I went undercover at Chicago May Day rally. Here’s what taxpayers funded

I’d been watching the Chicago Teachers Union implosion play out for months — President Stacy Davis Gates going unhinged on social media, jaw-dropping headlines, and coworkers passing around reports on Chicago Public Schools literacy rates so bad they don’t seem real.

So when the CTU announced it had cut a deal with CPS to bus students to a May Day rally at Union Park, I decided I needed to see it for myself.

The CTU sold the day as a labor history lesson — hands-on learning outside the classroom, helping students “find their voice.” What I watched unfold on Friday had nothing to do with any of that.

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The morning started at a Logan Square “ICE out” rally, where classes of fourth and fifth graders had been brought by their teachers. Anna Stevens, a fifth grade teacher in a CTU sweatshirt, told me, “We’ve talked a lot about how ICE has really affected our school community, how the policies of the current administration have affected our school community, and our kids are very upset.”

The students themselves seemed mostly fine, running around and writing chalk messages on the sidewalk. But the messages weren’t coming from them. “F*** ICE.” “Abolish Trump and ICE.” “How did a rapeist get elected?” These were adult political grievances written in a child’s handwriting.

Two women who identified themselves as members of Indivisible Chicago Northwest told me their goal at events like this is “raising up the next generation of the resistance.” I watched a nearby toddler hold her own rally sign upside down, and the two women continued, “Even the little ones understand — Trump’s a bad guy.”

If the morning was unsettling, the afternoon at Union Park was something else.

The Workers Over Billionaires march drew a mix of union members, activists, and left-wing organizations whose presence made clear this was never really about workers. Signs equating President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler were on display. A masked man walked through the crowd holding a sign reading, “The American machine is the real terror group,” his hands painted red. Tables run by the Communist Party — copies of The Communist Manifesto stacked up, hammer-and-sickle flags flying — were scattered around the park.

One of those tables was set up directly next to a playground. I spoke with the woman staffing it, who told me she’s been an active Communist Party member for 50 years. When I mentioned her table was right next to the playground, she laughed.

“Yeah,” she said, “we did that on purpose.”

I’m online enough to have seen a lot of things I can’t unsee. I was not prepared for what I watched at that rally.

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This is what Chicago taxpayers funded on Friday. The CTU’s agreement with Chicago Public Schools put students on publicly funded buses and sent them to this. Parents were told their children were going on a civic field trip. What they were actually sent to was a political rally where communist organizers bragged — laughed, actually — about positioning themselves next to playgrounds on purpose.

Teachers unions have spent years telling us they’re focused on students. May Day in Chicago was a pretty clear look at what that actually means.

Siena Rose is a podcast host and communications associate at the Freedom Foundation.