Local anarchists and activists gathered at Washington Jefferson Street Park Sunday without incident to celebrate the second annual “Carnival against Capitalism.”
About 100 people attended the event to protest local and global capitalism and the oppression of indigenous peoples around the world and to show support for the actions of the Earth Liberation Front, an autonomous group that uses tactics such as property destruction to discourage industrialization.
But the gathering, which didn’t draw a single police officer, was peaceful compared to previous years when local protesters clashed violently with members of the Eugene Police Department.
“The underdog always needs the element of surprise,” said Marshall Kirkpatrick, a member of the Anarchist Action Collective and a participant in the event since its conception. “We’ve been doing this for so long that on these preannounced days we don’t have the element of surprise. So the movement kind of evolved to a point where these preannounced days all need to become about something different.”
But he also suggested that protesters who wished to use violent tactics do so on their own under the cover of night.
During the afternoon Kirkpatrick urged the activists to put their energy to good use by getting to know each other. And the group did just that with food, a free-spirited game of dodgeball, American Indian tribal drumming and a street theater carnival.

“Ever since Seattle, some of the main people were inspired by the street theater there,” said Lisa Edwards, an observer of the day’s events. “At every protest I’ve been to and every action event I’ve been to there’s been a real effort to have art be a big part of that, and theater and song.”
Members of the protest also expressed their outrage at the sentencing of Jeff “Free” Luers to almost 23 years in prison for an arson at Romania Chevrolet and an attempted arson at Tyree Oil in Whiteaker last year.
“What we all have in common is a concern for the fate of the natural environment and the cultures that live based on it,” Kirkpatrick said. “The world is in quite a state of turmoil right now.”
Featured speaker Amado Lascar, a Chilean activist, called for people to unite against capitalism and spoke of the Mapuche resistance in Chile.
“They knew from experience that talk without action was useless,” said Lascar, who came to Eugene only by chance, but loves the diversity.
“You see young people, old people, kids, with different kinds of lives. Things are happening here,” he said.

This event marks the anniversary of the riots in the streets in June 1999 during the Northwest Anarchist Conference at the University of Oregon.
During the conference, anarchists and activists alike gathered to speak out against corporate and industrial growth and the global economy. In a parade dubbed “Eugene, Reclaim the Streets” protesters used militant-like actions to voice their message, vandalizing local businesses and injuring eight police officers.
Local police officers were criticized for their conduct during the event. Citizens felt that police did not act quickly enough to stop the destruction. Protesters expressed outrage at the use of tear gas to disperse the crowd and reacted violently against the use of police force, throwing rocks and struggling with officers. Twenty people were arrested and protesters called for a review of police tactics in crowd control.
“I don’t think we’re going to let people take control of the streets,” said Police Chief Jim Hill in a June 1999 article in The Register-Guard. “We’re not going to let this kind of stuff go on in the city. It’s just not acceptable.”
But on Sunday’s sunny afternoon, it seemed they only wanted to enjoy each other’s company and work toward a common goal.
“It’s one thing to feel frustrated and give a lot of lip service to what needs to happen, and then it’s another thing to be here and actually by being here, change yourself and participate in the building of this culture,” Edwards said.