Editor’s note: The following article was originally published in an e-newsletter by the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAAPR) on January 20, 2025.
Negative wind chills could not keep the Coalition to Stop the Trump Agenda from mobilizing 2,500 people to Federal Plaza in downtown Chicago to protest the inauguration of Donald Trump. Throughout the day’s events, protesters rallied at the Plaza, marched to Trump Tower, and then rallied a second time there – all to mark a new phase of struggle that will see the social justice movement in Chicago and the U.S. face grave dangers in Donald Trump and his racist and reactionary Republican agenda.
Over 80 organizations are members of the Coalition to Stop the Trump Agenda, with a number of the forces that led last year’s March on the DNC, including the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), Students for a Democratic Society, and Anti-War Committee, playing a leading role this time as well. As in the case of the March on the DNC, the coalition is broad, containing forces from all across the movement, including those in immigrants’ rights, Palestinian rights, Black liberation, labor, and more.
The involvement of immigrants’ rights groups like Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) and Mijente is important, especially since the Trump administration’s very first attacks in the U.S. will likely be directed towards immigrants.
“We came here in spite of everything, we have paid our taxes, we’ve built our families here, our kids were born here, and we’re not going anywhere!” said Martín Unzueta, Executive Director and founder of Chicago Community & Worker’s Rights and spokesperson for Mijente.
In addition to immigrants’ rights groups, some of the Palestinian rights organizations that led 16 months worth of protests against the Israeli / U.S. genocide on Gaza, including the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) – Chicago, took part in the march. With a ceasefire in Gaza reached just last week, Palestinian rights groups have emphasized that such a victory was only the result of fierce resistance on the part of the Palestinian people and their allies across the world, and not the benevolence of Trump, Biden, Blinken, or any other figure in Washington.
“This achievement only belongs to the steadfast Palestinian resistance and the people of Gaza,” said Noura Ebrahim, USPCN member and co-founder of Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) -Chicago.
Also protesting Trump were Black liberation organizations like the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR), Black Lives Matter Chicago, GoodKids MadCity, Chicago Torture Justice Center, and more. The involvement of Black liberation organizations is also important, given that Trump’s previous presidency saw Black people in the U.S. experience further economic degradation, the intensification of police repression (such as the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor), and more mass incarceration of Black communities. Trump will seek to continue that trend in his second term, though the resistance, as last time, will be fierce.
“We cannot allow Trump to carry out mass deportations of immigrants. If they come after them today, they’ll come after the rest of us tomorrow,” said Frank Chapman, Field Director of CAARPR and Executive Director of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR).
Organized labor is also an essential element of the coalition, with the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and CTU’s Black Caucus, United Auto Workers Local 2320, and United Electrical Workers – Western Region among the endorsers of the rally. Many of their rank-and-file workers were in attendance.
“Fighting for the rights of oppressed people is not new in Chicago! We stand united here,” said Dr. Diane Castro of CTU.
The Coalition to Stop the Trump Agenda contains a number of the leading institutions that organized last year’s historic protests of the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, respectively, including the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), Students for a Democratic Society, and Anti-War Committee, as well as other important institutions in Chicago like the Chicago Teachers Union and CTU’s Black Caucus, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), Mijente, Community Renewal Society, Arab American Action Network, United Working Families 50th Ward, GoodKids MadCity, United Auto Workers Local 2320, and United Electrical Workers – Western Region.
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