Chicago's transit worker unions join forces for the fights...
We Move Chicago: Transit Workers Activate
December 21, 2016. Emphasizing to union membership and to Chicago Transit Authority management that class relationships are moving into a new phase, Locals 241 and 308 of the Amalgamated . . .
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LABOR BEAT VIDEO... 'School cuts? No thanks! Take the money from the banks!'... New video shows June 22 'furlough day' rally at City Hall...
School Cuts. No Thanks. Take the Money from the Banks is a newly released Labor Beat video showing the large protests at Chicago's City Hall and elsewhere held on June 22, 2016, a "furlough . . .
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LABOR BEAT VIDEO: 'Toxic swaps' fight continues. New Labor Beat video shows testimony to the state legislature and a petition to the federal SEC...
The fight for public schools revenue in Illinois has moved to some out-of-the-way political settings. First (on 4/17/16) funding activists testified at the Illinois House Revenue and Finance Committee hearings on Wall Street banks toxic . . .
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Reasons for not voting for Hillary! Hillary Clinton, Empire, and 100 years of imperialist decay...
The last 100 years of global capitalism can be useful for our historical frame of reference. Next year will be the centenary of the publication of Lenin's Imperialism the Highest Stage of Capitalism. Its thesis . . .
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Labor Beat on transgender rights in Chicago...
Protecting Transgender Fundamental Rights is a new Labor Beat video now available On YouTube at: https://youtu.be/9ULoc65aEZY. The video shows the June 3, 2016 demonstration at the Target store in Uptown supporting the chain's pro-equality policies . . .
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CAN TV organizing facing 'union avoidance' planning from management and intimidation against workers who are leading the union...
Although NABET-CWA Local 41 won a union election last fall for workers at CAN TV (Chicago's public access TV center), management has been standing in the way of a contract. On June 15, 2016 the . . .
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Labor Beat video highlights April 1 one-day strike...
A new video by Labor Beat -- "April 1 Chicago One Day Strike Rally' -- is now available on You Tube: On YouTube at: https://youtu.be/ThTKOcR652E. The video Highlights excerpts from speeches at the April 1, . . .
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LABOR BEAT: 'Fed Up Fridays' continue as student protests organize more and more broadly...
A new Labor Beat video 'My High school's Cadaver Body, Spoke Daisy the Poet', is now available at Labor Beat. The video include a student poem "Educational Autopsy". The video is at: https://youtu.be/sX6sIC81On0. The video . . .
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LABOR BEAT: CTU workers fight against bosses, demand reinstatement of union leader Erek Slater...
A new Labor Beat video, The CTA Is Unfair To Workers And Riders, is now available On YouTube at: https://youtu.be/iqQ8Z53pemQ... The video shows the latest in the struggle to get fired CTU union leader and . . .
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CTU TIF protest on February 25 goes from City Hall to another rich TIF site... Will the CTU strike after April 1? '...If they cut our pay, it's an unfair labor practice and we could respond with an unfair labor practice strike...' (Jesse Sharkey, CTU Vice President)
A new Labor Beat video, "Return TIF Money to Chicago's Schools" is now available on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/q788J06tsls. The video shows the February 25, 2016 protest organized by the Chicago Teachers Union again reminding the . . .
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LABOR BEAT VIDEO: The fight against cuts in Belmont-Cragin in Chicago
A new Labor Beat video entitled "CPS Cuts and Layoffs At Belmont-Cragin" is now available on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/Vp69CE_kETk. The video reports on the meeting that was held to challenge cuts in public schools on . . .
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'No confidence' statement by Chicago's professors, other faculty... City Colleges Board reluctantly hears the bad news from its own faculty...
The Feb. 4, 2016 meeting of the Board of Directors of City Colleges of Chicago had got wind that a statement of no confidence in CCC Chancellor Cheryl Hyman would be presented by the faculty. . . .
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More challenges to Chicago City Colleges chief Cheryl Hyman... 'The Peoples College' versus corporate Chicago... 'Chancellor Hyman, why have you been so unwilling to talk with us, given that we are your number one contact with students?'...
After waiting for nearly two hours at its Feb. 4, 2016 meeting, while the City Colleges of Chicago board heard speeches praising Chancellor Cheryl Hyman and the "reinvention", two faculty members finally got a chance . . .
