Charge and Recharge
“If you don’t see the organizer, that means you’re the organizer.”
By Susan Labandibar and Martha Merson
By the standards of historical participation in rallies and protests, March 26th’s No Kings III was a huge success, with over 8 million people attending 3,300 events. Each one of these events was volunteer organized. We spoke to three of those organizers across the country to find out why they stepped up. The reason? It had to be done.
Whether they were organizing in Champaign/Urbana Illinois, Florida’s Middle Keys, or in Tucson, AZ, all share a dedication to truth, justice and a better world for themselves and those who follow. They organize without illusion, knowing that their work may not bear fruit in the short term. As one said: “Go while you can.”
Jeff and Tracey from Illinois’ Champaign County Indivisible
“These problems are not going away. We need to (or we have to) keep fighting.”
For Champaign County Indivisible (Illinois) co-leaders Jeff and Tracey, No Kings Day in April was their fifth event. In the run up to the rally, they both remembered being pretty frantic, putting in 15-20 hours a week on top of their full-time jobs Jeff mentioned that there are ally groups, but Champaign County Indivisible convened and coordinated the event, which gave attendees an opportunity to march, stomp their feet and sing. From 3,000 to 5,000 people attended.
In the aftermath of the 2024 election, Tracey and Jeff decided to take the plunge. ”We are committed to making the world a better place for our kids and we will continue to fight for that. So when Trump was elected for the second time, we realized that we needed to act. We started looking to see if there were any Indivisible chapters nearby. All of the groups were inactive.” Hence, Champaign County Indivisible was born.
The rallies are just one piece of the puzzle. Jeff and Tracey value mutual support networks and want to build the sort of community, where people can get help if they need it. The group is actively engaged in creating spaces where people can discover resources and rallying members to support lesser-known resources.
The group also advocates for state house bills and keeps in touch with their elected officials. Jeff explained: “Change has to come from the hearts and souls of middle America. We have to move as a group to hold the people who represent us accountable or they need to go.”
As far as group leadership goes, “We are first among equals,” Jeff explained. “We try to elevate the confidence and the willingness of folks to take on a role. People are afraid that they don’t know how to do things. We tell them: “It’s okay, we have your back.” The more people we have who are comfortable leading, the more things we can do simultaneously.”
Laurie Swanson, Middle Keys, Florida
Laurie Swanson worked hard in advance of No Kings 3. Rallies north and south of her community in the Middle Keys drew larger crowds (Key West had several thousand, for sure), but Laurie’s area is a good bit Trumpier. When she started organizing rallies during the first Trump presidency, a good showing for a protest in her area was 20 people. No Kings 3 drew 250 people, a result that speaks to years of building community and intense organizing efforts around the rally, including making sure there were safety marshals, and materials to hand out so protesters could join various initiatives to support immigrants in the Florida Keys.
Laurie has been the Middle Keys Democrats chair since 2014 when no one else would take up the role. At 81 years old, she is realistic: “We’re 2:1 Republican in this area. I’m determined to move heaven and earth to claw back our democracy even though I know it will never be the same. We will do this or die trying.”
Laurie is the first to say that she’s not a natural organizer. Her point: “Even if you are not fast at something, doesn’t mean you can’t do it. With hard work, I can get it done.” She wasn’t so politically active when she first moved to Florida in 2007. At the time, Laurie and her husband kept busy playing bridge. She was president of the beach association and volunteered at the local school teaching kids to read.
A breast cancer diagnosis in 2012 brought a new perspective. “My attitude since my breast cancer diagnosis: Go while you can.” Her mantra has an urgent edginess with the seeming disintegration of democracy here and around the world.
Post No Kings, Laurie is working diligently with others who have formed an immigrant support network which supports Middle Keys, Florida residents who are impacted by ICE. There is a small team that does ICE surveillance, and is pushing the city council to take up a resolution to speak out against ICE atrocities. She attends weekly protests in Marathon focused on the theme to get ICE out of the Florida Keys.
Perhaps in retribution for her filming ICE arrests, Laurie was recently arrested for “jaywalking.” Handcuffed and sitting in the back of the Florida Highway Patrol cruiser, Laurie asked the patrolman, “What would your grandmother say if she could see you with an 80 year old grandmother handcuffed in your car now?” He couldn’t answer. He then asked Laurie what her grandkids would say if they could see her now. Her answer was that they would be cheering her on.
Amy Gosla, Indivisible Tucson Action Alliance (ITAA), Arizona
Amy Gosla has a good feel for Tucson and its outlying suburbs. The city counts approximately 550,000 residents, and over 1,080,000 for the greater metropolitan area.
After participating in other No Kings rallies, Amy decided she wanted to be part of a planning team rather than waiting to see what happened. She gathered nine friends with different skills and interests - not everyone was an active member of a political group. “We had a vision to do something different,” Amy recalls. The group came up with the idea of connecting Tucson, which trends Democratic, to Oro Valley, which, by reputation, is a Republican stronghold. “The group wanted to show that progressives have a presence beyond the city lines, so we came up with the idea of “Tucson to Oro Valley-Corners of Democracy-8 Miles of Action.”
The organizing group identified six intersections along Oracle Road and recruited iconic advocacy groups with names like “Save Our Schools,” “Democracy Unites Us,” and “Faith in Conscience” to “adopt” a Democracy corner and make it their own. Amy helped each group prepare so they had safety monitors, and the intersection organizers had watched Indivisible’s No Kings trainings. “Then we pulled it off, which was great.” Amy described the day.
Over 8,000 participants came out to the six different locations along an eight mile stretch of N. Oracle Rd. The busiest corner had 3,550. With people on the ground with hand clickers at each intersection, they got realistic estimates of the crowd size.
Amy explained that because the whole concept of No Kings is nonpartisan, her organizing group decided to keep some distance from the Democratic Party. “Of course a lot of the people that helped are involved with their clubs or their legislative districts, but on No Kings Day, the point was a nonpartisan visibility event. We were very proud of how it went. Ezra shouted out Corners of Democracy on one of his videos.”
Post No Kings Day, Amy said she and her friends are going back to doing the things they were doing before. She stays in contact with different members and groups. “I show up wherever I can and try to bring members together. I am connected with other organizations in Tucson and oftentimes serve as a liaison from ITAA. Our email list is about 2,500 people. Because it’s so big, we have meetings online once a month with guest speakers, including candidates and a person I brought in who led an exercise to help people relax.”
Conclusion
For all of the event coordinators, the everyday work continues. Each of them embodies the spirit of Todd Beamer, the passenger on United Airlines Flight 93, who rallied others with the words: “Are you guys ready? Let’s roll.” Just ordinary people taking extraordinary leadership.
The authors are grateful to the organizers who shared stories and to them and their friends who shared photos.
Fantastic stories, thanks for sharing.
Thanks for reaching out to me, Susan. I enjoyed our conversation and appreciate you featuring one of the NK3 Tucson events. As a first time official organizer, it was especially important to have a strong team of friends working together.