On Tuesday, May 21st, activists in Washington, DC took to the streets and several federal buildings to demonstrate for higher wages for low paid workers and benefits.  I managed to catch up with them just as they were rallying outside of Union Station. We soon went through the station, chanting, singing and dancing through the halls, up and down the escalators, and eventually rallied in front of some shops where some demonstrators launched some balloons with a banner attached. We later took the streets past the Capitol building to the Cannon House Office Building where a hearing was taking place.

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Demonstrators at a rally in the Chicago loop to stop school closures in March (photo by Aaron Cynic)

Post by Aaron Cynic

While Chicago’s Mayor and other administration officials seem to believe the closing of more than 54 public schools in Chicago is a done deal, resistance to the closures is about to peak just before the school board votes on the closures. This weekend, thousands plan to march to say no to the closures for three days beginning Saturday.

Resistance to the closures however, began months ago, with several protests and hundreds of hearings where parents, students, teachers and their supporters aired their grievances and demanded their schools stay open. Mayor Rahm Emanuel touts the closures will help close the $1 billion deficit. Officials within CPS said they could save as much as $560 million by shutting the doors to neighborhood schools, shuffling students to other supposedly better performing locations. However, WBEZ reported the calculation was off by $122 million. CPS admitted its mistake in arithmetic, calling it an “honest mistake.”

Mistakes in math however, are only the tip of the iceberg. The savings estimates in some cases came from estimating costs to repair and upgrade buildings slated for closure. Alderman Patrick O’Connor said in a meeting on the proposed closure of Trumbull Elementary

“The amount that is indicated is significantly higher than we would actually spend if in fact you were going to keep that school open and invest. Clearly, if you wanted to make it top of the line, $16 million would be a nice investment.  But if you just wish to maintain the school and keep it open, you’re more in the area of $4 or $5 (million).”

In addition, the Chicago Tribune reports renovations to “welcoming schools,” which students from shuttered locations would be sent to, could cost millions. Records obtained by the Trib show CPS plans to spend tens of millions of dollars this summer to upgrade those schools. In one case, CPS decided to merge Lawrence and Burnham schools on Chicago’s south side. To fully modernize and take on the new students, Lawrence will need $14 million, $6 million more than it would take Burnham to upgrade. Peabody Elementary in Wicker Park, also on the chopping block, would cost $10.9 million to keep open. Instead, CPS will spend $12.2 million to overhaul nearby Otis Elementary to take on Peabody students. Even more outrageous – Peabody just spent nearly $40,000 installing new motion detector lights in March, even though it’s been slated for closure.

Despite the hundreds of hearings on the closures where parents and students told heartbreaking stories of how the school closings would negatively affect them, their cries have fallen on a deaf administration. The City has all but ignored all opponents of the closures, even those of other elected officials. Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle told the Sun Times:

“Was it all a charade? If you weren’t going to pay any attention to the outcome of the public hearings or the recommendations of the public hearing officers, why would you bother to waste everyone’s time?”

Chicago Teacher’s Union President Karen Lewis said:

“Despite the testimony of thousands of parents, teachers and people who work and living in the school communities impacted, Rahm Emanuel is dedicated to entering the history books as having destroyed the most public schools in one year than anyone in history.”

This is why the CTU and dozens of other allied activist organizations plan to flood the streets with thousands of supporters over the weekend. Already, things are heating up with smaller demonstrations. On Wednesday, five people were arrested in the Woodlawn area, on the city’s south side, for staging a die-in to show the potential effects some children could face when crossing gang lines to their new schools. CBS News reports Pillar Castro, a student and one of the five arrested told fellow demonstrators “All my great teachers taught me that if you believe in something, you can make change.” Paul Horton, a teacher at the demonstration told CBS News “What is happening here is democracy and I think democracy has not been allowed in our city.”

Marches will kick off on the south and west sides of the city at 10:00AM on Saturday.

