Looking Ahead to the Spring Semester.

As our group’s first semester comes to a close, I’d like to thank all of your for your involvement in the Student Activists, and look forward to our group’s new projects next semester.

One student who stopped by our info tables last week had a very interesting idea: the Student Activists could spend the week of spring break doing a hands-on volunteer project. Initially we thought about helping with Habitat for Humanity doing a construction project, but unfortunately (though understandably) Habitat for Humanity in Chicago shuts down in winter, and won't really get going until June.

Instead, we thought why not then head to warmer climes and spend spring break week volunteering in New Orleans? One excellent volunteer organization is Hands On New Orleans.

Hands On provides food and housing for volunteers and coordinates daily service projects ( ranging from construction work repairing homes and schools to helping in animal shelters, tutoring in schools and much more. Click here for more info). All we have to do is show up and be willing to help out! They are so well-organized it would make it very easy for us to spend a few days there doing very meaningful work. Click here for more details on the volunteer experience.

My sister and her wife spent 3 months volunteering with Hands On New Orleans last fall and had a very positive experience. You can read their blog about their experience in New Orleans here.

The obvious big hurdle to get over is funding: transport to get down there (appx $250 flight or $180 greyhound bus) and the HandsOn fee of $25 per person per day to cover room/board. I’m currently looking into availability of funding from the school, or feasibility of organizing a fundraising effort. I’m sure many of you have experience in seeking funds, etc. and I'd welcome any and all suggestions!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Other smaller project ideas for the Student Activists next semester include:

-Recycling Campaign on Campus

-Homeless Outreach at Lincoln Park Community Shelter

-Establishing Free Speech Boards on campus and on the portal

(where postings do not need approval from campus activities office)

-Volunteering at the South Side Community Art Center (where there is a lot that could be done, including helping to clean up/ repair the building and grounds to make it a more useable community art center)

-Participating in rallies, letter-writing campaigns and the like for various causes such as Labor Right and Peace

-Inviting Guest speakers to give talks at SAIC.

Potential speakers include:

-representatives from the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (inviting in formerly-homeless people to speak about their life and experience)

-representatives from the Chicago Recycling Coalition

-representatives from some of the many Gang Prevention Coalitions in Chicago

-or others! Please let me know if you have suggestions on guest speakers!

I would very much appreciate your input and/or willingness to take a leadership role on these or other new projects. Your interest and participation directs our group activities!

Historic Victory in Chicago Factory Strike

In case you missed the headlines, after a 7-day sit-in and heated negotiations attracting international attention, the stiking workers at Chicago's Republic Windows and Doors factory won their fight to get the money and benefits owed them when their plant was shut down earlier this month.
UE Director of Organization Bob Kingsley spoke on behalf of the National Union, describing the outcome of the occupation as “a victory for workers everywhere,” and as “an historic victory for America’s labor movement.”
Get full details of the victory here and click here for excellent videos and coverage on on how this event is already impacting the future of the labor rights movement. Photo slideshow is here.

Protesting Workers Occupy Chicago Factory

  SUPPORT THE WORKERS' OCCUPATION OF THE REPUBLIC WINDOWS AND DOORS PLANT IN CHICAGO!

During the week of December 8-13
Organize Protests in Front of Your Local Bank of America Office or Building

About 250 employees of Republic Windows and Doors plant in Chicago, IL began an occupation of the plant on Friday, Dec. 5, the last scheduled day of the plant's operation. The workers, members of the United Electrical Workers Union Local 1110, were not given the legally mandated 60-day prior notification of the plant´s closing; also the plant´s management and owners did not show up to a meeting with the workers scheduled for Dec. 5.

The workers decided to occupy the plant. They have vowed to stay in the plant until they receive, at the very least, 60 days pay. The owners say that they had to close because Bank of America refused to extend them any more credit. The Bank of America has received hundreds of billions of dollars over the past three months in bailout money from the government.

These workers, who are overwhelmingly Latin@ immigrants, have taken a courageous stand by putting their bodies on the line in their fight for the right to feed their families and to be treated with respect and dignity like all human beings. In a way, they are fighting for the rights of all workers who are under attack, whether they are restaurant workers, public employees or auto workers fighting to hold on to their jobs and union.

We must stand with them.

To all--no matter what your circumstances are--who are outraged over mass layoffs, home foreclosures and are watching the government spend literally trillions of dollars to bail out banks while doing nothing to stop the massive layoffs and evictions that are beating down working and poor people, take a stand in solidarity with these workers in Chicago. You could be next.

Jobs at a living wage are a right!

