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On Oct. 18, hundreds of cities around the country, including Eugene, will see mass demonstrations to protest the ongoing abuse of power by the Trump administration.
No Kings 2 has the potential to surpass the previous day of action earlier this year to be one of the largest single days of protest in American history. Many people will be attending this action as their first protest, moved to outrage by the daily horrifying stories of abuse and corruption by the Trump administration.
Certain detractors have asked why this type of demonstration is important, and how it can meaningfully effect change. This is a fair question, which must be directly responded to by organizers. The question of efficacy has two dimensions. First is the immediate objectives of the march itself. Second is how demonstrations as a tactic fit into a broader theory of bringing about change.
Our local organizers come from different ideological backgrounds, but with a common goal of mobilizing the people of Eugene, Springfield and Lane County against the Trump administration. Simply bringing out numbers isn’t enough, so particular issues that can actually be engaged with by attendees in their daily lives are going to be emphasized and highlighted. These include immigrant defense, mass surveillance, trans rights and more. Exposing a large crowd to our local calls to action is itself a valuable element to this demonstration.
Drawing larger numbers into the ongoing work of immigrant defense, advocating against mass surveillance and for trans rights, among other causes, is one of the primary goals for organizers and helps to satisfy the first dimension of success. Our secondary goal is to more precisely politicize the moment for those who are attending their first protest. Shedding light on the ongoing work locally defines the actual impact of these policies on our community, helping to provide a localized forum to those who are angry at what they see in the news and online.
The need to draw the people of Lane County into a more defined political struggle against President Donald Trump’s policies has only become more pressing as the federal government attempts to send the National Guard to Portland. Cities like Portland and Eugene are targets for the Trump regime.
The most effective defense against this type of federal encroachment is the organized mobilization of the people. Demonstrations, especially of scale, help to galvanize a community. We can see that we aren’t alone, and that we can all stand together against the Trump agenda and the system that allows billionaires to continue raking in record profits while the rest of us, and the planet, suffer.
Trump’s personal fascination with figures like former President William McKinley show that he is interested in returning this country to the Gilded Age, before the social safety net was constructed. Civil and social rights in this country were never granted, but fought for by the people in a concerted and organized way.
The institutions that Trump is currently seeking to destroy, like Social Security and Medicaid, were only built through the organized mobilization of the working class against the wealthy who had destroyed the economy.
We need to organize the anger that people are feeling about this into a political movement that can not only defend what previous generations fought for, but also gain ground and expand upon our rights. We want to highlight that Trump is the product of a system in crisis, which places the pursuit of profit above everything else.
We are seeking to bring the working people of Lane County out into the streets alongside thousands across the country on Oct. 18 to voice their opposition to Trump’ s agenda, but also to help provide a platform for the work that still needs to be done on behalf of the vulnerable members of our community.
Actual change won’t come from a single march or demonstration, but from widespread and consistent organization of the people to fight to defend our vulnerable neighbors, and the gains that have been made by the generations before us. Demonstrations are one important component of the social movement we must build to create the world we all deserve.
