IDHH Presents: Fight the Power, Do No Harm: The Story of the Black Cross Healthcare Collective

The Black Cross Healthcare Collective was a group of healthcare workers who lived in Portland, Oregon. They formed after the WTO protests of 1999, after seeing a need for medical care that specifically served people who were attending direct actions, demonstrations and political protests. 

In the early 2000s they pioneered community-supported trials to find an antidote to pepper spray. These trials resulted in an antidote that has been used in street protests internationally. The collective disbanded as a medical group in 2005 or so, morphing into the Black Cross Social Club.

Fight the Power, Do No Harm is the story of the Black Cross Healthcare Collective.

Fight the Power, Do No Harm was written, edited, and produced by Jodi Darby, Honna Veerkamp and Erin Yanke.

IDHH Episode 01 (repost)

( Reposted here because Apple Podcasts keeps archiving the episode for unknown reasons!) In the late 1980s, Portland was a known haven for racist skinheads. They roamed the core of Portland unhindered. 

In this episode we hear from the punks in the late 1980s Portland punk scene, a place fraught with violence and conflict. We also hear about the recruiting and radicalization of Portland’s skinheads by right wing and white nationalist organizers.

IDHH Bonus 6: no. NOT EVER.

Kate Boyd and Cristien Storm of the Seattle-based collaborative group If You Don’t They Will discuss “no. NOT EVER”, an interactive, immersive presentation of cultural resistance to white nationalism practiced by Western rural and suburban groups throughout the 80s and 90s.

IDHH Bonus 5: More Fighters

In this episode we hear from antiracist street fighters: Iran, Jackson, Pan and Tom. The four veterans recount their experiences fighting Portland neo Nazis, how it affected them and where we should direct our energy to continue the fight.

IDHH Bonus 4: The Holocaust Denier

This episode features hosts Mic Crenshaw and Celina Flores as well as Coalition for Human Dignity activists Steve Wasserstrom, Jonathan Mozzochi and Abby Layton. In this special bonus episode we look at how the meticulous collection of data mined for opposition research contributed to a world-famous trial to debunk fascist Holocaust denier David Irving.

IDHH Bonus 3.5: IDHH at the library part 2

The Multnomah County Library sponsored this event, hosted by Enrique Rivera , with the IDHH podcast producers Celina Flores, Mic Crenshaw and Erin Yanke.They play clips of the podcast, talk about their favorite moments in the process of making the podcast, storytelling, book recommendations, and much more. 
Thanks to Lyndsey Runyan and Enrique Rivera of the Multnomah County Library.

IDHH Bonus 3: Racist Recruitment through YouTube

In this bonus episode, we hear from Coalition for Human Dignity veteran Devin Burghart, now Executive Director of left wing think tank Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights. Burghart talks about the role of YouTube personalitiesin the effective radicalization of white nationalists, especially younger viewers.

IDHH Bonus 2.5: IDHH at the Library

Scot Nakagawa and Eric Ward talk together at “It Did Happen Here: Nothing is Final”, recorded March 4, 2021 at an event sponsored by the Multnomah County Library. 

Scot was the founding staff person of the Coalition for Human Dignity, and is co-founder and Senior Partner of ChangeLab, a national racial equity think/act lab promoting innovation in racial equity advocacy. Eric Ward  founded and directed a community project to expose and counter hate groups and respond to bigoted violence with the Community Alliance of Lane County (1990–1994).He is currently the Executive Director of the Western States Center.

IDHH Bonus 2: Cultural Organizing with Maximum Rocknroll

How did Anti-Racist Action create a national network without a central dedicated office, staff or phone number? In this episode It Did Happen Here talks to Martin Sprouse, longtime associate and staff member of Maximum Rocknroll about the role of the long-running punk rock zine as a cultural organizing tool for many groups, including ARA.

IDHH Bonus 1.5: IDHH at the OHS

Join IDHH producers Mic Crenshaw Celina Flores and Erin Yanke along with IDHH interviewee China for a discussion of the historical fight against fascism in the Pacific Northwest at the Oregon Historical Society.

