Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks at the Isadore & Sadie Dorin Forum in Chicago at a stop of his Fighting Oligarchy tour, Aug. 24. | Brandon Chew / People’s World
CHICAGO—Hundreds of people gathered to attend Sen. Bernie Sanders’ rally in Chicago Sunday amid the political backdrop of a potential military takeover of the third largest city in the U.S.
It was the latest stop for Sanders’ “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, which began in February and includes speeches denouncing wealth inequality in the U.S. and the political influence billionaires have on American politics.
This weekend’s rally was held just a few days after President Donald Trump said his administration will “straighten out” crime in Chicago through a federal takeover and less than 24 hours after The Washington Post reported the Pentagon has been planning a military deployment to Chicago for weeks.
In his address, Sanders described Trump as a “demagogue whose function in life is to serve the oligarchy”—the capitalist class—and to divide people.
“Historically, the way demagogues succeed is by dividing people up and by scapegoating powerless minorities,” Sanders said at an auditorium at the University of Illinois-Chicago.
“What a demagogue like Trump does is say, ‘Forget about the health care crisis, forget about climate [change], forget about education, forget about housing. We’re not going to talk about that. We’re going to talk about how we hate this group of people and that group of people.’ And the antidote to that which we must bring forth, we must create, is an understanding that if we do not all stand together, we’re all going to go down together.”
Sanders was joined on stage by Illinois State Sen. Robert Peters.
Illinois State Sen. Robert Peters addresses the crowd in Chicago during Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Fighting Oligarchy rally on Aug. 24. | Brandon Chew / People’s World
In his remarks, Peters said Sanders helped inspire him to become an organizer and run for office in Illinois, where in 2023 he was part of a successful effort to eliminate cash bail in the state. Trump plans to sign an executive order Monday that revokes federal funding to jurisdictions with cashless bail.
“I want to say to Donald Trump: ‘You’re not going to attack our home state for making history, and if you send troops, we will resist you,’” Peters said. “The truth is today in Illinois we are all safer because no one is locked up just because they are too poor, and no person can buy their way out of jail just because they’re rich.”
Sanders sounded a similar note, criticizing the extreme wealth inequality in the country and saying “the richest people have never had it so good” in the U.S. as they do today.
Billionaire-backed takeover
“You got a handful of billionaires controlling the economy, and they control the media, but that’s not enough. They also now control our political system,” Sanders said. “You have a political system now where billionaires can spend as much money as they want to elect their candidates or defeat candidates who stand with the working class.”
Sanders noted how Elon Musk, the richest person on Earth, spent $270 million on Trump’s presidential campaign and in return was granted “the ability to run the United States Government for three or four months” through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The independent Vermont senator denounced Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” Act, which he said makes “massive cuts to Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act” and other federal programs “in order to give $1 trillion in tax breaks to the top 1% and $900 billion to launch profitable corporations.”
Sanders further noted how Sen. Thorn Tillis, R-N.C., announced he wouldn’t run for re-election shortly after he was sharply criticized by the president for voting against the Medicaid and ACA cuts.
Sanders shakes hands with an attendee at his Chicago rally, Aug. 24. | Brandon Chew / People’s World
“The point is that if people stand up for justice, stand up for what is right, they will be punished by big money interests, and that is a system that we can no longer tolerate,” Sanders said. “Because day after day, Washington becomes further and further removed from the reality of the American working class.”
Chicago workers will fight back
Sitting behind Sanders were workers from the Mauser Packaging Solutions plant in Chicago who have been on strike since early June.
“Right now, we just want stability in our workplace,” said Nico Coronado, the chief negotiator of Teamsters Local 705, in an interview with People’s World.
Coronado said the Mauser workers are striking for a contract that includes higher “wages that would at least be livable” in Chicago given rent costs, as well as delivering uniforms and safety equipment more quickly to protect workers from toxic chemicals.
