The struggle continues

Nelson Mandela after he was sentenced to life imprisonment in June 1964

Bridget Murphy writes, re. community resistance to the military coup at Ames Middle School:

The referendum drive is in full swing.  40 parents will be meeting at Ames (1920 N. Hamlin) this morning (Friday, Dec 6th) at 10:30am to continue collecting signatures door to door. We will be out on the doors every day between now and Dec 15th. Come join a pair of doorknockers! 

Don Washington (Mayoral Tutorial) admits he's guilty of a little hyperbole here but I think he's right-on.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel is already running for re-election and has been doing so for months. That means that we, mere mortal citizens trying to make an honest buck, can expect daily doses of public policy by press release and cynical opportunism of the sort that would shock the conscience if he had one. It's called public policy theater and it's what you do when your actual record reads like the Neo-Liberal Disaster Capitalism Handbook of Darkness.

Chicago teacher/activist Phil Cantor on FB reminds us:

We live among people who are willing to get arrested for a cause they believe in. Nine of them go on trial [at 9 a.m. this morning] for putting their bodies between bulldozers and "La Casita" the small community center building at Whittier Elementary School in Pilsen. 

Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte

L.A. Board of Education member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte, a persistent critic of corporate "reform" and a staunch defender of public education and teachers, has died. She was 80.

According to the L.A. Times:

Her critics faulted her for some of the same traits her supporters celebrated: her rhetoric against charter schools, and her distrust of corporate-inspired reforms, such as limiting teachers' job protections... Relations were frequently strained with current Supt. John Deasy. In October, LaMotte was the only dissenting vote against giving Deasy a positive evaluation and contract extension.

Wisconsin's neo-fascist Tea Party Gov. Walker gets space in today's Tribune calling on Illinois to "look north" to see what the future looks like.

Writes Walker:

To put our fiscal house in order, we passed a law called Act 10 that ended collective bargaining for everything except base wages... One Illinois official who desperately needs the tools in Act 10 is Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel...To his credit, Emanuel canceled the teachers' pay raise, declaring that he would not accept Chicago's children continuing to get the shaft, and he demanded a series of reforms.

Thanks for the advice, Walker, but I think Quinn, Madigan, Rahm, Rauner and the boys are already looking north. It was called Senate Bill 7. In fact, they probably outdid you with this week's great pension robbery.