PANJI HITAM: REPUBLIC CASCADIA-(CANADA&USA)

^ a. *Statistics are compiled from US and Canadian census records by combining information from the states of Washington, Oregon and British Columbia. If the entire Cascadian bioregion was taken into account, GDP and population would be much higher.

Cascadia is the proposed name for an independent nation that would be created by the combination of British Columbia, Oregon, and Washington through the secession from their respective federal governments. Other definitions of Cascadia include a large bioregion extending from north to south from the tip of southern Alaska down into Northern California, and encompasses to the east parts of Alberta, the Yukon, Idaho and Western Montana. The boundaries of the proposed government could incorporate those of the existing province and states.

At the maximum extent, Cascadia would be home to more than 20 million people and would boast an economy that generates more than $750 billion worth of goods and services annually, which would place Cascadia in the top 20 economies of the world.^[2] The notional Cascadia, were it to encompass the states and province it spans, would be the 20th largest nation in the world, with a land area of 1,384,588 km² (534,572 sq mi), placing it right behind Mongolia (and would greatly exceed this if it incorporated the entire "bioregion").^[3] The largest city, Seattle, has an economy slightly smaller than Thailand, but larger than Colombia and Venezuela.^[4]

The idea of Cascadia as a political secessionist movement has received a degree of attention; however a more common idea of Cascadia is that of a binational region whose shared culture and interests transcend the international boundary—a region integrated in terms of ecology, economics, culture, and political cooperation.^[5] Despite a degree of shared cross-border history and cooperation, however, national connections are much more powerful than international ties within Cascadia.^[6]

While international boundaries continue to play an important role in Cascadia, studies have shown that citizens in the Pacific Northwest are the most likely in the United States and Canada to believe that international borders hinder progress, do not protect national interests and should be further eroded.^{[citation needed]} Cascadia already leads the way in binational and regional cooperation, governing bodies as well as crossborder NGO's, and continues to strengthen these ties through the establishment of a crossborder state ID card in 2006, the 'Pacific Coast Collaboration' agreement (PCC) signed by the governors of California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska and the premier of British Columbia in 2008, the bioregional 'Cascadia Mayors Council' founded in 1996 and the establishment of the Pacific Northwest Economic Region in 1991, a regional U.S.-Canadian forum in which all legislative members and governors are voting members, along with a consortium of the regions most powerful non-profit, public and private sector companies.^[7]^[8] PNWER is recognized by both the United States and Canada as the “model” for regional and bi-national cooperation that provides the public and private sectors a cross-border forum that former BC cabinet minister and legal scholar Andrew Petter describes the PNWER as one of North Americas most sophisticated examples of "regionalist paradiplomacy"^[9] and is the only statutory, non-partisan, bi-national, public/private partnership in North America.^[10] However, none of these bi-national efforts promote secession.

A research study by the Western Standard in 2005 found that support for exploring secession from Canada sits at 35.7% in British Columbia, and 42% in Alberta.^[11] While difficult to gauge support specifically in Washington and Oregon, because no research has been done for those states, a nationwide poll by Zogby International in 2008 found that 22% of Americans now support a state or regions right to peacefully secede from the United States, the highest rate since the civil war, a trend that continues to grow.^[12] However, none of these studies are specifically about forming an independent Cascadia.

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[edit] History

Thomas Jefferson said he viewed Fort Astoria "as the germ of a great, free, and independent empire on that side of our continent".^[13]

Jefferson foresaw the establishment of an independent nation in the Western portion of the North American continent. In his mind, this nation was to be home to a “great, free and independent empire”, populated by American settlers, but separate from the United States politically and economically, and eventually becoming a great trading partner exploring its own democratic experiment.^[14]

In 1813, Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to John Jacob Astor congratulating him on the establishment of Fort Astoria, the primary fur trade post of Astor's Pacific Fur Company. Jefferson described Fort Astoria "as the germ of a great, free, and independent empire on that side of our continent, and that liberty and self-government spreading from that as well as from this side, will insure their complete establishment over the whole." He went on to criticize the British, who were also establishing fur trade networks in the region: "It would be an afflicting thing, indeed, should the English be able to break up the settlement. Their bigotry to the bastard liberty of their own country, and habitual hostility to every degree of freedom in any other, will induce the attempt."^[13] The very year of Jefferson's letter, Fort Astoria was sold to the British North West Company, based in Montreal.

