An “emergency protest” against President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord will take place in front of Chicago’s Trump International Hotel and Tower at 4:30pm today.
The rally is backed by more than a dozen groups including Indivisible Chicago, the Sierra Club, the Illinois Environmental Council and AFGE Local 704, the union representing employees in the Chicago office of the Environmental Protection Agency. After gathering at Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive, across the river from Trump Tower, the group plans to march to the Thompson Center to call on Gov. Bruce Rauner to join the governors of 10 other states in pledging to uphold the Paris accord in Illinois. The governors of California, New York, Washington, Massachusetts, Oregon, Colorado, Hawaii, Connecticut, Virginia and Rhode Island have vowed to continue to honor the accord. The mayors of 86 cities across the country also released a joint statement under the mark of the Mayors National Climate Action Agenda to uphold the Paris accord; Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is among the signatories.
Indivisible Chicago is also the organizer behind a longer-planned protest planned for 11am Saturday. The March for Truth is one of more than 140 such rallies taking place across the country tomorrow. Speakers at the Chicago March for Truth, which begins at Federal Plaza, are scheduled to include Illinois Representatives Mike Quigley, Jan Schakowsky and Robin Kelly; following the rally, protesters will march to Trump Tower.
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