New coalition asks June 14 ‘No Kings’ protesters to support immigrant, trans communities
5 min read
Presenter: Protesters are planning to march through downtown Eugene June 14 against the abuses of power, cruelty and corruption of the Trump regime. The event is being organized by the Activist Coalition of Eugene Springfield, ACES, in partnership with 50501 Eugene. ACES is a recently formed coalition of 18 activist organizations in Eugene Springfield.
Stan Taylor is the leader of Indivisible Eugene Springfield and founder of ACES. He explains that the Eugene protest against Trump’s authoritarianism is part of nationwide No Kings Day protests.
[00:00:36] Stan Taylor: The rally is organized in Eugene by the Activists Coalition of Eugene Springfield; the march is organized by 50501 Eugene. We’re looking at beginning at the federal courthouse, winding through downtown, and ending at the city hall so that people can engage again in sign-waving at the end of the march. And of course sign-waving at the federal building.
[00:01:09] Four themes we’ll be focusing on at the rally: climate change, immigration, trans rights, and Gaza.
[00:01:17] It seems like climate change has kind of gone into the background right now with all the other things that are being hurt. But the promotion of fossil fuels is one of the major things that’s going on with the Trump administration.
[00:01:32] We’re also looking at groups that are marginalized and where the harm is greater, at least at the moment, than it is for other people in our society. So we want to keep the awareness on immigrants and trans people in particular, they are really in trouble. They’re being targeted and in ways that ordinary people are not being targeted.
[00:01:58] And of course the situation in Gaza, it’s really turned into genocide. And that’s not just hyperbole that I’m talking about. If you look for example, all the reports from Michael Fakhri, who is the U.N. Rapporteur on Hunger, he’s talking about it in terms of a genocide campaign through hunger.
[00:02:22] Presenter: He said we’re seeing not only bombing and destruction of industrial and agricultural infrastructure, but another strategy by Israel. Stan Taylor:
[00:02:31] Stan Taylor: They’re keeping food and water from being able to get into Gaza and people are dying of hunger as a result. So it’s an intentional type of genocide and we’re going to focus on that as an issue as well.
[00:02:49] Presenter: Indivisible’s street theater group will be at the rally. Stan Taylor says they’ll be carrying an effigy of Trump on a palanquin, carried by four of his Cabinet members with clown noses.
[00:03:01] Stan Taylor: You know how they used to put kings on a chair? And then have people on each end, walking under posts, carrying him from one spot to the other? And then there are people who’ve made big alphabet letters that can spell out different things, different messages at different times.
[00:03:21] Presenter: Stan Taylor says: It should be fun.
[00:03:23] Stan Taylor: I want to sing the praises of all the organizations that are part of the Activist Coalition of Eugene Springfield, ACES, and how their leaders have come together to work in a coalition for the larger community and how they see it as a real opportunity. And I’ve said this before, working with seasoned activists that bring their commitment to a coalition is an extraordinary experience.
[00:03:59] So yeah, ACES has turned out to be an extraordinary coalition. They’re incredible, incredible people to work with, a very interesting mix of organizations and this willingness to work together, even where we have ideological differences, because there’s so many things we have in common that we want to see emerge that setting aside the differences and working together is the path forward.
[00:04:28] ACES is still small enough coalition where leaders of all the organizations—20 to 25 of us—fit into our living room on a Monday evening. We start the evening with a potluck and finish it with a work session. And it’s a collaborative process. One of our points of unity is that we’ll make decisions collaboratively.
[00:04:55] We circulate the facilitation around the circle, two facilitators for each meeting. So, if you become a facilitator, you’re there for two weeks and after two weeks, one facilitator rotates off and somebody else rotates on. That allows the person who was on it before to help set the agenda for the next round and they rotate off and somebody new rotates on.
[00:05:20] We view ourselves as autonomous equal organizations, and we’re trying to embody that, frame that spirit.
[00:05:30] Here’s what our mission statement is: ACES is a coalition of autonomous organizations committed to resisting authoritarianism and fostering democracy by building a broad inclusive lasting independent social movement in Eugene Springfield based on racial, social, environmental, and economic justice and accomplish by building community networks and alliances.
[00:06:02] There’s a couple things that are worth really noting. We’re looking at building an inclusive social movement in Eugene Springfield, so, geographically based here.
And we’re building that inclusive social movement by building networks and alliances, which is a little different approach than has been historically the norm. We’re looking to broaden that kind of framework across the community.
[00:06:33] One of the really great things about this coalition is that we can work together in two ways. One is we can plan together, which means we can try to do things like organize these rallies that we can’t do as effectively as siloed organizations.
[00:06:54] The other is, if one of our organizations has something they want to do, we can help promote and organize those events in ways that reach out farther than one organization would have on their own.
[00:07:08] At the last April 5 rally, all the tables and all the groups got a really large influx of people signing up for the groups, most of them larger than they’ve ever had at one time.
[00:07:22] Presenter: He says the goal is to turn community members into activists, and the June 14 protest will expand beyond on-site tabling to include online signups. Stan Taylor:
[00:07:33] Stan Taylor: For Indivisible, we’re going to have people going through the crowd handing out flyers with the QR codes to be able to join. It’s a different venue and calls for a little different strategy.
[00:07:47] Presenter: The event will also help raise funds for two organizations facing escalating threats from the Trump administration. Stan Taylor:
[00:07:56] Stan Taylor: We’re going to raise money for the Trans Alliance for Lane County and for the Community Alliance of Lane County, TALC and CALC. So one of the things we want to do as a group, as a coalition, is to make ourselves relevant, not just in terms of organizing politics, but in terms of reaching into the community and helping organizations that need help stay on their feet and move forward.
[00:08:28] We get 4,000 or 5,000 people together and everybody contributes a couple dollars here and there and some more that, it won’t be huge, but it’ll be a sizable contribution to both organizations.
[00:08:42] Presenter: Stan Taylor from Indivisible Eugene talks about the protest and march planned Saturday June 14: Music beginning at 10:30 a.m., rally from 11 a.m. to noon, followed by the 50501 Eugene march through downtown to City Hall. Speakers and street theater will focus on climate change, immigration, trans rights, and the genocide in Gaza.
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