Jefferson was not alone in foreseeing the establishment of an independent nation in the western portion of North America. John Quincy Adams agreed with Jefferson's views about Fort Astoria, and labeled the entire Northwest as "the empire of Astoria",^[15] although he also saw the whole continent as "destined by Divine Providence to be peopled by one nation."^[16] As late as the 1820s James Monroe and Thomas Hart Benton thought the region west of the Rockies would be an independent nation. ^[16]

Elements among the region's population sought to form their own country from the very beginning. John McLoughlin, the chief factor of Columbia District, administered from Fort Vancouver, was involved with the debate over the future of the Oregon Country.^[17] Before British claims north of the Columbia River were ceded to the U.S.A. by the Oregon Treaty of 1846; he advocated an independent nation that would be free of the United States during debates at the Oregon Lyceum in 1842, through his lawyer.^[17] This view won support at first and a resolution adopted, but was later moved away from in favor of a resolution by George Abernethy of the Methodist Mission to wait on forming an independent country.^[17]

In May 1843 the settlers in the Oregon Territory created their first “western style” government as a Provisional Government. Several months later the Organic Laws of Oregon were drawn up to create a legislature, an executive committee, a judicial system, and a system of subscriptions to defray expenses. Members of the ultra-American party insisted that the final lines of the Organic Act would be “until such time as the USA extend their jurisdiction over us” to try to end the Oregon Territorial independence movement. George Abernethy was elected its first and only Provisional Governor, but the opposing “party” led by Osborne Russell favored Independence. Russell proposed that the Oregon Territory not join the United States, but instead become a Pacific Republic that stretched from the Pacific Ocean to the Continental Divide. Many favored the idea of independence (especially north of the Columbia River).^{[citation needed]}

In 1860 there were three different statements from separate influential individuals on the creation of a "Pacific Republic"^[18].

[edit] Civil War

While the Southern states seceded to form the Confederacy, some members of the Oregon Territory saw it as a perfect opportunity seek independence. However, their movement failed after the American government successfully launched a propaganda campaign associating their movement with the Knights of the Golden Circle, a pro-Confederate, pro-slavery organization.^{[citation needed]}

At the same time, other movements inside of Cascadia, such as the Klamath movement, Trinity and Jackson movements all sought to wrench certain areas of Cascadia free from U.S. control. These too failed, largely by being put down through various uses of force.

Californians unsympathetic to the Union also pushed for the re-establishment of the Republic of California as an independent entity—the leader of California's federal forces at the outset of the Civil War was himself a supporter of the Confederate cause—but that movement proved weaker than its opposition. For his role in convincing Californians to remain in the Union, Thomas Starr King was honored as one of the two "heroes of California" in the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall Collection.

While independence movements during this time failed to take root, the Pacific Northwest continued to ferment a radical and aggressive form of regionalism. This is exemplified by Adell M. Parker, president of the University of Washington Alumni Association in his speech at the groundbreaking of the Seattle campus:

"That the West should un-falteringly follow the East in fashions and ideals would be as false and fatal as that America should obey the standards of Europe. Let the West, daring and unprejudiced, discover its own ideals and follow them. The American standard in literature and philosophy has long been fixed by the remote East. Something wild and free, something robust and full will come out of the West and be recognized in the final American type. Under the shadow of those great mountains a distinct personality shall arise, it shall adopt other fashions, create new ideals, and generations shall justify them" (“With Due Formality” 1894).^[19]

[edit] State of Jefferson

Proposed flag of the State of Jefferson.

For more details on this topic, see State of Jefferson.

