Updates from Electeds
35th Ward Alderman Anthony J Quezada
Alderman Quezada remarked on the unprecedented amount of robust engagement from a grassroots perspective over the last few months. “We just made a huge mark on the electoral and civic trajectory in the political ecosystem of Chicago. It’s a real example of what can happen when we come together, engage people, and have clear vision and values for what we want to see in government.”
During his first month in City Council, Quezada has helped pass the Green Social Housing ordinance, is working to increase engagement in the participatory budgeting process, and to create a 35th Ward Youth Committee.
8th District Cook County Commissioner Jessica Vasquez
Commissioner Vasquez has spent just two weeks in office, and is waiting on official committee assignments. She’s been building out her policy platform, and building relationships with new colleagues.
20th District IL State Senator Graciela Guzman
Senator Guzman joined us to share a few days of action during the two weeks left in the state legislature session.
Healthy Illinois and the Illinois Revenue Alliance are heading to Springfield on May 21st, 22nd, and 28th to rally for progressive revenue to fund essential services. The IRA is assembled by ICIRR and the People’s Lobby, and you can read more about their proposals on our website.
Committee Updates
UN35’s committee structure helps us focus on projects that help our organization in different ways. To learn more and join a committee, reach out to info@un35.org.
Campaigns Committee
We’re building up our infrastructure for campaigns. Some of us attended a briefing with Delia Ramirez’s campaign. It’s still unclear whether or not she’ll have a primary threat, but she’s planning and preparing as though she will.
We also want to grow our org’s capacity for campaign skills, and we’re holding space to build up capacity for issue campaigns we’ve endorsed.
Next meeting: May 27
Save these dates!
- Saturday, June 21st – Delia Ramirez Re-Election Campaign Launch
- Sunday, July 20th – July Membership Meeting will be endorsement party
- August 9 – First canvass, more info coming soon
Comms Committee
For the past several months we’ve been working on a documentary about UN35. Last month we held a writer’s room to gather broad feedback. We’re currently organizing our next writer’s room to create an outline.
Next meeting: June 4th at 7PM
Political Education Committee
We’re starting a UN35 book club! We’re reading From the Bullet to the Ballot: The Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party and Racial Coalition Politics in Chicago, by Jakobi Williams.
The first meeting will be June 8th, and we’ll continue meeting on the second and fourth Sundays.
Membership Committee
We held the first of a three-stage training series called the Member Orientation. Five new members met for a three-hour orientation to learn about the history of Chicago politics, deeply understand the values of UN35, the work UN35 has done, and better understand what keeps us rooted in the work.
Stay tuned for the second training, called Organizer 101 Training, coming soon. If you’d like to learn more about the substance of these trainings, please reach out to info@un35.org
Fundraising Committee
The May 1 Gala was a great success. During the meeting, we discussed some ways we’d like to invest the money raised back into our org, both in the short-term and for the long-term.
The committee’s next monthly meeting is Friday, June 6th, at 5pm. These meetings are a great way to learn about grassroots fundraising; no experience required.
And if you’re not already a monthly donor, even a small amount helps.
NW Side Community Deportation Rapid Response
There’ve been a few people detained by ICE, and we’re seeing them deploy other federal agents to our communities – DHS, Homeland Security Investigators, DEA, IRS, and FBI agents have been stepping in where we’ve organized against ICE. Because of this, we also expect to see a revival of ordinances to advance right wing legislative agendas. As the Trump Administration shifts tactics, we are organizing to meet the changing conditions to continue to protect our immigrant communities.
Our rapid response team is composed of community members, elected officials, their staffers, and IPO leaders. To get more involved attend one of our upcoming Migra Watch training sessions on June 7th and June 21st.
Disability Working Group
The Disability Working Group was created out of a desire to create sustainable and reproducible procedures to make our work more accessible. One of these first efforts was our COVID policy, which has now been written up into a more formal document.
UN35 acknowledges that the pandemic is not over. It was only declared so because providing for the health of working people is not profitable. When our health institutions fail us, we must keep each other safe.
Masking is often polarizing. To many, masking reminds us of the grief experienced during quarantine: loss of community, and isolation. But masks are not designed to divide us, but instead allow us to share physical space while protecting our collective health. This is why, in alignment of our working class values, all UN35 events require masks while indoors.-
Executive Committee Updates
UN35 members in good standing voted to approve the Executive Committee’s nomination of Connie Hernandez to fill the vacancy of Jonathan Nagy, as he requested to step down from the Executive Committee effective immediately to create opportunities for other members of our organization to step into new leadership roles.
Additionally, Aji Olayemi will replace Jonathan as UN35’s new Secretary.
Connie’s term will expire at the end of the existing term, in August 2025, at which point his seat will be vacated along with the remainder of the EC, for organization-wide nominations.