CHICAGO – Thousands of protesters, including a contingent of Wisconsin residents and organizations, rallied at Union Park and marched to the United Center today in Chicago as part of the pro-Palestinian March on DNC Coalition.
Among other demands, the coalition is calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war and an embargo of U.S. arms to Israel. Hundreds of police officers on bicycles observed the protest. Organzers pegged that rally at 15,000 people.
Third party presidential candidate Cornel West appeared at the rally in support of protesters. When asked if he was worried he would draw votes away from Kamala Harris in Wisconsin, leading to a Donald Trump victory in the state, he said he was “not at all” worried.
“I think people have a right to think critically for themselves and come down where they come down. If [Harris] is not speaking to genocide, that’s not my fault. If she’s not speaking to poverty, that’s not my fault,” West said. “She needs to speak to these issues that are affecting people.”
West’s campaign handed out signs reading “Abandon Harris ‘24” to protesters.
Ryan Hammand, a Milwaukeean and member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, said he thought the protest reflected “a wider and deeply felt, very popular discontent with the way things are” and a widespread feeling that Democratic politicians “ignored” people’s desires.
He said he saw current protests and the anti–Vietnam War protest that occurred during the 1968 DNC in Chicago as “absolutely connected.”
“I think it’d be hard not to draw those connections, and honestly, I think it’d be a mistake to not make those connections,” he said. “The organizers who’ve spoken today have even said, ‘This is our Vietnam War’.”
Hammand added that he was “not worried” about violence from the protesters occurring during the march, but that the police presence “certainly doesn’t make me feel safe.”
“The truth is that if there’s violence that’s going to happen here, it’s going to be the police bringing the violence to this protest, infringing upon the First Amendment rights of the people who’ve assembled here,” Hanmand said.
Milwaukeean Ethan Costello expressed a similar dissatisfaction with Democrats. After a right wing upbringing, Costello had become a liberal, but now identifies as a socialist.
“I think if Trump is elected, it will be nobody’s fault but the Democrats for not listening to us,” Costello said. “[Democrats] are funding these wars, they fund the police who, in turn, oppress marginalized people… Republicans and the Democrats—in my opinion, they’re both political parties that represent the rich and their interests, not the interests of the working people.”
Costello said he wouldn’t vote for Trump in November, saying Trump “would accelerate the inevitable encroaching fascism that’s happening”, but he was unsure if he would vote third party or otherwise. He said he thought participating in protests was a more effective method to obtain political results than voting.
“Ultimately, it’s more important for us to be organizing and doing what we’re doing here today. This is how change happens, not at the voting booth,” Costello said. “When we’re all unified out here in the streets, we can win what we need to win.”
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