Andre Vasquez doesn’t look like anyone who’s ever set foot on the City
Council floor. Over the summer, the freshman alderman held an open house
in his 40th Ward office, a former dry cleaner whose windows are now
adorned with a gay pride flag and a Black Lives Matter poster. Vasquez’s
arms were covered with tattoos. He wore a “No Human Being Is Illegal”
T-shirt and a City of Chicago baseball cap.
Chicago Tribune, August 12, 2019
---
Chicago Democratic Socialists of America Censures Alderman Andre Vasquez
November 24, 2020
Ald. Andre Vasquez, a CDSA member who received the endorsement of the
organization in the 2019 election, today cast a “yes” vote on the 2021
budget and sided with an austerity regime and the Democratic Party
establishment over the interests of Chicago’s working class. The Mayor’s
budget preserves the white supremacist power of the Chicago Police
Department and further burdens working class people with regressive
taxes and fines, which in a time of pandemic will lead to more
displacement, debt, and death. Chicago Democratic Socialists of America
censures Ald. Vasquez for his decision to support this budget. Because
we believe that Ald. Vasquez has chosen to represent ruling class
interests, embodied in the Chicago machine he ran against last year,
over those of our organization and the working class, we call upon him
to resign his membership.
In 2020, Chicagoans have declared their demands to defund the police and
mourned the unfathomable losses brought about by COVID-19. The
progressive movement has united with one voice in support of defunding
the Chicago Police Department. This movement bled and shouted from the
streets for these funds to be invested in communities left desolate by
inequality and racist policies that put profits over people. Mayor Lori
Lightfoot effectively ignored these demands in the budget, the pittance
she allocated toward violence prevention and a non-law enforcement
crisis response program notwithstanding. It is unconscionable for Ald.
Vasquez to go against these socialist and progressive demands in order
to side with a mayor who threatened to punish entire wards should their
aldermen disagree.
This vote comes on the heels of a pattern of concerning conduct for a
DSA member in elected office. In the time since receiving CDSA and
national DSA endorsement in the 2019 runoff election, Ald. Vasquez has
turned his fundraising over to the Chicago machine and real estate
developers who fuel displacement and homelessness. He has compromised
movement demands such as the Civilian Police Accountability Council
(CPAC) ordinance.
Over the last few days, Ald. Vasquez heard hundreds of constituents
demand that he vote “no” on the budget. Instead of listening to the
movement, Ald. Vasquez chose to turn his back on his constituents and on
the 3,000 members of CDSA by supporting the Mayor’s pro-police,
austerity budget. CDSA regards his vote and his conduct as incompatible
with our organization.
In solidarity,
Chicago DSA Executive Committee
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group.
View/Reply Online (#3871): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/3871
Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/78490668/21656
-=-=-
POSTING RULES & NOTES
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
-=-=-
Group Owner: [email protected]
Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy
[[email protected]]
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
