Chicago, IL – On Thursday morning, July 30, the Chicago Board of Education passed an amended budget to avoid over 1000 layoffs of workers in Chicago Public Schools (CPS). The revised budget counts on the state of Illinois to allocate an additional $150 million to CPS for the 2026-2027 school year. The amount is a fraction of the funding Illinois committed to provide to school districts under the Evidence-Based Funding (EBF) for Student Success Act, passed back in 2017. Unions, community organizations and other stakeholders are pressuring the general assembly and Governor J.B. Pritzker to follow through on these commitments.

Hundreds of students, teachers and other school workers gathered before the board meeting in downtown Chicago. CPS students in youth organizations demanded more mental health programming and staff. Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) members wore red and carried signs reading “Budget incomplete” and “Protect our students.” Lunchroom workers, organized with Unite Here Local 1, demanded a contract from CPS after a year of stalled negotiations.

Inside the board meeting, CPS Chief Executive Officer Macquline King urged the board to accept CPS’s budget proposal unamended. The proposal featured layoffs of over 700 teachers, 800 school support personnel, and 100 central office and citywide staff. She emphasized the need to close a $732 million budget deficit amidst declining student enrollment.

During public comment, however, board members heard from many CTU members about the negative impacts that the proposed layoffs would have on the students and the school communities in the coming school year. Libby Lundeen, a second-grade teacher in the Austin neighborhood, said the layoffs will leave her school with only one fourth-grade teacher for a classroom of 45 students, a size that is “untenable.”

“These layoffs may be numbers to you, but to the schools they serve, they are instrumental in keeping our schools running and our students learning,” Lundeen said. “Join us to demand that the state pay its share and save our educators. Do not accept this current budget without exhausting all options.”

Many speakers united around the call to start the school year with the staff in place, then fight for the state funding required to maintain them through the end of the school year.

In response to such community pressure, school board member Michilla Blaise introduced the amendment to increase anticipated state revenue by $150 million and to use this money to “avoid” making the layoffs permanent. She emphasized that “over 75% of the staff laid off are people of color” and that the state is “the only path to long-term structural solutions.”

In 2017, the Evidence-Based Funding (EBF) for Student Success Act committed the Illinois legislature to fund schools at 90% of adequacy by 2027. With the deadline upon us, Chicago Public Schools is funded at only 73% of what it needs to provide students with an adequate education. An estimated $985 million would be required to meet the state’s initial commitment. Even with the $150 million in additional revenue that the amendment assumes from the state, the district would continue to be funded at less than 77% of adequacy.

Board member Jitu Brown gave further context to the relative shortcomings and inequities of state funding. “For three decades, Illinois was 49th in public education due to an overreliance on property taxes, despite the fact of having an international city within its midst. This was foundational to creating an apartheid school system. The schools in Streeterville and Lincoln Park, by design, were far more resourced than schools in Austin and Altgeld Gardens. The state has caused harm, and they owe us.”

Brown continued to emphasize the need for long-term structural solutions to the deficit. “If you look at other large urban districts, Los Angeles funds between 58% and 70% of their schools from the state of California; New York, 40% to 48%; Chicago, 29%.”

The amendment to assume increased state funding passed by a vote of 11-7 with one abstention. CTU representatives praised the decision. In an interview with Fox 32 Chicago, CTU Vice President Jackson Potter emphasized the evidence of political will in Springfield, with Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch pledging to push for more funding in the November veto session.

In contrast to King’s focus on the negative outcomes of the 2017 budget process, Potter pointed out the positive outcomes from the same time period. “When we had a similar crisis the last time the Board of Education included state money that hadn’t yet manifested in the budget in 2017, we won the biggest increase in school funding in the state’s history. Ten years later, now we have to win them fully funding the formula that is part of the state statute that is legally required.”

