Chicagoans to March in Solidarity Against White Supremacists

A coalition of Chicagoans representing more than 50 community and labor organizations will assemble at 2pm, Sunday, August 27 to say NO to white supremacists, and the political culture & public officials propagating hate, violence and inequality.

Late Friday, knowing they would face massive opposition, neo-fascists in the Bay Area cancelled their planned events. Counter-protesters in the Bay Area decided to continue the plan to take their opposition to the bigots to the streets, and we will be doing the same here in Chicago.

The Chicago event, entitled Solidarity Against White Supremacy, will begin at Federal Plaza, corner of Adams and Dearborn Streets, and march to near Trump Tower, corner of Wabash and Wacker Avenues.

Solidarity Against White Supremacy is part of the National Weekend of Solidarity, a national effort to show support for community members planning to protest hate groups and other racists in San Francisco and Berkeley on the weekend of August 26-27. The rally comes in the wake of the Charlottesville violence and the inability of officials like President Trump and Governor Bruce Rauner to properly condemn it.

"While many are prompted to protest the egregious responses of Trump, Rauner and others to the fascist hate and violence in Charlottesville, we also recognize that this hate has deep institutional roots in our country, and many of the policies pursued by politicians of both parties reinforce, rather than diminish it," said Jaquie Algree vice president for external relations of SEIU Healthcare Illinois & Indiana. "Depriving schools serving primarily Black and Brown youth of the music, art, sports and other programs enjoyed by wealthier, whiter students, closing public mental health clinics, slashing social services relied on by women and people of color, attacking unions, deporting millions of immigrants--all these are policies that reinforce the racism and other hate highlighted in Charlottesville."

Solidarity Against White Supremacy organizers note that the murder of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, VA was but the most publicized in a string of neo-fascist terrorist attacks in the United States. In 2016, attacks on Muslims increased 67% over the preceding year. In May of this year, Black Bowie State student Richard W. Collins III was murdered by a neo-Nazi on the University of Maryland campus. In June, Richy John Best and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche were murdered in Portland when they intervened to stop racist harassment of two young Black women.

"When Trump says he wants to 'make America great again,' we know that he wants to turn the clock back to a time when few had the courage to oppose the racism, sexism, anti-Semitism and anti-LGBTQ hate espoused by his core, 'Alt-Right,' neo-fascist supporters," said Andy Thayer of the Gay Liberation Network. "It is no accident that Chicago is one of the cities where these organized creeps are at their weakest - On March 11, 2016, Chicagoans forced then-candidate Trump to cancel his rally at UIC. On August 27, Chicagoans will gather once again to tell white supremacists and anyone else with the intent to harm, that they are not welcome in Chicago."