Chicago, IL – The Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression led the families of 17 wrongfully-convicted men to meet with Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx in February. In the meeting, Foxx committed to investigate each of the cases and where there is proof of innocence, she said she would release them.

Chicago, IL – Union educators at Passages Charter School voted overwhelmingly to strike, May 4, after nearly a year of bargaining with management has failed to produce a decent contract. Teachers voted 43 to zero to strike, in a bargaining unit of 46 members. The May 4 vote authorizes the bargaining committee to set a strike date in the coming weeks if they do not receive an acceptable offer.

Chicago, IL – On May 1, over 250 workers at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) picketed to demand a fair contract. Many members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73 have been without a contract for almost two years.

Chicago, IL – For many years the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression has campaigned to win freedom for the many victims of torture and other crimes by the Chicago police. This week, State’s Attorney Kim Foxx announced that she was dropping the case against two men, Robert Almodovar and William Negron, who had been framed by the notorious gang of Detective Reynoldo Guevara. Almodovar walked out of prison April 14, and we continue to demand freedom for Negron, who remains jailed on an unrelated case.

Chicago, IL – Sarah Chambers is one of the best-known rank-and-file leaders of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU). A distinguished, award winning Special Education teacher at Maria Saucedo Academy, her name is a familiar one to politicians, and to the Board of the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). Photos of her leading protests to defend her students have appeared regularly in the Chicago media, and even in the New York Times.

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Rasmea Defense Committee.

Chicago, IL – Over 1000 people gathered at the headquarters of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) to celebrate International Women’s Day, March 8. Speakers from CTU, Fight For 15, the teachers union at the Charter School Aspira, AFSCME and other unions shared the stage with Rasmea Odeh, along with Filipino, Iranian and undocumented immigrant women.

Chicago, IL – Over 4000 people marched today, Feb. 16, in Chicago as part of the Day Without Immigrants mobilizations across the country. The protest was called by ARISE Chicago, whose Jorge Mujica spoke to the crowd at Union Park. He condemned the order from President Trump that allows ICE officers to detain and deport people without trial. Mujica was one of the conveners 11 years ago of the mega-marches in Chicago that attracted hundreds of thousands for immigrant rights.

Chicago, IL – The strains of the civil rights anthem, Oh, Freedom, rang out in Trinity Episcopal Church on Chicago’s South Side, Feb. 12, sung by Evangeline Jackson. Jackson, a registered nurse, is a leader in her union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 1216. As a young woman in the South in the 1980s, her hospital was unionized with the help of Frank Chapman, a veteran of the Black liberation movement.

Another legal defeat was handed to Donald Trump, Feb. 9, as the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected his administration's request for the reinstatement of the executive order banning immigrants from seven Arab, African, or Muslim-majority countries. Late last week, a Seattle judge had instituted a nationwide restraining order against the Muslim ban, which halted its implementation across the entire U.S.

“No wall no registry, no white supremacy”

Activists in Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago, rallied 400 people today, Feb. 4, to make their village a strong sanctuary. They urged the village trustees and mayor to keep their word and adopt a Welcoming Village Ordinance that would protect immigrants. The organizers opposed a previous proposal with deportation loopholes.

Chicago, IL – For the second night in a row, protesters converged at Chicago O'Hare International Airport, Jan. 29, to say no to President Trump’s Muslim ban. The protest was called by the Arab American Action Network.

As Chicago Transit Authority president Dorval Carter continues the undeclared war against bus operators, train operators and mechanics that his predecessor Forrest Claypool started, Amalgamated Transit Union Locals 241 and 308 have begun to unite to fight back. According to a statement from the unions, “ATU Locals 241 and 308 represent the vast majority of CTA employees (almost 10,000), working without a contract since December 2015. The CTA refuses to take the vast majority of its workforce seriously. It wants to strip them of their hard-earned benefits and deny them wage increases. The CTA wants to continue with the insults and abuses.”

Chicago, IL – After a day of protests and walkouts on the campuses of DePaul, Loyola and the University of Illinois at Chicago, 5000 people rallied and marched back and forth across Chicago’s Loop, Jan. 20, in opposition to the racist agenda of President Trump.

Black Students for Revolution (BSFR) led a student walkout from classes at the University of Illinois Urbana – Champaign (UIUC) in late October. They demanded an end to tuition hikes, increased retention and scholarships for Black, Latino and Indigenous students, and other progressive changes. They demanded the UIUC administration schedule a public town hall style meeting to discuss their demands, which Chancellor Robert Jones rejects.

Chicago, IL – On Black Friday, Nov. 25, the busiest shopping day of the year, 500 people marched on the Magnificent Mile, Chicago’s upscale retail district, calling for a boycott.

“Trump is the way backward. We are the way forward”

We are circulating the text of Frank Chapman’s Nov. 19 speech at Chicago’s 25th annual People’s Thanksgiving event, hosted Freedom Road Socialist Organization. Frank Chapman is a veteran of the Black Liberation Movement. He was a victim of wrongful imprisonment as a young man, and then, like Malcolm X, George Jackson and others, became politicized in prison. His release was won through a political struggle led Angela Davis. From 1981 through 1989, Frank was the executive director of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. In the past five years, he’s returned to that work, leading the campaign of the Chicago Alliance to win an elected, civilian police accountability council.