In the meantime, Jackson does expect a “restoration” of critical positions as a result of the budget amendment. “So those class sizes that were 45 can come down to under 30 where they are more manageable and students can get a much more beneficial, holistic experience that they deserve.”

Despite optimism and will to fight for additional funding from labor leaders, CEO King responded to the budget vote with an email to parents and school workers threatening furloughs and interruptions to the school year after the vote.

“CPS needs to stop placing the burden of broken promises and bad financial decisions on the backs of students and teachers,” said CTU member Jake Hanawalt, who received a layoff letter from Englewood STEM High School. “Instead, they need to join us in Springfield this year and demand that the state fully fund our schools.”

#ChicagoIL #IL #Labor #PeoplesStruggles #CTU #Teachers

Chicago, IL – Over 8000 people gathered in Union Park on May 1 to celebrate International Workers’ Day and march demanding protection for workers and immigrant rights.

Since May Day last year, Trump sent ICE and Customs and Border Patrol to Chicago for months of terror, with over 3000 members of immigrant communities arrested and taken away. The large contingents marching from immigrant communities in Union Park was a statement of courage.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said during his speech, “We are not going to stop fighting for every single worker and every single working family in this city and in this country and in this world,” and demanded that “we get our fair share of the equitable distribution of the wealth. Are you with me workers?”

Some of the principal organizers of this May Day protest included the Chicago Teacher Union (CTU), Service Employees International Union Health Care Illinois/Indiana, the Coalition Against the Trump Agenda (CATA), and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR).

CTU President Stacy Davis Gates said, “Workers united with communities, across cultures, across industries, win the fight every time. Do not give up your power to assemble and do not give up your power to organize. Workers over billionaires!”

This year CTU organized to make May Day a day of civic action in Chicago. Together with families, they brought out over 800 high school students to participate in the protest. Hundreds of university students and graduate employees were also in attendance.

Nadia Alyafai spoke at the rally for the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) and CATA. She said, “Our city is home to one of the largest Palestinian communities in the United States, alongside a broader Arab immigrant population that has long been at the frontlines of the immigrant rights and other movements in this city. We were there alongside many of you when we put almost a million people in the streets to defeat the Sensenbrenner bill in 2006, and now 20 years later we still are fighting strong for justice for our communities.”

CATA marched with a banner demanding “Legalization for all. Defend voting rights. Stop all U.S. wars!” They marched together with the immigrant rights contingent organized by ICIRR.

Chicago has played a crucial role in the labor and immigrant rights movements. May Day was born in Chicago, the center of the nationwide1886 strike for the eight-hour workday. The resulting repression of the labor movement led to workers around the world declaring May 1 to be International Workers’ Day. On March 10, 2006, Chicago held the first mega march of the immigrant rights movement. That movement then called for nationwide marches on May 1. Over 2 million immigrants and their supporters took to the streets that day, which also brought May Day back to the labor movement in the U.S.

#ChicagoIL #IL #Labor #ImmigrantRights #MayDay #FRSO #CATA #Trump #CTU

Chicago, IL – El martes, 24 de febrero, más de 30 estudiantes y miembros de la comunidad se reunieron en el Centro Cultural Negro de la Universidad de Illinois Chicago (UIC) por un estreno de Judas y la Messiah Negra, seguido por una discusión guiada por camaradas del distrito de Chicago de la Organización Socialista Camino de la Libertad (OSCL).

Dirigido y escrito por Shaka King, Judas y el Mesías Negro (2021) es un cuento cinemático de la historia del Capítulo de Illinois del Partido Pantera Negra, el origen de base de la histórica Coalición Arcoíris de Chicago, y los días finales del presidente Fred Hampton del Capítulo de Illinois del Partido Pantera Negra. Siguiendo la historia del difunto presidente y de William O’Neal, informante del FBI e infiltrador del partido, la película muestra la verdadera conspiración para asesinar al presidente Fred llevado a cabo por el FBI, la Fiscalía del Condado de Cook y el Departamento de Policía de Chicago.

