Today marks the first anniversary of the protests that eventually ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak from power. Over the course of the day, hundreds of thousands of Egyptians filled Cairo’s Tahrir Square to mark the event, according to Aljazeera.

In Portland today, protesters are gathering in Pioneer Courthouse Square from 4:30—8 pm to mark the anniversary. Coincidentally, members of the Portland’s Peace and Justice Works are protesting the US’s continuing involvement in Iraq starting at 4:00 pm also in Pioneer Square,

“We excepted all the troops to be out before Christmas, but that is not what we are seeing,” says Dan Handelman from Peace and Justice works. While the protests were not planned to happen together, Handleman thinks the anniversary of Tahrir has a clear message for Portland politics. “Occupy Portland is continuing to organize, but I think the media and the mayor sort of wrote them off and said they had to go into the next phase and fine lodging somewhere and not occupy public space. I don’t know if that is true.”