Labor
Can Win: It's Time to Fight Back! A forum hosted
by Students and Teachers Fight Back!
Saturday, May 7, 1 pm United
Electrical Workers Hall 37 S. Ashland (Corner of
Monroe) Directions:
click here Info: 773-463-0311
Facebook
LABOR FORUM with eyewitness reports from
labor struggles: Wisconsin, the Midwest and across
the country. Speakers, Video, Music, Discussion.
Defend the Public Unions
and all Unions! Defeat the Attacks on Immigrants, Students and
Public Education! Stop the Cuts--Tax the Rich, End
their Wars!
Join us for a community forum. Speakers will include
labor organizers from Illinois & Wisconsin, union
members, students, immigrant rights activists &
organizers from the movements against war & racism.
We'll be discussing strategies to fight back against
the billionaires’ war on unions,
immigrants, public
education, students and all workers.
Speakers Jeff Bigelow,
Midwest labor organizer Austin Thompson,
Healthcare labor organizer from Milwaukee, Wisconsin Heather Benno,
Immigrant Rights Attorney Brian Becker,
National Coordinator, ANSWER Coalition Shatriya Smith,
AFSCME Local 2481 Sabrina Carollo,
Student and Teachers Fight Back! Janina
Palacios, Committee on Pilipino Issues Corey Ansel,
Student Activist from Columbus, Ohio John Beacham,
Illinois Education Association Member and
Coordinator of ANSWER Chicago
With music by Bagwis, a Filipino pro-people
folk-rock collective!
From Egypt to
Wisconsin, the people have the power! This is a
struggle we can win!
$5-$7 Donation Requested. No one turned away for
lack of funds. Students and
Teachers Fight Back! is an initiative of ANSWER
Chicago.
ANSWER Mobilizes: Stop
the Bombing of Libya, US Out of Iraq and
Afghanistan Demonstrations take
place across the country
March 19
Slideshow - Chicago
On March 19, thousands of people took to the streets
to demand an end to U.S. war and military
intervention abroad and funding for people’s needs
at home. Mass demonstrations took place in
Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Chicago and many other cities across the United
States and the world. Below are some initial
reports.
Los Angeles
Thousands of people hit the streets in Los Angeles
in a spirited, youthful demonstration to stop the
wars. Led by Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans,
including active-duty soldiers and marines, the
march of well over 4,000 people chanted, “Money for
jobs and education, not for wars and occupation!”
A huge student contingent from high schools and
community colleges in Long Beach, Orange County and
L.A. participated, along with large numbers from the
Muslim community. Speakers included Vietnam Veteran
Ron Kovic, students, teachers, union leaders and
anti-war activists. Chris Shiflet, the lead
guitarist for the Foo Fighters, spoke and played a
song.
The ANSWER Coalition initiated the March 19 protest
in Los Angeles. Over 100 additional community and
progressive organizations endorsed the action.
Videos from March 19 in
Chicago
San Francisco
Despite cold, steady rain, 1,800 people marched and
hundreds more rallied in San Francisco demanding an
end to the wars and occupations around the world and
the war on working people here. Speakers at the
opening rally condemned the launching of a new war
against Libya, which had begun just hours before.
A strong contingent from UNITE HERE Local 2, the SF
hotel workers union, helped lead the march, which
ended with a massive picket line in front of the
boycotted Westin St. Francis hotel at Union Square.
The demonstration was organized by the March 19
Coalition, which was initiated by the ANSWER
Coalition.
Washington, D.C.
Over 1,500 people participated in a veterans-led
civil resistance action initiated by Veterans for
Peace that led to the arrest of 113 people at the
White House. The ANSWER Coalition, March Forward!
and many other organizations supported the event.
At the rally in Lafayette Park, Brian Becker, the
national coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition, said:
“The U.S. government never tells the people that
‘we’ are going to invade or bomb another country in
order to control and exploit its natural
resources—especially oil and natural gas—or the
labor of the occupied people. That is, of course,
the truth. But no mother or father would allow their
child to go to war for the crass function of
exploitation. The U.S. government always states that
each Pentagon invasion or bombing attack is for
humanitarian rather than imperial objectives.
