Monthly Archives: May 2009

Autumn Glen: A Teacher’s Perspective

Posted on 05/02/2009 by Neil Parthun

The families who lived at the Autumn Glen apartment complex in Rantoul had their lives totally upended after being forcibly removed from their homes. The residents of Autumn Glen paid an extra fee in their rent to pay for the … Continue reading →

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Nelson Algren, Chicago Author and U of I Grad, Turns 100

Posted on 05/02/2009 by Public i

Lumpenproletariat, me trespassed private property wondering always how it comes there‘s just no rest for such poor bums. BORN IN 1909, NELSON ALGREN wrote novels of the underclass, those who Marx described as the “lumpen proletariat.” Before he became a … Continue reading →

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Five Ring Circus: Olympics and Resistance

Posted on 05/02/2009 by Neil Parthun

The Olympics have been mythologized as a venue where athletes from all over the world can be unified in a contest of the world‘s greatest athletes despite political and social differences. However, the reality is that the Olympics have been … Continue reading →

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Fix U.S. Foreign Policy, Pass the Employee Free Choice Act

Posted on 05/02/2009 by Robert Naiman

SOMETIMES A “STRATEGIC” opportunity for reform comes along which changes the playing field for efforts to win other reforms in the future. The passage of the National Labor Relations Act was a strategic reform. It empowered the people previously excluded … Continue reading →

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Some Notes on the Social Forum Phenomenon

Posted on 05/02/2009 by Paul Mueth

THROUGH THE MONTHS OF 2000 around Brasil and parts of Latin America, there was concerted effort to bring together parts of civil society, historically disenfranchised over decades of dictatorships and economic hegemony by the North, mainly by the Monroe (en)Doctrinated … Continue reading →

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May Day, Then and Now

Posted on 05/02/2009 by Joe Berry

THIS MAY 1ST WILL MARK THE FOURTH large scale celebration of May Day (International Workers’ Day) in the United States. This holiday, which was born of events in Chicago in 1886, was suppressed and became almost completely lost to American … Continue reading →

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Democracy and Israeli’s Other Citizens

Posted on 05/02/2009 by Niloofar Shambayati

MAY 15 IS THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE establishment of the state of Israel which is celebrated every year with pride and jubilance. The Palestinians in Israel, however, have very little to celebrate. Although most of them are citizens, they have … Continue reading →

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Executive Pay at the University of Illinois

Posted on 05/02/2009 by Brian Dolinar

MANY HAVE EXPRESSED OUTRAGE at the $20 billion in bonuses handed out to Wall Street executives, even as they were receiving bailout assistance from the federal government. As the “business model” has crept into the university, we find the same … Continue reading →

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There is s War Going on for Your Mind: Labor Media in Central Illinois

Posted on 05/02/2009 by fellow worker X

UNTIL THE LATE 1970‘S, EVERY MAJOR newspaper in the United States had at least one labor reporter with regular stories about unions and working class issues. Labor related news stories were also heard regularly on radio stations, and begining in … Continue reading →

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Students Shut Down CIA Recruiting at UIUC

Posted on 05/02/2009 by International Socialist Organization

ON APRIL 9, MEMBERS OF THE Campus Antiwar Network, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and the International Socialist Organization joined forces for a third annual protest against the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) recruitment session at the University of Illinois at … Continue reading →

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Racial Profiling Incident Leads to Police Shooting of “Toto” Kaiyewu

Posted on 05/02/2009 by Brian Dolinar

A PRESS CONFERENCE WAS HELD at the Independent Media Center with the family of Oluwatofunmi Kaiyewu, a 23 year-old medical student who was killed by police on April 6, 2009. This bizarre series of events began in the former “sundown … Continue reading →

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Press Release from the Native American House

Posted on 05/02/2009 by University of Illinois Native American House

PUBLIC ART EXHIBIT AT NATIVE AMERICAN HOUSE VANDALIZED AGAIN APRIL 7, 2009 Three signs that are part of the “Beyond the Chief” exhibit outside Native American House and American Indian Studies buildings were vandalized between Monday evening and Tuesday afternoon. … Continue reading →

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The High Costs of Provincialism

Posted on 05/02/2009 by David Roediger

IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS department where I teach, the golf pencils used in student evaluations of faculty at semester‘s end have to be signed out and dutifully returned to staff. Obsessive re-collecting of the tiny pencils always gets a … Continue reading →

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GEO Fights for a Living Wage

Posted on 05/02/2009 by John Gergely

BARGAINING IN AN ATMOSPHERE of fiscal crisis is difficult. There is a temptation to maneuver conservatively, hoping only to hold one‘s ground. However, for those of us who are graduate employees, the current and future stewards of higher education, the … Continue reading →

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