Tobita Chow

Tobita Chow is a Canadian activist, currently living in Chicago.

He is the founder and director of Justice Is Global. He has been organizing campaigns for corporate accountability and racial and economic justice in Chicago since 2009. He was a key leader in bringing Moral Mondays to Illinois, served as Chair of the Board of Directors of The People's Lobby, and has led trainings on the global economy and globalization on 3 continents. He holds a Master’s Degree in Philosophy from the University of Chicago and a Master’s Degree in Divinity from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.

Education

University of Chicago, 2005 – 2013.
Simon Fraser University. Bachelor of Arts - Philosophy 1996 – 2002.

Now What?

Bill Fletcher, Jr., Tobita Chow, Kermit Thomas, Jr., Erin Heaney.

'Foreign Policy for the People'

Reps Pramila Jayapal and Barbara Lee, Kate Kizer (moderator), Rev. Liz Theoharis, Diana Duarte of MADRE, Tobita Chow of Justice is Global, Pam Campos-Palma, Working Families Party.

TEACH IN: US AGGRESSION ON CHINA

December 6 @ 2020 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm. . In the face of growing, bipartisan US aggression on China, misinformation, racist narratives, and warmongering make it difficult to understand the situation clearly. It is the responsibility of all people who hope for a world without war, discrimination, and marginalization to understand the situation and do what we can to make a change. Join us for the second in a two-part teach in to hear from diverse voices from different sectors of society as we consider what actions we can take: What can we as organizers, activists, students, workers, do to push for deescalation and an end to this US-imposed new cold war?

Speakers:

Organizing the Diaspora

Organizing the Diaspora: The U.S.-China Conflict, Anti-Asian Racism, and Transnational Solidarity Friday, December 4th, 2020.

Speakers in this webinar will show the interconnections between these aspects, addressing topics like the Chinese right wing, pro-Beijing disinformation, Chinese international students’ organizing, and avenues for left-wing solidarity with movements in Hong Kong and China against state repression while remaining vigilant against the forces of U.S. imperialism.

Speakers:

Open Letter to Biden Campaign on “Unprepared”

Open Letter to the Biden Campaign on “Unprepared” was released May 12 2020.

":Our demands: The country’s greatest priority at this moment is to beat the COVID-19 crisis, and this requires embracing principles of antiracist solidarity and international cooperation. The Biden campaign can and should beat Trump and the GOP with a message centered on our real public health needs and the progressive values that are required to meet those needs. The “Unprepared” ad must be taken down, and all campaign messaging that fuels anti-Asian racism and China-bashing must end. We refuse to allow the Biden campaign to sacrifice our dignity in the name of political expediency."

Authors were:

Michelle Chen, Journalist
Wei Chen, Asian Pacific Islander Political Alliance (Philadelphia, PA)
Calvin Cheung-Miaw, PhD student, Stanford University
Tobita Chow, Director, Justice is Global
Michelle Liang, NAKASEC Action Fund
Timmy Lu, Executive Director, AAPIs For Civic Empowerment
Laura Misumi, Executive Director, Michigan Asian American Progressives
Grace Pai, Director of Movement Politics, Asian American Midwest Progressives (Chicago, IL)

Comrades

Tobita Chow with Ash-Lee Henderson and Alex Tom.

Tobita Chow April 24 2018·

Hegemony — with Rafael Diaz and Jonathan Smucker.

"The Young Karl Marx"

Tobita Chow November 16 2017· The Young Karl Marx watchin

— with Tyler Darnell and Grace Pai, Robert Peters, Spencer Mcavoy, Anna Meera Wood.

Asian training

Tobita Chow July 26 2017.

Weeklong training - just the Asians. SO MANY ASIANS 🌏

— with Grace Pai and Seong-Ah Cho, Mehrdad Azemun, Yingya Vang, Nelsie Yang, Chris Xyooj, Brooke Adams, Thao Xiong, Ben Ishibashi, SuChann Yang, Brianna Tong.

Phonebankers

Grace Pai September 15, 2016 ·

Thank you to this WONDERFUL team of folks who came out for The People's Lobby's final fundraising phone bank! If you haven't gotten a chance to make a contribution this week, please help us reach our goal of $10,000 by donating $35 (or another amount that works for you) at bit.ly/tplmember. We're almost there!!

FundingOurOwnLiberation

— with Lauren Welsh, Kenya Senecharles, Eva Padilla, Becca Wojcicki, Cindy Bush, Dan Gaudette, Rex Tai, Brianna Tong, Marta Popadiak, Tobita Chow, Will Tanzman.

Populism 2015

Plenary: "Advancing a Populist Agenda that Puts People and Planet First".

