A wide range of organizations, some of whom rarely get involved in non-electoral politics, are calling upon San Diegans to put on their protesting shoes this week during the annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

Protests, press conferences, teach-ins, rallies and guerrilla theater are happening throughout the week, commencing on Tuesday, July 21. Buses were coming from the Los Angeles/Long Beach areas on Wednesday for what organizers expected to be the largest events of the week.

Why Protest ALEC?

The march of pro-dirty energy, anti-equality and austerity-based legislation in recent decades has a direct correlation to the lack of opportunity and widening gap between the rich and the poor.

The American Legislative Exchange Council, with its closed-door meetings and dubious financial relationships with state legislators, has been the driving force behind many of these bad ideas. ALEC functions as a legislative "bill mill" where company lobbyists and right wing crusaders dictate their desires to elected representatives, brought together with corporate “scholarships” and the hope of future campaign support.

As Paul Krugman wrote, “ALEC, even more than other movement-conservative organizations, is clearly playing a long game. Its legislative templates aren’t just about generating immediate benefits to the organization’s corporate sponsors; they’re about creating a political climate that will favor even more corporation-friendly legislation in the future.”

A steadily mounting campaign of public exposure, fueled in large part by the investigative prowess of the Center for Media and Democracy, along with the activism of Color of Change and Common Cause, has led more than 90 of the corporate members who fund ALEC to withdraw their support.

Thousands of people signed a petition at Change.Org calling upon Mayor Kevin Faulconer to refuse to speak at ALEC’s annual conference alongside Tea Party leaders. In addition, members of San Diego’s Overpass Light Brigade assembled in front of the Manchester Grand Hyatt, where ALEC meeting attendees were staying, to stage a light brigade that read “STOP ALEC.”

San Diego Democrats held a “Stop ALEC Welcome Party” on Tuesday, gathering with other allied organizations to provide incoming ALEC legislators with a visual reminder that they are not welcome in San Diego.

On Wednesday, Dolores Huerta headlined a labor rally in which thousands of activists from the immigration, labor, interfaith and environmental justice communities came together at Embarcadero Park North. Speakers included Ethiopian-American labor activist Tefere Gebre, executive vice president of the AFL-CIO; activist Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers, and representatives from community groups.

The announcement for the rally included the following statement:

"The coalition of groups protesting the conference will stand together to deliver a message to the out-of-state politicians and their wealthy benefactors: California is a No ALEC Zone. Our state has roundly rejected ALEC’s regressive agenda that rolls back the rights of everyday people to further line the pockets of wealthy and powerful corporate interests.

On Wednesday, the statewide Courage Campaign also held a rally at Embarcadero Park North, stating ahead of time their reason for protesting ALEC:

“Legislators from across the country will arrive to take their marching orders from the Koch Brothers, giant corporations, and right-wing millionaires and billionaires. ALEC pushes model legislative bills designed to:

*restrict our ability to vote

*increase gun violence

• destroy our environment

• end our right to organize

• and give billions of dollars away in corporate welfare.

“They want to destroy marriage equality in America and halt all progress for LGTB rights…”

In addition, environmental activists with San Diego 350 met Wednesday to create a unified block protesting ALEC’s anti-climate change policies funded by “fossil fuel giant corporate members like ExxonMobil and Peabody Energy.”

For more ALEC protest coverage throughout the week in San Diego, and to find out ways to get involved, go here.

Originally published by San Diego Free Press