Chicago, IL – In March, management at the University of Illinois Medical Center delivered 2 attacks on hospital workers. The first was a drastic shift change for all 140 housekeepers. A few days later, they announced the elimination of 250 jobs due to an unexpected revenue shortfall. The attacks sparked a week of protests by Local 73 of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The mobilizations have already scored one victory for employees. Plus, notice has been served on management:
Chicago Il – “I was given a five day suspension for enforcing the union contract,” said Randy Evans, a union steward for Local 73 at the University of Illinois Hospital (UIH). But when management handed out that discipline, they shot themselves in the foot. The next day, 80 workers from UIC picketed the hospital, beating back the attack on one of the most active stewards. When that picket line was over, the manager that sent Evans home, submitted her resignation. “This challenge forced her to decide she couldn't handle such repercussions. Action speaks louder than words; that works both ways,” said Dolores Owens, another union steward.
Chicago IL – Upwards of 200,000 people marched through downtown Chicago, March 10, chanting, “Si, se puede!,” meaning, “Yes we can!” defeat the Sensenbrenner bill.
Chicago, IL – The weekend before Thanksgiving, November 21 and 22, people from around the country will gather in Fort Benning, Georgia, to demand that the School of the Americas be closed. Student activists from Chicago area campuses have joined the mobilization.
Chicago, IL – “It's a crime that the U.S. government has jailed a man who has dedicated his entire life to fighting for the liberation of the Colombian people,” said Tom Burke of the newly formed National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera. Palmera, a leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), is being held in a prison near Washington D.C. The FARC is a rebel army that has fought for 40-plus years to rid Colombia of exploitation, oppression and foreign domination. The FARC now controls more than 40% of the countryside.
Chicago, IL – There has been a high tide of conflict at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). In January, two Saturdays were spent in hearings on campus before Black and Latino state legislators. Called by the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, the hearings resulted in a 67-page report, released finally in late August. It details the many demands by the forces that are fighting the administration: union workers, oppressed nationality students, faculty and staff, and the residents of the surrounding communities, mostly Mexicano and African American.
_Coca-Cola’s Denials of Human and Labor Rights Violations Exposed _
Chicago, Il – In a spectacular development, Colombian trade unionist Luis Adolfo Cardona can breathe easy again after winning political asylum in the U.S. Cardona escaped kidnapping and execution by Coca-Cola’s death squads in 1996. On Dec. 5, 1996, the day before union negotiations were to begin, a Coca-Cola death squad came to the bottling plant where Cardona worked and shot dead the lead union negotiator Isidro Gil. The same paramilitary gang kidnapped Luis Adolfo Cardona that afternoon, but he escaped using his skills as a semi-professional soccer player to tear away and dodge their attempts to shoot him down. Later that night, the paramilitaries, who work in collusion with the Colombian military, looted and burned down the union hall. A week later the paramilitaries appeared inside the Coca-Cola bottling plant while managers distributed resignation letters for all the union members to sign.
Fight Back! received the following report from the Colombia Action Network (Chicago). We urge our readers to support the international campaign to boycott Coca-Cola, and to back the effort to end U.S. support to Colombia's death squad government. An international day of protest against killer Coke will take place April 15.
Chicago, IL - More than 3,500 Palestinians and their supporters braved the bitter cold to protest the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak here Nov. 13. Barak, speaking at the national convention of the United Jewish Communities, tried to garner support for his country's military campaign against Palestinian civilians in the illegally occupied territories of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Jerusalem.
Chicago, IL - Palestinian activists and their supporters held a silent demonstration on June 13 to protest Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian land. David Ivry, Israeli ambassador to the United States, was the keynote speaker at a black-tie dinner and fundraiser for Israel bonds at the Hilton Hotel and Towers downtown. The purchase of these bonds help finance illegal settlement projects in Palestine, where Jewish-only housing is built on stolen Palestinian land.
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Chicago, IL - The streets of downtown Chicago were filled with chants of “Free, free Palestine! Democratic Palestine!” on Sunday, Sept. 29. More than 1200 activists took over city streets and rallied at the Federal Plaza to demand the right of return to Palestine for all Palestinian refugees.
Chicago, IL – More than one hundred people marched here, May 3, to protest the killing of Colombian trade unionists by Coca-Cola's death squads. Marching through the mostly Mexican neighborhood of Pilsen, many people on the streets chanted with the protesters or stood and applauded in solidarity with Colombian trade unionists.
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.
