Chicago Rallies for International Workers Day! Without Legalization, there can be no Equal Labor Rights!

Video of the beginning of the march.



May 1st is celebrated around the world as international workers day. In socialist countries like Cuba and Nepal large rallies are held. In capitalist countries around the world, protests are held. In Germany, Anarchists riot and smash bank windows. In Colombia union workers demand an end to the paramilitary violence against union members.

The holiday has its roots in Chicago. In the workshops and factories of the 1800's, in the major cities and capitalist strongholds, workers would be forced to work in dangerous conditions for up to 14 hours a day, for such a pitiful ammount of money that many of them could not afford homes and food for their families. If they had families, they were unable to spend time with them. To be caring parent to their children, to be a devoted spouse. They were treated by the captains of industry as mere tools to their profit machines.

But the workers would not tolerate this. They began to organize for the eight hour work day. The 1886 strike for the 8 hour work day was world wide, but Chicago was seen as the largest and the most militant of the workers on strike. A few days later, on May 3rd 1886, the police attacked strikers, killing several. Anarchists organized a rally to take place the next day at Haymarket Square to condemn the police brutality.

At the rally a riot broke out. Police and strikers were killed. In the political trial that followed, eight men were condemned to death. The eight Chicago Anarchists were found guilty not because of any violent actions there were involved in, none of them participated in the riot, but because their political ideology stood in opposition to the values of bourgeoisie society. The Haymarket martyrs were fighters for workers and immigrants rights. They represented a movement that was fighting for the dignity of all.

For years, this workers holiday has been forgotten in the United States. This has changed in recent years. The House of Representatives passed the anti-immigrant Sensenbrenner Bill in 2006, a law which would have deported many immigrants and made it illegal to assit an undocumented immigrant in any way, including driving an injured immigrant to the hospital. In Chicago, a group of activists organized to hold a rally against the bill on March 10, 2006. It was an overwhelming success. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets to oppose the Sensenbrenner bill and to support immigrants rights.

The Spanish language press had been promoting the rally for weeks ahead of time, while the English language press was silent about it. I only found out about the rally through a small flier which was poorly photo copied and stapled to a college campus bulletin board. I didn't have anything else on my agenda and decided to go on a whim. I expected maybe 15 activists vainly handing out fliers. I got on the red line and saw two young mexican students who were wearing Che t-shirts. I asked if they were heading to the rally and they replied that there were. I told them I would probably see them down there.

I got off at State and Lake, and attempted to transfer to the Green line which would take me to Union Park. Except that I couldn't get on the el. There was a giant crowd on the platform which spilled off into a long line down the stairs and into the sidewalk. All of this crowd was heading to the rally. I stood in line, making my way towards to el trains. A train came, and it was full. Completely packed. Another came. Completely packed. The train speakers announced that all the loop trains were being rerouted to carry protestors to the rally. I saw a white friend of mine, and we just stared at each other with amazement. It was as if the revolution were happening, and no one bothered to send us the memo!

The massive outpouring of opposition to the bill could be credited with the bills failure in the senate. It also launched the Movimiento Diez de Marzo, who almost immediately began organizing another immigrant rights rally, one that would be national, and one that would ressurect International Workers Day in America. The protest on May 1, 2006 was the largest in Chicago history. Hundreds of thousands came out to support immigrants and workers rights.

This year, the protests continued. While the crowd was not as large as it had been before, it is substantial that activists are continuing to push for legalization and amnesty of immigrants even with Obama as President. It is also important to stand up for immigrants rights with the media using Swine flu to stir up anti-immigrant hysteria.

Below are pictures and videos from the march and rally through Downtown Chicago and ending at Federal Plaza.



























The Young Polish Alliance, affiliated with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. My Dad's side of the family is Chicago Polish, so I was excited to see organized Polish activists standing up for immigrants rights.


The Albany Park Neighborhood Council.


Korean American Resource and Cultural Center.


Video of the Korean contingent in the march.










The Chicago Chapter of the Sex Workers Outreach Project










The United Auto Workers


Teamsters Local 743.


