If you drive through Chicago’s West Side you will see blocks full of factories that are either abandoned or on their way to being abandoned. If you live on the West Side, or if you drive there and get out of your car long enough to talk to people, you will find that there are […]
Introducing: School Without Walls
If oppression is the force that divides, then solidarity is the practice of reclaiming our unions and bonds. In a city like Chicago— where neighborhood boundaries, gang turfs, and racial segregation keep people separated from one another—it is difficult to see all the ways that we are connected. Occasionally there are those moments when we […]
Mexico Solidarity Network
We—activists, organizers, and aspiring movement builders—have been taught that creating positive social change means responding to the political possibilities and limitations of our context. While this is perhaps inevitable, the Mexico Solidarity Network (msn) believes we must also challenge the ways these possibilities and limitations are created. The following interview with Tom Hansen, co-founder and […]
The Economic Life Sentence: Introduction to the Low-Wage Labor Market
For a huge percentage of African-American men in Chicago, past felony convictions are like gashing scars across one’s employment history. These scars are common for men in high-incarceration neighborhoods like North Lawndale and Englewood, forcing them into the low-wage labor market with little or no hope of upward social mobility. People with a felony record […]
Back to Basics
What is a union and how do they differ from other forms of social justice organization? At its most basic, a union is an organization through which workers take action and represent themselves collectively. Currently the key difference between unions is whether they see themselves as a social movement or as a social service. Unions […]