February 01, 2024 | NEWS | By Taylor Lynch
Last Sunday, the Colorado Springs People’s Coalition organized a march down Tejon Street, starting at City Hall and ending at Democratic Senator Micheal Bennet’s downtown office.
Protesters called for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to U.S. involvement, chanting, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” “Resistance is justified when people are occupied,” and “Biden, Biden you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide.”
The protesters were met with both support and criticism by downtown patrons.
The Colorado Springs People’s Coalition, a leftist organization dedicated to grassroots organizing for people’s causes in the Springs, described Sunday’s protest in a post on their Facebook page.
“Yesterday the People’s Coalition led a march through downtown Colorado Springs demanding a ceasefire and an end to U.S. aid to Israel,” the post reads, “Speakers touched on our city’s economic reliance on military contractors complicit in genocide and on the immense growth of the movement.”
The Catalyst spoke with CC Students Calla Meril ’27, Nico Rimer ’27 and Raychel Stark ’27, who took part in the protest. Both Meril and Stark are members of Colorado College’s Prison Abolition Project, where from which they learned about Sunday’s march.
According to the students, speakers at the march argued that public funds should be used to support social programs such as rehabilitation facilities and affordable housing, opposed to military operations in Palestine.
“It’s specifically important in Colorado Springs with the extreme homelessness situation,” said Stark. “Why are we okay with giving our tax dollars to weapons towards ethnic cleansing of an entire population when there are people on the streets struggling with drug abuse?”
“It’s a strategy in Colorado Springs, a far-right city, to get people thinking about it in terms of housing and education, and not the liberal agenda,” argued Meril.
The students noted how CC students can use their platform to promote causes such as ceasefire efforts, especially given CC’s status as an anti-racist institution. Furthermore, the students argued that active participation and community organization is essential in bringing about change.
The students acknowledged the dichotomy of Colorado Springs’ conservative nature and CC’s liberal student body. They claimed that this opposition should not deter, but encourage students to use their voices.
“We should be using the privilege of our time at CC to spread awareness, learn more and do more,” argues Stark.
The students offered some ideas as to what future activism might look like at CC. Rimer mentioned the success that distributing posters and artwork around campus has had and emphasized the importance of spreading this advocacy further into the Springs. Stark suggested that you don’t have to be in an advocacy group like Prison Abolition Now to take a stand, and that everyone can spread awareness by incorporating issues of passion in everyday life.
In a final note, Stark included the intersectionality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict.
“All struggles are intertwined. The struggle for Palestine isn’t just about Palestine: It’s for freedom and liberation for all people.”
This protest comes just days after the UN’s International Court of Justice ordered Israel to prevent the further perpetration of killings and genocidal acts towards the Palestinian people but did not directly call for a ceasefire.