This week, our column features an interview with Laura Wadlin, a resident and political activist in Portland, Oregon’s largest city. Wadlin is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and served on the organization’s National Political Committee for two years. She is a teacher at Portland Community College and a member of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Local 2277.

In the interview, conducted on October 2, Wadlin discusses the atmosphere in Portland on the eve of the National Guard’s deployment at Trump’s orders, the actions of the DSA in the city, and the broader political context in the United States.

FLCMF:
Laura, if we are not wrong, Portland is the fifth city under Trump’s intervention, where he is sending troops without local consent. Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Chicago, Memphis, and now Portland. The operations are expected to start in the next days. I would like to hear from you: How is the city right now? How did people receive the news, and what is the government claiming to justify this?

LAURA:
No one in Portland or Oregon, as far as I can tell, is happy about this. Even the business lobby and the liberal establishment immediately reacted by pressuring the Trump administration to back off. The irony is that in 2020, during the Black Lives Matter uprising, Portland received national attention because of its strong protest movement. Trump sent federal agents to Portland back then, and there was a standoff around the federal courthouse downtown that lasted for about a hundred nights.

At that time, the right wing, both in the Trump administration and locally, portrayed Portland as a “war zone”. Since then, a narrative spread that the city suffered economically because of the protests, supposedly turning Portland into a violent, unsafe place. This wasn’t true: the protests were limited to a small area downtown, and the city remained safe. But business leaders and politicians fueled this narrative, blaming the protests for economic decline, crime, and homelessness. Even years later, national media continued to amplify the idea that Portland was “in flames.” I had friends whose family members from other states would message them asking, “Are you safe? Is it really like a war zone?” — and it wasn’t.

Now, Trump is reusing this false narrative. He even cited footage from 2020 on Fox News as justification for sending troops, claiming Portland was in chaos. The irony is that the same business lobby that once blamed protests for harming the city is now opposing Trump, insisting that Portland is safe, crime is going down, and federal intervention is unnecessary. Their real concern is that this hurts business, and they also recognize that the city has shifted politically to the left. Portland recently restructured its City Council to be larger and more representative, resulting in a very progressive majority. The business lobby knows it has to adapt to this political reality, so it is now opportunistically anti-Trump, denouncing a narrative it helped create.

Governor Tina Kotek, however, has been ineffective. She is a conservative Democrat with little popular support, and she barely won the last election against a Republican. Her response so far has been weak, simply asking Trump not to intervene. Meanwhile, unions such as the Oregon Nurses Association have issued strong statements against the measure.

Even the Oregon National Guardsmen, who are being deployed, are unhappy. They are working-class Oregonians with regular jobs and families, not full-time soldiers. They expected to serve in natural disasters, not in political operations. Their lives are being disrupted for something they don’t support. They’ve seen what happened in Los Angeles, where guardsmen were left standing around, sleeping on cots, and doing meaningless tasks like picking up trash. They don’t want to go through the same thing.

In short, everyone here is upset about this intervention.

FLCMF:
How is the immigration issue in Portland? Is it also involved in this kind of attempt to intimidate society that Trump is doing?

LAURA:

Yes. There are many immigrants in Portland and in Oregon. I teach English as a second language, so I interact with immigrants every day — that’s my job. And yes, there have been ICE kidnappings in Portland and in the metro area, as well as in other parts of Oregon. This definitely contributes to a climate of fear among immigrants.

At the same time, I’m really heartened by how the left has responded. There is a very deliberate focus on protecting immigrants in Oregon. We have immigrants from all over the world, especially from Latin America, and people are mobilizing to support them. My coworkers, my union, the DSA, and other unions and organizations are holding know-your-rights trainings and sharing information. People are taking this very seriously and organizing to protect our immigrant neighbors.

FLCMF:
I would like to ask more specifically about DSA’s activity. Portland seems to have one of the most dynamic chapters, with elected officials as well as many rank-and-file organizers, including yourself. How has Portland DSA been responding to this challenging moment?

LAURA:

I would say our work on this began the moment Trump was elected. On the same night he won last November, four DSA members were elected to Portland City Council. They knew immediately that this would be a central issue during their terms. Since then, they have dedicated significant time to constituent services and to building networks for immigrant protection in the city.

One of the most complicated issues has been how to relate to Portland’s ICE detention facility. There has been a strong and persistent protest movement against it. But many immigrant families don’t actually want the facility to be shut down, because if it closes, detainees would be transferred to locations much farther away, making it very difficult for families to visit them. Obviously, we want no ICE facilities at all, but tactically the question is complicated. For DSA and our elected officials, this has been difficult to navigate. Another factor is that protests at the facility have been used as justification for repression and even federal troop deployment. For these reasons, as an organization, DSA has generally stayed away from direct involvement in those protests.

