Portland's Resistance Marches to Protest Hate and Fascism
Portland Resistance marching across Hawthorne Bridge. Chant: "Not my president!" 11/10/16
Anti-Trump rally in Pioneer Courthouse Square (Downtown Portland, OR) 11/10/16.
Portland Resistance march across Hawthorne Bridge (Portland, OR) chanting "F*** Donald Trump" 11/10/16
PDX Resistance marches in solidarity with Women's Rights activists. First group chants, "Her body, her choice" response, "My body, my choice."
Portland's Resistance, a newly formed Portland, Oregon based human rights organization, successfully organized a peaceful rally in downtown Portland on Thursday, November 10, 2016. The event began at 5pm (PST), in the Pioneer Courthouse Square. Event organizer Gregory McKelvey and others, briefly addressed the crowd to explain the origin of Portland's Resistance and the plan for the evening's march.
During the march, chants of "Not my president" and "Fu-k Trump!" were the most frequent of rallying cries. Despite these optics, rally goers were not protesting the election of Republican President-elect Donald Trump. The consensus among attendees was that Trump's divisive, often hateful rhetoric was an intolerable means of winning the presidency. Human rights activists and members of different vulnerable groups including: LGBTQ, Muslim, Latin American, African American, and differently abled, marched together in solidarity.
The peaceful rally and subsequent march stopped traffic on the busy Hawthorne Bridge and Martin Luther King Boulevard. Marchers acknowledged the event was a heartening demonstration of American progressivism.
Portland's Resistance Facebook About page offers this description:
"In order to survive President Trump there needs to be a strong resistance. Our group believes that Portland has an opportunity to become a beacon of light for the rest of the nation. We can show the world what a progressive city can actually look like. However, for this to be done we need drastic changes now. We do not have time to spare.
Our organization is demanding in Portland:
- Rent control and an end to no cause evictions
- An end to police brutality
- An end to racial disparity in policing
- Citizen oversight of the police with real power
- An acknowledgement of Portland’s racist past and concrete steps to rectify that sad truth
- No new fossil fuel infrastructure or support towards the fossil fuel industry
- Clean air and water
- Transparency in city government
- An acknowledgement that we are living on stolen land and efforts to rectify that fact
- Open and accountable elections
- Safe streets
- Continued sanctuary city status
- Full LGBTQ inclusion
- Well funded schools for ALL our children (No lead in the water!)
- An affirmation of women’s rights including free and safe abortions
- More funding for sexual and domestic violence prevention and better policing on these issues
- A safe and welcoming place for immigrants and refugees
- Increased mental health funding and accessible services
- Safe locations for the houseless population
- A houseless bill of rights
- The right to free and safe abortion
- Get Nestle out of the gorge
- No More tax break to major corporations such as Nike, Comcast etc and much more.
- Guaranteed living wages
We entirely support and endorse the movements of Black Lives Matter, Don’t Shoot Portland, Portland Tenants United, PDX Trans Pride, Bernie PDX, Portland Clean Air, East Portland Air Coalition, 15 NOW, Health Care for All Oregon and more to come in the days ahead."
