Monday, September 3, 2012

Karen Lewis Says: Enough is Enough - Chicago Teachers Turn the Town Red/ Rahm and the DNC

On Labor Day, Karen Lewis addressed 20,000 teachers about their struggle with Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Do you know how hard it is to get 20,000 people to turn out for anything? ..... The fight between CTU and Rahm Emanuel is not helpful to President Obama.--- Diane Ravitch
Info keeps rolling in from Chicago and the allies of the TU all over the nation. You can keep up at: http://www.ctunet.com/ and at http://www.substancenews.net which reports on today's events:

Labor Day in Chicago draws more than 18,000 to rally and march... Huge support for upcoming Chicago teachers' strike.... 'The only way to handle a bully is to stand up to him,' Karen Lewis told the crowd


18,000 people packed Daley Center on picture perfect Labor Day. The only thing missing were the two key players in the CPS/CTU saga — Chicago's mayor and his hand-picked schools "Chief Executive". The sea of red was dotted with green AFSCME shirts, blue Action Now shirts and more. Families with young children, numerous union groups and CTU teachers gathered in solidarity to
Here is a pic from Substance fight for “The Schools our Children Deserve”.



From Fred Klonsky blog: Check out this photo by Sarah Ji:


Teachers are parents too, Fred Klonsky blog
Have they noticed the pictures coming in from Chicago of thousands of red shirted union people and supporters flooding the streets of Rahmbo's ed reform fiefdom? Forget about Romney being out of touch we all KNEW that but how about Obama's old pal and featured speaker at the Dem Conference who openly hates and abuses union workers every chance he gets while bootlicking the Hyatt mogul and billionaire Penny Pritzkin, building her a hotel with money he stole from taxpayers. His city is awash in rabid anti Rahm sentiment and do you think he gets it? How does this party let a guy like Emanuel in the door let alone invite him to speak? And our own Prince Andy Cuomo, who is essentially Rahmbo with a New York crust, tried to keep the 4 biggest labor leaders in the state from attending unless they called him to grovel. Lucky for slippery Dick Ianuzzi his fellow sellout Randi was able to squeeze some juice from the DNC so Dicky was spared the begging. These are people who don't give a shit about any of us. Why on earth would we vote for more of their abuse and betrayal?  -----

sean crowley  comment on ednotes post "What Goes on in Charlotte Doesn't Stay in Charlott..."

from Fred Klonsky blog

Ravitch reports:

Karen Lewis Speaks to 20,000 Chicago Teachers

by dianerav
On Labor Day, Karen Lewis addressed 20,000 teachers about their struggle with Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Do you know how hard it is to get 20,000 people to turn out for anything?
When Karen Lewis met with Rahm Emanuel after his election, he told her that 25% of the children in Chicago would never amount to anything. She was outraged.
more Diane
Here is the video of Karen's speech today from the CTU web site where she calls Rahm Emanuel a liar and a bully.





Fred Klonsky expresses his own excitement and emotion at the events in this blog post, followed by some pointed criticism at the state union lack of support (and let's keep an eye on the AFT.)

“Look up! Look down! Chicago is a union town!”

September 3, 2012
I heard everything from ten thousand to eighteen thousand. I say twenty. Matt Farmer half jokingly said that the Tribune is reporting 326.
We filled Daley Plaza in a sea of red.
We surrounded Rahm’s City Hall and poured from the sidewalk on to the street.
We marched down Clark Street to the headquarters of the Chicago Public Schools.
“Hey, hey. Ho, ho. Rahm Emanuel has got to go!”

And a thanks to all the many blog readers who came up and introduced themselves to me and shared some very nice words. Putting faces to readers is important. It was so great to hear from those who told me they share articles and drawings with others. It means we’re building a network and a movement. That makes the work worthwhile.

Yes, Fred, when people ask me why after 10 years or retirement, building a network and a movement makes it all worthwhile.
What were they doing down in Springfield today.
Having a barbecue?
Barbecue unionism. --- Fred Klonsky
Here is another important post from Fred Klonsky condeming the Ill Ed Assoc which didn't even mention the situation in Chicago: An injury to one is an injury to all. But not if you’re the IEA.

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A BIG LAUSD TEACHER LABOR DAY SALUTE TO STRIKING CHICAGO TEACHERS (VIDEO)

http://www.perdaily.com/2012/09/a-big-lausd-teacher-labor-day-salute-to-striking-chicago-teachers.html
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How interesting that in Chicago they actually hold Labor Day activities on Labor Day while here in NYC "Labor Day" will be next Saturday, Sept. 8.  If you are going look for updates on Ed Notes of where you can meet up with the MORE contingent -- and I will have extra tee-shirts if you want to purchase one ($20 to help raise money for the MORE election campaign -- but I'll only sell you one if you promise to wear it.)

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The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint them that way) of any of the groups or organizations Norm works with: ICE, GEM, MORE, Change the Stakes, NYCORE, FIRST Lego League NYC, Rockaway Theatre Co., Active Aging, The Wave, Aliens on Earth, etc.

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