LATEST NEWS
So, the federal government has officially shut down. Trump and his cronies (including Tim Walberg) are refusing to protect our healthcare, trying to lay off thousands of federal employees, and cutting vital services like food assistance for our families -- all while using tax-payer dollars to blame others for their actions. And that's not even getting into the rest of the impacts -- Social Security, the National Weather Service, our national parks, and so much more are being left in the dust while ICE gets to keep on kicking. It's awful!
But our plan of action hasn't changed. We rally, we march, and we take action!
On October 18th: We're rallying with speakers, music, calls to action, and a lot of fun. So far we've got groups like Third Act, Rank MI Vote, and Voters Not Politicians plus returning speakers like Christian Vukasovich! We're marching on Michigan Ave and Jackson St. And when we get to our destination, we'll be taking some harmless direct action ;] Prepare for a good time!
HEADS UP! We're looking for organizations to table, community speakers, musicians, music recommendations, and more. WE NEED VOLUNTEERS!! If interested, contact me at alexanderdoesactivism@posteo.net for details!
No Kings Jackson back in June was by far the biggest protest I've ever put together. 530+ people of all ages and greater diversity than we've ever had since. It was the first time I'd been working with volunteers beyond co-organizers in Amador and Natalie, if I remember correctly. I still remember the atmosphere of the thing -- it was electric!
I'm excited to do it all over again, but bigger and better! Better visibility! Better sound! Bathrooms on-site! Music! More chalk! And more action! Let's do it better than we ever have before!
More info will be coming out as things develop. Keep an eye out and spread the word! :D
We had a virtual meeting to discuss day-of plans, volunteer roles, and safety procedures for No Kings 2. Not many people showed up but we did get some great ideas thrown around!
This event took place from 12:00-4:00 on Monday, September 1st.
Labor Day went extremely well!
Everyone who spoke did a phenomenal job! I unfortunately didn't catch most of the speeches myself, but I could've heard the cheering a mile away. It was great! Thank you to Sue Shink, Derek Dobies, Shalanda Hunt, A'vion Johnson, Christian Vukasovich, Jacob Boswell, Becky McKenney, Thomas Burke, Amador Ybarra, Pat Ulanowicz, Gayla Ignacio, and Sarah Allison for speaking! Additionally, thank you to the few from the crowd that took the mic! I didn't catch your names, but you brought some fantastic contributions to the table and I cannot thank you enough for speaking up about the issues you care about. (I'd also like to thank everyone who stuck around while I rambled into the mic to fill the air during the community segment. Next time, we're just playing music and pausing it so people can speak, haha.)
We, for many reasons, can't get specific numbers for any increased interest in the various organizations that tabled -- Save Our Youth, Voters Not Politicians, the Jackson County for Immigrants Coalition, Jackson First Presbyterian Church's charity efforts, and Rank MI Vote -- but I saw a lot of people lingering at the tables!
It sounds like the petitions going around -- the Rank MI Vote petition, Voters Not Politician's Mop Up Michigan petition, and the Invest in MI Kids petition (thanks Joanna for bringing that!) -- got plenty of traction throughout the day! Those were major calls to action for the event! I'm incredibly happy that they got more signatures!
The food trucks were great too! I had Marshell's Wingity Anns and Irene's Water Ice myself, but I heard some talk about Meech and Muff's Heavenly Foods, Cookin with Beans, and Fila's Fantastic Food Truck while walking around. The crowd seemed to enjoy all the options.
Finally, I'd like to thank everyone who helped out! Thank you to Linda, Ruby, Bonnie, Devin, Angelique, Ryan, Brandon, and Steve for being our safety marshals and our welcome table rotation; Devin again for being our janitor; Ruby for taking some great pictures and videos; Gayla for double-timing as a group representative and first-aid manager; Natalie for beinging the vast majority of the supplies including the entire JC4IC/first aid tent setup; Steve for bringing the essentials for the welcome tent; Richard for bringing, setting up, and running his PA system; John for MCing; and of course Amador for organizing the food trucks (and about 50 other things, haha). And all that was just day-of! These wonderful folks make running events like this possible. Thank you everyone!!
