Why No CTU Rally After Massive Layoffs
By Jim Vail
The question that should be on Chicago teachers minds is why didn't our union hold a rally, as they like to do, after the Chicago Public Schools announced that 1,000 teachers and teacher aids were being fired.
I asked another delegate who agreed that the Chicago Teachers Union should have made a bold protest-in-the-streets statement that firing our members to pay the banks and other rich folks is not ok.
The CTU did issue a statement, that was circulated in the mainstream corporate media.
But the CTU has built its reputation on holding numerous rallies around our plight. Closing schools, firing teachers, privatizing education in this city, lots of protests.
It can become a regular occurrence on almost a bi-weekly basis.
So why not now! CPS went ahead and said f#%k you to teachers, and the union blinked?
The fight to stop CPS from closing our public schools, firing our public school teachers and destroying public education is real. And ugly!
CTU President Karen Lewis cannot say she politely disagrees with the Sun-Times editorial that teachers now have to sacrifice. Heck no, it's outrageous for Mayor 1% to back bank contracts, but not union contracts, and keep sacrificing the teachers!
Look - we can't be polite when it comes to CPS destroying our children's, parents' and teachers' lives while singing praises to Wall Street. You shut down the streets, you bang on their doors, and of course, you withhold your labor.
We protest!
By Jim Vail
The question that should be on Chicago teachers minds is why didn't our union hold a rally, as they like to do, after the Chicago Public Schools announced that 1,000 teachers and teacher aids were being fired.
I asked another delegate who agreed that the Chicago Teachers Union should have made a bold protest-in-the-streets statement that firing our members to pay the banks and other rich folks is not ok.
The CTU did issue a statement, that was circulated in the mainstream corporate media.
But the CTU has built its reputation on holding numerous rallies around our plight. Closing schools, firing teachers, privatizing education in this city, lots of protests.
It can become a regular occurrence on almost a bi-weekly basis.
So why not now! CPS went ahead and said f#%k you to teachers, and the union blinked?
The fight to stop CPS from closing our public schools, firing our public school teachers and destroying public education is real. And ugly!
CTU President Karen Lewis cannot say she politely disagrees with the Sun-Times editorial that teachers now have to sacrifice. Heck no, it's outrageous for Mayor 1% to back bank contracts, but not union contracts, and keep sacrificing the teachers!
Look - we can't be polite when it comes to CPS destroying our children's, parents' and teachers' lives while singing praises to Wall Street. You shut down the streets, you bang on their doors, and of course, you withhold your labor.
We protest!
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