Columbia Basin: May Day Banner Drop from Pacific Northwest

The following photo and report was anonymously sent to It’s Going Down which we reprint here.

May Day, six a.m. Warm sunbeams cut through dust to wake me from an uneasy slumber, a shallow haze. Who can sleep comfortably in the belly of the capitalized social machinery? Who can be at peace when neoliberalism and fascism wages war on the people?

Particles of spray paint join the dust in catching the light. I couldn’t make it to Seattle or Portland for any of the planned events. Local organizing is slowly building a conversation, but we don’t have a living, breathing group – our own society, able and happy to confront our own problems. Standing alone in an area of 200,000, I knew solidarity was more than a buzzword – it is our greatest strength. All too often, we feel we stand alone against the capitalized social machinery. Why trail after those who can still stand on the coast, when I could try and lift people here?

A banner was raised. Something to be read equally by those who would help, and those who would harm. To let the world know where we stand. To let the fascists know that they are outnumbered. Hopefully, to reach others who felt the same and would organize together.

Unfortunately, the banner was taken down before I left. After grabbing some pics, I looked over my shoulder to see a City of Pasco work truck block off a lane of the Road 68 overpass. What had taken me three hours to craft and hang, took half an hour for the State to tear down. But, is that such a bad trade? Turning the attention of such grossly overburdened bureaucracy my way – if only for the moment that they caught my tail disappearing into the bush, my tracks as they plowed through them – shows the leverage we have through pinpoint pressure, precisely applied and anonymous.

Hopefully, someone who might actually listen heard my signal.

If you live in the Columbia Basin – the Tri Cities Area – eastern Washington and Oregon – the Pacific Northwest – Planet Earth – and want to get involved, drop an email to tcantifa [at] protonmail [dot] com. This will not be the last action we take.