Disabled Students

Students with Disabilities Can Eat Cake?


Listening to Janice Jackson on WBEZ was heartbreaking. Advocates for people with disabilities were stunned when Jackson proudly proclaimed that she is working hard to get children with disabilities access to first floors in schools. Does she realize we aren’t in the 1919 school year, but the 2019 school year? Unacceptable that children with disabilities do not have access to entire schools. 

Luckily for Janice, she isn’t physically disabled. But if she was, how would she feel if, every day, she was sequestered to the first floor at CPS HQ at 42 West Madison? 

What about educators with disabilities? They can only teach on the first floor? Vendors with disabilities have to be turned away? Parents with disabilities? They can’t see their child perform in a second floor auditorium?

Janice goes on and on about equity in CPS. But she appears only to be interested in race equity. She sees nothing else. Equity is also accessibility, no matter your race.  And the fact that Janice’s staff, with her consent, scheme against disabled children by illegally banning them from handicapped parking, and even banned a disabled child from school,  makes her attitude even more outrageous. On top of it, disabled children can crawl up to the second floor of their school if they are able, yet Janice has a chauffeur. You can’t make this stuff up. 

Every other government agency from the CTA to City Hall to the Post office are accessible. It’s unacceptable that schools aren’t. 

I can see advocates for children pleading with Janice, “The children with disabilities can’t get into the second floor cafeteria to eat their sandwiches!” Her likely reply? “Let them eat cake”. 

- From a concerned former Ogden Elementary parent

Teacher Jumps Ship

Erika Wozniak Leaves Teaching to Work for Alderman Sam Nugent
By Jim Vail

Erika Wozniak is now Ald. Nugent's chief of staff.

Erika Wozniak Francis, a fiery political activist and teacher, has accepted a job as chief of staff to newly elected Ald. Samantha Nugent (39 ward).

Politico reported the sudden job change for Wozniak who has worked as an elementary school teacher for more than 15 years in the Chicago Public Schools. Her last school was Oriole Park.

Wozniak is also co-host of The Girl Talk, a live public-affairs talk show at The Hideout.

Wozniak has been a fighter for the teachers union for a long time. She first made her name by fighting the city's decision to give tax dollars to DePaul University to build a basketball stadium when the Chicago Public Schools were closing schools because they claimed there was no money.

This past year she ran against Ald. James Cappleman in Uptown for alderman. She did not make the runoff, but supported Marianne Lalonde who lost by just a few votes to Cappleman in the runoff.

Second City Teachers reported that the Illinois Network of Charter Schools endorsed Nugent for alderman. Wozniak did not return a message asking why she has chosen to work for a charter supporter.

Wozniak received a lot of cash from unions, including over $50,000 from the Chicago Teachers Union, as well as donations from SEIU and others.

The CTU has earned its reputation as a strong fighter against charter schools that have replaced public schools closed under the harsh education reform movement backed by the rich.

The Charter network said 10 of its 13 endorsed candidates won, inlcuding Howard Brookins (21st), Ariel Reboyras (30th), Ray Lopez (15), Stephanie Coleman (16th), Felix Cardona (31), and Samantha Nugent (39).

The Chicago Teachers Union said they also endorsed 10 winning aldermen, including Jeanette Taylor, Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25), Andre Vasquez (40), Matt Martin (47), Rossana Rodriguez (33) and Maria Hadden (49).

One teacher activist in Uptown said she did not support Wozniak because she just moved to the area and was not involved in community issues.

War Interview

WORLD WAR II VETERAN INTERVIEW

'AMERICA WAS TOO LATE.'

 

Interview by Oksana Chebotareva from Kishinev

 

              

I became acquainted with the war veteran Alexander Dmitrivich Levin last year. Then I interviewed him for Second City Teacher. He promised to tell more about his life in a further interview. This time it was not an easy task to interview Alexander Levin. We were interrupted by three telephone calls from Journalists who eagerly sought an interview with him. But his daughter in law tried to explain to some television journalists that he was in not in a fit state to give interview. The journalist had been told that she had to get an interview with him for at least 20 minutes. But he could hardly speak for more than a minute and was at a loss for words. Unfortunately Alexander suffers from dementia and the increased impact of a stroke he suffered 3 years ago. He told me that he thinks the stroke may have arisen from the excitement of being summoned by the Russian Embassy in Kishinev and awarded a long sought medal 'For the Defense of Stalingrad' which which he described as one of toughest battles he had participated in. Since he and officials had lost his wartime records of this period, he had been applying for this medal for forty years. Then suddenly some researcher found the documents. He received a phone call from the Embassy, where he was ceremoniously congratulated and handed the medal. Unfortunately the excitement may have brought on a stroke he had a few days later.

              

Although Levin can recall many of the events of the Great Patriot War distinctly, although his short term memory is poor and he can forget what he did yesterday or an hour ago.

