{"id":8050,"date":"2012-09-15T22:01:27","date_gmt":"2012-09-16T06:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/?p=8050"},"modified":"2012-09-15T22:01:27","modified_gmt":"2012-09-16T06:01:27","slug":"rouge-forum-dispatch-chicago-the-fight-is-still-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/rouge-forum-dispatch-chicago-the-fight-is-still-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Rouge Forum Dispatch: Chicago–the Fight is Still on!"},"content":{"rendered":"

We Say FightBack!<\/strong><\/span> <\/strong><\/p>\n

The Chicago Strike is Still on. Delegates will review a Tentative Agreement at 3p.m. on Sunday. <\/strong><\/p>\n

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A warning from Substance editor, George Schmidt: <\/strong> “This is the war.
\nWe have won, and now we are being told to surrender an army that is victorious in the field.
\nWhen I am asked, my suggestions are as follows:
\n1. There is no reason for the House of Delegates to meet on Sunday, September 16. The “contract” proposal is an insult to everyone who struck for not only decent wages and benefits, but for lower class size, enough clinicians, etc., etc. etc. “The Schools Chicago’s Students Deserve.”
\n2. Any House meeting that is held is likely to vote to reject the proposals we are seeing. That would hurt the leadership. Better no meeting than that, but if necessary, that.
\n3. If, by some strangeness, a House vote narrowly approved the deal proposed, it will be defeated at the membership referendum. That, too, is not a good idea.
\n<\/strong>When the picket lines resume Monday, we should do less rallying and more preparing for the long haul. Last week was an exhausting (and in some ways inspiring) adrenaline rush.
\nNext week…
\nAnd the week after that…
\nAnd for as long as it takes…Have to be a patient and focused battle to win the contract for the demands that the teachers have been inspired over. We all know them, and they are on our lawn signs and in our hearts.
\nThis is the war.
\nAnd you know what happened the last time we were asked to surrender. The destruction of all those school closings of the 2000s would not have happened had Debbie not brought in that terrible contracts, and lost the office we needed for our futures in 2004.
\nI do not want to see a repeat of that sorry history, and I do not want to see people I respect commit political suicide.
\nIt’s that serious. We are not, ultimately, discussing metaphors. We are discussing the contract we want to get “The Schools Chicago’s Students Deserve.” We mean that, and we will fight to win it. The army is no battle tested and on the field. The only way for us to lose is to accept the terms of surrender this weekend. I for one will not go along with that, nor will my 200 or 300 closest friends and unionists.” \u00a0http:\/\/www.substancenews.net\/articles.php?page=3610#comments<\/p>\n

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The Chicago Strike is On! Up the Rebels! <\/strong>The Chicago school workers\u2019 strike is on. It is a real class war that must be won.
\nEnrolling about 400,000 students, with about 22,000 school workers, Chicago is the third largest district in the country, segregated as it may be. Chicago schools are the centripetal organizing point of city life\u2013as is true now of most of de-industrialized North American life.
\nThe Chicago Teachers Union is Local One, the first, of the American Federation of Teachers, the smaller and more urban of U.S. teacher unions.
\nIn Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, one of President Obama\u2019s best friends, appoints the school board. He did, anointing some of the richest people in the city along with an army of Broad Foundation mercenaries like a recent transfer from the collapsed Detroit system, Barbara Byrd Bennett.
\nThere is a direct line from the Chicago fight-back to the ruling elites of the US and the competing needs of each side. \u00a0http:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/2012\/09\/10\/chicago-the-strike-is-on\/<\/p>\n

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Congratulations on the Award Winning<\/strong><\/p>\n

