Hundreds of demonstrators participated in the postponed Chicago People’s March for Justice in downtown Chicago on Saturday, Jan. 25 to protest the first actions of the Trump Administration.
More than 60 groups were part of the coalition behind the event, which was originally scheduled for Inauguration Day on Monday, Jan. 20. It was postponed due to frigid weather that also moved the swearing-in ceremony inside in Washington, D.C.
Demonstrators held versions of the People’s March across the country, starting the weekend before the inauguration. The People’s March, previously known as the Women’s March, has taken place in Washington, D.C. every year since 2017.
People gathered to protest Trump’s first executive actions and to call for aid for Gaza and an independent Palestinian state. One of the Trump administration’s first actions was to end sanctions on Israeli settlers.
Chicago Resident Nova Mohiudden from Humboldt Park attended the event with Socialist Alternative, an international socialist revolutionary organization. She passed out pamphlets and pins saying “Fight Transphobia” and “High Quality Housing for All.”
Trump endorsed rolling back protections for transgender people by having the US government only recognize two sexes; male and female. Federal documentation, like passports, will no longer reflect the gender identity of a nonbinary or transgender person. It will also reinforce sex-segregated spaces from everyday spaces like bathrooms to shelters.
Mohiudden and her organization still showed up to Magnificent Mile on Monday, Jan. 20, because the protest date change “was a very last minute change” and “some people may not have seen it on social media.”
“We were expecting people to show up,” Mohiudden said. “So we showed up.”
She said roughly 100 people came to the postponed protest on Monday, which went ahead with a rally and speaker.
“The reactions have been really great,” Mohiudden said. “People are hungry to get involved in revolutionary organizing and socialist politics.”
The march on Saturday began at 12 p.m., beginning at the Water Tower Place and ending in front of the Trump International Hotel and Tower. During the march, people chanted things like “No more deportation” and “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA.”
Since returning to the White House for his second presidential term, Trump has implemented several executive orders that aim to meet his campaign promises, some of these including energy and the environment, the size of the federal workforce, gender and diversity policies and illegal immigration.
Rafael Kadaris, a resident of Los Angeles, said he came to Chicago to help march after Trump threatened that Chicago would be the first site of immigrant enforcement raids.
On Saturday, Jan. 18, Southwest Side elementary school reported that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were raiding the school, but were mistaken as it was U.S. Secret Service agents instead.
“I wanted to be here for when that happened to turn that attack on immigrants in Chicago and turn that into mass resistance,” Kadaris said.
Trump has signed more than 40 executive orders since he was inaugurated five days ago, including multiple actions that target immigration.
“So far, we haven’t seen those raids yet,” Kadaris said. “But this isn’t the time to let our guard down. This is the time to actually step up.”
Logan Green, who resides in Rogers Park and is a sophomore at Arizona State University, came to the march with their coworker for “solidarity.” But they said they also “believe this country is going in a very different direction.”
“I am a trans individual who lives out here and I feel like I deserve to be able to not be afraid if I’m going to be fired for just being a trans individual,” Green said.
Trump also issued an executive order eliminating Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs within the federal government.
“I’m more concerned about the fact that he’s already started implementing some things that were taking away my rights and taking away the rights of people I care about, like the deportation and the different forms of trans healthcare being removed,” Green said. “I just had top surgery last month, and I’m already terrified that I won’t be able to continue getting my hormones and things like that.”
Richard Giovanoni from Morton Grove, just north of the city, attended the march on behalf of being a member of the Green Party – a party that promotes green politics like environmentalism, social justice and nonviolence.
Giovanoni said that the Green Party has been supporting Jill Stein in the recent presidential election against “democrats who are helping perpetuate genocide in Gaza” by keeping a war going and “not doing things to get us towards the sustainable goals we need to get by 2030.”
He said what the Democratic Party was doing was not “inadequate enough” but “Trump is probably even worse in some cases.”
Jannah Saleh, a resident of Oaklawn in suburban Chicago, said she attended the event after seeing a social media post from AMP Chicago. She said she came to support the ceasefire that took place in Gaza.
“I’m so happy that everybody came out and showed how much the government is doing wrong,” Saleh said. “This isn’t right. Even though I’m only 16, it shows a lot. Even in your community, on the news, even staying at home, it shows they’re doing wrong and it’s obvious. It’s not supposed to be happening.”