Next weekend, watch some great movies and join Four Star in supporting the Chicago Anarchist Film Festival. It’ll be held May 13-15 at Wicker Park Art Center, 2215 W. North Ave. Check out the film schedule and CAFF poster.
Four Star Recommends These Chicago Events
Join us at “Punk Rock Karaoke”
Next weekend, we’ll be hanging out at Punk Rock Karaoke, a benefit for the Chicago Anarchist Film Festival.
Details: Saturday May 14, 9pm-1am, The Spaceship (1804 S. Racine). $5 suggested donation. Flyer: Punk Rock Karaoke
Four Star endorses Chicago May Day 2011 March
~~~Español Abajo~~~
125 years after Haymarket – a global symbol of the struggles of the workers of the world, and 5 years after the historic boycott for immigrants rights, we continue in the struggle for freedom, equality, and a world without borders.
Solidarity forever! We’ll see you in the streets! Read more.
Cuatro Estrellas endosa la Marcha 1ero de Mayo Chicago
125 años después de Haymarket – un símbolo mundial de las luchas de los trabajadores del mundo y 5 años después del histórico boicot para los derechos migratorios, seguimos en la lucha por la libertad, igualdad y para un mundo sin fronteras.
¡Solidaridad para siempre! ¡Nos vemos en la calle! Lee más.
Whittier Support and Call in
Posted by atrain
The Whittier struggle has been inspirational and powerful. The actions taken by the parents and supporters show that by rejecting the political process and implementing horizontal decision making, using direct action instead of grant writing, letter writing, and voting; that self organization based on militant action can make greater gains then sticking to the formal means of creating social change.
It is day 41 of the occupation. Last week the CEO of Chicago Public Schools verbally agreed to halt the demolition of the fieldhouse and lease it to the parents. He also agreed to further meetings and negotiations regarding the specifics of the library. However, none of this has been put in writing so far, and the parents occupation has continued until they receive some kind of written guarantee of this agreement.
This Wednesday is the chance to reach a resolution. The Chicago Board of Education meets Wednesday morning, October 27, and the parents will be there to testify. They want the verbal agreements to become a resolution, but need your help to put pressure on the board; without this pressure, this item may not even make it on the agenda.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Please: CALL CALL CALL these politicians/officials:
Mayor Daley 312-744-3300
CPS CEO Ron Huberman 773-553-1550
Chicago Board of Education 773-553-1600
Fax: (773) 553-1601
PLEASE TELL THEM TO PUT THE WHITTIER AGREEMENT ON THIS WEDNESDAY’S AGENDA of the Chicago Board of Education Meeting. Ask Ron Huberman to put last week’s agreements in writing!
Stand in Solidarity with Whittier Elementary School Families!
Posted by anarchistcossack
Stand in Solidarity with Whittier Elementary School Families! Prevent CPS from spending $354,000 to demolish a field house. Stock a library for the students instead!
UPDATES:
Please visit the Whittier Parents’ Committee Facebook page for all the latest.Or contact the parents at comunidadparentwhittier@gmail.com, 773-532-4100 and 312-744-6845.
Tuesday, Sept 21
A call for 5pm door knocking went out. Please check in at the field house for more info.
Ald. Danny Solis was supposed to come around to the field house today “between 9 and 10 am” with a letter for the parents regarding their demands. He blew off the meeting. Parents held a press conference anyway. Shortly after, 2 vehicles from Robinette Demolition Company showed. One person carrying a clipboard with an Engineering Survey and another person was taking pictures of the field house. When asked, they said they were onsite to demolish the field house. They refused to provide a card and were only willing to speak with CPS. Community members and the media were immediately on hand. So much for Solis’s Monday night claim that there would be no demolition.
Vicente Sanchez, Solis’s Chief of Staff showed up shortly after that. Mothers yelled to send him away. They wanted Solis. There was a lengthy dialogue with Sanchez.
Next, a plumber with SJP showed up to survey the water and sewers. The person told us that water was to be shut off at 3pm on Wednesday and the sewer hole plugged so demolition could be built and a great new field built. We brought him up to speed: that he was being lied to as much as we were. The plumber told us SJP would not cross a picket line and walked off. Thanks St. John!
Robinette also departed the scene not long after. Minor police presence by late morning with 1-2 cars. For now the field house stands.
