This report back was shared with us anonymously. NAC did not organize this action. This is a follow up to an earlier report back on the Eugene A15 action.

On April 15th–tax day–5 dozen protestors occupied a stretch of Interstate 5 in Eugene in protest of the U.S. government funding Israel’s genocide in Gaza using taxpayer dollars. Eugene joined hundreds of activists in more than 82 cities around the U.S. and the world to Shut It Down for Palestine.

At the time, it had been over six months since Israel began its brutal genocidal assault on Gaza, which by April had left 33,800 Palestinians dead, 85 percent of Gazans displaced, and the entire population of Gaza – 50% being children –  struggling to survive. This is due to the near constant fall of U.S.-made-bombs and a targeted starvation campaign that’s created famine conditions as Israeli forces violently block humanitarian aid. Since October 2023, people of conscience, in Eugene and around the world, have been calling for an end to this colonial violence and demanding that the U.S. end all military support to Israel.

When testimonies at City Council meetings, thousands of phone calls and letters to elected officials, and months of marching through the streets of Eugene fail to move politicians to conscientious action, then we must do more. This is why protesters stepped onto the I-5 that day.

It has been over four months since then, and the horrors in Gaza are markedly worse. While the official death count stands at nearly 41,000, a recent study by The Lancet reports that the actual death toll could exceed 186,000. An astounding 90% of Gaza’s population is now internally displaced. Families are forced to take shelter in refugee camps or schools, which are in turn targeted by Israel occupation forces– like when Israel bombed the Nuseirat Refugee Camp in central Gaza 63 times, killing at least 91 Palestinians and injuring 251 others. These intensified attacks have also destroyed over half of Gaza’s structures including nearly all of the city’s hospitals. A dire sanitation situation is now emerging as the mass destruction has left the city with no water and no running sewage system.

The need for conscientious action is as, if not more, urgent today as it was on April 15th. We believe it is every U.S. citizen’s obligation to oppose the use of our tax dollars to facilitate war crimes. U.S. laws, too, prohibit military assistance to foreign security force units that violate human rights with impunity. And in June 2024, the International Court of Justice found that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal under international law. It is clear that the U.S. legal system picks and chooses what laws to enforce when it comes to Palestine, prosecuting protestors domestically while aiding and abetting genocide abroad. But legality alone does not determine what is right. Our moral compass demands that the conditions that the people of Gaza are subjected to must end.

So, we followed the example of a long line of those who took to the highway in protest of the Vietnam War and South African Apartheid. In 1970, just five hours north of us, the first anti-war freeway protest took place in Seattle, the day after four Kent State demonstrators were shot dead by the Ohio National Guard. As is the case with the Vietnam War and South African Apartheid, history will absolve our so-called “crime.” We ask, who is more criminally culpable– those who perpetuate genocide or those who will go to such lengths to end it?

Over 127 law enforcement officers from six agencies were deployed to I-5, with one witness saying, “it was the most police presence I have ever seen at a protest.” Despite the 2-to-1 ratio of officers to protesters, officers were violent in their arrests, deploying pepper balls at close range into a group of protesters attempting to disperse and no longer on the freeway. Upon release from jail, many defendants were offered plea deals by the District Attorney who promised diversion upon pleading guilty and completing 6-12 months of probation. One of our co-defendants who was not offered a diversion deal is a Palestinian teenager. A deal that is offered to some but not all, despite identical charges, is no deal at all. Today and everyday we stand in solidarity with our comrades and all of our Palestinian siblings suffering under Israel’s violence.

The resources that Lane County has funneled into prosecuting our cases so far are immense and a gross misuse of public funds; funds that should instead go to needed social and public services such as affordable housing, a hospital, bike lanes, or fixing our crumbling roadways. This repression of protest is part of the uptick of suppression across several political issues in Lane County; like when a few months ago housing justice advocates were charged with trespassing while they assisted unhoused neighbors during sweeps of their long-established encampment. Like those comrades, we refuse to be intimidated into silence when confronting state violence. The millions of dollars that go into “sweeps,” prosecuting protestors, and genocide could be much better spent on desperately needed social services.

