Skip to main contentMany 1 percenters and their employees and friends showed up in support of Occupy Portland on Friday afternoon in Pioneer Courthouse Square to singalong with Storm Large, Pink Martini and members of the Oregon Symphony. ---
Members of the actual Occupy Portland encampment were almost nowhere to be seen, lost in a crowd of Columbia-, Nike- and Ugg-wearing spectators sipping the free coffee donated by Starbucks.
When U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) took the microphone, a group near the stage hoisted a bed-sheet size banner that said, "Rep. Blumenauer: Free Trade Deals Benefit Wall Street not the 99%." They also chanted: "Fair trade, not free trade."
Storm Large shushed the group and the crowd applauded her. Other speakers included Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and representatives of nearly every religious community in the city. Near the end, Large belted out "I Will Survive." Two women on an Executive Building balcony bobbed along to the Gloria Gaynor's classic, one of them gripping her stack of files tightly so as not to let them fall the 10 stories to Southwest Yamhill Street below.
WWeek 2015