‘We can’t just vote’: protesters gather in Chicago for Gaza and abortion rights before Democratic convention

As thousands of Democratic delegates, party officials and elected leaders descend on Chicago for the Democratic National Convention (DNC) a smaller, strident group of protesters have taken to Michigan Avenue ahead of a week that promises several demonstrations.

A protest of up to 1,000 marchers combining support for the Palestinian cause and abortion rights gathered at the iconic corner of Wacker Drive and Michigan Avenue in Chicago Sunday evening. The protest is the first of several demonstrations, legally permitted and not, planned for the convention.

Related: Tens of thousands of activists prepare protests over Gaza war at Democratic National Convention

Some protesters at the march, organized by groups like Bodies Against Unjust Laws, have come explicitly to “Disrupt the DNC”, arguing that American support for Israel in the Gaza war was tantamount to genocide and that the Democratic party was indistinguishable from Republicans and equally unworthy of political support.

“The rhetoric that comes out of the mouths of politicians – and I’m not saying that some of it isn’t sincere in the wish to defend reproductive justice, or for trans and queer people, or even for citizens on the ground in Gaza – but rhetoric does not stop the bombs from falling,” says Linda Loew, a protest leader.

“Rhetoric does not deliver abortion care from someone in a state that has a six-week abortion ban. What we need is action. We need the end to funding to Israel and the end of delivery of weapons.”

It didn’t matter to some of these protesters if the nominee was Joe Biden or Kamala Harris.

“There’s no indication that there is much of a difference at this point,” says Megan Behrent, a college professor in New York, about Biden and Harris, and said she would vote third party.

“I just kind of expect that in the lead up to this kind of election, the kind of focus on the lesser evil always starts dominating politics,” she says.

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“And for good reason. Trump is, you know, a nightmare. But for me, the most important thing is to maintain an independent kind of organizing voice, to continue to raise the issues that matter.”

Andy Thayer, a notable Chicago activist, speaking for Bodies Outside of Unjust Laws and the Coalition for Reproductive Justice, says: “We applied for the permit on the first legal day we could, January 2, and the city delayed us for the next eight-plus months.”

Ronnie Mosley, Chicago city alderman was walking along the outskirts of the protest with police officers. He described this protest as an act of free speech, and something the city can handle.

Meanwhile, protesters interspersed calls to free Palestine with “Intifada, intifada”, which translates to uprising or rebellion. Intifada was also the name given to a series of deadly outbreaks of violence in Israel and the occupied territories in the 1980s and 2000s.

“I think the audience [for the protest] is the entire population of American people. I think that those who want to vote in the election should absolutely vote. We fought hard for that right, and we do not want to see that taken away,” Loews says.

“But we can’t just vote. We have never been able to rely on a single politician of either party to deliver our rights, whether it’s been civil rights or removal of US forces from unpopular wars or the right to get an abortion in this country.”