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LABOR BEAT: How Little Village protests thwarted 'co-location' plans by CPS...
A new Labor Beat video, "Little Village Stands Up To the CPS Bully" will be aired this week on Labor Beat and is also available on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/cM3XXUSEJLU. The video shows the fight against . . .
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LABOR BEAT: CTA fires union steward Erek Slater for enforcing the union contract!... 'An attack on one is an attack on us all!'...
Labor Beat has produced a new video, "CTA Fires Union Steward for Defending The Contract," depicting how the Chicago Transit Authority, still following the management philosophies of former chief Forrest Claypool, continues union busting if . . .
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LABOR BEAT: Video of the CTU Protest at Bank of America against 'toxic swaps'... and the Anti-Layoff March...
In early February 2016, the Chicago Teachers Union led a large march against Chicago Public Schools and the school district's refusal to negotiate the "toxic swaps" will the large banks. The Labor Beat video link . . .
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Crises Within Crises, And Going On the Offensive
As tentative plans are being made for if/when Chicago Public Schools announces teacher layoffs, some activists are weighing whether other locations beside Bank of America (picked by the CTU) should be the symbolic target of . . .
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LABOR BEAT VIDEO: 'The movement to depose Rahm Emanuel', new Labor Beat video, shows dramatic history of the movement against the once most powerful Democratic mayor in the USA...
"The Movement to Depose Mayor Emanuel", a new Labor Beat video, will air next week on Chicago cable TV. It is also available on You Tube. Viewers are asked to donate to keep Labor Beat . . .
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CTU night rally defies cold, coldness of Chicago's Rahm leadership...
Would they come to a night rally on a Monday in the cold in the park on the lakefront? Yes. And there was a big turnout too, as Chicago teachers told the city that they . . .
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Video... Chicago students tell government, 'These Budget Cuts Have Got to Go'...
There is a new video by Labor Beat On YouTube at: https://youtu.be/paJLRfQw3B8, providing readers with the story of the large students protests of November 6, 2015. At least 800 students from at least a dozen . . .
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LABOR BEAT NEEDS FUNDS... Please donate to keep Chicago's working class video and TV news services alive and kicking...
Six thousand dollars may be pocket change for Chicago's plutocrats, but for a working class reporting project that features stories about the struggles of working people, it's a lot of money. Labor Beat needs that . . .
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Poem from The Board
A Memo from the Board
by Larry Duncan
Every town is out of dough,
From NYC to Kokomo.
Your contract�s void, the larder�s bare,
There ain�t a dollar . . .
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Charter expansions continue, while community protests grow
Although the Chicago Board of Education on October 28, 2015 voted YES to build an additional "campus" of the Noble Network of Charter Schools in Brighton Park, the city-wide battle to defend public schools continues . . .
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Labor Beat -- Chicago At The Tipping Point? Massive protests at mayor's budget hearings show extent, sophistication, and depth of the public's anger at Rahm Emanuel...
In early September, 2015 a series of hearings on the city budget were held in Chicago. The two hearings we document -- one on the South Side and one on the North Side -- were . . .
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What does your professor have in common with the McDonald's worker?... 'Working Poor' include adjunct faculty of City Colleges of Chicago... Labor Beat video...
Adjunct faculty from the campuses of the City Colleges of Chicago held a rally and informational picket in front of City Hall on Wednesday, July 29, 2015. Their goal was to educate city council members . . .
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Protests expose Board of Education's lies and mismanagement as protests grow during the long hot summer of 2015... A Financial Crisis Created To Justify Cuts...
"A Financial Crisis Created To Justify Cuts" is the latest Labor Beat video reporting the protests against the policies of the Chicago Board of Education during the summer of 2015. Labor Beat has been following . . .
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Labor Beat: Letter to Urban Prep: Reinstate Fired Teachers...
A new Labor Beat video was released on August 12, 2015, reporting on the latest challenge to Urban Prep charter schools. Urban Prep, which promotes itself and its founder relentlessly, has fired a large number . . .
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Loyola University kills 'Labor Express' as Loyola University President is given seat on the Chicago Board of Education by Rahm Emanuel...
