Russian Virus

HOW RUSSIANS ARE REACTING TO THE CRISIS

By Stephen Wilson

 

             DON"T LEAVE THE ROOM!

 

             Schools and universities have closed down switching to long distance lessons while public places such as swimming pools, cinemas, and theaters close down. But supermarkets, shops, restaurants and the metro remain open.

 

             "My father in law who is 67 was stopped by the police and reprimanded with the words: "Why are you not at home? You have to stay at home. The next time we catch you again we will punish you!" My boss was stopped by the police and asked, "Where are you going?" But he is 51! I also got stopped by the police and had to tell them my exact age," said my friend Pavel, a courier. The intensified police checks are due to a recent order by the Mayor of Moscow, Sobyanin, that all people who are 65 and above must remain at home for their own safety, least they become infected by Coronavirus. However, many old people are unaware of this and when this order is enforceable. It is supposed to come into effect tomorrow. The police may be unwittingly performing their checks prematurely. But the measure perhaps serves as an indication as to how confused some people may be about what exactly they can and can't do.

              Some information claims old people can go out shopping once a day, other policemen who stop you claim they cannot.  

 

              Compared to London, and New York, which is practically wholly closed down, Moscow is half-closed down. The metro is fully operating and it is still possible to visit restaurants and go shopping. When I went for a walk today the weather was fantastic. The air was clear, cool, light, pleasant and transparent. But I noticed changes from last week. I passed by more people wearing face masks and even encountered a strange young man wearing a gas mask. Wearing a mask had almost become a norm. It is often the case that some buy masks here, but don't wear them because "real men don't wear such masks." That has largely changed.

 

              In general, the government expects people to self isolate themselves and avoid crowded places, wash their hands and faces and stay at home. As in Joseph Brodsky's poem, 'Don't leave the room, but stay at home ... You have everything you want in your room'.

              There have been a few signs of panic-buying. In some supermarkets you can no longer buy buckwheat or toilet paper. Nevertheless, if you really search you'll find

those items. Despite exceptions, most people have kept their calm composure.

 

              THE RELIGIOUS RESPONSE

 

              Unlike in France, the churches have not been closed down. One Orthodox priest told Oksana Chebotareva: "A good thing about Russia is that Russians can go to church and take communion". Despite the fact that many of those churches are often overcrowded, people keep going to church. When you ask them if they are not afraid of catching an infection by kissing an icon or by staying in a crowded place, they give a standard response such as, "God would not allow such a thing" or "We are protected here by God". When I visited Oksana I was astonished to find she had not taken down her Christmas tree. She told me, "It has a pleasant smell which can act as a disinfectant against any virus".

              Later on my walk I dropped into an Orthodox church to see how they were reacting to the virus. What I discovered in this Church devoted to the Mother of God within the vicinity of the Aviation Museum in Dinamo amazed me. I was confronted by a huge icon of the Mother of God which was being used to to protect church goers from the threat of Coronavirus. A note next to the Icon informed me that this very icon had been used in a ceremony to save a village from plague in 1771. A local doctor had warned the local church not to gather in a crowd because it would help spread the plague. The local people took this icon up to 200 people dying from the plague, performed a ceremony and out of 200 people afflicted with the plague only 3 died. The rest recovered. The doctor, who was a Protestant, converted to Orthodoxy. This icon was used again and again, in the 19th century when plague or Cholera struck. And it is being used again to protect people from another virus in 2020. Somethings never change!

 

              EDUCATION GOES ON-LINE

 

              At present, as many as 80 percent of students in further education have switched to on line distance courses. But all the schools have been close down completely.

              In the area of  schools, things can be complex and confusing. From Monday, March 16th, schools were half closed down. School students were granted the option of going to school or not. The decision was left to the parents. This was for one week. But this half-hearted measure made the work of teachers very daunting. They were asked to simultaneously teach on-line lessons as well as face to face lessons at work. They found themselves doing twice as much work as usual. But even when all the schools were forced to close there were problems.

