Reproductive Justice Action – Milwaukee joins Coalition to March on the DNC

Milwaukee, WI – Grassroots organization Reproductive Justice Action – Milwaukee (RJAM) proudly endorsed the Coalition to March on the DNC in 2024 and joined several other groups in Chicago on April 18 for the press conference officially launching the effort. RJAM is now a coalition member of both the Coalition to March on the RNC in 2024 (in Milwaukee) and the Coalition to March on the DNC (in Chicago) the same summer, the first in July and the second in August.

“We want to put on display for the country that Chicago is having a new day, and we want to invite everybody in the movements around the country to come and add their voices together with us,” said Joe Iosbaker, coalition organizer and long-time community and labor activist in Chicago.

The Coalition to March on the DNC includes organizations like the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Black Lives Matter Chicago, Students for a Democratic Society at UIC, and many more. RJAM, and the rest of the coalition, is looking forward to using this opportunity to remind the Democratic Party that their actions speak louder than their words. For too long have the people been lied to through campaign promises and then gaslighted once these promises disappear as their rights continue to be stripped away.

“The crisis in democracy at this point is deeper and broader, involving everything from the continued struggle that we’ve been waging around community control of the police, and meanwhile nothing’s been done about the George Floyd bill in Congress,” said Shasta Jones of the Chicago Alliance, reading a prepared statement from Frank Chapman, Executive Director of the National Alliance.

“With the attack on abortion rights, there has been a great leap backwards in the rights of women; there are also attacks on the LGBTQ community. There has been no progress in Washington on the rights of immigrants. There is also a renewed struggle for the rights of workers to organize and to strike to change the deplorable conditions under which they work,” Jones continued. “This includes the drive for new unionization, both at Starbucks and Amazon. Also, Biden betrayed the railroad workers unions in their demands for safe working conditions.”

Jones went on: “Finally, we have to march against war. What happened to Biden’s Build Back Better legislation? What happened to the great renewal we were supposed to have after the COVID epidemic? It’s been gobbled up by the war in Ukraine, which is a proxy war that our country is waging with Russia. We’ll march against the U.S.-backed occupation of Palestine, against the U.S. military aid to the dictatorship in the Philippines, and to oppose U.S. threats of war with China. All of these issues have matured and gotten deeper, and so we have to address those issues with the People’s Agenda.”

Lauren Forbush, a leader with Reproductive Justice Action Milwaukee, commented after the press conference, urging others to follow their lead.

“The coalition is just kicking off and planning is in the early stages, but RJAM is calling on reproductive rights activists throughout the country to show up in the streets of both Milwaukee and Chicago to make sure the Republicans and Democrats hear loud and clear that the movement will not stop until the people have safe and legal abortion access and all other reproductive health services!”