University of Illinois “Old” Alums Return for a Conference on the 1960s Protest Movement

Posted on 12/24/2019 by Robert Justin Goldstein

A Saturday morning panel at conference on ’60s activism at UIUC

About 50 literally “old” University of Illinois alums returned to campus from around the country (and in one case, from Switzerland) to attend an October 4-5 conference about the 1960s UI student protest movements for free speech and against the Vietnam War. The conference was held in conjunction with the UI Press’s publication of a book by ’60s alum Michael Metz, entitled Radicals in the Heartland: The 1960s Protest Movement at the University of Illinois. The UI Press and the Library Archives Team organized the conference. Continue reading →

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This is going to take more than windmills: Addressing Trauma at the UN Climate Summit

Posted on 12/24/2019 by Kate Insolia

Climate activists from around the world converged on New York City during the United Nations Climate Summit in September, 2019, and I was lucky enough to be invited to contribute to this historic moment. There were scientists, lawyers, architects and diplomats—and of course Greta Thunberg (the Swedish teen who chastised the UN for its feeble track record on addressing the climate crisis)—but there were also artists, musicians and counselors in attendance. Yes, that’s right: counselors. Because if humans are going to survive the disruptions of the climate crisis, we are going to need to radically rethink how we relate to our planet and each other. Continue reading →

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University and High School Students Collaborate to Host September 20th Climate Strike

Posted on 12/24/2019 by Anya Kaplan-Hartnett

Student climate strike at UIUC, September 20, 2019

Between September 20 and 27, over 6000 protests took place in 185 countries as part of the Global Week for Future. Students walked out of classes, workers went on strike, and millions gathered to demand climate justice and take action against corporate greed and negligence. These strikes, which were part of Greta Thunberg’s historic Fridays for Future campaign, shared the common goal of raising awareness about the dangers of fossil fuels. According to the 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, scientists agree that it is still possible to avoid climate catastrophe if we can dramatically reduce carbon emissions by 2030. This reduction is only possible if we increase the share of renewable energy sources (hydroelectric, solar, and wind), while keeping fossil fuels in the ground. Continue reading →

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Homewrecker: Trump, the Kurds, and the Grand Strategy We Have Been Waiting For

Posted on 12/24/2019 by Janice Jayes

Kurdish refugees fled ISIS in the past, and now flee the Turkish invasion

Donald Trump’s October decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria took his own advisors by surprise, not to mention the Kurdish military units that were U.S. partners in the war on ISIS during the past five years. Perhaps the only unsurprised party was Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who moved quickly to eliminate the Kurdish forces across his southern border. Within days Turkish bombardment began and thousands of Kurds were fleeing south.

Trump’s policy reversal was rightly condemned as a betrayal of the Kurds, but the episode is merely one piece of a larger shift that is moving like a wrecking ball through U.S. policy circles. The trend predates Trump, but his style is accelerating the dismantling of the only platforms we have for confronting the challenges the planet faces. The reversal in Syria is a good place to start in examining the Trump effect on U.S. foreign policy and on the planet. Continue reading →

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Students for Justice in Palestine Triumphs in Illinois Student Government Vote

Posted on 12/24/2019 by Rue Abbas

On October 23, student organizers and members of Illinois Student Government (ISG) were elated to hear that a resolution demanding an apology from University of Illinois Chancellor Robert Jones had been passed by a vote of 29-4. The resolution criticized Chancellor Jones’s Massmail, which conflated criticizing Israel with anti-Semitism. In his Massmail, Jones relegates a swastika incident to a footnote, but dedicates paragraphs to the “anti-Semitic content” of a Multicultural Advocate’s student presentation on Palestine. Jones later admitted in an in-person meeting that this opinion was based on the interpretation by one student. ISG members also voted to send out their own Massmail (ISG is allotted three Massmails). The Massmail would be a factual response to the Chancellor’s email. The ISG victory came at a time when Palestinian students were being harrassed online by means of death threats and Islamophobic slurs.

Chancellor Jones’s email also included a list of his steps to ensure a safe campus, including training for housing personnel and reviews of housing policy and paraprofessionals hired. Despite this detailed agenda, there was no discussion of investigating the swastika found on campus, nor have there been any further statements on the swastikas that have appeared since. Continue reading →

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Expanded Medicare for All: What It Is and What It’s Not (Part Two)

Posted on 12/24/2019 by Patricia Simpson

The Illinois Single-Payer Coalition-CU (ISPC-CU) is on the move. Following its successful November 16 workshop on improved and expanded Medicare for All (Med4All), held at the Champaign Public Library, ISPC-CU is laying the groundwork for further grassroots action in the local community.