Support the Demands of the Republic Windows and Doors Workers:

--Management Must Meet with the Workers
--Workers Must Receive 60 Days Full Pay
--No Repression Against the Workers; No Attempts to Remove, Arrest or Charge Them 

"We are sending a message to all the workers in America. We will try to keep up the fight and we ask for your support."
     Vincente Rangel, United Electrical Workers' Steward and participant in the occupation

Local Actions:
Chicago:
Sun, Dec 7, 10:30 AM Jessie Jackson and Rainbow PUSH deliver turkeys to workers occupying Republic Windows and Doors factory, 1333 N Hickory st. (near corner of Halsted and Division) 
Monday, Dec 8th, 12 noon - Press Conference before UE workers meet with Bank of America and company executives. Supports welcome, bring food and monetary donations. 
Tuesday, Dec 9th, 12 noon - Solidarity action at Bank of America, 231 S. LaSalle, Chicago, IL

Charlotte, NC:
Monday, Dec 8th, 12 Noon - Picket at Bank of American national Headquarters to support Republic workers. Corner of Trade St and Tryon in downtown Charlotte. Organized by UE local 150. call Dante Strobino at 919-539-2051 for more info

Detroit, MI: 
Wednesday, Dec 10 12:00 noon - PROTEST RALLY, WEDS., DEC. 10, 12:00 NOON - BANK OF AMERICA, Guardian Building, Congress at Griswold, downtown Detroit

for more info, visit bailoutpeople.org

===========================================================

In Addition, if you'll be near NYC over break:

In Commemoration of the 80th Anniversary of

DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.’s Birthday

A FIGHTBACK CONFERENCE

Bail Out the PEOPLE,
Not Wall Street!

Uniting & fighting against WAR and for economic & social justice in the biggest crisis since the depression of the 1930s!

SATURDAY, JANUARY 17th -12 to 6 pm
Public School 41, 116 West 11 St., NYC

• Panels
• Invited Guests
• Breakouts
• Workshops, including:

• the current crises
• the elections
• the first 100 days in the new administration: what can we do to forward the struggle?
• mobilizing students & youth
• solidarity with immigrant workers
• organizing workers
• international solidarity
• merging the antiwar and social justice movements: is it possible?
• the relevance of King for today
• and more.

Dear activists and organizers:

The Bail Out the People Movement invites you to come together on Jan. 17, 2009 to talk, share and plan to fight back. If there was ever a time for us to recommit ourselves to Dr. King’s struggle for economic and social justice, there can hardly be any doubt that now, 80 years after his birth, is that time.

The people made history by electing Barack Obama president. Certainly that accomplishment realizes a measure of King’s dream. Yet poverty, racism and war remain a growing part of our reality--especially now, as people’s lives are being devastated by the biggest worldwide economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

In addition to the almost $1 trillion dollars that the U.S. government has wasted on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it plans to spend almost $8 trillion dollars to save the crisis-ridden economic system. Most of this fortune has been given to the big banks. An undetermined yet small percentage of that money is pledged towards an infrastructure renewal project that promises to create jobs. Yet unemployment is rising so fast that the infrastructure renewal proposal is far too little and too distant to have any impact on the depression-level joblessness that we face.

Given the remarkable scope of the government’s intervention into the financial sector of the economy to shore up the banks, it is shockingly criminal that the government hasn’t declared a moratorium on the evictions and home foreclosures that throw thousands of families onto the streets everyday.

It is no less shocking that the government has done nothing to stop the waves of cruel budget cuts that are forcing students to quit school, raising public transportation fares, making healthcare even more inaccessible for millions, and pushing more workers onto the unemployment line. read full call here

Get Creative - Improve the Environment

Young People are Invited to Submit Ideas to Improve the Environment 

MTV and Ashoka GenV Invite Young People to Submit Their Ideas to Improve the Environment

Deadline: December 31, 2008

MTV Switch (http://mtvswitch.org/ ), MTV Networks International's global climate change campaign, and Ashoka GenV ( http://genv.net/ ) are inviting young people to submit their creative ideas to help improve the environment through the "Dream It. Do It. Challenge."

Applicants will be eligible for seed funding awards of up to $1,000 each to make their ideas a reality. Up to twenty-five grants will be awarded for this challenge. The best projects may also be featured in a half-hour MTV documentary scheduled for Earth Day 2009. In addition, the Lemelson Foundation will award five project leaders a trip to Boston, Massachusetts, to take part in a roundtable discussion on climate change at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The challenge is open to all youth between the ages of 12 and 20 in North America and Europe and 12 and 24 everywhere else. Each participant will be required to submit an action plan showing what activities will be carried out and how the grant will be spent. Each participant will need to form a team with at least two other youth to qualify for funding.

