Hours before the Democratic National Convention officially began on Monday, Aug. 19, thousands of people gathered in Chicago’s Union Park for a rally and march organized by the Coalition to March on the DNC. “Democratic Party leadership switching out their presidential nominee does not wash the blood of over 50,000 Palestinians off their hands,” the coalition’s website states. “It is a matter of historical urgency that all organizations who fight for the rights of working and oppressed people in the US join us in this demonstration to stand in solidarity with Palestine.” The Real News reports from the streets of Chicago, speaking with march organizers and attendees.
Interviewer: Mel Buer
Videography: Camero Granadino, David Hebden, Kayla Rivara, Maximillian Alvarez
Post-Production: Cameron Granadino
Audio Mastering: David Hebden
Transcript
Crowd: If we don’t get it, shut it down!
If we don’t get it, shut it down!
If we don’t get it!
Shut it down!
Maximillian Alvarez: We’re here on the ground in Chicago, just blocks away from the United Center, where tonight the Democratic National Convention is set to begin.
But as you can see behind me, the march on the DNC has already begun, with thousands of protesters filling the street. They began the march in Union Park down the road, and now they are currently making their way, slowly but surely ,through the protest route.
But as Mel and I reported for The Real News a couple of weeks ago, this march almost didn’t happen, right Mel?
Mel Buer: Yeah. The organizations have been in the middle of a year-long battle to get permits for this march from the city. Finally, in the last two days, permits were granted for a rally space, for speakers, for a stage, and a protest route was part of the deal.
Maximillian Alvarez: So Hatem, as we discussed weeks ago, this march almost didn’t happen. What do you think it says about the strength of the coalition that you are marching in the streets of Chicago right now within sight and sound of the DNC?
Hatem Abudayyeh (Coalition to March on the DNC): Yeah, I mean, we had every expectation that this is what was going to happen. We’re professional organizers. We’ve been doing this stuff for a long time. We’ve organized every single RNC and DNC protest since 2008. So I was confident that this was going to happen. We ran into some challenges, of course, but we did what we do. We worked with the community, we worked with allies, we worked with people that were close to the administration, and we put some pressure on them. And it worked.
Maximillian Alvarez: And what can folks expect from the rest of the week from the coalition?
Hatem Abudayyeh (Coalition to March on the DNC): Listen, I think we hit close to 15,000 today. And Wednesday, we’ll have a good crowd. Thursday, we’ll have a good crowd. We’re definitely going to get the tens of thousands that we said we were going to get this week. This is a really, really great start.
I was a little bit worried. It was about 11:45 and there were only a couple thousand people there, and I got really, really nervous. But the community came through, my community came through, all the other communities came through. And people from the oppressed communities know that sometimes we start things a few minutes late. So folks got here a few minutes late, but we made up for it.
Maximillian Alvarez: So we expect more marches throughout the week. The Coalition to March on the DNC, representing over 200 organizations that helped organize this march are going to be back here on Thursday, on the day that Kamala Harris speaks. The Real News will be there, and we’re going to take you on the ground right now inside the march itself.
Amanda (protest attendee): So I’ve come out, basically, to send a message that the Democrats need to earn our votes. They don’t just get to have them from us based off of our identity or theirs.
And what I mean by earning our vote is materially making any progress at all, actually, the bar is quite low, towards ending the genocide in Gaza, and also to stop the racist policies that the Democratic Party has continued to perpetuate despite all of their marketing efforts to say otherwise.
I’m really just disappointed in the weaponization of identity politics. And what I mean by that is putting this woman of color up there and being like, oh yeah, she’s like for Black and Brown people. And she’s not. She’s made her career off of incarcerating Black men in California. And it’s sad to see that some people are falling for that.
Real solidarity between different groups includes eliminating carceral structures in the United States, or at the very least reducing the amount of funds towards them. And so just putting a Black or Brown face in a high place is not going to help us, and we really need to fight for material change.
Mel Buer: And you have hope for that, yeah?
Amanda (protest attendee): I do have hope for that. Yeah, I absolutely do. I mean, I think now is the time to push the Democrats and to tell them if they don’t change their policies, we’re going to vote for someone else. And hopefully that’s enough for them because they’re supposed to care about democracy, so yeah.
Hatem Abudayyeh (Coalition to March on the DNC): And this is what they’re afraid of. They’re afraid of all of us. They’re afraid of the unity between Black and Palestinian people in this country. They’re afraid of the unity between Palestinian people and undocumented immigrants in this country. They’re afraid of the unity of the working class and the rank and file workers and the Palestinian people in this country.
So I want to thank every single one of you for being here. I want to thank you for what you do for us and for our families and for our people in Palestine.
Mona (Palestinian Feminist Collective): We have screamed in agony as we witnessed the brutal slaughter of Palestinian children, mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers. We marched, we demanded, we wrote, and we prayed for our people in Palestine only to be met, only to be met with nothing but empty platitudes and contempt from our elected officials. Enough.
Nick Tilson (NDN Collective): We’re an international organization based out of Oceti Sakowin lands, from my home lands in South Dakota. And we’re here showing solidarity, reminding America that this election’s happening on the stolen land of Indigenous people. And here within the Land Back movement, we stand in deep solidarity with the Palestinian people. And we’re here to continue to call for a ceasefire and stop the funding of the military aid to Israel.
We’re also here fighting and reminding folks to support the movement of the return of Indigenous lands back into Indigenous hands.
And then the third campaign that we’re really focused on is we’re fighting for executive clemency for Leonard Peltier, who is the longest existing Indigenous political prisoner in history. So we’re calling on President Biden for executive clemency for Leonard Peltier.
Mel Buer: So we’re standing here. This crowd is just getting bigger and bigger. What is the thing that you’re most excited about being out here today and representing your organization?
