Thousands shut down Chicago streets at ALEC meeting

[annm4peace]

http://peoplesworld.org/thousands-shut-down-chicago-streets-at-alec-meeting/

CHICAGO - Thousands of union and non-union workers and their allies shut down the streets around the posh Palmer House Hilton here yesterday, protesting the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council meeting at the hotel.

The demonstrators, organized by the 500,000-member Chicago Federation of Labor and a host of community allies, say ALEC is hurting just about everyone in America who is not part of the top one percent.

ALEC is behind hundreds of bills its lawmaker members push through state legislative bodies - bills that destroy collective bargaining rights, lower wages, limit voting rights, weaken environmental protection - and it is behind the notorious "stand your ground" laws backed by the National Rifle Association.

Outside the hotel, on Monroe Street, the Musicians union band played "When the Saints Go Marchin' In" as wave after wave of members from every union in Chicagoland filled the sidewalk and the street.

Elevated CTA trains passing along the Wabash Ave. El blew their horns in support as hundreds who couldn't fit on Monroe Street spilled out to the adjoining street under the train trestle. The crowds roared every time they heard the train operators blow the horns.

"This is a beautiful gathering not just of union workers and non-union workers but of all our allies as well - a true coalition," declared Bob Reiter, secretary-treasurer of the CFL, in his speech to the cheering crowds. "ALEC thinks they can, in secret, take over the democratic process and write our laws for us. They are wrong and we are here to show them that."

"Save the workers, save the teachers, save the students, save the youngsters, save the carpenters, save the janitors and the machinists - save all your people," the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. implored from the podium. The crowd shouted approval after each group he mentioned.

Among the demonstrators against ALEC was Melissa Rakestraw, a letter carrier from Schaumburg, Ill. She explained why she came: "You know that $5.5 billion mandate with Congress forcing the postal service to pay that out for future pensions? That's what's killing the post office and it was John McHugh, a Republican congressman - a member of ALEC - who pushed that through years ago. ALEC has its deadly fingers everywhere."

Kimberly Bowsky, a teacher at Seward Elementary School in Chicago's Back of the Yards neighborhood, was also intent on voicing her opposition to ALEC: "I see the scars in my neighborhood. I haven't lost my job yet, but I know these people are out not just to cut services but to kill public education altogether. Their idea is no public schools for our children. They prefer charter schools or better yet private profit-making prisons. It's got to stop. That's why I'm here."


http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed

[annm4peace]

1. ALEC

Through the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council, global corporations and state politicians vote behind closed doors to try to rewrite state laws that govern your rights. These so-called "model bills" reach into almost every area of American life and often directly benefit huge corporations.
In ALEC's own words, corporations have "a VOICE and a VOTE" on specific changes to the law that are then proposed in your state. DO YOU?

[sulphurdunn]

49. Model Bills

= Mob Bills. ALEC and its financial supporters must never be permitted to choose their own vocabulary.

[earcandle]

2. Obamatown is not too happy.

[Skidmore]

26. Seriously?

How about making a meaningful response to the political action taken and the actual grounds it addresses? Chicago has experienced much gun violence and any light thrown on ALEC and the Koch brothers organized coups needs to be addressed meaningfully.

[certainot]

35. obamatown? isn't that what limbaugh calls chicago? or is it hannity?

[CatWoman]

43. what a silly and jerk ass observation

[roody]

3. Great action.

[PowerToThePeople]

4. Feet on the ground. Real action.

This is great. This is what makes change.

[mick063]

5. ALEC is a true priority for progressives.

Almost every meaningful political discussion must include ALEC.

There was a time when politicians had to distance themselves from the "liberal" label. We must create a similar label for politicians that wear the "ALEC" label. Make members account for it. Make them defend it. Make it a bad word and permanently attach it to them.

[lastlib]

58. ^ ^ ^ THIS! ^ ^ ^

[burrowowl]

6. K&R

[HiPointDem]

7. kr. this is the kind of thing that would have gotten a lot of support from democrats once.

[otohara]

8. The Koch Whores Are in Hiding in NM

at a "secret" meeting, NM GOP governor spoke today - I'm gonna be sick now, I did not know NM had a GOP Gov.