After attempts in the mid 19th Century at forming a State of Jefferson prior to becoming Oregon and then again in the 1930s, citizens attempted what is the best known of such movements in the region. During 1940 and 1941, organizers attracted massive media attention by arming themselves and blockading Highway 99 to the south of Yreka where they collected tolls from motorists and passed out proclamations of independence. When a California Highway Patrolman turned up on the scene, he was told to “get down the road back to California”. The movement was created to draw attention to the area by proposing that Southern Oregon and Northern California secede from their respective state governments to form a separate state within the United States.^[20] As this is historically a depressed area, many locals placed the blame on the state governments in Salem and Sacramento. For that reason, a flag bearing two X's and a gold pan was adopted. The two X's represented the so-called "double crosses" from Sacramento and Salem.^[21] The movement quickly ended however after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

In 1956, groups from Cave Junction, Oregon and Dunsmuir, California threatened to tear Southern Oregon and Northern California from their respective state rulers to form the State of Jefferson.^[21]

[edit] Cascadia

The word is likely derived from "Cascades"—particularly the Cascade Range, although that mountain range barely extends into Canada. The term "Cascades" was first used for the Cascades Rapids, at least as early as the Astor Expedition.^[22] The earliest attested use of the term for the mountain range dates to 1825, in the writings of botanist David Douglas.^[23] Douglas called them the "Cascade Mountains" or "Cascade Range of Mountains", but did not claim to have originated the term.^[22]

It wasn’t until the next century, during geological explorations in the early 1900s, that the term “Cascadia” came into use to describe the region.

The name was given to a mythical landmass located in the northeastern corner of the Pacific Ocean, just beyond the existing shoreline. This landmass was thought to have eroded, depositing sediment upon what is now Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. While geologists and historians continue to debate the origin of Cascadia’s soils, the name has remained a permanent descriptor of the region.

While the term “Cascadia” may have been used by scientists, locals or historians since the early 1800s, it was not until 1970 that the term was used by David McCloskey, a Seattle University professor, to describe or name a region. McCloskey describes Cascadia as “a land of falling waters.” He notes the blending of the natural integrity and the sociocultural unity that gives Cascadia its definition.

According to McCloskey, this “initial’ Cascadia included parts of seven jurisdictions (Northern California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Western Montana, British Columbia and South East Alaska), running in the north from the top of the Alaska panhandle to Cape Mendicino, California in the south – and covering all the land and “falling waters” from the continental divide at the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. McCloskey, founder of the Cascadia Institute and co‐chair of Seattle University’s New Ecological Studies Program saw this Cascadia brand as something which transcends political – even geographic – definitions; it is more an ideological notion difficult to define.

While other conceptions followed, this first ‘enviro‐branding’ has had significant staying power thanks to being followed shortly by Joel Garreau’s Nine Nations of North America (1981): Garreau’s Ecotopia [one of the Nine Nations of North America, 1981]: included the Pacific Northwest coast west of the Cascade Range stretching from southern Alaska in the north to coastal areas of British Columbia, down through Washington state, Oregon and into California just north of Santa Barbara. According to Garreau, Ecotopia is a land of individualism and the environment. For Garreau, these nine ‘nations’ replaced existing boundaries in North America, “each with its own economic, political and cultural characteristics.”

Both McCloskey and Garreau’s work drew on earlier conceptions of North America’s temperate west. These include Berkeley‐based University of California Press editor Ernest Callenbach’s Ecotopia novel (1975) and a subsequent prequel Ecotopia Emerging (1981) – both novels reflecting the environmental emphasis which had gripped the Cascadia/Ecotopia region in the 1960s and 1970s. Callenbach’s Ecotopia was of a politically and economically independent Washington, Oregon and Northern California – a portrait of a future, ecologically sustainable society.

In recent years dissatisfaction with a wide range of issues has led to a renewed interest in the idea of an independent Cascadia.^{[citation needed]} In more recent years,^[when?] a more organized movement calling for the re-unification of the original Oregon Country (which included the area of the modern day southern British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and Idaho into a single entity for the purpose of gaining independence from both the United States and Canada has come into being under the name of the Evergreen Revolution. Supporters of the Evergreen Revolution hope to one day achieve the independence of Cascadia through peaceful means, much the same way as was done in the former Czecho-Slovakia's Velvet Revolution in 1989.^{[citation needed]}

The idea of Cascadia as a cross-border economic region has been embraced by a wide diversity of civic leaders and organizations. The "Main Street Cascadia" transportation corridor concept was formed by former mayor of Seattle Paul Schell during 1991 and 1992.^{[citation needed]} Schell later defended his cross-border efforts during the 1999 American Planning Association convention, saying "that Cascadia represents better than states, countries and cities the cultural and geographical realities of the corridor from Eugene to Vancouver, B.C."^[24] Schell also formed the Cascadia Mayors Council, bringing together mayors from cities along the transportation corridor from Whistler, BC, to Medford, Oregon. The council last met in May, 2004.^[25] Other cross-border groups were set up in the 1990s, such as the Cascadia Economic Council and the Cascadia Corridor Commission.^[26] These groups were established to focus on transportation issues and have never advocated secession or regional independence from the US and Canada.