April 26, 2015 was the last "Labor Express" broadcast on WLUW-FM. This was Chicago�s only English-language labor-oriented radio show, for 11 years at WLUW, and before that, since the early 90s, at other venues. But . . .
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LABOR BEAT: Independent politics in Chicago in 2015... Speaking in front of the Board of Trade on June 9 at a CTU rally, Tara Stamps declares: 'This is war! We declare war!'
After the 2015 Chicago election the problem of independence from the Democratic Party wasn�t solved. Jesus "Chuy" Garcia, the progressive Democratic Party County Commissioner, didn�t beat Mayor Emanuel. And no new political party for workers . . .
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Why the negotiations broke off? Contract forum by CTU... Report on CTU-CPS Contract Negotiations - Community Forum
A report on the CTU contract negotiations prepared by Labor Beat is now available on YouTube at: http://youtu.be/1MxMtQ_tcig. The June 26, 2015 announcement that contract talks have been broken off makes this video more important . . .
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Adjuncts Fight for 15K at Loyola University Rally... 'Normally people think of faculty at universities as people who are in a different class than Walmart workers or fast food workers. But, actually, the workplace at universities is in a sense devolving...'
On April 15, 2015, the same day of the big nationwide "Fight for 15" rallies, a related event took place at the Loyola University campus in Chicago. But it wasn't about fast food workers. It . . .
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Thompson Center Rally for Education Justice in Chicago takes place on the day the CTU and Board of Eduction began contract negotiations...
A significant public schools coalition rally took place on March 26, 2015, the day after the March meeting of the Chicago Board of Education. The rally was on the day the Chicago Teachers Union began . . .
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LABOR BEAT: Rally for education justice... '... the working class needed to prepare for the long haul...' also, the new IVAW art video...
"Jump Your Butt In! Rally for Education Justice" is the latest Labor Beat video. Now that we know we've got Rahm 2.0 back at City Hall, we can take a look at some of the . . .
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LABOR BEAT: Elected school board fight has grueling history in Chicago lately, including the current Board's dragging its critics out of the room!... Labor Beat archives share some highlights of the fight that led to the historic 90 percent vote for an elected school board...
Chicago Demands Democratic Control of Public Education will be aired on CAN TV this Thursday (March 12). Friday, and next week as Chicago comes to terms with the overwhelming vote on February 24, 2015, in . . .
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BP protest... Labor Beat video shows Refinery Strikers Protest at Chicago BP Headquarters...
A new video is now available from Labor Beat On YouTube at: http://youtu.be/uGZCZ8XV_xo providing the public with information about the strike of refinery workers at the BP Whiting refinery. The video, less than ten minutes . . .
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Reviving the strike... Reviving unions? '...Anyone who's sat at the bargaining table really knows that they don't care about your arguments or your words, and at the end of the day it's about power...'
Could Reviving the Strike Revive the Labor Movement? That's the question asked on a new Labor Beat video now available on YouTube at: http://youtu.be/fnOYPV7AABc. The video is also archived at: laborbeat.org
Joe Burns, author . . .
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LABOR BEAT: Climate Change and Capitalism: reflections on the 2014 Climate Convergence
The new Labor Beat video, Climate Change and Capitalism:, reflections on the 2014 Climate Convergence, is now available On YouTube at: http://youtu.be/A0I_QcVyYBM. It is also archived at:laborbeat.org. The movement over climate change continues to grow, . . .
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Unelected school board's financial corruption in defense of the 'toxic swaps'... A new Labor Beat video -- 'Unelected CPS Board In Bad Bank Loan Scandal'
As the day draw near when Chicago voters will get to vote on whether they want an elected school board, examples of the corruption of the current school board proliferate, with the city's corporate media . . .
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Labor Beat on Ukraine reality
A new Labor Beat video, Ukraine and NATO Expansion, is now available from Labor Beat on YouTube at:. http://youtu.be/fhILmIvBe6o. The video is also archived at:laborbeat.org. This important story is not getting enough factual attention in . . .
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Meeks avoided question on elected school board at the December 2010 CTU mayoral candidates' forum
Now that Governor Bruce Rauner has appointed Reverend James Meeks to be head of the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), it's important for everyone to review some of the record Meeks has established. One . . .