              A teacher, Irina Lukyanova stated: "What is to be done? If the family does not have a computer, nobody knows". Another problem is whether families have enough computers or laptops for such distance learning. A big family might have many children. Nevertheless, what is amazing is how many teachers are coping with this difficult transition to on-line teaching via programs such as Zoom and Google classroom. What is certain is that teachers are confronted with a new scenario where final year exams may be postponed to a further date and the length of summer holidays either curtailed or extended. Everyone is asking 'When will this crisis pass?" People have had their incomes curtailed, lost their jobs and seen their businesses go to the wall. The crisis has been compounded by a plummet in the price of a barrel of oil to lower than 25 dollars as well as a drastic decline in the fall in the value of the ruble. Although some journalists speak as if we are on the edge of the apocalypse it is worth remembering they spoke the same way in 1998, 2008 and 2014. And Russia has experienced far worse situations in her history. This crisis is not forever. It will pass. A source in the Ministry of Health stated, "It will take two months to pass". When I told some Russians this it did not console them. Two weeks had been difficult enough. Many people can't even go two weeks without work because they'd face being evicted a landlord. As usual the full burden of this crisis will fall on the shoulders of the poorest sections of the community as well as the hard up.  All my students have cancelled their business trips and holidays abroad. Because so many flights have been cancelled some Russians are stranded and can't return home. When Russians asked the Russian consulate in Bulgaria to return home they told them, 'We can't help you."

              They simply advised them to keep washing their hands. A Bulgarian, Olga, who lives in Moscow told me, "I wonder how British teachers will cope with the crisis and get home as their schools have been closed?  They are not fully insured and can't just return home to England and flights have been cancelled. Where are they going to go? What are they going to do?" Just stay in the room? But how long can you stay in the room?

 

Book Review

BOOK REVIEW

By Stephen Wilson

 

            FAIRY TALES ABOUT THE CAT BONKA  AND

            ABOUT ALL -ALL AND ALL THAT!

 

            By Olga Aprelskaya ,

            Illustrations by Yegor Olyenikov

            Published by Premudry Sverchock, Moscow , 2015,

           

            It is mesmerizing! After reading this book it is impossible to forget the tales.

            They leave an indelible impression on the reader. 'Tales About the Cat Bonka the Cat and All That,' represents a brightly polished gem in the fabulous world of fairy-tales just waiting to be fully discovered. It is never dull!  A Russian artist Svetlana Wilson said: "It is very good. The humor is very subtle and delicate. It is not quite of this World". The English Russian teacher Anna Kogteva told me, "I could not put it down. " The book was the brainchild of the late Olga Aprelskaya who tragically died of cancer last December. But it is not only a well-written gem. It is superbly illustrated by the artist Yegor Olyenikov who won praise at an International Book fair as ranking among one of the best illustrated books in the World. The book arouses a wide range of emotions from the reader. It  in turn strikes readers as amusing, sad, poignant and touching as one of the main heroes, the Cat Bonka, inspires his friends to question and confront the problems they come across in a very subtle and amusing way. The characters are challenged to perceive the world in different ways so that it seems much more enchanted. Miracles can happen here!

 

            The author Franz Kafka once wrote, 'I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we are reading does not wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for?' And certainly, Olga's work wounds us! At times this book reminded me of Hans Christian Andersen in the sense the author sees everything is vibrant with life. In Andersen's works pots, pans and snowmen are alive while in Olga's tales it might be an old boot or snowflake. In Andersen's tale: 'What One can Invent' a character is told that if he sharply opens his eyes and attentively listens he will find stories everywhere.

            In Olga's tales you can discover stories in an attic or discover one in every falling snowflake gently falling from the sky.

 

            The tales tell of how Bonka and his friends, a rat, a butterfly Toiyi and 'the Unknown Lu' attempt to help, assist and make sense of a bewildering world. What children may find appealing is how naive and childlike the characters are. Like young children, the characters are constantly asking questions about the universe. While this relentless questioning might torment and perplex many adults, they never upset or annoy Bonka the cat. He is always at the ready to patiently listen to them and let them discover themselves some possible answers. One funny story goes:

            'The Unknown Lu lived in an unknown 'where.' Concerning where he lived, only the postman knew. They brought him many letters, sent to 'nowhere'. The letters always found the address!' It emerges that Lu has no real home like most people have which is made from bricks or wood. But when he looks up at the beautiful sky he understands that this is his roof. And that everywhere under the sky can be his home.

            In another story, cats argue whether they can smile or not. Bonka  argues they can, but only with their whiskers! In another story Bonka suggests to one of his friends that they stand upside down and be silent together. This exercise will help them to better understand each other.  A particularly found poignant the story of how rat enters the forest and finds an old boot. When the rat rudely tells the old boot, "You are just an old boot", the boot retorts, "I'm not an old boot but an elegant shoe....You can look inside me". When the rat looks inside the old boot he finds a beautifully colored tent with a tree holding up the sky. The rat climbs up the tree and flies into the sky. His friend the unknown Lu who has been watching all this says, "But Rats can't fly." The rat replies, "If you look inside me you'll find that in my soul I am a bird".

