ILS Blog
Planting the Seeds of Resistance
Date: Wednesday, September 3, 2025
Time: 7:00 to 9:00 pm, CDT
Location: Oakwood 83, 1959 W Montrose (near Damen)
Register➜
To counter the authoritarian onslaught, we need a grassroots resistance of strategic non-cooperation that can be practiced at your grocery store, your ‘L’ stop, your gym—anywhere you are part of a community. Let's brainstorm and find effective ways to help undermine Trump's pillars of support.
This event piggybacks on Indivisible's "One Million Rising" initiative. If you missed the three Zoominar explainers, you can view them here:
We’ll have presenters to give us some background; we’ll break out into small groups to come up with non-cooperation ideas; and finally re-convene to report back. We’ll also have free yard signs and buttons.
New members especially welcomed—bring your friends!
Please RSVP here so we know how many to expect.
One Million Rising
Across the country, authoritarian forces are getting bolder and more dangerous. Trump and his allies are not hiding their agenda: mass deportations, rollbacks of civil rights, weaponized courts, and full-scale attacks on our democracy. We don’t have to wait until it’s too late. We can stop this. But it’ll take all of us—not just on single days of mass action, but through sustained organizing in our communities.
This summer, national Indivisible launched One Million Rising—a national effort to train one million people in the strategic logic and practice of non-cooperation, as well as the basics of community organizing and campaign design.
If you were unable to attend the three sessions, you can still watch the recordings of the training here.
Or to watch individual session records:
Chicagoans join national effort to oppose redistricting in Lone Star State
Chicago joined a national effort to protest unlawful redistricting plans in Texas proposed by Gov. Greg Abbott and the Trump administration during an event in Millennium Park on Aug. 16.
In addition to supporters from around the city and suburbs, Democratic representatives from the Texas House of Representative were in attendance. The state representatives, who left Texas two weeks ago to deny their state legislature a quorum to vote on the proposed maps, have been welcomed in Illinois by Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
“Texas House Democrats are demonstrating what it means to fight for the preservation of our constitutional republic,” said Pritzker at an earlier press conference welcoming the politicians. He has characterized the redistricting plan as “cheating” at the request of President Trump.
Gerrymandering—the practice of manipulating electoral boundaries to favor one party—is an issue of broad national concern.
The Chicago event was organized by Indivisible Chicago. Stay tuned for more local events to support individual states facing these actions as they unfold.
Stand With Texas
Date: Saturday, August 16, 2025
Time: 11:00 am
Location: Millennium Park, 201 E. Randolph St. (Michigan and Randolph)
Register
This Saturday, August 16th is the national day of action in response to the plans of Texas and other states to steal the 2026 election through new gerrymandering.
As Illinois hosts members of the Texas delegation, we need our voices to be loud and clear to defend democracy, denounce Donald Trump's power grab, and push our leaders to fight back with every tool we have. We also need to keep supporting the legislators that have been showcasing this takeover and leading the resistance.
A large delegation of Texas lawmakers will be attending in person.
Let's get a big turnout to welcome these legislators from Texas! .
A core principle behind this action is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values. .
You can find rallies outside of Chicago here.
Stop GOP Gerrymander
From Blue State Defiance/Indivisible (national):
Republicans want to rig Congress and give themselves permanent power. They’re getting ready to redraw congressional maps, again, to lock in control of the House, and they’re not being subtle about it. Texas Republicans (like Greg Abbott) are threatening to gerrymander their way to a permanent majority, and Donald Trump is publicly calling on them to do it.
If Republicans gut fair maps, blue states can’t just sit back -- it's time to fight fire with fire. Even before taking legislative action, governors and legislators need to make it clear that if Republicans redraw maps to rig the system, blue states will respond.
To be clear, we’re not calling for Democrats to gerrymander first. We’re saying: don’t stand idle if it happens; and be prepared to act.
Contact your elected officials! Go to Blue State Defiance to find a suggested script and links to your representatives.
While you are at it, take a moment to thank our Illinois governor, JB Pritzker for standing with the Texas Democrats who've come to Illinois to fight the GOP's threat to rig Texas maps. You can find contact information at Blue State Defiance.
Shout out to Indivisible Wisconsin
When three Wisconsin Indivisible groups heard their GOP representative, Tom Tiffany, was using sprinklers to disperse peaceful protestors outside his office, they knew they had to respond creatively. Just like that, the Tom Tiffany Beach Bash was born!
At their next protest outside Tiffany’s office, dozens of Indivisibles showed up in street clothes like normal -- until the sprinklers came back on. Rather than run from the petty waterworks, the Indivisibles stripped down to their bathing suits, broke out their floaties, and kept on protesting!
Video of protest from UpNorthNews
Close the Broadview ICE Facility
From the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression
For at least the past two months, the Broadview ICE Staging Facility has been used as a de facto immigration detention center. The Broadview ICE Staging Facility is meant to hold detained immigrants for up to twelve hours. In the past two months, there have been reported and confirmed cases of detainees held in the facility for far longer, some for more than a week.
The facility was not designed to house detainees for even a night; it does not have beds or showers. ICE detention standards require three hot meals a day to be provided to detainees; at Broadview, detainees report receiving one meal.
Urge States Attorney Eileen Burke and Attorney General Kwame Raoul to close the Broadview Ice Facility. Use the CAARPR Immigrant Working Rights Committee’s easy online form.
Call These Illinois Representatives to Protect Medicaid
From Indivisible Illinois
Rockin' Zoom Phone Bank to Protect Medicaid
Date: Sundays
Time: 4:00-5:30 pm (Central)
Location: Virtual, call from anywhere
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Help Protect Medicaid! Every Sunday, Indivisible Illinois hosts a phone bank on Zoom from 4-5:30 pm to call into the IL-12, IL-15 and IL-16 to let the voters know that their Member of Congress voted to cut Medicaid, and what that means for them and their communities.
Tell Your Senators to Demand Immediate Humanitarian Action from Trump
From Indivisible national
Gaza is on the brink of a catastrophic man-made famine. Starvation is already widespread; one in three people are going days at a time without food, and children are dying daily of hunger-related causes.
After imposing a full blockade for months, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is now letting in only a fraction of the aid needed, and the current distribution sites are functioning as nightmarish death traps. Over 1,000 Palestinians trying to feed themselves and their families have been killed by Israeli forces (and possibly US contractors) since May.
The images are so heartbreaking, the situation so dire, that we are beginning to see calls for action from across the ideological spectrum. Even Trump has publicly broken with Netanyahu over the images on his TV.
But words mean little. Our elected leaders from both parties need to demand that Trump use US leverage to address this manufactured humanitarian crisis immediately.
Use this Indivisible form to contact your Senator.
Bear Witness at Immigration Court
Court Watch is a volunteer program founded in 2007 to observe and bear witness at detained immigrants’ hearings in Chicago. While Illinois passed legislation that banned immigrant detention within our state beginning in 2022, deportation cases are still processed in the Chicago Immigration Court nearly every weekday for immigrants - including Illinois residents - who are jailed in Wisconsin, Indiana, Kentucky, and other states.
Court Watch volunteers attend as many of these hearings as possible (most hearings are currently conducted online via Webex). We partner with legal organizations and pro bono attorneys, highlighting problems we observe and cases where unrepresented detainees are in need of legal help.
If you're interested, simply send an email as instructed at https://www.icirr.org/fsn. You’ll hear back from Jack Lloyd, who runs the program, setting up a Zoom information session. If you’re still interested, you will sign up to be a trainee court watcher during a session that Jack is also watching. As you’re watching, you’ll chat with Jack with any questions. You can do this more than once if you feel you need more training.