We marched with union banners at the front, heading down Moody Avenue before turning onto Bancroft toward the ICE facility. As we passed a young boy playing the Star-Spangled Banner on a keyboard, a father lifted his son onto his shoulders, waving an American flag. “Are we done yet, Daddy?” he asked. “Not yet,” his father said with a smile, “we have to do our civic duty.” That moment of joy, of civic pride in standing for justice, is one I won’t ever forget.
But then everything changed. We heard boom, boom, boom, boom, one after another. It was tear gas. Without warning, federal agents unleashed chemical munitions on the crowd, including children and the elderly. Shouts of “Gas! Gas!” rippled through the march. People began turning around and trying to leave calmly, but the waves of gas spread fast, filling the blocks around us and choking everyone in its cloud. Nobody expected this. That little boy with his flag. Elderly folks in wheelchairs. People with canes. Families with pets. We weren’t on the streets to “riot” but to stand up for justice and human dignity, the core of what labor solidarity means. Yet, chemical agents rained down on us with such intensity that people were vomiting, crying, and desperately covering their faces. Volunteers tried to help escort the elderly away, but there was no escape from the choking clouds. *https://labornotes.org/blogs/2026/02/portland-labor-rally-against-ice-attacked-tear-gas <https://labornotes.org/blogs/2026/02/portland-labor-rally-against-ice-attacked-tear-gas> * -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#40641): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/40641 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/117778858/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
