CORE's Earl Silbar to speak on Wisconsin struggles Saturday, March 5, at AUL
Earl Silbar, an active member of CORE (Caucus of Rank and File Educators) is speaking on the situation in Wisconsin at the Open University of the Left (AUL) on Saturday, March 5, 2011. The event is taking place beginning at 2:30 p.m. at the Lincoln Park Library, 1150 W Fullerton (corner Racine, across from DePaul University and three blocks west of the Red Line Fullerton Ave stop).
Long-time Chicago activist and CORE member Earl Silbar (above right) joined Chicago teacher and CORE activist Sarah Chambers and others at the December 7, 2010 protest against government attacks on anti-war activists outside Chicago's Dirksen Federal Building. Substance photo by Garth Liebhaber. The press release announcing the event follows:
A New Age of Austerity & Resistance in Wisconsin, March 5, 2011, Saturday, 2:30 pm, Open University of the Left, Lincoln Park Library, 1150 W Fullerton, corner Racine, across from DePaul University (Red Line: Fullerton) http://www.openuniversityoftheleft.org/
The mass actions opposing Wisconsin's anti-union legislation have catapulted labor unions and union members into the political arena to a degree not seen in the U.S. since the 1990s. Can this defensive labor movement be transformed into a more permanent and offensive feature within the American polity? Will this push the staid official labor movement in the direction of trade union activism? How can union members and non-members propel and use this remarkable momentum to organize around economic and social justice issues in their locals, communities, and beyond?
Open University of the Left welcomes veteran activists David Williams and Earl Silbar. David is a founder of the Open University of the Left in Chicago, David is a Madison resident and active in the local of the Industrial Workers of the World and a proponent of the concept of the General Strike. He has joined with many union members and activists in the recent labor solidarity demonstrations in Madison against Governor Walker's attack on the working people of Wisconsin. A participant in the Vietnam anti-war movement at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1968 until 1972 — the "War At Home" — David served on the Executive Board of AFSCME Local 1215 in Chicago. He is an activist in the anti-war, Palestine solidarity and other movements, and is a founder of the Madison Peregrine Forum.
Earl Silbar is a retired GED teacher and served as AFSCME 3506's chief steward. In the early '60s, he became active in the civil rights movement and then served 5 years in the antiwar movement with independent anti-war committees, SDS, and the Progressive Labor Party. His activism includes anti-racist groups, international labor and anti-imperialist solidarity campaigns, in-plant factory union organizing drives, and helping organize adult education teachers in the City Colleges.
Since retiring, Earl Silbar has been an active member of CORE, the caucus of the Chicago Teachers Union whose slate won all leadership positions in last June's CTU elections.
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