With military jets and bombers screaming across the skies of San Francisco, the 12 foot bronze statue of Columbus in the world famous Coit Tower aptly looked with pride towards his legacy of invasion and colonization. This weekend S.F. made national headlines for two reasons. One was the yearly Fleet Week event, an event where the U.S. Navy puts on a spectacle of its war planes which bring terror to other parts of the world. Two, there was also the nationally-covered controversy of white “bros” who seemed to be channeling Columbus himself when they sought to occupy a community park in the Mission.
These events set the backdrop for the take over of the offensively large Columbus statue in San 
Francisco. Several activist of the Mexican solidarity group Yo Soy 132 Bay Area and the Party for Socialism and Liberation decided to commemorate a date recognized throughout Latin America as the “Day of the Original Peoples” or the “Day of Indigenous Resistance.”
The action was a success, which drew a lot of support from tourists visiting the site with many foreigners shocked that such as statute would still exist in San Francisco. As an activist stated to people who asked what the protest was about, “We don’t want the day to pass without highlighting all the struggles that people are still waging to this day .”
A placard in the action which correctly tied the legacy of yesterday’s colonization to today’s imperialism read “The sailing ships of yesterday are the multinationals of today.”
From the resistance in the Mission against evictions and gentrification, to the Native people’s struggle in the U.S. which looks to put an end to racists’ exploitation of their heritage and fighting to end the destruction of the environment, to the students in Mexico massacred by their government, to the children in Central America whose 
future is at risk thanks to the oppressive imperialist policies of the U.S., to the world struggle in Palestine, the Middle East and Africa which resist to put an end to the colonial projects, we say: “Respect Existence or Expect Resistance! When the peoples are oppressed, there will always be resistance!”
Happy Indigenous People’s Day! Down with Columbus!
