A couple of hundred people representing 78 activist organizations gathered Saturday for a day-long "Working conference" hosted by the March on the DNC coalition to organize fundraising, communications and logistics for the months ahead before top Democratic politicians arrive in Chicago.
"We'll be marching with or without permits. This DNC is the most important one since 1968, also in Chicago when Vietnam War protesters and the black liberation movement organized mass demonstrations that were violently repressed," said Hatem Abudayyeh, executive director of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, at a coalition conference Saturday on the Near West Side to organize protest efforts.
Even with the scheduled alternative protests, organizers say they are confident in winning the federal lawsuit and still set on obtaining city permits through increased pressure on Mayor Brandon Johnson, who last month affirmed his commitment to allow free speech demonstrations.
Abudayyeh, a lead organizer behind the more than 20 mass pro-Palestinian movements since October, said the coalition could see numbers up into the hundreds of thousands, as they await word of more groups who will join.
A sneak peek of the coalition's organizing efforts could come in July, when the Republican National Committee sets up shop for its national convention in Milwaukee, just 90 miles north of Chicago.
That's six weeks after the groups initially raised issues with the policy in a March 13 letter to Pallmeyer.
The coalition is asking Pallmeyer to halt any training on the proposed policy, order the Police Department to train officers on the agreed policy, and allow the coalition to attend training sessions.
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