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CounterPunch
March 21,
2003
Blocking Portland's
Bridges
Pledging Grievance
to the Flag
By JOSH FRANK
Portland Oregon.
Several thousand protesters descended upon downtown
Portland Thursday afternoon in protest of the U.S. invasion of
Iraq. Starting out as a peaceful demonstration, protesters blocked
incoming and outgoing rush hour traffic, occupying over 7 blocks
and two commuter bridges in the Portland area.
The Portland Police Department was clearly
not prepared for the number of dissenters that took to the streets.
Even though Saturday may have been Portland's largest protest
ever (over 40,000) recorded, Thursday's proved to be the most
creative.
At several key intersections in the downtown
area, protesters camped out, chanting anti-war slogans while
waving American flags. Only several blocks away a small pro-war
rally sponsored by the corporate radio prodcaster, ClearChannel,
praised the US attack. But their numbers where dismle compared
to the nearby anti-war rally.
After stopping traffic over the Burnside
Bridge at 5:30, protesters quickly dispersed, glogging vehicles
on another bridge before taking their grievances over the Willamette
River into Southeast Portland.
In an Oregon protest first, thousands
of anti-war activists, after splitting up, blocked 3 major intersections
and stopped traffic along two major interstates. Following several
hours of this, the protesters gatherd back in the downtown area
for an evening candle light vigil.
As always it seems, a few activists took
their frustration out on local property, spray painting a federal
building, and smashing a few windows, one being a local McDonalds.
But no major damages have yet to be found.
At 11pm the protesters are still occupying
the entrance to the Burnside Bridge from downtown. Police in
riot gear are monitering the situation. Several local news stations
are reporting the crowd is growing slowly. Over thrity people
have been arrested, with several activists taken to the hospital
for pepper spray and billy club injuries.
No doubt this display of civil disobidiance
will catch on in future anti-war events; where unpermited protests
cause mass chaos by spreading their capibities to several parts
of the city simutaneously.
As one protester told me, "voting
may not be enough, writing our elected officials may not be enough....
coming out into the streets, and reclaiming our democracy may
be our last resort. The inconvienance these commuters are having
is nothing compared to the inconvienance our bombs are having
to Iraqis. I hope more activists find creative ways to disrupt
typical behavior, and make Americans think!"
She may be right. It's got Portland thinking.
We'll see if more activists follow their lead.
Josh Frank
is a 24-year-old writer and activist living in Portland, Oregon.
He can be reached at: frank_joshua@hotmail.com
Yesterday's
Features
Ben Tripp
Blood
for Oil: the Exchange Rate
Cathy Breens
Report from Baghdad: Mothers, Kids and Crash Kits
Scott Handleman
Fourth
Generation Protesting: Shutting Down San Francisco
Vanessa Jones
Paint
Them Red
Brian J. Foley
Patriotic
Protest for Professors
Zoltan Grossman
After Saddam, a War on Iraqi Rebels?
Philip S. Golub
Inventing Demons
Richard Lichtman
On the Current Experience of Terror
Milan Rai
Blitz-Coup
Pepe Escobar
A Cheap Family Farce
Floyd Rudmin
The Nightmare at the Back Door: Nuclear Plant's as Terror Targets
Chris Floyd
See Rome (poem)
Website of the War
Iraq
Body Count
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