Above photo: Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images.
NOTE: Other groups are also organizing for protests starting the day after the election, including the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression on November 4 and the Black is Back Coalition on November 7. This coalition has an excellent analysis that no matter who wins the election, the people lose and we must fight for our rights. – MF
A broad-based community coalition asks the people of the Pacific Northwest to take action in workplaces, neighborhoods, and mutual aid groups to oppose authoritarianism and racially-motivated violence in the wake of the upcoming election. An opening rally for a week of action will occur at 2pm on Wednesday, November 4th at the North Park Blocks, where we will hold space throughout the day, followed by a march starting at 5pm.
The federal government is failing us. By now we’re all well aware of the tax cuts and record-breaking profits accumulated by the wealthy while the rest of this country struggles to survive the pandemic; their failure to address the fundamentally corrupt institution of policing responsible for destroying black and brown lives and communities; their indifference to the climate crisis. We know we’ve been given a choice between one presidential candidate who emboldens the US’ spiraling undercurrent of far-right hate and one who will do nothing to stop it. The date of November 3rd looms over all our heads.
While the outcome of the election is still uncertain, Trump has been openly manipulating the electoral process; igniting conspiracy theories about mail-in voting, calling for election poll intimidation, and purging voter rolls across the country. Trump has been fiercely suppressing the vote while indicating he will not concede power in the event of his defeat. With far-right paramilitary groups and Proud Boys “standing by” to support a Trump election theft, our communities need to act quickly.
We must become organized and send a clear message that we will not tolerate voter disenfranchisement or election theft, nor will we tolerate a two-party system that serves only the wealthy, and are instead committed to building a truly just and equitable society. We ask urban and rural community members, tenants, workers, affinity groups, unions, and local organizations of any kind to join us in a wave of community action beginning November 4th. We cannot pay rent, so we will not pay rent. We cannot safely work, so we will not work. If you belong to a church group or neighborhood association, a union or a Grange, please talk to your friends and community about what you can do to fight for the kind of change that won’t come from either party.
By shutting down business as usual, defending our communities, and building a web of mutual aid projects and neighborhood assemblies, we can form new community support structures to sustain long term opposition. We can work to take care of our communities’ needs ourselves. We join the People’s Strike campaign in calling for nationwide sustained resistance after the election, and echo calls for international resistance to fascism in the first week of November. We’re in a crisis – let’s act like it.
Join us for an opening rally at 2pm Wednesday, November 4th at the North Park Blocks, followed by a march at 5pm. On this day and for the rest of the ‘Week of Action’ through November 11th, we call for the people of the Pacific Northwest to plan actions united by the following principles.
1. No Trump! No Election Theft
2. Black Lives Matter – End Racist Policing
3. Decolonize – This Is Indigenous Land
4. Mutual Aid – Share Resources
5. Neighborhood Organizing – Build Neighborhood Assemblies
6. Take Direct Action – Disrupt Business As Usual
7. Housing is a Right – Resist Evictions
8. Reproductive Justice – Defend the Right to Choose
9. Strike for Power – Our Labor Is Ours
10. Build Urban-Rural Connections
11. Solidarity with All Oppressed Peoples
12. We Protect Us – We Defend Ourselves
13. Migrant Justice – End Border Militarization
14. Support Worldwide Liberation – Stop the Global Fascist Agenda
For the people,
Popular Mobilization (PopMob), Symbiosis PDX, The Youth Liberation Front, Revolutionary Abolitionist Group, Willamette Action Collective, Portland Democratic Socialists of America, Rural Organizing Project, Direct Action Alliance, and Portland Rising Tide, Rose City Antifa, Never Again.