Chicago, IL – In an historic showing of force and bravery, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) carried out a one-day strike on April 1. Over 25,000 people, some from as far away as Canada and Florida, participated by walking picket lines, speaking out on campuses and marching in the streets to demand justice for the workers and students of the Chicago school system.

Facing unjust budget cuts that are designed to harm teachers and students for the benefit of the 1%, the CTU held strong in the face of adversity and held a series of actions across the city of Chicago to fight back. Teachers and their supporters began with picket lines at 6:30 a.m. at schools across Chicago. Every school in the city was enveloped by chants of “Hey hey, ho ho, Rahm Emanuel's got to go.”

Teachers across the city then used a variety of tactics to connect the union's demands with the city's misallocation of funds and priorities. Hundreds of strikers from Saucedo Scholastic Academy met with teachers and students from nearby schools to march on the Cook County Jail to demand “education not incarceration” and an end to the school-to-prison pipeline. Several universities in Chicago hosted rallies throughout the day to protest massive budget cuts and layoffs they have been subjected to, including 500 at the University of Illinois Chicago.

Speaking at Northeastern Illinois State University, the executive director of AFSCME Council 31, Roberta Lynch, declared: “We're standing in solidarity with CTU. Governor Rauner is holding the state hostage in an attempt to destroy all unions in this state. He's cutting state universities by 30%. Public education is what gives ordinary people an opportunity to rise higher. Rauner wants to destroy labor unions and public education, the institutions that lift people up.”

Organizations from the community, teachers, students, parents and many other supporters came out at 4:00 p.m. for the final event of the day to protest the outrageous financial cuts planned for the Chicago school system. Speakers consistently connected the CTU strike to attacks on other unions, the university system, and the black community. 25,000 people then began a march through downtown Chicago. The massive crowd chanted “Get up, get down, Chicago is a union town”, “Starving schools is a crime, time for bankers to do their time,” and many others. “Dump Trump” was heard across the march as the protesters passed Trump Tower. Police roughed up and arrested several protesters as the march neared Lake Shore Drive.

The labor movement looks to the CTU as an example of resistance to massive cuts and austerity as they continue to build a broad front opposed to attacks on unions and public education.

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #strike #ChicagoTeachersUnion #LaMarchaPatriotica #TeachersUnions

Fort Lauderdale, FL – 20 antiwar and international solidarity activists gathered in Pembroke Pines, Nov. 25, to hear two leaders of the Colombian human-rights movement speak about their country and U.S. intervention. The event was the final stop on a nationwide speaking tour.

The guest speakers are well known in Colombia. Gustavo Gallardo is the International Relations Coordinator of La Marcha Patriotica and July Henriquez is a human rights lawyer. La Marcha is one of the largest and most active social justice movements in Colombia and it continues to face heavy and deadly repression by the Colombian government. In fact, because of their involvement in the leftist movement, Gallardo and Henriquez were forcibly displaced from their home city of Barranquilla to the capital of Bogota.

The two brave activists spoke about the thousands of political dissidents displaced, disappeared and assassinated by American-trained Colombian forces. They also explained the history of Western imperialism in South America and how the U.S. continues attempting to impose its political and economic will on the Colombian people. They also talked about how most of the military officers who direct the Colombian paramilitaries are trained at the School of the Americas in Fort Benning Georgia. Thousands die at the hands of the Colombian government death squads every year, including as many as 4000 trade unionists over 25 years.

The School of the Americas trains thousands of South American military officers in deadly tactics, including torture and assassination, in order to do the U.S. government’s bidding throughout Latin America. The Colombian leaders both spoke at the annual protest outside of the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia two days earlier.

In his speech, Gallardo referred to Colombia as “the Israel of Latin America.” Like Israel, Colombia is a strategic base for the U.S. to launch economic and military warfare against the people and governments in the surrounding countries.

Gallardo expressed how many of the destabilization protests and killings that occurred in neighboring Venezuela over the last year were actually conducted by Colombians trained by the U.S. Gallardo compared this to the destabilization efforts in Syria, where so-called rebels were trained and armed by the U.S. in order to take down a government resisting U.S. domination.

After Gallardo spoke about the U.S. military and economic agenda, July Henriquez focused the discussion on “U.S. prison imperialism.” She explained how the U.S. seeks out new markets for its private prison industry. She said Colombia and several other countries in Latin America are being used to expand this industry. Hundreds of private prisons, run by American-based companies, are emerging throughout Latin American and Africa as places to dispose of political dissidents and social justice activists.

Henriquez argued that these private, for-profit prisons are designed by the U.S. and used in the countries it dominates. In Colombia, where death squads and political repression are severe, private prisons are used to dispose of the poor and the displaced in society. In Colombia the prisoners are being used as cheap labor for private businesses as well.

Members of the audience asked what they could do to express solidarity with activists in Colombia fighting for change. Gallardo and Henriquez responded, “Make sure the right information permeates American society; protest your legislators and demand that they stop creating and funding policies that further U.S. imperialist aims in Colombia.”

A great bond of solidarity was felt between the activists from the two countries. Feelings of hope were expressed as young people of the U.S. and Colombia continue to struggle for peace and justice.

People’s Opposition to War, Imperialism and Racism (POWIR) sponsored the talk and the national tour was organized by the Alliance for Global Justice.

#FortLauderdaleFL #Colombia #Americas #SchoolOfTheAmericas #USImperialism #LaMarchaPatriotica