Chicago, IL – Around one hundred people gathered in Chicago April 7 and 8, for a historic meeting of Colombia solidarity activists from across the U.S. The Colombia Action Network (C.A.N.) is the first national network to bring together a true diversity of people to oppose U.S. intervention in Colombia and to support the self-determination of Colombian people struggling for peace with social and economic justice.

Chicago, IL – People around the country are making plans to travel to Saint Paul, Minnesota on Labor Day to march on the Republican National Convention. In Chicago, buses have been reserved and tickets are going on sale, reports Joe Iosbaker, a local anti-war activist who is helping to coordinate for the local Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War. “The chartered buses will leave Chicago at 3:00 a.m. on Sept. 1. We have to leave at that hour to be at the rally in Saint Paul at 11:00 a.m.”

Interview With Conference Participants who are members of the Twin Cities based Welfare Rights Committee and Low Income People Organizing for Power (Duluth).

On June 19-21, the founding convention of the Black Radical Congress (B.R.C.) was held in Chicago. Nearly 2000 people came together to exchange experience, and to discuss strategy on how to build the Black Liberation Movement.

Chicago, IL – Members of Teamsters Local 743 are preparing to join the massive national march on Sept. 1 in Saint Paul, Minnesota to protest at the Republican National Convention. They see this march as part of the effort to defeat the Republicans this fall. This march will be the first time in 45 years that Local 743 is joining a national mobilization.

Chicago, IL – The U.S. Attorney here handed down a 14 count indictment against former Teamster Local 743 presidents Robert Walston and Richard Lopez and former Teamsters Local 743 employees Cassandra Davis Mosley, David Rodriguez and Thaddeus ‘Teddie’ Bania, March 6.

Chicago, IL – The University of Chicago Hospital employed Richard Berg as a housekeeper for 16 years. In 2004, they fired him at the request of Bob Walston, the criminal that was principal officer in Teamsters Local 743, Berg’s union. Berg had led the New Leadership Slate (NLS) that had twice won in local elections that year, but each time had been denied their elective offices by the massive theft of votes by Walston’s gang. The gangsters decided to eliminate the challenge once and for all: if Berg didn’t work in a Local 743 shop, he couldn’t be a member of the union and could never run for office again.

Chicago, IL – Five union reformers entered the offices of Teamsters Local 743 Dec. 31 to receive keys to the union hall from their opponents who had lost election in the fall. The old president Richard Lopez knew he was defeated and that he might be going to jail.

Sami Rasouli in Chicago

Chicago, IL – Sami Rasouli is an Iraqi American. “When the U.S. invaded, I felt like I was attacking myself. I was the oppressed and the oppressor.” Rasouli emigrated from Iraq to the U.S. in 1976 and became a U.S. citizen in 2001. He moved back to his home in Najaf, Iraq in 2004 to help counter the U.S. occupation. Since then he has returned the U.S. each year to speak, explaining the disastrous impact of the occupation on the Iraqi people and to seek support for his efforts. Rasouli is in the U.S. now; he travels back to Iraq in July, but will be back in Saint Paul, Minnesota by Sept. 1 to join the protests at the Republican National Convention.

Chicago, IL – Sirlena Perry is a clerical worker and a trade unionist in Chicago. She has also been a supporter of the Teamsters 743 New Leadership Slate for many years. She gave a speech introducing members of the Slate when they were honored at this year’s People’s Thanksgiving in Chicago, an annual fundraiser for Fight Back! newspaper.

Fight Back! has been a supporter of the reform movement in the Teamsters since we began publishing, but the struggle inside Teamsters Local 743 began years earlier. We interviewed Richard Berg, the president-elect of Local 743 about the history and meaning of the victory over the sell-out gangsters that dominated that union for so many years.

Chicago, IL – A cheer rang out Oct. 22 as the U.S. Department of Labor announced the winners of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) officers’ election for Local 743. Richard Berg and the 743 New Leadership Slate beat the incumbent Ford-Galvan Unity Slate. After twelve years of difficult and sometimes frustrating campaigning, a new day is dawning in Local 743.

Chicago IL – Members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 743 are looking forward to a fair election this time around. In a flurry of action, Robert Walston, former president of IBT 743 resigned under pressure, to be replaced by Walston’s former Recording Secretary, Richard Lopez, as president of the local.

Chicago, IL – Teamsters Local 743 officers admitted their guilt. Through their attorneys and in front of U.S. District Court Judge Kennelly they submitted a motion that admitted that they sent Teamster ballots in their own election to the bosses. And guess what, the bosses voted.

Chicago, IL – As Fight Back! goes to press Teamsters are getting ready to count the ballots in the showdown between the slates of incumbent International President Hoffa and the reform challenger, Local 206 President Tom Leedham. The Tom Leedham Strong Contracts, Good Pensions slate, with extremely limited resources, took out a message of rank-and-file power to challenge employer greed.

Chicago, IL – There's no question that police targeted the Humboldt Park neighborhood this past summer. There's also no question that the Humboldt Park neighborhood fought back.

Commentary

Chicago, IL – A fighting community organization, the Blue Line Task Force, has collected 10,000 signatures from transit riders demanding that services be restored. These names will be delivered to Mayor Daley as a petition for much needed train services.

Chicago, IL – Richard Berg stood with workers who are members of Teamsters Local 743 in front of the Russian Turkish Bathhouse on Division Street. “This place is run by the mob. Everyone knows it,” stated Berg, presidential candidate for the Teamsters Local 743 reform group, the New Leadership Slate (NLS). “Our local is run by gangsters as well. We want it back.”

Chicago, IL – Are Jimmy Hoffa’s days numbered as president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters? Many rank-and-file activists think it is time for a new leader. Chicago Teamster activist Adrian Esquivel said, “Hoffa broke every promise he made, it’s time we elect a real Teamster with the strength and courage to turn this union around.”

Chicago, IL – Robert Walston and his gang stole the election in Teamsters Local 743 in October 2004. The members of Local 743 knew this at the time. Now, the U.S. Department of Labor is backing up the charges brought by the reform candidates of the 743 New Leadership Slate.