Chicago, IL – Thunderous applause greeted officers and strikers from the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73 at an event sponsored by Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO). The 28th People’s Thanksgiving, a fundraiser for Fight Back! brought over 100 people together to recognize the historic Chicago Public School strike by the two unions.

Photo essay from the refounding conference of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Chicago, November 22-24, 2019. Photos by Brad Sigal.

Chicago, IL – More than a 1200 joined together for an historic gathering on the weekend of November 22 – 24, at the hall of the Chicago Teachers Union, to refound the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. The newly refounded Alliance will concentrate its efforts on building the fight against police crimes and for community control of the police, and it will campaign for the release of political prisoners and the wrongfully convicted.

Chicago, IL – More than a 1200 joined together November 22, at the hall of the Chicago Teachers Union, to refound the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. The newly refounded Alliance will center its efforts on building the fight against police crimes and for community control of the police, and it will campaign for the release of political prisoners and the wrongfully convicted.

Interview with Frank Chapman

Fight Back! interviews Frank Chapman on the November 22-24 Chicago conference to refound the National Alliance against Racist and Political Repression.

Entrevista con Frank Chapman sobre la Conferencia Nacional para la Refundación de la NAARPR este 22 al 24 de noviembre, 2019. Lucha y Resiste!: ¿Pudiera compartir unas palabras sobre cómo se lucirá la conferencia para relanzar la Alianza Nacional en Contra de la Represión Política y Racista?

Chicago, IL – Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) members voted November 15 to accept the tentative agreement they won in the wake of their historic eleven-day strike.

Chicago, IL – Events have not gone well for the coalition of generals and reactionaries that overthrew Evo Morales on November 10. Far from consolidating their control over the government and the country, the right-wing forces now stand on the back foot, facing the full force of an organized and enraged mass movement ready to defend their constitution and their elected government.

Sarah Chambers is a rank-and-file member of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and a member of their bargaining committee.

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.

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS), U.S.

Chicago, IL – Members of the Chicago Teachers Union members and SEIU Local 73 are in the seventh day of their joint striking. As of Friday, October 25, this strike under Mayor Lori Lightfoot is now equal in length to the strike under Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2012.

Chicago, IL – Last year, Brazil emerged from its greatest political crisis since the dictatorship to find that Jair Bolsonaro, an extreme right winger, was now president. His victory marked the high point of the so-called ‘roll-back’ of the Pink Tide, a political phenomenon that saw left-wing governments elected across Latin America, on platforms of sovereignty and freedom from U.S. interference. Bolsonaro’s election was a moment openly celebrated in the halls of the White House, as many hoped that the few isolated governments left standing from the Pink Tide movement would soon be snuffed out.

Chicago, IL – The joint strike by the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and SEIU Local 73 continued October 18 and through the weekend as the office of Mayor Lori Lightfoot continued to refuse to meet the strikers' demands.

Chicago, IL – Picket lines went up at hundreds of schools across Chicago at 6:30 a.m., October 17. The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) walked out for their third strike since 2012. For the more than 7000 members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73, this is an historic first strike, and the first against the new mayor, Lori Lightfoot.

Chicago, IL – Unions are on the march in defense of their members across the country, with the autoworker strike against GM and strike authorization votes by teachers and other city employees in Chicago. Unions are also defending their members when they leave work and find their lives in danger from the very people paid to protect them: the police.

Chicago, IL – A standing room only crowd filled the Holy Covenant United Methodist Church on September 29 to commemorate Reverend Bruce Johnson and Eugenia Johnson. The reverend and his wife Eugenia were remembered for supporting the Young Lords and their role in the struggle against poverty, war and oppression. They were savagely murdered in their own home 50 years ago, stabbed to death, during a U.S. government campaign of repression known as COINTELPRO or the Counterintelligence Program.

Chicago, IL – The Chicago Teachers Union released totals of the September 24-26 strike authorization vote, on September 26. The CTU Rules and Election Committee reported that as of 9:30 p.m., the union passed the 75% threshold of members voting “yes.” 94% of teachers, clinicians, PSRPs, nurses and librarians voted to authorize a strike to win the schools Chicago’s students deserve.

Nine years ago, on September 24, 2010, the FBI raided and subpoenaed Midwest anti-war and international solidarity activists in a bogus attempt to discover “material support of terrorism.” The FBI’s campaign of repression ordered more than 70 FBI agents to raid seven homes and two offices of leading activists in Minneapolis and Chicago. The FBI subpoenaed those raided, and that same morning subpoenaed others in those cities as well as Grand Rapids, Michigan.