After a lot of labor and learning, the workers who famously occupied the Republic Windows and Doors factory in Chicago in '08 are opening a new cooperative business: New Era Windows. Laura Flanders discusses the journey with Brendan Martin of The Working World and three of the worker-owners.

You can watch the full show here.

Via Occupy Wall Street:

Schedule of Events

10:00 AM: Anti-Capitalist Demo @ City Front Plaza

12:45pm - 2:00pm: Occupy Chicago May Day Solidarity Speak Out @ Union Park, Randolph and Ashland

2:00pm - 4:30pm: International Workers Day March for Immigration Reform @ Union Park, march to Federal Plaza begins 3:00pm

4:30: Rally at Federal Plaza

Additional Info:

http://occupychi.org/

https://www.facebook.com/OccupyChicago

Hundreds of fast food and retail workers went on strike in Chicago Wednesday morning in a labor action consciously modeled on New York City’s fast food workers campaign and the nationwide Walmart strike which occurred last Thanksgiving. The Chicago strikers -- who include workers from McDonald’s, Subway, Macy’s, Sears, and Victoria’s Secret -- are demanding a wage floor of $15 an hour and the right to form a union.

The Nation:

Retail and food service jobs are typically thought of as entry-level positions, populated by teenagers looking for some extra spending money before moving on. But a recent National Employment Law Project study found that since the 2008 economic crash, the majority of jobs lost have been middle wage jobs (between $13.84 and $21.13), while the bulk of jobs under the “recovery” has been jobs between $7.69 and $13.83. It’s what has been called a “McJobs Recovery,” in which low-wage jobs are increasingly the only jobs available—for teenagers, young adults, middle-aged workers, everyone.

Indeed, at a meeting downtown two weeks before the strike, workers of a wide variety of ages and other demographic profiles gathered. One of three such meetings held to discuss whether or not to strike, nearly 100 workers squeezed into a sweltering room, listening to middle-aged Ecuadorian immigrants telling their stories of working at McDonald’s in Spanish, followed by the kind of white twenty-something cashiers who would likely take umbrage at being pegged as hipsters. An African-American man approaching what’s typically thought of as retirement age told of decades working in fast food and hovering near minimum wage, while a young Urban Outfitters worker said a raise would “make the difference between living and surviving.”

When explaining what a raise to $15 per hour would mean to her, Trish Kahle, a Whole Foods worker, stated simply, “I could have heat all winter.”

...

While recent efforts to organize low-wage and retail workers seem new, they have historical precedent in the U.S. Vanessa Tait, author of Poor Workers Unions, a history of organizing efforts in low-wage jobs, says previous efforts, like the famous 1937 sit-down strike by women workers at Woolworth’s or lesser-known efforts to organize fast food restaurants in Detroit in the 1980s, were done on a smaller shop-by-shop level—unlike the strikes in Chicago and New York, whose scope involves hundreds of stores and restaurants. “Being able to organize on a unified industrial and geographical level with broad public support makes a big difference: it creates a sense of movement and a greater possibility of victory.”

Chicago Tribune:

Standing with a group of protestors in front of the Nordstrom Rack on State Street Wednesday morning, Charde Nabors, 21, said she's fighting for better pay and more opportunities for workers like her.

Nabors works at Sears for $9 an hour to support her two children, ages 2 and 5 months. Nabors says she only works about 20 hours a week, though she has asked for a full-time position.

She has to supplement her income with food stamps, but she's struggling to pay $650 a month for the apartment she moved into after staying with family and living in a hotel.

Nabors is among the hundreds of fast food and retail workers in Chicago that community organizers expect to walk off the job Wednesday in a campaign to push for higher wages.

The Fight for $15 campaign, named for its goal of securing $15 an hour for workers, said it expects McDonald's, Subway, Dunkin' Donuts, Macy's, Sears and Victoria's Secret store in the Loop and Magnificent Mile to be affected.

Many of these targeted, short-term walkout protests have been organized by non-union “alt-labor” groups such as OUR Walmart and the community organizing group New York Communities for Change, which is organizing New York City fast food workers. As noted by The Nation, "the successful example of New York—where only one striking worker was told they were fired, only to be allowed to return after community leaders and other supporters accompanied her back and demanded her reinstatement—seems to have emboldened many of Chicago’s low-wage strikers."

