Local groups unite to organize No Kings 3

Presenter: This Saturday you can participate in what is expected to be the largest protest in U.S. history. Music starts at 10:30 at Springfield City Hall, with speakers starting at 11, and a short march out and back to City Hall, starting at noon. 

The local protest was jointly organized by the Activist Coalition of Eugene Springfield and the Springfield Alliance for Equity and Respect. From SAFER, Johanis Tadeo: 

Johanis Tadeo (SAFER): Being able to see this in my community is incredible. I mean, first time in a long time that we have Eugene folks and Springfield folks coming together and, you know, not talking about the bridge so much, talking more about unity, support, and the changes that we can be able to do together. So it’s beautiful.

Presenter: From ACES, Stan Taylor: 

Stan Taylor (ACES): For this particular No Kings 3, ACES joined together with SAFER and with SAFER taking the lead in a lot of the program development. You know, part of the inspiration for making this happen was the organizing of the Day Without an Immigrant, which is the PCUN farmworkers campaign.

And that campaign is ongoing. In fact, on April 1, there will be another ‘Day Without an Immigrant’ event happening, and we want people to show up for that and show their support for the farm workers movement here in Oregon.

Six different months they’ve had a day of asking people to refrain from going to work, refrain from going to school, refrain from shopping, and for businesses to shut down for that day.

And overall, that’s leading to their final round on May 1, which is a call for a broader general strike. And you know, the general strike is also something that’s building nationwide. There is a nationwide call for a general strike on May 1.

And, for people who are talking about how do you build a movement and what’s our most powerful tool to use, general strike is really where we want to build to. 

So, you know, all of these things fit together and are part of building a larger movement that’s inclusive and is able to resist fascism, build the future.

You know, the ACES coalition is the coalition that organized ‘Hands Off’ last April and the two ‘No Kings’ events before this, and ACES has a mission to build, not only to resist fascism, but to build social movement here in Eugene by creating alliances.

So we felt very strongly that the part of the alliances that we needed to make was to reach out to Springfield, to the communities there, and try to bring unity to these two communities.

Springfield is more attached to the immigrant and working-class community, and we really want to connect with that community and build it into the resistance and the community—overall community, Eugene and Springfield—that we want to see get created.

Presenter: We asked Johanis what messages the protesters can expect to hear this weekend. 

Johanis Tadeo (SAFER): I think, unity. Also, almost every speaker has an ask, whether it’s speaking at city council meetings, going to school board meetings, applying for committees in general. That way we can have a voice in all of these spaces.

I think that’s important. You know, we as people, we are the folks that basically have the power, but sometimes, due to everything, we forgot. And really when we come in numbers, we have little victories here and there. Even in 2026.

You know, January 30 was powerful. You know, that event, we shut down Springfield and Eugene. It showed the community how we came together. I was really stressed that folks were going to be mad, but I turn around, everybody’s driving slow, windows down, music up. It was powerful. I felt very, very, very proud to be part of Lane County and Springfield.

Stan Taylor (ACES): One of the really great things about experiences about ACES is that when we started back for the ‘Hands Off’ rally and protest, we had 14 different organizations that were part of No Kings. And since that time we’ve added another 10 organizations to ACES—and these are all organizations in the community that have approached ACES and said, ‘We’d like to be a part of your organization’ or ‘your coalition.’

So we’re a growing coalition and now we’ve reached out to SAFER to build this connection across our communities and it’s really been a pleasure to work with Johanis and SAFER and to see the reach and impact they’re having in Springfield.

Presenter: In addition to SAFER, Johanis said the event will also be promoting Latino Shield / Escudo Latino and The Free Voice / Voz Libre. 

Johanis Tadeo (SAFER): It’s been really powerful to be able to center some of those voices, the students, the community, and yeah, and being able to see folks directly from the immigrant community feel powerful enough to be able to come and show up on Saturday, and not just on that event, but be a part of all of the events that are up and coming. 

This has been kind of nice ’cause we’ve been growing more members in SAFER. Another group is called the Latino Shield, and then as well as The Free Voice. (En espanol)

And yeah. And there’s a lot of volunteer opportunities to get involved, whether it’s canvassing, getting the information out, joining us in spaces in the chambers at City Hall, school board meetings, you know, volunteering for different events.

Or I know Springfield Block Party is coming up in September. You know, it would be nice to be able to see that unity instead of, you know, all the Latino groups on one side and then all the other white businesses on another side. You know, it would be really nice to incorporate that so we can actually feel like a community. 

I think our volunteers, our allies going into spaces that maybe I’m not able to reach, you know, or in spaces where maybe my voice isn’t as amplified as some of theirs, I think that’s very important to be able to have that. So if folks that come listen to what our community needs and let’s come together. 

Stan Taylor (ACES): It’s like Johanis says: Getting involved, you know, getting involved in your local school board, getting involved in running for office locally, getting involved in community organizations that provide mutual aid. All these things are active acts of resistance that need to be done by at least 3.5% of the population.

And really, when you think about those things, those things are easily things people should feel good about getting involved with.

Johanis Tadeo (SAFER): I would like to invite people to come out. Let’s really make a statement in Springfield. Let’s make a statement across the country. I think all the points that Stan talked about are extremely important and we want people to be able to walk away with these things, like I said, to share that voice, to step up and volunteer.

This is a long relay, so it’s going to take all of us, you know, some of us are going to get tired, some of us are going to get burned out. We hope that the next people are there to take the baton, while we recover, and so on and so on. You know, this is power that we’re building. It’s also a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful salad that we’re building, you know, full of different people, different spices that we can recognize, not a melting pot, you know?

And I’m really excited to be able to see that on March 28 and as we move forward to the other events on April 1 and May Day.

Stan Taylor (ACES): The music will actually start at 10:30 a.m. Cross Current is the band that will play at 10:30 and the rally from 11 to noon, the march from noon to one with music at the back end as people come back to Springfield City Hall. And the march is going to be essentially a there and back again, so it will start at City Hall and end at City Hall.

Presenter: Area residents have an opportunity to participate in the biggest protest in U.S. history, and then go on to get involved with local groups.