Anti-Trump ‘Workers Over Billionaires’ protests happening in Portland: Live updates

Portlanders joined protesters across the country on Monday in a series of pro-worker and anti-Trump demonstrations to celebrate Labor Day.

Events include a 2-mile march through downtown, a breakfast rally in Northeast Portland and the display of freeway overpass signs to protest President Donald Trump’s “strong-arm tactics.”

Here’s what the protests look like so far:

2:30 p.m. Monday:

After marching over the Burnside Bridge to the central eastside area of Portland, the crowd started to arrive back at Tom McCall Waterfront Park via the Morrison Bridge.

1:30 p.m. Monday:

Protesters blocked motor traffic on the Burnside Bridge as they continued their march from Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

1:15 p.m. Monday:

The Portland crowd has grown to about 2,000 people as it begins to march from Tom McCall Waterfront Park. It fills four blocks of Southwest Oak Street.

12:30 p.m Monday:

Several hundred people had gathered in Tom McCall Waterfront Park in downtown Portland to hear from speakers who called for the president’s removal from office, urged people to fight for immigrants and vowed to address income inequality.

9 a.m. Monday:

Portland’s Labor Day celebrations kicked off early Monday with coffee and burritos at a breakfast rally in Northeast Portland.

“We have to stand up and fight back,” said Nannette Carter-Jafri, who attended the event, one of several anti-Trump gatherings happening around the state. “It’s our America. We believe in the people.”

The event, at Glenhaven Park, attracted about 300 people, many of whom boarded buses around 10 a.m. for a trip to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Tacoma, where an Oregon wildland firefighter was being held.

The event was organized by the Oregon Rising coalition in partnership with the International Migrants Alliance, which organizer Terry Valen described as the first “global grassroots alliance of migrants.”

“We’re going to keep growing it,” said Valen, who added the group brought people to Portland this week from California, New York, Texas and Tennessee.

The Oregon Rising coalition is a new alliance of labor and community groups, including Portland Jobs with Justice, Together Lab, Welcome Home Coalition, the Portland Association of Teachers and others.

“I’m really excited to be here as a part of the Organ Rising coalition because this is the time when we really need our labor unions to be partnering with our community organizations to build a bigger movement that fights against what’s happening in terms of the racist, sexist, homophobic attacks that we’re getting from the federal government,” said Ariana Jacob, president of the American Federation of Teachers — Oregon, which is part of the coalition.

The Portland Association of Teachers also is part of the coalition.

“The message today is we are standing together,” said Portland Association of Teachers President Angela Bonilla. “We have to come together, and we have to fight in a coordinated and aligned way to win.”

While some attendees came from neighboring states, others came from nearby.

“We live in the neighborhood, and we wanted to do something,” said David Whitaker.

Whitaker attended the event with Kristen Lensen, the daughter of immigrants from Russia and China.

“I’m worried people are not understanding the true danger of people being picked up without due process and deported,” she said.

— Matthew Kish may be reached at mkish@oregonian.com, by phone at 503-221-4386, or through direct message on Twitter @matthewkish.