Feb 8

Feb 8 Eye of the Storm

Demonstrations, Performance, Protest, Public Declarations, Street, Urban Landscapes

Since Donald Trump’s inauguration, people have asked me whether protest rallies and marches are effective. It depends how “effectiveness’ is measured. I doubt whether Russian President Vladimir Putin gives a damn about 100 Russian émigrés standing in front of Chicago’s Wrigley Building denouncing him and his regime. But that is not why Chicago’s Russian community takes to the streets. Their demonstrations allow them to express themselves and to build community. Each ‘action’ is a cathartic experience.

Over lunch on Thursday, a longstanding friend asked me the “‘effectiveness” question. I responded, “Not until people like you take to the streets.” He’s a retired doctor, who has political views, but doesn’t express them in public forums.

Every week, a variety of groups exercise their First Amendment rights on Chicago’s streets. I regularly encounter LGBQT activists, socialists, RevComs (Revolutionary Communists), Palestinians, abortion rights advocates, members of organized labor, BLM proponents, and Progressives marching up and down Michigan Avenue, or rallying in Chicago’s Federal or Daley Plazas. These demonstrators often raise public awareness and foster community, but for the most part, their efforts don’t produce the demanded changes in public policy. Special interest groups may bolster the fortitude of politicians who are already aligned with them, but their efforts rarely move the needle.

My friend took my comment to heart. He and his daughter headed to Little Village on the Southwest-side for a rally in La Villita Park at 1:00 PM today, followed by a march westward on 26th Street. The 30 groups organizing the event were focused on Trump’s immigration policies, particularly their adverse impact on Little Village residents, 80% of whom are of Mexican descent. But despite my friend’s presence, the demonstration’s demographics largely were limited to Latinos, Socialists, and Progressives.

Trump and his Republican cohorts, who presently control all three branches of the U.S. government, do not care what these groups think. Until people whose lives don’t revolve around political causes come out in the hundreds of thousands, the Republican Party will not curb Trump’s malevolence and craziness. Ironically, it was former Vice-President Spiro Agnew who coined a name for these folks: the “Silent Majority.”

In Europe, the majority is not so silent, as a fellow photographer pointed out today. She noted that demonstrations in Europe regularly turn out hundreds of thousands of people, making them potent tools for shaping public policy. Today, in Munich, 200,000 protesters rallied against the far-right, anti-immigrant German political party, Alternative for Germany, demonstrating just two weeks before the German elections.

Returning to Little Village, somewhere around 1,000 people took part in today’s demonstration, with many carrying DIY signage. My fellow photographers and I didn’t enjoy the frigid temperatures, but we loved the change in venue—from the skyscraper-laden and all-too-familiar downtown to a neighborhood park and the 26th Street commercial corridor.

I love painted murals on brick walls, so even if the demonstration had been a dud, my visit would have proved delightfully colorful. The 26th Street corridor is lined with two- and three-story brick buildings, many housing excellent Mexican restaurants, bars, bakeries, and churros specialty stores.

As for the demonstration, it adhered to the usual format. People gathered around a cement ramp on the southern end of a skateboard park as they waited for the speeches to begin. Given that 30 organizations jointly sponsored the rally, the speeches proved endless. Nobody covered any new ground, but there was some news. According to one speaker, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) raids in Little Village have proved mostly ineffectual. Nevertheless, the community has paid a heavy price—the streets are largely empty due to the fear that ICE agents might grab anyone of Latino heritage off the street, placing them in custody based on appearances alone.

Following the speeches, the marchers snapped into formation, and then headed two blocks north to 26th Street. They then walked west on 26th Street, covering two miles. As I shadowed the marchers, I couldn’t help but wonder why Trump, Thomas Homan (the Trump Administration’s “Border Czar”), and their acolytes hate these people. The street is lined with restaurants and bars, small retail establishments, and the offices of countless accountants, lawyers, and medical professionals. In other words, small businesses, the backbone of America. Retailers were selling wedding dresses, religious iconography, and toys—revealing a community devoted to family and God.

Notably, the 26th Street corridor is a prosperous one. The stores may not be selling the branded luxury goods sold on Michigan Avenue and Oak Street, but in 2015, the two-mile long retail corridor generated $900 million in sales, making it the second highest grossing street in Chicago—Michigan Avenue is number one, generating $1.8 billion in sales that same year.

Before the march, I walked along side streets. I saw light industry, scrap yards, auto-parts dealers, and one large bakery that obviously prepares cakes and cookies sold throughout the city.

Little Village is distinctly working class, just like the West Virginia, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Nebraska countryside—Trump Country. Undoubtedly, many of the bungalows and wood-framed homes are occupied by tradespeople and the day laborers who gather in Home Depot parking lots seeking work.

Little Village’s current residents are no different than their predecessors. In the late 19th Century, immigrants from Eastern Europe settled the neighborhood. Other neighborhoods in Chicago were settled by Italian, Polish, Chinese, and Middle Eastern immigrants. Each of these ethnic groups sought opportunity and a better life for their children. So, what’s the problem with the current wave of immigrants, particularly given the country’s labor shortage?

Note to Organizers: Today, there were three events centered on the Trump Administration. In addition to the rally in Little Village, there was an earlier press conference near the 26th Street arch, and a more general demonstration across the Chicago River from Trump Tower. To draw media attention, rallies and marches require lots of participants. Stop working at cross purposes. The organizers should have combined the three events into one larger event.

[Click on an Image to Enlarge It. The Images Are Not Necessarily in Exact Chronological Order]