The City of Eugene perpetuates similar forms of state violence that even liberals and moderates have condemned in Gaza. Hundreds of our neighbors have been displaced by way of sweeps in recent months, and the technology used to surveil the unhoused across town was first developed by the Israeli company Celibrite. The EPD contracts with a company called Mobile Pro Systems that manufactures the Guardian Trailers that have been installed around Eugene and Springfield since the onset of the Covid pandemic, when the local housing crisis reached a critical point. Our local police force is taking a page out of Israel’s playbook. These abuses of power, misappropriation of taxpayer dollars, and mass surveillance and dispossession are unconscionable both here and abroad.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” It is no wonder, then, why community members felt compelled to act on A15 and why we continue to resist the State’s prosecution. After a summer of attempted and failed negotiations between defendants and the district attorney’s office, 19 of the 52 individuals arrested on April 15th are set to go to trial in protest of the DA’s refusal to treat all defendants fairly and of the state’s ongoing complicity in genocide at large.

On this day, nearly a week out from the first trial date among the nineteen remaining defendants, we call on the DA to drop all charges against those who protest against the genocide of Palestinians. We demand an immediate, permanent ceasefire and end to the occupation. Above all, we demand Palestinian liberation.

If you want to support the cause of Palestinian liberation, you can send funds to UNRWA (https://www.unrwa.org/), operation olive branch (https://linktr.ee/opolivebranch), or the curated go-fund-me’s at Gazafunds (https://gazafunds.com/). If you want to support jail support here in Eugene, Venmo (@EugeneBailFund).

Free Palestine!

This reportback was shared with us anonymously. NAC did not organize this action.

Boarded up Nike shop windows

 

 

Have an action report you’d like published anonymously? Share it here: https://neighborhoodanarchists.org/action-report

This reportback was shared with us anonymously. NAC did not organize this action. This was also posted on https://pugetsoundanarchists.org/attack-on-starbucks-eugene/.

Wednesday, May 15th, Kalapuya land, so-called eugene.

Before dawn, an autonomous group smashed the windows of a local starbucks, leaving only “Free Gaza” and “Land Back” written in paint. This action was taken to bring awareness to the genocide taking place in Gaza and to interrupt business-as-usual. This act of vengeance was carried out on May 15th, Nakba Day, a day recognizing the ongoing genocide and forced displacement of Palestinians.

Starbucks has repeatedly shown its hostility towards Palestinian liberation, and did so most recently when it sued its workers’ union for posting a statement in support of Palestine on social media. The economy of eugene is complicit in the genocide happening in Gaza; the university and multi-national corporations profit off imperialism while making the city unaffordable for the majority of people there. While starbucks isn’t playing a central role in the genocide the israeli miliary is waging, starbucks is symbolic of an amerikkkan psyche and economy that feeds off imperialism. The chain is a tell tale sign of gentrification and a staple of the white middle and upper middle class. We won’t stand aside and let the amerikkkan economy continue unabated when it’s a system founded on and actively fueling colonialism and genocide.

This was done by a group of autonomous antifascists who echo the words of the anti-zionists that shut down the “Friends of the IDF” gala:

We have no name. We are not an organization. We are not an entity. Do not try to find us. We are everywhere and we will not stop.

Palestine will be free.

This reportback was shared with us anonymously. NAC did not organize this action.

Early in the morning on May 15th, a group of about 20 people crept from the shadows in a bourgeois neighborhood adjacent to the University of Oregon, in so-called Eugene. Their target was one particular mansion, the residence of the president of the U of O John Karl Scholz. On this night Scholz would not sleep! Just as Palestinian mothers don’t sleep knowing their children are not safe from the hell that rains down on them on any other “regular” night.
They came armed with buckets and drum sticks, water cooler jugs emblazoned with messages of resistance, whistles, and megaphones. As they approached, the racket started with a drum beat here and a whistle blow there, but soon the whole medley joined in, complete with chants led by megaphones. Some people stood on the steps leading up to the mansion, but others faced their fears and marched right up to the front door. A few people ran around the whole building several times and into the driveway where the president’s luxury vehicles were parked. The noise continued for almost 10 minutes, but the cowardly Scholz never turned on a light, let alone showed his face.
Just as abruptly as it started, the noise ceased. The arrival of two pigs signaled the moment it was time to scatter. Some asked whether they had done enough. That perhaps it was time to go back for round two. Why should the president be allowed to continue his slumber when so many innocent Palestinians continue to be slaughtered on a daily basis?
In the end, it was decided to fight another day. Rather than be angry, Scholz should consider himself lucky that his adversaries only arm themselves with noise makers, and not guns, bombs, and rockets as they do in Gaza.
DEATH TO NIKE!
FUCK THE DUCKS!
ESCALATE FOR GAZA!