Monday, Sept 20, 9pm
The Whittier parents are calling on supporters to be present around 9:00 a.m. Tuesday morning.
Got a message tonight that Alderman Danny Solis was at Whittier and people were needed. When I arrived, I found Solis and a staffer surrounded in a huddle of at least 40 – 50 community members with a heated debate going on in Spanish. Some children ran about playing as the discussion went on. Solis was saying he’d offer not to demolish the fieldhouse and then they could negotiate, but the mothers said there was nothing to negotiate. They want all their demands met. It was hard to follow everything coming in late. One woman asked, “How can Daley ask every child to read when our children do not have books?”
A mother called on a boy to speak to the alderman about his experience at the school. At one point the crowd started chanting, “Mentiroso! Mentiroso!” – “Liar! Liar!” I’m not completely sure about what. The discussion continued for some time after that.
There was no police show of force tonight. Solis departed after an hour or so. Fox Chicago was the only corporate press there.
Community support was great, with more people coming as the heated discussion carried on. Solis is expected back in the morning with a letter. The Whittier parents are calling on supporters to be present around 9:00 a.m. Tuesday morning.
The Whittier parents are also calling for books and shelving for the donations. There are a couple of shelves of material and students have already been checking books out to read.
Sunday, Sept 19, 2010, 12:00 midnight.
Community members continue to support the occupation with canopies and supplies. The mood is positive. Donations of books, blankets, rope, tarps, batteries, money, playing cards, music, cups, utensils, plates are requested.
You can email the parents at comunidadparentwhittier@gmail.com
Solidaridad!
Saturday, Sept 18 – Situation calm as of 10:30 a.m.
Friday, Sept 17 – 4:00 p.m.
Police and CPS officials confront parents and neighbors at the Whittier Field House (image reposted from chicagobreakingnews)
Additional person power is needed now at 1900 W 23rd St. Police have cordoned off the 1900 block of 23rd St. They are denying entry, even to neighbors who do not have ID proving they live there.
Support is needed to rally as close to the field house as possible.
This afternoon, city inspectors posted condemnation notices on the front door of the field house. Occupation continues. It is reported that police gave sit-in activists an ultimatum of arrest at the school dismissal bell. However, the crowd of parents and students at dismissal broke through the police tape and started hopping the fence into the school yard. Police were overwhelmed and dispersed without making arrests.
Friday evening was calm with schoolchildren playing in the yard. Police passed and a lieutenant stopped by to ask questions before shooting some hoops with kids and departing. Overnight a small group was holding down the fort. People continued to visit bringing food and showing solidarity with the occupation.
Thursday night, CPS officials and police threatened a forced eviction of a peaceful occupation to prevent the demolition of community space and promote the development of a school library.
Whittier Elementary School parents, students and teachers are taking action, conducting a sit-in occupation of a school field house in Pilsen. The sit-in is part of an ongoing organizing campaign to get the field house remodeled into a library for the students.
CPS officials and police made brief visits to the site on Thursday evening. Police ridiculously claimed parents were “taking their own children hostage” inside the field house. CPS and police departed the school. The situation was quiet through the night. At about 10:45 am, police surrounded the building and as of 2pm the siege continues..
According to an organizer on the site, some Whittier students have gone through all the school’s existing books with nothing new to read for book reports, projects or free reading. Meanwhile, the nearest public library, Rudy Lozano Branch has been closed for months for repairs. This year the city cut library hours across the city, while CPS has laid off teachers due to supposed budget shortfalls.
CPS has threatened to demolish the Whittier field house at an estimated cost of $354,000. This money could be put into remodeling and stocking the space with books. There is speculation among some of those present at the occupation that this is part of efforts to weaken the public Whittier in favor of expand the private Jesuit school Cristo Rey, or as a retaliation for Whittier community members vocal opposition in 2009 to a plan to insert a private UNO charter school into the public De La Cruz Middle School, in nearby Little Village.
Whittier students lack adequate reading material and have classroom overcrowding. Cristo Rey has its own fleet of vans and a parking lot for students who drive. UNO schools also have highly paid administration and receive public tax subsidy. All this while an abandoned police station stands boarded up alongside the beleaguered public school.
