Portland anti-racist protesters undeterred by repression: 63 days and counting

For 63 days, every possible attempt to derail a people’s movement in defense of Black lives has been made against protesters in Portland, Oregon. Every red-baiting, reactionary talking point has been deployed. On the ground, the Portland Police Bureau, the National Guard and three different types of federal paramilitary police have attempted to crush dissent. They claim it is about “law and order,” about protecting federal property from “violent anarchists.” Protesters see it for what it really is: repression. Repression of not only of 1st amendment right to peacefully assemble, but of the right of recourse against a racist government that does not serve the people, and finally, repression of a deepening movement. The protests have ebbed and flowed. There have been internal disputes and setbacks, but the largest crowds ever appeared night after night in the days following the attack on Donavan Labella, shot in the face and permanently brain damaged by a federal rubber bullet. Contingents of protesters–mothers, fathers, veterans, healthcare and culinary workers, teachers, and more–have shown up en masse to join in the call to stop the war on Black America, and to assert the right to protest. To varying degrees, protesters arrive ready to defend themselves from impact munitions and CS gas, donning gear like goggles, helmets, gas masks, gloves, and carrying homemade shields and battery operated leaf blowers. Some national media outlets have tried and failed to smear these largely non-Black groups of protesters as ‘privileged’ people co-opting a Black movement. Meanwhile in the streets, signs carried by white members of ‘the wall of moms’ read: “Wall of Moms is not the story. Black people dying is the story.” Another sign reads, “REST IN PEACE QUANICE/KILLED BY PDX POLICE,” referencing the 2017 killing of a 17-year old Black child named Quanice Hayes, whose killer still serves in the PPB. These small examples represent an attempt to build trust between an increasingly race-and-class conscious white population and the Black communities of Portland. Two months of protest cannot undo this state’s history (and present) of white supremacy, but this is a beginning. Read the full article: https://www.liberationnews.org/portland-anti-racist-protesters-undeterred-by-repression/