PDX World Afrin Day Action Report

This following report back from people in Portland, OR, discusses recent actions in solidarity with Afrin and the Rojava Revolution.

Almost one month ago Demand Utopia and the North American Kurdish Alliance originated a call for a global day of action in defense of Afrin. On March 24th hundreds of thousands of people and organizations across the world from Afghanistan, Argentina, to Germany and New York answered the call to action and hit the streets.

On March 24th Portland met the call. Over 50 people gathered at Holiday Park to send a message of solidarity with freedom fighters in Rojava and to condemn the genocidal campaign of Turkish aggression in Afrin. Messages of solidarity were read in the park from many organizations in the Portland area. We then marched down to Senator Ron Wyden’s office where chants were made and the demands of the international campaign read aloud. From there we marched for about an hour around the streets of Portland handing out dozens of fliers and raising awareness about the situation in Rojava.

During the march, several drivers became aggressive almost running over demonstrators. One driver even pulled out a knife and threatened a participant when they were handed a flier. Accordingly, the Portland Police made outrageous claims on their Twitter account of protesters hitting cars with sticks and then proceeded to follow the march for many blocks filming and harassing participants. Despite this minor annoyance, the march finished off at the Social Justice Action Center were the documentary about the revolution in Rojava called Between Two Rivers was shown and participants wrote letters in solidarity with the demands of the campaign to state representatives.

The inspiring and beautiful march raised the spirits of many and the time for community building afterward assisted with making many long-lasting connections to continue doing solidarity work with the world’s most inspirational and revolutionary struggle. March 24th was just the beginning of building long-lasting ties and organization to further the global imperatives of Democratic Confederalism and Communalism here in Portland and with our hevals in Rojava. We hope to see free liberated and autonomous regions and cities the world over.

Solidarity means attack and we won’t stop digging at the roots and finding the gaps in our enemies armor where we can strike most effectively to bring into existence the world we all dream of. We will do everything in our ability to defend the revolution in Rojava and also to bring the revolution to the door-steps of the USA city by city, block by block.

Death to the fascist Turkish State

Long live Democratic Confederalism and Communalism!

Demand Utopia

Rojava Solidarity PDX