Future plans include continuing to collect signatures on petitions urging Illinois Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth to sign on as co-sponsors of the Med4All bill introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders. Earlier efforts conducted by one of ISPC-CU’s co-founders, CU Democratic Socialists of America, paid off dramatically. Approximately 2000 signatures were collected at the Urbana Farmers Market. Open to both organizational representatives and individuals, ISPC-CU hopes to get resolutions in support of Medicare for All legislation adopted by local governmental bodies. Continue reading →

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Affordable Housing—For Whom?

Posted on 12/24/2019 by Esther Patt

Billions of federal, state and local dollars were spent on affordable housing for low income people last year. Yet 2.5 million children in the nation were homeless. Close to 700 of them were right here in Champaign County.

Most “affordable housing” dollars are spent to help people other than the poor. Funding for programs involving home ownership or new construction of multi-family complexes is favored over the one type of housing assistance that reaches the most needy households: rent subsidy. Continue reading →

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African American Cultural Center Gets a New Building

Posted on 11/02/2019 by Terry Townsend

The new African American Cultural Center on the UI campus

After 50 years of political struggle, the African American Cultural Center at the University of Illinois has a new building.

In 1969, the Black Student Association (BSA) and Black Champaign-Urbana activists, with support from white students, presented 41 demands to campus leaders.

One demand was for a Black Cultural Center that would serve the “social needs of Black students.”

The outcome: Chancellor J. W. Peltason authorized the creation of a “temporary” Black Cultural Center, as part his very own Special Educational Opportunity Program, popularly called “Project 500.” Later, Chancellor Peltason amended the mission of the Black Cultural Center to serve all students and all Champaign-Urbana Black residents. Continue reading →

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After Statewide Coal Ash Victory, the Fight for the Middle Fork Continues

Posted on 11/02/2019 by Lan Richart

Protecting the integrity of our natural resources requires multigenerational vigilance, perseverance and dedication. Successes are rarely quick and easy, and generally only mark milestones in an unending quest to preserve what we hold dear. Such is the story of the mission to protect the Middle Fork of the Vermilion River, Illinois’s only National Scenic River.

Previous attempts to dam or alter the river were met with strong public opposition and ultimately failed. Today we are again in the midst of a campaign to protect the river, this time from coal ash, a toxic byproduct of decades of coal combustion for power generation at the Vermilion Power Station. The power plant closed in 2011, but Dynegy Midwest Generation, the current owner of the property, now wants to cap and leave behind 3.3 million cubic yards of ash in three unlined pits immediately adjacent to the river. The river threatens to breach the berm holding the ash and coal ash pollutants are leaking into the river. Continue reading →

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Expanded Medicare for All: What It Is and What It’s Not

Posted on 11/02/2019 by Patricia Simpson

Perhaps you’ve seen the video: a Vietnam veteran at a Bernie Sanders rally in Carson, Nevada takes the floor and describes how he is on the point of suicide due to the high uncovered costs of treating his Huntington’s disease. Or maybe you’ve read the recent press articles and TV news reports describing how people are dying due to rationing their insulin shots. The cost of insulin has skyrocketed, from $2,864 per patient per year in 2012 to $5,705 in 2016.

These are vivid reminders of how the current state of health care delivery in the United States kills people: kills them by virtue of inaccessibility, inadequate levels of coverage, and skyrocketing drug prices, among other deficit features. Is it any wonder that in survey after survey, people name health care as their primary concern—and not just the over 30 million that have no health insurance coverage? Continue reading →

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Being the Unreasonable: Educating Highly Marginalized Girls to Change the World 

Posted on 11/02/2019 by SwaTaleem Foundation

SwaTaleem Logo—from a version designed by children

Seema is a 12-year-old Dalit girl from Bihar, one of the poorest states in India. In the social hierarchy, Dalits in India belong to the lowest strata, often devoid of education and job opportunities, and have compromised rights. On one hot day, rather than being in class studying, she was clinging to a pillar crying before her parents, urging them not to take her home and not to have her married. She wanted to go to school and she wanted to study.

In American middle schools, most 12-year-old girls are looking forward to high school. Most cannot picture leaving school before even starting high school, let alone being married before that time. Yet in many parts of the world, girls struggle to get an education and even go beyond secondary education. Seema is one of those, and she is not alone. Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Education, Girls, India, Poverty, University of Illinois | Comments Off on Being the Unreasonable: Educating Highly Marginalized Girls to Change the World 

Anti-Austerity Protesters in Ecuador Win Some Concessions, But Unlikely to Prevent Further Unrest or Repression

Posted on 11/02/2019 by Mark Weisbrot

The government of Ecuador reached an agreement on October 13 with leaders of the protests that had rocked the country for the previous two weeks. The deal, which included the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), is a retreat for the government of President Lenín Moreno and a victory for the protesters.