“Right now, we have many members for months on end that have to use their own personal clothing to be around toxic chemicals,” Coronado said. “So, with that, they have to wash their personal clothes along with their family members’ clothes. So, we have no idea what the long-term health effects of that are going to be.”
As well, Coronado said the workers are striking for contract language that better protects them from federal immigration raids by requiring ICE agents provide a signed judicial warrant in order to enter the property.
“All we’re asking is for the company to exercise their private property rights to protect their employees that they say that they care about,” Coronado said. “And unfortunately, they’re still unwilling to do that.”
Coronado criticized Trump for his reported plans to send National Guard troops to Chicago and said it would be ineffective at addressing crime in the city.
“He’s a criminal himself, first and foremost, but second, crime has been going down in the city of Chicago and a lot of that is owed to a lot of community organizing. It [crime] doesn’t come down from force,” Coronado said.
Recent data from the Chicago Police Department that shows overall violent crime is down 22% through the first half of 2025 compared to last year, with a 32% decline in homicides and a 39% decline in shootings.
“I’ve seen gang violence even on my street, and you don’t get results by using force,” Coronado said, who grew up in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood. “You get results by coming down to the community and helping them. And this is something that that man will never understand because he’s had a golden spoon shoved you know where his whole life. He don’t know nothing about communities.”
U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez speaks as part of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Fighting Oligarchy tour, Aug. 24. | Brandon Chew / People’s World
Others in attendance at the rally also criticized the potential military deployment and expressed skepticism it would address crime and homelessness in Chicago.
“We don’t have enough housing that’s affordable,” said Angela Aden, who volunteered to help those with disabilities attend the rally. “I don’t see anything with the military providing resources for people. They can’t just build affordable housing. All they’re going to do is scoop people up and make a scene, just so Trump can say, ‘Hey, I did something,’ and then go away.”
“Don’t come here for a photo op,” said Anthony, an attendee who spoke with People’s World. “If you want to help out Chicago, go to Englewood and take care of what’s going on there. It’s a food desert.”
“Everyone seems to agree that this is just a political stunt. This is just showmanship,” said Amir, a resident of Chicago’s Albany Park neighborhood. “He’s ignoring the campaign promises that really matter to people, [like] high cost of living.”
Resistance on all fronts
Amir said the Republican Party is “beholden to special interests,” and their policies are “geared toward the ultra-rich and other institutions such as” the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC.
Amir went on to criticize Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he said tries to convince people that “all these humanitarian organizations are lying to you” about the conditions in the Gaza Strip. A famine in Gaza was officially declared on Friday by the U.N.-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.
In his address, Sanders drew an immediate standing applause from the crowd when he said the U.S. needs “fundamental changes” in its foreign policy, and said “we must not give another nickel to Netanyahu and the Israeli government to starve the children of Gaza.”
Sanders said in his travels across the country, the “overwhelming majority of the American people” don’t want their tax dollars used “to starve children in Gaza.” He said the U.S. doesn’t have “an ounce of credibility in condemning human rights abuses” anywhere else in the world given its support for the Israeli military.
These comments were echoed by U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez, who spoke just before Sanders took the stage.
“For me, everything the Trump administration and their billionaire bosses are doing—cutting services Americans rely on, perpetrating mass deportations, attacking workers and their rights, persecuting human rights defenders, deploying the National Guard to Democratic cities, undermining our civil rights, and yes the genocide of the Palestinian people—it is all connected,” Ramirez said.
Ramirez continued, saying that billionaires “are willing to rob us blind, leave us starving, displaced, detained, deported, and dead to enrich themselves.”
In light of a potential military deployment to Chicago, Ramirez told People’s World, “We are ready and prepared to take on every single legal fight necessary and community fight necessary to ensure that they know that they’re not welcome here.
“Trump continues in every passing interview to attempt to trash Chicago on purpose,” Ramirez said. “Chicago is one of the most successful and diverse cities in the country. It is everything he stands against, and so it is no surprise that he’s trying to do that.”
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