Lets Run Rip City: Developing A Strategic Initiative to Combat the Extreme Right

Submitted to It’s Going Down

In the weeks since Trump’s election, Portland has seen the rise of a campaign of a protracted street mobilizations and some of the most defiant manifestations against the election of Donald Trump and the white supremacy, exploitative economic policies and the misogyny that he represents.

Alongside these mobilizations there has been the development of many tangible community organizing efforts. With individuals, affinity groups and organizations putting together ongoing community self defense workshops across the city and the development of neighborhood meetings and assemblies occurring on a regular basis, many are asking them selves the question, what’s next?

In response to this need for the development of a long term strategy a new initiative called The Portland Assembly has been created. It aims to unite community organizations and individuals toward direct action, solidarity and mutual aid, as well as provide a recurring opportunity for community members to plug into ongoing organizing efforts and to engender their own.

As the state is further politicized by the new administration we look toward the development of localized neighborhood assemblies as directly-democratic bodies of community power, to provide the means to fight. Based on the ideas of Anarchist Murray Bookchin’s Libertarian Municipalism and Democratic Confederalism, we believe we must build a united front against the far right.

But it can’t just be a reaction. We must present a bold vision for a new urbanism that emphasizes the necessity of direct democracy, the right to the city and has the capacity to bring together different neighborhood assemblies, left groups and anarchist formations throughout the urban area into a city wide Spokescouncil.

We believe we must organize in bigger and better ways than ever before to keep our communities safe against the threats that have been presented to us. As such we believe in a necessity to immediately develop a citywide directly democratic infrastructure to facilitate the development of dual power structures to assist in the creation of programs to provide material necessities to our communities when food stamps, health care and access to reproductive rights inevitably come under attack. We believe we must organize city wide community self-defense initiatives to protect our communities from groups who desire to perpetuate hate crimes and right wing political violence, we must engender systems of mutual aid and solidarity to keep Portland a sanctuary city and defend against attempts to remove undocumented people from their homes and families.

Rather than create a new political party or hierarchical centralized organization to perpetuate this work we seek to generate an inclusive framework that allows for a multiplicity of political perspectives and forms of organizations to take autonomous actions while having access to one another to better coordinate and gain needed resources so as to engender the formulation of the various projects and programs that must be created to survive Trumpism.

Furthermore, we hope to create a space that is inclusive to both seasoned activists and people new to the movement who are eager to get involved. To use this structure as an incubator for neighborhood organizing and to assist the already developing and ongoing neighborhood assemblies/meetings that have been taking place through the city in the weeks since Trump’s election.

As we proceed we provide this suggested model to other cities in hopes that it incubates ideas and hope for surviving and moving beyond Trumpism and ultimately manifesting a truly egalitarian society in the ashes of the old!

As such we now have out strategic guide “Lets Run Rip City: A Guide to Keep Portland Powerful in the Face of Trumpism” available here.

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