              

Alexander Levin is now 97 and claims, "I love life and look forward to becoming 100." He considers himself one of the happiest men on the earth. He went to war almost from the beginning when he was only 17. This was when he was in the 9th class. He was accepted for the Infantry and trained in a rifle division based in Moscow. Afterwards, he fought in the Battle of Moscow, Stalingrad, Donbass, took part in the Yassov- Kishinev operation {August 1st to 22nd which liberated Rumania and Moldova} He also took part in the liberation of Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and the Battle of Budapest. {Editor's note The Battle of Budapest is often overshadowed by the Battle of Stalingrad, Kursk and Berlin. Yet Levin regards this as one of the most difficult battles and stated the Hungarian soldiers fought very well. While Stalin ordered Budapest to be taken in 5 days, it actually took over 100 days with the loss of 80,000 Russian soldiers. It was an intense, painful and prolonged battle}.

              

Levin, in a previous text published by N. Choban, spoke about his role in finding some spies, detaining them and interrogating them to obtain information and then executing them. But some fascists were so fanatical in their beliefs that they would give him no information at all. He stopped his men killing an Italian soldier whom he clearly understood was no fascist, but just a young man caught up in the war {see the interview of last August 2018}

              

Alexander Levin first started his service as a rifleman in an infantry division and then was enlisted in the counter Intelligence organisation Smersh whose task was to hunt down spies, collaborators and traitors. He was lucky enough to receive only two or three light bullet wounds. His two friends were less lucky. One went missing and another lost both his arms and became an invalid. Although many times he was unable to give an answer, he became very passionate when I mentioned the role of America which provoked an anti-American harangue.

              

I sincerely hope that Alexander reaches the age of 100. I am grateful to him for allowing two interviews. I would like to mention another discovery which I believe is just as relevant to this interview.

 

              

During my stay in Kishinev I also met my cousin who told me a lot of unknown facts about my grandfather who fought in the war, Gregory Bulat. He was a very talented musician who was invited to play at weddings and composed some music. But during the war he caught pneumonia and tuberculosis brought on by swimming over an icy old river during the war {the River Nemen}. He was so ill he could not enter a conservatory in Moscow and his family suffered very badly from the post war famine in Ukraine. There was such a lack of medicine that he had to be treated with dog fat. Food was so scarce one of his sons died from hunger. My mother lived through this time. Now I understand why she is always making a fuss about whether people have eaten or not when they turn up as guests.

             

              

Second City Teacher

 

Can you remember the day the war broke out?

 

              

Alexander Levin

               

I can remember it vividly. I was visiting Moscow at the time where two of my uncles were living. As soon as they heard the news on the 22nd of June, 1941, they sent me home on a train. But since all the seats were full I had to lie on the roof of the train. I later returned to Moscow to enlist in the army in the company of two friends. I was taken to a military base where I received training as an infantryman in a rifleman division. Although the training was intensive, the food was very meager and bad. I remember when a famous commander called Voroshilov visiting us and trying the food in the canteen cursing it in an amusing way. He said, "The soup was shit" and rudely used his finger when he came to the buckwheat. After that, they fed us much better.

 

              

Second City Teacher

 

              

Did soldiers take anything into battle to protect themselves?  

 

              

Alexander Levin

 

              

Before I went to the Front my grandmother gave me an icon of the Mother of God which I kept under my overcoat all the way through the war. After the war I came home and gave it back to her.

 

              

Second City Teacher

 

Were there any superstitions concerning whether it was taboo to take the clothes of a dead soldier from the battlefield?

 

               

Alexander Levin

                

I followed a rule that you must never wear anything from the dead lying on the battlefield. There was a saying that 'Everything that is on a battlefield is sacred {Все, что споля боя взятоб то свято} In any case there was no need to take their clothes. We were better dressed than the Germans for the winter war. It was the Germans who needed clothes, not us. Of course, almost everybody took watches from the Germans, but I never did this {Levin expresses another proverb in a previous interview, 'If You take some one from the dead on a battlefield you yourself will die ' {У мертвых ничего брать нельзяб а иначе сам рогибнешь}

 

               

Second City Teacher

 

                

Which side had the better tanks?

 

                

Alexander Levin

 

                

They had the bigger tanks, but our tanks were lighter and faster. They could maneuver better. The best tank of the war was the T-34. The Germans were surprised at how good our tanks were and did not expect this.

 

                

Second City Teacher

 

                

Did any soldiers meet women?

 

                

Alexander Levin

 

                

There were many women who came to the trenches to console us.

 

                

Second City teacher  

 

                

Can you recall any moments where you had a really close shave with death?

 

                

Alexander Levin

 

                

During the Battle of Budapest the Germans were strongly attacking us and we had to retreat over a river. I jumped on a horse so I could cross over the river. But the horse refused to cross. It stalled. An old man told me to cover the horses eyes with a coat so that it could not see the water as it was scared of it. So I did this and held on firmly to the mane and managed to cross the river to the other bank. Another time at the Battle of White Kolodez, i remember how we came under a lot of fire and my commander of the squad I was in was badly wounded. It upset me. When we went without food for three days he told us that the first thing he would do after the war would be to return to the bakery in Tula where he had worked as a director and eat this tasty bread again. But he could not do this because he was so badly wounded he died. He told me, "Listen, when you return home become a boss of a bakery that bakes food for people. Promise me". Well, after the war I think I at least kept the promise as I got a job checking a mill and so did work of some kind in the food processing industry.

 

                

Second City Teacher

 

                

What did you do after the war?

 

                

Alexander Levin

 

                

After the war all the doors opened up to me. I studied law, but before this I continued to serve in the army until 1947. After graduating from Law I served as a bodyguard at a mill where I met my future wife. I also worked as a consultant to help other war veterans with problems. {editor: Many were worried that other people were trying to steal their apartments and there were disputes about property} I made friends with the future President of Moldova {President Voronin served from 2001 to 2009 } He described me as 'My Teacher'. Every time on 'The Day of Victory ' his driver comes to my apartment and gives me an envelope filled with money.

 

               

Pause in the interview

                

I tried again to interview Levin the following day. My arrival startled him.

 

                

Alexander Levin

 

                

Listen who are you and what newspaper do you represent?  

 

                

Second City Teacher

 

                

I am working for an American newspaper in Chicago that fights for the rights of teachers and the poor in America.

 

                

Alexander Levin

 

                

I don't have any contacts with Chicago or have relations with Americans. They did nothing to help us in the war.

 

                

Second City Teacher

 

                 

Well, did they not send some food, tanks and supplies?

 

                 

Alexander Levin

 

                 

That was not real help. They only came into the war at the end when it was by then too late.The Americans did not really give us real help. 

Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Tribune is No Friend to Teachers or Any Working People
By Jim Vail


The Chicago Tribune is a media weapon used by those in power to get what they want.

People will say it is all we have - it is the city´s major newspaper that reports the news. 

But the Trib just ran a front-page story about the controversy stirred up on social media where some teachers protested a few Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) members traveling to Venezuela under the CTU logo.

The story was well reported getting both sides. The people who were against the trip say that CTU should not sponsor a delegation to Venezuela because many people are leaving the country due to political strife. The people who went said they want to support the country, believe the U.S. should not interfere in other countries affairs, and noted that schools have not been closed like in this city.

But was this story really a front page article? The paper determines what it determines is front page material. Why is Jeffrey Epstein suddenly a big news item today, and not 20 years ago when all his sex crimes and sweet-heart deal were made known to the public? 

Newspapers are owned by the business elite and are used as a weapon to attack workers and people that they merely see as costs, rather than human beings. They are also used to go after their political enemies.

The Chicago Tribune wrote a series of articles about the sexual predators in the schools last year. Again, well reported and informative. However, life has become a living hell for many teachers now that the Chicago Public Schools have increased their internal police force to investigate teachers, and not only the guilty are being snared. I liken it to the Jon Burge days when it was open warfare on the black people on the South Side after a couple of cops were killed.

Why doesn´t the Tribune write about the student assaults on teachers? Why doesn´t the Tribune write about abusive principals? Why doesn´t the Tribune write about how stressful it is to teach in the inner city schools? Why no investigations in these areas?

Because the Tribune´s mission is to destroy the CTU and all other unions. They are there to tell people they must sacrifice their hard-earned pensions, yet it is no problem that wealthy developers get tax subsidies meant for the schools and poor in a scam called TIFs. 

Now it is time for a new teachers contract so the Tribune will play up anything negative on the union so that the public won´t take the teachers side. 

This is the same paper that wrote that they wished for a Hurricane Katrina in Chicago so all the public schools could be closed and charter schools with no teachers unions replace them. God, I wish another 9-11 in lower Manhattan because I hate Wall Street!

So how do we the people navigate the world when the media is owned by the one percent? As a teacher, I tune out, as one infamous Timothy O´Leary once said to do. I do not play CNN for the students. Instead, we critically look at the issues and the sources. We read classic literature and grapple with what our great minds once grappled with. We analyze and question - not blatantly follow!

Once people see this, they will stop reading and using the weapons meant to destroy us!

Film Review

FILM REVIEW:  ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD

Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Starring Leonardo Di Caprio , Brad Pitt and Margo Robin.

Film Review by Stephen Wilson

 

            

How wonderful! After an almost endless odyssey around Moscow I found a cheap cinema and could watch Quentin Tarantino's new film 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.' It was in Russian, but you can't have everything. {Many of the cheap and accessible Soviet Cinemas have been closed down leaving only highly expensive cinemas at Malls which sell tickets for a staggering price of three times the amount of the former.} I was not disappointed. It is worth watching just for a few hauntingly beautifully atmospheric scenes.  It is fair to say that there is a lot of brilliant acting, witty dialogue as well as excellently crafted shot scenes which leave an indelible imprint on your memory.