This event took place from 12:00-2:00 on Saturday, August 2nd.
What a good time! We had great weather, a great speaker, and an even greater crowd -- roughly 30-40 people from all over southern Michigan (and even one person from Indiana!) joined us throughout the day!
Ironically, Rage Against the Regime was one of the calmest events I've hosted. In fact, we didn't have any incidents; just some very enthusiastic folks excited to be there. And they had great reason to be! Our key speaker really stole the day with his phenomenal speech about the exact kinds of actions we were there to oppose -- authoritarian actions against us, the people.
"Wherever people are assembling," he said, "they're speaking up for our freedom. For humanity. They are defending our constitution, and our democracy, and they're crying out for our nation to join them in resistance. (...) And the moral path is clear: We resist. We resist. We resist in the voting booth, and with our ceaseless demands to our representatives (...). We resist with our voices at public meetings, within the civil organizations whose democratic charters are being eroded! We resist with our wallets and by deciding which companies and political interest groups we support with our hard-earned dollars (...)! We resist in the streets, in our public spaces like this. We let our neighbors know we haven't abandoned them and they let us know that they are thankful as they drive by. And we let our politicians know that we will not forgive them. We will hold them accountable for their complicity. And we resist these would-be kings as if our nation and our democracy depend on it. Because it does! They do! It's our patriotic duty and it is our moral duty.
"If your rage didn't matter, your representatives wouldn't be hiding from their constituents! (...) If your voices didn't matter, they wouldn't be deploying troops to shut you down! If your votes didn't matter, they wouldn't be spending so much to buy our elections, to gerrymander districts. If your boycotts didn't matter, they wouldn't be trying to make them illegal in state after state in America. And if your resistance didn't matter, they wouldn't be working so hard and so fast to take away our constitutional rights to due process, and to suspend the writ of habeus corpus. So we the people today -- you, me, our neighbors honking their horns in support -- we're making it clear that our democracy is not negotiable. (...) Democracy needs your courage! Democracy needs our rage!"
We had some great resources from the Jackson County for Immigrants Coalition related to the ICE. Missed it? No worries, here's their linktree! It's got all their contact information, plus some important information regarding how to prepare for/deal with encounters with ICE. I highly recommend looking at their red cards -- a free resource all about your rights.
All and all, this was a fantastic protest! A special thank-you to Devin, our safety marshal/runner/photographer who did a wonderful job keeping watch; and to Steve, who brought chairs, the banner, several great street signs, and the ever-valuable canopy for the welcome table! Let's keep fighting the regime together!
Edit: added specific quotes from the speaker's speech. I will be keeping him anonymous as he doesn't want this to be publicly searchable yet.
This event took place from 4:00-6:00 PM on Thursday, July 17th.
Roughly 100 people lined the sidewalks at Withington Park, stretching from Washington Ave down Louis Glick! And we didn't just get Jackson locals -- attendees from six other counties joined us for the national day of action! Several participants were members of the Jackson County Democratic Committee (including chair Amador Ybarra and fellow organizer Natalie Schroeder), while others came from the Lenawee County Indivisible team. Plus we had a handful of folks from Rank MI Vote walking around with petitions! What a turnout!
While I wasn't really an organizer this time, I spent most of the two hours talking to people. Everyone had such incredible signs, with fun slogans and designs (see the Media page for pictures!)! And those who didn't bring a sign seemed to be having loads of fun cheering at the many honking cars whizzing past. This phenomenal group of people really made this event one for the books! I'm hoping some of them become regular attendees!
Fortunately, we had only one, quickly-resolved incident! I'd like to thank everyone who came for keeping things peaceful and respectful. As a reminder, we run by the rule of "everyone is welcome until you start antagonizing people" and advise all protest participants to back off from developing conflicts.
I'd call this event a great success! This more than doubled the usual turnout for the typical weekly Thursday 4-6PM protest, and was just as joyful as normal. Good trouble certainly lives on in Jackson!
Edit: Headcounts varied from under 100 to 130. I'm using "100" because that's what I heard on the day of.