‘Hot Commie Summer’ events this week: Sickout July 1, Congo July 2, community art July 4

Presenter: Our Hot Commie Summer continues, following an amazing Pride event, with the National Sickout for Immigrant Rights. From Eugene’s chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Rob Fisette:

[00:00:13] Rob Fisette (PSL Eugene): July 1, Tuesday, there’s this National Sickout where people are being asked by a coalition of national organizations to call in sick and do something for immigrant defense, wherever they are, and in their area. So whether that’s attending a march, attending a rally, attending a teach-in, engage—like volunteering with local rapid response.

[00:00:39] Presenter: The PSL is helping to support a local rapid response network. Rob Fisette:

[00:00:45] Rob Fisette (PSL Eugene): People are very mobilized around immigrant defense, like, they’re totally horrified to see how ICE is operating in communities and how these deportations are happening and these sort of snatchings and kidnappings off the street.

[00:00:58] And they are rightfully horrified and are ready to be mobilized. And so this Lane County immigrant defense network mass channel that we’ve been building I think is really going to start to come to fruition in the next several weeks.

[00:01:13] We’re inviting people to get connected so that when there are opportunities to volunteer or opportunities to do something, they can get that and people can get that announcement very quickly and decide that they’re ready to engage and then go do a thing.

[00:01:25] That’s kind of what that channel is for and I think this last week we’ve been seeing, we’ve been seeing an escalation in detentions at the ICE office here in town, and that’s at the same time that the Portland ICE office has been shut down due to protests outside of it.

And so I think rapid response in Lane County is maturing, is maturing quite quickly, and I think those channels that we’ve been building are going to really pay off soon when we need to call on people to engage and take action in that way.

[00:02:06] On Wednesday (July 2) we have a forum on the Democratic Republic of the Congo that Selina’s been spearheading.

[00:02:13] Presenter: The forum will discuss how U.S. taxpayers are funding massacres in the Congo, just as in Gaza. With PSL Eugene, Selina Soray:

[00:02:23] Selina Soray (PSL Eugene): In the Democratic Republic of Congo, extracting these minerals from this, the most mineral wealthy place in the entire world, extracting these rare earth minerals and massacring—6 million Congolese people have died in the last couple years and millions more have been displaced.

[00:02:46] And now you have not just America, but you have the U.K., the French, the Belgians, all of the Western European Union countries giving money to another foreign entity called Rwanda to act in the same manner that the foreign entity of Israel behaves in.

[00:03:06] It’s just that they’re doing it in Africa for the same interest, so that the Western powers can have that foothold in a specific region in order to cause all these issues.

[00:03:19] Meanwhile, no one’s got health care. We can’t pay our rent anymore. Groceries are getting out of control. Gas prices keep going up. And it just seems like the infrastructure around us one by one, piece by piece, is just collapsing under our feet. And I think a lot of people, especially young people, recognizing like, ‘This is not sustainable.’

[00:03:43] And also connecting these dots of, well, everything that we operate on, like our cell phones, our computers, our cars. These things are all owned by corporations. And then these corporations are all owned by billionaires and these billionaires are the ones who are putting us in these situations.

Because the billionaires, they own the Democrats and the Republicans and now they’ve got these corporations like Apple and Google and Tesla and Samsung and the list just goes on and on and on.

[00:04:17] Rob Fisette (PSL Eugene): The forum on the Congo is Wednesday, July 2, at 6 p.m. at the First Christian Church on Oak Street in Eugene. Come check it out. I think it’s going to be really great.

[00:04:30] Presenter: Rob also invites you to join PSL Eugene on the Fourth of July for a public art installation.

[00:04:36] Rob Fisette (PSL Eugene): There’s a community member who initiated a public art installation called ‘Children of Gaza’ where she’s gathering as many community members as possible to show up at Kesey Square at 10 a.m. and write in chalk the names around downtown of all the children known to be killed so far in Gaza since Oct. 7.

[00:04:57] And we have a ‘Punks for Palestine,’ a sort of fundraiser punk show coming up on July 12.

[00:05:03] Presenter: Rob says activists can also join the Avelo Airlines campaign.

[00:05:07] Rob Fisette (PSL Eugene): You know, Avelo Airlines is a commercial airline that flies in and in and out of Eugene several times a week, and they are also contracted with ICE to run transport and deportation flights.

So pretty much every city around the country where they fly is organizing at least a boycott, if not pressure to get them any subsidies that they have, that they’re offered by the city and state, get those subsidies removed, get them thrown out of the airport if possible. This is a campaign that’s ongoing.

[00:05:38] Presenter: With the United States experiencing extreme wealth inequality and now poised to take away federal funding for health, housing and food, a socialist won the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City. That led a hedge fund manager to declare: It’s officially hot commie summer.

Here in Eugene our hot commie summer continues with the National Sickout for Immigrant Rights July 1, a forum on the Congo July 2, a Gaza public art project July 4, and Punks for Palestine July 12. For more, see social media for PSL Eugene on Instagram and Facebook.