Hey Chicago, remember this: we never left.

From Camp Downpour at LaSalle and Jackson in 2011 to the quiet organizing in community halls, union halls, and kitchen tables—we’ve stayed. We’ve marched, we’ve spoken out, and we’ve lifted each other up while the media barely blinked.

Now, to the shock of the elites and the suits in LaSalle Street towers, the Pope—our Pope, South Side’s own Leo XIV—is speaking our language. Workers’ dignity. The common good. A rebuke of oligarchs cloaked in tradition.

Maybe now, the message of the 99% will echo from Rome back to the Chicago Board of Trade.

The Occupation isn’t over. It’s evolved.
And with Pope Leo XIV in the Vatican, we might finally have a voice under that dome who hears us loud and clear.

We’re still here. Occupy 2.5.