A Call to the Movement: Defend our gains won through struggle, and defend the elected officials who ally with us

A Call to the Movement: 

Defend our gains won through struggle, and defend the elected officials who ally with us 

From Pilsen to Washington, billionaires are waging war on working class communities. Donald Trump just passed through Congress his terrible bill to transfer billions of dollars to the ruling class.

On the other hand, here in Chicago, the Teachers Union just won their best contract since the days of Harold Washington. It includes not only better wages for teachers, but enforces support for unhoused students, and ensures that schools in Black and brown communities have librarians.

The movement in Chicago that the CTU helped launch and lead has won other gains and struck blows of resistance to the Trump agenda: the passage of legislation to create the most democratic system of police oversight in the country, the election of Brandon Johnson, a powerful ceasefire in Gaza resolution in City Council, 10s of 1000s marching to defend immigrants, and more.

The flames from the class struggle in Chicago have inspired people across the country.

Judge an ally by who their enemies are.

In 2023, billionaire Michael Sacks raised $5 million to try to unseat progressives in City Council. Half of that – $2.5 million – went to oppose Byron Sigcho Lopez, elected in 2019 to alderperson for the 25th Ward, of which the Pilsen neighborhood is the largest part. Pilsen is mainly a Mexicano and Chicano community.

There are similar efforts by the rich—the developers and the LaSalle Street finance capitalists—against Mayor Brandon Johnson and his allies, like alderpersons Carlos Rosa, Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez, and Anthony Quezada.

It should come as no surprise that at every rally by social movements that are challenging the Trump agenda – immigrant rights, Palestinian liberation, the struggle against racist police, the labor movement – one elected official you are certain to see expressing solidarity is Byron.

Byron is among the most consistent allies of our movement, and a leader among the progressive elected officials that help our movement achieve our demands.

So why are there people in the movement who expend energy attacking elected officials who bear the brunt of the attacks coming from the right wing, the corporate press, and the billionaires?

We think these people are counter-organizing and carrying water for the enemy, which needs to be called out.

Left vs. working class: propaganda of the right wing

When the Civil Rights Movement came up North to fight for justice for the Black community in Chicago, the great racist, Mayor Richard J. Daley, had a term to dismiss Martin Luther King and his comrades: “Outside agitators.”

This same slander is often thrown into the faces of movement activists when we take up a new campaign or join a grieving family in their neighborhood who has lost someone to police violence.

So, it’s a disappointment that we hear talk we normally hear from reactionaries coming from people in the movement.

We are part of a broad united front against Trump. We stand with all progressives who stand with us. When we disagree with our allies, we don’t unite with right wingers or billionaires against them.

For those who have gotten it confused, we call on them to get back on the right side of the barricades.

Unite the many, defeat the few!

Divide our enemies and defeat them one by one!

— Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression