Rally for workers during JwJ National WEEK OF ACTION: March 27 - April 4 !
NA4J supports Jobs With Justice in the struggle for worker rights and dignity. Lets build on the momentum gained by the Republic Windows and Doors victory and support Fillip Metals workers!
Fillip Metal has been sold and the Union Members, some of whom have worked there for 32 years, are being laid off without any benefits. Join Teamsters 743 as they fight for fair compensation!
DATE: Tuesday March 17, 2008 TIME: 12 noon
PLACE: Fillip Metal Cabinet Co., 701 N. Albany, Chicago
Contact information: Teamsters Local 743: (773) 254-7460
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Tell the Chamber of Commerce: Stop the Lies about Worker Rights
The Chamber of Commerce and major corporations are funding phony front groups to lie to people about the Employee Free Choice Act. The Chicago Jobs with Justice coalition members are mobilizing for a rally at the Chamber to tell them to stop lying and stop blocking worker justice and a fair economy.
Tuesday, March 31, 12 Noon
200 E. Randolph
Bring your signs and banners!
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Support Teachers' Right to Organize
Teachers at several Chicago charter schools are organizing to improve their conditions and the educational environment of our children. Most charter schools, run like businesses, have been resistant to recognizing the right to organize, not to mention undermining public education.
Stay tuned for details during the JwJ Week of Action.
March 16, 2009
March 10, 2009
More action to support police torture victims in Chicago
6 years is too long to wait!
Rally, Press Conference, & Peoples Delegation:
Tell Lisa Madigan that Burge torture victims deserve new trials!
April 6, noon
Thompson Center, 100 W. Randolph (at Clark)
In April 2003, Attorney General Lisa Madigan was appointed to oversee the cases of dozens of police torture victims under former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge, who goes on trial in May.
For nearly six years, the prisoners and their families, activists, and attorneys having been asking the Attorney General to initiate evidentiary hearings for men who faced electro-shock, suffocation, beatings and mock executions in Area 2 and Area 3 police interrogation rooms.
While President Obama has ordered the closing of Guantanamo Prison due to international outcry over torture, Lisa Madigan has allowed dozens of Chicago police torture victims, all of whom are African-American, to languish in prison in Obama's backyard.
In 2007, the Cook County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution calling on Madigan to initiate new hearings for all police torture victims. It is now March of 2009 and she has still refused to take substantial action. Even more disturbing, on April 7 2009, rather than grant relief to torture victims, she is hoping that a judge will allow her to pass five of the torture cases to new States Attorney Anita Alvarez.
With Lisa Madigan gearing up for a run for Governor, it's time for her to take responsibility for the Burge torture cases. No public official who condones torture is fit to be in the State's highest office. Join exonerated torture victims, activists, attorneys, and family members for a rally, press conference, and a people’s delegation to Lisa Madigan’s office to tell her:
* Six years is to long to wait! Police torture victims deserve new trials immediately.
For more information or to co-sponsor this event, call (312)-623-1602 or email joshua.brollier@gmail.com
Event is co-sponsored by
Northside Action for Justice
Campaign to End the Death Penalty
Voices for Creative Non-Violence
Francis of Assisi Catholic Worker House
DePaul Students Against the Death Penalty
Eighth Day Center for Justice
Black People Against Police Torture
International Socialist Organization
Justice Coalition of Greater Chicago
Tamms Year Ten
Citizens Alert
Rally, Press Conference, & Peoples Delegation:
Tell Lisa Madigan that Burge torture victims deserve new trials!
April 6, noon
Thompson Center, 100 W. Randolph (at Clark)
In April 2003, Attorney General Lisa Madigan was appointed to oversee the cases of dozens of police torture victims under former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge, who goes on trial in May.
For nearly six years, the prisoners and their families, activists, and attorneys having been asking the Attorney General to initiate evidentiary hearings for men who faced electro-shock, suffocation, beatings and mock executions in Area 2 and Area 3 police interrogation rooms.
While President Obama has ordered the closing of Guantanamo Prison due to international outcry over torture, Lisa Madigan has allowed dozens of Chicago police torture victims, all of whom are African-American, to languish in prison in Obama's backyard.
In 2007, the Cook County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution calling on Madigan to initiate new hearings for all police torture victims. It is now March of 2009 and she has still refused to take substantial action. Even more disturbing, on April 7 2009, rather than grant relief to torture victims, she is hoping that a judge will allow her to pass five of the torture cases to new States Attorney Anita Alvarez.
With Lisa Madigan gearing up for a run for Governor, it's time for her to take responsibility for the Burge torture cases. No public official who condones torture is fit to be in the State's highest office. Join exonerated torture victims, activists, attorneys, and family members for a rally, press conference, and a people’s delegation to Lisa Madigan’s office to tell her:
* Six years is to long to wait! Police torture victims deserve new trials immediately.
For more information or to co-sponsor this event, call (312)-623-1602 or email joshua.brollier@gmail.com
Event is co-sponsored by
Northside Action for Justice
Campaign to End the Death Penalty
Voices for Creative Non-Violence
Francis of Assisi Catholic Worker House
DePaul Students Against the Death Penalty
Eighth Day Center for Justice
Black People Against Police Torture
International Socialist Organization
Justice Coalition of Greater Chicago
Tamms Year Ten
Citizens Alert
March 06, 2009
Priced Out of Shelter: The Decline in Affordable Housing
Priced Out of Shelter: The Decline in Affordable Housing
03/04/2009
A Black Agenda Radio Commentary by Glen Ford
(To download or listen to this Black Agenda Radio commentary, click here.)
