Category Archives: Uncategorized

When I arrived to Ankara, Turkey on Friday May 29 to speak at an international conference sponsored by the Teachers Union, Egitim Sen, I was informed that police forces had launched operations against their parent union, KESK’s (the confederation of … Continue reading →

”We are living in an era in which the government has manipulated our nation’s fear of terrorism to launch wars, destroy our economic security, undermine government services, erode our democratic rights and intensify racism, sexism, religious discrimination and divisions among … Continue reading →

After 30 years, Champaign native and Gulf War veteran, Shaheen Shorish, still vividly recalls the blood-soaked Persian carpets prominently displayed on the lawns of the royal palace in Kabul in 1978. The perpetrators of the Soviet-backed coup d’état, that unseated … Continue reading →

Whether advocating relocation assistance for displaced tenants, providing services to homeless families or working on any anti-poverty effort, one reality will surely be the biggest road block. Most “affordable housing” is too expensive for low-wage workers. More than one of … Continue reading →

On Saturday, June 6 at 10 a.m., a memorial was held at the federal courthouse in Urbana to correspond with the funeral of Dr. George Tiller in Wichita, Kansas and similar memorials that were held across the country. On Memorial … Continue reading →

A press conference was held at the Independent Media Center on June 25, 2009, where community leaders spoke out about the police shooting of Toto Kaiyewu, a medical student from Carbondale. When Kaiyewu, who is black, was passing through Villa … Continue reading →

On the night of June 8, 2009, Leigh Estabrook, a member of St. Jude Catholic Workers House Steering Committee, contacted the Residential Volunteers of the House to inform them that the Champaign Police were coming to investigate the nature of … Continue reading →

This document is a collective effort of the Safe Haven Tent Community and its supporters! A small tent community has formed in Champaign, and with it, a growing constituency of support from the citizens of Champaign County. the Safe Haven … Continue reading →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

ON SATURDAY MARCH 21st, an estimated 5,000 people marched on the Pentagon in Washington D.C. to protest American imperialism in the Middle East. “From Iraq to Afghanistan to Palestine, Occupation is a Crime” was the slogan of the march, as … Continue reading →

URBANA—2007 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS graduate in art education, visual artist Roberta Bennett exhibits recent works on paper at a new art venue in town, the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center. The IMC is located over at what used to be the … Continue reading →