[edit] Boundaries

There are many proposed borders for Cascadia. One is simply the states of Oregon, Washington, and the province of British Columbia.^[27] Some maps simply include the states of Oregon and Washington, excluding BC from the map. Some groups have sought to extend the interpretation of Cascadia to embrace parts of Northern California, Idaho and Alaska. Others would make Cascadia a federation, combining counties into new states, including the states of Jefferson, Trinity, Jackson, Klamath, Shasta, and Pacifica. A further delineation of the proposed Cascadian boundaries could include the complete watershed of the Columbia River, therefore including the territories of what is now Idaho, western Montana, and part of Wyoming, Utah, and very northern Nevada.

[edit] Motivation

Cascadian secessionist movements generally state that their political motivations deal mostly with political, economic, cultural and ecological ties, as well as the beliefs that the eastern federal governments are out of touch, slow to respond, and hinder state and provincial attempts at further bioregional integration.^[28] These connections go back to the Oregon Territory, and further back to the Oregon Country, the land most commonly associated with Cascadia, and the last time the region was treated as a single political unit, though claimed by two countries.^[28] Some have asserted that political protest in the wake of the 2004 presidential election appears to be the primary reason for renewed separatist movements throughout states with substantial Democratic majorities, such as Washington and Oregon.^[29]^[30]

One can see the similarities between the proposed Cascadian States and the original Oregon Territories.

The region is already served by several cooperative organizations and interstate or international agencies, especially since 2008 with the signing of the Pacific Coast Collaborative which places new emphasis on bio-regionally coordinated policies on the environmental, forestry and fishery management, emergency preparedness and critical infrastructure, regional high speed rail and road transportation as well as tourism ^[31] – the whole region being prone to earthquakes (see Cascadia subduction zone).

Cascadia is already energy sufficient, due to the high propensity for renewable energy resources (mostly hydroelectric and geothermal) and supplies many other western states such as California and Idaho with some electricity.

[edit] Economic Motivations for Secession

Many proponents^[who?] of Cascadia argue its economic viability, as it would be one of the worlds 20 largest economies, and within the top 10 if the entire bioregion down to San Francisco was included.

The combined gross domestic product of Washington, Oregon and British Columbia would be roughly 618.5 billion,^[1] which would make it the 18th largest economy in the world.

[edit] As an ecological bioregion

The concept of Cascadian bioregionalism is closely identified with the environmental movement. In the early 1970s, the contemporary vision of bio-regionalism began to be formed through collaboration between natural scientists, social and environmental activists, artists and writers, community leaders, and back-to-the-landers who worked directly with natural resources. A bioregion is defined in terms of the unique overall pattern of natural characteristics that are found in a specific place. The main features are generally obvious throughout a continuous geographic terrain and include a particular climate, local aspects of seasons, landforms, watersheds, soils, and native plants and animals. People are also counted as an integral aspect of a place’s life, as can be seen in the ecologically adaptive cultures of early inhabitants, and in the activities of present day reinhabitants who attempt to harmonize in a sustainable way with the place where they live.^[32]

The area from Vancouver B.C. down to Portland has been termed a megaregion by the U.S. and Canadian governments, especially along the 'Cascadian Corridor'. Megaregions are defined as areas where "boundaries begin to blur, creating a new scale of geography now known as the megaregion." These areas have interlocking economic systems, shared natural resources and ecosystems, and common transportation systems link these population centers together. This area contains 17% of Cascadian land mass, but more than 80% of the Cascadian population.^[33] Existing US and Canadian borders continue to be broken down in the face of further economic, political and cultural integration with such programs as the enhanced drivers license program, which can be used to more easily cross the Canadian border between Washington and British Columbia.

