker.” Citybikes also insisted that it would be illegal to fire Calvert, a clear misrepresentation of Oregon as well as federal law for the business’ own purposes. The Citybikes business later issued a vague and noncommittal statement about “the need for communication”. Citybikes proceeded to stand by Calvert as he publicly complained that his critics were on a “Stalinist” (later also described as “Zionist”) crusade against him.

Some critics of Rose City Antifascists defend Tim Calvert’s antisemitic organizing as a free speech issue. The First Amendment and related free speech laws protect citizens from state interference, not from criticism by the public. Our organization has always been clear that we do not call for any sort of government intervention regarding hateful speech, by Calvert or anyone else. We aim to address issues of racist and extreme-Right organizing within communities, not to trust or engage the courts, or to ask for government action. We oppose calls to fight fascist movements through increases of state power, as this firstly treats the state as an allegedly neutral tool and conceals institutional racism. Furthermore, increases in state investigative and prosecutorial power against alleged “extremism” can facilitate crackdowns on protest and social change movements in general, which we oppose.

Our organization believes that communities should unite in opposition when white supremacist, fascist, or antisemitic organizers attempt to target sections of the population. We believe that when white supremacists and fascists organize, they inevitably try to exert their strength against those they perceive as enemies--people of color, Jewish people, workplace organizers, sexual minorities, Leftists, and other groups. Watchfulness on the part of communities is therefore appropriate, including strong responses to antisemitic agitation--such agitation has historically tended to explode into sudden and extreme violence when allowed to spread. Organizing such as Tim Calvert’s, in spreading lies about Jewish people, creates favorable conditions for such violence. Tim Calvert, who twice secured meeting locations for an extreme-Right bomber, should not play innocent about the climate he is creating and its consequences.

Our organization is a militant one and we believe that force may at times be a necessary component in resisting fascist and white power organizing, if the alternative is simply to stand by and allow assaults, organized persecution, bombings or killings to take place unopposed. Our campaign in documenting and drawing attention to Tim Calvert’s activism, however, has been one of ideological confrontation. Through his Jew-hating activism Tim Calvert made himself a public figure, and thus became subject to public scrutiny and criticism. Calvert should expect antifascist criticism to be loud and unrelenting.

Rose City Antifascists asked Citybikes--a business with a progressive and community-oriented image--to say that antisemitic agitation and racist propaganda do not serve their community. We requested that the business take a concrete stand against such agitation, when a central co-op member worked for years spreading antisemitic lies and hosted a white supremacist. Calvert gains activist prestige and political credibility from his co-op work, because his workplace is falsely viewed as a progressive institution. This prestige and power is then used by Calvert to promote hatred of Jewish people, and to organize with racists and anti-gay bigots. If Citybikes is unhappy about the antisemitic organizing of their President, then it should certainly take action about this. 

In Rose City Antifa’s first discussion of Calvert’s organizing, we argued that “If a collective or co-op can't deal properly with an anti-Semitic activist within its ranks, then it does not deserve to be supported.” We stand by these words over three years later. We have seen that quietude and tacit acceptance only allow antisemitic organizing to continue, escalate, and grow even more extreme. Silence and denial are not the answers. We call for a complete boycott of Citybikes. 

Some Things You Can Do to Support the Citybikes Boycott

(1) Remove any links to Citybikes on your website or Facebook page. If you have been giving advertising to Citybikes, tell them why you are stopping.

(2) Discuss problems of antisemitism in your community group. Antisemitism thrives when concealed, excused, or treated as “not an issue.” Make a commitment to educating yourself and others in your community.  

(3) Tell your friends why you are supporting other Portland bike shops, and mention this when making purchases at these other establishments.

(4) Organize in the co-op community to oppose racist, antisemitic, anti-gay, transphobic, and anti-women politics. Realize that these problems affect participation within the co-op movement, and erode any claims of equitable workplace involvement. 

(5) Keep an eye out for updates and share them with your friends, community organizations, as well as bike-related social groups.

(6) Contact Rose City Antifascists about any responses from Citybikes, or updates on Calvert’s bigoted organizing. Our voicemail number is 971-533-7832 and our email is fight_them_back [at] riseup [dot] net.