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People Lining up on the Striker’s Side in Chicago <\/strong>Chicago teachers are taking on the education agenda of the one percent, and that means they’re taking a beating in the media. But a new poll shows that it would be a mistake to take negative headlines and criticism from pundits and politicians as representative of what Chicago voters think. It turns out that 47 percent support the strike, with 39 percent opposed.
\nAdditionally, less than 20 percent of the registered voters surveyed by McKeon & Associates said that Mayor Rahm Emanuel was doing a “good” or “excellent” job handling the strike. \u00a0 www.dailykos.com\/story\/2012\/09\/11\/1130467\/-Poll-47-of-Chicago-voters-support-striking-teachers?showAll=yes%20Poll:%2047%%20of%20Chicago%20voters%20support%20striking%20teachers<\/a><\/p>\n

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Miners Continue to Fight Murderous Sold Out Mandella\/Anc Regime <\/strong> The labor strife gripping South Africa\u2019s mines spread Wednesday, with riots prompting the world\u2019s largest platinum producer to halt production at a number of its mines in the country and guards firing tear gas on protesting workers at a major gold mine. \u00a0Unrest has rippled across the gold- and platinum-producing regions that surround Johannesburg since the police killed 34 miners at a platinum mine last month in Marikana, 80 miles northwest of here, in an effort to halt a violent, illegal strike by workers demanding that their wages be raised. The spreading turmoil is destabilizing one of the most important industries in Africa\u2019s biggest economy.
\nIn a speech to striking workers at a gold mine on Monday, Julius Malema, the firebrand former leader of the African National Congress Youth League, called for a national mining strike until wages for all miners were increased to about $1,500 a month, roughly double or triple what they take home now. \u00a0http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/09\/13\/world\/africa\/south-african-labor-unrest-in-mining-deepens.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y<\/p>\n

Social Fascist Mandellaite Cops Attack Miners in their homes <\/strong> Hundreds of police officers swarmed the living quarters of workers at a platinum mine 60 miles northwest of here on Saturday, searching for illegal weapons as part of a new push by the government to end a series of violent wildcat strikes that have unsettled the nation. \u00a0The unrest has spread to other gold and platinum mines, rippling across one of the most important sectors in South Africa, which has Africa\u2019s biggest economy, and raising concerns that South Africa is headed for a long period of labor unrest more severe than anything since the end of apartheid in 1994. Many South Africans have described the killing of the miners as a massacre, and investigations by local journalists suggest that at least some of the miners were trying to flee when they were shot. President Jacob Zuma created a panel of inquiry with broad powers to investigate. \u00a0 …www.nytimes.com\/2012\/09\/16\/world\/africa\/south-africa-continues-a-crackdown-on-miners.html?ref=global-home<\/a><\/p>\n

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Spain, the Battle against “Austerity”:T<\/strong>ens of thousands of protesters from across Spain gathered in Madrid to decry austerity measures enacted by the government. Activists accused leaders of \u201cdestroying\u201d Spain with brutal program cuts and tax hikes, aimed at avoiding an EU bailout.
\nSome 50,000 protesters converged in waves in the center of the Spanish capital, blowing whistles and waving banners that read, \u201cthey are destroying the country, we must stop them.\u201d Representatives from over 230 civic and professional organizations also turned out to express anger at the new measures, amid cries of \u201clies!\u201d and \u201cenough!\u201d
\nDemonstrators called for a referendum to decide whether the unpopular public sector cuts instated by Mariano Rajoy\u2019s government should continue.
\nThe Spanish government\u2019s austerity measures will cut an estimated 102 billion euros ($126.5 billion) from the budget, and are to be introduced before 2014 with the aim of reducing the country\u2019s deficit and avoiding an EU bailout. \u00a0http:\/\/rt.com\/news\/spain-austerity-protests-madrid-215\/<\/p>\n