I grew up in the North suburbs, and was would often hang out in Waukegan, a predominately latino town. A few years ago, the town council passed a law which allowed Waukegan police to be trained in checking immigration status, thus allowing them to check a persons status on routine traffic stops. This law has done little but spread fear. Many Latinos have moved out of Waukegan, businesses have closed and both documented and undocumented workers have been intimidated by the law. It's safe to say that Waukegan is a place close to my heart, and I wish immigrants rights activists in Waukegan the best.








Mexican dancers at rally at Federal Plaza.










These photos of me were taken by my friend Tamara Smith.

Rally at the Univeristy of Illinois at Chicago to save Pilsen Health Clinic

At noon on Thursday April 23, 2009, students, faculty and staff of the University of Illinois at Chicago's (UIC) medical school rallied with community members against the closing of a medical clinic that UIC funded. The Center for Women and Families in the predominately lower-class Latino neighborhood of Pilsen, provides low cost medical service to the residents of Pilsen. The school is using the economy as an excuse to close the clinic, but activists rallied to save the clinic.


The flier handed out at the rally.


The Button handed out at the rally.


A banner at the rally.










UIC's logo, "Learning and Labor" gotta love it. It's practically socialist.

Palestine Solidarity Vigil, Justice for Tristan Anderson, We Remember Rachel Corrie

On March 15 2009, a group of activists gathered outside the famous Chicago water tower to show their solidarity with the Palestinian people. Since the 2003 death of American activist Rachel Corrie, the International Solidarity Movement has held vigils on the anniversary of her death to remember the courageous activist. Days before the vigil, another American activist, Tristan Anderson, who had traveled to Palestine to oppose the occupation was seriously injured by the Israeli Defense Forces. I was particularly worried about the latest attacks on international activists in the occupied territories as I have friends who were in the occupied territories at the time. Below are pictures I took at the vigil.

Chicago Immigrant Rights and Anti-War March

I attended the March 14th rally and march in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood. The march was a combination of two of the largest grassroots movements in recent Chicago history- the immigrant rights movement and the anti-war movement. The march had created a bit of news as the city attempted to deny a permit for the march, claiming that the Chicago police would be overwhelmed between the march and the St. Patrick's Day Parade. The activists were ultimately able to get the permit for the day and route they wanted. Below are some of my pictures and videos from the event. There was a little bit of police brutality at the march, as the police pepper sprayed, beat and arrested a marcher. Beyond that I know little as I did not witness the incident.

Watchmen the Movie: Before and After

Before

I've been a fan of the comic for a long time, and am looking forward to seeing the movie on imax. I have read a lot of reviews, and what seem to see is that everyone who expected a hollywood kids movie was disappointed like the moral puritans they are. They wanted a confirmation of their values of good and evil. Instead they got nudity, violence, and a plot that requires you to pay attention and think. In other words, they got a heaping of real life covered in the dressing of the superhero genre. I look forward to evaluating the movie on my own, and I worry that the director emphasizes the violence and sex more than the philosophical and psychological musings. But I'm not going to base my judgment of the movie on the idea that movies should cater to 12 year olds. 12 year olds need to grow up and if the movie is anything like the comic, which I read when I was about 12, then this is the perfect movie for them to start wrestling with the questions and issues they will deal with their entire adult lives.

After

What a disappointment. I saw Watchmen the movie on imax with some friends. After years of reading the comic, and believing that this was something that they would never be able to get right on film, I should have had low expectations, but instead I believed the hype. Partly because the director, Zack Snyder kept talking about how close he followed the comic. Scene by scene, panel by panel. Well, it's true that he stuck to the comic, but it's also clear that he didn't realize what the comic was even about.

In short, it was a violent disneyland ride based on the book. It lacked the serious pondering in Alan Moore's masterpiece. The post-modern doubt of all 'grand narratives' was gone. Instead the movie only offered a critique of the ends that lefties would use to achieve their goals. The comic was a critical deconstruction of the superhero genre, exposing liberal elitists (Ozymandias), right wing vigilantes (Rorschach), god-like supermen (Dr. Manhattan), and government agents (The Comedian) as flawed characters that rhetorical pretensions aside, might do more harm than good for society.

