Chicago, IL: GDC Report Back from Rally Against Alt-Right

When Gavin McInnes announced his speaking engagement with the Young Republicans at DePaul University, the community launched a pressure campaign against the founder of the Proud Boys–a neo-fascist hate group which touts “anti-political correctness, anti-racial guilt, closed borders and anti-Islam,” among other beliefs. In order to reach full initiation into the Proud Boys, members are expected to “kick the crap out of antifa” in a public space. McInnnes believes that U.S. borders should be closed down, and all those within be forced to conform to a “white, western, English-speaking culture.” McInnes has personally exhibited blatant anti-blackness and transphobia, referring to trans people as “gender n****ers.”

In response to the news of the DePaul administration cancelling McInnes’ May 30th speaking engagement, the Chicago General Defense Committee (GDC), along with other members of the Chicago community, organized a celebratory Rally Against Hate. People from across the city were encouraged to gather and demonstrate that McInnes’ brand of hate-filled rhetoric against Muslims, Latinxs, women, queer, and trans people was not welcome in Chicago. The rally drew 100-150 people in total, including passerby and those in support of McInnes.

The Rally Against Hate drew to a close when the College Republicans & Proud Boy supporters left due to rain, and the rest of the crowd began to disperse. Shortly thereafter, two individuals got into an altercation down the street from where the rally took place. An unnamed assailant began verbally harassing another individual, referencing the aforementioned rally, and that the cancelation of McInnes “stole his free speech.” The unnamed assailant then took out a knife, and stabbed the other individual. Bystanders quickly intervened in order to help disperse the altercation, with campus security arriving later. The individual has been released from the hospital and is in good health.

Words have power, and there is a clear difference between the freedom of speech and hate speech. Groups like the Proud Boys try to blur this distinction as a way to position themselves as “the true victims” in a wider effort to gain acceptance of their racism, and to deflect attention from the violence that they advocate. The hatred that they seek to legitimize is directly connected to the sharp increase in violence against working class communities and communities of color throughout the United States, including attempts to harrass, intimidate, physically assault, and murder people they hate. The open call for violence by the Proud Boys and other Alt-Right groups is the reason we are mourning the deaths of Taliesin Namkai-Meche and Ricky Best, as well as the attempted murder of Micah Fletcher, at the hands of a white supremacist on a commuter train in Portland, Oregon. This is the reason we are mourning the death of Richard Collins III at the hands of a white supremacist at a bus stop at the University of Maryland. This is the reason we are mourning the deaths of too many people to name. This is the reason we are joining together to stop the violence that has yet to happen.

The Chicago GDC opposes hate speech and the violent impact it has on our communities. We see a clear connection between right wing rallies calling for “free speech” and the attempt by such groups to become politically powerful, committing racially motivated attacks and murders with impunity. It is these groups–which advocate for violence against the working class, paticularly black people, indigenous people, and all people of color–that the Chicago GDC is taking a stand against. There would be no opportunity for the Proud Boys or other white supremacists to show their faces in our communities and on our campuses if they were not allowed to hide behind the rhetoric of free speech.

We are united against those who glorify and incite real violence against members of the working class. We resist right wing, white supremacist, and fascist organizing. We fight against systems of oppression that ultimately encourage and enact this violence.

In Solidarity and Defense,

Chicago GDC