Outside the Democratic national convention next week, organizers expect tens of thousands of people to march in Chicago to pressure the party to stop the war in Gaza. Inside the convention, uncommitted delegates plan to push anti-war demands in hopes of winning more allies to the cause.
The two movements show the continued fractures among Democratic voters, even at a time of increased unity.
The anti-war movement has planned for Democratic convention demonstrations for months. Joe Biden’s decision not to continue his re-election campaign and Kamala Harris’s ascension to the top of the ticket have not hindered those plans.
Voters who cast protest votes in the Democratic primaries in several states won 30 delegates, who are now headed to the convention. Minnesota won the most uncommitted delegates, with 11. Others come from Michigan, Washington, Hawaii and more.
The 30 uncommitted delegates, a small number of the more than 4,000 total Democratic delegates, will use the Democratic convention process to try to convince Harris delegates to join them in pressuring the party to include a ceasefire in the Democratic convention platform. The delegates include longtime community organizers well-versed in using their voices.
Some see the vice-president as at least more open to the movement, though her campaign has indicated she does not support an arms embargo that would end US support for the war, one of the key planks for uncommitted delegates.
The effort to influence the platform internally is separate from the external protests, which combine anti-war demands with a host of other progressives issues, such as abortion access and anti-police brutality.
Outside the convention
The Chicago area is home to the country’s largest Palestinian population in the US. Bridgeview, Illinois, is known as Little Palestine. Local communities have turned out for dozens of protests since the war in Gaza began last October, and locals are expected to show up during the Democratic convention protests.
A coalition of more than 200 groups planned the March on the DNC, which is behind protests scheduled for Monday and Thursday at Union Park, near the convention site, to bookend the convention. The group is still wrangling with the city to secure a longer protest route and speaker space, given the high numbers of protesters expected.
Hatem Abudayyeh, a spokesperson for the Coalition to March on the DNC, predicted there will be tens of thousands who attend a protest at some time during the week. Aside from the two March on the DNC demonstrations, there are also protests planned by other groups for Sunday and Wednesday.
“We’re getting stories about mobilization everywhere, especially the midwest, on a daily basis,” Abudayyeh said. “Every day there’s another bus that’s being reserved and another city that’s telling us that they’re coming with some folks, and so that’s why we think it’s going to be pretty big.”
The switch at the top of the ticket did not change the coalition’s plans. The day the president announced he wouldn’t continue his run, the coalition met on Zoom to discuss next steps. “Not one organization said, you know, we think we should pull back on this. Not one organization said, we’re going to leave the coalition,” he said.
The protests call for an end to the war in Gaza and to US aid to Israel, though they also advocate for immigrants, workers’ rights, reproductive rights and LGBTQ+ rights, and police accountability, Abudayyeh said.
Eman Abdelhadi, a professor and speaker at a Sunday protest organized by Bodies Outside of Unjust Laws, is a lifelong Democrat who has driven people to the polls and canvassed for Democratic candidates. She plans to participate in protests throughout the week. She will not vote for Donald Trump, but she could choose a third-party candidate if Harris doesn’t shift on Gaza.
“Kamala Harris hasn’t signaled any policy shifts,” Abdelhadi said. “She’s had a different tone than President Biden, but she hasn’t actually offered anything different. So it’s very important, I think, for the Democratic party to understand that a large swath of its base is angry, is frustrated, and wants to see real change.”
Deanna Othman is on the board of American Muslims for Palestine – Chicago, one of the groups behind a protest planned for Wednesday. She said Harris and her campaign will likely be paying attention to the protests, but that she doesn’t know if that will translate into action.
“I cannot speak for anyone else. I cannot tell anyone else what is right for them, but for myself, I cannot, in good conscience, cast a vote for somebody who I feel is currently complicit in the genocide against my people,” Othman said.
A pro-Israel demonstration organized by the Israeli American Council has so far been unable to secure permits for the event from the city. The council plans to put up a public art installation called “Hostage Square” near the convention on private property.
Pro-Palestinian protesters in the Chicago area have been arrested during demonstrations, including more than 50 people during one protest on the road near O’Hare airport. The police presence near the convention is expected to be heavy.
And there’s a historical backdrop here, too: the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago saw intense anti-war protests, infamous riots and police crackdowns.
Organizers have trained people to serve as marshals and protect the safety of protesters, and National Lawyers Guild attorneys are at the ready if needed, Abudayyeh said. As for police: “Their only responsibility is for them not to infringe on our first amendment rights,” he said.
