Portland has seen more than its share of extreme right violence over the last year or two.  With two people stabbed to death by an alt right “free speech warrior” just last year + the seemingly never-ending Islamophobic/anti-refugee/”alt-right” rallies happening there ever since, it’s clearly a hotspot for both extreme right activity and also antifa opposition.

After local fascist organizer Joey “Patriot Prayer” Gibson & company got their asses handed to them last month, one would hope they got the message.  No such luck.  Instead, they doubled-down and flew in Proud Boys and other neo-nazi goons from all over the country for their June 30th event.  With full cooperation & support of the Portland police deparment, who provided an armed escort, then attacked antifa counter-protesters with pepper spray and rubber bullets before letting dozens of armed fascists charge through the police lines @ antifa.

But anti-fascists in Portland, even faced with attacks from the cops and non-state fascists, stood their ground, held it down, and stopped the fash from marching.  After a couple of intense police-faciliated street battles that left several injured on both sides and several antifa arrested by the po-po, the fash ran back to their bus and ran away once again.  Instead of smashing Portland antifa, fascist violence was shut down on the streets and local media ran numerous stories highlighting the violence of the fash groups, the connections between groups like Gibson’s Patriot Prayer and outright neo-nazis, and how much the police had helped the fash.

But we still have to deal with the aftermath.  Several antifa were injured and/or arrested and we don’t want them to face the consequences of that alone.  Two vouched crowdfunders have been set up here and here so it wasn’t a tough decision for the Defence Fund to contribute.  If you think it’s important to back up the people who face down armed fascist thugs & their police collaborators on the streets, you’ll want to contribute, too.