Después de la película, Kobi Guillory, miembro de la OSCL en Chicago y del Sindicato de Maestros de Chicago, hizo preguntas sobre los pensamientos de la audiencia acerca de la historia de la lucha revolucionaria, solidaridad de clase y la represión política. Los participantes entre la audiencia contaron sus propias experiencias de brutalidad policial, seres queridos asesinados o secuestrados por los matones del estado, otros invocaron los orígenes de la policía de los EE.UU. como resultado de las patrullas cazadoras de esclavos.

Este Mes de la Historia Negra, es aún más importante que nunca recordar el legado revolucionario del Partido Pantera Negra y la Coalición Arcoíris: un legado de solidaridad de la clase trabajadora, de lucha contra la represión política anti-negra y anti-obrera. Fred Hampton, como presidente del Capítulo de Illinois del Partido Pantera Negra y vicepresidente del Partido Pantera Negra Nacional, vio con toda claridad la distracción que era la división racial de Chicago.

Tras la ola de violencia sancionada por el estado contra las nacionalidades oprimidas y quienes se solidarizan con ellas sigue en todas partes de la nación, continuamos luchando. Y en palabras del Camarada Fred Hampton, cuando te atreves a luchar, ¡te atreves a ganar!

#ChicagoIL #IL #StudentMovement #MovimientoEstudiantil #SDS #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #BlackHistoryMonth #NacionalidadesOprimidas #Afroamericano #elMesdeHistoriaNegra #OSCL #CTU

Chicago, IL – On Tuesday, February 24, over 30 students and community members gathered in University of Illinois Chicago’s (UIC) Black Cultural Center for a screening of Judas and the Black Messiah, followed by a guided discussion led by comrades in the Chicago district of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO).

Directed and written by Shaka King, Judas and the Black Messiah (2021) is a cinematic telling of the story of the Black Panther Party Illinois Chapter, the grassroots genesis of Chicago’s historic Rainbow Coalition, and the final days of Chairman Fred Hampton of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party. Following the story of both the late chairman and William O’Neal, FBI informant and party infiltrator, the film depicts the real-life conspiracy to murder Chairman Fred carried out by the FBI, the Cook County State Attorney’s Office, and the Chicago Police Department.

After the movie, Kobi Guillory, a member of FRSO Chicago and the Chicago Teacher’s Union, inquired about the audience’s takeaways from this story of revolutionary struggle, class solidarity and political repression. Audience members recounted similarities to their own experiences of police brutality, loved ones murdered or abducted by state thugs, others invoked the very origins of U.S. law enforcement as rooted in the slave patrols.

This Black History Month, it is more important than ever to remember the revolutionary legacy of the Black Panther Party and the Rainbow Coalition: a legacy of working class solidarity, standing against anti-Black and anti-worker political repression. Fred Hampton, as chairman of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party and deputy chair of the National Black Panther Party, could see Chicago’s race divide for the smoke screen that it was.

In the wake of a torrent of state-sanctioned violence against the oppressed nationalities and those who stand with them continues across the nation, we continue to struggle. And in the words of Comrade Fred Hampton, when you dare to struggle, you dare to win!

#ChicagoIL #IL #StudentMovement #SDS #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #BlackHistoryMonth #FRSO #CTU

Chicago, IL – Leaders and rank-and-file members of the Chicago Teachers Union were joined by community supporters on Tuesday January 27, as they celebrated recent and historical victories won by CTU and the movement to defend public education. They also recognized the need to build ongoing struggles against ICE, racist policing and for fully funded public services.

“Unions are under attack because we refuse to be silent,” said, elementary school teacher Ashley Harris, explaining why CTU is currently being investigated by the Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

“Our union understands that protecting public education is protecting racial justice,” Harris added.

“Having a teacher’s union that defends students and communities is not optional. It's a necessity,” said Rocio Garcia with the Grassroots Collaborative.