[Berlum]

17. Breaking Bad, Inc. (R)

[SunSeeker]

9. REC for exposure. nt

[lexington filly]

10. Oh, the irony

So many people chasing and riled up over imaginary, crazy conspiracy theories when ALEC, the
real, damaging, "death panel for the middle class" is hiding in plain sight. Chicago protesters, I
respect you and thank you!

[freshwest]

39. +1,000

[Jack Rabbit]

11. K/R

[Fire Walk With Me]

12. Creating change: You're doing it right. Solidarity. n/t

[ananda]

13. We had our demo at the capitol Friday: anti ALEC and Monsanto!

It was small but wonderful. We went inside the capitol and sang songs.
Tourists stood and watched.

Then we wrote messages to Jodie Laubenberg on the back of her
Rape Kit statement and went into her office area, sang a song based
on Dolly Parton's Jolene and spoke for the camera and mike.

It was great!

[freshwest]

41. Proud of you. Keep it all the way through 2014 and 2016. Vote them out!

[Aerows]

48. Proud of you for finally supporting it

I always have counted you amongst my friends, FW.

[Scuba]

14. Thank you protesters!!!

[malaise]

15. +1,000

Excellent

[newfie11]

16. And the msm was where?

[Berlum]

18. + 1,000

Corporate Media, Inc. (R) turns their back on the real news. As usual. They serve only their PuppetMasters, Inc.

[newfie11]

19. Agreed. Nt

[socialist_n_TN]

20. Hmmm. Kind of like the politicians...

[Doctor_J]

23. Exactly. This is a waste of energy. makes for some news at liberal web sites

that's about it.

[Berlum]

25. Not a "waste of energy" in any respect

They, Inc. want Americans to STFU, bend over, and Assume the Position. It is essential to show up and speak up. That is democracy in action, and it cannot be done sitting on the couch or in front of a keyboard.

[socialist_n_TN]

31. Yeah this is far from a waste of energy......

In fact we need a lot more of this. Anything that brings out the connections between the big capitalists and buying the government is a good thing.

I was referring to the politicians being the puppets and ALEC and the Kochs as the puppetmasters.

[Doctor_J]

32. brings the connections out to whom?

If Big Media and our "representatives" don't pay any attention, the energy expended is wasted.

[socialist_n_TN]

33. Our "representatives" will never pay attention, when their NOT paying attention....

fills their campaign coffers. As to Big Media, they're becoming less and less relevant to the way that people actually get their news. That's only going to grow.

This was a militant demonstration, involving labor and labor allies. And arrests. I'm a Marxist, so labor getting involved in politics over and above supporting Democrats who betray workers, is a good thing. That's a step on the road to class consciousness.

[socialist_n_TN]

21. I have a question. Was this a "one of" type of event or...

did it continue throughout the conference? Obviously I didn't hear anything on the M$M.

[leftstreet]

22. DURec

[sabrina 1]

24. The tide is turning on these shadow corporations who have been writing our laws for

decades now. They've had their chance and we see the results.

Congress should NEVER allow a Corporation to write laws.

THAT IS THEIR JOB.

What a great thing it is to see these secretive morons exposed to daylight and for the people to get to see finally, why things have gone so wrong in this country over the past several decades.

There should be laws on the books that forbids ANYONE from writing laws for their own benefit for this country.

If members of Congress can't do the job, they should not be there.

[snappyturtle]

27. Wow! this is wonderful! Wish I could K&R it more than once. nt

[WillyT]

28. K & R !!!

[L0oniX]

29. ^this^

[Catherina]

30. K&R! And Austin....

★★Von-Von★★ ‏@1969FY 23h

At the Capitol in #Austin letting those politicians know, we do NOT want #ALEC around. They are so against the people

[annm4peace]

56. that is great pictures

that is creative. people are letting the ALEC members know they aren't secret.. that their are citizens that know what is going on.

[Lifelong Protester]

34. Excellent!

This Wisconite thanks all of my Illinois brothers and sisters and would like to add: Get ready for the streets everyone. Time has come today, to borrow a great phrase.

[certainot]

36. anyone in illinois can protest the kochs/ALEC by waving signs at their local RW radio stations

- that's where most of the ALEC work is done, and it's practically free for them.

