Rahm's 'carpet bombing' of remaining public schools faces growing resistance across the city... Labor Beat video entitled 'Very Dangerous Times'
An historic resistance movement is growing throughout Chicago (and one could also say nationally) to Mayor Emanuel's 'carpet bombing' closings of minority schools. The closings are not only economically and academically unjustified, they are also a new, 21st century repackaging of racism and cultural apartheid. Emanuel and his puppet (appointed) School Board is also cynically claiming that the children of closed schools will have a "safe passage" across gang boundaries and busy streets to walk many blocks to the schools where they will now be sent. The new Labor Beat video "Very Dangerous Times" will begin airing on Cable TV (Channel 19) on April 25 and will continue airing through June at various times and dates. The URL for the You Tube of the video is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SotNNrb7QA
Among those leading the massive protests against school closings beneath the mayor's window at Chicago's City Hall on March 27, 2013 were Rev. Jesse Jackson Jr. of Operation PUSH and Karen Lewis, President of the Chicago Teachers Union. Photo by Labor Beat.The video is 27 minutes long.
"Thirteen percent of our elementary and middle schools shall be closed under the current dictates of the Mayor," notes Rainbow/PUSH spokesperson Jonathan Jackson. "If you do not have a school in your neighborhood, you do not have a future. You have a hood."
Here are scenes from the March 27, 2013 mass protest and street sit-down in front of City Hall, people's press conference in the hallways of Chicago Public Schools, other protests, and an historic speech by CTU President Karen Lewis at Rainbow/PUSH.
More than 100 CPS workers and community activists were arrested after holding a sit-in in the middle of LaSalle St. under the windows of City Hall on March 27, 2013. Labor Beat photo.Lewis noted the gravity of the situation. "How many more times are we going to allow ourselves to be fooled by people who do not understand the lives of our children?" She went on to ask, "How do you decide to close 61 buildings, and consolidate two different school communities without the people who understand the safety, the neighborhood being part of the decision making process? That business people and politicians who do not send their children to public schools and those particular public schools have way more say than the people who actually send their children to these schools." Lewis warns the audience at Rainbow/PUSH: "Brothers and sisters, we are in some very dangerous times."
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By: Jean R. Schwab
Video must be seen!
Everyone should see this video. It is one of the best about school closings that I've seen.