Mayor Brandon Johnson joined union leaders and advocates at a rally Monday within the West Loop decrying President Donald Trump and different billionaires and calling for employees’ rights as a part of nationwide Labor Day protests.
A whole bunch gathered at a memorial to the victims of the 1886 Haymarket bombing focusing on a pro-labor demonstration and slammed Trump’s plan to ship federal immigration brokers and probably Nationwide Guard troops to Chicago.
Johnson, who minimize his enamel at political rallies and served as a Chicago Lecturers Union organizer, started his speech with a chant: “No federal troops within the metropolis of Chicago! No militarized power within the metropolis of Chicago! We’re gonna defend our democracy within the metropolis of Chicago!”
“Are you ready to defend this land? … If this president decides to proceed to interrupt this Structure, it’s going to be the labor motion that stitches it again collectively,” Johnson added.
The protest was a part of “Staff Over Billionaires: A Labor Day of Motion,” a collection of demonstrations which are anticipated to stretch all through the nation and throughout the Chicago space.
The group was peppered with indicators studying “Democracy doesn’t save itself,” “Immigrants strengthen America” and “Shut Down ICE!” Protesters had a slew of messages they wished to get throughout to Trump — from criticizing what they see as anti-labor insurance policies to protesting the battle in Gaza.
John Kelleher, a constructing inspector with town who lives in Lincoln Sq., stated his major message was “that we don’t want the Nationwide Guard in Chicago.” Trump has threatened to ship troops to town to handle what he describes as uncontrolled crime, though crime has been falling for years.
“The police can deal with it,” Kelleher stated. “Chicago cops are the most effective. And … labor is a power to be reckoned with.”
Bob Reiter, the highly effective president of the Chicago Federation of Labor, kicked off this system to raucous cheering from members of the CTU, the Service Staff Worldwide Union and different employees, saying they had been “standing as much as Donald Trump’s assaults on working folks.”
“He thinks he can simply rip up union contracts and provides tax cuts to billionaires like Elon Musk and Antonio Gracias,” Reiter stated, referring to the CEO of a non-public fairness agency in Chicago who labored for the Division of Authorities Effectivity Service, the initiative Trump and Musk used to slash authorities applications and jobs.
CTU President Stacy Davis Gates, Johnson’s shut ally, denounced “billionaire tyranny on our metropolis” and the Trump administration’s assaults on public well being and training.
“Solidarity is the antidote to white supremacy,” Davis Gates stated. “Solidarity is the antidote to anti-immigrant fever. Solidarity is the antidote to homophobia and transphobia. Solidarity is the antidote to folks not having and needing. It’s solidarity that reunites us.”
