Portland May Day rally 2017

Police detained several protesters in Portland's May Day rally following outbreaks of vandalism.

(Dave Killen/Staff)

This letter is in response to The Oregonian's "Portland must be done with punk fascists" editorial of May 5 and its invitation for responses to the May Day police actions.

What do anarchists want? Anarchists want a society free of racism, class exploitation, misogyny and ecological ruin. Anarchists want everyone to have access to free health care. Anarchists want to live in a way that doesn't necessitate imperialist wars. Anarchists want a society that doesn't change the climate. Clearly, this society does none of those things, and, therefore, anarchists want fundamental social change.

We can debate tactics and strategy, but we need to be consistent in our uses of terms. Fascists believe in white supremacy, genocide and an authoritarian state. Anarchists are the opposite of fascists. All those anarchists who died fighting fascists - in Spain in the 1930's and elsewhere - could attest to this. They gave their lives for their ideals.

The black bloc anarchists on May Day confronted a violent police attack on working families when the police cancelled the parade permit and attacked innocent people using tear gas, concussion grenades and baton charges. It is fortunate that a section of the march, those in the black bloc, was prepared for this heavy-handed over-reaction to some thrown Pepsi cans. Our focus should be on violence by the police. The Oregonian's attempt to deflect attention from the true brutality exhibited on May Day - that of the police - is apparent.

While I do not speak on behalf of anarchists, for over 20 years I have been part of the Institute for Anarchist Studies, a grant-giving, educational, 501(c)3 non-profit organization and for the last nine years have been part of its journal collective, Perspectives on Anarchist Theory.

Paul Messersmith-Glavin, Southeast Portland