As Democrats from across the country convene in Chicago to officially crown Vice President Kamala Harris as their nominee, another group is descending on the city in protest of the Biden-Harris administration’s actions in the Israel-Hamas War — a sharp reminder of the divisions that still dog the party despite a show of unity for its new candidate.
The Coalition to March on the DNC — an affiliation of more than 200 activist groups from across the country — is planning two major protests during the four-day Democratic National Convention.
The first march is scheduled to step off Monday, just as the convention is getting started. The other, planned for Thursday, will coincide roughly with Harris’ headliner speech at the convention.
Several smaller protests are planned throughout the week. Organizers said they expect thousands, and perhaps tens of thousands, of demonstrators to descend on the Democratic convention.
While many Democrats are joyfully celebrating their new nominee, parts of the party’s left flank will be focusing protests on progressive issues. The coalition is demanding that Democrats support funding for jobs, housing, health and education — not money to fund the Israel-Hamas war.
But the broad array of imperatives advocated by the marchers also includes, for example, a demand for the government to grant legal status to the estimated 11 million immigrants now believed to live in the U.S. without legal documents.
The coalition already has experienced some pushback from city officials over the planned protests, first over the group’s permitting and then about a sound system.
On Friday the city agreed to a few concessions — including allowing protesters to set up a stage at Union Park, roughly a half mile east of the United Center arena, where Democrats will convene. The city also approved installation of a sound system and several portable toilets.
“The Law Department had to drop their unconstitutional denial of a sound system,” Hatem Abudayyeh, a coalition spokesperson, said in a statement Friday. “They knew it wouldn’t hold up in court, but they also knew that we have been organizing day and night to line up important supporters in Chicago who helped advocate for us too.”
Abudayyeh said at a midday news conference Sunday that group will continue to push the city to allow demonstrators to march up Washington Boulevard, which would put them within two city blocks of the United Center.
He said the thousands of marchers simply won’t be able to fit in the roughly 1.1-mile route approved by the city. The longer route that the Chicago-based activist favors would cover 2.4 miles.
Asked if the protesters would abide by the city-approved route, Abudayyeh said: “We will march the route,” adding: “Listen, we have a philosophy in Chicago that the numbers dictate what the route is.
Organizers expect marchers to come from around America, many traveling overnight Sunday in car caravans and chartered buses and by train to be in time for the noon-time start of Monday’s rally.
Others speaking to the news predicted that months of planning would result in a well-managed and peaceful event — staffed with an internal security team, first aid workers and volunteer lawyers to monitor interactions with police and any outside agitators.
“It’s going to be very well organized and it’s going to be peaceful,” said Carlos Montes, a progressive activist since the 1960s, who came from Boyle Heights to participate in this week’s actions. “We don’t want to reenact ’68 in Chicago, right?”
In 1968, protesters against the Vietnam War famously filled the streets of Chicago during the Democratic National Convention. The city’s police department responded with massive force and the violence that followed created indelible images, which Richard Nixon used to great effect in his successful campaign for the presidency against Hubert Humphrey.
“This time we are saying, ‘Bring your grandma, bring your kids,’” said Montes, 77, once a member of the leftist Brown Berets, a Chicano rights group. “It’s going to be family friendly. And, if there are any troublemakers, there are people trained to de-escalate that.”
Local leaders noted that the city had changed markedly since the reactionary administration of Mayor Richard J. Daley, who demanded a hyper-aggressive response by the Chicago police to the demonstrations of 1968.
Chicago today is governed by Mayor Brandon Johnson, a progressive who earlier this year helped pass a resolution calling for a cease-fire in the Gaza war, making his the biggest city in America at that time to approve such an action.
The protest leaders said they hoped the more liberal administrators running the city would help assure a more even-handed response by police, though Abudayyeh said it wasn’t clear that message was getting through to the police department’s leaders.
“It’s one thing to say that we have policies that say we respect the 1st Amendment and we respect protesters’ rights,” Abudayyeh said. “It’s another thing to see implementation [of that] by the Chicago Police.”
The demonstrations in Chicago will likely be the first major pro-Palestinian protests efforts since a rash of protests spread across American college campuses this past spring.
Asked whether there were any plans for protests or disruptions inside the conference hall, Abudayyeh said he did not.
While the activists promised to be peaceful, they expressed mixed feelings about Harris’ ascension to the Democratic presidential nomination. Some said they are hopeful she would work harder for Palestinian rights than Biden.
But others held her equally accountable for what they view as the Democrats’ blind support of Israel.
Faayani Aboma Mijana of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, blamed “genocide Joe Biden” and “killer Kamala Harris,” among many leaders, as guilty of supporting the violence by the Israel defense forces.
The activist said that the same kind of oppressive tactics on display in Gaza have been used by police against people of color in the U.S.
“The Democratic Party cannot bear to witness a coalition of nearly 270 organizations from all over the country,” said Mijana, who is Black, “composed of the very people they claim to represent from all sectors of society, marching on them and pointing out their hypocrisy.”