 

            

Of course, one might express reservations at the length of the film: two hours and forty minutes, confusion arising over ambiguity of the plot and some over the top violence of scenes. A Russian administrator and English teacher Tania told me, "I could not watch those scenes. I turned my face away from the screen. It was just too much." But compared to most Hollywood films, the dialogue, script and shooting is above average. Although given the track record of Hollywood, this is arguably not a difficult feat.

 

            

Some viewers asked me, "Is there a story or plot behind this film?" Well, the film can be confusing, but yes there is a plot.The film largely centers on the strong friendship between the 'failing' actor Rick Dalton played by Leonardo Di Caprio and his double, Cliff Booth, a stuntman, played by Brad Pitt. Rick who largely plays the part of cowboys in televised serials feels his career is faltering as some work dries up. His work in the serial 'Bounty Law' is cancelled and Rick takes his setbacks very hard. He starts over drinking, forgetting his lines and is even prone to weeping. He loses his driving licence so he has to be driven around by his only friend Cliff. Cliff always remains loyal to Rick and helps him out. When Rick confesses to Cliff, "It is official. I am just a has been" then cracks up in tears, Cliff hands him his sun glasses so Rick can hide his tears. Cliff even defends his friend against his wife who callously mocks Ray as a loser. We don't even know if he really killed his wife or not.

 

            

Here we witness  two different ways of seeing success in life. While Cliff honestly admits to Rick he can't completely fathom why Rick gets so distraught at a failing career, "I have never had a career to develop", Rick believes that if he does not become a movie star that it is the end of the World. Failing and succeeding seems to be everything. In contrast, Cliff does not see what the fuss is. He lives for the moment. He enjoying cruising around Hollywood admiring and smiling at girls and offering them a lift. He is the cool cowboy who remains serene and at the ready for any danger. Nothing and nobody can shake his nerves.

            

Ironically, his friend Rick , who plays cowboys, becomes 'all nerves'. Most of the time he seems on the verge of a nervous breakdown. In one poignant scene while about to act he befriends a precocious girl, played brilliantly by Julie Butters.

            

She is only a tender eight years, but is endowed with wisdom well beyond her age. When Rick asks her, 'What are you reading?" she answers, "a Biography of Walt Disney" who she claims is a genius that arises one every 1000 years. She states that she tries to intensively prepare and do research for every role. Rick is reading a cowboy novel and while narrating the plot bursts into tears. The life of the hero in the novel mirrors his own misfortune. Both are dying breeds. The girl runs up to Rick to console him. When he later plays a rogue brilliantly in one scene she tells him, "You are the best cowboy I have played with ".Once Rick learns to see life through the eyes of a childlike, but highly perceptive girl, he starts to get his act together.

 

            

Another female actress who also conveys a sense of childlike innocence and intelligence is Sharon Tate. The scenes of her dropping into the cinema to watch her own film incognito, and lavishly enjoying it is original. Sharon Tate was one of the victims of the horrific murder carried out by members of the Cult, the Family, headed by the deranged maniac Charles Mansion. She just happens to be the next door neighbor of Rick. His friend Cliff picks up a vulnerable girl who happens to live at the ranch where the Cult is based. The scene where members of the Cult shoot paranoid and poisonous looks as Cliff walks through the ranch is eerie. We don't know who or what is going on in certain houses. Cliff ends up badly beating up one member of the cult for slashing a car tire. He also beats up Bruce Lee for boasting too much.

 

            

During much of the film you hear the old songs of the 1960's and see billboards of advertised films. One which caught my eye was an ad for the film Tora, Tora, Tora, a film made in 1970, about the attack on Pearl harbor in 1941. Yet the film was made after 1969 where Tarantino's film is set. Is this an error? Maybe the film Tora, Tora , Tora , best captures the tense atmosphere of an imminent attack looming against Hollywood. So many viewers are wondering will Rick and Cliff hear or act to fight members of the Cult about to attack their neighbors? What will happen? Anything can happen in a Tarantino film. I'm not going to spoil things for you if you have not seen the film.

 

            

Tarantino's film can be construed as rendering homage to Sharon Tate who deserves more to be remembered as great and accomplished actress than a victim of some cruel cult. But Tarantino is also paying homage to his favorite film directors, films and the old televised serials of the cowboys. He seems to express nostalgia about all the legends which Hollywood invented and wonders how some Americans try to live up to them in real life. Strange as it seems, but some Scots in Glasgow were walking into pubs challenging people to fights and mayhem followed. Glasgow was even called the Wild West. Had those bored brawlers been watching too many Cowboy films ?

