Chicago, IL – Hundreds of Barclays employees were unable to enter their workplace on Thursday morning, October 10, after protesters blocked off all entrances to the bank's downtown headquarters. Barclays owns $2.5 billion worth of shares in eight companies that provide weapons, components and military technology to the genocidal state of Israel and provides loans worth $7.6 billion to seven of those eight companies. The protesters demanded that Barclays divest from these companies as part of the international Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.
Chicago, IL – 75 people assembled outside of the office of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, September 30. One of the leaders of the protest was Jasmine Smith, a young firebrand organizer with the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR). Smith shouted into a well-worn megaphone, “What do we want?” The crowd roared back, “Justice!”
Chicago, IL – Chicagoans demanded action to stop police crimes on Thursday, June 30, at the first official meeting of the newly appointed Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA), a citywide body charged with holding the Chicago Police Department accountable.
50 community members, organizers, police district councilors and family members of those lost to police violence showed up at Saint Sabina Church on the Southside to demand an end to pretextual traffic stops and so-called “tactical teams.” Nine of the ten speakers who gave public comments raised the demand to end these racist police practices which have caused the murders of Dexter Reed and Reginald Clay Jr among many others, as well as the daily harassment of Black and brown people.
Chicago, IL – “This is only a pinch of what we're going to do in August,” Merawi Gerima said to 150 people who rallied outside the 18th District police station on the Near Northside of Chicago, May 19.
Chicago IL – Students at the University of Chicago set up an encampment in solidarity with Gaza on Monday, April 29. After a week of threats from the university administration, the University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) raided the encampment before dawn on Tuesday, May 7.
Chicago, IL – On April 18, the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, alongside other organizations in the Black liberation movement, called a rally at Chicago Police Department Headquarters ahead of the police board meeting to demand that the five officers who fired 96 shots and murdered Dexter Reed, Jr. be fired, indicted and convicted.
200 activists and supporters from all corners of the movement in Chicago, from torture survivors to family members of those killed by police violence, as well as those from the Palestinian liberation movement, converged on CPD HQ to make clear to the powers that be that Chicagoans will no longer stand for police terror.
Chicago, IL – “We are busy building a new nation out of the embers of apartheid, and if we had sanctions and American companies withdrawing from South Africa it would devastate our country and create a total disaster,” said Naledi Pandor, South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation.
Chicago, IL – Groups supporting Palestine are suing Chicago to ensure that Joe Biden “can hear us and see us” at the Democratic National Convention in August, sats Kobi Guillory, spokesperson for the Coalition to March on the DNC.
When the convention opens at the United Center, August 19, the coalition is adamant that they get the attention they deserve.
Guillory states, “As the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza continues unabated – with over 32,000 killed, almost all by U.S. bombs and missiles – we must march. This is the party in power, the party of Genocide Joe Biden. Biden could stop the war with one phone call. He refuses to take action, and so we must protest.”
Chicago, IL – The fight to get permits to march on the Democratic National Convention is heating up. On August 19 to the 22, the Democratic National Convention (DNC) comes Chicago. The massive movement against the genocide in Gaza is preparing to march to the United Center where the convention will be held.
The Coalition to March on the DNC has raised the slogans, “Stand with Palestine! End U.S. aid to Israel!”
Chicago, IL – Over 1000 people rallied and marched from the Israeli Consulate through downtown Chicago on March 16 calling for an end to U.S. aid to Israel’s genocide in Palestine and an immediate and unconditional ceasefire. Irish flags rippled in the wind alongside Palestinian, Yemeni and South African flags on Saint Patrick’s Day weekend, as the afternoon demonstration highlighted the connection between Ireland and Palestine’s history of struggle and the need for solidarity against colonial oppression.