Seven Days that shook the Windy City: Reflections on a Chicago teachers strike

[Starry Messenger]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/02/1138397/-Seven-Days-that-shook-the-Windy-City-Reflections-on-a-Chicago-teachers-strike

It was of course, more than a Chicago teachers' strike; it was a city-wide working class protest. Parents and concerned community members walked the picket lines. Workers of all types who passed in their trucks, buses, taxis and passenger cars joined in with honking, friendly waves and fist raising.

There was serious carb-loading and elevated caffeine levels for days as strike sympathizers brought muffins, cookies, donuts, pop and coffee to picket lines. Labor professor Steve Ashby organized a scheme (originally used in the Madison uprising) where strike supporters called in pizza orders to help feed the legions of volunteers who came to the Chicago Teachers Union(CTU) Strike HQ in the Teamsters hall on the West Side.

In response the mayor and his allies launched an expensive propaganda campaign against the strike that even the best efforts of the CTU and its allies could never match in its reach and scope. TV and radio ads blasting the union were all over the air waves. The local corporate owned news media was almost uniformly hostile. The national media was no better.

Their money was wasted in Chicago's working class neighborhoods. Chicagoans backed the teachers by a substantial majority. As CTU president Karen Lewis put it,“Let’s be clear — this fight is for the very soul of public education, not just only Chicago but everywhere.”

<snip>

One of the very best things I've read on the CTU strike.

[HiPointDem]

1. i feel like there may be some change in the wind. talking to a nieghbor yesterday while

taking another neighbor to the ER -- our state is voting on a FOURTH ballot initiative on charters (cause the bastards won't back down though we've said no three times) -- & she surprised me with her strong defense of public schools (cause she is a bit of a winger). So I started filling in the bigger picture & unlike what typically happens when I try that -- disbelief, 'you must be exaggerating,' etc. -- she was right there.

and i've noticed that the professional pols are now painting themselves as teacher-lovers a bit & downplaying the hater rhetoric.

[Starry Messenger]

2. That's what I'm feeling too.

The ground is shifting little by little. WI started things going and some more momentum is picking up. It's becoming uncool to bash public schools and teachers and more supporters feel stronger about coming out and saying things in the media. Even if the pols are being cynical, it's an opening I'll take.