Illinois

Four Consecutive Protests Confront Buildup To DNC In Chicago

May 26, 2024 Fight Back News!. Resist! Chicago, DNC, Illinois, Israel, Palestine, Palestine Solidarity

Chicago, IL – “This is only a pinch of what we're going to do in August,” Merawi Gerima said to 150 people who rallied outside the 18th District police station on the Near Northside of Chicago, May 19. Gerima is one of the co-chairs of the Campaign to Free Incarcerated Survivors of Torture (CFIST), a campaign of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR). The main target of CFIST is the governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker, who has the power to grant clemency to every one of the hundreds of people who are still incarcerated despite their convictions being the proven result of torture by police.

Won’t You Please Come To Chicago?

May 20, 2024 Ann Garrison, Black Agenda Report. Organize! Chicago, Democrats, DNC, Illinois, Mass Action

Students are protesting Biden and Netanyahu’s war on Gaza all over the City of Chicago while city, state, and Democratic Party officials worry about what it portends for the Democratic National Convention (DNC) scheduled for August 19 to August 23. Comparisons to Chicago 1968 are common, and the city’s police will be supported by Secret Service, FBI, Homeland Security, and neighboring police departments. Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling is frequently interviewed about preparations, and he says, “We’re the Chicago Police. We’re ready.” Politico warned that Mayor Brandon Johnson “unabashedly sympathizes with the protesters,” while the World Socialist Website accused him of deploying SWAT teams against peaceful, anti-genocide protestors at the Chicago Art Institute.

Data On Economic Insecurity Among Amazon Warehouse Workers

May 20, 2024 Center for Urban Economic Development. Educate! Amazon, Chicago, Economic insecurity, Illinois, Report, Worker Rights and Jobs

Today, the Center for Urban Economic Development (CUED) at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) released a new report detailing the results of a survey of 1,484 Amazon workers across 451 facilities in 42 states—the largest nationwide study of Amazon workers to date. The report shows that roughly half of Amazon’s frontline warehouse workers are struggling with food and housing insecurity and being able to pay their bills, with one-third relying on different kinds of public assistance programs. “This research indicates just how far the goalposts have shifted. It used to be the case that big, leading firms in the economy provided a path to the middle class and relative economic security,” said Dr. Sanjay Pinto.

The People’s Art Institute Denounces Police Attack On Student Encampment

May 8, 2024 The Peoples Art Institute, Left Voice. Resist! Campus Movement, Chicago, Gaza, Illinois, Police, Repression, Student Activism

The People’s Art Institute, constituted by SAIC students, announced our encampment situated in the AIC’s North Garden, on Saturday morning, May 4, at 11:30 A.M. The goals of the encampment were clear: to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and to demand SAIC and AIC divest from entities profiting off of the occupation and genocide in Palestine. Students began setting up and by 12:05 P.M., CPD was onsite and an arrest warning was issued. CPD started kettling protestors on the sidewalk at the corner of Monroe and Michigan and removed them from the North side of the garden with extreme force.

Chicago: May Day March For Palestine Prepares For Protest At DNC

May 6, 2024 Vince Olson, Fight Back! News. Resist! Chicago, DNC, Illinois, Israel, May Day, Palestine, Palestine Solidarity

Chicago, IL – On May 3, the Coalition to March on the Democratic National Convention held a rally and march to celebrate International Workers Day. The 400 attendees heeded the call from the coalition to come stand with Palestine for May Day and vowed to show up again to protest against the Democratic National Convention (DNC) when the convention comes to Chicago August 19 through 22. The coalition linked labor and immigrant rights movements in this event, as well. A special speaker at the rally was Artemio Arreola of Casa Michoacan and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

You Can’t Be Neutral In A Flooding House

March 27, 2024 Ankur Singh, In These Times. Resist! climate crisis, Environment, Extreme weather, Illinois, Infrastructure

Cicero, Illinois - A crowd swells outside an auditorium one summer evening in 2023, trying to enter a special town hall meeting. The air fills with chants: “Where’s our money?” and “El pueblo unido jamás será vencido” (“The people, united, will never be defeated”). Soon, police inform the hundreds outside that no one else is allowed in. It felt apt: We wanted answers about why our city was so dysfunctional, and the city couldn’t even host a proper meeting. I’m a journalist and also a Cicero resident, and I was there because I, too, was angry. Howard Zinn famously said you can’t be neutral on a moving train; it’s also difficult in a flooded house.

Alliance Unites To Free Survivors Of Torture And Wrongful Conviction

March 4, 2024 Kobi Guillory, Fight Back News! Resist! Chicago, Illinois, Police, Police abuse, police brutality, Torture

Chicago, Illinois – “You can't throw a stone and not hit someone who is affected by police torture and wrongful conviction here in Chicago, the torture capital of the United States,” said Merawi Gerima, a co-chair of the Campaign to Free Incarcerated Survivors of Torture (CFIST.) Gerima was speaking at the annual People's Hearing on Police Crimes on Saturday, February 24, at the office of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR) in Woodlawn neighborhood on the predominantly Black South Side.