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Labor Beat reruns Chicago Teachers Union 'City Hall' story this week on CAN TV
The CTU and the 2015 City Hall Election, a Labor Beat video, is being rerun the first week of December 2014 on Chicago CAN TV. Readers can get the entire show: Chicago - CAN . . .
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CTU hosted mayoral candidates forum on December 16, 2010. Video of the event still available on You Tube...
The Dec. 16, 2010 Mayor Candidates Forum sponsored by the Chicago Teachers Union and several other unions is the subject of this show. We hear samplings of the questions for and answers by the candidates . . .
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'Fighting Jane' was 'Union-Busting Jane'. Just ask the firefighters she challenged in 1980 strike, and the union president she sent to jail...or the 8,000 teachers and other school workers who lost their jobs via her 'School Finance Authority'...
The John Kass headline in the November 15, 2014 Chicago Tribune says: 'Fighting Jane' battled the machine and won. But it wasn't the city's union busting part of the machine she fought. She had the . . .
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Looking back on the union and the Democratic Party... October 2013, a year ago, what were union activists saying about the Democratic Party and Bruce Rauner? About Rahm and the aldermen in City Council? Does the nature of the discussion then help us understand the predicament the unions are in now?
Done with the Democrats... A year ago, what were union activists saying about Quinn/Vallas and Bruce Rauner, about Rahm and the aldermen in City Council? Does the nature of the discussion then help us understand . . .
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LABOR BEAT: Can Chicago Teachers Union activists and their allies build 'independent politics' -- let alone a socialist alternative -- inside the Democratic Party?... 'The CTU and the 2015 Chicago City Hall Election...' a new Labor Beat video
A new 25-minute video from Labor Beat explores the issues facing members of the Chicago Teachers Union and by implication the broader groups of union and community activists in light of the controversial decision of . . .
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LABOR BEAT: First Amendment protects the right to say f__k the draft, etc... Steven Salaita at the University of Chicago challenges University of Illinois censorship of pro-Palestinian views
Steven Salaita and Ali Abunimah at University of Chicago is a new Labor Beat video that covers in detail the increasing censorship and violations of free speech that are taking place in colleges and . . .
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'New' Labor Beat video... '... dissects the way mainstream politicians (Rudolph Giuliani, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr.), conservative intellectuals and the corporate media conspired to demonize inner city neighborhoods and their residents. ..'
"Demonizing the Inner City: Ideology and the Urban Poor" in now available in a restored format On YouTube at: http://youtu.be/m8pz4xyAhAI and from Labor Beat. In light of current events and recent history, the story is . . .
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LABOR BEAT: Union leader warns against single person crews on trains
During the Pullman Labor Day events in Chicago, peopled learned about the danger of single person train crews. You can now access a video On YouTube at: http://youtu.be/dLZ-PNJ9nVs. There is a proposal currently being pushed . . .
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'Toxic Swaps' must be ended... Labor Beat video shows Chicago Teachers Union continuing protests against Chicago Public Schools 'swaps' with big banks....
Friday, Sept. 19, 2014. Chicago Teachers Union members and retirees from AFSCME Council 31 and SEIU Healthcare Illinois marched in front of the Chicago headquarters of Loop Capital, a private investment firm run by one . . .
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Beyond Ferguson... Local Chicago activists weigh in on debate
Sherise McDaniel is a Chicago community activist who participated in the protests against massive school closings and who testified during the rigged hearings in 2013. When Ferguson happened in September of 2014, McDaniel was deeply . . .
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Speaking truth to power... Video of Rousemary Vega at the May 2014 Board of Education meeting
Rousemary Vega, Chicago public school parent and activist, made a two-minute contribution during the public comment period at the May 28, 2014 CPS Board meeting that will probably rank among the best over the years. . . .
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LABOR BEAT: History's verdict is now in on the wars from Bush to Obama
A new Labor Beat video, "The Verdict on the Wars from Bush to Obama" is now available On YouTube at: http://youtu.be/npUGZDVitA4. The video is also archived at:laborbeat.org. And for teachers and others concerned with public . . .
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Chicago Protests Collective Punishment of Palestinians now on a Labor Beat video
Chicago Protests Collective Punishment of Palestinians, a report on the July 5, 2014 protest at Chicago's Water Tower Park is no available On YouTube at: http://youtu.be/mqVA_F1GwbE. The Labor Beat video is also archived at: . . .
