All eyes are on Chicago, and Chicago itself has been in a highly politicized state, ever since Trump began threatening to send ICE goons and troops there a little over a week ago.

Chicago has nearly three million people, roughly one-third white, one-third Black and one-third Latino and Asian. Over the decades it’s been “famous” for its racism and for the horrific gang violence among the oppressed youth themselves. It is also both economically prosperous and a Democratic Party stronghold—and all of this makes it a prime target for Trump/MAGA fascism. There has as yet been no definitive word on when or what form this attack will take, but people in Chicago are correctly mobilizing to fight it anyway.

Before getting into that mobilization, let’s ask why this is happening. In this regard, it’s important to study Bob Avakian’s recent and very timely social media message, @BobAvakianOfficial REVOLUTION #130, “Blatant racism, overall fascism—not ‘fighting crime’—is the basic reason why Trump is illegally using the military to occupy cities and terrorize people.” In that message, Bob Avakian (BA) makes these very important points:

Talk of “fighting crime,” to “justify” the use of the military to occupy cities, is just a means of carrying out even more blatant repression, unrestrained brutality and murder to which Black people, and others, have been subjected throughout the history of this country—and which the Trump fascist regime is determined to enforce without regard to, and in flagrant violation of, the Constitution and the rights of people that are supposed to be guaranteed in the Constitution.

This is about going after Trump’s “enemies” within the ruling class as well. As I have emphasized in “Something Terrible, Or Something Truly Emancipating” (also available at revcom.us): The Trump fascist regime is “determined to gut and pervert ‘the rule of law,’ trample on people’s rights, and adopt what amounts to an undisguised capitalist dictatorship, ready to use violence not only against masses of people but also against its rivals in the ruling class.”

People Mobilize to Confront Attacks

People have drawn lessons from the ongoing lawless and brutal repression against immigrants in Southern California. Now with the occupation of DC by ICE and the National Guard, there has been a lot of resistance and organizing already. 

As we go to press, there is a march set for Monday, September 1, that many forces are turning out for—including RefuseFascism.org, which will be gathering at the statue dedicated to those who were unjustly persecuted and executed after the so-called Haymarket Massacre.¹ There have been press conferences and marches. And there is ferment in the cultural realm—Chance the Rapper posing with a Fuck I.C.E. sweatshirt and Neil Young debuting his new song “Big Crime” (with the line “There's big crime in DC at the White House”) in Chicago.

THE REVCOM CORPS For The Emancipation Of Humanity plunged into this mix last week with video from national spokesperson Noche Diaz. Noche called both for resistance in Chicago and, importantly, gave a great deal of emphasis to turning out in millions on November 5 in DC, as well as going after some of the bullshit in people’s thinking. The Revcom Corps has been agitating and set a meeting for Sunday, August 31, which aimed to get into the BA social media message discussed above (#130), as well as a second new message from Bob Avakian, @BobAvakianOfficial REVOLUTION #131, “Crime is a real problem. But fascism is not the answer to crime—fascism is itself a monstrous crime.”

The Struggle at “the Top”

But that’s not all. Trump’s attacks on his “enemies” in the ruling class—analyzed by BA above—are also entering into this, in potentially important ways. Illinois governor JB Pritzker and Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson have made positive statements. In understanding this, we return again to this point from BA:

The Trump fascist regime is “determined to gut and pervert ‘the rule of law,’ trample on people’s rights, and adopt what amounts to an undisguised capitalist dictatorship, ready to use violence not only against masses of people but also against its rivals in the ruling class.”

In this context, Pritzker has consistently raised a real alarm about what is happening, going back to the spring when he told Trump not to send forces. He has not told people to stay off the streets, but rather to be peaceful if they protest. Johnson—whom the fascists are much more directly attacking, with a much more vicious tone in line with their racism—has thus far been blunt in his opposition and issued an executive order attempting to put limits on ICE’s fascistic practices and, failing that, to at least expose these practices. 

Going Forward

If Trump goes ahead with this fascist plan, the budding resistance in Chicago must go to a whole other level of intensity and spread to every institution, from schools to hospitals to law firms and beyond. The most essential thing in defeating this fascism is and will be the decent people in their millions both resisting these threats and attacks, but even more decisively taking the offensive by organizing millions to go to DC on November 5 and bring things to a halt. In this context, these splits at the top and how they do, or don’t, develop could play a critical role as things come to a head, and are important to pay attention to through these next two months as we are building toward that time.