As of September 26th, 2:15pm CST the group part of Occupy Chicago was repeatedly being asked to leave the sidewalk in front of the Federal Reserve bank on LaSalle and Jackson in Chicago’s busy financial district. It was a strong shift away from the smiling and warm greetings I encountered from Federal Reserve agents and city police Sunday evening when I participated in the midday general assembly with 30 other people.
The city zoning laws state that any organized demonstration has the right on stay on city property (i.e sidewalks and streets) as long as they are not impeding pedestrian traffic. You also cannot have your materials (signs, boxes, carts) standing up against federal property (Federal Reserve bank in this instance). The demonstrators are being advised to call 311 (Chicago Non Emergency Line) if the Federal agents force them off the sidewalk. The National Lawyers Guild is also being contacted by Occupy Chicago.
The Occupy Wall Street movement is now it’s ninth day. It’s finally garnered much deserved attention from “mainstream” media having mobilized more than 2000 people in New York City. Alternative and community-based media was critical in covering the first days of the actions. The non-violent, peaceful demonstrations have not bee dealt with so peacefully by police. This Saturday over 80 nonviolent demonstrators were violently arrested.
The mobilizations are far from over and are in fact gaining momentum as international press begins to cover this story! Noam Chomksy is the latest popular figure to endorse the demonstrations (along with Lupe Fiasco, Bob Dylan and the 9/11 First Responders), relaying his message of support for the protester’s “courageous and honorable” action.
Despite repeated attempts by establishment-minded corporate media to delegitimatize the actions and the people involved there continues to be a strong presence on the streets and the Twitterverse. The actions have even inspired mobilization through social media and face-to-face meetings in at least 35 other cities including L.A, Boston, Denver, Phoenix, New Orleans and of course Chicago.
I spent the evening this Sunday participating in a democratic general assembly with members of Occupy Chicago, who proudly state they are leaderless and nonviolent. There was an overwhelming feeling of unity as people went around the circle sharing stories about what brought them there. I remember three young men stopping to join us who had come all the way from Indianapolis after following @OccupyChicago on Twitter. Some people claimed this was their first time holding a bull horn or first time even speaking in public. We went around the circle and spoke about how to handle media, daily schedules, public safety, an evacuation plan and also how to deal with police/security. A young man who took part in the first days of the occupation in New York City volunteered to share basic lessons in consensus building for large groups.
Occupy Together
During the general assembly three separate cars pulled up next to the curb. People came out holding grocery bags and boxes filled with food and supplies – offering their support as best they could. Towards the end of the meeting a pizza delivery man pulled up and asked us to sign for the $80 worth of pizza someone had anonymously donated. Regular pedestrians would stop to stare and sometimes ask questions about the groups demands. One couple I met was in Chicago on holiday and stopped to take a picture in front of the Federal Reserve Bank holding a sign saying “The only Change we believe in is the Change we make ourselves!”
The people occupying the sidewalk in front of the Federal Reserve bank in Chicago are part of a larger movement calling for corporations and Wall Street’s financial institutions to be held accountable for greed and for their influence in government and elections. Moreover, Occupy Chicago is a movement to reclaim the democratic process, partly, by engaging in the time-tested actions of civil disobedience, public assembly, and civic dialogue. Having spent four days on the sidewalk and sleeping through the cold and the rain they are showing this city that they are here to stay!
You can watch the New York City occupation of Wall Street LIVE HERE: http://t.co/OT4jxvl3
Finally, it would be a crime to not pay tribute here to Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, who died on Sunday after a long struggle with cancer. She was 71 years old. In 1977, she was the leader of the movement against state-backed deforestation in Kenya.
The occupation of Wall Street operatives in Chicago begins today!
Fate it seems. This morning walking out of a doctors appointment I received a text from a friend: “You going to occupy chi today?” I simply replied that I didn’t know what he meant but I felt excited thinking this was something related to the now week-long occupation of Wall Street in New York City (which corporate media has done well to block out of the public view ). I couldn’t believe my luck as I walked outside to the Jackson/LaSalle intersection in the heart of Chicago’s Financial district and in front of the Federal Reserve Bank.
Across the street from me was a huddled mass of young people with signs that said “#occupychi” and “end corporate greed!” Another hilarious sign said “Don’t Make us go all Wisconsin on you!” I asked someone what was going on and they simply said people wanted to confront corporate greed and organize an occupation. I spoke to a young man who told me he took part in the occupation of Wall Street in New York City and he explained that he was in Chicago to help build the movement and rally other students to the occupation. The group organized the action using online forums and the #OccupyChi twitter page.