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LABOR BEAT: Tri National conference showed Chicago how the neoliberal attack on public education and teacher unions is a hemisphere-wide phenomenon
The Tri-National Conference in Defense of Public Education was held in Chicago over the weekend of May 9 - 11 and reminded Chicago that some of the roots of the current changes in the . . .
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LABOR BEAT: 'David Vitale, you wake up!' Rousemary Vega's confrontation with the Chicago Board of Education on May 28 is now a delightful You Tube video being enjoyed by thousands
How Can We Shut Your Door? Rousemary Vega, Chicago public school parent and activist, made a two minute contribution during the public comment period at the May 28, 2014 Chicago Board of Education meeting . . .
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LABOR BEAT: New video examines beginnings of independent politics in Chicago
A new Labor Beat video on Independent Labor Politics is now available on YouTube at: http://youtu.be/cagUbXBceVY. The video is also archived at: laborbeat.org. With anger at Illinois Governor Pat Quinn still growing among the rank-and-file . . .
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American '... insurers are selling an unaffordable, defective product,' Dr. Coates says, as he compares the U.S. health care system to other industrialized countries...' Chicago presentation by Andrew Coates MD is now a Labor Beat video
Labor Beat presents the latest critique of Obamacare -- from the left. "Beyond Obamacare, Why Labor Deserves Better" with Dr. Andrew Coates is available from Labor Beat now. The presentation, which continues the critique . . .
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LABOR BEAT: Commemoration of the life and work of Pete Camarata in new Labor Beat video
As someone pointed out at the March 23, 2014 Celebration and Memorial Services for Pete Camarata at Teamster City in Chicago, Pete was the only truck driver who ever got a 900-word obituary in the . . .
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Labor Notes conference was a big success... On privatization of public services -- 'Before you can destroy it, and move in for the kill, you have to undermine it and degrade it.'
Speech excerpts from the Friday evening and Saturday morning plenaries of the April 4-6, 2014 Labor Notes Conference in Chicago are now available in a Labor Notes video. And before the speeches begin, a . . .
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LABOR BEAT VIDEO: 'Two day strike at UIC...'
A new Labor Beat video, "Two-Day Strike at UIC" is now available on YouTube at: http://youtu.be /fp50pyPHj-U. They had been working for 18 months without a contract, so they had no other choice . . .
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OPT OUT NEWS: New Labor Beat video shows the growth of the Chicago ISAT Opt Out and boycott
A new 17-minute video from Labor Beat gives the story of the current Chicago ISAT Opt Out campaign. The video "Chicago ISAT Opt Out" is available on YouTube at: http://youtu.be/ixx-Y-5EKzQ and is also archived . . .
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International Women's Day event includes protest against McDonald's treatment of its workers
International Women's Day Visits McDonald's, a new video from Labor Beat, is now available On YouTube at: http://youtu.be/GudFUPljkoE. It is lso archived at: laborbeat.org. On March 8, 2014 (International Women's Day) the Workers Organizing Committee . . .
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British teachers
11,000 angry teachers march in London as the NUT take national strike action against Michael Gove's attacks on education, with calls to escalate the action dominating the day. Teachers are now working an average 60 . . .
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Labor Beat needs money now
Save Labor Beat. That's the slogan for this month. Most Substance readers know Labor Beat by the video links that regularly assist Substance articles in bringing out the complete story on Chicago events. Now Labor . . .
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LABOR BEAT VIDEO: 'The Charter Vortex' -- Chicago's charter school fight continues in January 2014 despite the cold
The night before the January 22, 2014 Chicago Public Schools Board meeting was one of the coldest nights this winter. But a number of public schools activists decided to do an all-night sleeping bag vigil . . .
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Pete Camarata, 1946 - 2014... Working class leader remembered with thoughts on how to build a true rank-and-file union movement
A true leader of the American working class died at the beginning of last week, and the tributes and stories have been coming in slowly, with The New York Times providing its version in its . . .
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LSC Summit (held at Chicago's Westinghouse High School, February 15) is now in Labor Beat video
The Labor Beat video "Local School Council Candidate Summit" (Chicago, February 15, 2014) is now available as a Labor Beat video on YouTube at: http://youtu.be/EwGugYLhuRo. The video is also archived at: laborbeat.org. The LSC . . .