The Watchmen movie, like Synder's 300, had a right wing tilt. In 300, Greek super-studs fight against “Asian Hordes” to defend “the only hope of reason” and western civilization. It could have been written by a George W. Bush speech writer in order to drum up support for an invasion of Iran. In the Watchmen movie, we have a new hero in Rorschach, a vicious vigilante who stops at nothing to exact crowd pleasing justice. An uncompromising masked hero who is tragically killed while trying to stop a villain's murderous plot. The villain is Ozymandias, an environmentalist vegetarian liberal snob who is willing to kill millions to achieve his goal of a 'hippie commune' pacifist utopia. Watchmen becomes the perfect propaganda for an anti-Obama right-wing reaction.

In the comic, Rorschach's character is developed not as a hero, but as a dark reflection of American Right-Wing Populism. I think one of the most telling parts of the comic is in Rorschach's pyschological profile in the linear notes of issue # 6. Rorschach's alter ego, Walter Kovacs writes,”I like President Trumen... He dropped the atom bomb on Japan and saved millions of lives because if he hadn't, then there would have been a lot more war that there was an more people would have been killed. I think it was a god thing to drop the atomic bomb on Japan.”

Wait a minute. Could it be? Rorschach is willing to kill millions, just like Ozymandias, to achieve his better world? This is the kind of moral doubt that exists in the comic that didn't make it into the moralistic movie.

Part of the problem, is that times change. While Rorschach chopping up child rapists with a meat cleaver would have seemed monstrous when the comic originally came out, now he's perceived by many to be a bad ass exacting just revenge.

I do have to credit Snyder for copying so much of the book, and I do look forward to the dvd which is supposed to have 2 more hours of footage. Perhaps more of the moral ambiguity will make it into the dvd. The movie felt rushed in it's execution though. Every line of dialogue felt like the actor said it in ¼ the time it actually needed for emotional impact.

While many reviews have commented on Malin Akerman's poor performance as Silk Spectre, I was more frustrated with Billy Crudup's blah inspiring performance as Dr. Manhattan. The scenes on Mars in particular are agonizing to watch as they seemed rushed and forced. What was an excellent meditation of responsibility and a fantastic dialogue about human worth, became a one minute long excuse to have Dr. Manhattan return to Earth. I felt like Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach was too animated, energetic, and angry in the movie. In the comic Rorschach was detached and calm in his sociological killing spree. I particularly detest Rorschach's appropriation of the Left's slogan in “an injury to one is an injury to all.”

I did enjoy Patrick Wilson's Nite Owl and Jeffery Dean Morgan as the Comedian was great, although the pressure to speed up the movie shows here. The Comedian's murder of a Vietnamese girl should have been in slow mo, to heighten the tension and drama, to illustrate the moral choice before the Comedian. Instead the movie blurred right by it and instead we got extra footage of comedian whuppin some hippies in the streets.

I have to comment on the ending. To Snyder's credit, he fought the studio to maintain Alan Moore's original ending. He lost. Many have commented on the ending, pointing out that it sort of made sense, tying together a couple of different plot threads and themes. I disagree. In the comic, the threat of extra-terrestrial invasion was one that would continue after the crises, thus keeping the USA and the USSR allied and at peace. Not so with the ending in the movie. There are two flaws with Ozymandias' plot in the movie. 1- Dr. Manhattan as the danger would only lead to a temporary alliance between the USA and the USSR, and would have actually raised questions about America's connections with Dr. Manhattan. 2- With Ozymandias doing energy projects with Dr. Manhattan, wouldn't he come under suspicion? Also, this is a critique of the comic, why does Dr. Manhattan even work for the US government to begin with? What's in it for him?

Some of my friends say “well, this is as good of an adaption as you could expect.” Well, I'll stick with the original. Maybe the medium is the message.