Struggle against Mayor Emanuel continues

Chicago, IL – On Friday, Dec. 18, people in Chicago will again walk out of school and off their jobs to call for Mayor Rahm Emanuel and State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez to resign. The protesters will assemble outside Chicago City Hall, around Daley Plaza.

Chicago, IL – In the face of attacks on teachers, their schools and students, union members in Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) Local 1 are ready to fight.

Chicago, IL – Victims of Chicago Police Department (CPD) crimes gathered with 500 supporters on Dec. 10 to file complaints with the U.S. Attorney’s office. The official complaints represented torture victims, such as Mark Clements; Howard Morgan, a former police officer who survived being shot 28 times by Chicago cops; Emmet Farmer, on behalf of his son Flint, whose murder was captured on dash cam video; and Dorothy Holmes, mother of Ronald “Ronnieman” Johnson. The video of Ronnieman’s murder one year ago has just been released by the city, and has sparked another massive wave of protests.

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Dec. 11 statement from the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN).

Chicago, IL – #ResignRahm was trending today, Nov. 9, on Twitter, as high school students and office employees walked off their jobs to march outside city hall. What started as a joke Facebook event resulted in thousands of people in a protest demanding that Mayor Rahm Emanuel resign.

Chicago, IL – Palestinian icon Rasmea Odeh; Black youth leaders Veronica Morris-Moore and LaCreshia Birts; Black Liberation Movement veteran Frank Chapman and Eric Koene, a striking worker from the Kohler plant in Wisconsin, appeared together on the stage of the 24th Annual People’s Thanksgiving.

Chicago, IL – A crowd of 100 people from all walks of life gathered in Chicago for an annual event, the People’s Thanksgiving. A fundraiser for Fight Back!, the event raised almost $1600, half of which was donated to the striking Kohler workers of UAW Local 833.

Chicago, IL – We are circulating the text of Frank Chapman’s Dec. 5 speech at Chicago’s 24th annual People’s Thanksgiving event, hosted by Fight Back! newspaper. 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 by none other than 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. This would amount to community control of the police, an idea first raised by the Black Panther Party over 40 years ago.

Chicago, IL – Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired the Superintendent of Police, Garry McCarthy, Dec. 1. The action came one week after a judge forced the city to release a video of the execution-style murder of a Black youth, Laquan McDonald, by a Chicago cop.

Chicago, IL – 1500 people marched on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile on Friday, Nov. 27, the day after Thanksgiving. “A Unity March and Rally in Memory of Laquan McDonald” was called as part of the Black Friday protests that originated last year as part of the Black Lives Matter movement.