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'The Puerto Rican constitution does not give teachers the right to protest...' Teacher protesters clash with police in Puerto Rico's Capitol building
Since December 19, 2013, members of Puerto Rico's teachers union and their supporters have beenprotesting both inside the island's Senate chamber and outside its Capitol against pension reform legislation advocated by governor Alejandro Garcia . . .
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Video shows December 18, 2013 sidewalk press conference and protests against charter schools
On December 18, 2013, a group of community activists opposing charter schools assembled on the sidewalk in front of the CPS headquarters right before a Chicago Board of Education meeting to discuss imposing more charter . . .
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New Labor Beat Video... 'Done with Democrats' released in a timely manner after Springfield vote against public worker pensions
Done with the Democrats is a new Labor Beat video on On YouTube at: http://youtu.be/u8bSkYhmk74. It is also archived at:. laborbeat.org. After the recent vote in Springfield against teacher and other public worker pensions, . . .
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LABOR BEAT: 'This not about children's education, this is more about a political game...' The Military Coup against Ames Middle School is reported in a video showing community organizing and from the December 18 Board of Education meeting
A new Labor Beat Video, "Military Coup at Ames School, is now available on You Tube. The raids against public neighborhood schools in Chicago continue...beyond the 50 closings announced last spring. The URL for . . .
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A new video -- 'Military Coup at Ames School' -- begins New Year at Chicago's famous Labor Beat
Labor Beat begins 2014 on January 2, 2014 with a major video continuing Labor Beat's ongoing coverage of the undemocratic ways in which Chicago's public schools are being run. Military Coup at Ames School . . .
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LABOR BEAT: Historic Labor Beat video shows power of the Chicago Teachers Strike of 2012
It was a little over a year ago that the historic Chicago Teachers Union strike took place -- in September 2012. The powerful militancy and wide community support from the 2012 strike is still with . . .
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SUMMER MOVIE RE-RUNS: 'Out You Go!' video of May 22, 2013 Chicago Board of Education meeting airs for Fourth of July showing police state tactics to suppress dissent during the Board meetings and censorship of the TV broadcast of the meeting afterward.... Courtesy of Labor Beat
Out You Go! is now on Cable TV as well as available through You Tube. In "Out You Go!", Labor Beat investigates two specific incidents at the recent and notorious Chicago Board of . . .
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'Out You Go!' Labor Beat video reports police state tactics against protesters and massive censorship of May 22, 2013 Chicago Board of Education meeting. Official video blacked out the manhandling of protesters before the Board voted to close the largest number of public schools in U.S. history
Out You Go! is a Labor Beat video released on June 20, 2013. The video, 15 minutes long, restores to the historical record the reality of what took place during the May 22, 2013 . . .
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Three-day march for public schools, a dramatic new half-hour Labor Beat video features speakers including Karen Lewis, Jesse Sharkey, Michael Brunson, and elementary student Asean Johnson
"Whatever happens on Wednesday, this is not over. This is just beginning. This is a movement." These are the words CTU re-elected President Karen Lewis gave to the historic May 20, 2013 rally at . . .
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A new video featuring additional footage by Labor Beat updates the Chicago struggle against school closings.
"61 Schools", a new video by Chicago's Labor Beat, tells the story of the growing resistance to the attempt by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his appointed school board to close or otherwise radically . . .
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Video shows spirit of CORE election campaign launching at the Haymarket in Chicago April 14, 2013... Voting in the two-way CTU election will be on May 17 in all schools
While the Chicago board of education does not have to run for election, the Chicago Teachers Union is a democratic institution, and it does have regular elections. On May 17, 2013, the CTU will hold . . .
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Manierre Elementary School... The Board of Education made the decision to close their school… but they came anyway to testify and promise what they will do next
April 10, 2013. Even though Chicago Public Schools had declared that Manierre School, on Chicago's Near North Side in Old Town, would be closed next September, the school community turned out to another sham hearing. . . .
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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 . . .
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Protests against latest Chicago Hit List in new video
"61 Schools", a new video by Chicago's Labor Beat, tells the story of the growing resistance to the attempt by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his appointed school board to close or otherwise radically . . .
