âPortland must be done with punk fascists,â an Oregonian editorial stated a few days after May Day. The paper was talking about a group of anarchists who smashed windows at stores and government buildings in downtown Portland on May 1, and also set fire to items in the streets.
By the time the crowd cleared, more than 25 people had been arrested, though most faced accusations of disorderly conductânot a charge for people accused of vandalism. A few were arrested for felony riot, and more charges might well be brought in coming days.
Notoriously media-averse, a handful of anarchists have claimed theyâve been given a bad rap from the press (the Oregonian also called them âparasitesâ). So weâve been talking with them.
Jeff S., 29, was arrested on May Day and charged with disorderly conduct. He wants to make it clear heâs speaking only on his behalf and as a member of the Anarchist Student Union at Portland Community College, not for anarchists as a whole.
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MERCURY: What is an anarchist?
JEFF S.: Well, first you have to define the state. The state is all these systemsâbureaucracy, army, police, courts, judgesâthat exercise rule over people. Anarchists believe in a stateless society, that human beings can organize themselves horizontallyâwithout hierarchical systems. Anarchists donât believe any one human being has any right to exercise authority over another. Authority should be granted by trust, not the right to do violence like the police have. A lot of [the police] might be nice people and we might not think of them as inherently violent, but at the end of the day, all their power and the power of the state is backed up by violence. Anarchists are the exact opposite. You donât need violence to have authority, you only need to have a conscious society, people who care about their neighbors and communities who come together and organize themselves without this third middleman. A lot of people who advocate for government say âwithout government, who would build the roads?â The same people who always built the roads: people.... The government takes our money from us, tells us how itâs going to be spent without any input, and then, say, builds a road and gives the money to a private contractor. Now why canât a community come together and hand the money to the contractor? You donât need to have money stolen from you by the government, which is then used towards foreign wars and the police. At the end of the day anarchists believe that things like taxation, authority without trust, national boundaries, national identitiesâthese all work to separate human beings and stop them from organizing with one another.Â
Yeah, Iâve noticed anarchists do the âno more presidentsâ chant a lot.
Right, thatâs a good example. What is a president? Heâs just some figurehead. Thereâs this guy now that has all this power and authority. All these people who didnât vote for his authority are now subjected to his will, the will of congress. Itâs tyranny of the majority over the few. The minority matters, the oppressed are the oppressed. Anarchists think that government is the root of all evil. The police only protect you because itâs an objective they have to fulfill. Even if the individual police officer believes theyâre doing right, at the end of the day it all boils down to control. Controlling the working class, controlling the flow of capital, protecting private property, keeping the workers obedient. Police and government donât take care of problems because itâs altruistic, they need society to function so the ruling class, the capitalist class, can continue to maintain itself. We say that police are an evil institution because their entire job is to use force and coercion to make the poorest folks obey.... A lack of laws doesnât mean a lack of morality.... Society can and should be organized along horizontal lines and people should be autonomous in their own action.... It comes back to taxes, too, which is another form of slavery. Appropriating 100 percent of someoneâs labor is slavery, right? What about 99 percent? Where does it stop? If 18 percent of my paycheck is taken away, is that 18 percent enslavement? If youâre going to take taxes from us, give us an option where to send it or spend it on things people need. Half of the budget goes to foreign wars and imperialismâstealing, murdering, and framing it as if weâre some sort of heroes.Â
Why do anarchists show up to rallies, marches, and protests wearing all black?
The black bloc is what itâs called. Itâs a tactic, not a group. Many different groups, including socialists, communists, antifa, [and] anarchists do it. Itâs a tactic to carry out direct actions against what people see as the enemy: the state. As far as we see it, cops may be nice guys, but they are the enemy. If weâre out there at a protest, and theyâre dressed up in riot gear and hurting people, theyâre going to have a force to contend with. These people see themselves as freedom fighters, guerrillas, soldiers, as liberators. It pains a lot of them to see how society looks at them. Thereâs a protector element to them, a defender mentality. Take a place like Chase Bank, whoâs guilty of some of the most heinous, evil theft on the planet. These people are saying to themselves âHow dare you just skate by and get away with it.â And even if itâs a tiny, tiny repercussion, weâre going to offer you someâyouâre a massive conglomerate, weâre going to make you pay $150 to replace a window. On May Day, every single piece of property I saw attacked was a legitimate target: corporate targets, state targetsâplaces that exploit human beings, the working class, places that put profit above people. Theyâre waging war against humanity. Somebodyâs going to wage war back.Â
Why does vandalism sometimes happen at public events? Is the goal to get attention?