                          

A Tea Party “Patriot” with a strikingly familiar sign (image via Wikipedia).

Post by Aaron Cynic.

Conservatives and President Obama alike are outraged over revelations the IRS has been targeting Tea Party groups. Last week, the IRS admitted to giving extra scrutiny to groups applying for non profit status if their applications contained the words “patriot” or “Tea Party.” Calling it an “organizational shortcut,” Lois Lerner, director of the unit which oversees such applications said it was an “error in judgement” and inappropriate, reports ABC News.

Conservatives and tea party group members however, did not exactly take to the apology. “It was so pronounced around the country that it was obvious that the tea party groups were being targeted,” Tea Party Express founder Sal Russo told ABC News. Jackie Bodnar, spokeswoman for the group FreedomWorks told ABC:

“We appreciate that the IRS acknowledged and apologized, but the real question is, how do we make sure that this never happens again? All Americans, regardless of their philosophical beliefs, should be treated equally under the laws of the land.”

This week, President Obama expressed “outrage” over the targeting of such groups from the IRS. “I’ve got no patience with it. I will not tolerate it. And we’ll make sure that we find out exactly what happened on this,” he told reporters at a press conference. The New York Daily News reports two Senate committees controlled by Democrats announced investigations on Monday and House Republicans said they would investigate as well. According to CNN, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus said “We need to know who knew what, and exactly what mistakes were made.The American people have questions for the IRS and I intend to get answers.”

While it’s certainly troubling (and not surprising) the IRS would be investigating and scrutinizing certain groups with a political agenda more than others, the “outrage” from politicians of all political stripes is nearly laughable when placed in the larger context of law enforcement targeting other political and activist groups. Just a few of many instances where law enforcement has targeted the left:

• In 2010, the FBI raided eight addresses of homes belonging to anti-war activists in Minnesota and Chicago. Investigators were reportedly looking to connect peace activists with groups designated as terrorists in the Middle East and Columbia.
• Hundreds of pages of documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests show that the Department of Homeland Security monitored, investigated and possibly infiltrated various Occupy movements across the country since the first Occupy Wall Street protests began.
• In Chicago, the Chicago Police Department used two infiltrators to incite and entrap a group of activists now known as the NATO5, who have been in prison awaiting trial for a year on charges related to terrorism.
• In the Pacific Northwest, the FBI raided homes and issued grand jury subpoenas for people and groups linked to anarchism. Search warrants issued show that agents were looking for things as simple as anarchist literature, backpacks, and black clothing.

The list could go on. The bigger question however, remains: where is the outrage over law enforcement groups like the FBI and DHS targeting peace, environmental, occupy and other activists? Where are the calls for investigation of law enforcement monitoring and infiltrating left leaning groups?
The double standard is maddening, and the silence from politicians, deafening.

                          

Image via Twitter @STL735

After a huge demonstration in Chicago a few weeks ago, workers allied with the fight for 15 movement and their allies have been staging strikes to fight for a better minimum wage for non union retail and fast food workers. MSNBC reports more than 100 employees at around 30 different chains walked out the doors today to demand a higher minimum wage.

Much like in cities like Chicago and New York, workers are demanding at least a $15 an hour minimum wage. Presently, the minimum wage in the area is $7.35 an hour.

Rev. Martin Rafanan, director of STL Can’t Survive on $7.35 said in a statement:

“Increasingly, fast food jobs are the only options for St. Louisans, but these workers can’t even afford to pay for rent, food, or carfare. If the workers earned more, fast food workers would spend that money at local businesses here in St. Louis and help lift our economy.”

Workers at the demonstrations talked about the difficulties of working in low wage positions, often for long hours, which sometimes could interfere with things like education. Jamanda, a Wendy’s worker, told the crowd she had to choose between a management position at $9.13 an hour and getting an education to be a social worker. Additionally, she said “I bring my lunch to my 10-hour shift. If I don’t, sometimes I don’t eat.”

