What is Rose City Radical?
Rose City Radical is a bimonthly, locally based, cooperatively operated newspaper by and for working class Portlanders. The newspaper encourages anyone to contribute articles and artwork on their experiences with local movements for justice and liberation. In Portland, we have lacked a centralized space for dialogue, critique, and inspiration. Black Lives Matter, Stop the Sweeps, Abolish ICE, Land Back, eviction defense, and environmental justice movements have much to learn from each other. Rose City Radical aims to facilitate new collaborations by publishing articles that reflect on, debate, challenge, and create transformative action. Through physical newspapers printed regularly and distributed for free in local spaces, Rose City Radical aims to facilitate constructive interaction and collaboration amongst local community organizers and anyone else involved in Portland’s social movements.
Why do we need independent media?
Recent times have brought more challenges in daily life, including dangerous work conditions, housing insecurity, isolation from community support, racial violence by police and vigilantes, and terrifying environmental crises such as wildfires. 2020 also brought a new wave of protests in the streets and community organizing as working class Portlanders came together and found new ways to look out for one another. Yet communication within the movement has been fractured and more often than not, toxic. Corporate social media platforms and mainstream media encourage divisions and discourage respectful, thoughtful dialogue. We see an urgent need for cooperative, locally-based media that amplifies the work of people fighting for social change and resisting oppression. Rose City Radical publishes articles that analyze local dynamics within and around social movements, provoke debate about strategy and tactics, and offer movement journalism. We also support local artists who fuel the radical imagination.
Who can participate in this project?
Rose City Radical is created for and by the people of Portland – that means you! We are an entirely community-operated newspaper, with zero advertisements or corporate sponsors. We welcome participation in many different forms, depending on what your interests and skills are. Want to write an article about some facet of radical community organizing in Portland? Have some visual art skills, and want to contribute a piece to next month’s edition? Want to help sustain us financially? Or know an amazing local organizer or journalist whom we should invite on as a guest editor? The possibilities are only just beginning.
As we work towards a more just world, we share a commitment to being in solidarity with every member of our community. Rose City Radical incorporates voices from across Portland, but makes a particular effort to center and amplify Black, Indigenous, and other people of color within community organizing contexts. Queer, disabled, and otherwise marginalized folks also take a primary place within our publishing. Submissions from poor, unemployed, unhoused, and / or formerly incarcerated individuals are prioritized in order to direct our funding where it’s most needed.
How does the newspaper work?
Funding: We are currently funded entirely by a 15k Sparkplug grant. For a breakdown of our budget, see here. For an up-to-date record of all our financial transactions to date, see here.
Editorial Circle: As a worker-run and revolutionary project, we seek to embody values of consent-based decision making and direct democracy. Decisions about Rose City Radical happen through the editorial circle, which meets every Wednesday evening. The editorial circle is a collaborative and consent-based cooperative of people who have committed to putting energy into the project. Participation is voluntary and open to new members, but a degree of consistency is expected from co-op members in order to make sure we can accomplish our aims. The editorial circle collectively make all decisions regarding publishing, operation, finances, and collaborations. Each issue of the newspaper takes shape through dedicated weekly meetings, each corresponding to a different stage of developing the next issue.
Each issue has a new theme. We invite guest editors to attend our meetings and give us feedback and direction in the creation of newspaper issues with themes relevant to their knowledge and experience. Guest editors will mostly be respected organizers, journalists, and writers who may not have the capacity to join the cooperative but are willing to collaborate with us on putting together a particular issue.
Anyone may join the editorial circle of RCR if they can show that they align with our shared principles, can commit to attend at least 2 (preferably more) of the 4 weekly meetings each month, and have been properly vetted and on-boarded to the circle by the other members. If you are interested in joining the cooperative, please check out our “share principles” page and get in touch via our email: rosecityradical@protonmail.com !
If you don’t have the capacity to join the editorial cooperative, there are many other great ways to contribute to the newspaper, including: content creators, monthly sustainers, and guest editors:
Content creators (writers, artists, journalists, theorists, radicalized grandmas, etc…) may submit their work to the editorial circle for consideration and if accepted, will receive $50+ in compensation per piece. We hope that paying folks for their contributions will help in a small way to support local writers and artists. Please visit our submissions page if you’d like to contribute to our next issue.
Monthly sustainers contribute $5 a month or more depending on ability; these funds are processed through Patreon. In exchange for monthly contributions, sustainers may eventually get exclusive RCR merchandise. If you have the resources to support your local community newspaper, here is where you can sign up to become a sustainer: [link coming soon].
Guest editors are respected community members invited by the collective to participate in and help direct editorial meetings, depending on the theme for that issue. For example, a theme on Black liberation would include local Black Lives Matter activists as guest editors while a theme on housing justice might include an organizer who focuses on tenants’ rights. Please get in touch if you or someone you know is interested in collaborating as a guest editor on an issue.
If these roles are still too much commitment for you, or you don’t have the money to donate, no worries! Just sharing this website with others or passing on a newspaper issue to a friend will help us grow and reach new Portlanders. Like Marx wrote (paraphrasing a common aphorism), From each according to their ability!
Where is all this going?
We seek to shift the cultural story around what is possible and what needs to be done. In order to fight for our survival and the survival of the next generations, we must create deep transformation in our societal structures. This begins with amplifying narratives of resistance and interconnection. Short term, we will know our efforts have been successful if community members are interested in the project and feel that they can get something out of participating. We hope that having multiple modes of engagement – being a monthly sustainer, a content contributor, or a member of the cooperative – will allow folks to get involved however feels best. We hope this newspaper will last for years to come, inspiring reflection, debate, and collaboration within Portland’s growing movements for a better world.