Police arrest a May Day demonstrator downtown at Broadway and Salmon
Police arrest another demonstrator
A security guard at Pioneer Place Mall in downtown Portland keeps watch on May Day demonstrators who filled a floor of the mall, shouting "Shut it down."
Demonstrators Lindi Light (right) and her daughter Kira Light in Pioneer Courthouse Square after the early May Day.
Photos by Robert Britt
Alicia Jackson addresses the crowd outside her foreclosed home.
Photo by Amanda Waldroupe
By Amanda Waldroupe
Staff Writer
A couple hundred people rallied in Woodlawn Park this morning as part of a May Day event to “liberate” a foreclosed home left vacant since August and help Alicia Jackson, who previously owned the home, to move back in.
The rally and action was organized by We Are Oregon, an SEIU-backed advocacy organization; the Portland Liberation Organization Council (PLOC), a spinoff group from Occupy Portland, and the Black Working Group, another spinoff organization from Occupy Portland largely focused on issues and concerns to African Americans living in north and northeast Portland.
The groups rallied to protest the continuing foreclosure crisis in Portland and the number of people forced to leave their homes because they are unable to get loan modifications from banks, or other assistance.
“This isn’t a rally,” said Ahjamu Umi, representing the Black Working Group. “This is taking control of our lives from the crooks and criminals that run the country.”
“When you have a system where banks get money when they need to be bailed out, and people don’t get money when they need to be bailed out…it doesn’t have any legitimacy,” said a spokesperson for PLOC who gave his name as “Meddle.”
After about an hour of speeches and rallying in Woodlawn Park, participants marched down NE Dekum St., accompanied by a police escort. They shouted, “The people! United! Will never be defeated!” as they marched.
They stopped at 523 NE Bryant St. The one-story red brick home had been vacant since August, when Alicia Jackson moved out because of foreclosure.
The home’s lockbox had been broken, and Jackson used that key to enter through the side door of her home. She walked through and opened the front door to a cheering crowd who shouted “Welcome home!”
Jackson was clearly overwhelmed by the number of people rallying in her support and by being back in her home. “I don’t even know what to say,” she said. “There is no place like home.”
Regular Street Roots columnist and Right 2 Survive member Julie McCurdy (she also has a poem and column in the current edition) wanted to invite readers out tomorrow to the Festival of Resistance, a celebration and preparation to take back the rights of people experiencing homelessness. The event will follow the May Day event tomorrow afternoon— which Street Roots is a sponsor of.
Street Roots is a proud sponsor of May Day 2010 in PDX this year. Find out more.
Tomorrow, Friday May 1st in the South Park Blocks a rally and march will start at 4PM to celebrate economic justice for all. A poster and party event will start at 1PM.
Be there or be square.
For those who can't afford free speech 