The following is a slightly edited version of a Facebook post by the author, published with his permission. The brief account is all the more important in light of preparations by the Trump administration to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago.

It provides an example of the kind of resistance necessary to counter the Trump administration’s anti-working-class crackdown, which is compounded by an onslaught on democratic rights.

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By Mike Taber

CHICAGO, Illinois, October 4 — This afternoon I attended a “Community Defense Workshop” in Chicago’s 40th Ward, held at Mather High School.

The meeting, which drew over 600 people, was in response to the escalation of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) attacks, kidnappings, and unprovoked brutality in and around the city over the last two weeks.

The outrage felt by the crowd — a large percentage of which was young — was palpable, and most people seemed determined to get involved and do something.

Priority was given to monitoring and documenting ICE activities, organizing Rapid Response teams, and quickly alerting targeted communities and schools of any ICE presence.

The No Kings march on October 18 was also given prominence. I suspect the turnout in Chicago that day will be huge. 

Today’s meeting was organized by the office of the local alderman, Andre Vasquez, working with Indivisible Chicago.

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Postscript by World-Outlook

The following reports the same day as the workshop described above provide more context to the rapidly developing situation in Chicago.

“Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois said in a statement that he expected National Guard troops to be deployed to the state after a Trump official told him on Saturday [October 4, 2025] that the administration intended to federalize 300 members of the Illinois National Guard against the governor’s wishes,” the New York Times reported the same day.

“I want to be clear: There is no need for military troops on the ground in the state of Illinois,” said Pritzker. “State, county and local law enforcement have been working together and coordinating to ensure public safety around the Broadview ICE facility, and to protect people’s ability to peacefully exercise their constitutional rights.”

Broadview is a suburb of Chicago. The ICE facility there has been the scene of ongoing protests.

“Tensions over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Chicago significantly escalated on Saturday [October 4] as angry residents faced off against heavily armed federal agents, resulting in the shooting of a woman,” the Washington Post reported.

The woman, the Post continued, “was shot by federal agents during immigration enforcement operations in the city’s Brighton Park neighborhood Saturday, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said on X. She said that agents fired after ‘officers were rammed by vehicles and boxed in by 10 cars.’”

— World-Outlook editors

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