May Day march in Chicago. Photo: Twitter/@CAARPRNow.
By Kobi Guillory – May 1, 2023
Chicago, IL – 400 people rallied in the rain on Saturday, April 29 to celebrate recent victories in the people’s movements and uplift their present demands. After an hour-long program, the crowd marched from Union Park to five different politically significant locations. Among other chants in English and Spanish, the crowd declared “The people united will never be defeated!”
The rally was called by the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR), and endorsed by 31 organizations including the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare Illinois and Indiana (HCII), the Arab American Action Network (AAAN), Chicago for Abortion Rights, Good Kids Mad City (GKMC), Black Lives Matter Chicago, and the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON).
“May Day began right here in Chicago in the 19th century,” Frank Chapman, executive director of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR) opened the program with a speech about the history of May Day. “We’ve lost some of what we gained then, but what we still have is the struggle, and we’re going to struggle until we win.”
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“We are at an amazing point in Chicago history,” said 7th Police District Councilor Dion McGill. “There’s so much possibility but there are still so many challenges that we face.”
“Months ago, Brandon Johnson was my colleague. Today, I relish the fact that we have a labor leader on the fifth floor of City Hall,” said Maria Moreno, financial secretary of CTU. “But with great opportunities come great challenges, and while the forces of reaction have been defeated, they have not gone away. We must stay united.”
“Right-wing forces, emboldened by the government and its twin parties, have waged an all-out assault on our right to control our bodies, undermining our ability to get an abortion, issuing ban after ban in state after state,” said Nancy Rosenstock, a member of Chicago for Abortion Rights. “Reproductive justice is workers’ rights. After all, it’s the working class bearing the brunt of the economic crisis and the assault on our standard of living.”
Maggie Lugo, executive director of Casa Michoacan, a coalition member of ICIRR, added to calls for unity. “You cannot talk about the workers’ movement without talking about immigrant justice. You cannot talk about immigrant justice without talking about healthcare and human rights.”
“The power of the people is stronger than the people in power. The power of the people is strong enough to overthrow the people in power,” said Angel González, a member of Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) and Little Village High School Fightback, before kicking off the march. “Seeing this movement come together, this rainbow of Black and brown, young and old, tells me that I’m in the right place. Don’t you know you’re in the right place? Don’t you know the power you have?”
Demonstrators visited enemies and friends of the people’s movements. The crowd marched to the office of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) to voice the demand for police accountability and celebrate recent electoral victories of progressive candidates against those endorsed by the FOP in mayoral, aldermanic and police district council races. Protesters wrote slogans in chalk on the street and sidewalk, then marched off chanting “No justice, no peace! No racist police!”
The second stop was at the Mexican consulate. Organizers commended progressive steps taken by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador regarding immigration, while calling on him to oppose the xenophobic policies of the Biden administration and other U.S. presidents before him.
The next three stops were the offices of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 705, Workers United, and United Electrical workers. Protesters vowed to show up in solidarity in the event of an Teamsters strike this summer, which would shut down the logistics industry.
Starbucks Workers Union, a part of Workers United, was one of the endorsing organizations. SWU organizer Russell Dahlman said, “I am one of nearly 75,000 Starbucks workers who won our union, and we are ready to fight to improve our workplace.”
The crowd marched past these union offices chanting “When we fight, we win!” and “Chicago is a union town!”
After returning to Union Park, organizers reiterated the demands for immigrant rights, workers’ rights, reproductive justice, police accountability, LGBTQ rights, and freedom for oppressed nationalities, among other demands. The call to stay in the struggle was felt by everyone in the crowd, with some protesters heading directly to a rally outside the Filipino consulate to protest the U.S.-backed Marcos Duterte regime.
The final chant of the rally was “I believe that we will win!”