The group of mostly young people had just marched from the Sears Tower and had settled at Jackson and LaSalle to begin the “General Assembly” where they heard eachother’s stories and offered ideas for what the messages would be and what would take place in the days to come. Much like the occupation in New York there were calling for an end to harsh unemployment, poverty, environmental destruction and war amongst other things. Everyone in the circle went around and made harsh critiques of the “corporate plutocracy” that is the U.S government and called for an end to Wall Street finance schemes and also for an end to corporate person-hood. We were a stones throw away from the Chicago Board of Trade who earlier this year were the target of the ‘Corporate Welfare” tour organized by the Grassroots Collaborative.
It all seemed to come together for me today. Earlier, sitting on the train I wrapped up a delightful journey reading David Korten’s Agenda for a New Economy: A Declaration of Independence from Wall Street. The book is a must read for people who want to understand the financial crisis but who also seek advice on how to mount a “grassroots campaign to bring about an economy based on locally owned, community oriented “living enterprises” whose success is measured as much by their positive impact on people and the environment as by their positive balance sheet.” The book ends with Korten offering a vision of what the world could be like post-Wall St. in the year 2084. A world free of credit card and student loan debt-slavery, free of corporate influence in politics and free from the “phantom wealth” casino games of Wall Street.
Korten ends his book with: “We are privileged to live at the most exciting moment of creative opportunity in the whole of human experience. Now is the hour. We have the power to turn this world around for the sake of ourselves and our children for generations to come. We are the ones we have been waiting for!
The last person to speak before I left was a Marine veteran who spoke about his experiences in Iraq, then as a protester in the epicenter of Arab Spring sitting in Tahir Square. He finished his inspirational speech by saying “No collective corporate board should have more power than the collective will of the American people!”
The last thing I saw as a I walked away was more people stopping to look and listen. Chicago Police had a presence on every corner and sirens could be heard in the background as the group marched to the ABC News station on State St.
At 9pm tonight the group will march to Millennium Park to hold a candle-light vigil for Troy Davis, the man who was executed in Georgia Wednesday night. Tomorrow (Saturday) the group will hold a march at 12pm in front of the Federal Reserve Bank. Following will be a 3pm general assembly and a 7pm assembly.
I leave now to join the second general assembly where hopefully more people will join us. I can hear the sirens grow louder from my office blocks away from the financial district. This is a strong start to what undoubtedly must become a city-wide conversation. It is already being made into a public issue by groups like Grassroots Collaborate and their allies. It’s unclear what organization will come from this and what specific demands will be made. How inclusive and participatory will this become. What groups will be inspired to mobilize because of the occupation? Is this the time when we will take our country back?
Sitting in the studio with Gon you get a certain sense of aloof security from the guy: he’s confident but he plays it cool. A suave, sort of quirky character that may or may not stand five feet eight inches tall, Gon’s presence is best described in his own words: “I am the master of the art of absence.”
Gon, aka Zeid Khater born in Jordan in 1986, got his start in the US only two months after birth but spent years in the Middle East from ages 9 to 14. Gon is a Chicago hip-hop artist on a journey “from the war torn Middle East to the heart of the Midwest.” His first contact with hip-hop was DMX and 2-Pac- in 8th grade. “Even though he wasn’t saying anything spectacular, [2-Pac] the way he said it…you would just be like yeah, you’re my friend.” He nods to the storytelling of Nas, Canibus, Mos Def, El-P, Atmosphere, and even Sade as being early influences. During his university years he would go on to read his Vonnegut, Palahniuk, and Bukowski, writers that would sway his perception of hip-hop as not just beats but a lot more about poetic storytelling. Speaking about Aesop Rock, Gon (still playing Labor Days but not on his iPod-he doesn’t own one), describes the listen as a game changer urging him to consider “how do I break the rules but [maintain] discipline?”
Gon makes something very clear: he is not about politics. And this isn’t necessarily true. We spend a lot of time talking about Libya, NATO, and the TNC: “my stance is the peoples stance”. Then we ask him about his politically tinged 2010 album “Consider Violence”. “[Consider Violence] came out last year. I think we grow intellectually at different paces…I would not put that album out now. I would take a different approach…that was [Operation] Cast Lead, that was Gaza”. Then we ask him about being kicked out of the Subterranean in the winter of 2010 for talking about bombing the Israeli embassy in the track “White Flag” off the same album. “When that was said [...] it was meant to display the rage…whether Muslim or not. Whether Palestinian or not who were just like how can they [Israel] get away with something like this? I stand by what I said artistically. Its not meant literally. I don’t care about getting kicked out…I told them i was done anyway.” So Gon? Apolitical? “I am not a political person by nature…its hard to be Arab-American and not speak about policy. Its subconscious…I don’t watch the news.” Listen to our entire interview with Gon below
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Undocumented. Not illegal. A human rights issue. Not a crime. Undocumented. Unafraid. A brave declaration from those “illegal” DREAMERS who have finally woken up to a nightmare situation created by an unenlightened public policy that is reinforcing dangerous and divisive anti-immigrant rhetoric with a program known as Secure Communities.
