West Side of Chicago links arms to defend Mayor Brandon Johnson

Chicago, IL – The congregants at Healing Temple Church on Chicago’s West Side welcomed veteran community organizers to a rally against attacks on their beloved city, on March 1.

150 people came to the church to defend Mayor Brandon Johnson, who, along with several other progressive mayors has been called to testify before racist Republicans in Congress. This is a continuation of the Trump agenda’s attacks on Chicago for being a progressive city with strong movement forces.

Billed as a “Sendoff rally for Mayor Johnson,” when the mayor entered the church, it was clear this was a crowd of his supporters.

The crowd raised the roof with a chant made famous in the 1960s on the West Side by Fred Hampton, the chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party: “all power to the people!” During the 60s, this slogan meant that Black people, Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, Native Americans, and the working class in the U.S. are the people, in struggle against the tiny minority referred to today as the billionaires.

Start of a new movement?

Jitu Brown, a new member of the first elected school board in Chicago history, was early among the speakers at the rally. He framed the advances in the history and current characteristics of the struggle here.

A veteran of the Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization (KOCO), Brown is perhaps most well-known for the 34 day Dyett High School Hunger Strike to stop the closing of schools in Black communities during the Rahm Emanuel administration.

Brown reminded us that the ruling class has closed over 160 schools in the Chicago Public Schools system, stating, “They didn’t want to improve public education: they wanted to remove Chicago as a Soul City.” A soul city refers to a city that is a majority Black. In the year 2000, 54% of Chicago public school students were Black. Today only 35% are Black. 47% are Latino, and 70% are low income.

The Dyett Hunger Strike took place in 2015, following Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s closing 50 schools in 2013, mostly in Black neighborhoods.

Standing against anti-immigrant attacks

Brown added, “Today a lot of the energy is anti-immigrant.” From his history being schooled by the Black power movement, he said, “We will not support the oppression of any people.”

Speaking of the history of the Black community struggle for good public schools, Brown went after Brandon Johnson’s enemies, stating, “A lot of the negativity that you are hearing about our mayor are from those people who have been using the city of Chicago as a pig’s trough for decades.”

“It is time for the city to do right by Black and brown people. We’re sitting in a city that has never had an elected school board, now with one.”

“We are in a city that has had privatizers running the city, and through our collective work, we put one of our own on the Fifth Floor.” The fifth floor of City Hall is where the mayor’s office is located.

Referring to Mayor Johnson’s appearance before the Republican-dominated Congress, Brown said, “This is just a little pit stop to let the world know we are building a better Chicago.”

“No matter how loud they bark, they are not going to disrupt what we call the soul of Chicago.”

Mayor Johnson: “Beauty of liberation”

Johnson took the pulpit as the crowd roared support. After speaking about the Republicans he will face in Washington, he said, “It’s important that we honor those that had enough foresight to put measures in place to ensure that the voices of marginalized people would never be squashed by the federal government or law enforcement. There was a brother by the name of James Montgomery, the first Black corporate counsel in Chicago history. He was also the legal counsel for the Black Panther Party.”

The mayor went on to say that “James Montgomery sent a note to Mayor Harold Washington that we should not allow federal agents to run through our city. Nor should we allow them to force local law enforcement to do their job.”

“They understood how the brutality of law enforcement could harm people. Whether you are undocumented or a descendant of slaves, James Montgomery understood that we cannot allow the federal government to suppress or oppress our people.”

Johnson closed his remarks with this: “We’re going to make sure that the roar that comes out of Chicago ignites a movement across America and across the globe. No matter where you’re from, you get to have the beauty of liberation in the city of Chicago.”

“We fight for working people! Are you with me, Chicago?”

The people united can never be defeated

Frank Chapman of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR), the lead organizer of the rally, spoke after Mayor Johnson.

“If you consider yourself a Black freedom fighter, engaged in the struggle for the liberation of our people, you cannot be guilty of hating on the immigrants. You cannot fall for the seeds of division planted by Trump and his reactionary minions, that somehow, some way, poor people coming from the south of our borders, seeking asylum; poor people seeking freedom from terror in their own lands, encouraged and supported by our government; that somehow this poses a problem for Black people.”

“This doesn’t pose a problem for us! We got a problem with the same people they have a problem with. We stand united with these people because we share a common oppressor: the billionaires that have always used the tool of racism to divide and conquer.”

Chapman called for support of the Sanctuary City laws that prohibit local law enforcement from engaging in immigration enforcement. “We reject the ideas that immigrants are criminals and deporting them would take the crime rate down.”

“What would take the crime rate down is to deport Trump!”

Black/Latino coalition

About one quarter of the crowd in the church were Latino activists and community members from the nearby Chicano/Mexicano neighborhoods. Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez was one of the Latino activists who joined the rally, representing the 25th Ward of neighborhoods like Pilsen and Little Village on the Lower West side of Chicago.

Sigcho-Lopez explained, “Chicago is a target. Trump targets us for deportations, but Chicago is also our hope.”

As his three small children gathered around him, Sigcho-Lopez said, “This is why we fight for the quality public education that all our children deserve.”

Sigcho-Lopez called for unity of all working people – Black, Latino, Asian and white – against attacks on immigrants and against the closing of public schools and unionized charter schools like Acero. In addition, last week ICE seized a father dropping off his children at Acero.

What do these two movements of resistance have in common? Sigcho-Lopez said, “The billionaires in DC and the billionaires in Chicago don’t have enough, so they take from the poor.”

“When we see parents being grabbed from their communities, we have to stand for the dignity of our people.”

“There’s no place I would rather be than Chicago, the city of Rudy Lozano and Mayor Harold Washington!” Sigcho-Lopez referred to union organizer and Chicano community leader Rudy Lozano, who supported the election of Harold Washington in 1983. This created for the first time a Black and Latino coalition, making possible the defeat of the white racist Democratic Party and election of Washington, Chicago’s first Black mayor.

Chicago Alliance: On to Washington

In support of Mayor Johnson when he appears before the racist Republicans in Congress, Chapman announced, “Black History Month is over, but Black history is still going on, and we’re going to make some today. On the 5th, we’re going to Washington, DC to support our mayor and our city.”

Sigcho-Lopez gave special mention to the role played by CAARPR in organizing the rally. Crystal Gardner, one of the West Side organizers, also said afterward about this rally, “A big shout out to the Chicago Alliance for having the blueprint, vision, mission and base to activate spaces and communities. This is only the beginning, and I look forward to many more!”

#ChicagoIL #IL #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #ImmigrantRights #BrandonJohnson #CAARPR #NAARPR #CTU

Source: https://fightbacknews.org/west-side-of-chicago-links-arms-to-defend-mayor-brandon-johnson?pk_campaign=rss-feed