Portland marches for Palestine on October 7

Portland, OR – On October 7, over 100 people gathered in downtown Portland to rally and march on the two-year anniversary of October 7, 2023 – the day that the resistance movement in Gaza broke out of its open-air prison and brought the Palestinian liberation movement to the forefront of politics around the world.

The event was organized by Portland for Palestine and included speeches from Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) and Portland Contra Las Deportaciones (PDXCD).

Portland is currently Trump’s latest target with attempts to federalize the National Guard. Trump is peddling extraordinary lies about the city, stating that it’s “war torn” and “burning to the ground.”

The rally took place during the recent aftermath of five organizers from the participating organizations being detained by ICE and DHS during protests at the Portland ICE facility the previous weekend. These detainments, meant to discourage activity, had the exact opposite effect, with all of the former arrestees being present at this event.

Holly Brown, an organizer from FRSO who was detained over the weekend, stated that they did not have a speech prepared due to the events of the last few days but reflected on their experience, “While I was detained for just a few hours, I spent my time thinking about Palestine – how the freedom fighters never gave up despite being held in similar and worse ways for years, decades even.”

Portland for Palestine organizer Kacey Desantis made the connection clear: “Protesters are being gassed, tased, chased, beaten and detained in the name of silencing a resistance movement – this is only a small part of what the Palestinian people have faced for the last 100 years. We must remember this. We must recognize that our country, as it inflicts this terror upon its citizens, first and foremost inflicted this terror upon oppressed nations around the world.”

As the sun was setting, the crowd began to march through downtown Portland and past Portland State University. Throughout the march, chants such as “From the sea to the river, Palestine will live forever!” and “Money for homes and education, not for war and occupation!” caused many passersby to nod in agreement while clapping and chanting along. Even more tailored chants could be heard. like, “From Venezuela to Palestine, all this killing is by design!” and “No ICE raids, no deportation! No Israeli occupation!” drawing a direct correlation between American imperialism and the struggle for Palestinian liberation.

The march ended where it took off at Terry Schrunk Plaza where the emcee for the night declared, “If the people of Gaza aren’t giving, we sure as hell are not giving up!”

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