Chicago, IL – The racist March 16 murders of Soon Chung Park, Juncha Kim, Yong Ae Yue, Paul Andre Michels, Hyun Jung Grant, Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng and Delaina Ashley Yaun in Atlanta, Georgia have caused a wave of revulsion and anger among the people, especially in the Asian community. The mainstreaming of extreme right-wing politics in the past decade, as the crisis of monopoly capitalism has continued to unfold, coupled with the bipartisan attacks against socialist China and People’s Korea set the stage for this deadly attack.

The Asian community mobilized quickly to defend itself from racist terrorism. In the Chicago area alone, there have been four mass demonstrations opposing racist violence against Asian women. The first, on March 20, on the northwest side Logan Square neighborhood, drew a militant, multinational crowd of over 300 people, mostly youth. There was a smaller rally of about 100 people the next day, March 21, at Laramie Park in the northern suburb of Skokie. On March 27, a mass rally of over 400 people was held in Chicago's Chinatown on the near South Side. The next day, a smaller rally was held in the North Side neighborhood of Uptown, home to a large Vietnamese and Cambodian community.

At the Chinatown rally, a place was reserved on the speaker's list for the commander of the 1st District police station by politicians who play both sides, saying they help the people with one hand and holding them down with the other by working with the cops. This boss cop tried to pretend that the same police force that murdered LaQuan McDonald and Rekia Boyd would actually protect working-class Asians against attacks. However, Chinese youth kept the mood militant, with signs that read “Fuck your 'bad day'” and “We're not your punching bag.”

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #AsianNationalities #AntiAsianViolence #antiasianAtlantaShooting

Grand Rapids, MI – Over 300 people rallied to denounce the racist and woman-hating murders in Georgia of six Asian American women and two other men. Speakers and organizations representing people of Filipino, Chinese, Vietnamese and Pacific Islander descendent spoke at Rosa Parks Circle in downtown Grand Rapids on March 20.

Lily Cheng-Schulting, a progressive Democrat and candidate for Michigan’s 72nd State House District introduced Kent County Commissioner Robert Womack, who criticized the statements by police officials in Georgia. The rally ended with a speech by NAACP President Cle J. Jackson, calling for unity and the need to fuse the various movements in this country to stop racist attacks.

The Grand Rapids Asian-Pacific Foundation asked for solidarity, “as we remember and honor the victims from the mass murder in Atlanta and denounce the rapidly growing hate crimes against Asian Americans.”

About 2% of Grand Rapids population is Asian and Pacific Islander people.

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