We believe that showing our solidarity with everyone fighting the racism, violence, and bigotry of the right is how we win. Saturday, August 19, Boston gave us the template of showing up by the thousands to defeat the bigots. #nomorecharlottesvilles
With his racist campaign and now his comments about Charlottesville, the President has encouraged Klansmen, neo-Nazis and other violent racists to come out of their holes and increase physical attacks on Muslims, Black people, Latinx, Jews, immigrants, the Indigenous, LGBTQs and all others who in their view don’t “make America great again.”
Last year attacks on Muslims increased 57% over the preceding year. The neo-Nazi murder of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville followed a string of politically motivated murders by fascists: In June, Richy John Best and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche were murdered in Portland when they intervened to stop racist harassment of two young Black women. In May, Black student Richard W. Collins II was murdered by a neo-Nazi on the University of Maryland campus.
Violence and threats of violence are not “free speech,” any more than is yelling “fire” in a crowded theater. Wearing swastikas – endorsing the murders of millions in the Holocaust – wearing Klan sheets – endorsing the lynching of Black people and others – is NOT free speech. It is a direct incitement to violence.
We must directly oppose violent fascists but that is not enough. We must also address the rising hate and inequality that isolates and disempowers the victims of the bigots – school closings, cuts in mental health clinics, youth unemployment, deportations, attacks on affordable housing and healthcare — while more resources are poured into increasingly militarized and violent policing, and subsidies for the ultra-rich.
We must put first and foremost the classic labor movement principle– An Injury to One is An Injury to All. Please join us Sunday, August 27th at Federal Plaza.
Endorsing Organizations:
Al-Nahda Cultural Center
Chicago Area Peace Action
Chicago Islamic Center
Chicago Justice for Palestine
Chicago Teachers Union
Democratic Socialists of America
Fight for $15
Friends Who March
Gay Liberation Network
International Socialist Organization
National Nurses United
Northside Democracy for America
Palestinian American Congress
Reclaim Chicago
SEIU Healthcare IL/IN/KS/MO
Smash White Supremacy Coalition
Socialist Alternative
Tzedek Chicago
Veterans for Peace
Westside Democracy for America
Women’s March on Chicago
Workers World Party
(List in formation, please message if you would like your organization to be added)