Nick Tilson (NDN Collective): I think the biggest thing is we’re out here showing the diversity that makes up this country. There’s been active efforts to erase Indigenous people from the political process, from the narrative process. They tend to try to say that, as we fight for liberation and freedom for all Indigenous peoples, that they make efforts to try to erase us.
And so our purposes here is to show that a multiracial democracy is possible, but we have to be fighting for real politics, like stopping the genocide, like fighting for Indigenous land back, like freeing all of our political prisoners.
Mel Buer: Is there anything else that you would like our audience to know about why you’re here, your organization, why you think it’s important to continue to come out and support this kind of event?
Nick Tilson (NDN Collective): Well, NDN Collective is dedicated to building Indigenous power. And we do that through a multifaceted approach by investing into the self-determination of Indigenous people. Because throughout settler colonialism, our lands, our decision-making process over our lives and our lands has been slowly taken from us. And the Land Back movement is about rebuilding those things.
And so we’re over here reminding America that if it’s ever going to be able to look at itself in the mirror, it is going to have to return, begin to return Indigenous lands back into Indigenous hands. There’s no way that they can get rid of us. They’ve tried everything that they possibly could to get rid of Indigenous peoples in the building of America. And now Indigenous peoples are building an uprising, a movement for structural change for this country.
And that’s what Land Back’s all about. Not just getting actual lands back, but also dismantling the systems that are responsible for the stealing of our lands and responsible for maintaining the continued theft of our lands.
And so as we come out here all throughout Indian country, we live in some of the poorest places in this country. This country prides itself on its human rights record, prides itself on its democracy, yet it never has even begun to get its relationship with Indigenous people right.
And so we’re here to remind this country and America of that, and to stand in solidarity with our Palestinian brothers, to stand in solidarity with our Black brothers and sisters who are fighting for Black reparations, ’cause the Land Back movement not only believes a future where Indigenous lands get returned back into Indigenous hands, but we believe in a future that includes Black reparations too.
Christine Boardman (protest attendee): I’m mainly out here because I’m pissed off at the way the US has been supporting Israel and the destruction of Gaza. That’s the main reason I’m out here. But there’s a lot of good reasons to be out here because the Democratic Party is really just tailing after Israel. Not right.
Mel Buer: How about you?
Kate Thompson (protest attendee): And I would say something very similar. I can’t stand watching day after day the carnage in Gaza and on the West Bank, and I think our government has to cut aid to Israel. We are funding all that carnage.
Christine Boardman (protest attendee): Actually Kate made a really good point. Think about how many people are still just buried in those buildings that they’ve never been able to get out. So when they say that 38,000 civilians have died, I don’t even think that that’s half of it because there used to be more than a million people living there.
Kate Thompson (protest attendee): Yeah. I’ve heard people say, I think up to 150,000 if you include everybody under the rubble and all the people who are going to die from disease and from starvation.
Mel Buer: How do you feel about being out here amongst crowds of, it looks like a thousand, couple thousand. How does it feel to be out here supporting?
Christine Boardman (protest attendee): Well, it feels great. I just wish there were more people out here because that’s what they need to do if we don’t protest. But I think people are disgusted with the way that we can’t get next to the United Center, where all of them are going to be voting on an agenda which is still going to support Israel.
Mel Buer: How do you feel?
Kate Thompson (protest attendee): It feels great. I go every Saturday. There are Palestinian demonstrations downtown, and I go to all of them. And those feel good too, but they’re smaller, so it’s nice to see a bigger crowd. And I hope there will be even a bigger crowd. I think people are still arriving, so hopefully there will be even more.
Mel Buer: Yeah, there’s definitely still people coming into the park. It’s really cool to be out here and to see what’s going on and to talk to folks like you. Is there anything that we haven’t discussed already that you would like our listeners to know?
Christine Boardman (protest attendee): I guess about voting, that I think I’m still not decided. I think I most likely will vote for Kamala just because I’m afraid of Trump, but I’m not sure yet. I want to find out. I want to see how much we can push her to change her policy before I make up my mind, and…
Kate Thompson (protest attendee): I am voting for her, but that’s just because the alternative is Trump. And if you want to see fascism arrive, that’s going to be the step.
Montana Hirsch (MIRAC): Yeah. We’re here with the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee. We’re also here with a larger national network called Legalization for All Network. And we’re here because we are marching for legalization for all. We stand in solidarity with Palestine and Palestinian Liberation as well. But yeah, we’re an immigrant rights group local to Minnesota, and we fight for equality in all areas of life for all immigrants.
Mel Buer: What is one message that you would like to send off to the DNC as you’re standing out here today?
Montana Hirsch (MIRAC): I think we just want them to know that we want legalization for everyone. And even if the Democrats say that they’re going to do better for immigrants in the country, we want to uphold them to that. And I know that there’s been some stuff about being strong on the border just like Trump is, and we want them to know that we’re not cool with that. And immigrants are people too, and they deserve to have their rights respected and upheld.
Mel Buer: What is one thing that you really want folks to know as you’re talking to the individuals that come up to ask about your organization?
Esper Garcia (MIRAC): We marched on the RNC in Milwaukee last month as well. We are here to hold whoever’s in power accountable, and we haven’t seen the Democrats do much better.
I was on a delegation to the US-Mexico border last spring, and the border wall was still being built under the Biden administration. So we know that we have to be out here in the streets fighting every step of the way for immigrant rights in order for them to take us seriously.
Maximillian Alvarez: Thank you so much for watching The Real News Network, where we lift up the voices, stories, and struggles that you care about most. And we need your help to keep doing this work. So, please, tap your screen now, subscribe, and donate to The Real News Network. Solidarity forever.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