Two students addressed the rally by describing how the CTU Environmental Justice Freedom School, a yearly summer program for high school students, empowered them to organize for a just future. Together with other students and community members, they have taken the demand for fully-funded public schools to the Chicago Board of Education and the state capitol in Springfield.

“We want change and we will fight for it,” said one of the students.

The students were introduced by Mayor Brandon Johnson, who explained the policies of his administration by saying “we are centering the needs of young people and working people.”

Johnson touted record low crime rates and investments in schools, parks, and public libraries as evidence of the effectiveness of investing in communities. He added “when we talk about investing in communities, that money has to come from the ultra-rich.”

Stacy Davis Gates ended the night by calling to the history of the battle for public education. She recounted how Jitu Brown, who was in attendance, went from sleeping outside the Board of Education in protest to being an elected board member. She also linked the ongoing fight to save public education with the coalition of freed slaves and white abolitionists who built the first public education system in the South during Reconstruction.

“Our work is rooted in the spirit of Fred Hampton,” Gates declared. She spoke about the work CTU has done in building solidarity in Chicago and affirmed that this work would grow throughout Illinois during her tenure as president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers.

“We are going school to school, neighborhood to neighborhood, city to city and teaching people that the answer to their problems comes not from Democrats or Republicans, but from the solidarity of workers,” Gates proclaimed.

#ChicagoIL #IL #Labor #CTU #Teachers

Chicago, IL – On January 23, Chicagoans across the city targeted various Target locations to protest the corporation’s support for ICE terror.

The Coalition Against the Trump Agenda (CATA) led and mobilized people to the Target in Hyde Park. This included members from the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR), Mexican Students de Aztlan (MeSA), U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), Anti-War Committee Chicago (AWC) and more.

Outside the Target store in Hyde Park, Kobi Guillory, a member of CTU stated, “We are here in solidarity with our siblings in Minnesota who are right now 100K strong outside of the Target Center saying that Target should stop helping ICE. Target should stop its complicity with the violence that ICE is inflicting on Black and brown communities. Just the other day, Target employees in Minnesota were abducted by ICE in a Target. Did Target take a stand to defend their employees? Did they take a stand to defend the communities who make Target’s profits?”

Guillory continued, “We are demanding that Target honor the Fourth Amendment that you cannot be subject to unlawful search and seizure inside your workplace. This is illegal, what ICE is doing. We the people are going to use our people and we are going to force these corporations and elected officials to do the right thing.”

Inside the Target store, protesters delivered a list of demands to the store manager, including, “Call for an end to the ICE surge in Minnesota, and for ICE to leave the state; we want Target to affirm the Fourth Amendment; we want Target to post signage prohibiting ICE from entering their buildings, and we want Target to publicly call on congress to stop funding ICE.”

#ChicagoIL #IL #ImmigrantRights #ICE #CATA #CTU #CAARPR #MESA #USPCN #AWCChicago

Chicago, IL – on Friday morning, January 23, nearly 100 people packed into Casa Michoacan for a press conference and rally. In solidarity with the broad coalition shutting down the Twin Cities that same day, speakers demanded the conviction of Jonathan Ross for murdering Renee Good, ICE out of Minnesota, and no more federal funding for ICE.

Speakers connected the crimes of ICE in Minnesota with the terror they have inflicted across the country, specifically mentioning the murders of Keith Porter Jr in Los Angeles and Silverio Villegas Gonzalez in Franklin Park, IL.

“It’s about time that we recognize in our neighbors faces that we are part of one body of one nation. And if one of us is missing, then all of us are missing,” declared Marién Casillas-Pabellón, executive director of the West Suburban Action Project (PASO).

“Minnesota, we stand with you. We have cried with you, and we will not let the tears be the end of it. Because we have power.” Casillas-Pabellón added.