Ideas and action plans may be submitted in English, Spanish, Portuguese, or French. Project ideas are evaluated and grants are awarded on an ongoing basis. Applicants are advised not to wait until the December 31, 2008, deadline to submit their ideas.

Visit the program's Web site for complete entry guidelines:
http://www.mtv-venture.org/

RFP Link:
http://fconline.foundationcenter.org/pnd/15015947/mtvventure

For additional RFPs in Environment, visit:
http://foundationcenter.org/pnd/rfp/cat_environment.jhtml

President Pickets Congress

The Congress Hotel disgraces Chicago. The home of the longest Hotel Strike in the history of America.

Barack Obama walked the picket line as our Senator. He will walk it again as our President.

Go to PRESIDENTPICKETSCONGRESS.ORG for more info.

Saturday Greenpeace Event at Millenium Park

Hi,

My name is Kate and I’m part of the global warming team here at Greenpeace. I am reaching out to you today with a very special opportunity. 

Right now, I am organizing a rally and march as part of the International Day of Action for Climate Solutions on Saturday, Dec 6th, 11:00 am at Wrigley Square Plaza in Chicago. We’ve got something special planned for the rally, but to make it happen we’re going to need YOUR help.

We've made a 30 by 50 foot banner with a message to our world leaders: “We are Ready to Save the Climate! Yes We Can!” And it’s going to take at least 300 people to be able to hold up this massive banner for a photo.

So round up your family and friends and show the world you’re serious about global warming. RSVP today!

What: International Day of Action for Climate Solutions
When: Saturday, December 6th at 11:00 am.
Where: Wrigley Square plaza in Millennium Park (near the intersection of Michigan and Randolph)

RSVP

This rally will coincide with the UN Climate Change Conference happening in Poznan, Poland. This iconic Greenpeace photo will send a powerful message to climate negotiators in Poland, and we’d love for you to be a part of it.

It’s time the world -- and our leadership -- knows that Americans are serious about global warming.

Hope to see you there,

Kate Ogden
Greenpeace Global Warming Team

P.S. If you have any questions, you can contact me directly at kate.ogden@wdc.greenpeace.org

 

Write to Mayor Daley!

Send Chicago's Mayor a Message!

Make your thoughts heard on recycling or other issues that matter to you!

Use this easy message form here.

Sunday Peace Rally

Here are some images of today's Peace Vigil outside the museum.  

These vigils have been going on for years, and are held every Sunday from 1:30-3:30.  

It's officially organized by the "People Against War & Empire" but there are people there from all different community groups, and others who aren't associated with any group at all.  

It was great to meet some veteran activists at today’s event (granted, some can be more than a bit wacky, but it’s still great to talk with them and learn about all the community activism happening around the city.)  Also, talking with the crazy protesters is a reminder of how important it is for us to make our own voices heard: we don't want the only people speaking against the war to be the crazy people.  It's important to make it clear that sane people are against the war, too!  

 .................................................................................................

One of the protesters gave me a flyer from the Albany Park, North Park, Mayfair Neighbors for Peace group.  

It reads:

RISE UP 

for

Come...  See...  Hear...  

and/or participate in a movement

of the People, by the People,

for all the People everywhere

and for the very Planet itself

At these locations>>>

SILENT PEACE VIGIL

The Federal Building

Tuesdays, 8-9 am

Jackson and Dearborn, Chicago

Sponsor: 8th Day Center for Justice

Info: 312 641 5151  8thday@gmail.com

www.8thdaycenter.org

(A catholic faith-based NGO for Social Change)

PEACE VIGIL

The Art Institute of Chicago (front steps)

Sundays, 1:30-3:30 pm

Adas and MIchigan Ave, Chicago

Sponsor: People Against War & Empire

Info: 312 587 1605 hooshi@sbcglobal.net

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ChicagoPeaceVigilArtInstitute/

OAK PARK PEACE CORNER

Saturdays, 1-3 pm

Harlem & Lake, Northwest corner

River Forest

Info: 708 692 5818

Join Us For A Few Minutes Or More

Help Us In Standing Up For Peace

Help Make This Dream A Reality

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

And from the "For Peace and Justice" Neighbors for Peace and Justice Newsletter:

JOIN IN-- NEIGHBORHOOD ANTI-WAR PROTEST:

How about joining us this SATURDAY at noon at Lawrence and Kimball

for our weekly neighborhood anti-war protest demading that the government bring al the troops home now and stop preparations for aggressive war against Iran? We have leaflets and placards, including one that says "Honk to Bring All the Troops Home Now."

Many drivers, and passersby, enthusiastically sound off.

