Matthew Kaplan Photography

General Iron Protest March on Chicago's Southeast Side - March 21, 2021

Shouldering three coffins to symbolize the deaths attributed to toxic industrial pollution in their community, environmental activists on Sunday marched from the Jane Addams elementary school, through the city's 10th Ward, and again took their protest against the General Iron scrap metal operation, to the house of Alderman Sue Garza.

Blocking traffic at the intersection of 106th and Ewing Avenue, and in front of the alderman's house, speakers recounted their feelings that neither Mayor Lori Lightfoot nor Alderman Garza is putting the needs of the people ahead of corporate interests.

"The mayor isn't standing up for us!" said a student from nearby George Washington High School. "She's choosing to ignore us!" she added.

"No Permit" read the placards demanding the city deny the General Iron metal recycling facility a permit to operate their problematic metal shredder, which is being relocated from the gentrifying north side to the economically, and environmentally, hard hit southeast side. Also they decried the mayor spending a considerable amount of the city's covid relief funds on the Chicago Police Department.

"Our leaders see the bodies here on the Southeast Side as disposable" stated one of the speakers at the march, referring both to the Alderman and Mayor Lori Lightfoot. "We will remember them" said another, "in two years at the ballot box!"