WHILE MISERY EXISTS, WE CHOOSE REBELLION
2025 Portland Anarchist Zine Fair
Oct 5th. 11 AM – 7 PM
Afterparty 9 PM lineup TBA
portlandanarchyfair@anche.no
Everyone who has lived here knows that there are two Portlands: the Portland of the wealthy elite and their yuppie lackeys and the Portland of the poor, of the rabble. The architects of this misery are trying to ease the tension building on the fault line between these two cities using political games, counter-cultural branding, rainbow washing, and welfare “services” that amount to breadcrumbs laid in a mouse trap.
Their vision for the city and larger region is crystal clear: they intend to transform the Columbia River valley into a new Silicon Valley, using the forests and rivers to power its factories and Portland as the playground for the influx of tech workers that is already very much underway. Portland lies at a critical crossroads not only of these plans for the region, but also of the larger designs of domination for its ongoing wars against life itself. Oregon’s existing “semiconductor cluster” produces microchips that are the heartless core of the machine that spreads war across the earth, that deports and imprisons according to a logic of profit and control, that ruthlessly exploits those who manage to evade outright capture. And they’re being made right here.
Portland’s central position in these blueprints of death means, on the one hand, that it is facing escalated efforts to socially cleanse everyone and everything that is hostile or unappetizing to the wealthy and their techno-dystopia. When they say they want to “clean up” Portland, this is what they mean: in order to make the city profitable, they need to sweep away all of the undesirables and create the image of a clean slate. This is what it’s all for – the countless luxury condo construction sites sitting empty across the city while people on the street get stuffed into jail, gathered up, stomped on and hidden away like trash. The millionth yuppie cafe or restaurant, safe havens for certain kinds of people while others are left outside begging for scraps. Everyone knows who all this shit is for and who needs to be “cleaned up” to make way for it.
On the other hand, however, it means that those in power made a horrible mistake; they are counting on us to bow our heads and quietly cooperate. But they’re not the only ones with plans. Their vision for Portland took a massive step backwards after 2020 when rebellion threw everything into chaos. Now, the bosses’ attempts to regain their foothold in Portland depend on a pacified, downtrodden mass who will be driven away like the pests they see us as. But we can become rats chewing on the wires of this machine, a pestilence beyond their darkest nightmares, by sabotaging those responsible for this misery wherever they attempt to slither into our lives. Yes, we can act, refusing to take heed of the various managers who will try to return things to normal: political parties, leaders, non-profits, community organizations and everyone else who only wants pawns for their sick game.
These are the perspectives and practices we want to explore at the Portland Anarchist Zine Fair through publications and discussions – where do we stand in the struggle against power in all its many disguises and what choices do we face on the path ahead? The bosses want to ease the tension and smooth out the fault line running through Portland. Let’s make it erupt.
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