2024 Membership Meeting Notice 

Please join us for the Annual Membership Meeting of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression on Wednesday, October 16 at 6pm.

All CAARPR members are invited to attend and participate in our annual Membership Meeting of 2024. Our Membership Meetings are where we reflect on our activity over the past year, discuss our strategy and tactics for the year ahead, and elect leaders for the coming year. Every member is encouraged to speak and be heard. Please register to attend with the form above.

Our organization, and the people's movements in general, have continued to gain momentum and build capacity this year. We continued to push both our flagship campaigns, the fight for Community control of the police and the Campaign to Free Incarcerated Survivors of Torture (CFIST), in addition to building solidarity with the people of Palestine as they face a US backed Israeli genocide.

The role we played in building Black and Palestinian solidarity shone brightest at the march on the DNC. Together with our siblings in USPCN and newly affiliated Alliance steering committee members the Anti War Committee Chicago and Students for a Democratic Society at UIC, we led a national coalition of over 270 organizations in building two marches of over ten thousand people within sight and sound of the United Center to demand an end to US aid to Israel. This involved organizing a 500 person conference in April, and mobilizing over 100 Chicagoans to attend the march on the RNC in July. We have also joined dozens of Coalition for Justice in Palestine marches since the genocide began in October last year. This year and every year we will continue to stand in solidarity with the resistance until Palestine is free from the river to the sea.

After years of politically battling and defeating the Fraternal Order of Police, we suffered a setback through the anti accountability measures in the outrageous FOP contract. The contract, together with the judicial ruling which allows cases of police misconduct to go through arbitration, reminded us of the urgency of getting the referendum on the ballot. The Community Power Over Policing (CPOP) referendum will give the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA) power over the FOP contract, police budget, and staffing of police leadership. So we got to work on passing CPOP through City Council early this year. Unfortunately we missed the deadline to get it on the ballot in November, but fighting to do so has put us in position to get it on the ballot in April, 2025.

While fighting for systemic changes, we continue to fight for justice in particular cases of police crimes, such as the murders of Dexter Reed, Reginald Clay Jr, and Sonya Massey, the beatings of Lorenzo Williams and Hadi Abuatelah, and the continued torture through wrongful conviction of Tamon Russell, Antonio Porter, Rico Clark, and hundreds of others we know about. Fighting for justice has looked like protesting at CPD Headquarters, downtown, or at particular police stations, court support and rallies at Cook County on a monthly basis, banner drops, phone zaps, public comments, and much more. Every step of the way we work with survivors and the families of those impacted by police violence.

Through CFIST we have applied pressure to the governor, judges, prison wardens, and the State’s Attorney’s office. With Kim Foxx leaving office at the end of the year, it is more urgent than ever to apply pressure and demand that she drop the charges on all survivors of police torture and wrongful conviction. By dropping dozens of charges, Foxx has helped our movement more than any state's attorney in history and her successor will not be an ally to the movement, so we need her to free hundreds more before she walks out the door. To this end we had a rally outside her office on August th, and we're rallying again on September 30th.

2024 was another year of our movement striking blows against the white supremacist system. The work we do now is making history. We also lost some freedom fighters who history will never forget. On January 21st we lost Shasta Jones, and on August 17th we lost Anthony Gay. Thanks to many of our comrades, a mural of their faces is now the first sight anyone sees when they enter our office. Their memories, along with those of other revolutionary martyrs, will drive us forward in the fight for justice and liberation.

Join us on October 16 and be a part of the historic struggles of the Chicago Alliance. We encourage all members to attend, help us sum up 2024, and vote on relevant decisions for 2025. 

Only CAARPR members can vote! So be sure to renew your membership and pay your yearly dues by October 9th if you haven't done so already. 

Lastly, please make a recurring monthly donation of whatever amount you can spare. This helps us pay for our regular expenses that allow us to function as an organization.

Yours in solidarity,

Jasmine Smith

Dod McColgan 

Kobi Guillory 

CAARPR Co Chairs