 

            

One of the problems Russian viewers had was that they had never even heard of the murders carried out by Charles Mansion and his cult. Tania told me, "I did not know that this film was partly about those events. I only learnt about this after I watched this film. Perhaps that is why I did not understand this film."

            

If you don't know about those events then the film might just appear to be a strange cowboy film. Whatever the weaknesses of the film it is still worth a visit to the Cinema!

Loop Capital?

Why is the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund Investing with Company the CTU Protested Against for Toxic Swaps
By Jim Vail

Jim Reynolds, Loop Capital & teacher basher

The Chicago Teachers Pension Fund (CTPF) has invested $10 million in an infrastructure fund set up by Loop Capital, an investment company that the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) once protested against in 2014.

In a Labor Beat video posted on Substance News Sept. 19, 2014, CTU members marched in front of the Chicago headquarters of Loop Capital, a private investment company they say extracted through risky interest rate swap deals over $100 million yearly from the city´s public schools that were facing major cuts.

The video is available from Labor Beat at youtu.be/46gRPVpYdpw

The video features former CTU staff coordinator/ chief of staff Jackson Potter, organizer Matthew Luskin, President Jesse Sharkey and former Financial Secretary Kristine Mayle saying that when these loans were set up, banks such as Loop Capital failed to fully disclose the risks of the agreements. The protesters called for then Mayor Rahm Emanuel to file for arbitration so that CPS and the city can renegotiate the loans in order to recover hundreds of millions of dollars which would have helped alleviate the schools funding crisis.

¨But Mayor Emanuel doesn´t want to have these swaps arbitrated, probably because his friend Jim Reynolds, head of Loop Capital, is making so much money from them,¨ Substance reported. They further reported that Loop threatened to call the cops on the protesters.

Jim Reynolds is now investing money for the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund that will earn him a 1.5% management fee, or $150,000 for one year on $10 million investment, according to one board trustee. After they return the $10 million investment the pension fund can then earn 80 percent on profit and Reynolds will earn 20 percent.

Reynolds also told the media that teachers are more concerned with their pensions than the curriculum.

"I hear the teachers union talk a lot about pensions but not about what's going on in the classroom," Reynolds told a local newspaper.

Former Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis responded, "Parents have watched class sizes grow, after-school programs close and experienced teachers get laid off while bankers like Mr. Reynolds and billionaire tax loopholes were protected."

Reynolds has teamed up former NBA superstar Magic Johnson to create the infrastructure investment fund as a minority firm. The city mandates that a certain number of contracts go to minority firms.

Magic Johnson earlier teamed up with Edison Schools, a controversial for-profit education company tied to charter schools which once sold shares based on how well its schools performed. He ended the partnership in 2016.

Edison was at the forefront of the education reform mania when it saw its share price go to $40 in 2001, before falling to 14 cents after the SEC charged that Edison failed to disclose that as much as 41 percent of its revenue that year consisted of money it never saw, a similar charge for many charter school scams including the old UNO Charters, now Acero. Edison went private in 2003 in a buyout from the Florida Retirement System, which handles pension investments for the state´s public school teachers.

When CORE trustees led by Jay Rehak, president of the CTPF board of trustees, first took office about 10 years ago, they vowed to not give pension money to funds that supported charter schools.

That should include Loop Capital and others who robbed our schools and bash our teachers! 

Student Crackdown

CRACK DOWN ON STUDENTS  

By Stephen Wilson

 

            

"I would not recommend you go on those unsanctioned demonstrations as police are checking everyone entering or leaving metro station exits. They have orders to arrest, detain and even beat up certain demonstrators. You could be detained and deported. I know of cases where protesters have been detained and tortured to get them to sign a confession. They have used electric shock methods. It is like 1937 again when we had the repression. The authorities are afraid of an Orange revolution and will do anything to stop it."

            

I appreciated the worried and warm warning. The Rector of Moscow State University of Humanities gave a less friendly warning. On the contrary, Alexsandr Bezborodav issued a dark threat to any member of staff or student who attended an unsanctioned demonstration. He declared that, "We think it is important to warn youth that unsanctioned things are unacceptable.... Students who have been found to have violated the law will be purged from the university {Expelled }. If there has been a serious violation of the law, the management will severely punish the students up to even purging them from the university." The public statement provoked an angry reaction from many members of staff and students.

            

As many as 100 teachers, students and other member of staff signed an Open Letter expressing their indignation and affront.

             

They responded to the Rector's threat in an "Open Letter" with the words, "Concentrate your attention on carrying out the aims of the university and not in punishing students for non-university activities ... According to Article 43 on the Law of Education of the Russian Federation discipline in an organisation of education exists to support and basically respect the human dignity of the students ... Physical or psychological violence in relations is not allowed. We consider that a university can't and must not take measures of a disciplinary response against those people found guilty of violations with university. " They eloquently argued that a person can't be put on trial for the same offence twice. To do so would be to violate a basic universal human right of {Non Bis in Idem }.