Re-hire Jahi Issa! <\/strong>Jahi Issa was fired on August 17, 2012 from his position as Assistant Professor of History and Africana Studies at Delaware State University (DSU). He also faces serious criminal charges and several years in jail. These actions against Dr. Issa are related to his attendance at a March 1, 2012 student rally\/protest against attacks on Black education that was conducted under such slogans as \u201cIts Time for A Change.\u201d
\nDelaware State University in Dover, Delaware is one of the nation\u2019s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). It was established in 1891 as \u201cThe State College for Colored Students,\u201d by the Delaware General Assembly under provisions of the Morrill Act of 1890 by which land-grant colleges for African-Americans came into existence in states that maintained separate educational facilities for Black students and for \u201cwhite\u201d students. The school\u2019s current enrollment is about 4,000 students and it is the second biggest university in Delaware. Currently, an estimated 72% of its students are African-American.
\nDr. Issa\u2019s permanent discharge stems directly from his attendance at, and support for, the March 1, 2012 student rally at the DSU Board of Trustees meeting. The specific charges in his notice of dismissal were \u201cfailure to perform professional responsibilities\u201d and \u201cserious misconduct.\u201d Dr. Issa maintains he is innocent of all charges. At the time of the protest Dr. Issa was one of only two full-time African-American professors in the Department of History, Political Science and Philosophy, he had received positive reviews, and the Department had no tenured African-American faculty. \u00a0http:\/\/www.jeffreybperry.net\/blog.htm<\/p>\n

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W.E.B Dubois (1956) Why I will Not Vote <\/strong> In 1956, I shall not go to the polls. I have not registered. I believe that democracy has so far disappeared in the United States that no \u201ctwo evils\u201d exist. There is but one evil party with two names, and it will be elected despite all I can do or say. There is no third party. On the Presidential ballot in a few states (seventeen in 1952), a \u201cSocialist\u201d Party will appear. Few will hear its appeal because it will have almost no opportunity to take part in the campaign and explain its platform. If a voter organizes or advocates a real third-party movement, he may be accused of seeking to overthrow this government by \u201cforce and violence.\u201d Anything he advocates by way of significant reform will be called \u201cCommunist\u201d and will of necessity be Communist in the sense that it must advocate such things as government ownership of the means of production; government in business; the limitation of private profit; social medicine, government housing and federal aid to education; the total abolition of race bias; and the welfare state. These things are on every Communist program; these things are the aim of socialism. Any American who advocates them today, no matter how sincerely, stands in danger of losing his job, surrendering his social status and perhaps landing in jail. The witnesses against him may be liars or insane or criminals. These witnesses need give no proof for their charges and may not even be known or appear in person. They may be in the pay of the United States Government. A.D.A.\u2019s and \u201cLiberals\u201d are not third parties; they seek to act as tails to kites. But since the kites are self-propelled and radar-controlled, tails are quite superfluous and rather silly. \u00a0http:\/\/theredphoenixapl.org\/2012\/09\/10\/why-i-wont-vote-1956-by-w-e-b-dubois\/<\/p>\n


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The Little Red Schoolhouse<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Hide the Kids! Paymaster Duncan and Poodle Van Roekel are Coming! <\/strong>As part of the U.S. Department of Education\u2019s third annual back-to-school bus tour, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, joined by National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel, will visit Emporia, Kan., on Tuesday, Sept. 18 for a tour of the National Teacher Hall of Fame and a discussion with students, prospective teachers and community members at Emporia State University.
\n\u201cAmerica\u2019s future is directly linked to the quality of education that we provide our children, young people and adults,\u201d said Secretary Duncan, who will begin the tour on Wednesday, Sept. 12 in Redwood City, Calif. \u201cThis bus tour is an opportunity to highlight what\u2019s working and create momentum for education reforms that improve the lives of all students.\u201d
\nSecretary Duncan and his senior leaders are crisscrossing the country from Sept. 12-21, leading a series of events that reinforce the message that Education Drives America. Besides Emporia, some of the other stops include Sacramento, Calif.; Reno, Nev.; Salt Lake City; Cheyenne, Wyo.; Denver; Topeka, Kan.; Kansas City, Mo.; St. Louis; <\/a>, Ind.; Lexington, Ky.; Charleston, W.Va.; Roanoke, Va.; Richmond, Va.; and Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

