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NEWS & LETTERS, May-June 2010
Tea party not welcome
Chicago--Activists from many different organizations confronted the reactionary "Tea Party" held here at noon on April 15. Despite massive publicity, the Tea Party turnout only numbered about 1,000 people, about 99.9% white.
The ultra-reactionary event featured opponents of GLBTQ and immigrants' rights, and supporters of McCarthy-style attacks on alleged "Communists in government."
Meanwhile the counter-demonstrators spiritedly supported everything the Tea Partiers loathe: civil rights, legalization for immigrants and an end to La Migra raids, genuine healthcare reform, and GLBTQ rights. There were a lot of rainbow flags. There was opposition both to racist attacks on President Obama, and to Obama's own sellouts on war and healthcare.
One counter-demonstrator supporting immigrants' rights came dressed as Uncle Sam. After serenading the Tea Party with a few verses of "Yankee Doodle Boy," by George M. Cohan, a child of immigrants, she recited the poem from the Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore...." "I am the real Uncle Sam," she said.
Another counter-demonstrator said, "I am here because I grew up in Marquette Park, during the time racism was heavy there, and I know it when I see it. This is a racist movement." There were a number of known racists present. One neo-Nazi was run off by members of Anti-Racist Action and others.
All in all, those Tea Partiers were made to feel mighty unwelcome. However, the police did allow them to climb up on the plaza's Picasso statue, which they would not have permitted other demonstrators to do.
--Gerry Emmett
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