#jumpolin

We are saddened to hear that Jumpolin is closing its location on East Cesar Chavez, but inspired by their clear call to continue resisting gentrification and support for our movement fighting the capitalist destruction and displacement of working class neighborhoods.

As the Lejarazu family, Jumpolin’s owners, say, “..we are not defeated, because we have seen the work our community has put into combating and slowing down this mass displacement and support it to the fullest. Although we are closing our doors, we hope to see more resistance from our community and wish to continue to serve them in any ways we can.”

While Jumpolin is closing its doors, we will continue to support them, and ask that the community do so as well. They'll still be offering party rental services through their facebook and instagram pages, and they are amazing artists as well who can make beautiful piñatas and crafts for any occasion. We thank the Lejarazu family for everything they have done and will continue to do to serve the community.

The fight for Jumpolin in the aftermath of the demolition sparked the flame of the anti-gentrification movement as we  now know it in Austin, and born from this struggle was our very organization, Defend Our Hoodz. We grew through the struggle to enforce the boycott against F&F, the landlords who tore down Jumpolin, which remains in place as long as they are the owners of the land where the demolition occurred. We have gone toe to toe with the fascist supporters of the Blue Cat Cafe, and now we maintain the fight against the Domain on Riverside, expanding our struggle as gentrification encroaches on more of our homes and neighborhoods. 

The rapid gentrification occurring across the working class, historically Chicano, immigrant, and black neighborhood of East Austin has run generations of families out of their homes and businesses. Gentrification is not just the isolated tactic of greedy landlords or real estate developers, it is pushed and encouraged by a city and politicians who align with capitalist exploitation. Gentrification is the product of capitalism and imperialism, a system which seeks to rob the working class of everything we create and leave us living on the bare minimum.

As capitalist exploitation is international, so is gentrification. Across the world, the working class, including the smaller businesses that serve them, are set upon by bigger and bigger capitalists who want to reshape our neighborhoods to their benefit. This is why we extend our solidarity to anti-gentrification movements across the US and the world, from Los Angeles to New York, from Mexico City to Berlin, and beyond.

Internationally, slumlords make us live in terrible conditions, capitalists pay us crumbs for our hard work, and politicians peddle lies and war, imposing their power on us with the force of an imperialist state that exists to oppress the working class here and worldwide. The fight against gentrification can't be won by begging politicians or developers, it can't be won by the non-profits tethered to the very imperialists oppressing us, and it sure as hell can’t be won by working with the very police who terrorize our neighborhoods daily. This fight can, and will, be won by  the working class organizing and resisting our displacement and exploitation, and conquering power for ourselves.

The capitalists can close down the places dear to us and try to keep us all struggling to make it, but we will continue to organize, to unite the working class and its allies, and to learn how to combat and resist. The people are ready to take a swing at those who want to tear us down. When we go on the attack, we will inevitably smash this old society apart!

When local artist David Goujon read about the saga of the Jumpolin piñata store and its owners in East Austin – the party supply store that had been a neighborhood fixture before its unceremonious demolition by new property owners – he wanted to do something to express his feelings about the value of cultural diversity.

By mid-October, the full artistic expression of his sentiments was manifested: three outsized piñata-like creations shaped like burros, installed in the heart of the Eastside, a project aided by a commission from the city of Austin Arts in Public Places program. Reva Bhalla – Goujon's fiancée and business partner who helped coax his muse – described the project with palpable enthusiasm in an email.

A week later, the art installation was vandalized, and Bhalla's emailed update was decidedly grim: "Today, we learned that all three of the burros were knocked down. Tire marks and empty beer bottles near the site point to vandals. It's heartbreaking, but we are doing our best to get the funds to get a forklift and resurrect the burros."