The Balbo Must Go campaign is officially launching.
With Festa Della Republica right around the corner and the July 15th anniversary of the flight coming up soon, we wanted to update.
Thank you to everyone who has already signed, shared, commented, or helped move this effort forward. What started as a call to remove a Fascist honor from Chicago’s public landscape is now becoming an organized public campaign.
WBEZ's Curious City has recently brought the Balbo Column back into the public media spotlight, reminding Chicago that this is not a forgotten historical footnote. The monument is still standing in public space, still named for a Fascist official, and still presented without the full public reckoning it deserves.
That renewed attention makes this the right moment to organize clearly, publicly, and seriously.
Our demands are clear:
- Remove the Balbo Column from public honor and relocate it to a museum or educational context.
- Rename Balbo Drive.
- Begin a public process to replace this Fascist honor with a memorial that reflects truth, dignity, and the communities harmed by dictatorship, racism, colonialism, and authoritarian violence.
To help build broader support, we have created a new Google Form for individuals, organizations, unions, educators, historians, community groups, and public memory advocates who want to formally support the campaign.
This next phase is about building visible, organized pressure. We are reaching out across several areas of support, including both American and Italian labor unions, immigrant and colonized communities, Italian and Italian American voices, historians and public history experts, Jewish memory and resistance groups, veterans and military families, schools and educators, and public land and civic stewardship organizations.
The column can and should be preserved in a museum or educational setting, where the full story can be told honestly: the 1933 propaganda flight, Mussolini’s use of spectacle, Balbo’s role in Italian Fascism, and the violence of the regime he served.
Over the coming weeks, we will be gathering signatures, seeking organizational endorsements, sharing educational materials, contacting public officials, and building a broad coalition around these demands.
Chicago’s public spaces should reflect truth, dignity, and democratic memory.
They should not continue to honor Fascism!
Look for updates on a July 15th event.
Sign the petition. Fill out the support form. Share this campaign.
-Balbo Must Go.