This piece is a little bit late to the party, but after reading the other reportbacks published locally and participating in discussions with dear friends and close strangers, we still felt that some ideas were in need of sharing. We don’t wish to recap the events of May Day but hope to contribute some thoughts and expansions on other takeaways of the occupation and the march. As Palestine solidarity actions continue to grow, we feel that these points are still important. Additionally, much of what we have to say applies far beyond this struggle. What follows is a compilation of thoughts from a few different voices, which we hope can add to the conversation.
- In the aftermath of the PSU occupation and others like it across the country, one outcome touted by seasoned anarchists is the potential that participants will be “radicalized” by the police violence they experienced. We’ve seen iterations of this idea pop up time and time again, and it seems like every time a big march is broken up with tear gas and force, there’s a subset of anarchists and recruitment fetishists appreciating the “radicalizing” effect of the violence. The claim that state violence is a necessary step to radicalize” people (or bring them in to anarchy/the movement/etc…) echos Christian tenets that one must suffer to be rewarded.It also doesn’t work: It is wrong to assume that someone getting tear gassed or attacked by the police will automatically turn to radical politics. While many of us might cite our own personal experiences around state violence and oppression as formative to our anarchisms, the moments of joy and freedom we’ve experienced along the way are just as, if not more important. Many things can “radicalize” people, many of which are liberatory actions that break the mirage of authority and everyday life. Witnessing some awesome shit going down, seeing people strike and get away unscathed, outmaneuvering police to avoid a pointless clash, are all ways we challenge and expand the collective imaginary and reach new friends. As anarchists, we should strive to create more moments like these instead of cheerleading when liberals choke on tear gas.As election season approaches, there are already anarchists talking about a Trump victory as a golden opportunity to bring people to anarchism. Instead of relying on the state and its dictators to push people to “our side,” let’s create more moments of freedom and experimentation without sacrificing our values.
- During the May Day march, the bloc responded aggressively and effectively to cameras. There were multiple instances where people acted together to smash cameras, bash photographers, and otherwise deter people from capitalizing on spectacle and putting people in danger. With the events of 2020 and 2021 still fresh in our minds, it was inspiring and fulfilling to see cameras and phones left shattered on the street, along with the windows of many banks and storefronts. When lots of folks come out to the streets for the first time (or maybe back out for the first time in a while), it is important to reshare things that we have learned throughout the years. Reminding people of cameras at protests is paramount. Beyond disseminating zines, actually getting it done can be the best way of reaching our friends and the friends we have yet to meet. A “hurrah” to the bloc! May many more cameras be destroyed!
- The PSU occupation, like most of the other occupations around the country, was largely contained on the college campus. The May Day march and riot, along with the nighttime attack against police training vehicles, were all attempts to expand the struggle beyond the campus and the shallow lists of demands, in a more imaginative direction.Since occupations stay in one place, they become predictable and thus easy to surveil and police. Occupations become entities to defend, stifling any efforts to channel action outside of the barricades. Eventually, occupations either fizzle out or get broken up by the state, and we are left scratching our heads about what they accomplished. What would it look like to use occupations in more imaginative ways? How can we bring play and creative attack and not fall into the same dull trappings?During Occupy ICE, hundreds of people set up tents just meters away from the active Tesla dealership. And while people blocked streets to defend the Red House from eviction, a gentrified avenue teeming with businesses sat untouched just down the hill.
- The unannounced bloc on May Day succeeded in catching the police off guard and leaving the confines of the campus. The Portland Police, mayor, and the FBI held a joint press conference after the library occupation at PSU was dismantled to address the events of May Day. The chief of police openly admitted that they were caught off guard by the black bloc and were unable to respond. Admittances like this are encouraging to hear and valuable to know; they are reminders that the police are not an all-powerful force. Police need enough time to stage units, gear up, and prepare a strategy to contain or attack a march. Let’s use this information to our advantage!