Jubilant crowds took to the streets, chanting in celebration. But the agreement doesn’t resolve the underlying problems. Moreno is not likely to finish the remaining year and a half of his presidential term without a recurrence of serious unrest. Continue reading →

Posted in Foreign Policy, International, International | Comments Off on Anti-Austerity Protesters in Ecuador Win Some Concessions, But Unlikely to Prevent Further Unrest or Repression

Bolton is Out! But Imperialist Aggression Against Iran is Still In

Posted on 11/02/2019 by Nick Goodell

On September 10, National Security Advisor John Bolton was fired from his post at the White House. With one of the staunchest advocates for US imperialism now out of the Trump administration, some were optimistic that the warmongering and the sanctions placed on countries like China, Venezuela, Iran, and North Korea would deescalate.

These pundits were quickly disappointed, however. In the wake of a recent attack on Saudi oil fields, the Trump administration locked arms with Saudi and United Arab Emirates (UAE) officials in declaring Iran to be responsible for the attacks. Though it has failed to cite any evidence for these claims, the administration is now sending missile defense systems and 3000 US troops to Saudi Arabia and the UAE at the request of these nations. At a press conference that day, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford refused to rule out a military strike against Iran. “Despite repeated calls from President Trump to begin diplomatic talks,” Esper said, “Iranian aggression continues to increase.” The US has maintained “great restraint” in its relations with Iran, “in the hopes the Iranian leadership would choose peace and reverse Iran’s steep decline into isolation and economic collapse.” The military assistance to Saudi Arabia and the UAE was a measure designed “to prevent further escalation,” Esper claimed. Continue reading →

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An Early Gig Economy: Pro Wrestling

Posted on 11/02/2019 by Neil Parthun

Wrestler and organizer David Starr at a rally for more rights and better conditions for wrestling talent

By now, almost everybody knows that professional wrestling is a “worked” sport—requiring wrestlers to advance storylines, choreograph matches and implement predetermined outcomes set by the industry’s bookers and writers. Yet the in-ring entertainment provided by these men and women can hardly be derided as “fake,” as the experiences of many wrestlers would attest. Stories of chemical dependency, early deaths, careers cut short due to injury, financial instability and more show how these workers have given their bodies to an entertainment sport that has been an incredibly imbalanced labor market.

As critiques multiply lambasting the app-based gig economy for its denial of basic worker protections, similar attention is due one of the nation’s first gig economies—professional wrestling—and the challenges that are building there against the status quo. Continue reading →

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Fifth Annual Black Rose Anarchist Federation Convention Held in Urbana

Posted on 11/02/2019 by Kristina Khan

 

Over a weekend in late July, delegates and officers of Black Rose/Rosa Negra Anarchist Federation (BRRN) gathered at the Channing Murray Foundation for BRRN’s Fifth Annual Convention.  Delegates came from across the country for three days of discussion, debate, decision making, internal housekeeping, and camaraderie. Though the convention itself was for BRRN members only, BRRN hosted a public event titled “Anarchism and Black Struggle” at the Independent Media Center, featuring a panel of Black anarchist organizers from Sudan, Little Rock, Miami, and Providence, followed by a comedy show featuring the comedy duo Kadeems’ Hard Koolaide.  

BRRN is a young organization, founded in 2013 by several anarchist groups with the broad goal of reviving an organized, mass, working-class-based anarchist movement in the United States. This was in contrast to some of the more individualistic, subculture “scene” orientations to anarchism that seemed overly prevalent in some areas of North America. BRRN’s membership growth is intentionally slow and steady, to better address the needs of every member; and most of us are longtime organizers in our communities.  Continue reading →

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Many Successes in a Year of Existential Crises for the IMC

Posted on 09/20/2019 by IMC Executive Committee

Residents packed Urbana City Council in support of the IMC on July 1, 2019

Congratulations! As a community, the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center (IMC) was able to overcome the fiscal crisis that surfaced at the beginning of this year. We have each other to thank: our board members, working groups, volunteers and community members. 

Overcoming financial crisis

In February, after becoming aware that we had been spending more than we took in each month for three years, the recently elected IMC board realized its only sustainable option was to lay off staff and go back to its origins as an all-volunteer organization, until financial stability could be regained. Since then, the board and other volunteers have put in hundreds and hundreds of hours, working to fill rental vacancies, address deferred maintenance on the building, minimize general costs, and rethink our leadership structure. As a result, we are proud to say that we have been revenue-positive since March. In addition, we are now in a position to hire an Executive Director, who can work with the board on the next phase of the IMC’s growth. Stay tuned to www.ucimc.org for the announcement, and please share the word that we are hiring. Continue reading →

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Is a Woman a Person?