While “most public policy attention has been directed at the plight of home owners, one-third of all Americans pay rent” and their quest for affordable housing has long been “the neglected step-child of federal housing policy.”
“The United States has never achieved national goals in creation of affordable housing.”
One of the great engines of the current economic disaster was the relentless push by finance capital to inflate the price of real estate – and therefore, housing – to levels far in excess of what the average family could reasonably afford to pay. The United States has never achieved national goals in creation of affordable housing – not in a single year since the federal government began setting goals. The real estate industry has always seen to that. However, under the Bush administration, housing prices zoomed into the stratosphere, based on an unsustainable bubble of debt that has now burst catastrophically. Those who were barely able to find shelter for their families in the pre-Bush era found themselves in a truly desperate situation, even before the crash, as detailed in a new study issued by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Although most public policy attention has been directed at the plight of home owners, one-third of all Americans pay rent, including about half of low income households. Their options shrank dramatically during the years that George Bush was in office. The study shows that, by 2007, eight million rental households were paying more than half their income to the landlord and for utilities. Federal guidelines say that households should pay only 30 percent of income to keep a roof over their heads. And we’re not talking about families that foolishly splurge on housing. Two-thirds of those that pay more than half their income for rent are living at or below the federal poverty line. Because of the lack of affordable housing, these households have no other choice.
The current housing crisis may cause rents to come down in some areas. But wages will also go down, and unemployment is rapidly rising, putting increased pressures on the poor and the soon-to-be poor.
“Wholesale destruction of public housing stock continues under local administrations of both parties.”
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities calls affordable housing “the neglected step-child of federal housing policy,” constantly squeezed out of the Washington budget by competing demands for subsidies for home owners.housing
Public housing is worse off than a step-child. The Bush administration’s hostility to public housing was manifested dramatically in New Orleans, where the feds used Katrina as an excuse to demolish every public housing unit they could aim a bulldozer at. But disdain for public housing is a bipartisan affair. Since 1995, 165,000 units of public housing have been lost and not replaced, nationwide. This wholesale destruction of public housing stock continues under local administrations of both parties, including in cities with Black majorities and Black mayors.
Section 8 rental assistance was supposed to take up the slack for public housing. But each year, 10,000 to 15,000 units of Section 8 housing disappear and are not replaced. Only one out of every four households that are eligible for federal housing assistance, gets it. The need is well documented, but the funds are consistently withheld.
The new stimulus package provides a one-time cash infusion, but there still exists no long term commitment or national plan for affordable housing in the United States.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
03/04/2009
A Black Agenda Radio Commentary by Glen Ford
(To download or listen to this Black Agenda Radio commentary, click here.)
While “most public policy attention has been directed at the plight of home owners, one-third of all Americans pay rent” and their quest for affordable housing has long been “the neglected step-child of federal housing policy.”
“The United States has never achieved national goals in creation of affordable housing.”
One of the great engines of the current economic disaster was the relentless push by finance capital to inflate the price of real estate – and therefore, housing – to levels far in excess of what the average family could reasonably afford to pay. The United States has never achieved national goals in creation of affordable housing – not in a single year since the federal government began setting goals. The real estate industry has always seen to that. However, under the Bush administration, housing prices zoomed into the stratosphere, based on an unsustainable bubble of debt that has now burst catastrophically. Those who were barely able to find shelter for their families in the pre-Bush era found themselves in a truly desperate situation, even before the crash, as detailed in a new study issued by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Although most public policy attention has been directed at the plight of home owners, one-third of all Americans pay rent, including about half of low income households. Their options shrank dramatically during the years that George Bush was in office. The study shows that, by 2007, eight million rental households were paying more than half their income to the landlord and for utilities. Federal guidelines say that households should pay only 30 percent of income to keep a roof over their heads. And we’re not talking about families that foolishly splurge on housing. Two-thirds of those that pay more than half their income for rent are living at or below the federal poverty line. Because of the lack of affordable housing, these households have no other choice.
The current housing crisis may cause rents to come down in some areas. But wages will also go down, and unemployment is rapidly rising, putting increased pressures on the poor and the soon-to-be poor.
“Wholesale destruction of public housing stock continues under local administrations of both parties.”
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities calls affordable housing “the neglected step-child of federal housing policy,” constantly squeezed out of the Washington budget by competing demands for subsidies for home owners.housing
Public housing is worse off than a step-child. The Bush administration’s hostility to public housing was manifested dramatically in New Orleans, where the feds used Katrina as an excuse to demolish every public housing unit they could aim a bulldozer at. But disdain for public housing is a bipartisan affair. Since 1995, 165,000 units of public housing have been lost and not replaced, nationwide. This wholesale destruction of public housing stock continues under local administrations of both parties, including in cities with Black majorities and Black mayors.
Section 8 rental assistance was supposed to take up the slack for public housing. But each year, 10,000 to 15,000 units of Section 8 housing disappear and are not replaced. Only one out of every four households that are eligible for federal housing assistance, gets it. The need is well documented, but the funds are consistently withheld.
The new stimulus package provides a one-time cash infusion, but there still exists no long term commitment or national plan for affordable housing in the United States.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
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