CHICAGO (NewsNation) — Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters are expected to mobilize during next week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago, calling for the U.S. to end aid to Israel as the conflict in the Middle East continues.
The March on the DNC — a coalition of 223 organizations from 21 states — will host two demonstrations through the city’s streets during the four-day event. Much of its attention falls on pro-Palestinian efforts, but the group has taken on other issues like social justice.
Faayani Aboma Mijana, a spokesperson for the coalition to March on the DNC and a member of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, told NewsNation the underlying mission is for groups to have their voices heard.
“We’re all coming together from different areas of the movement, from different areas of society to say we want this genocide to end,” Aboma Mijana said.
“We all recognize that our issues are all directly tied to what’s happening over there.”
Event organizers told NewsNation that they would not divulge how disruptive the marches could be. However, coalition organizers said they plan for their event to be family-friendly.
Last month’s March on the RNC took place without incident in Milwaukee. March on the DNC organizers are hoping for the same result in Chicago.
Chicago city and police officials have said they are committed to allowing demonstrators to exercise their First Amendment rights.
“Our job is to protect the Constitution and that’s exactly what we’re going to do,” Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling said at a news conference last month.
Snelling said Chicago police will protect everyone involved, but said he will not tolerate violence or vandalism.
For now, the group doesn’t know where organizers will actually march. A decision on an ongoing legal dispute between protest organizers and Chicago city officials is expected on Tuesday.
Tom Carney, the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Transportation, said in July the agency responsible for issuing permits for groups to use public spaces is working on a plan to get demonstrators within “sight and sound” of the United Center.
Although the two March on the DNC demonstrations — which will take place on the first and the final day of the convention — are considered a march for Palestine, other organizations will have their causes highlighted as part of the events.
In each case, organizers say that Democrats have failed to live up to previous promises while continuing to support Israeli initiatives.
Money for jobs, healthcare, housing and environmental issues
According to the coalition, the U.S. is spending $842 billion on its military budget in 2024 with an additional $30 billion being spent on nuclear warheads. President Joe Biden has spent $133 billion on the war in Ukraine and an additional $4 billion for what it calls Israel’s genocide in Palestine, according to the March on the DNC website.
Meanwhile, the coalition says almost half of U.S. families are living paycheck-to-paycheck. Additionally, the nation’s poorest school districts lack funding to provide quality education to students, the group says.
Also, it states many American families cannot afford housing, and an estimated 600,000 people, including women and children, are unhoused.
Among the groups represented on this front next week include the United National Anti-War Coalition, the Anti-War Committee of Chicago, Answer (Act Now To Stop War and End Racism) Know (Kalamazoo Nonviolent Opponents of War), Food Not Bombs, Women Against Military Madness, About Face: Vets Against The War
Immigration rights and legalization for all
The coalition believes that intervention by both Democrats and Republicans in countries across the world has devastated economies and forced people to migrate from their home countries in search of a better life.
The group believes that while Biden vowed to reverse attacks on Latinos and other immigrant groups, the coalition says the president has worked with Senate Republicans “on extreme and anti-immigrant proposals” and has increased deportations to more than 225,400 during the first half of the year.
The coalition is calling on Biden to follow through on promises and provide legalization for 12 million undocumented people living in the U.S.
Chicago leaders said last month they were expecting Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to ramp up migrant buses to Chicago during the DNC and said that up to 25,000 new arrivals could be sent, However, deputy mayor Beatriz Ponce de León told WGN Radio last week that the city is no longer expecting an influx of buses based on a smaller number of illegal crossings at the southern border. But, she said the city will be ready for anything.
Among the groups represented in the coalition are Legalization For All, the Chicago Committee For Human Rights in the Philippines, and the International Migrants Alliance.
Defending LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights
The coalition says the Democratic Party has been complicit in the “surging right-wing attacks” on women, workers, and the LGBTQ+ community and accused Democrats of only providing lip service on those issues.
It also accuses Democrats of using reproductive and LGBTQ+ issues to “pinkwash” the U.S.-Israeli genocide in Gaza, saying the party’s economic policies have put women, disabled, and gay residents in the U.S. at a disproportionate risk of harm and exploitation.
Among the groups representing these issues next week in Chicago are the Queer Palestinian Empowerment Network, Central Florida Queers For Palestine, Code Pink, Reproductive Justice and Action-Milwaukee, Mamas Activating Moments for Abolition and Solidarity, Palestinian Feminist Coalition, International Women’s Alliance
Defending the right to unionize and strike
The coalition believes Biden has failed to deliver on campaign promises to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which would bolster workers’ unionization rights. Protesters believe the president has sided with big business.
The group also believes that, despite his claims to be pro-union, Biden has pushed anti-strike and anti-labor policies that disempower workers from taking collective action.
Groups representing this issue at the March on the DNC include Starbucks Workers United, Workers Strike Back, Chicagoland Jewish Labor Bund, Minnesota Workers United and Labor For Palestine.
Stopping police crimes
The coalition says a common bond between the organizations is the fight to end political repression at the hands of the “powers that be.”
The group said that central to its core mission is the struggle against racist policing and mass incarceration. It’s demanding community control of the police and a call to end police crimes.
The coalition claims that the Democrats have failed to take any meaningful action following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers as people of color and residents and Black and Brown communities continue to be targeted by police or wrongfully convicted.
Groups representing this mission next week will include the Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and Black Brown + Breathing.
The fight for justice, peace and equality
The coalition is committed to fighting together for justice, peace, and equality, which the group says first requires justice.
It says on its website that it refuses to be pacified by Democratic Party officials who “make empty references” to justice while opposing the demands of people’s movements. Organizers said that the U.S. cannot maintain a “false peace” domestically while tax dollars are being used to fund genocide and war.
Aboma Mijana, the March on the DNC spokesman, said that despite the variety of issues being highlighted during the two planned demonstrations, the group’s intended audience needs to understand that Democrats have not gotten the job done.
“We are the base that the Democratic Party claims to represent, but they have failed to represent us on this,” he said. “So that’s the significance of this march.”
