Editor’s Statement: This text was submitted to us by anarchists from the region and so we felt no hesitation in publishing it here. Since then, it has been referred to as a “threat of violence” on several local forums. After multiple readings of the below text, we have failed to locate any calls for violence. All interested parties (including law enforcement) would do well to look up any random alt-right blog for examples of direct calls for murder, rape, and genocide. We consider the assertion that this text is “violent” to be laughable beyond belief.

(submitted via email)

We have learned that the group responsible for the March on Amazon are planning to hand-deliver their demands to representatives of Amazon and engage in “rational dialogue.” These demands (20,000 housing units, free community college, a basic income for everyone in King County, and fully-funded mass transit), if fulfilled, will only bolster the strength of capitalism over the lives of an already battered and exploited population. Now that Jeff Bezos and Amazon have extracted billions of dollars from across the world, they are poised to become the new techno-libertarian overlords of a redundant surplus population. Demands for a Universal Basic Income and free housing units is a recipe for an unimaginable system of totalitarian warehousing where Jeff Bezos would be the sole ruler and dictator.

Amazon is the perfect illustration of the pointlessness of capitalism. Somehow, they are able to put everyone out of business and still not make a profit. Profit, after all, is supposedly what capitalism is all about. And yet, Amazon has consistently NOT made a profit but keeps growing in market share, influence, and power. The actual capital it possesses amount to nothing more than skyscrapers, bio-domes, data centers, fulfillment centers, and assorted tidbits of infrastructure. The rest of their capital is a fiction, a pure abstraction that exists only as a number, arbitrarily manipulated by whoever happens to have dominance over the global economy. We will never destroy capital if all we do is beg for it.

Does it truly matter anymore if small businesses get smashed this May Day? Because after all, they’ll be out of business or bankrupt within the next five years, thanks to Amazon. What’s it matter if shops get looted when they’re just going to get looted by Amazon anyway? How about, instead of watching Amazon expand and grow like the old leviathans of the Gilded Age, we instead channel the destructive behavior of capitalism directly onto Amazon? Rather than have a pointless march with no clear target, how about we instead bring our rage and fury to the doors of Amazon HQ?

In May of 1914, the anarchist Alexander Berkman helped organize a march on the home of John D. Rockefeller, the owner of Standard Oil (now Chevron). Berkman and his comrades marched directly to the front steps of one of the richest men in the world. They demanded he answer for the murder and destruction that surrounded his mines and oil fields, but before the march could get close, the police were there to do Rockefeller’s bidding.

Instead of asking the capitalists for what we need, we will put anarchy into practice. What we need already exists, it’s just being kept from us. Expropriation, direct action, and mutual are all that is necessary. We don’t demand what it ours, we take it. If everyone stood up at once and withheld their labor from the capitalists, there would be no more capitalism. It is still that simple. In the hope of reaching this goal, we are calling for a combative anti-capitalist presence at the March on Amazon. This May Day, let us bring our rage directly to the high capitalists.

Come prepared to lead and direct the march. Don’t let the reformists dominate with their messaging. Wear black and bring long fabric banners to block the sidewalks and streets. The police will once again act like the guard dogs of capital, so be aware they will attempt to preemptively confiscate wooden flag poles or mounted picket signs. Use your imaginations, be creative, and don’t fall for any police traps. Remember that Amazon employees are shuttled to their campus every morning in private SP+ and Amazon Ride buses (the routes are easily available online). If the march is forced onto Capitol Hill, remember Seattle’s old money lives just down Madison in the gated community of Broadmoor.

See you in the streets

Anti-capitalist March – May 1st, 2017 – Noon