Chicago

Financialization Created Chicago Public Schools’ Fiscal Crisis

May 6, 2021 Stephanie Farmer, Jacobin Magazine. Educate! Chicago, Debt, Public schools, Wall Street

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is in a deep and enduring fiscal crisis. After decades of budget cuts, Chicago’s public K–12 schools have been hollowed out, magnifying the hardships of stagnant wages, rising housing prices, and more faced by the city’s working class. Pundits have predictably blamed CPS’s fiscal crisis on either the greedy teachers’ union (Republicans’ and a few austerity-minded Democrats’ scapegoat) or on conservative suburban and rural “downstate” politicians in Illinois hostile to urban children’s plight (most Democrats’ scapegoat). But Chicago is a one-party city, controlled by the Democrats, in a solidly blue state, where Democrats usually control the state government.

On Contact: Police Abuse And Torture

May 2, 2021 Chris Hedges, RT. Resistance Report Chicago, Legal System, Police abuse, Torture

Chris Hedges discusses police abuse and torture with civil rights attorney Flint Taylor. Taylor’s new book is ‘The Torture Machine: Racism and Police Violence in Chicago’. With his colleagues at the People's Law Office, Taylor has argued landmark civil rights cases exposing the corruption and cover-ups within the Chicago Police Department and throughout the city’s political machine, from the alderman to the mayor's office. The book takes the reader from the 1969 murder of Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton and Panther Mark Clark – and the historic 13-year trial that followed – to the pursuit of chief detective Jon Burge, the leader of a torture ring within the Chicago Police Department that used barbaric methods including electric shock and suffocation to elicit false confessions...

Amazon Employees Stage Walkout At Distribution Center

April 8, 2021 Nick Blumberg, WTTW. Resist! Amazon, Chicago, Strike, Worker Rights and Jobs

Chicago - A group of Amazon employees walked out of the mega-retailer’s Gage Park distribution center Wednesday morning, calling on the company to stop understaffing the facility and to provide accommodations for people working a 10.5-hour overnight “megacycle” shift. “We’re tired of being used,” said Rakyle Johnson of Amazonians United Chicagoland on a livestream. “We work so hard, we give so much to our company … but they don’t give anything back.” An organizer told WTTW News that 20-30 workers walked out, leaving management frustrated and angry. The organizer said 5-10 people who weren’t scheduled to work Wednesday joined in support. They were also joined by Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th Ward) who said workers were being “exploited.”

Hunger Strike, Activists Take Fight Against Scrapper To City Hall

February 27, 2021 Maxwell Evans, Block Club Chicago. Resist! Air Pollution, Chicago, Environmental Justice, Hunger Strike

Chicago - Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) announced Tuesday he will join 10 hunger strikers fighting to block another polluter from receiving the city’s approval to operate on the Southeast Side. As the Pilsen alderman joined the strike, United Neighbors of the 10th Ward member Breanna Bertacchi, Southeast Youth Alliance founder Oscar Sanchez and George Washington High School teacher Chuck Stark wrapped up their 20th day without food. They’ll complete their third week Wednesday. The three initial strikers and eight others who have joined the fast in recent weeks are demanding the Chicago Department of Public Health deny an operating permit to Southside Recycling, a metal scrapper planned for 11600 S. Burley Ave. in East Side.

90-Day Protest Begins At McDonald’s Headquarters

February 23, 2021 Manny Ramos, Chicago Sun Times. Resist! Chicago, McDonald's, Racial Discrimination

Chicago - Community organizers on Monday kicked off 90 days of picketing at McDonald’s world headquarters in the West Loop, hoping to call attention to what they say are discriminatory practices against Black-owned franchises. “We are coming after every McDonald’s that we shop in,” activist Mark Carter said Monday morning. “We send this message starting today that if you don’t want to see us outside of your headquarters, then it would be in your best interest to sit down with those who have traveled 700 miles from Memphis, Tennessee.” The protest was organized ahead of a meeting scheduled for Tuesday in Chicago between McDonald’s executives and two brothers from Memphis, James Byrd and Darrell Byrd, who own four locations between them.

Chicago Teachers’ Struggle At A Crossroads

January 31, 2021 Alexander Fangmann, WSWS. Organize! Chicago, COVID-19, School reopening, Teachers

The drive to reopen Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the third largest school district in the country, has become a pitched battle between educators and the state apparatus, the latter backed up by the corporate media and the unions. The fight by Chicago educators to prevent the reopening of schools is the focal point of the class struggle in the United States, with every other major district in the country looking to Chicago to set a precedent. In this context, it is of the utmost importance for teachers and other educators to organize independently of the unions and join the Chicago Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee, as well as attend this Saturday’s national meeting of the Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee...

Victimized Teacher Speaks Out Against Deadly School Reopening

January 30, 2021 Michael Walters, WSWS. Educate! Chicago, COVID-19, School reopening, Teachers

Chicago Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago Public Schools (CPS) ordered 5,800 teachers to return for in-person instruction at the beginning of January. Teachers who refused to return to in-person learning as the deadly COVID-19 virus raged through Chicago were labeled by the district as “absent without leave.” Their pay was docked, and their computer access locked. The World Socialist Web Site recently interviewed Jake, one of nearly 150 locked-out educators. Jake was a physical education (PE) teacher at a CPS elementary school for five and a half years until recently. He quit the profession after being locked out.

