Field Notes from the March on the DNC 2024 in Chicago
Chicago was 10-degrees cooler than Central Florida when my plane touched down at the O’Hare International Airport late Friday night ahead of the Democratic National Convention’s Monday kick-off. The cool weather starkly contrasted with the social temperature as measured by the heavy police presence throughout the city. Groups of three to five officers equipped with batons seemed to cover the city streets including otherwise vibrant and leisurely spaces like the Navy Pier.
The foreboding police presence persisted through the weekend and into the start of the week when the first of two major demonstrations was scheduled to launch from Chicago’s Union Park. At the park, on Monday, August 19, thousands gathered to demand an end to U.S. aid for Israel’s decimation of Gaza. The protest took place just four days after the Gaza death toll surpassed 40,000 and six days after the U.S. government authorized $20 billion in military sales to Israel.
Despite the heavy police presence, demonstrators hailing from Chicago and around the U.S. forged a vibrant, festive space of civic engagement at Union Park. Participants listened to a slate of speakers, discussed politics, and brandished signs and banners expressing their views on U.S. military policy. Many linked U.S. investment in foreign war and domestic policies. “Money for war can't feed the poor,” read one sign dotted with dollar signs and bombs with lighted fuses.
Such criticisms resound Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s contention that war is “an enemy of the poor.” This became clear, explained King in his April 4, 1967, “Beyond Vietnam” speech, when he observed the war effort absorbing “men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube.” Any nation more invested in weapons of war than programs of “social uplift,” concluded King, is headed towards “spiritual death.”
Other demonstrators highlighted what they believe to be the incompatibility of professing a commitment to peace in the Middle East while the U.S. administration continues to approve arms transfers to Israel. One mother held a homemade sign reading, “How many bombs will it take to make peace?” as she stood with her child and stroller.
The day before the Biden-Harris administration authorized arms transfers to Israel, medical doctor, Dr. Jumann Arfa, and her two newborns were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Qastal Tower building in Gaza. Earlier in the day Dr. Arfa's husband, Mohammed, left his family to obtain birth certificates for his three-day old children. He returned to find their corpses.
12 days before the March on the DNC, on August 7, a group of nine peace protestors interrupted Vice President and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris' campaign speech in Detroit, Michigan. “Kamala, Kamala you can't hide! We won't vote for genocide,” chanted Eaman Ali, Zainab Hakim, Salma Hamamy, and six others. Harris responded to the disruption by stating “everyone’s voice matters. But I’m speaking now.”
A demonstrator at the August 19 rally in Chicago held a handmade sign rebuffing Harris’ haughty critique of ceasefire protestors, “No Kamala, we are speaking right now.” A second rally goer held a balloon shaped sign representative of many sentiments expressed during the rally and march. The sign read “liberation 4 all” and featured drawings of the flags of Palestine and Ireland along with icons representing reproductive freedom and LGBTQIA+ rights. The cause of Palestinian rights is particularly germane to Chicago given that the city is situated in Cook County which has the largest Palestinian population in the U.S.
Organizers of the March on the DNC included workers’ rights and the right to unionize and strike in their list of demands. A panoply of organizations including Workers Strike Back, founded by former Seattle City Councilwoman Kshama Sawant, set up tables at the park and introduced their vision for social change to rally goers.
The slate of rally speakers included Chicago-based neo-soul singer, Jamila Woods. The artist sang her song, “Teach Me,” sharing the wisdom of her black ancestors and inviting attendees to ponder nature's lessons for balanced, just living.
“My great-greats hid seeds in their cornrows / Plotted with land they'd never own / Where we come from, soil is sacred, not a paycheck / The less we want from more, the freer we get / I pledge allegiance to the sun's warm hands / Release my grief to the water and the sand / You heal us, you always provide. / I take for granted how you keep us alive.”
Woods ended her appearance by leading the crowd in a pledge to “fight for our freedom” and love and support each other. “We have nothing to lose but our chains,” concluded the speaker followed by the crowd’s affirmation.
Later the crowd roared with enthusiasm when, near the end of the rally, philosopher Dr. Cornell West took to the stage. West gave a rousing speech emphasizing Palestinian humanity. “We are here because we have a profound love of our precious Palestinian brothers and sisters and siblings,” said West. “And we send a message to them, you are not abandoned, you are not alone, we will never forget you. Your dignity and your decency will never be crushed by any form of terrorism or genocide or ethnic cleansing or apartheid-like conditions.”
Before the rally West joined Jill Stein of the Green Party and Claudia De la Cruz of the Party for Socialism and Liberation for the “Abandon Harris” press conference. At the rally in Union Park West criticized those emphasizing Harris's identity over moral character and policy decisions. According to West, the struggle against the Gaza war and for Palestinian dignity is informed by an ethic of love and respect for inviolable human rights. “This is not about some Machiavellian politics or some utilitarian calculation about an election, this is about morality. This is about spirituality.”