Thursday’s strike is unlikely to be the last of the fast food workers’ labor actions, as the day's events could lead the way for the campaign to grow even larger.

A 6-month-old infant girl shot five times on Chicago's South Side Monday died in the hospital Tuesday morning.

Jonylah Watkins was rushed to Comer Children's Hospital Monday afternoon in serious-to-critical condition after being shot in the 6500 block of South Maryland Avenue in the city's Woodlawn neighborhood around 12:48 p.m. Her father, Jonathan Watkins, had been changing her diaper in the front passenger seat of a Chevy Venture minivan when a gunman approached them and opened fire. He fled in a waiting van.

Jonylah was wounded in her lung, liver, leg, shoulder and bowel or intestine, according to DNAinfo Chicago, and had undergone at least five hours of surgery.

"The girl's father, identified by family as Jonathan Watkins, 28, was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was in serious-to-critical condition, police said. A police source said he is a known member of the Gangster Disciples street gang."

ABC7 Chicago reports:

"This appears to be a targeted incident. It was very clear that whoever was doing this was firing at the father and exclusively at the father," said Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy.

Continue reading »

Chicago police on Sunday that said they are questioning two people in the shooting death of a young mother whose sister stood behind President Obama during his speech on gun violence on the same day. Janay McFarlane, 18, was shot to death on Friday night while walking through North Chicago with a friend, who police said may have been the intended target. MacFarland’s death came just hours after her 14-year-old sister, Destini Warren, attended a speech by President Obama decrying the city’s gun violence.

McFarlane's mother, Angela Blakely, said Sunday: "I really feel like somebody cut a part of my heart out."

Blakely said the bullet that killed McFarlane was meant for a friend. McFarlane was supposed to graduate from an alternative school this spring, her mother said, and wanted to go into the culinary arts.

"I'm just really, truly just trying to process it, knowing that I'm not taking my baby home any more," Blakely said.

Among the survivors, Janay MacFarland leaves behind her three-month-old son, Jayden, pictured below in a family photo:

In what might well become a model for popular resistance to the 1%'s "Fiscal Cliff" austerity negotiations happening now in Washington D.C., activists in Chicago are planning a shantytown encampment of Federal Plaza -- a tangible portent of exactly where austerity is taking us.

More information on the Occupy Chicago GA-approved action from the event's facebook page:

As part of the ongoing “fiscal cliff” discussions, Senator Durbin is negotiating behind our backs to gut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid – cuts that could create depression-era conditions for millions of Americans who’ve paid for and earned support from these vital programs.

Join us on December 6th at noon to tell Senator Durbin that we won't go back! On December 6, we're building a Durbinville Shantytown encampment at the Federal Building to symbolize the dire consequences these cuts could have, and fight to preserve these essential programs. Join us! And bring a tent!

Come get free soup and bread every day in Federal Plaza from December 3rd - 6th!

Monday, December 3, noon: Soup and Bread line in Federal Plaza
Tuesday, December 4, noon: Soup and Bread line in Federal Plaza
Wednesday, December 5, noon: Soup and Bread line in Federal Plaza
Thursday, December 6, noon: Erect the “Durbinville” shantytown to show the world what these cuts really mean!

Enough is enough! It's time to stop unnecessary budget cuts and make corporations and the rich pay their fair share!

Demand that Senator Durbin:

Block the "debt ceiling sequester" cuts – say no to austerity!
Reject Simpson-Bowles or any other “Grand Bargain” that attempts to balance the budget on the backs of the poor, working people, the sick or the elderly – protect vital public programs, no cuts to Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid!
Block the extension of the Bush Tax Cuts for the top 2% – it’s time for the rich to start paying their fair share!
Support and fight for progressive sources of revenue – impose a Robin Hood Tax on Wall Street financial speculation, tax capital gains as normal income and close corporate tax loopholes!

[Via OccupyWallSt.Org]

"Here's to the watchdogs, the whistleblowers, the nonviolent resisters. Those who fight for fairness and hustle to keep the planet honest. Theirs is not an easy stroll through the tulips."

