Demonstrators hold Labor Day protests against Trump in Chicago : NPR
There were anti-Trump events in the United States on Monday. Some of the noisiest voices were in Chicago where the president threatened to deploy troops from the National Guard.
Steve Inskeep, host:
Some people spent the Labor Day attending the Midtown Manhattan events in Ames, Iowa. People spoke for fair wages and workers’ rights, and many were against the Trump administration actions. Wbez journalist Mariah Woelfel says that for demonstrators in Chicago, the policy of this moment is personal.
(Soundbit of archived registration)
Unidentified demonstrators: (song) Chicago is a city of the union.
Unidentified protest # 1: Make noise.
Mariah Woelfel, byline: there are not many chicagoans more than defending and boasting of their city. Here is Bob Reiter, the president of the Chicago Federation of Labor, addressing a crowd of union workers and activists as he addresses President Trump directly.
(Soundbit of archived registration)
Bob Reiter: Do you want to attack workers and spread lies on Chicago? We are not going to take the bait.
Unidentified protest # 2: right.
Unidentified protest # 3: No.
Reiter: We are not extras in your little show. We are the workers’ movement.
Protest unidentified # 4: Yes.
Reiter: We work on people.
(Applause)
Protest unidentified # 5: Yes.
Reiter: And today we are going to go do work.
Woelfel: Marchers held the panels of Quippy attacking the president. Some have said, no Gestapo in Chicago, Dump Trump, no one is illegal on stolen lands. And a favorite of the crowd, keep the name of Chicago through the mouth. The demonstrators spoke of everything, Trump attacks against immigration to war in Gaza while the Palestinian flags flew over it. The president of the Chicago teachers’ union, Stacy Davis Gates, says that many of these causes are linked.
(Soundbit of archived registration)
Stacy Davis Gates: Solidarity is the antidote to white supremacy.
(Applause)
Davis Gates: Solidarity is antidote to anti-immigrant fever.
(Applause)
Davis Gates: Solidarity is the antidote of homophobia and transphobia.
Woelfel: But the two most urgent problems that brought out the demonstrators were out of the president to accelerate the application of immigration to Chicago and his threat of sending the National Guard to repress the crime. Compared to last year, violent crimes broke out in Chicago, but more than 50 people were slaughtered this weekend, police said. But the longtime chicagoan John Kelleher (PH) said that crime was not a problem that the guard should solve. He has a message for the president.
John Kelleher: Well, n ° 1, that we do not need the National Guard in Chicago. Police can manage it. Chicago cops are the best.
Woelfel: Mayor Brandon Johnson made a passionate plea.
(Soundbit of archived registration)
Brandon Johnson: No federal troops in the city of Chicago.
(Applause)
Johnson: No militarized force in the city of Chicago.
(Applause)
Johnson: We will defend our democracy in the city of Chicago.
Woelfel: He ended his speech by asking the crowd, are you ready to defend this land? It is in apparent preparation for the troops of the National Guard, against which Johnson urges people to protest peacefully.
For NPR News in Chicago, I am Mariah Woelfel.
(Soundbite of King King’s “open mouth”)
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