 

             

This is not the only threat made to students attending unsanctioned demonstrations. Some protesters have been threatened with military service, the loss of parental custody of children as well as imprisonment for 'organizing mass disorder ' which carries a penalty of up to 8 years imprisonment. Yegor Zhukov, a student of the Higher School of Economics already faces charges under the law 212 for causing mass disorder. His blog just proved too popular!

 

             

The recent wave of mass demonstrations  this July and August was provoked by the Electoral Commission's decision to disallow opposition candidates from standing. They claimed that some of the signatures of the 5000 required to stand were false or invented. Opposition candidates call this a blatant lie. The real reason lies with the authorities fear that the opposition will win seats. The authorities were taken aback by the unexpected mass scale of the protest where as many as 22,000 gathered at a demonstration on the 27th of July.

             

What might well have passed as a dull non-event, {local council elections} largely ignored, has now become a fundamental center stage issue. It is amazing what trouble one inept decision by the Electoral Commission can cause.

 

             

All summer candidates and their supporters were gathering signatures. It was hard work. I was asked again and again if I would offer my supportive signature. I had to explain I was a foreigner who could not. This stirred up curiosity and some would practice their English with me to break the monotony. They were working from 9 in the morning to 9 in the evening. On their placards they stated, "If you hate United Russia then support us ". After such back breaking work it must be frustrating to be informed that your candidate has been disqualified for false signatures. Having observed how they were working I can vouch that they were meticulous in insisting that those who signed provided the appropriate documents to confirm their identity.

 

             

The crack down on protesters of unsanctioned demonstrations borders between the hysterical and absurd. As many as between 1300 to 1500 were arrested on July 27th and then 1000 on the 3rd of August. The local police were unprepared and overwhelmed by the mass of detained people. They also thought things had gone over the top. Many of those arrested were not involved in the protests. A person who worked as a courier, a person going for a walk on his day off and even an employee of a firm who simply went out for a smoke. The whole city center was under a police cordon. Many of the OMON were physically beating up protesters and terrorizing people. One person was dragged away while holding on to his bike and another person running to the metro station was pinned down.

             

You Tube showed a young man being held by police while another one is beating his legs with a baton. Now the whole world has watched this ugly incident!

 

             

Such violence is unlikely to deter young protesters. It will rather anger them. The notion that those attending the demonstrations were aggressive and attacking policemen is absurd to anyone who observed events. It was the police who were violently assaulting and openly violating the law. Things are upside down here. Those who commit violence are free to do so, while those who peacefully protest are arrested. It reminds you of Dicken's novel 'A Tale of Two Cities' where the detained lawyer finds that those in authority; judges, the guard, act and look like criminals, while those in detention all seemed to have the aura of innocence.

 

             

Resorting to brutally beating up or scaring away protesters won't work. The young are a different generation from the previous. In succinct terms, they are fearless.

             

Elena Orlova, a professor from Saint Petersburg, told me, "Our present day school children are not afraid. If you want to make a distinction between my generation and the next, we kept silent. We could not speak loudly. But now pupils are not afraid to express an opinion ". Only last year, a pupil called Leonid Shaidurov founded the first Union of School Students attracting a lot of support. This is not 1937. Therefore, the old tried and tested tactics of repression will be found wanting.

Homeless

HELPING THE HOMELESS

By Stephen Wilson

          

The fall was therefore not serious, even as i fell I heard the door slam. Which brought me a little comfort, in the midst of my fall. For this meant they were not pursuing me down into the street with a stick, to beat me to beat me in full view of the passers-by'.

 

            

The main character recalling his eviction from 'The Expelled', Samuel Beckett.

And who thinks of what it means not to be able to have a proper wash for days and weeks on end? One's skin becomes so stiff that it stops one from making any but tough movements even supposing one wanted to make gentle living ones - the soul sets and hardens under such a crust'.

             

The Man without Qualities , Volume 1 , Robert Musil

 

            

As I was going up the stair

I met a man who was not

there. 

He wasn't there again today.

I do so wish he'd go away.  

            

Antigonish William Hugh Mearns

 

            

Moscow, for all her faults, promises folklorists an inexhaustible treasure trove of legends. They are absolutely abundant! One legend tells of how a 'saranick' or religious wanderer, came up to the gates of a monastery. He asked for a place to stay the night.The weather was windy, rainy and stormy.The miserable man was drenched by the rain. For some reason the monks refused him shelter. Being affronted, the wanderer cursed the monastery with the words "Let the monastery be swallowed by the earth-the walls of it crack and fall into ruins." And this is what subsequently happened. The monastery later collapsed and on the same spot was built the three railway stations which greet many homeless people: the

Yaroslavski, Kazanski and Leningradski stations. A superstitious person might claim that the homeless who first set foot here are cursed right from the start. For many of the homeless come to Moscow to seek a much better life. However, like the wanderer, they don't always receive hospitality or help. On the contrary , like the person in the poem by Mearns , their hosts chant, 'I do so wish he 'd go away.' The Russian authorities often resort to crude and ineffective methods of rounding them up and deporting them.