            There are a lot more charming and delightful stories you can read. There exists a common misconception that fairy tales are only for children and not adults. Too many people presume we ought to 'grow out' of reading fairy tales'. As a result a lot of adults have not even read most of Hans Christian Andersen's tales. They miss out on his tales such as 'The Shadow' which were full of sharp satire and wit.

            This book will appeal to many children as well as adults. It won't just be amusing, but will encourage them to keep asking questions. And it might just inspire brave adults to take the poet T.S. Eliot 's words, "Old men ought to be explorers" truly to heart!

 

            Unfortunately this book has not been formally translated and published in English. Yet it deserves to be and it will only be a matter of time before it is translated. But if you are Russian or know Russian well enough you can order it from the address below:

 

           aprelskaya@mail.com or you can drop me a line or send a letter stephen.wilson@yandex.ru.

Corona in Russia

RUSSIAN REACTION TO CORONAVIRUS

By Stephen Wilson

 

            Schools, work and planned public events are ceasing  as the Russian state extends wider quarantine measures to almost all areas of life.

 

           "Have you washed your hands? I mean really washed your hands not just for a few seconds as you usually do but at least 40 seconds. If you wash your hands for 40 to 60 seconds everything will be okay," said a colleague to me after she noticed I had arrived in her kitchen. I felt like a scolded pupil in school again. But I recall that when I was training to be a psychiatric nurse over 30 years ago our instructor taught us that many adults don't really wash their hands in the right way, but do it too casually and briefly. When on Monday 16th March I was travelling on the Moscow

underground I was handed a newspaper headlines warning: "We correctly wash our hands, clean our smartphones and safely become healthy".

           When I entered the the German center in Moscow I dropped into the staff table kitchen and woe and behold, was a poster, issued by the World Health Organisation with eleven illustrated pictures on how to meticulously wash and wipe you hands, the amount of soap and different motions. The same morning I received two messages from students saying their lessons had to be cancelled because of quarantine measures. I was beginning to feel a little apprehensive. When I stepped into the office students told me that they had been advised not to shake hands. They joked about this.

           But all kinds of advice is being given such as 'Don't shake hands, Don't kiss' and 'Only pay by credit card'. Although sending your children to school is largely optional some schools have already closed. Children are staying at home and being sent a lot of homework and doing lessons on-line. When some of my private school children were told "You don't have to go to school tomorrow " I have never seen such faces beaming with joy. An 11-year-old girl told me, "It is great. No school tomorrow". Her father was not so keen. When she said to her father, "I don't have school tomorrow" he answered an ambiguous "probably not". This euphoria has been brief as teachers send students at home a lot of homework and tasks. This is not quite a holiday from school.

 

           An adult student told me he had been forced to cancel a holiday to Italy and business trips abroad. They are also doing much more work from home.

           But I can see a great deal of disappointment and we are both asking, 'When will normality return to Russia and Europe. Are people overreacting to this crisis?

 

           I came across a view from one Russian English Teacher, Natasha, that "Unlike in Europe or America, we in Russia are not over-reacting or becoming hysterical.

           We have the proper response. Certainly the number of reported cases of the virus may well be intentionally understated {less than 100} and the spread of the virus has been understated. But strong measures are being implemented. Anyone who has returned from abroad must remain indoors for two weeks. And the people who happen to share the same accommodation are also obliged to follow suit. The borders to most countries have practically been closed. Chinese students are being subject to unwanted attention and many people are avoiding them. The idea that Russians may be adopting a calmer approach than those Europeans is a flattering conceit. It is at least questionable. Everywhere I go in Moscow I overhear the same topic being spoken.

 

          "This is hysterical overreaction. The World has gone mad. Russia had been suffering from an epidemic of flu yet the government did not react. People are dying from car accidents all the time yet there is no such response," says my wife Svetlana. She is sick and tired of hearing about the topic. But she has a point. Far more women are being beaten to death by men {12,000} a year. This figure far exceeds the number of people who have died from this virus in Russia. Yet instead of taking urgent measures to protect women from violence the Government passed a law in 2017

decriminalizing the domestic  violence of first time offenders! It was like passing a law to incite violence! As a result, domestic cases of violence against women shot up. We seem to have huge double standards here.  Infecting some one by accident with coronavirus seems to many  far more heinous than beating a woman to death.

