The Portland Red Guide is “a modest start toward a more respectful public understanding and rehabilitation of a neglected part of Portland’s common heritage.” Ph.D. in Political Science Michael Munk compiles an alternative history to the one commemorated on local street signs, buildings, neighborhood names and park benches exalting the dynasties of fur impresarios, land grabbers, timber barons and industry magnates.
Munk details the Portland area’s radical past, from 19th century “Utopians and Marxists”, to “Wobblies and Socialists” (1900-1930), “Unions and Commies” (1930s), “McCarthyism and Cold War” (WWII-1960), “Peaceniks and Civil Rights” (1960 -1973), on up to the state of “Identities and Protests” movements circa 2010. As the chapter titles suggest, there is a good deal of overlap between the radical movements of one era and the next -- one of the most interesting features of the guide is its ability to trace the connection between, say, the Progressive Party’s 1948 “Bachelors for Wallace” campaign (organized, no less, by a communist) and the Mattachine Society for gay rights.
The Portland Red Guide effectively presents an alternate version of far right wing history as well, as Munk chronicles the establishment’s opposition to radicalism. One of Munk’s best resources for radical history, he reports, was the files of the Portland Police Bureau’s notoriously underhanded Red Squad.
Despite some technical flaws, The Portland Red Guide is an important effort that seeks to ask who gets to write our history, “Who Gets to Name?”. Every city should have one. For, as Munk invokes, “Until the lions have their historians, tales of hunting will always glorify the hunter - African Proverb.” ( )