- Occupations tend to start off with a strong autonomous spirit and infectious energy, but they end up turning into hierarchical spaces that kill joy and reject innovation. Whenever liberatory spaces spring up, power-seekers swoop in, appointing themselves as leaders, organizers, activists, or the “original occupiers” in order to leverage power over others.Once a hierarchy is established, cop-like “security teams” are created with the intent of “protecting” people (and property) or carrying out the word of the self appointed leaders/organizers/activists/occupiers. This quasi-police force works to pacify, limit, and ultimately douse the creative and destructive flame. Portland is no stranger to this- from the Occupy Wall-street camps in 2011 to Occupy ICE, to the Red House and now to the latest occupation at the PSU library.Those in the roles of the security teams smothered out the fire that was growing and gaining momentum. The security team was instrumental in the destruction of the occupation. The capabilities of some determined power hungry people shouldn’t be taken lightly. It created an environment that was unwelcoming to friends and strangers, spreading paranoia and distrust, which resulted in physical violence against people in black bloc after the May Day march returned to the library.Imagine if the library had actually been open to everyone who was interested. If people had been able to decide autonomously how to prepare for the cops attacking and how to turn the giant building (which could have held so many different things) into a real community space for exploration, experimentation, and joy; a space that could actually be worth defending.
- We question why in the aftermath of riots, again and again, anarchists feel the need to treat property destruction as something that needs justification. Often the defenses of property destruction hinge on what makes a certain target a viable one: this corporation donates to this slush fund, this bank supports some evil infrastructure project thousands of miles away, on and on. We are tired of this circus! We don’t want to advance a ridiculous binary of valid and invalid targets when we want nothing short of the full destruction of the existent.Especially in the aftermath of the occupation and May Day, anarchists have been using the term ‘economic sabotage’ to describe both the actions of the black bloc on May Day and as a sort of program for anarchist engagement with the Palestinian struggle. While we share a frustration with the parades and meaningless rallies and marches, we feel like this suggestion only keeps us stuck in the trap of activism. In practice, this push for ‘economic sabotage’ is just more BDS (Boycott Divest Sanction) theater. BDS has been the prevailing leftist approach to impacting the situation in Palestine for the better part of two decades now. The BDS movement has had success in growing the rosters of communist organizations, and launching careers for “activists,” but it hasn’t achieved any real gains in Palestine: The genocide continues; the Israeli settler state is still intact.Where liberals and leftists try to get people to buy their lattes somewhere else, anarchists suggest smashing windows- but the targets, goals, and overarching strategy remain the same: drive up economic pressure against corporations seen as having economic ties to Israel, demanding that they sever these ties, and in turn put pressure on the Israeli state to stop the genocide. This is not direct action- it is simply pressure campaigning with bricks and hammers. That isn’t to say there is no value in it, but we are not interested in negotiating our way to liberation through making demands of mega corporations. These actions are ineffective and symbolic at best, and it feels as though people in the region have moved further from earlier actions that were more “direct” in nature, like the port blockades that occurred up and down the West coast (that isn’t to say these actions are without critique).Making demands also gives corporations and institutions a chance to increase profits through meaningless symbolic gestures and statements. Hollow statements, apologies from the CEO or the dean, new products (or programs or classes) that claim to support those affected by the war, this is just activist-consumer capitalism. No matter what corporations say or how they bend to consumer consciousness, only the disappearance of their existence can mean anything.
It isn’t just the recent Pal-sol actions that are stuck in this rut of economic sabotage- campaigns against pipelines, wars, and prisoner solidarity all fall for the appeal of targets that exist everywhere- not targets that matter to the specific struggle. Even if we smashed every Starbucks on Turtle Island tonight, Israel would still be dropping bombs on Rafah tomorrow. What if we looked instead for the targets that actually have a chance of disrupting the war machine? Or targets with meaning to us and to our local conditions, showing our solidarity with Palestinian liberation by destroying what controls us?
Symbolic actions are incredibly valuable to anarchist practice and we don’t wish to diminish the importance of them. They can serve the purpose of embodying freedom and desire, help increase local tensions and agitate, grow the collective and individual imaginary of what is possible, and further deteriorate the sacredness of property. Let’s have realistic expectations of how much impact a black bloc might offer. If we can’t control or predict what kind of waves may form afterwards, we can still symbolically act in ways that are liberatory and joyful.
- Actions repeatedly get quantified through the economic framework, as though we can measure their value by the price of the damage. When we act out of rage, autonomy, hope, and desire for freedom, we are not trying to simply cost an amount of money to a corporation. The numbers don’t matter to us, they are rooted in the logic of authority. And the numbers especially can’t begin to illustrate the incredible experiences and freedom that are present in deciding to attack!Why only attack symbols that you can find on lists with proven ties? And why should we limit ourselves to only windows? What about the other myriad ways in which we can attack and try to effect the overall war machine? We don’t have to limit ourselves to what others before us have done. Twenty years ago marches and demos were called to demand the end of the massacre happening in Palestine and look where we are today. Not much has changed. Perhaps what needs to change is our approach and mindset of what is a real target and what can potentially bring us what we want.
