January 2021

The Bloomington City Council will vote on an initiative to pursue the Welcoming Cities Ordinance at the Committee of the Whole meeting on Tuesday, 1/19 at 6pm.

The members of Bloomington-Normal Democratic Socialists of America and our comrades at Black Lives Matter Bloomington Normal celebrate today’s passage of the Pretrial Fairness Act as part of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus’ criminal justice reform bill, HB 3653 SFA2.

Join BloNo DSA, YWCA McLean County, Bloomington-Normal Chapter of NAACP, and other leading area civil rights organizations* for a virtual town hall that will inform our community on the progress being made to end wealth based pretrial detention known as “money bond” or “cash bail.”

Every year, more than 250,000 people are incarcerated BEFORE TRIAL in Illinois. Most are locked up simply because they cannot afford to post bail to secure their freedom. It’s as if our legal system is holding them for ransom.

Yesterday, our nation watched as a right wing mob launched a full frontal attack against democracy. While much can, should, and has been said about the overt complicity of the President and national Republican leaders, the glaringly obvious failure of law enforcement to intervene, and the palpable white privilege in the treatment of protestors, The Bloomington-Normal Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America call on our community to hold the local instigators and accomplices accountable.

We socialists were in the streets over the summer of 2020, fighting police murder of Black lives. We felt the police pepper spray burning our eyes & skin, the police batons crushing our bones when we demanded police stop killing Black people, that cities take down Confederate or imperialist statues.