Supporters and press gathered around West as he left the stage and entered the rally grounds. Flanked by his wife, the 71-year old candidate for president answered media questions, embraced fellow activists, and posed for photos.
West’s appearance at the rally for the March on the D.C. highlighted the tension between the Democratic Party and progressive third party candidates and supporters. Such critics claim the party is not only failing to address the suffering in Gaza but also actively sabotaging alternative voices in the democratic process.
In the week before West took to the stage at the March on the DNC a North Carolina judge determined the state's election board had disenfranchised thousands of voters when it prevented the certification of West's new party, the Justice for All Party with the effect of blocking his inclusion on the 2024 ballot. The judge's ruling ensures that West's name will appear on the ballot in November. Around the same time the Democratic Party sought to prevent Green Party presidential nominee, Jill Stein from appearing on Nevada 2024 ballot, making a familiar charge that petitioning gathering techniques were improper. But Carson City District Court Judge Kristin Luis concluded the challenge was insufficient to prevent Stein's inclusion on the 2024 ballot.
Just days after the conclusion of the DNC convention, a Michigan Court of Claims judge ruled against a Democratic Party challenge to the West campaign's efforts to qualify for the Michigan ballot. Judge James Robert Redford determined the campaign's more than 16,000 estimated legitimate signatures exceeded the state's requirement and, unless they fewer than 12,000 are determined to be qualifying, mean West and his vice Presidential pick, Melina Abdullah, must be on Michigan’s ballot in November 2024.
At the close of the March on the DNC’s rally, protesters lined up behind banners and set out through the streets of Chicago. The march route ran parallel with a metal parameter erected around the United Center, the site of the Democratic National Convention.
The closely packed crowd patiently and passionately winded through narrow streets flanked by police officers using bicycles as a moving crowd-control barricade. “Not another nickel, not another dime, no more money for Israel's crimes,” chanted the spirited crowd. “This is what democracy looks like,” answered the crowd, undaunted by an oversized police presence, as fellow marchers called out, “show me what democracy looks like.”
Activists in the Code Pink contingent donned pink keffiyehs. “Women say healthcare not warfare,” read one sign. Traditional black and white keffiyehs and the red, black, white, and green flag of Palestine were ubiquitous throughout the crowd. Bellows of “free, free, Palestine” barreled along Washington street and Hermitage avenue.
A group of protesters held up an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu depicted as a vampire and holding an “MK 84” bomb. The MK 84 or Mark 84 is a 2,000 pound bomb manufactured by the General Dynamics Corporation and sold with U.S. approval to the Israeli government and military.
The Biden-Harris’ August 2024 authorization of arms sales enabled Israel to purchase fighter jets and advanced weapons system. The authorization occurred after mainstream U.S. news outlets reported Israel used American-made bombs in an August 10 attack on the Al Tabi'een School in Gaza. The attack left more than 90 people dead, with survivors and Palestinian journalists documenting traumatizing scenes of dismembered human bodies and assorted desecrations.
After the strike and a “bright red light” 30-year-old Louay Nasser ran outside of the classroom he and his family were staying in to find “pieces of men, women and children lying in front of me.” Speaking to The Guardian, Nasser said he saw “heads separated from bodies, hands and legs all over.” The worst of the experience was finding a “man who was on fire, running and screaming. We ran over to him and put out the fire. He had burns all over his body to a massive degree.” 21-year-old survivor, Manal al-Jabari was equally traumatized by the strike, describing a horrific blend of burning flesh and screaming women and children. “I looked down and realized I was standing on someone’s [severed] foot,” al-Jabari explained to The Guardian, “I started screaming.”
The one mile march route poured activists into Park 578, where the chants and speeches continued. A small handful of activists broke away from the larger planned march and attempted to breach the barrier set up to prevent protestors from approaching the United Center. Police arrested a handful of protestors before dispersing the remaining crowd gathered at the park. A total of 13 of the thousands gathered to advocate for Palestinian human rights were arrested.
As protestors on Chicago’s streets called for the U.S. government to end its funding and military support for Israel's onslaught in Gaza, delegates from the uncommitted movement pressed their cause inside the convention. A group of delegates unfurled a banner reading “Stop Arming Israel” as Joe Biden took to the convention center's podium on Monday, August 19.
Florida DNC member, Nadia Ahmad, smuggled the banner into the center under her dress. Convention goers quickly blocked her banner with printed “We love Joe” signs before security moved her and her fellow activists to an interior hallway. During the action, Ahmad was joined by Jewish DNC member, Liano Sharon, North Carolina activist and Bernie Sanders’ delegate, Lauren Steiner, and Connecticut delegate, Esam Boraey. Ahmad told the Intercept she was hit in the head with the “We love Joe” signs.
Before the banner drop, Boraey had his bag taken for an extended time after a security guard found a Palestinian flag in his possession. The second major march on the DNC is planned to begin at Union Park on Thursday, August 22.
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Thanks for letting us know how the demonstration outside the DNC went, Jeffrey. The most important part of the event, imo.
freedom for Palestine