In corporatized Chicago, this IS what democracy looks like.
9AM Wednesday morning.
The Chicago Teachers Union, in response to Rahm Emanuel’s school board shredding the bargained agreement for a 4% pay raise next year, called for a picket line at the CPS headquarters at 125 S. Clark Street.
By 9:15 the line circled the block twice. One circle going clockwise. The other circle going counter-clockwise.
“This is what democracy looks like!”
By 10AM, 1500 teachers poured into Clark Street, closing it down for a few minutes.
This morning the slogan has a double meaning.
Democracy is certainly teachers marching and demanding what was promised and bargained. It is the democracy of the streets.
In Rahm Emanuel’s corporatized Chicago, democracy is also public school teachers having their pay raises taken back and their contract shredded while those that sit in board rooms high atop Chicago’s skyscrapers collect million dollar bailouts and bonuses.
Democracy for them. For us? No so much.
We salute you from Philadelphia, Our union building representative puts YOUR news in our mailboxes! Our School Reform Commission wants to renegotiate our contract. @@ (which only has a year before expiration).