Guest post by Candis Castillo: "We just want to live."

“We just want to live,” one woman said. “Our black kids keep getting killed. We just want to live.” - Chicago Sun-Times, July 15, 2018 ----

Yesterday, a Black man named Harith Augustus was shot in the back by the Chicago Police Department.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel will go through the motions: a press conference, a task force, a scapegoat.

Meanwhile, Black families in Chicago live ever more violent and precarious lives in our city: terrorized by the police, destabilized by school closings and joblessness, locked up, pushed out, shot, killed.

It’s not a coincidence that cranes and condos are coming into downtown while Black families are being displaced by the thousands. It’s intentional. The Mayor and his corporate donors, with the support of the overwhelming majority of Chicago’s political class, are turning Chicago into a city for the wealthy few.

Black people have no place in that future city. That’s why they have closed our schools, broken our unions, and locked up our youth. That’s why they’re killing us.

I grew up on the South Side of Chicago. I believe we have a right to Chicago. And as the Organizing Director of United Working Families, I’m working with Black union members to build the people-powered, independent political organization we need to fight for our lives.

Help us fight back. Donate to support our South Side Organizing Institute, and register today for our fall membership convention, where our organizing interns will lead the conversation on how we build a different future together.