A Chicago Teachers Union official was onsite sporting a Caucus of Rank and File Educators shirt. Members of Four Star, the IWW, and STOP (Southside Together Organizing for Power), and community activists were also present alongside mothers, children, neighbors and teachers. Fences along the school yard were decorated with banners calling on CPS and Ron Huberman to keep the field house and turn it into a library.
Organizers on the site have requested solidarity in the form of people onsite as well as donations of money, food, water, blankets, etc.
Other accounts from the solidarity press:
Solidarity Demonstration with Toronto G20 arrestees
Posted by atrain
A solidarity demonstration for Toronto G20 arrestees is planned for 
Monday July 26th
at 2pm at the Canadian Consulate in Chicago.
Last month thousands took the streets of Toronto in opposition to the G20 and the Canadian state. Although nearly a billion dollars was spent to secure the territory around the summit, attacks on capital and the state were successfully carried out, with banks and shops vandalized and looted and a number of police cars set ablaze.
At the very least this was incredibly embarrassing for the security apparatus.
Although the police attempted to be everywhere at once and although
we experience repression at every instant, especially in such situations, many who were in Toronto were able to find spaces in which to demonstrate their hatred and refusal of the conditions maintained by the G20 and its defenders.
While we celebrate these victories we recognize that such actions are
always followed by continued and intensified repression. Over one thousand people were arrested during the mobilizations. On Monday we will demonstrate our rage against the persecution suffered by our comrades in Toronto, the rest of Ontario, and Quebec. Not only are more than 200 people still facing serious charges based on street arrests, but 17 are charged with conspiracy,allegedly for organizing the demonstrations, and three people are being railroaded for a solidarity attack on a Royal Canadian Bank in Ottawa. Finally, police have released a high-profile list of “22 most wanted rioters” based on terrifying high-tech means of identification.
Absolute solidarity with all those facing repression in Ontario and Quebec!
Join us on
Monday July 26th, 2 p.m
Canadian Consulate at 180 North Stetson Avenue
Chicago, IL.
We will meet on the front steps of the Art Institute at 1:30pm and then
walk over to the consulate.
Categories: Four Star Recommends These Chicago Events
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Come out to the Chicago Anarchist Film Festival
Posted by atrain
With the absence of Finding our Roots or larger anarchist gatherings, the 10th Chicago Anarchist Film Festival offers an opportunity to share ideas, reunite with old friends, meet new people and watch amazing radical films. CAFF points to the importance of long term projects development in movement building and creating momentum.
From CAFF:
Celebrate with us, as the 10th Annual Chicago Anarchist Film Festival commemorates its decennial anniversary of insurrectionary cinema with six nights of films and much more! This year’s festival is twice as big with more to think about! Happy Birthday CAFF!
CAFF invites anarchists, anti-authoritarians, the anarcho-friendly and the anarcho-curious to experience radical cinema from around the world with features, shorts, documentaries, animation, and found footage. Anarchist films cross boundaries, take risks, and subvert passivity. With this year’s theme, Crossing Boundaries, CAFF seeks to project voices that transcend borders and cultures — voices that do not normally get heard. That said, viewers will also find humor, silliness and fun in the offerings. With several More Than Film presentations/workshops, the curatorial team has re-imagined the film fest as more than “seats facing a screen”— we also seek to engage the audience in dialogue with filmmakers and activists. In honor of our decade of existence, we will also be featuring Circle-A-Archives selections from throughout the festival’s history that showcase not only our favorites, but also important moments in politics and culture.
http://home.comcast.net/~more_about_it/
2010 Online Schedule | Download Program (pdf)
Donation of $5–10 each night, sliding scale
(No One Turned Away For Lack of Funds)
Mass Action Sept 24 with Unite Here
From UNITE-HERE:
COME WITNESS THE ACTION AND RALLY IN SUPPORT.
MEET THURSDAY, SEPT 24 AT 4 PM AT WATER TOWER PARK.
Hundreds to be arrested in civil disobedience action
Fighting layoffs and cuts, hospitality workers take a stand, saying big corporations like Chicago-based Hyatt have gone too far.
WHAT: Civil disobedience action with hundreds of hospitality workers and community supporters, in what will be one of the largest actions of its kind in Chicago history.
WHO: Nearly 200 arrestees and over 500 witnesses from Unite Here Local 1, Chicago’s hospitality workers union, and the Chicago community.