Our own Natalie Solidarity is at the demonstrations in St. Louis presently livetweeting from them. You can follow her on Twitter here or check out our storify here.

                          

I’ve been on the road touring with Dinner and Bikes, a traveling road show about bike culture, bike economics featuring a delicious vegan dinner nightly. I’ll have much more to say about this as time goes on, but in the mean time, here’s a few photos from our last few dates. After a sold out show tonight in Detroit, Michigan we’re headed off to Cleveland for a couple of days.

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Post by Aaron Cynic

On Friday, I’m heading out of Chicago for a little while with some fantastic friends on a tour called Dinner and Bikes. A while back, these fine folks tapped me on the shoulder to tag along with them, help share the workload of driving and running a traveling bookstore and document the trip along the way. The Dinner and Bikes crew has been traveling around, hosting these events for some time and all are terrific independent authors, videographers, cooks, bike enthusiasts and friends.

Here’s a little about the event itself:

A Dinner and Bikes evening includes a gourmet, vegan and gluten-free buffet dinner prepared by Joshua Ploeg, a presentation about transportation equity and the everyday bicycling movement by Elly Blue, and a near-complete excerpt from Aftermass, Joe Biel’s forthcoming documentary about the history of bicycling in Portland. The event is followed by a book signing with all three presenters, and some time to peruse our traveling bicycle and cooking themed bookshop.

We’ll be traveling from Chicago to the east coast and back, with many dates in many cities along the way. Along the way I’ll be writing, shooting photos and video and bringing the world an inside perspective of preaching the gospels of transportation equity and bike culture (along with a carnivore’s take on sometimes flirting with veganism) as well as the grind of life on the road.

I’ll still be bringing news, commentary and opinion (and hopefully if there’s time for some on the ground reporting in other cities) here and at Chicagoist while I’m away from my home base, so consider this an added feature/bonus to everything you’re already used to.

Don’t forget to check the full list of dates, because if we’re passing through your city, we’d love to see your smiling face at the show, spend some time hanging out before and experience the sites and sounds of where you live through your eyes.  Check for updates and stories on the main page or the tag on the side called Dinner and Bikes.

                          

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Nearly 100 demonstrators rallied at the Thompson Center in Chicago on Earth Day after assembling and marching from the Vietnam Veterans memorial along Chicago’s riverwalk. Demonstrators called for an end to fracking, the use of Tar Sands oil, and railed against the expansion of a local refinery which would process it.

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About 75 demonstrators gathered in the Chicago loop to protest drone warfare as part of a nationwide demonstration against the use and manufacture of drones by the American military. Protesters briefly marched and chanted along Wacker Drive and then stopped at the Lyric Opera House to pass out flyers and perform some quick street theater. From there, activists headed a short distance across the Chicago River to Boeing headquarters, where they made speeches and held a die-in.

Activists called on the U.S. to stop drone bombing campaigns in countries like Yemen and Pakistan. “In Pakistan where they have been most heavily used, the majority of their victims are not combatants on the U.S. ‘kill list,’ but civilians, including many children,” said Kait McIntyre of the Anti-War Committee in a press release. Additionally, they connected the money spent on building drones to fight wars abroad to failing infrastructure at home. The release also stated:

“Boeing…gets help from Chicago politicians. To move to Chicago, $63 million in tax breaks were offered up. Now Mayor Emanuel has made the Riverside Plaza where Boeing resides a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district. As a result, taxes paid on their building don’t go to the benefit of the children in the Chicago Public Schools.”

The Chicago rally was part of a larger series of events nationwide called “National Anti-Drone Days of Action,” which ran through the weekend. In San Diego, activists led by the group CodePink flew a small drone over the home of Neal Blue, CEO of General Atomics, one of the largest drone manufacturers in the world. The group Veterans for Peace held a protest in London, and activists marched through New York City.

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