Cascadian bioregionalism deals with the connected ecological, environmental, economic and cultural ties that bind the Pacific Northwest states and provinces together and distance them from their eastern counterparts. The argument is that those in Washington and Oregon have much more in common with those in British Columbia than those in Washington D.C. This argument continues to gain ground as efforts to create integrated transportation and economic system, stem pollution and global warming, and support sustainable alternatives increasingly requires the commitment of larger regional players.

The Cascadia Bioregion (also referred to as the Pacific Northwest Bioregion) encompasses all or portions of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, Nevada, Wyoming, Montana, Alaska, British Columbia, and Alberta. Bioregions are geographically based areas defined by land or soil composition, watershed, climate, flora, and fauna. The Cascadia Bioregion claims the entire watershed of the Columbia River (as far as the Continental Divide), as well as the Cascade Range from Northern California well into Canada. The delineation of a bioregion has environmental stewardship as its primary goal, with the belief that political boundaries should match ecological and cultural boundaries.^[34]

[edit] Active or recently defunct secessionist groups

On September 9, 2001, the Cascadian National Party website was launched on Angelfire,^[35] but faltered quickly after the events of September 11, 2001.

Currently, the primary organization promoting regional sovereignty is the Cascadian Independence Project, with members in cities such as Vancouver BC, Victoria, Bellingham, Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue, Walla Walla, Spokane, Olympia, Portland, Eugene, and Salem. ^[36]

Other groups discussing the Cascadia concept, such as The Sightline Institute, Crosscut, and Cascadia Prospectus, see the concept as one of a transnational cooperative identity short of full independence. Still others, such as The Republic of Cascadia, are tongue-in-cheek expressions of political protest.

[edit] References in popular culture

As of January 2011, Cascadia was #8 on Time Magazine's top ten list of aspiring nations, behind that of Scotland, Tibet, Quebec, and the Basque Country.^[37]

Two novels by Ernest Callenbach, Ecotopia (1975) and Ecotopia Emerging (1981), are fictional portrayals of the secession of the region from the United States. Callenbach's novels include Washington, Oregon, and the northern half of California in the new country (with the dividing line between northern and southern California drawn roughly through Santa Barbara and Bakersfield). Seriatim was a short-lived magazine published in El Cerrito, California in the late 1970s which also promoted the secession of the region along the lines portrayed by Callenbach.

The villains in the film Pony Express set in 1860 are California secessionists

Joel Garreau's Nine Nations of North America (1981) has the region as one of his nine 'nations', which he named Ecotopia after the Callenbach novel.

Predating these is a proposal made by Eric Hoffer in The Temper Of Our Time (1967) for "a pilot state made up of a slice of northern California and a slice of southern Oregon" in which "the main purpose of life would be for people to learn and grow." Hoffer feared that as meaningful work was automated away through technology, rootlessness would become a societal problem unless channeled in other directions such as education and personal growth, and proposed this region for his pilot state in part because it had good potential for work restoring ravaged soils and forests, work which would result in "the simultaneous reclamation of natural and human resources".

The Emergence anthology from comic publisher Neoglyphic Media of Bellingham, Washington spotlights comics and artwork from creators local to Cascadia.

In the Crimson Skies universe, the nation of Pacifica is formed out of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.

The Fish Brewing Company of Olympia, Washington puts, "Brewed in the Republic of Cascadia" on their organic ale.^[38]

The smALL FLAGs Company of Salem, Oregon sells the Douglas Fir flag as "a symbol for the Republic of Cascadia (The Bioregional Cooperative Commonwealth of Cascadia)."^[39]

The 2005 North American Science Fiction Convention (or NASFiC), Cascadia Con, presented itself as a Cascadian convention, using material from The Republic of Cascadia website, a previous year's Norwescon Science Fiction Convention doing the same thing, and other sources.^[40]

Hopworks Urban Brewery in Portland is making a Secession Black IPA with the Doug flag as part of its logo.^[41]

The Phillips Brewing Company of Victoria, British Columbia puts, "Brewed in the Republic of Cascadia" on their products.

The Cascadia Cup is a soccer trophy contested yearly by the Vancouver Whitecaps FC (BC), Portland Timbers (Oregon) and Seattle Sounders FC (Washington), and the various Cascadia flags are used by fans at games for these teams.^{[42]-copy of wikipedia}

PANJI HITAM

Sunday, May 15, 2011

REPUBLIC CASCADIA-(CANADA&USA)

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