This plenary will unveil the Populism2015 Agenda that outlines what we need to win in the next 10 years to put people and planet before profit and polluters. A bold agenda means we invest deeply in building our power at the scale of the crises we face, shifting the landscape of public debate toward our story of what’s broken and how to fix it, and taking on new campaigns to build the world we want instead of tinkering around the edges of the old economy and a broken democracy.

Speakers

Rep. Keith Ellison, 5th District, Minnesota, Co-Chair, Congressional Progressive Caucus
Larry Cohen, President, Communication Workers of America
Robert Borosage, Campaign for America’s Future
Barb Kalbach, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement
Tobita Chow, Illinois Indiana Regional Organizing Network
Nathanael Doehling, TakeAction Minnesota
Martha Kuhl, Secretary-Treasurer, National Nurses United
Eugene Lim, ONE Northside (Chicago)
Vien Truong, Greenlining Institute (California)
Bob Cook, PUSH Buffalo
Carlos Rosa, Alderman-elect, 35th Ward, Chicago
Gina Melaragno, State Representative, 62nd District, Maine
Eric Kennedy, Washington Community Action Network
Rian Brown, Michigan United

The People's Summit

At The People's Summit, Chicago 17-19 2016, a Saturday session was held "Understanding our movement moment";

Moderator Michael Lighty - National Nurses United.

Speakers;

Frances Fox Piven
Tobita Chow - chair The People's Lobby
Dominique Scott - University of Mississippi, United Students Against Sweatshops
Becky Bond - Senior advisor to Sanders 2016

'Take Over' the Banks

During the 2016 People's Summit panel discussion, Tobita Chow suggested taking over banks by force if necessary:^[2]

I would like us to talk a lot more about nationalizing things. I have a long list of things I want to nationalize. Very high on my list of things I want to nationalize is the financial industry. The big banks. I want to nationalize the banks…

I say, let’s take them over [the banks] and once we do that, when we gain democratic control of finance capital, we can ask ourselves some really interesting questions like ‘What do we want to do with all this capitol?’ ‘What do we want to invest in?’ ‘What are the parts of this country and the world that are starved for investment and we want to push this capitol into – and the banks aren’t investing in these places now but when we take them over [the banks], we can make them.”

The People's Summit 2017

Tobita Chow June 12, 2017:

Thanks to Harmony Goldberg for organizing this great discussion at The People's Summit of the Long Term Agenda which People's Action inherited from NPA (and which we're redoing), The Movement for Black Lives platform, the Freedom Cities platform, and the LEAP Manifesto.

Coming from what seem like very different starting points (economic justice, racial justice, environmentalism), we've ended up ... See More — with Harmony Goldberg, Anthony Rogers-Wright and Dante Barry.

Chicago DSA Closed Facebook group

This is the official Facebook group for Chicago DSA and its branches (South Side, Northside, and Oak Park)

Members of the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America closed Facebook group, as of October 15, 2017 included Tobita Chow .^[3]

Delle Piana connection

Tobita Chow November 19, 2018 ·

Look out world — with Camila Leiva Anderson and Libero Della Piana.

Backing Biss

Reclaim Chicago Tobita Chow March 13, 2018:

"My opponents think that the solution to decades of disinvestment is job training. The solution to disinvestment is investment. And the government has to go first."

I lost my notes but I believe that's a verbatim quote from the interview in which I and all these other lovely people decided to endorse Daniel Biss for Governor. It stuck in my brain because it gets at a crucial idea that has long be... See More — with Amanda Weaver, Dan Bailey, Mary Margaret Lane, Tyler Darnell, Esau Chavez, Alyssa Carabez, Andre Vasquez, Pastor Charles Straight, Alex Peltz and Martese Chism.

Brazil connection

Tobita Chow June 14, 2017 ·

Joined DSA yesterday for a great conversation with leaders from Brazil's PSOL (Socialism and Liberty Party) who were in town for the People's Summit.

I asked what they'd like to see from us if the left takes the White House and gets to set foreign policy, trade policy, etc. They said this was an underdeveloped part of their plan (understandable) but suggested two things to start:

1. Trade under "equal conditions", namely an end to US protectionist policies which Brazil doesn't enjoy (dunno much about the US-Brazil trade relationship specifically, but the US gets away with this in general)

2. Stopping US corporations which do business in Brazil from taking out all profits, leaving so little behind

References

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↑ https://rairfoundation.com/exposed-biden-to-install-bolshevik-saule-omarova-to-nationalize-banks-video/ EXPOSED: Biden to Install 'Bolshevik' Saule Omarova to Nationalize Banks (Video) (Accessed on July 7, 2022)]
↑ [2]

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[2] ttps://rairfoundation.com/exposed-biden-to-install-bolshevik-saule-omarova-to-nationalize-banks-video/ EXPOSED: Biden to Install 'Bolshevik' Saule Omarova to Nationalize Banks (Video) (Accessed on July 7, 2022)]

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