Thousands in Chicago “Greet” Fascist Trump
In Manner He Merits
| revcom.us
The following letter from a Revolution Club member describes the massive protest against Trump this past Monday, October 28, and comments on the activity of the club within that.
Trump came to Chicago to address the International Association of Police Chiefs. At the speech he urged them to go after “far-left activists” who oppose him on immigration in particular. He also attacked Chicago police chief Eddie Johnson who refused to attend because of Trump’s racist remarks, and made a thinly veiled call for much more violent repression against masses of people in Chicago. The pigs’ union did a vote of no confidence after Johnson announced he would not attend. And the only official person who met him at the airport was the head of the FOP.
After Trump attacked Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, she tweeted back at him about bringing his “ignorant buffoonery” to Chicago, defending both Johnson and the sanctuary city. This reflects both the struggles at the top of society and also maybe reflects something about the mood of the Black masses and how dangerous they see Trump, and the ways that politicians like Lightfoot feel compelled to “get ahead” of this feeling. While the protesters were all nationalities, still predominately white but the Black masses from homeless to middle strata on lunch break really joining in the chants, filming and generally being very supportive. All this is part of the ground on which the Revolution Club was acting, and provides context for the report that follows:
From a member of the National Revolution Tour
Thousands of people poured out for the protest against Trump during his visit to Chicago. And as it became a march through downtown at lunchtime, thousands more lined the streets cheering it on, filming, etc. The bulk of the protest was middle strata and white, but there were a lot of other people in the mix, of all ages. There was an immigrant rights contingent that included a lot of Latinos and some Spanish-speakers that marched in to join the main protest. There were pockets of teachers and students who have been out at the teachers strike rallies and marches. There seemed to be a crew of middle-aged people from Oak Park (with signs indicating this), but I didn’t learn more about that. There were some Black people, including a handful from the more oppressed section of society, mainly there on their own. There was a small crew of younger people of different nationalities (some are old friends) that were itching to take the streets and led the whole rally to do so.
Refuse Fascism played a very significant and dynamic role, and the Revolution Club was both part of fighting for the message of #OutNow as well as the full problem and solution and getting out the 5-2-6 broadsheet (The 5 STOPS, the 2 Choices, and the 6 Points of Attention) and the flyer about the Puerto Rican People’s Day parade case. Collectively we were able in large part to stamp the protest with #OutNow, visually (especially with the big blue banner and the #OutNow letters), audibly (the Trump/Pence Out Now chant was widely taken up), and saturated with flyers. We also seemed to be able to make it pretty widely known through agitation and chants the actual day, time, and place of the weekly protests.
The Indivisible people, who were the main force that had called for and organized this, were working overtime to put forward a totally paltry message: vote and go register people to vote. While there certainly was an audience for this, there were a lot of people who responded to our agitation that we can’t wait for 2020, that telling people the answer to this fascism is register people to vote is part of the passivity we have to break out of. We did a lot of agitation, really working to make the case to people, with evidence, that 1) this is a fascist regime and it has to be removed from power now, 2) the impeachment will not do that on its own, but by creating a crisis of millions in the street demanding the whole regime must go, we could change the terms, 3) the unrelenting mass protests we see all over the world are an example of how the people become a new force that can actually change things, 4) there is a means to do this through the #OutNow protests that have begun and 5) we need your help in breaking people out of the passivity, we have to go against the tide.
A lot of people were drawn in listening to this agitation, videoing it, and when the question was put to them about why the passivity of our side and how to change it, many said they think people too much think about themselves and what’s happening to them and not what’s happening to other people. One woman when asked about how to change this brought up an ad she saw about gun violence that showed children at school, she described something visceral that reaches inside of you and said we need some things like that. Other people described continually posting things on Facebook about what is happening to people as the way they have tried to change how people are thinking and acting, but while people like their posts, they don’t come out into the streets. People who said that were saying they will come this Saturday even if it is by themselves.
The image of the protests happening around the world and doing that here really resonated with people, though there seems to be a gap between that and people actually deciding to be part of fighting to make happen the week-after-week protests.
We had a small Revolution Club crew and the banner, This System Cannot Be Reformed, It Must Be Overthrown. At times along the march we did that chant, “There’s a whole better way that the world can be, make revolution get humanity free,” as well as the 1-2-3-4 chant – America Was Never Great, and we used these chants as a bouncing off point for agitation about what gave rise to this fascist regime and why and how there’s really a whole better way the world can be. One thing that got a big response was when we essentially were laying out some of the content of the POAs (Points of Attention for the Revolution) in terms of the world we are fighting for. We brought out the leadership of BA and the new communism, and there is a force organizing now for this revolution, and that what we forge together now by getting in the streets in mass protest opens up the space for that kind of future. Some people turned away when we got into the revolution we need, but a lot of people were at least curious, some more attracted. We got out about 200 of the 5-2-6 and probably about the same amount of the Puerto Rican People’s Day parade case flyers.
Photo: Twitter/@JoshuaPotash
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