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HIT LIST 2013: New Labor Beat video shows North Side, West Side and South Side unite against closings and the Big Lie about an 'underutilization crisis'
Three months into the hearings and other activities around what Chicago Public School officials have tried to maintain is an "underutilization crisis," it's more and more clear that Chicago's parents, teaches, community leaders -- and . . .
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CPS leaves hundreds in the cold in Logan Square as huge protests continue at 'Fullerton Network' hearing February 11
Altough the doors were scheduled to be opened at 6:30 p.m. on February 11, 2013, at the Armitage Baptist Church on Kedzie Ave. for the Logan Square ("Fullerton Network") school closing hearings, security guards kept . . .
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Labor Beat video on Pilsen Little Village closing hearing of February 6, 2013
In the second week of public hearings on proposed school closings, Chicago Public Schools held its traveling inquisition for the Pilsen/Little Village Network on February 6, 2013. By this date, after 8 hearings, . . .
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'New Direction in 1600' caucus formed in Cook County College Teachers union...Part-time City Colleges workers demanding a fair contract, benefits
On Feb. 21, 2013 a protest of the Federation of of College Clerical and Technical Personnel (Local 1708) was held outside the doors of the City Colleges of Chicago downtown headquarters in the Loop. . . .
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'Richie Rich' Billionaire Bruce Rauner has unlimited access to Rich Millionaire Rahm, while citizens are arrested at mayor's office... Video shows Chicago Teachers Union challenging CPS lies about 'underutilization' prior to the December 19 Board meeting
A new Labor Beat video shows community leaders and the Chicago Teachers Union correcting another round of factual errors from Chicago Public Schools officials. Just before the December 1, 2012 meeting of the Chicago . . .
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Obama has more in common with James Buchanan than with Abraham Lincoln... Founding of the Republican Party worth noting on anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation... Third Party not always a bad idea in U.S. history
Introductory Note: The 150th anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation is an invitation to consider where we are today, 150 years rid of Southern slavery, but now shackled to senile capitalism, assorted tumors . . .
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'Black Friday' organizing against Walmart... Chicago, Nov. 23, 2012
On 'Black Friday' (first big shopping day after Thanksgiving 2012), Walmart was the target of protests around the country that pointed the finger at the big box store's unfair treatment of its workers. Following . . .
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Labor Beat video features first week of Chicago Teachers Strike of 2012
The first week of the historic September 2012 Chicago teachers strike. Interviews and scenes from the picket lines at Amundsen HS, Kenwood Academy, Steinmetz HS, Lawndale Elementary Community Academy, Reilly Elementary, Burley Elementary, Marsh . . .
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Labor Express February 20 radio show features Kim Scipes on betrayal of international working class by AFL-CIO foreign policy
This week's episode of Labor Express Radio (Monday February 20 at 10 a.m.) features: Host Jerry Mead-Lucero interviews author Kim Scipes about his new book "AFL-CIO's Secret War against Developing Country Workers: Solidarity or Sabotage?" . . .
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National 'Real News' Links Labor Beat's 'Shills and Cruel Jokes' video on hypocrisy of closing and turnarounds for national audience
&ItemidRealNews has linked to the Labor Beat video about this year's CPS Hit List. The video was entitled "Shills and Cruel Jokes." It explained the current Hit List while covering the Martin Luther . . .
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Workers return to brief occupation of American Windows and Doors — now 'Serious Energy' — after brief sit-in
Workers Strike a Deal to Try and Save Jobs. For Immediate Release. Contact: Leah Fried, UE Organizer 773-550-3022 , leahfried@gmail.com. The worker occupation of Serious Energy has ended and an agreement has been reached to . . .
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CAN TV to present Labor Beat reports on the school closing and 'turnaround' hearings all weekend
Due to technical cablecasting problems at beginning of Labor Beat's regularly scheduled Thursday (February 16) and Friday (February 17) showings, CAN TV has graciously arranged a special scheduling of our new show about the phony . . .
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New Labor Beat Video 'What's happening in Chicago is the national model for the attack on public education...' ... 'We are the people who will save our schools!'
A new Labor Beat video out in January 2012 adds to the growing list of videos that teachers, parents, students and supporters of real public schools can draw on to educate themselves, their colleagues, and . . .