For information--773 250 3335

justice.yes@juno.com

================================

The same newsletter also contained this report from last months' protest in N. Chicago:

REPORT ON OCT 11 Rally and March:

Stop War For Empire

BRING ALL TROOPS HOME NOW!

-Out of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan -No War on Iran -End the Occupation of Palestine

On Saturday, October 11, Devon Street was alive with 500 protesters marching to a determined drum beat. Smiling people from the Pakistani neighborhood lined both sidewalks to welcome the opposition to the U.S. wars for empire.

Signs and banners and chanting marchers denounced the many ways the U.S. is killing and abusing people in the U.S. and around the world, and what needs to be done:

-Bring All the Troops Home Now-- from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan!

-No Threats of War and Sanctions Against Iran!

-No U.S. $$$ to Israel! End the Occupation of Palestine!

-Stop Using Our Taxes to Bail Out the Rich!

-Money to Fund Jobs, Heathcare, and Education!

-No Raids or Deportations of Immigrants!

At rallies at Devon and Leavitt and Devon and Washtenaw, speaker after speaker demanded an end to U.S. crimes. These included various speakers from the Pakistani-American and Palestinian communities and the anti-war movement.

This is how Chicago marked the 6th anniversary of Congress' shameful authorization for an illegal war against Iraq. This is how we, including a contingent from Albany Park, North Park, Mayfair Neighbors for Peace and Justice, demanded that the U.S. troops stop invading and launching missiles into Pakistan against the express wishes of the Pakistani people and government, and demanded a stop to all U.S. wars and injustice, abroad and at home.

=====================================

there are also protesters there from the group "The World Can't Wait"

You can check out their Chicago website: http://www.chicagoworldcantwait.org

and their national website: http://www.worldcantwait.net

-----------------------------------------

So what do you guys think of these list of demands?

What do you think about the effectiveness of these types of public demonstrations? 

Hope you can bring your thoughts and comments to our next meeting!

Peace Rally this Sunday

THIS SUNDAY at 1:30

Join other Chicago Activists for a

PEACE RALLY

Outside the Art Institute Museum entrance.

Bring signs, friends, or just yourself!

SUNDAY AT THE LIONS!!!! RALLY FOR A DESERVING CAUSE...PEACE!

Hope to see you there!

Lincoln Park Community Shelter

http://www.lpcsonline.org/

Check out this website for the Lincoln Park Community Shelter.

They're a great organization, and I'm very hopeful that the Student Activists will be able to do some meaningful work with them in the future.

Chicago Coalition for the Homeless

http://www.chicagohomeless.org/

Check out this excellent website to learn about the different ways in which CCH is fighting to end homelessness, and how we can get involved with their efforts!

"Homelessness is caused by a complicated set of factors, from thecritical shortage of affordable housing and living wage jobs to oursociety's lack of care for people experiencing homelessness.
To address this complexity, CCH employs policy experts, developmentspecialists, community organizers and legal advocates. This wide rangeof expertise enables us to take the fight to end homelessness whereverit needs to be fought, from the streets of Chicago to the halls oflocal, state and federal government."

Chicago Recycling Coalition

Check out this website for lots of info on recycling activism around Chicago:

http://www.chicagorecycling.org/index.php

Chicago Recycling

Click here for the official City of Chicago website with Extensive Info on Chicago Recycling.

If you live in an apartment that isn't currently offering recycling services, this is a great website to show your landlord or property manager.

Here's some good news:
The City of Chicago will be shifting to the Blue Cart Recycling program citywide between June of 2008 through the end of 2011!

Thursday MoveOn.org Gathering

Hi! I'm Joel, one of your neighbors in Chicago. Like so many others, I've been savoring Obama's historic victory -- and I want to make sure we keep the momentum going!

So on Thursday, 11/20, I'm hosting a "Fired Up and Ready to Go" gathering for everyone in the area who wants to keep this campaign going--and you're invited!

MoveOn is organizing these all around the country. The plan is to kick off a big campaign to help Obama pass bold, progressive changes. We're going to get started organizing locally to make sure Congress feels pressure to work with Obama on his key initiatives. And we're going to brainstorm about what else we can do.

I'm hopeful that Obama's going to push for real change on the economy, the climate crisis, health care, and the war. But there's no way he can do it without millions of us by his side. And that starts right here in his home town, Chicago!

So please come to my gathering and bring a friend -- we're fired up and ready to go!

Here are the details:
"Fired Up and Ready to Go" Gathering
Host: Joel F—fellow MoveOn member
Where: North and Halsted (in Chicago)
When: Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008, at 6:30 PM
Can you come? Click here to RSVP:
http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/event.html?event_id=86423&id=15129-10613113-MZ2cq1x&t=1

Hope to see you there!–Joel F., fellow MoveOn member