Northwestern U: Threatened With Prison For Distributing Parody Paper

February 13, 2024 Janine Jackson, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. Resist! Education, Illinois, Israel, Journalism, Palestine, Parody

Students at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, produced a parody edition of the school’s paper, the Daily Northwestern, to call out the school’s stance on Israel’s war on Gaza. Some folks wrapped the fake front pages around some 300 copies of the actual school paper. This exercise in culture jamming got two students brought up on a charge that could have landed them in prison for a year. After widespread protest on campus, and national coverage in the Intercept (2/5/24) and Responsible Statecraft (2/5/24), charges were dropped against the students. After the appearance of the look-alike Northwestern Daily—bearing the headline “Northwestern Complicit in Genocide of Palestinians”—the parent company of the school paper, Students Publishing Company, announced that it was engaging “law enforcement to investigate and find those responsible.”

The UAW Strike Saved Their Shuttered Plant

February 1, 2024 Sarah Lazare, In These Times. Resist! Illinois, Stellantis, Strikes, United Auto Workers (UAW), Worker Rights and Jobs

Belvidere, Illinois — It’s been almost five months since JC Bengtson, an autoworker for 24 years, lost his job. “I miss working,” says the 55-year-old father of three daughters, all adults. “Right now I am unemployed and waiting to hear back.” We are sitting in the union hall of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 1268, in Belvidere, Ill., not far from the sprawling Belvidere Assembly Plant. Bengtson worked there for 10 years before he was officially laid off in September 2023, right before his union went on strike. The auto giant Stellantis announced in December 2022 that it would permanently idle the facility that assembled the widely popular Jeep Cherokee, and by February 2023, the majority of jobs at the plant had disappeared.

Our Union Called For A Cease-Fire; It’s About Our Students

January 21, 2024 Dave Stieber, In These Times. Strategize! Ceasefire, Chicago, Education, Illinois, Israel, Palestine, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

If you teach, your absolute worst nightmare is that something tragic happens to your students. Teachers don’t just think about students when they are in front of us; we think about them throughout each day and night. They are a central part of our lives. When a young person steps into our classroom, the first thing we do is work to connect. That’s the best way students learn. When a student doesn’t live up to their own potential, we take it personally. We obsess about what went wrong. Caring about students also means deliberately caring about the world we are helping them grow into. It has never been enough to only teach students when they are in the classroom; we have to advocate for them all the time.

Here’s How Evanston’s Streets Have Become Safer For Cyclists

January 6, 2024 Alex Nitkin, Next City. Create! Bikes, Illinois, Infrastructure, Safety, Transportation

There’s a wide spectrum of cyclists who take to the streets each week with the Evanston Bicycle Club. Newer, lower-speed riders mostly stay inside Evanston and surrounding suburbs, taking advantage of barrier-protected bike lanes and quieter residential streets. Cyclists with a bit more energy and experience go for longer rides up to Wilmette or Glencoe. But only the more advanced groups venture into the city of Chicago, said Al Cubbage, who last month ended a two-year stint as president of the club, which organizes multiple rides per week. Taking Clark Street down through Rogers Park means “taking your life into your own hands,” said Cubbage, a retiree who considers himself an intermediate rider.

As Chicago Punts On Apartment Safety, Denver Shows What’s Possible

December 4, 2023 Alex Nitkin, Next City. Create! Chicago, Colorado, Denver, Housing, Illinois, Landlords

The tenant of a two-story house in east Denver had been expecting Kevin Lewis when he knocked on her door this past June. After a brief introduction and a glance around the home, Lewis quickly checked the water pressure, power outlets and the cooling sources in each room. He reached a wiry arm up to a ceiling smoke alarm and pressed a button, prompting a chirp to echo through the house. “Music to my ears,” Lewis said, already halfway to the basement to make sure the boiler had a working gas line connection. Minutes later, Lewis was gone — on to the next house. Lewis wasn’t sent by the city to investigate a complaint, nor by a prospective buyer.

Pollution Displaces Black Residents; White Homeowners Profit

November 25, 2023 Adam Mahoney, In These Times. Educate! Black America, Chicago, Environment, Gentrification, Housing, Illinois, pollution, Racial disparities

Englewood Chicago — Deborah Payne’s neighborhood of 35 years on Chicago’s South Side no longer exists. Dirt piles tower where families once gathered for Sunday dinners in single- and multifamily homes. Concrete lots cover backyards where children watched fireworks and caught lightning bugs. Streets that maintained generations of Black Chicago razed and left empty for railway cars. Today, less than 10 blocks from Payne’s old neighborhood, sits the repercussions of diesel pollution caused by the expansion of a railyard. Over a decade ago, the city, along with railroad giant Norfolk Southern, announced a plan to buy out Payne’s 12-block community of more than 200 households to replace it with the freight yard.

Activists Disrupt Thanksgiving Parade: End Genocide, Don’t Celebrate It

November 24, 2023 Emma Lee and Kyle Thibodeau, Left Voice. Resist! Chicago, Genocide, History, Illinois, Indigenous People, Israel, New York (NY), New York City (NYC), Palestine, Thanksgiving

Today, pro-Palestine protestors disrupted Thanksgiving Day Parades in New York City and Detroit, all sending the same message: end genocide, don’t celebrate it. In Detroit, protestors marched in front of the Thanksgiving Day parade route carrying banners reading: “From Turtle Island to Palestine, genocide is a crime” and “Detroit stands with Gaza,” giving a spotlight to Palestine during Israel’s ongoing atrocities. In Manhattan, protestors disrupted the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, an annual corporate parade watched nationwide, with signs and banners reading “Genocide then, genocide now.”

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