Thousands protest in Chicago to stop Illinois budget cuts

On June 18, over 3,000 people rallied in the middle of a workday outside of the James R. Thompson Center in Chicago to protest Illinois governor Pat Quinn’s proposed $7.5 billion in cuts to essential social services.  The plaza was packed shoulder to shoulder with a multinational crowd of workers, students, parents, children, seniors and disabled people.  The energetic crowd filled the downtown Chicago air with chants like, “Stop the cuts!” and “People first!”

Protestors march in Chicago to stop devastating budget cuts.

The enormity and diversity of the crowd was a reflection of the widespread nature of the planned cut backs which amount to a crushing blow to the working and oppressed communities of Illinois. The bulk of the cuts to social services would greatly affect the most oppressed sectors of the city. 

The governor’s cuts would include the slashing of 10,000 state jobs and 1,000 jobs within the Chicago public schools, half of which will be teaching positions. 

If the budget cuts are made a reality, 80,000 working mothers will be completely robbed of childcare funds, and a third of Illinois’ YWCAs that serve as shelters for hundreds of thousands of battered women and their children will close.  There will also be drastic cuts to adoption and foster care programs. 

Health services for 175,000 people with mental illnesses will be cut, leading to a rapid increase in homelessness and incarceration, and rehabilitation programs serving disabled people will be cut.  Home care services to 40,000 seniors and disabled are also on the chopping block, as are state-funded treatment programs that serve another 65,000 people who struggle with drug and alcohol addiction. Youth programs will face cuts up to 70 percent, affecting nearly 500,000 children and teens.

The budget cuts would also be devastating for students, particularly those of the working poor and immigrant communities.  English as a Second Language (ESL) and General Educational Development (GED) programs would be totally eliminated.  Also, nearly 200,000 college students would lose their scholarships.

Illinois law makers and Governor Pat Quinn, using the capitalist economic crisis as their excuse, are burdening working and poor people in order to try and close the state’s $11.5 billion dollar deficit.  The people of Illinois did not cause the state’s financial woes; it was the billionaire leeches on Wall Street and at places like the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.  Workers and the people of oppressed communities are ready to fight back against this capitalist attack through their mouth pieces in government.  Together, we can form a movement that will struggle for the common interests of the majority.