Chicago, IL – On Wednesday morning, July 16, hundreds of people packed the Chicago city hall lobby ahead of the city council meeting. Many youth and community organizations stood united in opposition to the racist snap curfew ordinance that was put forward by Alderman Brian Hopkins two months before. This snap curfew would give the Chicago Police Department unchecked power in the instance of a mass gathering to institute a curfew with only 30 minutes notice and engage in mass arrests.
Chicago, IL – 50 people rallied in Washington Square Park on Saturday, June 21, near the two Gold Coast properties of Illinois Governor JB Pritzker. They demand that the governor grant executive clemency to the hundreds of proven survivors of police torture and wrongful conviction who are still incarcerated in Illinois.
The action was organized by the Campaign to Free Incarcerated Survivors of Torture (CFIST), one of the central campaigns of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR).
Chicago IL – Youth and community organizers packed the main chambers and the overflow room of City Hall on Wednesday morning, June 18 to speak out against the snap curfew ordinance which would allow the police superintendent to call a curfew with a 30-minute notice before enforcement. Any minors outside after the curfew would be taken into custody and their families forced to pick them up from the police station with the possibility of a $500 fine.
Chicago, IL – “Donald Trump said that anyone protesting on his birthday would be met with force. We say to Trump, ‘fuck around and find out,’” said Angel Naranjos, a member of the Immigrant Rights Working Committee of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR) at a June 19 protest held by the Coalition for Justice in Palestine in downtown Chicago.
It was the city’s sixth large protest in seven days, all in resistance to the violence inflicted by the Trump administration in the U.S. and around the world.
Chicago, IL – 300 people gathered in the Pilsen neighborhood, June 8, to protest recent escalations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Trump administration. The protest was called in response to collaboration between the Chicago Police Department (CPD) and ICE agents this week, but escalations by the police and National Guard in Los Angeles a day before made it even more urgent.
Chicago, IL – On the morning of Tuesday, June 3, residents of Little Village in Chicago stood up to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and drove them out of the neighborhood.
Members of the Immigrant Rights Working Committee of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR) spotted suspicious vehicles loitering near the intersection of Troy and 27th Streets and used rapid response techniques to prevent detentions.
Chicago, IL – On the five-year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd, May 25, 300 activists and community members gathered in the streets of Chicago to protest against Trump’s Executive Order 14288 and demand community control over the police.
A broad group of forces was represented in the crowd, including the labor, immigrant rights, students, anti-war, Black, Palestinian and Filipino movements. Several elected officials joined in support as well.
Chicago, IL – Over 400 community members from the South Side of Chicago gathered March 30 for a community listening session featuring Mayor Brandon Johnson.
After more than two months of attacks on Chicago from the White House, the mayor spoke and answered questions about his platform and in defense of the city.
The listening session was held at the Trinity United Church of Christ, an historic civil rights church in the Washington Heights neighborhood on the South Side.
Chicago, IL – On Friday morning, March 21, over 50 protesters gathered outside the Illinois State Board of Investments (ISBI) office in downtown Chicago. They came to demand that ISBI and Vice Chair Michael Frerichs, who currently sits as the Illinois state treasurer, divest from Israeli genocide, apartheid and occupation.
Chicago, IL - To honor International Women’s Day, on March 9, Freedom Road Socialist Organization hosted a film screening of Si Se Puede a documentary on the 1985 Watsonville, California strike, followed by a panel discussion with activists in the Black liberation, immigrant rights and labor movements.
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.
Chicago, IL- On Friday night, February 21, Freedom Road Socialist Organization held an event celebrating Black history and international solidarity in the Black liberation movement. The event took place in the office of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR) on the city’s South Side and consisted of a panel of speeches and some performances representing Black, Palestinian and Chicano liberation, as well as youth and labor struggles.
Chicago, IL – The streets of Little Village in Chicago were filled with the sounds of drums and voices, February 8, as a crowd of 1500 people of all ages moved through this historic Mexicano/Chicano neighborhood.
Marchers representing a coalition of 30 organizations came together in response to the call by the Legalization for All Network for national days of action to stop the attacks on immigrants.
Chicago, IL – El frío extremo no pudo parar a la Coalición para Detener la Agenda de Trump, que movilizó a 2500 personas hacia la Plaza Federal en el centro de Chicago para protestar contra la inauguración de Donald Trump.
Bajo el frío sol del mediodía, los manifestantes se reunieron en la Plaza, marcharon hacia la Torre Trump, y luego se manifestaron una segunda vez ahí – todo para marcar la nueva fase de lucha en la que el movimiento por la justicia social enfrentará graves peligros ante la agenda de Donald Trump y sus aliados republicanos.
Chicago, IL – On the morning of Monday, December 2, about 30 demonstrators, led by survivors of wrongful convictions and their loved ones, gathered in below-freezing temperatures outside the downtown Chicago office of incoming Cook County State's Attorney Eileen Burke to demand she free torture survivors and the wrongfully convicted.
Chicago, IL – On Sunday, November 10, over 100 community members packed into a People’s Town Hall on the northwest side of Chicago. Organized by the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR) and other progressive community groups, the event exposed that the racist Oath Keepers are present in the Chicago Police Department (CPD).
Chicago, IL – Hundreds of Barclays employees were unable to enter their workplace on Thursday morning, October 10, after protesters blocked off all entrances to the bank's downtown headquarters. Barclays owns $2.5 billion worth of shares in eight companies that provide weapons, components and military technology to the genocidal state of Israel and provides loans worth $7.6 billion to seven of those eight companies. The protesters demanded that Barclays divest from these companies as part of the international Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.
Chicago, IL – 75 people assembled outside of the office of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, September 30. One of the leaders of the protest was Jasmine Smith, a young firebrand organizer with the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR). Smith shouted into a well-worn megaphone, “What do we want?” The crowd roared back, “Justice!”
Chicago, IL – Chicagoans demanded action to stop police crimes on Thursday, June 30, at the first official meeting of the newly appointed Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA), a citywide body charged with holding the Chicago Police Department accountable.
50 community members, organizers, police district councilors and family members of those lost to police violence showed up at Saint Sabina Church on the Southside to demand an end to pretextual traffic stops and so-called “tactical teams.” Nine of the ten speakers who gave public comments raised the demand to end these racist police practices which have caused the murders of Dexter Reed and Reginald Clay Jr among many others, as well as the daily harassment of Black and brown people.
Chicago, IL – “This is only a pinch of what we're going to do in August,” Merawi Gerima said to 150 people who rallied outside the 18th District police station on the Near Northside of Chicago, May 19.