Below is an excerpt from an article by Matt Ginsberg-Jaeckle about the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) which includes a remembrance of the late Karen Lewis, former president of the CTU.
Photo / Love & Struggle photos (Sarah-Ji Rhee)
“Of all the times for us to remember what the Chicago Teachers Union is made of, this moment, in the shadow of the passing of one of its giants, the great Karen Lewis, is the time. This is the union who, after the victory of Karen Lewis and CORE, became a leading force nationally in beating back the neoliberal school privatization ‘deformers,’ as Karen called them. It is the union that turned to the community and said let’s work together to build a movement for justice in this city. It is the union that helped spark a resurgence of labor organizing nationally. It is the union that help create United Working Families and begin to turn the tide in the city council away from the old corrupt machine and the big business puppets and towards the type of visionary and grassroots politics of a new crop of leaders willing to fight for those who haven’t had a voice in Chicago politics since the days of Harold Washington. It is the union that said the problems that kids come into the classroom with, from homelessness to trauma to fears about immigration status to the threat of police violence, are our problems too and we will fight with them to address them. Simply put, the Chicago Teachers Union, from the perspective of the Commercial Club of Chicago and the LaSalle Street financial elite, has been enemy number one. . .”
See full article by clicking here.
