Chicago, IL – Tonight, October 30, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) suspended its ten-day strike in the public schools, pending a back-to-work agreement. The House of Delegates (HOD) voted to accept the tentative agreement with the PSRP’s (Paraprofessional and School Related Personnel) providing lead-ership. These clerks and teacher aides are among the lower paid workers in the schools.

Chicago, IL – About 400 people rallied marched in neighborhood of Humboldt Park, July 21, calling for the resignation of Puerto Rico’s Governor Ricardo Rossello. Jazmine Salas emceed the demonstration, which was called by the Chicago Boricua Resistance. Chanting “Ricky renuncia!” (Ricky resign), the crowd added their voices to the hundreds of thousands who are protesting on the island.

Review of book by Frank Edgar Chapman, Jr.

Chicago, IL – I’ve been waiting for this book. I first read an earlier draft of Frank Chapman’s memoirs in 2014. I thought then and now that this needed to get published, first and foremost, because the revolutionary movement needs it. As a result of the prison abolition movement, there is a broad awareness of the injustice of mass incarceration, but this book sees the revolutionary side of the misery.

Chicago, IL – The corporate media has missed what is most important about Chicago’s April 2 elections. Its focus on the uninspiring mayoral contest between Toni Preckwinkle and Lori Lightfoot helped contribute to the lowest voter turnout ever. Only 29% of registered voters went to the polls.

Chicago, IL – This week, Chicago saw elections for mayor and city council in which almost all the candidates ran on platforms opposing outgoing Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Progressive victories were won in a number of wards across the city, including by Maria Hadden, a young, Black, queer woman who unseated Joe Moore in the far Northside Rogers Park neighborhood. Moore had been a progressive 25 years ago but is now a staunch ally of the mayor and a defender of big money developers. Hadden was recently a board member of Black Youth Project 100, and hers was a major win for progressives in the first round of elections.

Chicago, IL – A crowd of 250 people marched in the bitter cold through Washington Park on Chicago’s South Side today, January 21, to continue the fight for Justice for Laquan McDonald. The march was held in protest of the lenient sentence of only 81 months handed down by Judge Vincent Gaughan on Friday. In October 2014, the racist police officer, Jason Van Dyke, shot Laquan 16 times.

Chicago, IL – 18 candidates for city council, plus one candidate for mayor, took part in a press conference today, January 9, at City Hall in Chicago. They announced their support for an elected Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC). Of the 212 candidates running, 47 support the CPAC legislation.

Chicago, IL – There are 212 candidates for the 50 seats in the February 19, 2019 Chicago city council elections. Of this total, 38 came out to a December 20 forum in support of an elected civilian police accountability council (CPAC). It’s unusual for so many candidates to be together in one room unless they’re seeking the support of a powerful union or political organization. But this wasn’t an endorsement session. The candidates came to join the movement establish community control over the Chicago Police Department.

Chicago, IL – “We see students. They see dollars!” chanted the 30 strikers, parents and students in front of the Paz school in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, December 4. More than 500 teachers and other professionals, members of the Chicago Teachers Union–Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff, are on strike this morning in the UNO/ACERO charter school network. CTU is again leading the way in the first strike in the country against a charter operator.

Chicago, IL – A room of 150 trade unionists and activists from the Black, Arab, Filipino and Latino communities cheered, chanted and sang at the 27th People’s Thanksgiving in Chicago, December 1. Sponsored by Freedom Road Socialist Organization, raising funds for the newspaper Fight Back!, the theme of the event was, “Ending Rahm’s Racist Agenda, Fighting for the People’s Agenda.” Awards were given to groups that represented important movements challenging the mayor and his buddies in the 1%.

Chicago, IL – A piece was published at Jacobin recently by Alex de Jong. He’s a representative of a Trotskyite Fourth International journal in the Netherlands. Normally, I wouldn’t waste time responding to anything written by anyone affiliated with the Fourth International, but Jacobin has a wide readership among young leftists today. Therefore, this is first an objection to Jacobin running such trash.

Chicago, IL – Members of the U.S Palestinian Community Network from Chicago (USPCN) reported, August 24, on their summer delegation to Palestine. Bassem Kawar stated at the beginning of the event that their purpose was “to take our leading members and organizers to get a firsthand understanding of the occupation and the resistance on the ground.” They met with over 20 Palestinian organizations in the different “Fronts of Struggle,” which was the title of their talk.

Struggle continues against police terror in Chicago

![Armanda Shackleford speaking](https://i.snap.as/MfeGwaPk.jpg “Armanda Shackleford speaking Armanda Shackleford speaking at hearing on the civilian component of the police accountability system in Chicago. She is the mother of Gerald Reed, tortured into confessing 27 years ago by members of the gang of cops under Detective Jon Burge.

(Photo by Mike Siviwe Elliott)”)

Chicago, IL – In the past two years in Chicago, over 50 cases of wrongful convictions have been thrown out of court, and most of the Black and Latino men involved have walked out of prison, or had their charges dismissed. These cases have been overturned because of the exposure of crimes by officers of the Chicago Police Department, including many cases of people’s confessions that were exacted through torture. According to attorneys involved in these cases, there are hundreds more that will be making their way through the courts in the coming years.

Chicago, IL – Maya Arcilla was angry as she opened the protest rally at the Federal Plaza in Chicago. A human rights activist from the Philippines, Jerome Succor Aba, had been held by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, and then subject to psychological torture during a 28-hour period inside the San Francisco airport.

Chicago, IL – “This is unacceptable – Jerusalem is our capital!” was the chant led by Muhammad Sankari of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), as over 500 people protested in the Federal Plaza in Chicago’s Loop, Dec. 7. An hour later, by the time the crowd arrived at the Israeli Consulate, the march had swelled to 2000 people – in a sea of Palestinian flags and keffiyehs, the traditional Palestinian scarves.

Chicago, IL – Today, Sept. 24, is the seventh anniversary of the 2010 FBI raids targeting 7 homes of anti-war, international solidarity and Palestinian-American activists. Subsequent grand jury subpoenas were served to nine additional activists in December of that same year.

Chicago, IL – Carlos Ramirez-Rosa is a member of the Chicago City Council who is well known to every progressive activist in Chicago. Brought to office in a 2015 wave of insurgent candidates opposing Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s pro-business agenda, the 28-year-old Rosa has become a fixture at labor rallies, protests against Trump’s attack on the undocumented Dreamers, as well as community meetings fighting gentrification.

Chicago, IL – El 18 de mayo en una manifestación en la ciudad de Chicago, Rasmea Odeh le dio la bienvenida al ex-prisionero político Oscar López Rivera. Oscar López duró 35 años en una prisión de los EE.UU. Fue encarcelado injustamente por haber luchador por la independencia de su patria Puerto Rico. Al igual que él, Rasmea Odeh también enfrenta represión y deportación por parte del gobierno de los EE.UU. debido a su activismo por la liberación de Palestina.

Chicago, IL – Rasmea Odeh embraces former political prisoner, Oscar López Rivera, at a rally in Chicago, on May 18. López Rivera spent 35 years in a U.S. prison. He was unjustly imprisoned for fighting for the independence of Puerto Rico, his homeland. Like him, Rasmea Odeh is up against repression – deportation by the U.S. government for her activism for a free Palestine.

Chicago, IL – La Alianza de Chicago contra la Represión Racista y Política llevó a las familias de 17 hombres condenados injustamente a reunirse con el Fiscal del Condado de Cook, Kim Foxx, en febrero. En la reunión, Foxx se comprometió a investigar cada uno de los casos y donde hay pruebas de inocencia, dijo que los liberaría.