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Rahm: Obama Supports Me against the Chicago Strikers <\/strong> Speaking to reporters in Chicago today, Chicago Mayor Emanuel asserted that President Obama has already backed him up against striking teachers, because many of his proposed reforms were taken directly from the President’s “Race to the Top” education incentives.
\n“I want you to understand, the president has weighed in,” Emanuel said. “Every issue we’re talking about regarding accountability of our schools, quality in our schools to the education of our children, is the core thrust of Race to the Top.”
\nEmanuel added that the “notion” of the teacher evaluations he proposed came from Race to the Top.
\n“In that sense there couldn’t be a bigger push for the president,” Emanuel insisted.
\nEmanuel also thanked Mitt Romney for his statement of support. \u00a0http:\/\/m.washingtonexaminer.com\/rahm-the-president-supports-me-against-striking-teachers\/article\/2507638<\/p>\n

San Diego’s Administrators Pension Bonuses <\/strong> The San Diego Unified School District was unable to document or justify pay raises awarded to 29 managers before their retirement, a situation that led the State Controller\u2019s Office last week to determine the district is at high risk of pension spiking.
\nThe controller requested documentation from the district as part of a months-long effort to detect and deter pension spiking involving the California State Teachers Retirement System and its 850,000 members.
\nAmong the five education agencies inspected for possible pension fraud, San Diego Unified and San Francisco Unified were singled out as high-risk and recommended for an in-depth pension audit.
\n\u201cThese districts lacked the level of transparency and the necessary controls over management pay increases that a public entity should exercise on behalf of its constituents. As a result, pension spiking may be occurring at these districts,\u201d wrote Jeffrey V. Brownfield, the controller\u2019s audit division chief. \u00a0http:\/\/www.utsandiego.com\/news\/2012\/sep\/09\/paperwork-lacking-administrator-pay-hikes\/<\/p>\n

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Profs as Cheats For Pay <\/strong>Professors writing custom papers for students? Heresy!
\nBut that is the very idea behind the self-described academic prostitutes at unemployed-professors.com<\/a>, which unabashedly defends its actions on the grounds that education has already become overly commodified and academia is down-sizing the tenure system. So what’s a poor unemployed prof to do?
\nSell essays on demand to overwrought students with a catchy tag line: “So you can play while we make your papers go away.”
\n“The idea that it could be legitimate for any professor to sell their brain, when they know better than anyone that papers are assigned for students to learn,” said Bolton, an associate dean for the faculty of arts and sciences at Concordia University. “There are for sure teaching assistants and graduate students who do this, but professors?” \u00a0 www.theprovince.com\/touch\/news\/story.html?id=7234865<\/a><\/p>\n

California Community Colleges Gutted Further By New System of Expulsions <\/strong>Community colleges in California plan to give priority enrollment to students seeking job training, an associates degree or transfer to a four-year college over continuing students who have amassed more than 100 units of coursework or who are doing poorly in classes.
\nThe systemwide enrollment priorities, which will go into effect in 2014, were unanimously adopted Monday by the California Community Colleges Board of Governors at its meeting in San Diego.
\nCommunity colleges are dealing with ongoing budget cuts and have seen state funding drop by $809 million since 2008. As a result, they\u2019ve cut back on course offerings, leaving thousands of students on wait lists and unable to take the classes they need. \u00a0 www.utsandiego.com\/news\/2012\/sep\/11\/community-colleges-changing-enrollment-priorities\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Florida College Marionettes Dance for the Common Core <\/strong> The Florida College System Teacher Educator Programs are the first in the nation to voluntarily commit to a system-wide implementation of the Common Core State Standards. The new standards will be embedded in the teacher preparation program curriculum throughout the college system so new teachers who enter the classroom will be ready for the more rigorous standards.
\n“This is an exciting time for Florida – both K-12 and postsecondary – where major reform on both sides is helping students get ready for success,” said Florida College System Chancellor Randy Hanna. “Our system is embracing the new Common Core State Standards and the teachers we are producing will be ready to teach them \u00a0http:\/\/www.fldoe.org\/news\/2012\/2012_08_02-3.asp<\/p>\n