This reportback was shared with us from the A15 action in Eugene in solidarity with economic blockades around the world to stop the genocide in Gaza. NAC did not organize this action.

On the morning of Monday, April 15th, community members in Eugene, Oregon blockaded Interstate 5 in solidarity with an international call to action to shut down economic trade for Palestine. The goal of this global solidarity effort was to shut down the economy that funds the ongoing occupation and genocide in Palestine.

In response to this expression of their first amendment right, 6 state agencies (EPD, OPD, SPD, Lane County Sheriffs, and the SWAT team included) showed up with over 127 officers equipped in riot gear, with munitions and chemical weapons on display. At various points, pepperball guns were aimed within lethal distance at people’s bodies.

62 arrests were made and the protesters were kept overnight, some for over 30 hours, for this call to end a genocide that has already martyred over 30,000 Palestinians. While all prisoners everywhere are subjected to dehumanizing treatment, we highlight that several trans and gender non-conforming folks were kept in solitary confinement without being presented options, and at least two arrestees were denied access to medications that were on their person with prescription notes at the time of the arrest.

The escalation and severity of this response by the police towards a group of protesters is indicative of a trajectory that should alarm all of us. Every protester that was arrested has been charged with disorderly conduct in the second degree, further underscoring the desperation of the State to maintain control.

While outrageous that 62 citizens that chose to rebel against this country’s complicity with genocide were punished with jail and collective charges, this doesn’t compare to what each and every Palestinian is subjected to every day. Our 24-32 hours in jail pales next to what political prisoners all around the prison world experience. For those of us for whom this was the first experience in a cage, we re-affirm our commitment to the struggle for freedom for Palestinian prisoners and prisoners everywhere, against the police and prisons, against the occupation, against American imperialism, against capitalism —  for a better world, the slight chance for which we will not fail to seize.⁩

Over 9,500 Palestinians have been imprisoned since October 7th, including 275 women, 520 children, 66 journalists, and 5,168 orders of administrative detention without charges or trial, and at least 16 Palestinian prisoners tortured to death.

The people of Eugene unite with the people of the world in this clear demand: We want Palestine to live, and we want Palestine to be free

This is an action report sent to NAC anonymously. NAC did not organize this action.

On Monday, February 26th, a small group of activists in Eugene, OR took to the streets and marched to the offices of ReMax.

ReMax is a real estate company that directly participates in and profits off of the ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people at the hands of Israel and the United States.

ReMax is the biggest real estate company in occupied Palestine, selling homes that are built on the stolen land of Palestinian families, and is a mechanism of settlement and displacement.

YOU OCCUPY PALESTINE, WE OCCUPY YOU!

ReMax is an enemy of the people, which is why community members gave them a visit to shut down their work for the day.

The Eugene Police Department (EPD) and ReMax must have felt threatened enough by even a mere call to action that they locked the doors of the office building, which seemed mostly empty anyways. On the one hand, activists didn’t get to go into the ReMax office and disrupt work.

On the other hand, they did close their office, and customers and delivery drivers had a hard time accessing the building. In front of the office building, activists listened to music, led chants and read poetry. The group then left to drop a “Fuck ReMax” banner over the highway.

As the group jubilantly marched back in the streets, they were followed b a disembodied voice from the police speakers, attempting to intimidate them with one final threat: “picking flowers is a crime.” Everyone was able to disperse safely with no arrests. Fuck the police.

EPD was on the scene the whole time, performing their duties of protecting private property and attempting to intimidate the group. EPD is an enemy of the people. They only exist to protect private property and the rich, like ReMax and its assets. The police are the occupying force in Eugene, surveilling our neighborhoods, harassing and arresting our homeless neighbors and brutalizing protestors and activists in the streets.

In the same breath that we condemn the Israeli Occupation Forces, we condemn EPD, for they both uphold imperialism, they both support the genocide of the Palestinian people, they both use rubber bullets and tear gas against the people, they both commit murder with impunity. We won’t be intimidated by them!

EPD, KKK, IOF, THEY’RE ALL THE SAME!

Activists hope that this action will inspire the people here in Eugene. It is possible to target those who perpetuate this genocide. They have addresses and office buildings, and they are not invincible. Eugene residents take inspiration from similar actions that have taken place across the west coast, such as the Block the Boat actions, Amazon warehouse blockades, and other disruptions of the machinations of capital.

Overall, the activists were testing what is possible in this town. Since 2020, local militancy has died down significantly, and the people are faced with having to re-learn how to take action together. We don’t have to listen to the pigs when they tell us not to trespass.