As part of the one-year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, New Zealand band Minuit have teamed up with New York photojournalist Nina Berman to produce "Stories For Boys: Occupy Edit," a people-inspired music video. These photos were taken at the height of the New York occupation, from mid-September to mid-November, as well as in Chicago for the NATO conference in May.

Berman, a veteran photographer and associate professor at Columbia University School of Journalism, is no stranger to being amidst chaotic situations with her camera, and her award winning images capture the expressions, purpose and character in people.

Minuit says that’s what drew them to her work and is also the essence of the Occupy movement.

“Here in New Zealand, Maori have a saying: ‘What is the most important thing? It is people, it is people, it is people.’ Nina’s photos over that ominous beat are spine-chilling.”

But for Minuit the video is not only about Occupy: “It’s for the watchdogs, the whistleblowers, the non-violent resisters who fight for fairplay and hustle to keep their communities honest. That is not an easy stroll through the tulips. Hug an activist today!”

The Chicago Teachers Union is currently on the front lines of a fight to defend public education. On one side the 30,000 members of the CTU have called for a contract that includes fair compensation, meaningful job security for qualified teachers, smaller class sizes and a better school day with Art, Music, World Language and appropriate staffing levels to help our neediest students.

On the other side, the Chicago Board of Education—which is managed by out of town reformers and Broad Foundation hires with little or no Chicago public school experience—has pushed to add two weeks to the school year and 85 minutes to the school day, eliminate pay increases for seniority, evaluate teachers based on student test scores, and slash many other rights.

Teachers, parents and community supporters in Chicago have fought valiantly—marching, filling auditoriums at hearings and parent meetings, even occupying a school and taking over a school board meeting. Most recently, 98 percent of our members voted to authorize a strike. But now we find ourselves facing new opponents—national education privatizers, backed by some of the nation's wealthiest people. They are running radio ads, increasing press attacks, and mounting a PR campaign to discredit the CTU and the benefits of public education.

As part of a city-wide protest movement against Chicago City Hall's assault on mental health clinics, a major battle erupted in mid-April, 2012 over keeping open the Woodlawn Clinic on the South Side. Here are nighttime scenes of the occupation, subsequent press conference, and interviews detailing why this decision has spelled disaster for humanitarian health assistance to the City's most vulnerable population. These closing also presage broader social costs. Included are Toussaint Losier (Mental Health Movement); Sophia Kortchmar, activist; N'Dana Carter (Mental Health Movement); Rev. Jose Landaverde (Our Lady of Guadalupe Angelican Catholic Church); Ronald Jackson (mental health activist). Included also is a short tribute to Helen Morley, a mental health clinic consumer and activist who predicted to city officials that if they closed her clinic, she would die. Her clinic closed on April 30, 2012, and she died on June 6, 2012.

[Via Labor Beat]

Thousands turned out to march at Wednesday's Chicago Teacher's Union rally downtown that aimed to send a strong message to Mayor Rahm Emanuel concerning teachers' ongoing contract negotiations.

"He stole your 4 percent raise. Then he cussed me out!" Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis exclaimed to a full house of some 4,000 Chicago Public Schools teachers at the Auditorium Theatre, Fox Chicago reports.

After the rally, the teachers took to the streets for a rush-hour march.

At issue for the CTU members are their salaries, the longer school day, resources for their schools, as well as the city's expansion of charter schools while public schools struggle. According to a recent report, CPS is aiming to open 60 new charter schools in the next five years, though the city says that number is as yet only a "projection."

In a press conference preceding the teachers' rally, Emanuel admitted that CPS teachers should receive a raise.

"Chicago teachers deserve a pay raise," the mayor said, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. "They work very hard. Chicago schoolchildren do not deserve a strike."

Yet many teachers remain skeptical of the mayor. Harper High School teacher John Thuet told the Chicago Tribune that he believes the mayor has "lost touch with reality."

"I feel like we're getting walked on. They're extending our hours, not giving us raises. And if we don't stop it now, I don't know when it will stop," Thuet told the Tribune.

The teachers union appears primed to take action -- and rumors of a strike are no secret. While no strike vote was taken Wednesday, CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey said this week that such a vote will be taking place "when it’s appropriate" -- likely before the school year's end.