Instead, we have focused on other areas. We have an Immigrant Rights Working Group, and all of our other committees also address the current situation. Our Socialist in Office Committee, where our city councilors and state legislators coordinate, has discussed it. It has also been a topic in our Labor Working Group, since many union members, especially teachers, are dealing with the consequences in their workplaces. One of the most common places for ICE kidnappings is at schools during drop-off and pick-up times. Parents get out of their cars to collect their children and are detained by ICE agents. It’s horrifying.

We’ve also had some involvement in protests led by liberal organizations like 5051 and Indivisible [protests like “Hands Off” and “No Kings”]. We haven’t organized them, but we’ve participated. Those protests are often dominated by older, white, middle-class people, with few young people or union members, so engaging a broader base remains a challenge.

Recently, after the Trump administration announced the deployment of National Guard troops, we held an emergency chapter meeting with over a hundred people present. We discussed mobilizations, immigrant protection, know-your-rights trainings, and safety strategies. Shortly afterward, we released an open letter opposing the deployment and explaining how the business lobby’s narrative about Portland paved the way for this intervention.

Unfortunately, many political forces opposing the intervention are still saying things like, “Let the police do their job,” reflecting a pro-police stance. We reject that.

What we need is not just sporadic protests but a mass movement led by union members. Portland has one of the most active labor movements in the country, and as union members, we have a special obligation to act when authoritarianism comes to our city.

FLCMF:
Our last question is about Mitch Green, a Portland DSA city councilor. A few days ago, he posted a powerful and courageous video on Instagram, speaking both as a councilor and as a former soldier. In it, he called on veterans and active-duty soldiers to speak out and refuse to comply with injustice and illegal orders. Could you introduce him to the Brazilian audience? Who is he, and why is this message so important right now?

LAURA:

Mitch has been an active member of Portland DSA for about seven years. In last year’s elections, we endorsed two candidates for City Council, and Mitch was the one people really felt was “one of us.” He began his political journey in DSA, as part of the wave of people who joined because of Bernie Sanders. He served as an officer in our chapter, even as treasurer, and was deeply involved in our work. Personally, he’s also a comrade:  he was my coworker, and he even voted for me when I ran for president of our union. So, when he ran for office, it was incredibly exciting to have someone so rooted in our movement put forward a platform that directly reflected our politics, especially around housing. Housing and homelessness are the number one issues in Portland, and Mitch campaigned on universal social housing and addressing the housing crisis.

What makes Mitch especially unique is that he is a veteran. In the United States, the left is largely disconnected from military service members. Our movement tends to come from middle-class, liberal backgrounds, and that often creates a cultural distance from working-class people, who are more likely to serve in the military. This is a real weakness for the left.

Mitch bridges that gap: he’s not only a veteran but an outspoken anti-war veteran. He has been vocal against the genocide of Palestinians and active in movements calling to stop U.S. arms transfers to Israel. That gives him a perspective that is almost unique in Oregon, and perhaps even in the socialist movement more broadly.

In his recent video, Mitch speaks peer-to-peer with service members. He’s not wagging his finger, calling them stupid, or criticizing them for supporting Trump. Instead, he speaks with respect and empathy, acknowledging how difficult the situation is and urging them to make the honorable choice: to refuse illegal orders. His message is, “You are important, you have a role to play, and we need you to make the right decision.”

Because of that, Mitch occupies a rare and powerful position. I struggle to think of another veteran leftist in all of DSA who is delivering this kind of message. It is both timely and essential.

FLCMF:
Laura, thank you so much. It’s been wonderful doing this interview. Is there anything else you’d like to share, or any message you’d like to deliver to the Brazilian audience? Feel free to say anything to wrap up.

LAURA:
I’ll just add this: what is happening in Portland is very serious, but I still feel some optimism. I don’t feel paralyzed with fear. In fact, I think this could be an opportunity for Trump to appear impotent, because I don’t believe he will succeed in getting service members to commit war crimes on the streets of Portland.

Right now, people here are experiencing a great deal of fear. But going through this could make them braver in the future, because if we live through this, we know we can overcome difficult things.

At the same time, I think this moment adds to the delegitimization of the Trump administration. His actions aren’t winning anyone over. If unemployment were going down, if wages were improving, if the affordability crisis were easing, then people might say: “Okay, we elected Trump, and now things are better — let him do whatever he wants, Portland will be fine as long as I can pay my bills.” That would be a real danger. But that’s not the reality. Unemployment is high, wages are low, and living costs are unbearable. No one feels that things are improving.

What this intervention is really doing is activating only the most fringe, isolated, and extreme right-wing groups in Portland. And yes, they exist here; Oregon has a long history of racism, including as a haven for the Ku Klux Klan. But today the right wing is much less organized than it was in 2016, when Trump was first elected. Back then, groups like the Proud Boys even came to disrupt some of our DSA meetings, it was frightening. But that hasn’t happened for many years now. The right wing is weaker, and this intervention isn’t adding credibility to Trump’s message.

So I truly believe this is an opportunity for socialist politics to prevail. But to seize that opportunity, we need to be prepared and willing to rise to the moment.

---