Posted on 09/20/2019 by Esther Patt

2016 Protest at the Supreme Court against restrictive abortion laws

In a 1980 article about the proposed Human Life Amendment (HLA) to the U.S. Constitution, journalist Ellen Goodman asked, “is a woman a person?” The HLA would have granted constitutional personhood to every fertilized human ovum. Few people back then believed that legal abortion was in peril. Their complacency allowed the political debate to be dominated by the question “is a fetus a person?,” rather than that of how pregnancy affects women’s health and lives.

Since President Trump’s election, seven states have passed bans on abortion, and the Supreme Court has two new justices. For the first time in forty-six years, people are finally realizing the Court could overturn Roe v. Wade, making abortion illegal in many states.

We simply cannot rely on the Courts to protect reproductive choice. Voters have to make the issue a priority in congressional and legislative races. Even if the Supreme Court never overturns Roe v. Wade, for millions of women the damage has already been done. It can only get worse. Continue reading →

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Emma Scott Bridgewater: Lived Experience Marked by Race and Discrimination

Posted on 09/20/2019 by Vanessa Rouillon

Erma Scott, ca. 1930. Courtesy of Cassandra B. Woolfolk, Ronald and Cecil Bridgewater. The Illio, University of Illinois Yearbook, 1937. Courtesy of University of Illinois Archives

I met Mrs. Erma Pauline Scott Bridgewater (1913-2013) in Spring, 2009, during my research visits to Bethel A.M.E. Church. She led a life of service, racial work, and local activism in Champaign, being, arguably, the most interviewed and celebrated local Black woman of the late 1900s. Born on November 24, 1913, her parents were Raymond Mack Scott (1892-1957) and Sarah Pauline Wilson Scott (1892-1991). Erma was the oldest child, but her brother Raymond (1916-1965) soon followed. Both siblings attended an otherwise all-white school, Lincoln School. Mr. and Mrs. Scott advocated for the use of the Champaign High School swimming pool for their children, but “separate but equal” prevailed, and the Scott children could swim after school only. Nevertheless, Erma became, and remained, an avid swimmer.

The family settled on 109 Ells Avenue in Champaign, a predominantly white neighborhood, owning their house. A faithful congregant, Raymond was a choir and Baraca Bible Class (for men) member at Bethel; he played the saxophone and led the band “Mack Scott and his Footwarmers.” Known to enjoy cigars, Raymond was a messenger for the University of Illinois, a common occupation for Black men then. Sarah moved to Champaign from Old Shawneetown in 1911, after her father had passed; she followed her mother, who had relocated here to work as a cook, a frequent position for Black women. Sarah was a member of the women’s Philathea Bible Class. Continue reading →

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FirstSteps Community House

Posted on 09/20/2019 by James Kilgore

Renovating FirstSteps Community House

“Our community needs a transitional house … we’re gonna reach out and help people get employment, help them bond back with their families and be able to give back to the community.”

— Casandis Hunt, peer mentor at FirstFollowers, talking about the impending opening of FirstSteps Community House, a residence in Champaign for people returning home from prison.

“Experts who have studied our current corrections programs agree that every individual leaving prison needs three key things—employment, housing and healthcare. In fact, without the most basic of human needs—a roof over a head—justice-involved individuals struggle to reintegrate, at great cost to Illinois’ public safety and to the fabric of our communities.”

— Re-Entry Housing Issues in Illinois, 2019 report by Illinois Justice Project and Metropolitan Planning Council.

In the summer of 2016, a group of peer mentors from FirstFollowers, including Casandis Hunt, attended the annual Champaign-Urbana Days celebration in Douglass Park. While most people showed up ready for barbecue and connecting with old friends and family, we arrived with a stack of surveys. We knew that the majority of those attending C-U Days would be Black people who had been touched by incarceration in one way or another. As an emerging organization trying to advance the rights and interests of formerly incarcerated people, we wanted to hear from the community about how well they thought the needs of people coming home from prison were being met.

Most of the answers we got from our survey told us things we already knew—that people with felony convictions had a hard time getting employment, that incarceration had a negative impact on families, that landlords were not very welcoming to people with a criminal background. But one statistic shocked us thoroughly: 85 percent of those we surveyed believed that authorities should provide transitional housing for people when they were released from incarceration. This statistic launched us on a mission. We wanted to delve deeper into this issue. Continue reading →

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It Happens Again: Noose Found in UIUC Dorm

Posted on 09/20/2019 by DRUM Editorial Collective

Reprinted with permission from Drums!, a Black webspace, created by Black Students for Revolution.

A noose was found hanging within the Allen Hall dorms at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Saturday night, continuing a long tradition of racist imagery at the midwestern campus.  The noose was found by Black undergraduate students and spread on social media throughout the weekend, while the University administration has yet to inform the student body about the incident or its investigation. Continue reading →

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