Hundreds of Chicagoans march for International Women's Day
Chicago, IL – On Sunday, March 8, hundreds of Chicagoans marched downtown from Daley Plaza to the Trump tower in support of International Women’s Day. Chicagoans gathered to protest against Trump’s attacks on women’s rights, reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, the racist attacks by ICE, and the attacks on working-class and oppressed people.
Channyn Lynne Parker from Equality Illinois said, “Black women, I want to say I see you. Trans women, I see you. Every woman who has ever been told that you are too much and not enough at the same time, I see you.” Lynne Parker emphasized the importance of continuing to organize, lead, and fight for women's rights.
“If we stop fighting, we will see our rights taken from us,” said Lynne Parker.
“We are seeing families separated, neighbors kidnapped off the streets, mothers, sisters, daughters, pregnant women, friends who don't come home one day because they have been violently brutalized and abducted by the racist fucking gestapo, where they are further terrorized in ICE's detention facilities— or, let's call them what they are, veritable concentration camps!” said Kayla Nguyen, member of the Immigrant Rights Working Committee of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (IRWC of CAARPR).
“We will not stay silent. Women have been at the forefront of every struggle, in every fight for liberation and freedom for all and we will continue to fight united, across all fronts until we win,” rallied Nguyen.
Cristina Villarreal from Planned Parenthood highlighted the recent ICE attacks on immigrant communities and access to healthcare. “Today, our government is cutting access to evidence-based healthcare. Today, people who look just like me— entire communities— are afraid to leave their homes let alone go to the health centers to get the care they need. But we are not gonna stand idly by and let our rights be taken away. We are not powerless to fight back. We're motivated. We're here today because we care, and that energy can carry us far,” said Villarreal.
Lara Haddadin from the U.S Palestinian Community Action Network (USPCN) garnered praise and applause from the crowd, stating, “Today is International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian women, which is fitting. One of the things I'm here to talk about is how the Palestinian struggle for liberation has always and will always be a feminist and reproductive justice issue. Feminism, without an anti-imperialist lens, serves no one but the wealthy and the white. We cannot call ourselves feminists if we are voting for and supporting the same politicians bombing women in Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iran. You cannot claim to be progressive if you do not support Palestinian liberation, which women have historically been at the forefront of fighting for generation after generation,” said Haddadin. She further detailed the skyrocketing rates of miscarriages, unsafe births, and lack of medical care in Gaza due to the Israeli genocide.
Haddadin then connected the deportations on immigrant communities across the U.S. and the genocide in Palestine to the local Illinois State Board of Investments (ISBI), which invests a 100 million of Illinoisans’ tax dollars in Israeli bonds and companies that support both ICE and the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
Haddadin ended with a call for unity, stating, “Our struggles are interconnected as these various systems surveil, kidnap, and murder our loved ones with impunity. People are finally waking up to who is actually wearing the boot on their neck and I urge them all to get involved beyond large protests, because this system has always been rotten to its core, even before Trump. And it's going to take all of us united in order to defeat it.”
Louise Carhart from the Freedom Road Socialist organization (FRSO) echoed the calls to unity, saying “The only way forward is through a united front of oppressed and working-class peoples. We will not win by bending feminism to fit the parameters of capitalism or compromising on solidarity. I march with all of you because this fight will not be won in the courtroom, it will be won in the streets.”
The crowd then took to the streets and marched to Trump Tower as they chanted, “One, two, three, four! Gender violence, no more! Five, six, seven, eight! Empower people, not the state!”
The protest was endorsed by the U.S. Palestinian Community Action Network, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Planned Parenthood, Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Chicago Abortion Fund, Arab American Action Network, Brave Space Alliance, Trans Up Front, and the Illinois Coalition for Human Rights.