The crowd of hundreds walked silently up Mayor Emanuel’s street on Chicago’s north side late yesterday afternoon.
It was not like any march I had been on before. No megaphones. No chanting of “The people united will never be defeated.” Many of us wore tape over our mouths pointing out that we had been silenced and excluded.
By whom?
By the Democratic mayor of the bluest of all cities in America.
And not just any Democrat. Emanuel was the former Chief of Staff of Democratic President Barak Obama. He was the former Chair of the Democratic Congressional Election Committee.
Of course, Emanuel’s policies of school closings and private school management, of teacher bashing and union busting are not his own creation. They come straight out of the Department of Education headed by Democrat Arne Duncan.
In Springfield, a town in which both chambers of the General Assembly and the governor’s mansion are controlled by Democrats, teachers have already seen their bargaining rights shredded and their pensions under assault. The leader of this assault, Mike Madigan, is not just the Democratic Speaker of the House. He is Chairman of the Democratic Party in Illinois.
The Chicago movement of Occupiers, of communities and teachers to preserve public schools and union rights is stunning for its militancy and diversity. It is made up of a broad coalition with no familiar faces.
In the bluest of all cities in America, Democratic Party officials are not just silent in defense of teachers, unions and minority communities. They actively enforce the program.
So we occupy their councils. We march down their streets. We stand outside their fancy homes.
Because the base has been deserted by Democrats.
Fred Klonsky 
And yet our unions support them as though their positions and action had not changed in the least.
If this doesn’t make it painfully clear that Democrats aren’t the working man’s friends either, I don’t know what will.
My question to them would be a simple WHY. How do you expect to get reelected if you abandon your base? Somebody is listening, because Obama has been rah rahing teachers bigtime to woo them in an election year, and present in his audience at the SOTU address was Sarah Ferguson from Chester Upland ( aka the “I speak for all teachers” woman). @@ They KNOW how teachers feel, but they are coasting and doing little.
they hear us and know from where we come from..we just do not have the funds to get them re-elected – so “they” think. A foolish assumption!
Surprise
Never give a sucker an even brake would nicely enplane the relationship
between Chicago teachers and the democratic party.We had our own cold war in Illinois
for as far back as I can remember. all our problems could be conveniently blamed
on the republicans.Thompson did this and Pate Philips did that.It was easy to con the faculty into thinking the rotten roofs and lack of money could be laid on the GOP’s
door.While the democratic party sucked the life out of CPS.
In 1995 this all came to a head when the Mayor was given the schools.Never
mentioned was how in 1948 the schools were teetering on collapse and the state took them over.Since 1995 it has been an orgy of greed and misguided spending
which have placed us in this perilous financial situation without ever looking ahead to tomorrow.If you enjoy millennium park remember it cost ONE BILLION dollars.Next time you act stupid when you smile at the Bean remember what it cost,because the bills are overdue.
Hippy punching is in style. That’s what it comes down to. If the GOP did this to their base, they’d be primaried so fast their heads would swim. When Democrats do it to their base, we get the endless hand wringing and told to fear it could be worse, so we better elect that DINO.
Here’s what we need to reform: Those who sit in Springfield. The only place we occupy that they will listen to is the ballot box. The Tea Part did it and look how their party has responded. If you don’t like the Democratic party, take over from within.
I’m with you, Michael!