Chicago, August 19 (RHC)-- Thousands of delegates and elected officials have descended on Chicago as the Democratic National Convention kicks off on Monday.  The four-day convention comes one month after U.S. President Joe Biden ended his bid for reelection. 

Vice President Kamala Harris secured the Democratic presidential nomination in a virtual roll call earlier this month and is expected to again formally accept the party’s nomination when she addresses the convention on Thursday.

Dozens of delegates with the “uncommitted” movement are also in Chicago as they continue to pressure Harris to halt U.S. military support for Israel’s war on Gaza.  The delegates represent states where some 700,000 people cast uncommitted votes during primaries to protest Democrats’ pro-Israel policies. 

For the first time ever, the DNC is hosting a panel on Palestinian human rights.  The uncommitted delegation welcomed the move and is continuing to request that Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, who has volunteered in Gaza, be permitted to address the convention from the stage -- but the Democratic Party leadership has rejected her.

On Sunday, hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Chicago saying they will disrupt the DNC until Democrats listen to their demands. 

Kshama Sawant, co-founder of Workers Strike Back and former socialist Seattle city councilmember, 

Kshama Sawant: “The possibility of Trump 2.0 is only a reality because of the many betrayals by the Biden-Harris administration.  Biden and Harris, both as president and as vice president, and the Democratic Party as a whole, they broke their promise for a $15-an-hour minimum wage.  They blocked the railroad workers’ strike, which is possibly one of the most anti-worker, anti-union actions that can be taken by politicians.  And so, in other words, both the Democratic and Republican parties are anti-worker, and they are both pro-war.”

Meanwhile, Chicago’s Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson in a recent interview called Israel’s war a genocide, saying: “What’s happening right now is not only egregious, it is genocidal.  We have to acknowledge and name it for what it is and have the moral courage to exercise our authority.”