February 21, 2009
February 08, 2009
Walmart making another run at Chicago
The Chicago Tribune has an article that Walmart is making a renewed effort to open multiple stores in Chicago.
Let's be clear: Walmart never stopped its campaign to open stores in Chicago. The mega-corporation may have put its public efforts on the shelf, but it has been using the wealth it extracts from workers, communities and suppliers to buy 'good will' and/or silence while it gets ready for its next push. The reality is that Walmart has pretty much saturated all the non-urban markets in the country, and Wall Street insists on ever-expanding markets, so cities are the place they need to go.
An inconvenient truth that gets lost in their PR push is that opening a Walmart will actually REDUCE the number and quality of jobs and will suck wealth OUT of the area. As a matter of economics, those communities would, in fact, be better off with no 'big box' store.
Of course, the pursuit of amenities and "shopping opportunities" is different from economic development (contrary to the silly mantra of most CDCs), and adopting policies to support creation of community-friendly, socially useful retail is appropriate (there are far better ways to address so-called 'food deserts'). But the 'big box' model is a misguided way to go.
Let's be clear: Walmart never stopped its campaign to open stores in Chicago. The mega-corporation may have put its public efforts on the shelf, but it has been using the wealth it extracts from workers, communities and suppliers to buy 'good will' and/or silence while it gets ready for its next push. The reality is that Walmart has pretty much saturated all the non-urban markets in the country, and Wall Street insists on ever-expanding markets, so cities are the place they need to go.
An inconvenient truth that gets lost in their PR push is that opening a Walmart will actually REDUCE the number and quality of jobs and will suck wealth OUT of the area. As a matter of economics, those communities would, in fact, be better off with no 'big box' store.
Of course, the pursuit of amenities and "shopping opportunities" is different from economic development (contrary to the silly mantra of most CDCs), and adopting policies to support creation of community-friendly, socially useful retail is appropriate (there are far better ways to address so-called 'food deserts'). But the 'big box' model is a misguided way to go.
February 05, 2009
Copwatch joins with others to put pressure on Lisa Madigan to grant new trials for police torture victims
Why is Lisa Madigan Passing the Buck?
Tell her to initiate hearings for police torture victims NOW!
What: Picket & pack the courtroom
Where: Cook County Courthouse, 26th & California
When: Friday, Feb. 20, 1 PM
"I can promise that as Attorney General, I will never cover up the truth and stand in the way of justice", Lisa Madigan- campaign news release, Sept. 23, 2002
Attorney General Lisa Madigan is on the wrong side of history. While President Obama has ordered the closing of Guantanamo Prison due to international outcry over torture, Madigan has allowed dozens of Chicago police torture victims, all of whom are African-American, to languish in prison in Obama's backyard.
Madigan was appointed nearly six years ago as a special prosecutor to oversee the cases of men who endured torture at the hands of Chicago police commander Jon Burge and his minions. Burge was indicted last October, and judges,special prosecutors, and even the police's own investigative body, the Office of Professional Standards (OPS), have concluded that his detectives carried out numerous acts of torture using interrogation techniques such as electro-shock, suffocation, and mock executions to extract confessions.
Yet Madigan has failed to initiate evidentiary hearings for police torture victims despite two reports, several requests for meetings, and a number of protests at her office by attorneys, community activists and prisoners' family members calling on her to do the right thing. In 2007, the Cook County Board of Commissioners even passed a resolution calling on her to initiate evidentiary hearings for all Burge torture victims.
Instead, Lisa Madigan is passing the buck. Rather than ask Judge Paul Biebel for evidentiary hearings, she has filed a motion to re-assign five of her cases to States Attorney Anita Alvarez. It's time to tell Lisa Madigan that ALL torture cases need to be dealt with, and that ALL torture victims deserve new trials.
Join us for a picket and help us pack the courtroom.
For more information, call 773-955-4841 or email julien@nodeathpenalty.org
Event will be co-sponsored by:
Campaign to End the Death Penalty
Eight Day Center for Justice
Northside Action for Justice Copwatch
Francis of Assisi Catholic Worker House
Voices for Creative Non-Violence
Tell her to initiate hearings for police torture victims NOW!