 

           There are rumors that Moscow may take drastic steps such as imposing a curfew and shutting all services down. Nobody would be able to leave their homes and the underground would be closed down. However, politicians and officials said there were no such plans to close down the underground.  So far, it is possible to drop into supermarkets and purchase toilet paper and food. The shelves are not empty and there are no signs of the rushed panic to buy up supplies as in London and Paris. In the underground you notice more passengers wearing face masks, but they seem to stand out as a conspicuous minority. Although people are not in a state of panic a tense and apprehensive mood pervades the city. This is largely because people are in the dark as to what happens next and for how long!

Intl Women's Day

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

RADICAL ROOTS ARE ALMOST FORGOTTEN

By Stephen Wilson

 

            

Unless you are under the spell of an 'urban trance', you can't fail to notice women carrying either a bouquet or more often, a solitary flower. It is inescapable. And it it not even International Women's Day which occurs on 8th March, but the 5th, 6th or 7th of March. On those days Moscow is engulfed by a a sea of solitary flowers.

            

There is a pathos about this as if the inner loneliness of so many women suddenly surfaces. But if you look more attentively you'll notice not only the women carrying single flowers, but women embracing each other and giving either flowers and gifts.

            

On this day not only do some employers feel obliged to hand out flowers to their employees or men shower women with gifts, but women give each other flowers. And some women don't receive anything at all. So the distinct impression might be that International Women's Day is a Russian version of either Mother's Day or Saint Valentine's Day. Instead of being a profound protest and affirmation of the rights of women, it is often reduced to a gift giving ritual. In deed, many Russians are unaware of the historical roots and the original purpose of this day. This day has largely become a chance to promote a brand or for speculators to sell over priced flowers at staggering prices. The price of a rose can either double or triple.

            

A rose that usually costs 50 rubles can fetch 100 -150 rubles. This day has been so commercialized that you can forgive people for becoming almost indifferent or cynical about it.

 

            ORIGINS

 

            Perhaps it is no surprise to find that the original radical vision enshrined in International Women's Day is neither remembered or affirmed. It is ghost which the government would prefer to exorcise but can't. Despite the appeals or rituals of priests, the ghost keeps returning to haunt the government. For International Women's Day represents a fearless protest against all forms of oppression against women demanding they be treated as equals and

acknowledged with true respect. Its historical roots can be traced back to America, Denmark and Russia. For some time American women who were protesting against unfair conditions and poor pay in factories wanted to lay aside a special day where they would gather to not only remember the past struggle of women, but to affirm and strengthen the existing fight for emancipation. This meant equal pay, an eight hour day and decent working conditions. The American Socialist Party proposed such a day. This event was also a day of remembrance following a horrific fire which killed as many as 146 immigrant women at the Triangle Shirtwaist company on March 25th, 1911. In 1910, in Denmark, the Second International agreed to accept a resolution by Clara Zetkin to found International Women's day. In 1911 it was being celebrated in Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. But the most profound impact of this day came in Russia where women gathered to protest against the price of bread, on the 23rd of February and sparked off the Russian Revolution of 1917. It is true that women gained some rights from the revolution such as better rights to marriage and divorce, better access to education and care for their children. But women are still oppressed by the double burden of being expected to hold a full time job and look after the children. 

And in more recent years their rights against abuse and violence have been eroded. In 2017, first time violence against women was decriminalized after Putin signed a bill defining it as non-criminal if the violence was 'harmless'! This led to an huge escalation in violence against women. According to official figures, as many as 12000 women are murdered each year by men. Most women who are in prison for murder were often acting in self-defense against abusive

husbands. In a word, they should not be in prison.  So the legacy of this day is something much more meaningful and profound. It is a call for a genuine and deep improvement in the quality of life of all women. It is a demand to end all forms of abuse and cruelty against women. More positively, it is an appeal to treat women  with full respect and dignity so they can feel happier. This is not as difficult as it sounds. You can learn to listen better as well as encourage and support their aspirations for self-realization.

           

 

            WHAT SOME WOMEN WANT

 

            The great Austrian Father of Psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud once confessed, "I have never been able to establish what Women actually want". Perhaps it makes more sense just to let women speak for themselves. Second City

Teachers decided to ask some women two questions: "What do you think of International Women's Day? and "What could be the best present you could get? " The answers were often unexpected. I asked a shop assistant in a games shop in Moscow, at the Baby shop center, what could be the best present. Yelena answered: "The best present would be a car, but I understand my daughter and my man can't afford it because of the pay they earn. But I think any present, no matter how small, should be appreciated by women."

