Want to Support Trump Protesters But Can’t Get Out Into The Streets? Read This.

Last night Chicago activists shut down the Trump rally scheduled at the UIC Pavillion. It was a stunning example of coordinated activist work that will hopefully provide a successful template in cities to come.

But as I’ve written before, while these actions are exhilarating for the folks within our communities, they can also cause many of us to feel helpless. If you haven’t been able to participate in the protest actions against Trump, police brutality or numerous other instances of injustice and inequality across the United States, can you legitimately say that you are a supporter of these movements? The answer, unequivocally is yes, whether or not you are out on the streets you can and probably are, helping to support the movement for black lives across the country.

Today I want to amplify a method for supporting activists that does not receive enough attention.

If you were uplifted by the mass action against Trump and his bigotry yesterday, and want to make sure that this kind of work can continue, I want to suggest that donating funds to organizations on the ground is one of the best ways to do it (if you don’t want to continue reading, click here for the organization that I recommend sending your $$$ to in support of activists doing this work).

Last night (3/11/16) was one of a series of coordinated actions by local Chicago organizations against oppression and systemic inequality throughout their city and state. Young people from across the city pushed back and refused to allow Trump to spew his bigotry.

Organizers of the action released the following statement:

Chicago 3/11: Right now, March 11, 2016 at 5:30pm, organizers from Assata’s Daughters, Black Lives Matter: Chicago, OCAD, and CLAW are halting traffic to disrupt the Chicago rally for Trump held at UIC in protest of two fiercy anti-black candidates for political office, Trump for the presidential nominee and Anita Alvarez for Cook County State’s Attorney.

Today’s action is the latest in a series of protests organized by Black youth targeting Anita Alvarez for her record of covering up police murder, criminalizing survivors of domestic violence, and supporting police terror in black communities.

Black youth organizers are calling attention to the high stakes of the primary election, linking Anita Alvarez’s record of anti-blackness as top prosecutor in Chicago with Trump’s white nationalist, fascist agenda. Both Trump and Alvarez condone, encourage and support violence against Black communities.

We see a direct link between Trump’s overtly racist white nationalist campaign and Anita Alvarez’s record of filling jails and prisons with black bodies using dogwhistle tough-on-crime rhetoric. We do not want a future where Anita Alvarez or Donald Trump hold decision-making power over our lives. We demand that Alvarez Must Go. We stand against Trump and his rabidly anti-black base of supporters; we will not allow him to rouse white supremacists seeking to cause bodily harm to black people, as has happened time and again at many of his rallies across the country.

Because of this brave work, many people were arrested and need assistance making bail so that they can return to their communities. Chicago Community Bail Fund is a revolving fund that helps poor people charged with crimes to get out of jail. CCBF has started a special fund for the Trump Protesters so that they can be released from jail as soon as possible.

If you are looking for a way to help activists push back against Trump’s relentless racism, xenophobia, islamophobia and support of violence against black and brown people globally, donate money to CCBF’s Trump Protester fund.

peace

a.