Like the actions in Minnesota, the press conference represented a wide coalition of organizations that fight for working and oppressed people. Representatives shared actions they would be taking to bring the demands to local elected officials and branches of corporations.

“Outrage alone does not change conditions. Organizing does,” said Genie Kastrup, president of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1.

Kobi Guillory, a middle school science teacher and executive board member of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), spoke about actions CTU, SEIU, and other organizations would be taking against Target that afternoon.

“Our siblings in the Minneapolis Federation of Educators are protesting Target for their complicity with ICE abductions in their stores. We will be out at ten different Targets around the city today,” Guillory explained. Target in particular is under fire after two Target employees were kidnapped from a Target store in Minnesota while the corporation refused to protect them.

“There’s power in this room and there’s power in the streets. We won’t stand idly by as they separate families,” affirmed Veronica Castro, Deputy Director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR). Castro and other speakers encouraged listeners to take action by joining organizations in preparation for further ICE escalation.

“If CBP tries to come in thousands then our response has to be just as organized, just as widespread, and just as ready,” said Any Huamani, immigration defense coordinator with Brighton Park Neighborhood Council.

Organizers affirmed their commitment to fight to abolish ICE, defeat the Trump agenda, and create a better world.

“We won’t let Trump take us back to 1850, nor will we go back to 2015. We will keep fighting until our children have the safe, just, fully funded communities they deserve,” Guillory proclaimed.

#ChicagoIL #IL #ImmigrantRights #Labor #CTU #SEIU #ICIRR #PASO #ReneeGood #AlexPretti

Chicago, IL – On December 20, over 175 people gathered in the Chicago Teachers Union Hall to stand in solidarity with Gustavo Petro and the people of Colombia as their country faces an intensification of U.S. aggression.

Petro has had his visa revoked by the Trump administration, and the country is seeing attacks in the form of sanctions, tariffs and military threats. These attacks have been because of his un-fearful stance against U.S. imperialism, from calling out the U.S./Israel’s genocide in Gaza to defending the sovereignty of Latin American nations. Petro is a popular and progressive internationalist.

In attendance were members of the Colombian consulate, progressive Chicago politicians, and leaders in the people's struggle, speaking on what Colombia needs from the people of Chicago.

Our solidarity must be concrete as well

“We must stand in solidarity with Gustavo Petro and the beautiful people of Colombia, as they have stood with Palestinians in Gaza and beyond, with forces fighting for climate and environmental justice, as they have stood with their neighbors in Venezuela who are in the crosshairs of the U.S. military,” said Hatem Abudayyeh from the United States Palestinian Community Network (USPCN).

Abudayyeh continued, “Together we will reject sanctions, threats, intervention and war against the people of Colombia.”

Daniel Garcia-Peña, the Colombian ambassador to the United States, spoke on the achievements that Colombia has made under the leadership of Petro. He also spoke of the need for solidarity with the nation during rising tensions. Peña stated, “We are very concerned about what is happening in the Caribbean. It’s a clear sign of how the U.S. is threatening not only Venezuela but all of Latin America, which continue to be seen as a backyard that can be trampled on.”

Garcia-Peña noted “But me and President Petro have been clear, times are different. Colombians and Latin Americans are not going to stand for interventionism as they may have happened in the past. We need each other's solidarity. Palestinians can count on Colombians, but we also need the world to stand with Colombians and our Latin American neighbors in these trying times.”

Speakers from the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR), the Anti-War Committee (AWC) and the Coalition Against the Trump Agenda (CATA) also spoke, representing the progressive movements which they work in.

Alderperson Byron Sicho-Lopez echoed the message of late Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton on the need for solidarity. Lopez introduced the resolution commemorating the historic 2024 visit of Petro to Chicago – a city that, much like Colombia, is a beacon of hope in the resistance against the reactionary Trump administration.

#ChicagoIL #IL #International #Colombia #AntiWarMovement #CAARPR #AWCChicago #CATA #CTU #Labor #Teachers