WHERE: Meet at Water Tower Park near Chicago and Michigan
WHEN: Thursday, September 24, 2009, 4:00 p.m.
WHY: In the last decade, big corporations like Hilton and Chicago-based Hyatt have taken home record profits, while many people who work for them are living in poverty. Now hospitality companies are using the economy as an excuse to further squeeze workers and communities—eliminating jobs, trying to roll back benefits, and getting a smaller pool of workers to risk injury by working harder and faster.
As companies like Hyatt lay off workers in Chicago, workers across the country are also being squeezed. One clear example: In Boston on August 31, Hyatt Hotels fired 100 long term housekeepers and replaced them with low wage workers from a subcontractor.
In Chicago, workers are fighting back. Workers from the area’s airports, hotels, and casinos are banding together to say big corporations have gone too far. Together, hospitality workers are fighting to rebuild our economy from the ground up, to transform poverty-wage jobs in the service sector—which can’t be shipped overseas—into solid, middle-class jobs with decent wages and affordable healthcare.
The action comes amid union contract negotiations, affecting more than 10,000 hotel, food service, and casino workers in the region and the national campaign to bring back the fired Hyatt 100 in Boston.
Unite Here Local 1, Chicago’s hospitality workers union, represents over 15,000 hotel and food service workers in Chicago and casino workers in Northwest Indiana.
Categories: Four Star Recommends These Chicago Events
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Teamsters Local 743 on Strike
From our TDU local:
Dear Sisters and Brothers from the Friend Family support list,
Workers at SK Hand Tools in Chicago (3535 W. 47th St.) and McCook
(9500 W. 55th St.) voted unanimously to STRIKE as of Tuesday, August
25, 2009! Please forward this e-mail to friends and allies.
Strike support will be needed on a 24/7 basis at both locations –
please contact the Teamsters Local 743 union hall at (773) 254-7460
for more information.
For Immediate Release:
For More Information:
Monday, August 24, 2009
Sarah Hainds, (773) 254-7460
Cell: (773) 860-0306
Teamsters Strike Over Lost Health Insurance
Workers and their families forced to delay important medical treatment
Teamsters Local 743 union members working at SK Hand Tools voted
unanimously to strike today at 3:30pm due to the company’s unilateral
withdrawal of the workers’ health insurance without notice.
The U.S. National Labor Relations Board has issued an unfair labor
practice complaint alleging that the company has bargained illegally
by stopping health care coverage without notice.
“President Obama is leading a national debate about how to protect
hard-working Americans from callous employers like SK Hand Tools,”
said Teamsters Local 743 president Richard Berg. “This French-owned
company has left us no choice but to strike for our basic needs,
health care,” he continued.
SK Hand Tools has been making high quality metal tools in Chicago for
88 years. SK workers have been in contract negotiations for nine
months. The company has been in the Teamsters union since 1968.
“We are willing to make concessions to save the company,” union
steward David Biedrzycki stated, “but we can’t lose our health
insurance. They expect us to pay for our health coverage
out-of-pocket when they’re also asking for a 20% pay cut – we can’t
afford this!” The workers’ wages have been frozen for the last six
years.
The workers currently earn on average $14 per hour. The pay reduction
that management is proposing includes an additional $4 cut in the
first 6 months, which would lower that average to just over minimum
wage. SK Hand Tools employs about 70 workers.
SK Hand Tools sells its merchandise through its website and through
stores like Sears & Roebuck and Amazon.com. SK also makes some of the
Sears Craftsman products.
Teamsters Local 743 represents 11,000 workers throughout the
Chicagoland area working in manufacturing, health care, clerical, food
service, warehouse and maintenance industries.
8/17- Starbucks! Stop the Cuts! Hand Off Our Healthcare! Protest/Rally!”
From the IWW:
Event: 8/17- Starbucks! Stop the Cuts! Hand Off Our Healthcare! Protest/Rally!
“Members and supporters of the IWW Starbucks Workers Union to protest and rally against Starbucks’ HEALTH CARE CUTS and UNION BUSTING on this National DAY OF ACTION”
What: Protest
Host: I ♥ Union Baristas!
Start Time: Monday, August 17 at 12:00pm
End Time: Monday, August 17 at 3:00pm
Where: Starbucks Coffee Co. (California and Logan Blvd)