“Attacking isn’t a job, nor a production process. We won’t know its results, and even after, they can remain pretty obscure : this will be a good moment to start our analysis, which is not separate from our actions. Every direct action disrupts the situation, even in an infinitely small way, but trying to control this disruption, on top of being surprisingly naive, means trying to establish a program. Which will quickly require an authority to enforce it. Which will rely on an ideology to legitimize itself. And here we are back in the swamp.” From “Blackout: Controversy about meaning and efficiency of sabotage.”
- We are interested in finding ways to be in solidarity with Palestinians and all those affected by the genocide but we reject the idea that listening to one or a few “representatives” from a certain identity is the only way to fulfill these intentions. There have been a handful of critiques of identity and peace policing that we’ve read and heard shared discussions, but many of them end up reinforcing tokenization and authoritative structures.The problem isn’t that liberals and leftists are listening to the wrong Palestinians, the problem is with the idea that solidarity can be prescribed by a representative from a community or a person of a certain identity, that we need to be told how to act or else our actions are not legitimate. Solidarity cannot be reduced to a set of actions, even when these actions are “radical,” solidarity is a state of tension with the existent. Solidarity means attacking the oppressive forces that we are facing here that are also enmeshed with the genocide in Palestine.It is very important to us to hear and understand what Palestinian-anarchists are saying and sharing. But using a handful of people’s words to direct one’s actions is not a way towards solidarity. We don’t think that Palestinian-anarchists have been trying to tell people what to do, rather the opposite, however it is all too common for those seeking the title of good ally to simply hear their words and take them as un-analyzed manuals for acting.During the occupation at the PSU library, the security team and some self-proclaimed organizers explicitly leveraged their identities over megaphones to pressure white allies to listen to their orders. No one can tell you what to do or how to act when they are outside your context and experiences. We can only act autonomously in line with our beliefs and goals. Real solidarity must start with individual desire.
- The language of safety is often the language of policing and control. At multiple points during the PSU occupation, we heard the library described as a “safe space.” Occupations, blockades, or any sort of actions that threaten the image of the state’s power are not safe spaces: When we dare to dismantle the existent, we enter a place of danger. Politics of safety become a way to control and police other people. Those who wish to manage others in spaces like occupations will accuse anarchists of endangering the occupation, the “movement,” the people (or certain groups of people), so on and so on.When we sacrifice our autonomy to protest managers- security teams, “organizers,” activists- we also lose our collective creative edge. Imagine what could have blossomed from the PSU occupation if people cultivated a space where people could act autonomously. Certainly something more interesting than what the library occupation was, and maybe even something actually worth defending. A large group of people working together while also maintaining their autonomy in decision making is much more threatening than a mass of people bound by rules who have been told to be paranoid and skeptical of everyone else.
- On May Day, some anarchists posted a claim about attacking AirBnB’s in Portland. They close with: “There are countless targets when everything around you is the machinery of genocide. You could flail your arms wildly and hit those complicit.” We do not wish to tear apart their actions, but we do want to touch on these final sentences.The repeated idea that targets are everywhere and anywhere is sure-fire way to lose all intentionality and imagination. The call to strike anywhere pulls focus away from envisioning ways to strike that could actually have a significant impact. While all actions have a effect on the people involved and the world around them, why not challenge yourself to take on projects of attack that have a real shot at destroying the machinery of genocide?It’s not very difficult to find targets that make sense with respect to our goals and could have real effects. It’s really just a matter of being committed to finding them, and striking. When we look at the world around us as a machine that we can sabotage, even in tiny ways, the way that we move about it changes and we move towards a more projectual way of being. Instead of waiting for lists of businesses to be posted on counter-info sites, we can find our own targets, based on our own intimate knowledge(s) of the landscape we occupy. Targets do exist everywhere, stop waiting for other people to define them for you and start taking initiative and embracing attack now.
“The difference between material damage and symbolic intervention, after all, is not usually the amount of damage caused… Rather, the question is whether an attack succeeds in paralyzing authority fora while. And in this, the approach of targets existing everywhere most ultimately fails…” From “Targets That Do Not Exist Aywhere Else.”
May Day is a time for solidarity, fun, and anarchy, and this was a simple yet delightful act for us to take part in. The PSU occupation will not be the last occupation many of us see. We hope that the upcoming moments of rupture and liberation can reference lessons learned and find inspiration for ideas moving forward. So many different possibilities are within reach, if we dare.
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