Cynic and elusive language aside, Secure Communities or S-Comm forces the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to forward the fingerprints of criminals to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with the professed intent to crack down on alien crime. The legal action against taken against an alien who is undocumented (or documented, i.e. Legal Permanent Resident) but “removable” based on the individual’s criminal offense is entrusted to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). ICE has been very vocal about promoting S-Comm-touting the fact that no new laboral or economic burdens press on local law enforcement. ICE states that Secure Communities “fulfills a 2002 Congressional mandate for the FBI to share information with ICE, and is consistent with a 2008 federal law that instructs ICE to identify criminal aliens for removal.”Mainstream human rights activists claim that S-Comm detrimentally affects non violent, low level criminal, and their families.
State governments in Massachusetts, New York, and here in Illinois have rejected S-Comm but may be forced to comply as DHS Director John Morton has stated the mandate is not voluntary: states and municipalities can not opt out of the program.
Immigrant rights groups held rallies last week in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Houston, and Miami. More vocal reaction to US immigration policy manifested in Los Angeles last Tuesday where some 200 activists walked out of a public hearing with the S-Comm task force. This week, activists walked out on similar public hearings in Arlington, Virgina and on Wednesday, 9 undocumented youths were arrested for occupying the DHS building in Los Angeles.
Debuted in 2008 under the Administration of George W. Bush, S-Comm is projected to operate in every American jurisdiction by Fiscal Year 2013. Under the Obama Administration, deportations exceeded the 1 million mark earlier this year, a record number. According to our guests, ICE and DHS will fulfill their vision of terrorizing immigrant communities if ignorance and intimidation win over a vision of dialogue, unity, and courage.
On Wednesday, August 17, a task force convened in Chicago to hear the testimony of the community about S-Comm with the intent of “reforming” the mandate. The response from the communities directly affected by S-Comm was a bold and public rejection that may have set the stage for similar actions in Arlington and Los Angeles. Activists and allies, documented and undocumented alike, walked out of the hearing and took to the streets instead. At the forefront of this act of civil disobedience- the taking of an intersection not far from the Haymarket Memorial and the exit of a turnpike off I-94- were 8 undocumented youth who’s message was very clear: there is no reforming anti-social mandates that separate, traumatize, and divide civil society.
On Tuesday, August 23 First Voice invited the arrested indocumentados by our studio and we were joined by 6 of them: Ireri Unzueta, Jorge Mena, Arianna Salgado, Miguel Martinez, and Fanny Martinez. We spent the hour talking about the protest, their background, their outrage and resilience. In unison, the activists demonstrated that within xenophobic language and rhetoric, actual human narratives are unfolding, creating, and resisting- not in the shadows, but in public spaces for immigrant and native communities to see. The Chicago 8 remind us that civil disobedience allows for more groups- active and passive- to participate- or at least spectate- in the dialogue of what truly makes communities secure. They remind us that that a people’s history and present struggle is what moves popular consciousness for a constructive dialogue today; a popular and positive change of attitude tomorrow.
Listen to our in-studio interview with our camaradas indocumentados below
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In late May of this year the the US Supreme Court, in a five to four decision, upheld a 2009 ruling the State of California is to reduce its prison population by 40,000 in two years time. California could request more time to comply with the ruling that stated the State’s prison system was “incompatible with the concept of human dignity.” Inmates in the maximum security prison Pelican Bay, and thousands of others across the State, have sided with the courts on this issue. As of July 1st, inmates at the Pelican Bay Security Housing Unit, went on an indefinite hunger strike demanding an end to the “cruel” procedure by authorities to keep these humans -arguably the worst of the worst- caged and in isolation for 22 hours a day, an “unusual” punishment that experts warn could lead to “insanity”. Prisoners are demanding an end to long term (& arbitrary) solitary confinement, healthier food, access to education, amongst other tenets of basic human dignity. California’s prison system is designed to house 80,000 humans yet it currently cages 148,000. California appealed the Supreme Court decision as prisoners “pose a risk to public safety”. As of press time, the hunger strike is entering its third week this Friday and thousands of inmates from 11 prisons across the state have joined Pelican Bay’s Maximum Security Housing Unit in refusing the offensive food afforded to them by the police-state.
