Gainesville, FL – This May Day, the Gainesville left mobilized to Bo Diddley Plaza. Gainesville’s activist community was represented by groups from various leftist groups. The celebration included speakers from organizations such as Industrial Workers of the World, Madres Sin Fronteras, the Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons, and Gainesville National Women’s Liberation.

The celebration’s theme was centered around the projects that Gainesville activist organizations were working on and the times that they had all rallied together for a cause in the past year. A prominent reference was made to the No Nazis @ UF Coalition that was pivotal in resisting alt-right provocateur Richard Spencer and his nationwide campus tours. Spencer, at the time of writing, is no longer speaking on college campuses.

Jimmy Schmidt, from the IWW, called for the “abolition of the wage system.” Currently, the IWW chapter in Gainesville is organizing with incarcerated workers.

Cia Delfino, from Madres Sin Fronteras, referred to the cause of immigrant reform as “one of the biggest civil rights issues of our time.” Delfino also celebrated the fact that, in Gainesville, May 1 was officially proclaimed to be “Immigrant Rights Day” by city hall last year.

A representative from the Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons described the political evolution of its membership. Originally, they wanted to target prisons that caused remarkable damage to the environment. Studying the social conditions of the prison system, they came to the conclusion that the entire privatized prison system was toxic. The speaker referred to the private prison industry as an “industrial nightmare.”

Brooke Celeste from National Women’s Liberation explained how patriarchy was integral to the capitalist system. Celeste brought attention to the war being waged on women’s rights by legislators in Washington. Celeste stated, “Our representatives spend money creating obstacles to access to birth control.”

#GainesvilleFL #MayDay #internationalWorkersDay

Inside the event, hundreds of activists, outnumbering the very small fascist audience, disrupted Spencer’s speech for well over an hour with chants of, “Go home Richard Spencer” and “Richard Spencer you can’t hide, you support genocide.” During a Q&A session at the end of the event, a protester asked Spencer whether it hurt when he was punched in the face earlier this year.

Outside the event, hundreds more activists congregated around the barricades set up by police. As white supremacist speech attendees exited, the crowd pursued neo-nazis, skinheads and alt-right activists through the streets of UF shouting “Anytime, anyplace, punch a Nazi in the face.” Some of these Nazis attempted to stand against the crowd but were overpowered and escaped under the protection of the police.

“It’s inspiring seeing so many people gathered here to fight back against hate,” said Kylee Rena, a local high school student. Referencing UF President Fuchs she argued that “silence only enables hate.” Rena added that though this was only her second protest, she planned to continue fighting against racism and the far right.

“We’re not loud enough, we’re not angry enough,” said Reem Baitoon of Florida State University Students for Justice in Palestine. “If we want to get rid of people like Spencer we need to take action to prevent them from being able to spread their views.”

The protest was a rousing success, with Richard Spencer complaining that UF had failed in its attempt to prevent students from disrupting his event. UF spent over $500,000 on security for the event.

#GainesvilleFL #Florida #Antiracism #antifascism #RichardSpencer

Gainesville, FL – On Dec. 12, students and community members blocked the entrances to a basketball game between the University of Florida (UF) and Texas Southern University. The action was called as part of a growing movement to protest police killings of African Americans and Latinos in the U.S. This follows the failures to indict police officer Darren Wilson, who shot Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, as well as NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo, who choked Eric Garner to death.

Around 130 people gathered at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center before the basketball game and held a die-in at the entrance as the doors opened. Then, the group moved to the student gate, blocking the entrance doors and the sidewalks leading to the other doors. Despite university personnel opening and closing certain entrances based on the location of the protesters, the group was able to finalize its position at the student entrance.

Trenton Brooks of the UF Dream Defenders explained, “Our action today was to show that people cannot just go about their lives as if it's simply business as usual. There are systemic problems in this country and ignoring them just isn't an option.”

Chants included “No justice! No peace! No racist police!” and one specifically for the occasion “You only care about us when we are in jerseys!”

Farah Khan, of UF Students for a Democratic Society, talked about the impact the protest had on the game, “It definitely shook people up and left both attendants of the game and administration completely disoriented. Not a single person at that game could ignore us.”

#GainesvilleFl #PeoplesStruggles #UniversityOfFlorida #Antiracism