Solidarity Statement with Those Arrested at the Anti-Colonial Action in SF on October 6th

On October 6^th SFPD attacked and provoked an anti-Columbus day march that gathered to give remembrance to the genocide and colonialism wrought upon the native peoples of the Americas. SFPD targeted marchers because of their political message, and attacked and arrested twenty anti-colonial activists after a hasty and confusing dispersal order. These police tactics clearly illustrate that the state does what it wants, when it wants, in order to protect its hegemony and stolen property. The SF District Attorney then charged these activists and organizers with outrageous and erroneous accusations that reflect the state’s goal to eliminate and neutralize dissent from those who challenge its own legitimacy. To further punish these courageous people, the state beat the arrestees and tortured them with sleep deprivation, taunted them and withheld food and water at the SF county jail, and set a very high bail. The state clearly does not care to observe its own specious claims of freedom of speech, which supposedly sets it apart from a fascist regime. Instead it is using every means it can to sew fear to discourage further resistance.

In addition, the SFPD worked with the mainstream media to paint these activists as violent and incorrigible. The media effectively convicted these activists of  fabricated charges before they were tried in the farcical justice system, easily tainting the jury pool.  All of this is to be expected, since the SF Chronicle has always done the work of the SFPD and the DA, even when time and again revolutionaries have fought hard in the courts and proven that the police were the true malfeasants.

It is in this vein that the radical communities of the Bay Area should continue to organize. We must use this opportunity to show that the courts and police are full of lies and that this is about politics, not “violent” acts. The police and DA will try to associate these activists with other past actions because they know that lying and instilling fear in the jury and the public is the only way they can win. These charges are overblown even by their standards, and they have nothing to stand on unless we remain quiet and disorganized. We should build a campaign, not only to drop the charges, but to challenge the ongoing state persecution and incarceration of political dissidents, as well as continue the struggle against the prevailing colonial order of power that brought our comrades to the street on October 6^th.

Beyond the Barricades

Solidarity statements have also been released by G.L.I.T.U.R., Black Orchid Collective, Red Spark, Decolonize/Occupy Seattle and Bay of Rage.

Please contribute to general bail funds for all those arrested here, Seattle folks who were arrested here, and our close comrades here.  Please note that the Occupy Oakland WePay shows the total raised overall since the page began and does not reflect what is left in the account after months of state repression.