With the rise of the private prison, a profit incentive now exists to cage as many human beings, (routinely of color) as complying systems of law enforcement can capture. The United States of America has the highest incarceration rate in the world, surging rapidly since the “war on drugs” began in the 1980s, with a current prison population of about 2 million, three fourths of which are people of color, 46% of which are there because on nonviolent, drug related instances. Racism is essential to the prison industrial complex argues the prison abolitionist group, Critical Resistance, who’s goal is “to reduce harm in our communities by creating lasting alternatives to punishment and prisons, investing in the things that truly build safe communities such as education, housing, and employment, thus eliminating the “need” for the prison industrial complex.”
On the July 19th, 2011 edition of First Voice we interviewed Molly Porzig, spokesperson for Critical Resistance and member of the Pelican Bay Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition. Porzig talks about the 6X10 ft, windowless, Security Housing Units, speaks about a Nicaraguan political prisoner who has spent 39 years of a 7 year prison sentence in isolation, and the fact that the rise of these isolation chambers began in the 1960s to silence activists and people of color deemed a threat to the powers that be.
Listen to our full interview with Molly Porzig below:
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On Sunday activists of Chicago Fair Foods took to the street outside a Trader Joe’s @ 667 W Diversey Pkwy to encourage management, workers, and costumers to join the discussion over field worker’s basic rights to living and working with dignity. According to the Chicago Action Against ‘Traitor’ Joe’s, farmworkers are one of the most highly exploited workforces with low to unpaid wages, no benefits, sweatshop conditions, and even the threat of modern day slavery. Traitor Joe’s has the opportunity to join 9 other corporate food retailers (Whole Foods, Taco Bell, McDonald’s, Sodexo, Aramark, Burger King, etc.) who are working with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (a farmworker led organization) to end sub-poverty wages and improve working conditions. Moreover, to embrace corporate responsibility, acknowledging that corporate profits come at the expense of exploited workers.
Community organizers Iliana Espinoza-Krehbiel and Maya Zazhil Fernández came by our studios in Pilsen to dispel the myth that Trader Joe’s has actually enacted the demands of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), talk about the one-more-penny-per-pound campaign to lift farm worker’s out of sub-poverty levels, and to raise awareness amongst consumers about who picks our food and the conditions of their exploitation.
Check out our in-studio interview below:
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Before 10am Wednesday morning construction workers and CPS officials arrived at Whittier Elementary School to begin construction of a new library inside the school, not to renovate the community library, La Casita. As of press time, CPS officials on the ground refused to answer questions from the community or Radio Arte’s First Voice. It is understood that CPS is planning to construct a building inside the main building of Whittier Elementary despite an agreement reached late last year to work with legislators to allocate some $364,000 in TIF dollars to renovate what is now known as La Casita Parent Youth Center and lease the space out to the Whittier Parent Committee. La Casita is a field house that sits next to Whittier and is home to a community center used as a library, and a space for ESL and immigration classes among other activities for parents and school kids. $200,000 were allocated from the Board of Education by State Representative Eddie Acevedo (D) bringing the total sum of La Casita renovation money to $564,000 dollars. The Whittier Parent Committee is currently in talks with architects from a non for profit to turn the space into an environmentally friendly green space.
Whittier Elementary first received national attention back in the Fall of 2010 as mothers of Pilsen staged a 43 day sit-in inside La Casita to prevent its demolition and promote its renovation. In essence, for the mothers and community activists of Pilsen, the issue was about being involved in the decision making process with CPS regarding the fate of their public spaces. For CPS the issue is about the $712 million deficit yet the Whittier Parent Committee has called out the fact that the $364,000 dollars they had secured for La Casita with the previous administration was originally intended for its demolition. Corresponding via email with HuffPost Chicago, a CPS spokesperson said ‘construction was actually scheduled to begin Monday, the spokesman said, but heavy rains caused a temporary delay. The plan to put the library inside the school’ “has been thoroughly vetted over the past six months, and any additional delay could ultimately cause a delay in construction and availability of the library to the students it is meant to serve.” Yet, the community contends that overcrowding is already a problem inside the building and the space inside the school where CPS plans to build the library is already being utilized by special needs students.
Text messages and Facebook updates have been circulating all day in en effort to get the word out to the community that the struggle for autonomy and democracy over Whittier continues. The latest update from the Whittier Parents’ struggle was “the police have left and the parents have re-entered La Casita. Security from CPS are still on the premises watching our activity. We are going to stay at the casita to strategize next steps and actions. We still need physical presence to show CPS and the CPD that the parents have support and wil not be intimidated. Please stay tuned for further updates. Thank you for your continued suport and solidarity” via Facebook.