            

Yet Moscow remains an irresistible beacon to people coming to Moscow. In contrast to many impoverished and run down regions of Russia, Moscow represents a vibrant, thriving and energetic city 'promising' a better life. It is a magnet for migrants and Russians seeking a more exciting and enriched life. For many, the grass  definitely seems greener on the other side.

            

During last year's World Cup the city was 'cleansed of the homeless' so as to make Moscow more presentable in the eyes of the World. The homeless are often deported beyond 101 km. But the notorious anti begging laws, police harassment, detention and deportation never works. Like ghosts, the homeless come back to haunt the living.

            

The attitude of Moscow to the homeless varies. It can vary from insensitive amusement, callousness, and intense fear to sympathy. When some English teachers mention their plight some students erupt in laughter. They immediately imagine a drunken homeless person snoring away on a seat on a metro train.

However, I came across some who were terrified of them. While working with Jim Vail to feed the homeless I recall that there was one young Russian volunteer whose hands were literary shaking. She told me, "I'm scared of them ". I had to ask her, "Just concentrate on the job on hand by filling the cups of coffee and do not think of anything else." She soon learnt that though many of the homeless looked different they did not have horns coming out of their ears. Now often we were feeding alcoholics, ex-prisoners and people with mental health problems.

            

But they still needed help. As one volunteer Daniel Ogan stated, "We still have to help them. If we can just bring a little comfort to those people it can be something". Much of the hostility to the homeless comes from the fact that some are unkempt, unwashed and smell unpleasantly. It never occurs to some people that if it is very difficult to wash yourself you begin to smell badly. If those offended people handed a homeless person a towel, soap or a change of clothes it might alleviate alleviate the situation. One of the central problems is that the homeless can't attain  access to a laundrette or a shower. Unlike a city such as Dublin, Moscow does not provide a system of relatively cheap washing facilities.

           

            

However, organisations such as 'Charity' or rather {милосердие} , based at 55 Nikoloyamskaya ulitsa, in the Taganski district of Moscow, through their Angar Spasehi, provide much badly needed help to the homeless and the poor. I dropped into their center and was guided around their center. I was ushered into a huge shelter tent where I noticed some homeless people either reading, sleeping or watching television. I was shown the showers they could use, a place where they could get new clothes and even a haircut. Alena, a spokesperson told me that, "The homeless are all different. The reasons for their situation are often complicated. Our aim is to make the homeless more presentable so that they people are not so alienated by their appearance. We have around 26 specific projects such as helping pregnant women, and invalids. We can buy the homeless train tickets to return home and be reunited with their families ... We can also help them restore their passports". I ask Alena, " How can people help your efforts ?" "They can offer donations! "Indeed, I can't help fail to notice the charity group conducts a massive publicity campaign where you can see published appeals for funds by famous Russian actors and actresses in Kommersant newspaper. You see a huge photo of an actress saying: 'I am a friend of Miloserdiya'. It is all a far cry from the situation 20 years ago where it was highly problematic to persuade many Orthodox churches to directly aid the homeless. Many churches viewed them as 'unwanted intruders' and a 'threat'. So it could be argued that the level of awareness and assistance to the homeless has increased. More and more people understand that being rendered homeless is not a crime or because those people 'are evil'. The main reasons for homelessness lie with the collapse of the Soviet System, the mass closure of so many factories leading to mass unemployment, non existent job prospects in many Russian towns, a divorce where one partner has no alternative room to go to, mentally ill patients who are discharged from hospitals, newly released prisoners, an unexpected job loss or increase in rent. Another great problem is that those coming to Moscow can't obtain a permit to find work.

            

They are forced to work illegally. But the high cost of rent in Moscow makes it almost impossible for even some Muscovites to rent a room! It is not uncommon to find an apartment where grandparents, parents and children all live together. As in Europe, often children live with their parents into their thirties. One of the saddest situations is to encounter homeless children who have fled from orphanages or drunk parents who abused them. I met some and was taken aback by how distrustful they could be. But I recall I ordered a coffee and was surprised to hear one orphan frankly tell me his story of how they had fled. I gave him instructions on how to reach our center of help. This was 20 years ago. We can never forget poor Galina, a homeless French teacher who had been cheated out of her apartment by criminals.

            

She had a drinking problem, but a heart of gold. She once intervened and stopped two policemen from taking me to a police station.

 

            

The charity organisation states that up to a maximum of 150 homeless visit them on a daily basis. Alena told me how they were helping a Sudanese woman with 2 kids.