            

I found that not all women wanted flowers because they died so quickly or were awkward to carry about after work. Some women prefer to receive plants or are happy to just get a day off work. For a woman tortured by insomnia the best gift

someone could grant her would be sleep! If only we could grant the right gift!

 

            I asked Olga, a young mother of two children and a philologist from Bulgaria, what she thought. "We don't celebrate this day much in Sofia. The best thing I could get would be non-material things. I prefer an exciting experience and the emotions that go with it. I would like a voucher or a ticket to an exhibition or music concert. I think we need emotions and not gifts. My husband likes to give gifts to me and both my daughters so he makes it a special day for us."

 

            A Russian artist Svetlana Wilson told me: "During the Soviet period we did not take this day seriously. It was a day that the government used to promote its own propaganda. Men never gave me gifts. I do remember that once my husband bought me flowers on this day from a trader on one occasion. I also remember that in one factory I was working an old and bald employer handed out a single flower to each of his employees. I thought this was very sad. But I think this day was given back to me by my daughter who started to give me presents and made me a special card with her own hands. It was a gift from the soul. So it has become a special day for me!"

Bye Bye Columbus!

CPS Agrees to Change Columbus to Indigenous People´s Day Holiday
By Jim Vail

The Chicago Board of Education decided in a 5-2 vote to replace the Columbus Holiday with Indigenous People´s Day.

The next day two aldermen threatened to go to war with CPS over the name change.

¨You can have your DAMN Indigenous People´s Day just not on Columbus Day,¨ thundered Alderman Nick Sposato.

How´s that for being an outright racist, believing honoring a murderer of the native population should be continued at the expense of honoring the native people.

And that´s how the mainstream media such as The Chicago Sun-Times and Wbez Radio reported the hysterical reaction from two Italian aldermen speaking on behalf of the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Committee. 

The corporate media here simply repeat their lies about Columbus, merely acknowledging that he did not really discover America, there were already people living here.

They write nothing about the fact that Christopher Columbus murdered and enslaved the natives, cut off their hands and forced them to wear their severed hands around their necks if they did not work hard enough to find the gold. He shipped many back to Spain to be slaves. He even boasted whipping and raping the people in his diaries.

Columbus started the holocaust of the native population here.

This Italian Committee that supposedly speaks on behalf of Chicago Italians - it does not - wants to continue the myth that Columbus is the pride of the Italian people. 

There are plenty of Italian heroes, and Columbus is not one of them. 

How the Columbus myth became the truth here is interesting. One video I watched stated that Washington Irving, the celebrated writer of Sleepy Hallow, wrote a book about Columbus when most people never heard of the guy. It turned into a bestseller and earned the fabled American writer a lot of money.

Today we have a star on our city flag honoring the 1892 World´s Columbian Exposition, which celebrated the 400 year anniversary of his landing in America. There is the Columbus Day parade every year and Columbus Day. 

Yes, the Italians were discriminated against like any newly-arrived immigrants, but it was the ruling class who decided to honor Columbus and colonization. Most statutes and monuments in this city and throughout the country are sanctioned by the rulers - mostly presidents, slaveholders and generals. 

True heroes like Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, and others did not just get a street or park named after them in this city. It only comes after a battle the people have to fight against those who rule this city. Activists are still trying to change the name of Douglas Park in Lawndale (a mostly African-American community on the West Side) - named after Stephen Douglas a slaveholder - to Frederick Douglass, the great black civil rights hero who fought against slavery. 

The fight to get CPS to drop the Columbus celebration in October was hard fought. It began with students like mine who spoke out against celebrating this monster. But the person who made the change possible was Sarah Dennis, an adjunct professor and activist against racism. She spoke out constantly against celebrating Columbus and then lobbied the decision makers. After the Chicago Board of Education president told my students that they cannot do anything about changing Columbus Day because the state dictates district policy, Dennis found out that Evanston and Oak Park School Districts did not celebrate Columbus Day. So it was possible.

After a series of meetings, Dennis took it to the next level and got the American Indian Center involved to lobby the Mayor´s office to change the name. Dennis said Mayor Lori Lightfoot asked the Indian Center to meet with the Italian Committee, but the Italians refused. Instead, they focused on lobbying aldermen to not enact a city proposal outlawing Columbus celebration. They hosted a free dinner for the legislators, and dressed up female servers to serve as ¨eye candy.¨

Dennis said a big boost to end Columbus was the resolution the Chicago Teachers Union passed to eliminate Columbus Day and replace it with Indigenous People's Day. She said the board of education heads perked up when she was armed with the union resolution demanding the change. The teachers spoke!

