Chicago, IL – On the afternoon of Wednesday, August 14, five days before the Democratic National Convention, the city of Chicago slapped organizers of the Coalition to March on the DNC with permits saying they can assemble in Union Park on the condition that they have no sound amplification, stages, tents, or port-a-potties. This effectively denies them the ability to hold a rally.

Coalition members organized a press conference Thursday morning, a 100-person rally in the afternoon, and a national call-in to demand their right to rally on August 19 at Union Park.

“Again, the city of Chicago has blindsided us and restricted our rights,” said Hatem Abudayyeh, a spokesperson for the coalition, and national chair of one of its leading organizations, the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN). “We don’t believe that any of the previous restrictions are content-based, but this one clearly is. Someone doesn’t want us to talk about Palestine, about Genocide Joe and Killer Kamala’s support of genocide, and this is an egregious violation of our rights.”

The Coalition urged people to call Chicago Chief Operating Officer John Roberson to demand that the city recognize their right to have a sound system and sanitation for their rally.

“The organizers have done everything they can to make sure people are safe at this march, and now we need the city to do that,” 33rd Ward Alderwoman Rossana Rodríguez said at a press conference outside City Hall on Thursday morning.

Other alderpersons, Julia Ramirez of the 12th Ward and Byron Sigcho-Lopez of the 25th, also spoke about the need for the city to stop obstructing the protest. They were joined by veteran organizers in the Black liberation and immigrant rights movements.

“This is not 1968. We don't have a ‘shoot to kill’ mayor,” said Cheryl Miller, health justice organizer of Southside Together Organizing for Power (STOP). “I am calling on Mayor Johnson to not let the fears of the past cause the chaos he is trying to prevent,” Miller continued.

“We didn't come here to beg for anything,” Frank Chapman, executive director of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR) said at the end of the press conference. “We're demanding that they recognize our right to speak!”

100-plus people gathered outside City Hall on Thursday afternoon to make their demands again. Speakers included organizers from CAARPR, USPCN, Students for a Democratic Society, the Anti War Committee – Chicago, and others who have spent months organizing the marches on August 19 and 22. Organizers who had traveled from Minneapolis, Seattle and New Orleans also addressed the crowd.

Speakers affirmed that the march on August 19 would take place in spite of the city's attempts to silence protesters.

“With over 200 organizations in the coalition and thousands and thousands of people gearing up to march, we will march. And we will have our demands heard, no matter what the city or the U.S. government says!” said USPCN organizer Rania Salem.

During the rally, the coalition also had a call with a federal judge and the city's attorneys to address the injunction put forward by the Coalition against the city's restrictions on their free speech. The city has until noon on Friday to respond, after which there will be an in-person hearing at the Dirksen Federal courthouse at 2:30 p.m.

#ChicagoIL #MarchonDNC2024 #MarchontheDNC #MarchonDNC24 #Permit #DNC #feature

Meredith Aby, a member of the MN Anti-War Committee,explains, “While dropping Genocide Joe off the Democratic ticket is progress, we have yet to get action or even promises that Harris/Walz will commit to an arms embargo on Israel. Progressive forces from around the country are coming to Chicago to tell the Democratic Party that we don’t just want an alternative to Trump, we want an end to the genocide in Gaza.”

Aby continued, “In Minnesota we have been pressuring Governor Tim Walz, as the chair of the State Board of Investment, to divest Minnesota public worker pensions from Israeli companies and companies that are profiting from Israeli apartheid and genocide. Unfortunately, we haven’t gotten any movement from him. We are traveling to Chicago to keep up the pressure!”

Humberto Martin, an organizer with Twin Cities Coalition for Justice, added, “The national news media has been celebrating the progressive agenda of Governor Walz as a reason to vote for Harris/Walz, but we know that the progressive legislation he voted for, from drivers licenses for all to free public school lunches, are because of the organizing of grassroots groups here in Minnesota.”

Nearly 100 protesters will be leaving from Bethel Lutheran Church at 10:30 the evening of the 18th. Organizations marching on the DNC from Minnesota include the Anti War Committee (AWC), Twin Cities Coalition for Justice (TCC4J),MN Free Palestine Coalition, Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), Minnesota Abortion Action Committee (MNAAC), Climate Justice Committee (CJC), MN Workers United (MWU), Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), UMN Students for a Democratic Society (UMN SDS), Women Against Military Madness (WAMM), and American Muslims for Palestine (AMP).

#MinneapolisMN #Kamala #MarchontheDNC #MarchOnDNC24 #HarrisWalz #Walz #Harris #MarchonDNC2024 #FreePalestine

Chicago, IL – Organizers with the Coalition to March on the Democratic National Convention held a press conference outside City Hall on Tuesday morning to speak out against the denial of their permit applications. The Chicago Department of Transportation gave the coalition an alternate route four miles away from where the DNC is scheduled to happen.

“We reject their decision because we have the right to voice the demands of the people within sight and sound of the DNC. We demand a permit to march as a gesture of good faith that the police will not introduce violence into our family-friendly protest.” said Jasmine Smith, a co-chair of the Campaign to Free Incarcerated Survivors of Torture (CFIST), which is a campaign of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.

“Many of the attendees of the DNC are responsible for or complicit in U.S. aggression against other countries including genocide in Palestine, police committing crimes with impunity, mass incarceration, deportations, neglect of LGBTQ and reproductive rights, undermining of workers’ demands, and other injustices against the people,” Smith continued.

“We all have the right to protest within sight and sound of the DNC, but right now, Palestinians should be afforded even more of this right, since the politicians that will be here, including Genocide Joe Biden, are the ones responsible for the almost 30,000 Palestinians who have been killed in Gaza by the U.S.-funded Israeli military since October 7,” said Nazek Sankari with the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN)

Tthe Democratic Party base in Chicago wants a ceasefire, wants to see Israel stop the genocide, wants to see its nominal leader, Joe Biden, stop arming Israel and end U.S. aid to Israel,” Sankari continued.

“We want money for jobs and education, not for wars and occupation. From Palestine to the Philippines, we demand an end to the U.S. war machine,” said Diana Balitaan with Anakbayan Chicago, after explaining how Democratic Party politicians are allied with the reactionary Marcos Duterte regime in the Philippines.

“We’re demanding that the Democrats act and vote on our behalf, on behalf of asylum seekers and all immigrants,” said Maggie Lugo, executive director of the Federation of Michoacan Clubs. “We’re not asking, we're demanding what we deserve.''

“With or without a permit we are going to be out there. They can't stop u,” said Regina Russell, member of Mothers Advancing Movements for Abolition and Solidarity (MAMAS) in a written statement.

The coalition will be appealing the decision in court this week, but organizers emphasized that the mass movement will ultimately be responsible for winning the permit.

“This is not our first rodeo,” Joe Iosbaker with CAARPR said in reference to his and other coalition members’ experience organizing marches on NATO and the RNC, as well as mass rallies for all the fights coalition members are involved in.

Iosbaker continued, “We’re going to get a permit because the power of the people is stronger than the people in power.”

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #UnitedStates #DNC #MarchOnDNC2024 #NAARPR #CAARPR #USPCN #CFIST #Anakbayan