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Lengthy Labor Beat video highlights growing movement to challenge the Hit List, promote an elected Chicago school board
In early December, 2011 Chicago Public Schools announced its "hit list" — schools it is targeting for closings or turning-around. Recently, the Chicago Education Facilities Task Force created guidelines, where the CPS followed none before, . . .
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VIDEO: 'Shutdown at the CPS Board Meeting'... 25-minute Labor Beat video of the December 14, 2011 Chicago Board of Education meeting gives most detail of all Peoples Board videos
Two weeks prior to the December 14, 2011 School Board meeting, the Chicago Public Schools announced a long list of schools it wanted to either close or 'turn-around' (fire everybody and re-hire from scratch). But . . .
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Holding the LaSalle Street Bridge... Labor and Occupy mark November 17 day of actions
As part of national actions on Nov. 17, 2011 several thousand mostly labor activists marched from the Thompson Center (State of Illinois Building) to briefly take over LaSalle St. Bridge. The police arrested 46 people . . .
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'Occupy Chicago at Grant Park'... Video now available from Labor Beat on Occupy Chicago arrests at Grant Park and the tearing down of the First Aid tent
After two weeks of occupying Chicago's financial district at Jackson & LaSalle, the decision was made to march to Grant Park and occupy it. Meanwhile, Chicago's unions began to formally become involved in the occupy . . .
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School serves pregnant girls, new mothers and their babies... Students stage sit-in to block closing of their unique Detroit high school and some are arrested
According to press reports and a news release by the BAMN (By Any Means Necessary) group, students at Detroit's Catherine Ferguson High School began a sit-in to block the closing of their unique school (it . . .
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Springfield Roulette? Chicago Teachers Union: Political Strategies of Retreat or Advance
[Editor's Note: The following was sent in by Larry Duncan, who has been on the staff of Substance as an inactive reporter for some time. He has asked that we forward it, which at Substance . . .
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REPORT on Emergency Labor Meeting (Cleveland, Ohio - March 4-5, 2011)... Building Unity to Defeat Union-Busting and Concessions
Ninety-six union leaders and activists from 26 states and from a broad cross-section of the labor movement gathered at the Laborers Local 310 Hall in Cleveland on March 4-5, 2011, in response to an invitation . . .
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Open Meetings law violated... Dane County judge blocks Wisconsin union busting law
On Friday, March 18, 2011, a Wisconsin judger barred implementation of the controversial Wisconsin legislation barring collective bargaining for public workers (except uniformed services). Several articles have appeared on the judge's decision, all of which . . .
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'The Dickensian angle'... Organizing against the cuts in Great Britain unleashes creativity in video, agitation, humor
As what is expected to be the largest protest in the recent history of the United Kingdom (since the March 2003 protests against the war), organizers in the UK have been utilizing all new media, . . .
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The attack on public workers
[Editor's Note: Larry Duncan of Labor Beat forwarded the following commentary to Substance and we're running it here as part of our education campaign about current events for those few people -- mostly teachers -- . . .
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Unite HERE, hotel workers, in confrontation with Hyatt, Pritzker family
UNITE HERE (the union representing hotel and restaurant workers) hotel workers around the country are targeting Hyatt Hotels, which have been attempting to impose a whole range of "push-backs" against their workers. A push back . . .
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Activist describes government attack on our rights... How FBI raided Tracy Molm's home in Minneapolia
Tracy Molm, a Minneapolis-based Palestine solidarity activist, describes what happened during the recent FBI raid on her apartment in September, its aftermath, and her solidarity work for Palestinians. Her subpoena has now been reactivated by . . .
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You Tube video by Labor Beat... Chicago Press Conference Protests FBI Raids on Anti-War, Union Activists
On Saturday, September 25, 2010 a press conference was held to protest the FBI raids the day before on Chicago-area anti-war activists. In an attempt to intimidate and silence activists critical of U.S. foreign policy . . .
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Protest at FBI Chicago headquarters Monday September 27 at 2111 W. Roosevelt
The Committee Against Political Repression is calling for an emergency rally to be held at 4:30pm Monday, Sept. 27, 2010 at FBI headquarters in Chicago, 2111 W. Roosevelt (NOT at Federal Plaza as some earlier . . .
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