[freshwest]

45. That, and the M$M in NYC. IDK why they're never targeted for actions for supporting the ALEC agenda.

Most ALEC meetings are on private property and they have their own little private security guards to prevent any public input. But the streets outside the purveyors of propaganda for them are public.

There are lists of so-called 'lawmakers' who attend ALEC meetings in each state. I've worked with community groups where we do grass root work with 100s or 1,000s, for months on end, before we heard of ALEC years ago.

But we did know their very well-paid lobbyists were flown in from out of state on private jets, to push their agenda, doing it all out of sight of the public. They write the laws and hand them to a crooked or brainwashed elected official, who then introduces a privatization scheme on the floor to be voted on.

Then they alert the media who create a 'news story' that is often years old, to demonize public workers and thus 'manufacture' a crisis and consent for a private take over scheme. It has nothing to do with what's good for the public, humans or the environment. And it's destroying this country.

[certainot]

60. RW radio has been it's most important tool for enabling and intimidating politicians and media

reaching 50 mil a week with their think tank messaging.

they can target and coordinate locally or nationally.

they can create made-to-order pro-corporate constituencies in a few days, for any issue.

and it's practically invisible to the left.

2 ways to hamper their radio advantage:

the dem party needs to use newest transcription software to monitor the top 100 local and national blowhards and search for talking point and meme repetition and patterns that can be used for response and real time challenge in the media so media and politicians will be more wary of riding the talk radio bandwagon. "that's what limbaugh says" should be a standard response to teabagger BS. the way it is now, they can create an alternate reality that bribed media and politicians can repeat because they know it's already been pounded into the earholes of 50 mil a week. they need that to be unchallenged in real time for it to work.

also: many of the local limbaugh/hannity megastations that often dominate local politics on behalf of ALEC, basically for free, depend on publicly funded university sports for community cred and ad revenue. of the top 120 football teams (rated by ABC sports 2011), more than 70 broadcast sports on 170+ limbaugh stations ( https://sites.google.com/site/universitiesforrushlimbaugh/ ) if some of those universities were pushed to honor their mission statements and said they were going to look for apolitical, non racist, non sexist alts it would shame others into following. without those team stickers some of those megaphones would lose a lot of advertisers. it may be that as much as 30-40% of RW radio depends on those school associations. ALEC would start loosing it's most important media weapons.

[Squinch]

37. Kick, kick, kick!!!!

[BrotherIvan]

38. Solidarity!

Fuck Yeah!

[Initech]

40. ALEC has committed far more terror in this country than al Qaeda could ever dream of

[secondvariety]

42. Yay Chicago!

My kind of town.

[Enthusiast]

44. Kicked and Recommended!

I love these people!

[undeterred]

46. It is a wonderful thing that people know what ALEC is and who the Koch brothers are

because they would very much prefer to remain in the shadows.

[Aerows]

47. I've seen One

count them one, supporter of the surveillance state as it is currently being run, and even that person was supportive of this demonstration. They don't claim to support anarchy. They just showed up to be supportive of a movement that is counter to the 1% by definition.

That makes me wonder what the posters that post the anti-Snowden, anti-Manning agenda are willing to do on the ground, and their support of a Democratic, Populous agenda on the ground.

I will know them by their works.

[ErikJ]

50. K&R

[Iwillnevergiveup]

51. GO, GO, GO, Windy City!

What always heartens me about demonstrations like this one and Moral Mondays is that lots of folks who don't follow what's really going on in this country get exposed and educated. Crowds with signs and handouts and mics always get attention.

K&R

[Scurrilous]

52. K & R

[Starry Messenger]

53. k&r

[winter is coming]

54. I'll take "things that won't be on the news" for $500, Alex. n/t

[MotherPetrie]

55. K&R!!!!!

[bluestate10]

57. Why do conservative organizations insist on having their meetings and conferences in blue cities?

Why don't they go to red state cities that they have made hell holes to meet? They can view and appreciate their handy work. There is going to be a big conservative convention in Boston in August, likely in taxpayer funded facilities. Miscreants like Beck will be there. Why do they pollute beautiful, world class blue cities?

[another_liberal]

59. You have got to love this!

Make those bastards feel a little heat. My guess is they'll soon wilt like a lily in an oven.