Who Lost the Queensborough English Department? <\/strong>On Wednesday the English department at Queensborough Community College voted not to adopt a policy of the City University of New York to reduce composition course credits from four to three. In so doing, they rejected the CUNY Pathways initiative, a proposal for streamlining and centralizing CUNY curricula which many faculty regard as antithetical to students\u2019 needs.
\nAdministrators didn\u2019t like this. And in fact they disliked it so much that Queensborough announced two days later that they\u2019re dismantling the QCC English department in retaliation. \u00a0 studentactivism.net\/2012\/09\/15\/cuny-administration-declares-war-on-rebel-faculty\/<\/a><\/p>\n

The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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To the Shores of Tripoli <\/strong> The U.S. dispatched an elite group of Marines to Tripoli on Wednesday following a mob attack that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans. U.S. officials are investigating whether the violence was a backlash to an anti-Islamic video with ties to Coptic Christians, or a plot to coincide with the anniversary of 9\/11. \u00a0http:\/\/www.utsandiego.com\/news\/2012\/sep\/12\/us-sends-marines-to-libya-after-deadly-attack\/<\/p>\n

Marines In–Diplomats High Tail It <\/strong> The Obama administration ordered the evacuation of all but emergency U.S. government personnel, and all family members, from diplomatic missions in Tunisia and Sudan on Saturday and warned Americans not to travel to those countries.
\nThe action came as leaders across the Muslim world took stock of their relationship with the United States, a major provider of aid and investment, and struggled to balance it with the will of their populations. In Sudan, the State Department order came after the government in Khartoum rejected a U.S. request to send a Marine anti-terrorism unit to protect the embassy there, which came under attack by protesters Friday. \u00a0In Yemen, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula issued a statement urging more killings of U.S. diplomats, and the Yemeni parliament demanded that all foreign troops in the country be sent home, including roughly 50 U.S. Marines deployed to protect the embassy there. The U.S. military and CIA have been in Yemen for some time, in cooperation with the Yemeni government, as part of counterterrorism operations. \u00a0http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/anti-us-fury-widens-in-muslim-world-as-protests-rage-in-many-countries\/2012\/09\/15\/894e2cbc-ff2f-11e1-b153-218509a954e1_story.html?hpid=z1<\/p>\n

Tomgram: The World of US Bases <\/strong> Even before the new figures on basing in Afghanistan were available, it was known that the U.S. military maintained a global inventory of more than 1,000 foreign bases. (By some counts, around 1,200 or more.) It\u2019s possible that no one knows for sure. <\/strong> <\/em>Numbers are increasing rapidly in Africa and Latin America and, as is clear from the muddled situation in Afghanistan, the U.S. military has been known to lose count of its facilities.
\nOf those 505 U.S. bases in Iraq, some today have been stripped clean by Iraqis, others have become ghost towns. One former prison base — Camp Bucca — became a hotel, and another former American post is now a base for some members of an Iranian “terrorist” group. It wasn\u2019t supposed to end this way. But while a token number of U.S. troops and a highly militarized State Department contingent remain in Baghdad, the Iraqi government thwarted American dreams of keeping long-term garrisons in the center of the Middle East\u2019s oil heartlands.
\nClearly, U.S. planners are having similar dreams about the long-term garrisoning of Afghanistan. Whether the fate of those Afghan bases will be similar to Iraq\u2019s remains unknown, but with as many as 550 of them still there — and up to 1,500 installations when you count assorted ammunition storage facilities, barracks, equipment depots, checkpoints, and training centers — it\u2019s clear that the U.S. military and its partners are continuing to build with an eye to an enduring military presence. \u00a0 www.tomdispatch.com\/post\/175588\/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_the_pentagon's_bases_of_confusion\/?utm_source=TomDispatch&utm_campaign=1642433ec7-TD_Turse9_4_2012&utm_medium=email#more<\/a><\/p>\n

Seventy-Two Years on–The Battle of Britain (and still necessary to fight fascists)<\/strong><\/p>\n