Chicago—Anyone who has lived through a homeless winter on the streets of a Midwestern city knows the value of a warm night. It means you die a little less. Maybe get to stay out of a shelter, or avoid the humiliation of the Mission. Maybe talk with a friend in peace.
We’ve had a lot more [=>]
Chicago—Dozens of people marched on Chicago’s South Side to take a stand against violence on Jan. 15, followed by a speakout and vigil. Occupy the Southside organized this “King on King march” down Martin Luther King Jr. Drive from 63rd to Emmett Till Road.
“We’re here,” explained a Black woman activist with Occupy the Southside, “because [=>]
Chicago—On Oct. 20 dozens of determined women and some men demonstrated against the war on women, this time spearheaded by the Catholic hierarchy in cahoots with crazy anti-abortion, anti-birth control fanatics. This was the same bunch who came out on June 8 (see “Fighting the war against women,” July- Aug. 2012 N&L) to try to [=>]
Photo for News & Letters by Terry Moon
Slutwalk participants showing off their signs at the demonstration on Sept. 16. Signs read: “The only time that my body ‘shuts that thing down’ is when I go through menopause”; “My body is a flower, not to be exploited”; and “Girls just wanna have funDAMENTAL HUMAN [=>]
Chicago—The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently banned discrimination based on gender identity or expression. All healthcare facilities which accept federal money, including Medicaid and Medicare, cannot discriminate against Transgender nor gender-variant patients.
This only underlines how pervasive discrimination remains. The Services and Advocacy for LGBT Elders’ (SAGE) report, “Improving the Lives of Transgender [=>]
Photo by Bob McGuire for News & Letters
Chicago—Picketers gathered in front of the only Chick-fil-A in Chicago to protest the company CEO using his chicken joint as a bullhorn to attack marriage and other civil rights for Gays. We were outnumbered by the customers who had streamed in for Chick-fil-A “Customer Appreciation Day,” [=>]
Evanston, Ill.—On Aug. 5 a unique and wonderful commemoration related the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the ongoing nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan. Titled “Hiroshima commemoration presentation: From Hiroshima to Fukushima,” it was sponsored by the Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS), North Shore Peace Initiative and Chicago Peace [=>]
You’re invited to a nationwide series of five Marxist-Humanist discussions on:
Global Crises, Global Rebellion, and the Needed Philosophy of Revolution
Central to today’s reality is the worldwide capitalist economic crisis, the deepest since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and the context for occupations and revolutions across the globe. We will explore the meaning of this [=>]
Chicago—On June 18, Occupy Chicago held the first of a series of discussions on “The Elephant in the Room: A workshop about dismantling racism in the Occupy Movement.”
Discussion was lively, and comradely, among the majority Black, Latino and Native American participants, but represented just the beginning of an effort to “voice the unvoiced.” One Latino [=>]
Chicago–“Some of us killed innocents. Some of us helped in continuing these wars from home. Some of us watched our friends die. Some of us are not here because we took our own lives. We did not get the care promised to us by our government. All of us watched failed policies turn into bloodshed. [=>]
From the May-June 2012 issue of News & Letters:
Draft for Marxist-Humanist Perspectives, 2012-2013
II. In the belly of the beast
A. Occupy and anti-Occupy
The very new phenomenon of the Occupy Movement brought this moment of revolutionary new beginnings squarely to the U.S. Though not now a revolution, it nevertheless transformed the political atmosphere in the [=>]
From the March-April 2012 issue of News & Letters
Chicago—Several hundred people rallied against Chicago’s school “turnarounds” on Feb. 20 and marched to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s house. Many marchers wore stickers over their mouths that read “Silenced” or “Excluded,” symbolizing how the mayor and his school board have run roughshod over schools without listening [=>]
Oakland–In the past I have been involved in a lot of struggles: workers’ and immigrants rights, animal rights, etc. They were all single issues, isolated by their demands. The Occupy Movement brings them all together and addresses the cause of the problems, the whole system.