CTU Rank-And-File Votes To Save Lives

January 26, 2021 Chicago Teachers Union. Resist! Chicago, Chicago Teachers Union, COVID-19, School reopening

Chicago —In an unprecedented remote electronic vote, 71 percent of Chicago Teachers Union members have voted to continue teaching remotely starting Monday, Jan. 25, 2021. Eighty-six percent of rank-and-file members voted from Thursday, Jan. 21 through Saturday, Jan. 23. With this vote, rank-and-file educators will continue teaching remotely, and safely, as they have been doing for months. A message from Chicago Public Schools this afternoon, claiming that “we have agreed to a request from CTU leadership to push back the return of K-8 teachers and staff to Wednesday, Jan. 27,” and seeking to sow dissent and disrupt collective Union action, is inaccurate.

Chicago Schools Chief Threatens To Lock Out Teachers Who Don’t Return

January 24, 2021 George Gallanis, WSWS. Resist! Chicago, COVID-19, School reopening, Teachers

As Chicago educators continue to vote on a Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) resolution in support of teaching remotely, and to strike only in the event of retaliation from the school district, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) CEO Janice Jackson reiterated at a Friday news conference that such an action “would constitute a strike.” Although Jackson insisted, “We’re not locking teachers out,” indications are that CPS officials will cut educators off from their district-provided Google accounts, preventing them from teaching remotely. This has already been done to dozens of teachers in the district, to which the CTU has responded with no collective actions as at least 87 teachers remain locked out.

40% Of Chicago Teachers And Staff Didn’t Report To Schools As Ordered

January 6, 2021 By Nader Issa and Stefano Esposito, Chicago Sun Times. Resist! Chicago, COVID-19, School reopening, Worker Rights

About 40% of Chicago Public Schools teachers and staff who were expected to report to schools Monday for the first time during the pandemic didn’t show up for in-person work, officials said Tuesday, accusing the Chicago Teachers Union of pressuring its members to defy the district’s orders. In all, about half of teachers and three-quarters of school-based support staff in preschool and special education cluster programs returned to classrooms as expected, accounting for 60% of those 4,400 employees scheduled to go back to specific schools, the district announced. Officials didn’t immediately provide data on another estimated 1,400 employees that were supposed to return but work at more than one school.

Defying CPS, Some Chicago Teachers Union Members Won’t Return To Schools

January 5, 2021 Diana Wallace and Morgan Greene, Chicago Tribune. Resist! Chicago, COVID-19, Public schools, School reopening

The Chicago Teachers Union says some of its members are choosing not to return to school buildings on Monday, in defiance of Chicago Public Schools’ reopening plans. The union said Sunday it is “rejecting CPS’ effort to force thousands more back into unsafe buildings beginning this Monday” and that teachers intend to continue providing their lessons remotely “until buildings are safe” for them and for students. Additionally, more than 30 aldermen signed on to a letter sent Sunday to Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson, saying they were “deeply concerned” that the reopening plan does not meet the district’s equity objectives and fails to address some safety concerns.

Activists, Health Care Workers Are Fighting To Keep Mercy Hospital Open

December 29, 2020 Maxwell Evans, Block Club Chicago. Resist! Chicago, Equity, Health Care, Hospitals

Chicago - A coalition of activists are demanding elected officials maintain pressure on Mercy’s ownership to keep the hospital open or sell to someone who will. The activists held a vigil Monday, a week after a state board unanimously rejected Mercy Hospital’s request to close. Board members agreed closing the Near South Side institution would negatively impact South Siders, especially in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. Mercy Hospital leadership announced in July the city’s first chartered hospital would shut down, citing monthly operating losses of $4 million and shifting trends in the field of health care away from inpatient services. The news came two months after a billion-dollar plan to consolidate the hospital with three others on the South Side fell apart.

Dozens File Federal Suit Alleging Chicago Police Abuse This Year

November 20, 2020 Jeremy Gorner, Chicago Tribune. Resist! Chicago, Legal System, Police violence, Rebellion2020

“The (Chicago Police Department) and other city agencies responded to these demonstrations with brutal, violent, and unconstitutional tactics that are clearly intended to injure, silence and intimidate plaintiffs and other protesters,” according to the more than 200-page lawsuit. “These abuse tactics include beating protesters with batons — often striking them in the head; tackling and beating protesters while on the ground; using chemical agents against protesters; falsely arresting protesters; and trapping protesters in enclosed areas.”

Groups Call For Federal Investigation Of City Over Toxic Industry

November 19, 2020 Brett Chase, Chicago Sun Times. Resist! Chicago, Development, Environmental racism, Industrial pollution

The city of Chicago’s role helping General Iron move from affluent white Lincoln Park to a majority-Latino Southeast Side neighborhood to make way for the Lincoln Yards redevelopment violated federal fair housing laws and should be investigated, community groups say. The move is an example of years of unfair zoning and land-use practices that discriminate against Black and Latino residents while benefiting white neighborhoods that have seen their home values soar, the groups said in a complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Wednesday.

How Government And Private Industry Let The Main Street Of A Black Neighborhood Crumble

November 12, 2020 By Tony Briscoe, Haru Coryne, and Mick Dumke, Pro Publica. Educate! Chicago, Development, Disinvestment, Inequality, TIF

Growing up in Chicago’s East Garfield Park neighborhood in the 1960s, Annette Britton spent a lot of time on Madison Street. She picked up produce for her mother at N&S Certified Food Mart, skated at the Albany roller rink and went to movies at the Imperial Theatre. A neighborhood pharmacy, Sacramento Drugs, not only filled prescriptions but served customers ice cream at a diner in back. Durham’s, an appliance store, sold washing machines and refrigerators. Back then, stores, often with apartments above them, lined Madison Street from downtown west to the city limits.

«1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 »

Daily movement news and resources