We don’t have to listen to the pigs when they tell us to disperse or stop blocking traffic.

We don’t have to listen to the pigs at all. We can take direct action in as many ways as we can imagine.

We must continue to take action together to stop the genocide of Palestinians by any means necessary!

There is so much more to be done, and we can only do it together! Solidarity with those who took the streets and defied the police!

The masses of the world stand with the Palestinian people and we will not stop until Palestine, and all oppressed nations and their people are free!

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!

THERE IS ONLY ONE SOLUTION: INTIFADA, REVOLUTION!

Action report from the New Years Eve Noise Demo on 12/31/23:

They emerged from the shadows of the streets of so called Eugene Oregon one by one or in groups of 2 or 3, on bikes, on foot, or on skateboards. Almost everyone donned masks and hoods, with all matter of noise makers in hand. It was 8:15pm and the spirit in the air was jovial despite the fact that 2023 was marked by much hardship locally and across the globe. By that time there were approximately 25 people. Someone brought out a portable speaker to get a beat going, but soon no music could be heard from it as the noise of the people drowned it out. Soon after we began to see the silhouettes of our intended audience emerge in the translucent windows above. Some came to see the commotion right away and some after 10 or 20 minutes of the din of clanging pots. The lights in other windows flickered with the sound of the beat. Sometimes the light of a tablet danced through the windows, or the shape of a heart was made by the hands of the people inside. All of this in turn made our noise making even louder. People beat the sidewalk with cookie sheets, or threw firecrackers into the road behind us. Some had referee whistles, other people had air horns, or good old pots beat with ladles. Even a nearby truck joined in the noise making when its car alarm went off. The jail staff had left the gate open in the fence they constructed during 2020. Inside was the courtyard and soon a few brave souls wandered into the courtyard and stood on park benches to get the noise just a little closer to our comrades imprisoned inside. But as soon as the courtyard was clear the gates swung shut remotely which riled us up even more. We transitioned from beating our pots to beating the wrought iron fence with our pots. Walking back and forth in order to make a chatter similar to a playing card in a child’s bicycle spokes but 10 times louder. Some pressed the intercom button to get a bored guard’s response only to blow a whistle right into the mic. The noise went on for at least an hour and a half. And when our ears were ringing and our wooden spoons had been reduced to a short wooden nub the noise ended as quickly as it had begun and the crowd dispersed with no contact with pigs. We went away pleased that we were able to bring some warmth to our friends inside for at least a little while. We hope for freedom for all prisoners in 2024!

These anonymous action reports were submitted to NAC from multiple people for publication. NAC did not organize these protests, we are just sharing people’s experiences.
This post will be updated with shorter reports as people submit them. 

Submitted 6/4/20

The police chased protesters down Alder St into residential areas before cornering them and setting off tear gas and rubber bullets, we had to run around closing all the windows so the tear gas wouldn’t get into our home. Our neighbors got hit more directly in the cross fire and had one of their windows and their door broken by police bullets. The police then stationed themselves across the street and watched our block for several hours after.

Sunday May 31st

Myself and 4 other friends were out there as Medics and were fired upon and tear gas with our hands up while we were walking away from them. We collected one of the gas canisters after the top 10 left and on the bottom and had an expiration date of 03/07. Frontier gas expires the chemical components within the tear gas create cyanide. I heard from the officers to talk to them about it and his response was well I didn’t throw it. the situation at 13th and Olive the people didn’t go into the street until the police have already impeded traffic. The people went onto the sidewalk at the request of the police and sad and protested peacefully. The police fired pepper bullet add an older lady standing in the street video recording them. the police were the ones that incited violence last night not the protesters.

When we posted about the expired gas cans, the cops swarmed us demanding to see it, stating they had to make sure that it was no longer active and that we needed to give it to them. We refused. We also had several proud boys roll up on us while we were stationed at Broadway and high. I tried to approach the cops about it and they said I wasn’t allowed to approach them with bottles of fluid in my backpack. They left and came back and pulled up behind the proud boy who was threatening to kill us. They didn’t do anything. They just let them go.

Video: Police shooting rubber bullets at people in their yards

Here is good footage from the protests last night (taken by an RG reporter). 17 people arrested Sunday night as of last count.

We’re expanding our anonymous action report to include reports of people’s experiences with police repression and brutality. We will publish it anonymously.