What was most important during the encampment of Occupy Oakland was [=>]
Chicago—Dozens of activists from Occupy Chicago, Jobs with Justice, the Jane Addams Senior Caucus, Iraq Veterans Against the War, News and Letters Committees and other groups rallied outside the American Economic Association (AEA) conference here on Jan. 6.
The establishment economists were invited to share a sidewalk meal of Rahm-en noodles (named in honor of anti-labor [=>]
Chicago—About 30% of homeless youth in the U.S. are Queer. Many become homeless after being thrown out of their homes by families who reject them. And Queer youth are outing themselves at younger ages.
As homeless Queer youth Jeremiah Beaverly, who grew up in Wisconsin and Illinois, told NPR: “The day after my 18th birthday this [=>]
Chicago—Twenty-four Black men are still in jail almost 40 years after the first allegations of torture were brought against the Chicago Police Department.
In every case, their confessions were obtained illegally through torture.
On Nov. 5, 30 people, including the mother of Javan Deloney and family members of four or five other torture victims, met at the [=>]
New Russian edition of Marxism and Freedom
Russian Marxism and Freedom
***
From Readers’ Views, January-February 2012 issue of News & Letters:
NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN RUSSIA: IN REVOLT, IN THEORY
I heard the news of the largest protests in Russia since the dissolution of the USSR twenty years ago at just about the same time I heard [=>]
From the November-December 2011 issue of News & Letters:
Chicago—Mayor Rahm Emanuel has made no secret of his contempt for City workers and his desire to weaken their unions. His attitude was perfectly captured in early September when he screamed “F—k you, Lewis!” at Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) President Karen Lewis during a meeting [=>]
Chicago–In a first, both the G-8 and NATO summits will be held in Chicago at the same time, May 15-22, 2012. Chicago’s Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy has already threatened to restrict the civil liberties of demonstrators who will converge from around the world to confront the tottering high priests of capitalism and their dogs of war.
This [=>]
Chicago–The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services on May 1 implemented a five-year pilot program and the state’s first Integrated Care Program for older adults and adults with disabilities eligible for Medicaid but not Medicare.
The program is mandatory, no exceptions. You have to choose between two “medical homes,” Aetna and IlliniCare, and use only [=>]
by Artemis
Unite Here, a union for service workers, has filed charges against the management of Hyatt Hotels for turning heat lamps on hotel housekeepers picketing the Chicago Hyatt for safer jobs in July in near 100 degree temperatures. Nearly all hotel housekeepers are women and most are women of color and immigrants. After downsizing, they [=>]
Chicago—Editor’s note: News and Letters Committees hosted a forum in our Chicago office on Aug. 8 on the response within the Gay community to the Facebook page Take Back Boystown posting videos of Blacks fighting as a way to demonize “outsiders” coming to Gay institutions and bars. Below is part of the discussion among panelists [=>]
Essay
by Erica Rae
From college level all the way down to pre-school, education is in crisis across the U.S. Teachers are made the scapegoats for why students are not “measuring up” to keep our country competitive in a global market that is falling apart across the globe. But, what is the reality?