Behind Enemy Lines, a group organized around anti-imperialism, is planning a week of actions aimed at shutting down the DNC. On its webpage that includes DNC-related actions, the group says “Make 2024 as Great as 1968!” and “Make bruises from Chicago police batons the 2024 back to school Fall fashion!”
The group disrupted a DNC volunteer recruitment event in May, carrying a sign that said “Genocide Joe is Not Welcome in Chicago!” A law enforcement threat assessment identified the May incident at the United Center, where the convention will take place, as a security breach, the local TV station ABC7 reported.
Inside the convention
Uncommitted organizers have said they are not involved in planning the external protests and don’t plan to join them, the Washington Post reported. They are helping organize demonstrations around the country on Sunday as part of a campaign called “Not Another Bomb”.
At the convention, they will be working to convince other delegates, mostly committed to Harris already, to join them in pushing for a ceasefire and arms embargo. And they want a speaker slot for an uncommitted delegate and for Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan, an American doctor who has worked in Gaza, to share what she has seen. It is so far looking like neither request will be granted. The Democratic convention did not respond to a request for comment.
Asma Mohammed, an uncommitted delegate from Minnesota, said delegates will be going to caucus meetings and trying to recruit more people to push the convention to include a ceasefire in the party’s platform. Caucus and council meetings for different segments of the party, such as the Black caucus, the Labor Council and the Women’s caucus, will meet throughout the week to discuss party issues and plan for November.
“We want to make sure that this is represented at every single caucus,” she said.
The convention comes after months of effort from uncommitted organizers to convince Biden and now Harris to change the administration’s policies on Gaza.
Uncommitted delegates were glad to see Tim Walz, Minnesota’s governor, added to the presidential ticket. Walz has said the uncommitted voters were appropriately using the ballot box to make their voices heard. But protesters have also gathered at his Minnesota residence over state investments in Israel.
Party leaders in Minnesota and Michigan have sought to work with the uncommitted movement to unify the party ahead of the convention, the New York Times reported. These efforts have been helpful, people involved told the Times, but do not alter delegates’ plans to advocate for a ceasefire inside the convention. And they have at times seen tensions from other Democrats – in one instance, the Michigan uncommitted delegate Abbas Alawieh was told to “shut up, asshole” during a state Democratic call.
One Minnesota delegate did commit to Harris, moving from uncommitted after the change at the top of the ticket. Jim Hepworth, the chair of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party in Minnesota’s second congressional district, said both the war and concerns over passing the party to the next generation initially went into his bid to be uncommitted.
The district, now represented by the Democrat Angie Craig in Congress, is competitive. The district’s makeup, and the enthusiasm the 76-year-old longtime Democrat saw from his grandchildren, helped sway him to Harris. And Walz’s inclusion on the ticket helps a lot, he said, as someone who has known Walz for years.
He didn’t receive any pushback from the other uncommitted delegates, he said. “They understand my position. They know I’m really sympathetic to the cause, just that I thought it was important to rally around the Harris-Walz ticket.”
Two Michigan uncommitted leaders spoke briefly with Harris before a rally in the state last week. They requested a formal meeting to talk with her about an arms embargo and a permanent ceasefire, and, in a statement after their brief introduction, they said Harris seemed willing to meet. Harris’s campaign then said she did not support an arms embargo and “will always ensure Israel is able to defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups”.
During the Michigan rally, anti-war protesters disrupted Harris’s speech. She tried to tamp them down multiple times, culminating in a comment that soured protesters: “You know what, if you want Donald Trump to win, say that. Otherwise, I’m speaking.” She changed her response by the next day, telling protesters in Phoenix: “We’re here to fight for our democracy, which includes respecting the voices that I think that we are hearing from.”
But for some, the Michigan dismissal still stings. Michigan is home to a large Arab American population that could help swing the election and home to the uncommitted movement. More than 100,000 voters cast uncommitted ballots in the party primary there.
“Michigan is the swing state,” Mohammed said. “Michigan is where she needed to have that language, and she missed an opportunity.”
Mohammed acknowledges it would take a “huge, huge amount of support” to get the party’s platform changed, an enormous undertaking for a small group of delegates in a sea of thousands already committed to the Harris ticket.
But, she said: “It still is up to the delegates whether or not they want to vote for a platform that does not include the humanity of Palestinians.”