IDHH Bonus 1: The Minneapolis Baldies and ARA, Part 2

It Did Happen Here returns to the Midwest for deeper conversations with veterans of the Minneapolis Baldies and  Skinheads of Chicago (SHOC) about what it means to  be a Black, Brown or Indigenous person in a predominantly white  movement, a woman in a male-dominated movement, how we direct our anti-racism as middle-aged activists, with deep discussion on how experiences with a violent youth have shaped political and personal philosophies.

IDHH 11: Nothing is Final

In our final episode of the podcast we hear about the end of Portland Anti Racist Action, the consequences of being a SHARP, and other reflections by the punks; we also hear words of wisdom offered in hindsight, with love from the now-middle aged activists.

IDHH 10: Less Booted, More Suited

In this episode we look at the Coalition For Human Dignity’s move to Seattle, the merger with the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment and financial collapse. We hear reflections on the good, the bad and the ugly, with advice on moving forward today.

IDHH 9: The Story of Jon Bair

On December 31, 1992 SHARPs and neo-Nazis met up on icy streets with fatal results. Episode 9 tells the story of the New Year’s Eve that changed the life of one SHARP member and shifted the balance of the struggle to take Portland’s streets back from racist skinheads. 

IDHH 8: Sharper Times

In this episode, we hear from the young anti-racist skinheads who physically confronted local racist boneheads, who took direct action to kick nazi scum out of the Rose City.

IDHH 7: A Research Capacity

In this episode, we offer another example of the Coalition for Human Dignity’s dedication to using a diversity of tactics in the fight to drive white nationalists out of Portland. We learn the secrets of the surveillance wing of the Coalition for Human Dignity in a behind the scenes visit to the Shop, where activists carefully compiled and painstakingly processed information on local and regional white nationalist groups.

IDHH 6: House Defense

With the police unwilling to help people under threat of fascist attack, Portland activists mobilized their own self-defense projects. This episode focuses on the household defenses that were organized by the Coalition for Human Dignity as they sought to reclaim the city from neo-nazis.

IDHH: Episode 6 House Defense

IDHH 5: They Thought We Were Everywhere: the Portland ARA

Overwhelmed by the increasing violence of racist skinheads, punks teamed up for community defense. In 1989 they formed Portland’s chapter of Anti Racist Action, and started to fight back.

IDHH 4: The Minneapolis Baldies and the ARA

This episode brings us to mid 80s Minneapolis to tell the story a small group of friends–including our host and producer Mic Crenshaw–founded first the anti-fascist skinhead crew Minneapolis Baldies and went on to help launch Anti Racist Action. ARA was a national organization that engaged in violence and direct confrontation against Neo-Nazi elements within scenes and cities and planted the seeds of today’s Antifa movement.

IDHH 3: Building Community Defense

At the end of 1988 racist skinheads flexed power on the streets and in the show spaces of Portland. This episode is about Portlanders who came together in response to neo-nazi violence after the 1988 murder of Mulugeta Seraw and formed the Coalition for Human Dignity.

IDHH 2: The Murder of Mulugeta Seraw

Late one night in November 1988 racist skinheads attacked a group of Ethiopian immigrants in the working class Kerns neighborhood of Southeast Portland.

28-year-old Mulugeta Seraw died from wounds inflicted by his three assailants. His attackers were all young men, ages 19, 23 and 24: a punk rocker, a homecoming king with substance use issues and a street kid; and all members of East Side White Pride, a neo-nazi skinhead crew.

IDHH 1: Setting the Scene

In the late 1980s, Portland was a known haven for racist skinheads. They roamed the core of Portland unhindered.

In this episode we hear from the punks in the late 1980s Portland punk scene, a place fraught with violence and conflict. We also hear about the recruiting and radicalization of Portland’s skinheads by right wing and white nationalist organizers.

IDHH: Trailer

It Did Happen Here is a history of the unlikely collaboration between immigrants, civil rights activists, militant youth and queer organizers in the late 80s and early 90s in Portland, Oregon who successfully fought neo-nazi violence and right wing organizing.