Not sure how to start this......can we start a support with pizzas to the Chicago teachers thread??

[a kennedy]

I just thought it might be a great idea to support the teachers but not sure how to start it. I'd donate to such a fund.

[Brickbat]

1. Some ideas...

Try tweeting at the Chicago Teachers Union Solidarity Campaign
http://twitter.com/CTSCampaign

Or e-mail them.
For general inquiries: [e-mail]

There's also a Solidarity Fund:

We are asking you to support our struggle for educational justice. You and your organization can show your support by making contribution to our Solidarity Fund. All donations will be used to conduct broad outreach throughout Chicago and nation-wide. Specifically, we plan to print educational materials, to distribute information about our positive agenda, such as the CTU report The Schools Chicago Students Deserve, and to mobilize massive support for educators in rallies and gatherings throughout the city. Any amount you can give will be a great help. You can donate using your credit card below or write a check to the “Chicago Teachers Union Solidarity Fund” and mail it directly to the Chicago Teachers Union Solidarity Fund, 222 Merchandise Mart Plaza, Suite 400, Chicago, Illinois 60654. If your organization or union would like to write a letter or resolution of solidarity, we would very much appreciate it.

[a kennedy]

5. Hey, thanks so much.....

going to the site now. Thanks again. edit for spelling.

[porphyrian]

2. Chicago has awesome pizza. n/t

[Brickbat]

3. Here's a pizza suggestion from the BCTGM, with phone number and contact info.

Haven't called it, so I dunno if it's for real.

Order a pizza for striking teachers. You can call Gus or Daisy at Primo’s Pizza at [phone].

http://bctgm.org/2012/09/chicago-teachers-strike/

[tama]

4. Here's How-You Can Help

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/10/1129925/-CTU-Strike-Support-Here-s-How-You-Can-Help

#1: First!! Go here and sign up!

http://www.ctunet.com/

http://www.ctunet.com/...

#2: If you are in a union call your local officers, ask them what they are doing to help the CTU strike, demand that they do something. We sometimes forget that our union officers work for us, and need to answer to us. Go to your next union meeting and ask for a show of support for the teachers. Write an article for your local union bulletin (I wrote such an article during the Pittston Strike, after my visit to Camp Solidarity.)

#3: Talk to your friends and family. When they complain how they haven't had a raise in so very long, you can say, "Exactly, this fight puts the teachers on the front line for all of us." We, the working class, need to begin to fight back somewhere, sometime. What better time and place to start, then with those who educate our children?

#4: If you live in or near Chicago, go on down to the picket lines and grab a sign. Bring some friends, sing union songs, wear union t-shirts, ask the strike captains how you can help.

#5: Write letters to the editors. The corporate media needs to hear from us. Of course, the corporations are going to trash the teachers! Take that for granted. But make the effort to get a message of support out there.

#6: Contact your legislators both in U.S. Congress, & IL state Congress. Also to School Board, & even to Rahm himself. Tell them that you support the CTU & public school education. Please try to be polite!

http://www.cityofchicago.org/...

http://www.contactingthecongress.org/

http://www2.illinois.gov/...

http://www.cps.edu/...

#7: Get on Facebook, Twitter, your own email list, etc, etc. And start building support for our fellow workers of the CTU. Fellow Workers, we cannot depend on the Corporate Media to tell the worker's story. We must create our own media.

[frazzled]

6. One thing to think about

It may make you feel better to send pizzas, and it's a nice gesture to show solidarity, but it's not really needed.
What might make more sense is to send pizzas to the kids who are not getting their school lunch (and/or breakfast). More than 80% of CPS kids live in enough poverty to qualify for free or reduced lunch. There's lists of the centers (schools, park district buildings, churches) where some of these kids are going, so they could be sent there.
That may not show solidarity for the strike (though in an indirect way it does, because it allows the strike to go on without recriminations), but it would help the families/kids.