Click below for an interview with Whittier Parent Committee Organizer, Araceli Gonzalez:
“They know we do what we need to do.” Araceli Gonzalez, Whittier Parent Committee
In the ongoing resistance against the environmental and health damages created by the Fisk and Coal Power Plants dozens of high school students marched through the streets of Pilsen demanding a higher standard of living, free from pollution. Issues of lead contamination and of course air quality have been at the forefront for many environmental justice groups based in Pilsen and Little Village, home of the notorious Fisk and Coal Power Plants owned and operated by Midwest Generation. Coal based energy has come under attack as more people are taking note of the dangers associated with the release of toxic levels of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and its relation to ‘extreme weather’ or climate change.
The health and economic dangers associated with Fisk and Crawford have also been detailed by the Illinois Power Plant study by the Harvard School of Public Health. For some in the crowd, the issue was about democracy and environmental racism. A rally cry posed the question, ‘if we lived in Wicker Park or Gold Coast would this plant exist?’. The heavy police presence was not lost among the crowd. 6 cop vehicles followed the crowd of about 23 as did a paddy wagon. “Its a community of young people of color” explained a legal observer.
Crawford and Fisk are some of the oldest coal plants still operating in the United States. Particulate matter emitted from these coal plants are known to cause bronchitis, heart attacks, cardiovascular disease, asthma, emergency hospitalizations, and even premature deaths. It is estimated that the pollution created by Fisk and Crawford here in Chicago have cost tax payers up to 1 billion dollars in health and related damages since the 2002 Illinois Power Plant study by the Harvard School of Public Health. The same study found that every year the pollution created by Fisk and Crawford cause 41 premature deaths, 550 visits to the emergency room, and almost 3,000 asthma attacks. In the last three years, over 45,000 tons of pollution have been released into the atmosphere by the coal plants, affecting not only Chicagoans but the 12 million citizens living within 100 miles of the plants.
Radio Arte spoke to an activist almost 500ft up the Fisk smokestack, Kelly Mitchell on the May 24, 2011 edition of First Voice. Kelly gives us her background, how her political vision transformed from petitioning the legislative process to direct-democracy and civil disobedience, and illustrates the human picture of how far some activists are willing to go to demand an end to the fossil fuel industry.
“You have to take responsibility for the public health crisis you have created” -Kelly Mitchell, Greenpeace Activist
Listen to our interview with Kelly Mitchell below:
Senior producer Martin Macias and co-producer Zé Garcia had the opportunity and privilege to attend the Power Shift 2011 summit in Washington, D.C. this past weekend in an effort to cover the climate-change summit live on the ground. Power Shift sought to gather some 10,000 activists from across the nation in an effort of solidarity and education as to the effects of anthropogenic ecosystem destruction. Inside the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Power Shift 2011 offered hour long panel discussions like “Citizens United: The Corporate Takeover of Our Democracy”, “From the BP Oil Spill to the Japanese Nuclear Crisis: Why Capitalism is Killing the Planet” and the “Environmental Impact of War and Militarism” among dozens of others. From Friday April 15 until April 18th, youth climate activists organized in the streets of our nation’s capital to let corporate America and the US government know–we are talking about the survival of the species.
On this edition of First Voice, April 19, 2011 Martin Macias airs a segment of Bill McKibben’s speech to the Power Shift summit. McKibben is credited as having written the first book about climate change aimed at a general audience and is the co-founder of 350.org. McKibben’s organization has helped coordinate thousands of demonstrations in over 180 countries. His environmental journalism continues to be at the forefront of the movement for climate justice.
This April Aja Scott, Yasmeen Griffen, and Tiara Stewart came from the Gulf Coast area (Biloxi, Mississippi) to attend Power Shift 2011 (http://www.wearepowershift.org/) in Washington DC.
They came to speak about their work to clean up the coast but also their critical message of corporate polluters like BP (British Petrol). Martin Macias, producer of First Voice interviewed these young women about their experiences at Power Shift, the largest gathering of environmental organizers and activists in the country. They also shared a song about environmental justice.
More info: Coastal Women For Change – http://www.cwcbiloxi.org/ NAACP Youth at – www.naacp.org/Youth
Participants of Power Shift 2011 in DC take over the Lobby of the office of the Interior demanding a change in the way the office has handed out permits to polluters and companies seeking to drill for natural gas.
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