            

While I was speaking to Alena I was interrupted by a lively and talkative man asking, "Where is Maria? Have you seen Maria anywhere?" We answered "No ,we had not seen Maria". "This organisation has changed. I don't recognize any of the faces".

      

Alena politely answered " No, we have not changed. We are still the same". After leaving the building I again found this man. He asked me for a cigarette. I don't smoke. So I decided to buy him some cigarettes. Alexi was forthcoming about his life. He told me he was from Belorussiya, and from a family of ten children. "I have lived for five years in Moscow. There is not much work where I come from. A lot of the factories and farm collectives have closed down. I remember when you once could make money from doing all kinds of chores like fixing things or sweeping the snow, but now this work is not so available. I'm the youngest of the family ... My mother died of cancer ... I was once detained by the police who informed me that one of my sisters had been looking for me. She asked me, Did you get the money I had sent you?' She always treated me as if I were a son because I was the youngest in the family." Alexi could talk about everything. I had to decline a drink with him because of an English lesson. But I certainly did not want to make him drunk. There must be many people such as Alexi roaming around Moscow. I promised or rather felt we might meet again. Whether he has ever met his beloved Maria is anyone's guess.

Petition for HOD meeting

Delegate Petition for a House of Delegates Meeting Wednesday, August 21st

Edward Hershey started this petition to Delegates and Executive Board Members of the Chicago Teachers Union

Union Siblings,

The following is a petition for the Chicago Teachers Union to hold a Special House of Delegates meeting on Wednesday, August 21st. The undersigned members of the House of Delegates feel such a meeting is necessary in the week coming into the return to school, so we may fully update our membership on the status of negotiations, as well as prepare for a strike, should one be necessary.  

The purpose of the special meeting shall be to give an update on our contract negotiations and to prepare for a potential strike.  

This petition is meant for "members of the House of Delegates" -- that is, Delegates and elected members of the Executive Board.

Identify your school and position in the "Reasons for Signing" box.  

Under the CTU Constitution:

Article XIII, Section 2e:
 
With the consent of the Executive Board, the President may call a special meeting of the House of Delegates. He/she must do so upon written petition of not less than ten percent (10%) of the members of the House, provided that such petition shall specify the purpose of the meeting. Every call for a special meeting of the House shall specify the purpose of the meeting, and no business other than that specified in the call may be transacted at that meeting except by unanimous consent.  

So far 17 delegates or Exec board members have signed on.

Arathi Jayaram, eboard member, Elementary VP, said,  ¨We have had a lot of community meetings but we need one just for delegates. They are the force behind making sure our schools are strike ready. Let’s do this and set a goal to have 1 person from each school attend. Delegate can’t come, send someone else.¨

Andrew Heiserman, delegate high school, said, ¨Delegates need the necessary information and resources to organize their buildings for a possible Strike ASAP. The PD week before we see students would be ideal.¨

CTU Contract Fight

Chicago Teachers Union Contract Fight
By Jim Vail


The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is playing the game before we vote on a new contract.

That game is verbally battling the mayor to show the union is tough about protecting its teachers and getting the best deal for a new contract.

Despite the harsh words for new Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who defeated the union-backed candidate Toni Preckwinkle, the CTU has said little to nothing about going on strike.

Compare that rhetoric to 2011 when the recently CORE-elected CTU went to war against former Mayor Rahm Emanuel and immediately had its members thinking and breathing a strike. We had the strike vote, and then walked the picket lines. It took massive organizing effort to pull it off.

This time the union is saying they are trying to settle their contract with the Board of Education. Except the Mayor has stolen some of the thunder from the union by coming up with their own sustainable community schools support announcement, and said they will hire more teaching assistants and nurses that the union wants, but is quiet on how to pay for it, and who they will be (union or non-union).

The union has already factored into its own budget a 2.5 percent raise for teachers, which they are telling the media is not enough because the Mayor wants to increase health care costs to offset the raise. 

The CTU says it wants class size reductions, more special education services, nurses, social workers, counselors and pay increases for clerks and teacher assistants.

The CTU is also trying to connect the dots for people to say Mayor Lightfootś bargaining team is the same team that Mayor Rahm Emanuel used. It is typical badgering going back and forth, until the final hour when the union officers led by President Jesse Sharkey and Mayor Lightfoot or her representative sit down and agree on a last minute deal that both hail as something wonderful for the students and teachers in Chicago.

The next union action will be a rally, press conference and board presentation at the next Chicago Public Schools board of education meeting Aug. 28.

Social media is buzzing now on Facebook about what teachers want to see in the new contract. The bottom line is you need an army to fight another army. In this case, there is an organized opposition to the CORE lead CTU, and that is Members First. They earned 5,000 votes in the last election, CORE won 10,000 votes, while 10,000 CTU members did not vote.

Members First is still active and is looking closely at what was lost in the last contract. That has CTU officers nervous about the kind of deal they can make with the Mayor.