Please share information here:

This anonymous action report was submitted to NAC for publication. NAC did not organize this protest and we do not have a collective stance on the events of the 29th.
The voices of those involved in controversial events and their reasons for action are often lost in the discussion because they cannot share them without repercussions. We are providing a platform so those directly involved can share their perspectives. 

[Submitters note: a printed copy of this was handed to me at the large march on Sunday, May 31st. I’m submitting it here because I think it’s an important narrative, I hope the original author is okay with that. I don’t know whether this matters since the report is anonymous to begin with, but I figured I’d mention it.]

A POC participant’s narrative on the George Floyd protest in Eugene 5/29/20.

I’ve read many sources describing the protest as a “riot,” an “unruly mob,” or a bunch of white people coopting a POC cause. As a person of color (POC) who participated in the protest, I feel that it’s important to circulate my thoughts, rather that to allow the criticisms, narratives, or assumptions of others dominate the conversation.

I was relieved to be informed that people would coming together Friday night to denounce the murder of George Floyd instead of waiting until Sunday. The anger I felt over this murder could not wait for the proper approval of the city, and for liberal white women in Eugene who typically dominate the protests in this town to be ready to protest. While the rest of the country was responding, Eugene was waiting, and as a person of color in this majority white town, I was once again being reminded of how this town cannot relate to the passion and struggles of POC.

But for once, passion literally propelled people to take to the streets in true solidarity. It’s what was needed to be heard. Remaining at the courthouse corner, unseen, and unheard, would have challenged nothing. The rest of the town would’ve gone about their evening as if it were any other.

We marched through the streets shouting, “No justice, no peace.” We invited people who cheered us on to join us. In deciding our route, we simply talked to one another to decide which way to go. It was spontaneous, and supportive. At one point, people started marching up towards the freeway, and 2 cop cars almost hit a protestor. As we continued forward, 2 cops sprayed protestors with pepper spray. One Mexican woman was screaming that she couldn’t see because they sprayed her directly in the eyes at close range. Protestors helped rinse this woman’s eyes, but she couldn’t see for hours. This was much earlier in the evening, hours before the tear gas, that the news and police reports failed to mention.

[Submitters note: here there were included pictures of the pepper-sprayed protestor. I’m not including those for safety and also because I don’t think the photo quality would come out]

Still, we marched through the town, but we began to encounter people who were violently threatening us in opposition. As we marched on 6th, one black car circled around several times trying to run over protesters with their car. At one point they drove forward as a man was standing in front of the car. There was also a proud boy following us before a few people confronted him. Another man in a white truck was threatening protesters on 6th, and eventually pulled out his rifle on us. News reports of people saying, “someone has a gun,” failed to mention that it was people looking to hurt us. White supremacists are no secret in this town, and now they are taking this opportunity to try and hurt people.

By the time we arrived back to 7th & Washington, we had experienced a lot of violence towards us. People were trying to silence us, and it did not end throughout the night. One woman protesting was slammed to the ground and beaten by a man in a car who was trying to run over another women’s bike. So, when people took to setting signs, cones, or dumpsters on fire, it was a way to be heard. As many have said, property can be replaced, lives cannot. And just to clarify, as a POC in such a white town, that was the most people of color I have ever seen together at a protest in Eugene. It did feel good to be with POC I had never seen before to stand against injustice, and to be around white people who didn’t just take it easy because “it wasn’t their issue,” or to put themselves at risk when other white people were trying to attack us.

In conjunction with many of the national protests, the feeling that I got was that people are fed up. This began as a protest against police brutality, to advocate for justice for George Floyd, and to stand in solidarity with POC around the country, but we all know that the issue goes deeper than George Floyd because it is not the first case of police brutality. People of color are tired of being treated as inferior and disposable. We are tired of seeing our people struggle and die early deaths under a racist system. All you need to do is look at history to see the way POC have always been murdered, brutalized, and exploited to build up wealth and opportunity for mostly white men. Look at current statistics of wealth disproportions and demographics in prisons to know that there is structural racism. All you need to do is look at the way entire POC immigrant families are treated in ICE camps to see how we are dehumanized. All you need to do is look at national reports of the George Floyd protests to see constant examples of police brutality while people fight for justice.

Right now, is not a time to tear down those finding the courage to stand up for what’s right. George Floyd needs justice, and all people of color deserve justice. Stop and think why so many people around the country are taking to the streets and setting things to fire. Why we are taking the risk during a pandemic that we are disproportionately affected by. We are tired, and we don’t have the comfort of waiting it out for things to get better, our lives are on the line now.

NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE!