A big crowd gathered outside Mayor Rahm Emanuel's house to protest his policies, charging that his budget cuts are eliminating services that serve ordinary people.

On Thursday, July 4th, Chicagoans opposed to Mayor Emanuel’s extreme budget cuts to public services, and policies of corporate welfare, peacefully converge at the Mayor’s house to speak out against these austerity measures, and then celebrated citywide resistance to his mayorship at a block party down the street.

"At a time when working people are already struggling to make ends meet, Mayor Emanuel is eliminating thousands of jobs across the city every year," says Greg Goodman, event organizer. "The loss of these jobs throws families and communities even further into crisis, and creates a chain effect that ripples out to negatively impact an ever growing number of Chicagoans. In the midst of all this, Rahm is systematically dismantling the social programs that ordinary people rely on to help them through times of crisis, and selling our public institutions and resources off to corporate profiteers."

High on the list of grievances protested at the event was Emanuel's involvement in the closure of 50 Chicago Public Schools.

Via:

"It's time to take back our city, take back our schools, and let's make Rahm be a one term mayor," said speaker Katie Osgood.

Last month, more than 850 CPS teachers and staffers at closing and turnaround schools were laid off. Up to 420 teachers from closing schools received pink slips, along with 110 teacher assistants and 133 bus aides and part-time seasonal employees.

"People who are barely getting by are being punished for the mistakes of the super-rich," organizer Kelly Hayes said. "That's what austerity is. We're going to let Mayor Emanuel know we didn't create this crisis, and we're not going to pay for it."

There were no reports of any arrests.

Livestream of the event follows: