Portland

The stop in Portland was a huge success. Around 80 people were packed into the Red and Black Cafe for this talk. I feel like the presentation was stronger than it had been in other stops, and was received in great ways with a pretty large grouping of people interested in joining a nationwide anarchist organization and building a local group based on especifist thought.

It's not shocking how strong this event was. The Red and Black Cafe is a space that has a long history of great talks like this and serves as an important resource for Portland's anarchist community. The Institute for Anarchist Studies co-sponsored the event and had their board coming into town for a meeting in the next few days. Two former members of Rochester Red and Black live in Portland now and helped to do the on-the-ground organizing for this event. And there were three spots on KBOO local community radio helping to pump the event - one by me, one by another member of Rochester Red and Black, and another with Jeff Shantz about anarchist organizing. The strength of the local IWW was apparent with lots of their membership in the room and participating in the conversation. There was at least one former member of the past northwest regional anarchist federation, Common Action.

The conversation here seemed to focus very much on how the process of social insertion into broader movements can help to strengthen anarchist ideals and organizing skill. The notion of building depth of connection in communities was something that I raised a handful of times and that was echoed by others in the room.

I left Portland really excited for the remainder of the talk and the possibilities that the tour has for helping us to build a stronger nationwide anarchist organization in the US.