San Francisco, CA: Christopher Columbus Statue Covered In Red Paint; Anti-Colonial Slogans

Report from bay area California on the recent anti-colonial action against a Christopher Columbus statue.

From the unceded ancestral land of the Ohlone and Miwok peoples in the so-called San Francisco Bay Area, we act in solidarity with the 500 years of indigenous struggles for liberation against the patriarchal white supremacist state. On Sunday October 14th, it was discovered that anarchists had descended upon a 20-foot bronze statue of Christopher Columbus, covering it head to toe in bright red paint and encircling the statue’s base with the phrases “Kill All Colonizers” and “Destroy Monuments of Genocide.”

News reporting that statue of Christopher Columbus, mass murderer and enslaver, vandalized in #SanFrancisco. pic.twitter.com/cK3IXDdFQP

— It's Going Down (@IGD_News) October 14, 2019

On the day before Indigenous People’s Day, Park Supervisor Aaron Peskin admitted that this “divisive vandalism” was seen by scores of people in the area for Fleet Week (a nationalistic show of the state’s imperial apparatus) and the Italian Heritage Parade connected to the same organization that funded the colonizer statue. Statues celebrating colonizers remain standing in many major cities across occupied North America.

We must destroy monuments of genocide while remembering the atrocities perpetrated and continued by white settlers on this occupied land. The paint-covered statue overlooks Alcatraz Island, which was reclaimed 5 decades ago in a 19 month occupation by members of the American Indian Movement, and is situated within the legacy of a rich history of decolonial struggles in the Bay Area. We are inspired to continually act in solidarity with ongoing indigenous resistance.

If you are a settler living in the Bay Area, donate to https://sogoreate-landtrust.com/shuumi-land-tax/. Long Live indigenous Resistance!

Love & Rage,
-some anarchists