Sept. 22, 2007

CHICAGO — Last fall 800,000 Chicagoans voted to bring our troops home from Iraq, but only 20,000 turn out for demonstrations or other actions, said longtime peace activist and organizer Carl Davidson. The referendum, like numerous polls across the nation, showed a national antiwar majority, “but it has no voice, it has to be organized,” he said.

Mike Graves, a 21-year veteran at the Swift & Co. plant in Marshalltown, Iowa, stood in front of a crowd of reporters in Washington, D.C., Sept. 12 and held a pair of handcuffs high over his head. Graves is a U.S. citizen who moved from his home in Mississippi 22 years ago and went to work as a meatpacker in Iowa.

WASHINGTON — A standing-room crowd packed Wesley United Methodist Church Sept. 8 to pay tribute to singer Luci Murphy. It was an evening that resounded with songs, poetry, dance and a few pithy speeches honoring this people’s artist.

Facing an angry firestorm, a state appeals court overturned the conviction of 17-year-old Mychal Bell on aggravated battery charges stemming from his resistance to a racist hate crime in the town of Jena in central Louisiana last year. Yet Bell still remains in jail.

DETROIT — Having named General Motors the “strike target” in their negotiations with Detroit’s Big Three auto companies on Sept. 13, the United Auto Workers union had still not reached an agreement with GM as the People’s Weekly World went to press. The contract was scheduled to expire Sept. 14, but was being extended on a day-to-day basis as talks continued.

After a year of public hearings on the No Child Left Behind Act, many education advocates are disappointed because revisions proposed by the House Education and Labor Committee leave the basic complex structure of NCLB unchanged.

The debate over statewide health care reform continued in California’s Legislature this week, at the same time the nation’s first city health care program, “Healthy San Francisco,” took another step toward implementation.

WASHINGTON: Thousands march against the war
MILWAUKEE: Workers jam park vs. crackdown on undocumented
TUSCALOOSA, Ala.: School ‘resegregation’ plan protested
TRENTON, N.J.: State sues over children’s health insurance

WASHINGTON — Martin Andrade, 40, is a security officer from Chicago and is originally from Michoacan, Mexico. He has been living in the U.S. legally for almost 30 years. Two years ago, his wife and mother of their two children was arrested and deported to Mexico. The children, ages 7 and 3, both U.S. citizens, are with their mother. Andrade said it could be up to 10 years before she’s allowed to return.

AURORA, Ill. — This large Chicago suburb is at the forefront of the latest round of reproductive health battles as the religious right attempts to undermine the opening of a new Planned Parenthood clinic. The clinic will provide sorely needed health services, including abortion and birth control, to the suburban population.