No plans yet for local women’s march in 2020
Past organizers step away from annual event
There’s currently no arrangement in place for a local Women’s March in 2020, a city of Eureka official confirmed Monday.
Eureka city staff Christine Tyson said Monday that no one has filed permits to hold a rally, though many have called the city to check if a local march will be held. The event took place in January over the past three years, but that doesn’t look to be the case this time around, unless something changes soon.
Concerns over diversity in the 2019 rally’s leadership team brought planning efforts to a halt, before a different group took up the charge to hold the march amid criticism. Ahead of a possible 2020 event, would-be organizers say they have backed off.
“It was awkward; it was so stressful,” said former organizer Kathy Srabian on Monday. “The drama from last year kind of broke our momentum. We’d been doing really good with the turnout.”
Hailey Lamb, a former candidate for Eureka City Council, posted on social media earlier this year to gauge interest about a possible 2020 march. Lamb said she obtained permit documents but never submitted them, finding that there was “negative feedback” to the notion of holding the rally next month.
“Some groups said they couldn’t organize in January because they’re too busy organizing for Martin Luther King Jr. Day,” Lamb said. “In order to have the whole community come together for the event, the date needs to be changed.”
News of last year’s temporary cancellation made national headlines. Much of the noise centered around the organizers’ claim that the march was “too white” — a statement the event planners said they intended to describe their own ranks but which many interpreted as an assessment of social demographics.
Following the group’s announcement, former Eureka City Councilmember Linda Atkins announced she would take on organizing efforts to make sure the march happened.
Atkins’ announcement was met with a statement from the original organizers, who said they would boycott the march “in solidarity with local Indigenous leaders, the LGBTQ+ community and communities of color.”
Making matters more complicated, Atkins suffered a heart attack just days before the march. Srabian, a Eureka resident, promptly assumed leadership of the rally.
Multiple members of the original leadership team said Monday they won’t be involved in a 2020 march.
Atkins, who said her health is in good shape, also said she won’t participate in organizing another event.
“I’ve really backed off everything because of my health,” Atkins said.
The Women’s March started as a global protest in 2017 — one day after the inauguration of President Donald Trump — and has continued for two subsequent events.
But controversy has grown around the march’s founders, who last year were criticized for being slow to condemn anti-Semitic remarks made by Nation of Islam leader and Women’s March advocate Louis Farrakhan.
Srabian said the Eureka organizers are not formally affiliated with the larger Women’s March organization, though they do register as one of the rally’s many locations worldwide. The national website shows no marches north of Santa Rosa or Sacramento in California for January 2020.