Colorado Springs People’s Coalition organizes campaigns around specific causes in order to engage the community in political work and enact social change.
What is a Campaign?
A campaign is a project to pressure a target into making changes according to a list of demands. The demands are created in conversation with our community and the material changes that we want to see. Campaigns are how we unite on action, as we bring together people who may have many different ideas but who agree on a few changes we all want to see.
Our Method
We build our movements around the campaign method, which happens in four steps...
Step 1
Gather Ideas
We talk to the people, we hear their frustrations, and develop a better understanding of the problems that everyone is facing.
Step 2
Sharpen to Demands
We take these frustrations and grievances and we find the common material root cause. We develop actionable goals and demands for material change (a “campaign”) that addresses those root causes.
Step 3
Unite and Struggle
We unite ALL who can be united in struggle for these demands. If we have done step 1 and step 2 well, we bring down the immense pressure of the people on our targets to respond to these demands.
Step 4
Review and Learn
Once we have won all that we can win on our demands, we look back and identify what worked and what didn't work. We take what we learned and go back to step 1.
While we have laid this method out in 4 simple steps, in practice we tackle multiple problems at the same time so we often do all of these steps simultaneously. We may be gathering peoples frustrations over the Homeless Outreach Team while at the same time we are uniting all who can be united around demands for Justice for Anthony and we're developing demands for community control.
Current Campaigns
Justice for Anthony
On March 27th, Anthony Padilla, a local father of 2 and beloved brother and son, was shot and killed by a neighbor at his Village East Apartments laundromat who claimed he was breaking and entering. His killer, a self-proclaimed "vigilante" with a history of harassing and stalking Anthony and other residents, recorded the whole interaction and himself telling the 911 dispatch "make sure police know I'm white". The El Paso County Sheriffs responded to the scene and watched Anthony (still alive at that moment) bleed and plead for life saving aid for 6 minutes before incorrectly treating him with chest compressions. Anthony died from blood loss. The 4th Judicial District Attorney, Michael Allen, called a grand jury where he suppressed all the evidence from that night, and as a result the killer was not indicted. You can read more here.
CSPC is working with the Padilla family to get this case reopened, the sheriffs fired and charged, and the DA removed. This is a campaign we are actively developing with the Padilla family, and calling on our community to support.
Sign the families petition calling for justice here
Past Campaigns
Ceasefire for Palestine
In the first few months after October 7th 2023, CSPC sought to pressure the Colorado Springs city council to adopt a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Palestine and an end to the siege on Gaza. City Council set a precedent speaking out on the issue when they put out a resolution shortly after October 7th affirming their support for Israel.
We used tactics like...
- Rallying outside City Hall
- Educating the City Council members during public comment on the genocide
- Meeting one on one with City Council members
- Marching through downtown
City Council stonewalled our efforts and refused to even hold a vote on adopting a watered down ceasefire resolution. This campaign made us more familiar with how City Council works and some of its undemocratic practices. Additionally, it taught us that it is not enough for the demands to be correct, we need to apply overwhelming pressure.
Justice for Brandon Harris
In April of 2023 CSPC learned about another victim of local cops, Brandon Harris. During a mental health crisis, he was chased by CSPD into Burlington Coat Factory and cornered inside. He ended up taking his own life. We began working with the family on what developed into the “Justice for Brandon Harris” campaign, where we connected the family with a lawyer and demanded that CSPD release the body-cam footage as a first step.
This campaign went to a stalemate, and eventually went into hiatus. We are watching for a change in conditions where we can jump in to continue this struggle.
No More Inmate Deaths
In 2022 CSPC had only just formed when we learned about an 18 year old who was found dead in her cell, Dezaree Archuleta. We began working with the family on the “No More Inmate Deaths” campaign, where we demanded that the CJC end their contract with WellPath.
During our struggle for Dezaree, we found out about NAARPR and learned about their campaign method, and ultimately decided to affiliate. NAARPR was instrumental in sharpening our demands and our strategy to get real change.
In late 2023, the CJC announced it was ending its contract with WellPath.