Labor, Immigrant Rights Defenders Say

June 4: Fascists Out of Portland!

Since the November election there has been huge rise in racist attacks. Immigrants, Muslims and Jews, African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, as well as defenders of women’s, gay and lesbian rights and others on the bigots’ hit list have been targeted. Many of these assaults have been spearheaded by fascist action groups including the Ku Klux Klan and “alt-right” white supremacist gangs. Earlier this month, several hundred of them staged a racist rally at a Confederate statue in Charlottesville, Virginia, imitating the German Nazis’ parades with flaming torches. On June 10, fascists have announced ominous anti-Muslim actions in more than 20 cities around the country.

Now some of these outfits are threatening to stage a racist provocation in downtown Portland on Sunday, June 4. They pretend to defend “free speech.” This is a lie. These racist bullies and killers seek to terrorize the population by going after the most vulnerable. When “Patriot Prayer” and others showed up in Portland on April 29, they were brandishing baseball bats and heavy sticks, wearing helmets and flaunting the Confederate battle flag of the slave owners and KKK night riders. Now “Based Stickman”, who gets his name from swinging his stick at people plans to make an appearance as well. The poisonous race-hatred they spew out spawns lynchings. They must be stopped.

Fascists are the deadly enemies of the working class. They would smash the unions and pave the way for an unfettered corporate dictatorship. That is why Portland-area labor has resolved to use our power to stop them. Painters (IUPAT) Local 10, IATSE Local 28, Carpenters 1503, Laborers Local 483, AFT Local 3544 (graduate teaching fellows) as well as Carpenters NW Regional Council and AFT Oregon have passed resolutions declaring their readiness to “join with the broader labor and social justice community in mobilizing against the clear and present danger that the provocations of racist and fascist organizations pose to us all.”

Now is the time to put these resolutions into action. Portland belongs to the working people of all races and nationalities. We have the numbers and the power to stop the racists and fascists in their tracks: we must act before it’s too late. All out on June 4!

Sunday June 4, 12:30 p.m. sharp

Terry Schrunk Plaza, SW 3rd Ave. & SW Madison St.

Mobilize to Stop the Fascists

Their Racist Provocation Is a Danger to Us All!

Portland Labor Against the Fascists

pdxlaboragainstfascists@gmail.com (503) 683-1894

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