Author Archives: Ricky Baldwin

Turning Lemons Into Lemonade! Attacks on Unions & Fighting Back Sun. Feb. 18 at 1 pm Champaign Public Library 200 W. Green St., Champaign Speakers from Wisconsin join local discussion about the devastating impact of legal changes to workers’ rights, … Continue reading →

Loudly proclaiming its poverty whenever workers want a raise, the University of Illinois belies this claim through actions like hiring incoming President Michael Hogan at $620,000 a year “base” salary, plus retention bonus and perks. That’s more than a third … Continue reading →

IN THE 1880’S, THE KNIGHTS OF LABOR constructed a much broader vision of organized labor than the “business unionism” of its craft union rivals that became the American Federation of Labor (AFL). The Knights welcomed unskilled workers, of any race … Continue reading →

When Laurel Prussing ran for Mayor of Urbana in 2005, she promised to support an independent board to oversee the police, as did most City Council candidates. When the new Mayor and City Counci ltook office, they first provided for … Continue reading →

Just four days ahead of a formal nationwide boycott by tomato pickers and their allies, on April 9, 2007, fastfood giant McDonald’s Corporation signed a historic agreement with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the grassroots labor association of mostly immigrant … Continue reading →

Urbana-Champaign may be “Impeach Bush Central”- and one of the very few places in the country where voters can have their say directly on both impeachment and war. Local voters will see a referendum on each of these questions on … Continue reading →

“It’s the fox in charge of the henhouse,” noted one Urbana resident at a recent City Council meeting. He was expressing in the negative the most elementary principle of justice: you just can’t investigate yourself. The rule applies to government … Continue reading →

Carol Ammons says the Champaign County Clerk’s office has rejected hundreds of voter registrations collected during a drive by her group, C-U Citizens for Peace and Justice, and the reasons for rejection seem hard to swallow. One local man allegedly … Continue reading →

“It must be a very interesting time in the States at the moment,” remarked our server at dinner, “with November coming up.”My wife Catharine and I were enjoying a rare night out without children in her hometown of Wivenhoe, population … Continue reading →

     , a crowd of nearly 200 gathered in front of the Champaign County Courthouse in Urbana to welcome 45 bus riders from Chicago. The bus was part of “La Caravana de la Libertad para los … Continue reading →

 ’      any time soon, you may run across warnings about too-good-to-be-true rates at one hotel on Michigan Avenue overlooking Grant Park. Accommodations at the 580-room hotel are renting at winter prices – $99 a … Continue reading →

Jeremy Glick, whose father was killed in the World Trade Center, has traveled around the U.S. speaking about peace as it relates to 9/11 and Iraq on behalf of “September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows,” a group of family members … Continue reading →