At the college level: many students [=>]
Chicago–On June 22 the police, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) security and construction crews showed up at La Casita, the field house on the grounds of Whittier Dual Language Academy in Pilsen (see “Chicago Latinas demand a library,” Nov.-Dec. 2010 N&L). As the construction workers set up fencing that blocked access to La Casita from three sides, [=>]
Here are links to some local news coverage of a recent meeting of the Chicago Local of News and Letters Committees:
Windy City Times: Community groups continue to focus on Lakeview
Gay Chicago: Panel addresses Lake View’s summer turmoil
Here’s the flyer for the meeting:
News and Letters Committees invites you to a forum on:
The panel of [=>]
Chicago–Thousands of people rallied on June 14 under the banner, “Give It Back!” Three separate marches downtown, each led by a 12-foot-tall “corporate welfare king” puppet, met up outside a Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce summit. Then 24 people sat down in the street and were arrested. There were contingents of teachers, healthcare workers, janitors, anti-eviction [=>]
Chicago–SlutWalk came to downtown on June 4, a gorgeous hot day. Over 1,000 participated, including many GLBTQ folks. SlutWalk originated in Canada when a Toronto police officer told students at York University in January that if women don’t want to be raped, they should “avoid dressing like sluts.” That ignorant statement, uttered in 2011 by [=>]
by Gerry Emmett
“Syria! Syria! Raise your voice! It’s our time! It’s our choice!” Hundreds marched in Chicago’s Loop on April 16 in support of the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and across the Middle East. Participants included members of many different communities in Chicago, including Palestinians, Egyptians, Yemenis and Libyans, as well as members of [=>]
News & Letters, Vol. 56, No. 3
May-June 2011
Draft for Marxist-Humanist Perspectives, 2011-2011
Revolution and counter-revolution take world stage
Revolution and counter-revolution have forced their way to the center stage of history. In Tunisia and Egypt, revolutions have opened tremendous possibilities and spread the fire of their passion all across the Arab world and from China to the [=>]
Chicago–Faced with the prospect of budget cuts throwing thousands of people out on the streets or forcing them into institutions, 300 people packed into the Chicago Temple on Feb. 25 for a teach-in called “Stop the HUD Budget Cuts!” As Liz Brake of the Jane Addams Senior Caucus said, “They pick on the old, the [=>]
Editor’s note: Mark Clements spent 28 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. He was one of many tortured under former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge’s reign of terror. Clements is now Chairman of the Wrongful Convictions Committee of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. The following is excerpted from [=>]
Chicago–Black, Latino and Anglo workers here showed solidarity with workers in Mexico on Feb. 19, the fifth anniversary of the Pasta de Conchos mine disaster in Mexico. Over 100 people came out, mostly steelworkers, joined by Jobs with Justice, Arise Chicago Worker Center, and News and Letters.
In recent years the National Union of Mine, Metal, [=>]
Chicago–Feb. 26 was International Walk for Choice day, made urgent in the U.S. by the inhuman legislation pending in Congress (see article this page). Besides Chicago, Walks–really demonstrations–were held from coast to coast in more than 50 cities, from Los Angeles, San Diego, and Santa Cruz in California, to New York City; from Olympia, Washington, [=>]
From the Nov.-Dec. 2010 issue of News & Letters:
Forum: Stop the culture of torture
Chicago–At the end of September the Illinois Coalition Against Torture gave venue to torture victims and their primary lawyer at “Jon Burge GUILTY–beyond the trial.” The event featured Mary L. Johnson, mother of a still-imprisoned torture victim; Flint Taylor, battling lawyer for [=>]
From the Nov.-Dec. 2010 issue of News & Letters:
Sheriff Dart on notice
Chicago–In Illinois, a five-day notice is supposed to be given before you are evicted. (It doesn’t always happen.) On Oct. 14, we gave Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart his own five-day notice demanding a moratorium on all economically based evictions. This is the latest [=>]
From the Nov.-Dec. 2010 issue of News & Letters: Midwest Regional March for Peace and Justice
Midwest against war
Part of the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign contingent at the Midwest Regional March for Peace and Justice, Oct. 16
Chicago–Over 1,000 people marched in the Midwest Regional March for Peace and Justice on Oct. 16. It was truly regional, [=>]
From the Nov.-Dec. 2010 issue of News & Letters: Latina women occupying the Whittier School field house speak for themselves
Chicago Latinas demand a library
Editor’s note: Women in the Mexican-American community of Pilsen have been occupying a field house on the grounds of Whittier Elementary School for over a month to keep authorities from demolishing it. Two [=>]
A National Lawyers’ Guild member who subscribes to News & Letters sent this message:
On the morning of Sept. 24, teams of FBI agents from the “Joint Terrorism Task Force” served search warrants and grand jury subpoenas on anti-war and solidarity activists in Illinois and Minnesota. This attack on the First Amendment rights of peaceful activists [=>]
Here is the statement that News and Letters Committees has issued about the recent raids:
28 September 2010
Stop FBI raids!
The FBI raids on anti-war activists’ homes in Minneapolis, Chicago and North Carolina on September 24 recall some of the most reactionary moments in this country’s political history, from the 1919 Palmer Raids to 1950s McCarthyism to [=>]
