10/27/2025
[ The following speech was delivered by 33rd Ward Alder Rossana Rodríguez Sánchez at a Public Health and Safety Coalition rally on 10/11/25. It was delivered first in English, then in Spanish. Both of which are transcribed below. ]
[ El siguiente discurso fue pronunciado por la concejala del Distrito 33, Rossana Rodríguez Sánchez, en un mitin de la Coalición de Salud y Seguridad Pública el 11/10/25. Se pronunció primero en inglés y luego en español. Ambos discursos se transcriben a continuación. ]
I want to uplift the fact that everyone here is fighting fascism. This is the fight against fascism. We are witnessing fascism in front of our eyes. I want to make a little connection here, because a lot of what needed to be said has already been said by my friends behind me.
I want to talk a little bit about neoliberalism and privatization, and every time they told us “we need to save a little bit of money here, so we’re just going to privatize this”, or “we’re going to close the mental health clinics, and then we are going to go through the non-profits”.
Every time they did that, they took power away from us. Every time they did that, they weakened our systems of care. Every time they did that, they weakened labor protections and worker power. And Trump is the king of that. We should see the parallels. Every time they have done that, we have ended up worse.
So I think it's really important that we reflect on the fact that we need the funding to be able to provide public care. Right now, in the City of Chicago, what we are witnessing is that the fight against fascism is the fight for care. We are seeing our communities coming out and caring for our neighbors. We are seeing mutual aid networks being formed.
But the government has the responsibility to care for it’s people and the only way that we can do that is through investments. And we have not been investing because we continue to hear the narrative that there is no money. But there is money and we know where it is!
The money is with the corporations and the rich, that get more powerful every time we privatize something and then issue a contract so they can provide those services. The money is also in the police department, that has so many vacancies that they are never going to be able to fill, and we are still sitting here thinking about, “how are we going to be able to fund positions for nurses, social workers, and clinicians?" And we need that to take care of our communities.
So I think it's really important, in this moment, that we remember all of the people that told us that if we privatize we could save a little bit of money and that we could take care of people. Why do you care about how we provide the mental health services? Why are you so obsessed? Because of fascism! Because this is what happens when you decide you are going to make government small and you are just giving more power to corporations.
Government is ours. Government belongs to the people. And we need to have control over it, and we are going to continue to fight to make sure that we have that control. And we do that by making sure that we have investments.
I’m going to say this in Spanish, really really quick, because I do want to make it accessible to all my Latino people that are watching.
Esta pelea que estamos dando aqui es una pelea en contra el fascismo. Y cada vez que nos dijeron que iban a recortar un programa, que iban a privatizar unos servicios para poder ahorrar dinero. Estaban debilitándonos. Estaban debilitando el poder de los obreros. Estaban debilitando nuestros sistemas de cuidado.
Y ahora estamos en una situación en la que la mayor parte de los servicios están siendo proveídos por las corporaciones. Más contratos para corporaciones que tienen más poder. Y lo que estamos viendo ahora mismo es una consolidación del poder corporativo. Eso es lo que nos trajo el fascismo.
Así que tenemos que seguir peleando para que podamos expandir los recursos. Sabemos que el dinero está. Nos están diciendo que no hay dinero. El dinero está. El dinero está en los bolsillos de los ricos y lo vamos a buscar. El dinero está con el departamento de la policía que tiene un montón de puestos vacantes que no vamos a poder llenar, pero ahí siguen.
Nosotros necesitamos poder financiar los recursos para poder cuidarnos. Y estamos viendo que en la cara del fascismo, lo que estamos viendo es nuestras comunidades saliendo para cuidarse unos a otros sin paga, de manera voluntaria. Pero lo estamos haciendo y necesitamos que el gobierno provea ese cuidado. Así que vamos a seguir luchando para tener ese servicio.
Thank you so much!
Take Action
Now is the time to get organized. We are on campaign for #ProvenProgressives like Delia Ramirez, Graciela Guzmán, Jessica Vásquez, and Miguel Alvelo-Rivera, who are fighting for legislation to block Trump and ICE, while also using their positions to help organize rapid response and school defense networks. 33rd Ward Working Families has helped put these politicians into office and is actively participating on all of these projects.
WE NEED YOU to join us to win these campaigns and grow these networks.
Our next big event will be Miguel Alvelo-Rivera's campaign launch and volunteer appreciation event on Saturday, November 1, 1-3pm at Shattaz Jerk Bar and Grill (3109 W Irving Park). Meet our candidates, our members, and join the struggle while having fun!
