Meet Heather Benno

Heather Benno is running for State Representative in Illinois, District 40. She is a candidate of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

You can meet Benno at PSL's Chicago election campaign launch on Sat Feb 16, 6 pm at 3334 W. Lawrence #202. Click here for more info.

Benno, an Iraqi-American activist, is an organizer in the anti-war movement and the immigrant rights movement. She is a volunteer organizer of the ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) Coalition in Chicago. Benno is also an immigrant rights attorney.

In 2007, Benno helped organize multiple buses to two large anti-war demonstrations in Washington, D.C. Hundreds of people traveled with the ANSWER Coalition to the March 17 March on the Pentagon and the Sept. 15 March and Mass Die-In on the steps of Congress.

A frequent speaker at PSL events in the Chicago Area, Benno has written articles for PSLweb on the case of Muhammad Salah, a Palestinian activist persecuted by the U.S. government and on Aaron Patterson, an anti-police brutality activist in Chicago who was framed by the Chicago Police Department and unjustly sentenced to 30 years in jail.

Illinois Assembly District 40 is on the Northwest side of Chicago. The Albany Park and Irving Park neighborhoods are in the 40th district. Albany Park is the most diverse neighborhood in Chicago according to U.S. census data. Benno lives in Albany Park.

Heather Benno is a member of the Chicago Organizing Committee of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.