New book shows link — "Chicago School reform' and Chicago 'school reform'
Photo Above, April 26, 2007: With U. S. Cellular Field, home of the Chicago White Sox, now visible in the background, the last high rise public housing building in the “State St. Corridor” is demolished as part of the “Housing Reform” that accompanied Chicago’s corporate “School Reform.” The destruction of more than 50 high-rise low-income housing buildings in Chicago, some as tall at 16 stories, had begun under the corrupt U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) during the Clinton administration and continued with the blessings of the Republican after George W. Bush became President of the United States. The elimination of thousands of units of low income and moderately priced housing in Chicago was a major example of “shock therapy” during the 1990s and 2000s, and has resulted in the elimination of more than a quarter of a million black people from the city since the death of Mayor Harold Washington on November 25, 1987. Years of neglect under two Chicago mayors named Richard Daley had left the city’s public housing a national scandal, but Chicago’s rulers blocked every effort to make the projects safer for residents or even to repair the most basic and necessary services, such as elevators. By the time Richard M. Daley was secure in his power and Bill Clinton was President of the United States, “housing reform” and “welfare reform” became the two prongs of a massive attack on Chicago’s black poor children. Over a period of ten years, the housing for more than 100,000 children had been eliminated in Chicago — and generally replaced with promises, but not homes. The resulting homelessness was predicted by critics, just as the displacement of millions as the result of similar “shock therapy” methods outside the USA destroyed the futures of the youngest and most vulnerable people. One of the unique features of Chicago’s corruption was the expansion of the city’s huge drug gangs, which often allied themselves with politicians who supported Mayor Daley and his housing, welfare, and school “reform” policies. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.
Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine" one of the most important books of the 21st Century…
This review originally appeared as a T r u t h o u t | Book Review, Thursday 20 September 2007. It is printed here with permission of the author.
Naomi Klein is an award-winning Canadian journalist, author, documentary filmmaker and activist. She writes a regular column for The Nation magazine and London Guardian that’s syndicated internationally by The New York Times Syndicate, that gives people worldwide access to her work but not its own readers at home.
In 2004, she and her husband and co-producer Avi Lewis released their first feature documentary - “The Take.” It covered the explosion of activism in the wake of Argentina’s 2001 economic crisis. People responded with neighborhood assemblies, barter clubs, mass movements of the unemployed and workers taking over bankrupt companies and reopening them under their own management.
Klein is also the author of three books. Her first was “No Logo — Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies” (2000), that analyzes the destructive forces of globalization. Next came “Fences and Windows — Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate” (2002), covering the global revolt against corporate power.
Her newest book is “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism”, that explodes the myth of “free market” democracy. It shows how neoliberal, Washington consensus fundamentalism dominates the world with America its lead exponent exploiting security threats, terror attacks, economic meltdowns, competing ideologies, tectonic political or economic shifts and natural disasters to impose its will everywhere. Wars are waged, social services cut and freedom sacrificed when people are too distracted, cowed or bludgeoned to object. Klein describes a worldwide process of social and economic engineering she calls “disaster capitalism” with torture along for the ride to reinforce the message - no “New World Order” alternatives are tolerated.
“Free market” triumphalism is everywhere — from Canada to Brazil, China to Bulgaria, Russia to South Africa, Vietnam to Iraq. In all cases, the results are the same: People are sacrificed for profits and Margaret Thatcher’s dictum applies — “There is no alternative.”
“The Shock Doctrine” is a powerful tour de force, four years of on-the-ground research in the making and well worth the wait. In an age of corporatism partnered with corrupted political elites, it’s must reading by an author now firmly established as a major intellectual figure on the left and champion of social justice. Naomi Klein is all that and more. Even for those familiar with her topics, the book is stunning, revealing, unforgettable and essential to know. This review will cover a healthy sample of what’s in store for readers in the full, exquisitely written text. It’s in seven parts with a concluding section. Each will be discussed below starting with a brief introduction.
