'Hey Barack!... Race to the Top Is a Crock!' Organized by CORE, Chicago teachers and others protest Obama's education policies during August 5, 2010 Chicago visit
Chicago's Labor Beat covered the CORE demonstration against Race To The Top during Barack Obama's visit to Chicago and has produced another video scoop covering a major Chicago story. This time, the Labor Beat video is covering the August 5, 2010 protest during Brarack Obama's fundraising visit to Chicago.
Part of the protest against President Barack Obama's education policies picket the Chicago Cultural Center on August 5, 2010 while the President spoke inside at a Democratic Party fundraiser. Substance photo by Susan Zupan.In addition to showing the large and militant protest against President Obama's policies during the President's recent Chicago visit, the video features a speech by teachers Nate Goldbaum (editor of the CORE newsletter) and Carol Caref discussing what is wrong with "Race To The Top."
"You're not going to fire your way to good schools..." says Caref, responding to an editorial that appeared in the Chicago Tribune that day, criticizing new CTU President Karen Lewis for demanding due process for teachers who have been declared "unsatisfactory" by often corrupt principals.
To view on YouTube, readers can cut and paste the following into their browser:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM_WqraHAsU
The Labor Beat introduction to the video follows:
"As President Obama spoke inside Chicago's Cultural Center on Michigan Ave. on Aug. 5, 2010, outside a group of Chicago Public Schools teachers and other public workers protested. They were demonstrating against the Race to the Top (RTT) policies that Obama (and his Secretary of Education Arne Duncan) is pushing nationally in dismantling public education and attacking teachers unions. The demo was organized by the Caucus of Rank And File Educators (CORE, coreteachers.org) and also attended by CTA workers. 6:30 min..."
Substance reporters at the event noted that other media in addition to Substance and Labor Beat were at the event, but we haven't seen anything about the protests in the Chicago Tribune or Chicago Sun-Times.
By: Paul A. Moore
The Corporate-State Is Here
The US is now a corporate-state. Did you hear, the oil well is plugged and all the crude and the corexit has just vanished! Don't believe me or BP, then just ask Carol Browner, the people's guardian of the environment. Gosh it was a close call too! That industrial homicide and killing of the Gulf of Mexico nearly brought down Britain's largest corporation and the Obama Administration. All's well now though, the corporate media will take the clean-up from here.
The banks now have grabbed almost all the wealth of this nation. Almost! But even gorged on the people's money, the banks are ironically walking dead, like Paul Krugman used to say, they're zombies. More like vampires to my mind. Because there are a few pockets of wealth and working class influence they simply must suck dry if they are to survive a little bit longer. There's the nation's public school system, there's public and private pension funds, there's the Social Security system, Medicare and Medicaid, there's all the public services delivered by state and local governments. There's the largest unionized work force left in this country, the teachers. What, you thought this sudden flood of disparagement and denigration of teachers was "for the kids"? What started with Reagan and PATCO is supposed to end with Obama and NEA-AFT. Can't pay teachers those exorbitant $50,000 a year salaries and a pension in their old age. Teach For America all around! We've got Lloyd Blankfein and Jamie Dimon to think of right.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/06/business/06denver.html?_r=1&hpw=&pagewanted=all
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/07/us/07cutbacksWEB.html?hp