Solidarity Statement from the Bay Area

Dear Friends and Comrades of the Pacific Northwest,

It has sadly come to our attention that a coordinated Federal assault has been launched on political activities in the cities of Olympia, Portland and Seattle. We have learned that homes have been raided, grand jury subpoenas have been served and comrades are stalked day and night by the FBI and other agencies.

This statement is meant to convey our solidarity along lines of compassion as well as anger. While our support goes out to everyone affected by this new wave of Federal repression, we are not satisfied to respond in the usual means: to stand by idly, to gather commissary or shout outside the courthouse. This attack goes deeper than the obligatory motions(all necessary) and requires an emotional response to their threat of removing our loved ones from our lives. The stakes are not simply political; this is an attack on our relationships, our friendships, our comrades' well-being as well as ours. To assume the threat of jail for silence will only affect those subpoenaed is a mistake. Here in the Bay, we support each other in the process of non-compliance and offer this letter as a step in that direction for the NW as well. We refuse to act and organize as if this attack on our 'neighbors' is not an attack on us as well, and we mean to respond in kind.

We are inspired by the immediate acts of solidarity from the Midwest: the enactment of vengeance. Our hope is for the responses to spread. As the Grand Jury in Seattle is set to convene on August 2nd, comrades here in the Bay have declared a commitment to consistent actions under the banner of solidarity with the Northwest. With this unified spirit of persistence and rage we will combat the harassment and attempted entrapment of comrades across the US. We are invested in "creating the conditions where an offensive can sustain itself without fading, of establishing the material solidarities that allow us to hold on."

We will not comply. We will not collaborate.
We will not desert each other.
We will not sit back. We will not wait.

With love and determination, from all of us in the Bay.