The ugly reaction of the two aldermen after CPS´s decision to eliminate Columbus Day by supposedly declaring war on CPS was purely theater on behalf of the Italian lobbyists tied to money interests. And shame on the mainstream media for reporting their erroneous comments about the Italian hero, which forced the mayor to say she will not ban Columbus Day in the city at large.

Over 5,300 Chicagoans have signed a petition supporting the name change, including principals, teachers, parents, children, 10 aldermen, state reps, state senators and an Illinois congressman.

Dennis said they found a letter by 50 Italian-American academics around the country in support of changing Columbus Day to Indigenous People´s Day, with some of the scholars from Northwestern U. and Loyola U.


In an interview on WTTW, a representative from the Italian Committee said that Columbus Day is a tradition and the state legislature passed an Indigenous People's Day celebration at the end of October to not conflict with Columbus Day. However, the American Indian Center was never consulted when this law was passed. It was purely done behind closed doors to continue celebrating this monster!

Columbus tortured and enslaved Arawaks and Tainos, and he established the repartimiento system of forced labor in the desperate search for gold. These and other atrocities established a genocidal approach to colonization of the Americas and it remains a crucial aspect of Columbus´s legacy.  
  

Froy Jimenez

Tribune Endorses CTU Member who CTU Rejected
By Jim Vail

Froy Jimenez

Froy Jimenez thought he did everything he was supposed to do to get the Chicago Teachers Union endorsement to run for state senator.

He led the CTU Political Action Committee and he served as a strike captain during the 2019 Chicago teachers strike. If there was a union battle, he was ready to fight the fight.

But the CTU decided to not endorse him for the state senate and instead stay neutral in his race against Democrat Tony Munoz.

CORE´s first president Karen Lewis encouraged her fellow CTU members to run for political office to save public education.

But this encouragement ran against the hard cold reality of backing winners to fight in Springfield.

Several CTU members who have run for office did not get their union´s endorsement. The PAC committee did not endorse Lindblom High School teacher and delegate Ed Hershey when he ran for alderman on the Southwest Side, and they did not endorse music teacher and delegate Angie Maloney when she ran for alderman on the North Side.

Today CTU President Jesse Sharkey and Vice President Stacy Gates do not tell their members to run for political office. They do tell them to vote.

The teachers union political strategy appears to be winning. They have helped elect several CTU members, including Sue Garza as alderwoman on the Southeast Side, Aaron Ortiz as state representative and union organizer Brandon Johnson as a Cook Country commissioner.

But the CTU political playbook has also infuriated some who heard the call and thought they were doing the right thing.

Froy Jimenez did not get the CTU´s endorsement, but he did get both the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times endorsements.

¨I followed the CTU endorsement process,¨ he told Second City Teachers. ¨I was the only person who applied for formal endorsement by submitting my candidate questionnaire responses on time. I was later interviewed by the PAC/Legislative Committee and subsequently that committee recommended me fully for CTU endorsement.¨

¨CTU later got involved at the Executive level and first proposed that they were ´meeting with Munoz´ to arrange a possible deal to help them in the future with the CTU Legislative agenda, essentially throwing me, their own union member, under the bus.¨

Jimenez later storm the stage at a House of Delegates meeting to demand his endorsement. One delegate coaxed him to sit down and wait til the next meeting. The next meeting came and no endorsement was made in his senate race.

He said Munoz never interviewed with the PAC committee. He simply called up the leadership and was granted a meeting.

Jimenez said he did not support the CTU´s endorsement of Toni Preckwinkle because she is a part of the Chicago Machine. However, he never opposed the endorsements of House Speak Mike Madigan, another political insider.

Munoz is also part of the machine who in the past supported SB7 which whacked the union´s collective bargaining and seniority rights and has supported charter schools. 

However, so did Madigan and many from the Democratic Party. The union can attest that they have changed the party´s line on charter schools and anti-union measures.

But as CORE´s message of racial and social justice rings loud and clear throughout the city, the expectations of several members like Jimenez have been elevated and then crushed when faced with the reality of cold, hard politics.

Former PAC Committee leader Ben Coyle also left the PAC/Leg Committee because he was disappointed with the Executive Committee and CORE and Joey McDermott says he was fired for questioning the union´s reliance on old school politics and not getting the members more involved.