“Today, on the eight
anniversary of the criminal invasion of Iraq, the
United States, Britain and France are poised to
begin a massive bombing of Libya--again, they say,
for noble, humanitarian reasons. That is a lie that
we must expose. Libya is the largest producer of oil
on the African continent and the imperialists want
to re-conquer the country and its resources. We, in
the ANSWER Coalition, stand against any military
action against Libya. The Libyan people, and they
alone, must be the masters of their own destiny.”
Caneisha Mills, an
organizer with the ANSWER Coalition, also addressed
Libya in her talk, saying: “The U.S. government
claims it will bring democracy and freedom to Libya;
these are the same terms used to invade Iraq! After
the massive and ongoing slaughter in Iraq and
Afghanistan we know that is not true!”
Ryan Endicott, a member of March Forward! and an
Iraq war veteran who served in Ramadi, told the
crowd: “We know firsthand that our enemy is not the
people of Iraq, who for eight years have been
struggling to survive a brutal occupation. It is not
the people of Afghanistan who for over a decade have
been struggling to survive a brutal occupation. The
biggest threat to the people of the United States is
not thousands of miles away, but hundreds of yards
away, right here in the White House, in the
Pentagon, on Wall Street. It’s the bankers that take
our homes, the CEOs that lay off from our jobs only
to take million dollar bonuses.”
Chicago
On March 19 in Chicago, 1,000 people marched on
Michigan Ave. to demand an immediate end to the wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan. Protesters carried signs
that read "No War on Libya!" and "Stand Against War
and Racism: Money for Jobs and Education, Not War!"
A very popular chant was "End, End the War! Tax, Tax
the Rich!"
The many contingents in the march included Palestine
solidarity groups, free Bradley Manning activists,
youth and student contingents, many neighborhood
peace groups and the ANSWER Chicago contingent,
which carried Egyptian and Wisconsin flags, and a
banner that read: "From Egypt to Wisconsin to
Chicago ... : Time to Fight Back!"
Protests also took place around the country,
including in Phoenix, Arizona; Fort Bragg, Fresno,
Laguna Hills, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz,
California; Evergreen, Colorado; New Haven,
Connecticut; Daytona Beach, North Miami and Orlando,
Florida; Atlanta, Georgia; Chicago, Illinois;
Dubuque and Iowa City, Iowa; Boston, Massachusetts;
St. Paul, Minnesota; Biloxi, Mississippi; Kansas
City, Missouri; Keene, New Hampshire; Albuquerque,
New Mexico; Highland Park, New Jersey; Cincinnati,
Cleveland, Columbus and Dayton, Ohio; Eugene and
Portland, Oregon; King of Prussia, Pennsylvania;
Hilton Head Island, South Carolina; Austin, Dallas
and Houston, Texas; Salt Lake City, Utah; Seattle,
Washington; Racine, Wisconsin.
Traveling from all over the Midwest,
students, working people and antiwar activists, converged in Chicago
on October 16 for a regional march and rally on the 9th Anniversary of
the Afghanistan war. The October 16 regional protest demanded, “End
the Wars and Occupations! Jobs, Peace and Equality Now!” and was
coordinated with actions all across the country in the first weeks of
October.
Exceeding organizers expectations, it was the largest protest in the
region against the Afghanistan war since the 2001 invasion. Over 1,500
people attended October 16. The great numbers of young people at the
protest, and the growing numbers of young people who are joining the
movement, energized marchers and was a vital component of October 16’s
success.
Protesters carried hundreds of vibrant anti-war banners and placards
with them on the march up Michigan Avenue through downtown Chicago.
Youth and student contingents raised their fists high in the air and
chanted together: “Money for Jobs and Education, Not for War and
Occupation!” To
read more click here
Join the struggle for social justice in our communities and
all over the world. Be a part of
building an independent people's movement to stop war, racism and all forms of
oppression. Help organize to end colonial occupation in Iraq, Palestine,
Afghanistan,
Haiti, and everywhere.
This fall, winter and beyond ANSWER will continue to organize and
support a wide variety of progressive actions, including protests
against the war in Iraq and mobilizations for immigrant rights. ANSWER
is involved in the people's movement in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York,
San Francisco, Washington DC, all over the US and all over the world.
ANSWER uses a diversity of tactics and strategies to build, sustain,
expand and deepen the new anti-war, anti-racist, pro-justice movement
that has emerged.
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