If Eugene had a punch card for protests, Feb. 28 would’ve earned three stamps — almost enough to redeem for a hot 12 oz cup of democracy (maybe not in this economy).
One of the day’s demonstrations was a labor-led rally titled “Eugene Labor Says: ICE Out,” focused on what organizers described as attacks on immigrant workers. The event, held from 2 pm to 4 pm in the Eugene Park Blocks, was followed by a short march to the downtown Federal Building.
The rally was coordinated by the Eugene Springfield Solidarity Network (ESSN) and had representation from Party for Socialism and Liberation, Lane Community College Education Association, Springfield Education Association, Teamsters, University of Oregon Student Workers, United Academics University of Oregon, Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation, Service Employees International Union 503, American Postal Workers Union and others. Organizers said at the rally and in promotional material that the gathering centered on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its impact on workers and immigrant families in Lane County.
Teamsters Local 223 member Malori Musselman opened the program with a poem.
Calling this a “brutal moment,” Musselman described a hawk perched statuesque while swifts move in on loose tornado-like wings. “The birds,” they read, “don’t realize they have the power to turn on the hawk through solidarity. In quiet murmuration, they could push the predator right off its cold and hungry block, returning to feeding their young, sleeping and surviving, onward north.”
Musselman then shifted to labor history.
“I am a Teamster, rank and file member of the Union of United Staff affiliated with Local 223,” Musselman said, asking the crowd to remember the events of Bloody Friday 1934, when Minneapolis police shot at teamsters and their loved ones, injuring 67 and killing two — leading the community to launch a powerful general strike.
They also referenced the immigrant Filipino and Mexican farm workers who led the grape strike and boycott, noting that many farm workers’ family members survived chemical gassing at the border in order to work in the fields and hop farms that have nourished generations. This strike took place in Delano, California, at several different local vineyards led by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta.
Musselman said that as a nonbinary trans descendant of Dust Bowl migrants from Kansas and the Great Plains, they see current attacks on trans people as a denial of basic humanity. They also pointed to violence beyond U.S. borders, referencing the killing of children at a girls’ elementary school in Iran.
They closed their speech with a call for solidarity: “Thank you fuck ICE and solidarity forever.”
David Atman sat near the edge of the rally holding a sign that read “Rule of Law,” underlined twice. A self-described regular Eugene Weekly letter writer, Atman said he’s been protesting for “five or six decades” and says “unfortunately there’s always a reason to need to protest,” but he is there because he isn’t happy with the current presidency.
“Well, we’ve got to stop the traitor from wrecking our country,” he said. “I’m from New York City. He’s [Trump] been tasking me for 65 years,” adding “I’m 71 now. Still out here. And well I’ll be when I’m 100, or 101.” He said, “Please my fellow Eugeneans. Even if it’s small, do whatever you can do.”
“Send a letter to the Weekly. Give some money to someone, help someone, put them up for a night. Do something.”
“He is the worst president known to man. Breaks my heart,” Atman said with tears in his eyes.
Former Springfield Education Association member Nancy Bray is a board member and coordinator for Pineros Y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN), translated as Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United, Bray connected the rally to earlier farmworker organizing in Oregon.
“Our organization is Eugene Friends of the Farm Workers. In the ’70s, we were active supporting the United Farm Worker Boycotts — of lettuce, grapes, Safeway, Gallo wine, and the EMU cafeteria,” she says.
Bray says PCUN is “on the forefront of fighting against deportations, detentions of farm workers and immigrants” and is sponsoring “day without an immigrant. which is a monthly action, leading up to a general strike.”
Her activism dates back decades, “more than 50 years,” she said. Her partner, Herb Everett, adds, “Nancy and I actually met each other working on the United Farm because [of the] Union Boycott in 1974. And we’ve been married now for more than 50 years. So, here we are.”
By late afternoon, participants moved from the Park Blocks toward the Federal Building, concluding one of three demonstrations held in Eugene that day. The other protests that day included an emergency “Stop the War on Iran” demonstration led by PSL and a black bloc-led “No Business as Usual” action.
For more information on PCUN, visit PCUN.org. For more information on the Eugene Springfield Solidarity Network, visit SolidarityNetwork.org.