Justice Journey 2025: Part 1

At the end of June, I (Jill) had the honor of traveling with SEIU by bus on the Justice Journey. We traveled by bus from Chicago stopping in St. Louis, Memphis, Sumner and Jackson, MS and ending our trip in Louisiana. In Louisiana we went to 2 ICE detention centers and spent a day in community with each other learning, processing, and connecting on what we'd seen and what we're going to do about it.

Along with having a great time on the SEIU Local 1 bus, I connected with rank and file members from across the country and SEIU Leadership from across the country. We shared a lot of sorrow, heaviness, and of course joy. I laughed so hard my stomach hurt and held new friends in the heaviness of the moment.

As you can imagine, I had a lot of time on the bus to think and reflect so I wanted to share some of my thoughts with you all. These are early reflections, unprocessed, and for the most part unedited so I'm positive there will be more to come.

"I know everyone deserves freedom, family, and justice." The Justice Journey with working people from the Union of Southern Service Workers continues! Join us: https://seiu.co/JusticeJourney #SolidaritySummer

This is some of what I wrote before we got to Memphis where we visited the site of the assassination of MLK, Jr. which is also the National Civil Rights Museum.

When I got to HCII yesterday I knew it was about to really be something. I kept thinking this feels like history. It feels like we're stepping on to a path, following the footsteps that Black folks, Native folks, immigrants, workers, and organizers have been locked into for generations.

Sometimes we hear about the civil rights movement and the immigrant rights movement as if they're two different struggles. But we know better, don't we? We know that this is and has always been one fight. A fight for the dignity, for safety, for liberation.

The fight against anti-Blackness and the fight against ICE are not separate struggles, They're the same damn fight! Our liberation is inextricably bound together. Black, Brown, immigrant, documented, undocumented, our enemies are all the same... in different uniforms.

This system, that is working just as intended by the way, of control, violence, and division isn't new.

For example, the supreme court gave the president the go ahead to end birthright citizenship. The 14th amendment is the bedrock for all of us. The question of citizenship impacts EVERYTHING for EVERYONE. Since the supposed end of enslavement in the US, they've spent their time figuring out how to lock up as many Black folks as possible and figuring out how to deport and exploit as many brown folks as possible. And now they're experimenting in how to do all that to as many of us as possible in the cruelest ways they can possibly think of. And they find joy in it.

Let's talk about lock up. Leaving our people to die in the heat, in deplorable conditions is not new, it's well established policy. It's the same policy that leaves our people to the mercy of the desert while crossing into the US. The same policy that has historically denied due process, basic human needs like tampons and toilet paper, and acted as a continuation of for profit enslavement for the benefits of the oligarchs. It's the same policy that empowered DeSantis to leave incarcerated folks in lock up during hurricane Milton and it's what is emboldening him to build a concentration camp in the everglades.

This isn't an anomaly, it's not because of one election. It's not because Kamala isn't president.

And it's not a Black or Brown fight. This is an attack on ALL of us. And injury to one is an injury to all.

We fought side by side on May Day, at the stockyards, during the civil rights era, during labor fights, and here we are doing it again. When we were leaving Chicago, Erica Bland brought up our Chairman Fred Hampton, may he rest in power. He taught, he preached, what we know but what we need some reminding of sometimes, THEY are the most terrified when we are united. Their nightmare is our path to success... SOLIDARITY.

"It's time for us to speak up and bring democracy alive by making sure that we don't lose our rights." The Justice Journey continues! Join us: https://seiu.co/JusticeJourney #SolidaritySummer

So what I really think this trip could be for all of us is not a protest or a rally, but a reunion. A reunion of our solidarity towards our joint liberation and our refusal to be divided.

They want us to run around all over the place. Immersed in chaos, fighting over the crumbs, fighting with each other. Instead, we showed up together on one coordinated bus trip with one goal: Solidarity and Justice above all else. Period.

He we come, security guards, janitors, home healthcare providers, baristas, organizers, rolling in deep, unapologetically, flanked on all sides by the love, protection, and blessing of our ancestors.

So while we're here in this historic moment, let's name the enemy. Let's call out the ideology behind that system because in order to exorcise this demon, we gotta name it!

The enemy here is capitalism and all the systems of oppression that keep it going, even if it is on life support. Every time they put one of us away, they line their pockets. Every cage is a mirror. Whether it's Rikers, 26th & California, pop up tents in Tornillo, TX, Jena, Basile, or Guantanamo, it's a tool to crush hope, extract our labor, and make themselves richer.

Unfortunately for them, there's something happening here. Look around these buses, this is exactly what they're afraid of: Black, white, Brown, Asian, union, All of Us. TOGETHER.

We're not begging, we're organizing.

We're not asking, we're demanding.

This isn't some mission trip, it's not charity, it's strategy. This is survival.

They may be building cages, but we're gonna show up. Count on that. And you know what we're gonna do when we get there... we're gonna break the damn locks!

"It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains." -- Assata Shakur

Continue to Part 2...