To a degree, but random acts all over the place do happen all the time. Spray paint is usually used to leave a political message behind, and the target in and of itself is usually a messageâa Wells Fargo. If itâs a mom-and-pop shop on the other side of the river, itâs probably just some drunk smashing. But (vandalism at corporate targets) happens all the time and the media doesnât talk about it because thatâs how you suppress resistance. And I wouldnât be out in the street doing what Iâm doing, or have previously done, if I hadnât seen other people doing it first. They donât want people seeing that. They donât want people knowing that this consciousness is growing. After Quanice Hayes was killed, I got word that a bank on the east side of the river had its windows smashed, spray paint across the buildingâas far as I was toldâand not a word was said about it. Thereâs a reason for that. Theyâthe state, the media, the systemâdonât want people knowing people are pissed. The corporate media is a propaganda wing of the state. If theyâre not jerking the Portland Police Bureau off all the time, theyâre not going to get the stories they need. But what happens at marches? Violence. We consider violence to be attacking human beings. Vandalism is propaganda by the deed. People see it happen, propaganda by the deed is a very powerful thing. You can read a book about ideology or you can see it happen. These deeds in and of themselves make a point. Itâs part PR, but with the great chaos of the situation, thatâs how a guerrilla thrives. Weâve never said that itâs nice, Iâve never met any direct-action anarchist thatâs said itâs nice. We admit that itâs not nice. Weâre not trying to be nice, they (the police/state) are not trying to be nice. You need mass amounts of the populace to watch and see.Â
How do you want people to interpret it?
We want them to know this isnât some punk kid or some high SOB fucking shit up to just have fun. Itâs the whole gamut of societyânurses, lawyers, doctors, daughters, students, Black, white, Muslim, Christian. These are pissed off people who want to take a stand against what they see as evil. We want them to know these arenât punks, these are real human beings with a real message. We want them to think theyâre taking a stand against something super nasty, not that theyâre terrorist assholes. I think the media does a good job making it look as if the rest of society thinks itâs evil.Â
Why wear black masks?
The mask is not only tactical. The police, the riot police, special forces all wear black masks. Why? Because their identity being revealed could lead to serious problems for them. The same with us. You need to get rid of any thoughts of glory (by showing face, getting individual attention)âfuck glory. Youâll feel it in the moment with your comrades when youâre out there, but fuck that. It does you no good, it leads to ego, and you have to get rid of those ideas so you can mask-up, so people donât know who you are, so you stay safe from workplace consequences, attacks from unsympathetic political groups, attacks from the state. It is all about safety.People can call us cowards, we donât care, we know at the end of the day, we are actually doing the intelligent thing. People always fail to recognize police are in masks, tooâweâre not face-to-face, weâre black mask to black mask. The difference between us and the police is they have immunity, get paid, and train for it. Police get a paycheck.Â
What does the media get wrong about anarchists?
For the last 120 years, itâs been nothing but dynamite throwers, thieves, terrorists, sadistic people who only want society to be thrown into chaos. The state has always been pushing this narrative because they donât want people hearing what they actually have to say: that government is actually extremely useless, that you can have society without government, without chaos. Our view is radical [and] not acceptable to them, so they try to discredit it. The media, being the propaganda arm of the state, tries to do everything in its power to reject our opinion, but they only focus on black bloc direct action. Thereâs so much more about anarchism than that. They frame us as terrorists, as people who want to see everything fall apart, as young crust punks. They frame us as these aimless, bitter, hateful people who couldnât make it in society. Itâs so the opposite. People who rule, the ruling class, people like [Mayor Ted] Wheeler and Trump, regardless of where they are in the pyramid, they all have one goal, and that is the protection of their privilege. Anarchists call that privilege outâwe smash your banks.
Do you get why many people view anarchists smashing windows as frightening?
I absolutely do. I absolutely get they have been conditioned their entire lives.
Anonymous people breaking windows does look scary, though.
Thatâs the thing, though. They can look at US Special Forces doing that in another country and go, âAww, freedom!â They can look at previous social revolutions in this country and say, âGood job, but no more is needed.â Theyâre not realizing theyâre seeing the Boston Tea Party happen again. They canât make that connection. I understand why itâs frightening to them because theyâre unable to make the connection on how itâs been acceptable in their eyes before, and why itâs not now. Capitalism has done a really good job imparting in their minds that property is an extension of themselves. People confuse private property and personal property. Capitalism has suggested when you damage someoneâs property, you damage them so youâre doing violence against them. Itâs a ridiculous hypocrisy theyâre totally blind to. I get that we look like these ISIS ninjas and weâre smashing stuff, but people arenât paying attention to whatâs being smashed. If you smash up a mom-and-pop shop, thatâs class treacheryâtheyâre not paying attention to whatâs being smashed. They donât care that Target exploits its workers.Â
Why do some anarchists threaten some journalists who film public vandalism? Shouldnât they either take responsibility or work harder to not get caught?
There were bounties out to get some cameras. But some of us said we shouldnât commit robbery. But hereâs the thing: I totally see what youâre saying, and Iâm totally sympathetic. And yes, itâs in a very public place, but itâs really about how youâre filming, not that youâre filming. If youâre a journalist familiar with protests, familiar with these actions, and youâre stupid enough to walk into a black blocâI donât want to say the responsibility is on you, but you made the choice. Itâs not what youâre filming, itâs how youâre filming it. If you stay away on the other side of the street, all right. But we much prefer to block as much as we can, because itâs a safety issue. Your camera means nothing to me compared to my freedom, or my friendâs freedom. Frankly, if someoneâs getting in our face, being obnoxious, or filming dangerously when theyâve been told to stop, theyâve made their choice. When I heard about (bounties on cameras), I told people youâre probably not going to want to go around smashing cameras. You need to relax. If he gets in your face, if he wonât leave the bloc, if heâs filming something really sensitive and he wonât quit, do what youâre going to do, but donât make a point of taking their cameras.Â