What: Picket & pack the courtroom
Where: Cook County Courthouse, 26th & California
When: Friday, Feb. 20, 1 PM
"I can promise that as Attorney General, I will never cover up the truth and stand in the way of justice", Lisa Madigan- campaign news release, Sept. 23, 2002
Attorney General Lisa Madigan is on the wrong side of history. While President Obama has ordered the closing of Guantanamo Prison due to international outcry over torture, Madigan has allowed dozens of Chicago police torture victims, all of whom are African-American, to languish in prison in Obama's backyard.
Madigan was appointed nearly six years ago as a special prosecutor to oversee the cases of men who endured torture at the hands of Chicago police commander Jon Burge and his minions. Burge was indicted last October, and judges,special prosecutors, and even the police's own investigative body, the Office of Professional Standards (OPS), have concluded that his detectives carried out numerous acts of torture using interrogation techniques such as electro-shock, suffocation, and mock executions to extract confessions.
Yet Madigan has failed to initiate evidentiary hearings for police torture victims despite two reports, several requests for meetings, and a number of protests at her office by attorneys, community activists and prisoners' family members calling on her to do the right thing. In 2007, the Cook County Board of Commissioners even passed a resolution calling on her to initiate evidentiary hearings for all Burge torture victims.
Instead, Lisa Madigan is passing the buck. Rather than ask Judge Paul Biebel for evidentiary hearings, she has filed a motion to re-assign five of her cases to States Attorney Anita Alvarez. It's time to tell Lisa Madigan that ALL torture cases need to be dealt with, and that ALL torture victims deserve new trials.
Join us for a picket and help us pack the courtroom.
For more information, call 773-955-4841 or email julien@nodeathpenalty.org
Event will be co-sponsored by:
Campaign to End the Death Penalty
Eight Day Center for Justice
Northside Action for Justice Copwatch
Francis of Assisi Catholic Worker House
Voices for Creative Non-Violence
February 01, 2009
About NA4J
Northside Action for Justice is a grassroots organization made up of low and moderate income people working together for community empowerment and social and economic justice. Action for Justice supports the basic human rights of men and women, addresses the root causes of poverty, promotes community development without displacement and mobilizes members for mutual support and campaigns for social and economic justice. NA4J is a member-driven direct action organization with a focus on community issues while working in coalition with housing, labor, religious, civil rights, peace and other progressive organizations.
Recent NA4J activities include:
-Stopping the privatization of a Chicago Park District facility in Rogers Park,
saving good jobs and maintaining community oversight of public facilities.
-Organizing tenants in affordable rental buildings at risk of conversion into
market rate units.
-Winning, by a 2-1 margin, a local referendum calling for 40% of TIF funds to be
allocated for affordable housing to households below the community median
income.
-Winning, by a 4-1 margin, a local referendum calling for companies that profit
from public subsidies to hire locally, pay a living wage, and respect the rights
of workers to organize.
-Organizing parents and young people in Uptown to begin a "Peace Patrol"
dialogue, and forming a "Copwatch" program to create safer and more accountable
community.
-Mobilizing in support of the workers at Republic Windows who occupied their
shuttered plant, won the benefits that they were owed, and are now working to
re-open the plant.
-Supporting efforts to improve Senn High School, based on parents and LSC plans.
Recent NA4J activities include:
-Stopping the privatization of a Chicago Park District facility in Rogers Park,
saving good jobs and maintaining community oversight of public facilities.
-Organizing tenants in affordable rental buildings at risk of conversion into
market rate units.
-Winning, by a 2-1 margin, a local referendum calling for 40% of TIF funds to be
allocated for affordable housing to households below the community median
income.
-Winning, by a 4-1 margin, a local referendum calling for companies that profit
from public subsidies to hire locally, pay a living wage, and respect the rights
of workers to organize.
-Organizing parents and young people in Uptown to begin a "Peace Patrol"
dialogue, and forming a "Copwatch" program to create safer and more accountable
community.
-Mobilizing in support of the workers at Republic Windows who occupied their
shuttered plant, won the benefits that they were owed, and are now working to
re-open the plant.
-Supporting efforts to improve Senn High School, based on parents and LSC plans.
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