Chicago Specific Demands

[brit]

Preamble to Proposal:

In these times of economic austerity, rising debt, and complete financial domination of our political systems, the time is now to take a stand on issues we face directly here in Chicago! If we want to effect real, and lasting change we must make our voices heard about issues that effect us all! It is our responsibility to show solidarity with our oppressed brothers & sisters of the 99% and work toward a more free and equal city- and by extension a better world. If we establish concrete ideas that we can stand behind, we can begin to grow our movement and let people know we are working for their interests too. Our city has unique problems that we can directly influence. This list is only the beginning, there will be more issues that we must face and address locally. All of these demands listed below stem from the 99% of us being disenfranchised, and disallowed from socio-economic and political decision making processes. It’s time we take the power back!

 

[Please note this was a collaborative effort on the part of many occupiers.]

 

 Proposed list of Chicago Demands:

1. Occupy Chicago will stand in full solidarity with the Chicago Labor Movement, and by extension the "Take Back Chicago" initiative.

 

2. We demand an end to the war on Chicago Teachers Union and public education waged by Rahm Emanuel. 

 

3. Hyatt Hotel should immediately agree to workers' contract demands for benefits, and better pay!

 

4. We stand against any closures of our post offices! No Post Offices should be closed or postal workers laid-off!

 

5. We demand an end to Rahm Emanuel’s privatization of city services like garbage collection, and pest control!

 

6. The Reinvention Initiatives at the City Colleges of Chicago should not be used to bust unions!

 

7. We support the public transportation workers in their contract struggle-their current contract expires in Nov/Dec.

 

8. All Chicago workers should have the right to join unions, and collectively bargain free from employer intimation!

 

9. Occupy Chicago supports the struggles of all organized and unorganized workers in the city for better pay, benefits, and safe conditions on the job.

 

10. We oppose any reduction in library hours anywhere in the city, and any loss of library workers!

 

12. We demand an end to police violence in the city! No more police torture, rape, or harassment in our communities!

 

13. We demand investigations into all of the police shootings, and murders. We stand for accountability, not impunity!

 

14. We demand an end to the privatization of Chicago's medical treatment centers!

 

15. We demand better conditions in Section 8 Housing, and shorter waiting lists to obtain housing.

 

16. We demand a halt of all evictions!

 

17. We oppose the decision to host the NATO/G8 summit here in our city in May 2012! That imperialist war-machine isn’t welcome here!

 

18. We demand amnesty for undocumented people here- including students, workers and their children! 

 

19. We demand all TIF (Tax increment financing) money collected by City Hall to be spent on social needs like education, health care and not for the benefit of the city's elite.

[Orion]

1.	John Burge’s pension –A man who tortured confessions out of black 

men in Chicago should not be living large on a huge pension provided by our 

tax dollars.
2.	Any person fired from CPD for conduct not fitting a police man should

 not be allowed to keep his pension. A separate line item but relating to number

 one.
3.	Bureau of Professional Standards for police needs to be neutral.  

This bureau was created with the intention that Chicagoans could regulate 

our police force, but in reality it is staffed by both retired police and those 

individuals who are soon to become police officers, or are extremely 

sympathetic to the police.
4.	Illinois eavesdropping statute not allowing audio recording of cops 

needs to be scrapped.
5.	Northwestern Professor David Protess should not have had notes 

subpoenaed or been fired for working to exonerate Illinois inmates.  We 

demand that a city park be named after him and that an apology be issued by

 our local government for both soiling an honorable man's name and for his 

mistreatment in the supposed name of justice.
6.	Internal affairs of Chicago police needs to be independent – 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/08/chicago-district-attorney-

recording-bad-cops_n_872921.html 
7.	Officer Richard Fiorito who makes up DUI charges as an excuse to pull 

people over harass them and beat them in relation to their sexual orientation 

needs to be indicted.

[kevinr]

18 line items! Ambitious! 

 

I am all for focusing our efforts at a local level! 

While these are all worth discussing, most of them do not relate to the core principles of corporate abuse of our democracy in Chicago. 

I like the spirit behind 5 and 14. Rather than "end to privatization of x, y, and z," I'd like to see a few sentences detailing privatization efforts in Chicago. We should mention the meters and the Skyway and how that money was used to cover shortfalls and passed the buck to future Chicagoans. 

I'd like to see the proposal submitted by Brit broken into two - one of statements of position and another for calls for immediate action.

Statements of position - 1,4,7-10

Actionable demands - 3, 5, 14, 16-18

(Where is 11?)

Here are my concerns with the others :

192 - "end to the war" How will this demand be met? What would Rahm need to do? Our demands should be clear and measurable.

6 - "bust unions" This would be much stronger if preceded by a sentence citing how the initiative has been used to bust unions.

12 "end to police violence" We will never know if we've reached the end of police violence as another incident can always occur. Instead of demanding an end, we should identify specific cases and policies (see Orion's 1 & 2)

13 "investigations into all the police shootings and murders" This needs focus and rewording. I can open up investigations into anything and then do nothing or close them. We need specific cases here. We do not need to portray police collectively as murderers.

19 "the benefit of the city's elite" is too broad. As far as TIF's go, I'd like to see something like this:

We condemn the manipulation of TIF funding by CME Group and United. Employees of these companies directed TIF dollars to their companies while serving on the city-funded advisory group, the World Business Council (WBC.) In order to prevent future abuses, we believe the WBC should not be allowed to advocate for specific businesses. 

We also condemn CME Group's threats to leave Illinois, despite promising in their later approved 2008 application for $15 million in TIF funding, to remain for 10 years and create 1,000 jobs.

 

http://chicagoinspectorgeneral.....l-process/

 

I really like Orion's submissions as they highlight specific items people can investigate, discuss, and join us in acting on. I would like to see more information on all of these items circulated at hq.

 

I'm exhausted, but I am very interested in further discussing and reworking this proposal.

[skeptical]

Can't we just focus on getting money out of politics?

[Orion]

Getting money out of politics is exactly what we are trying to do with these goals.  The current status-quo is systematically entrenched.  If you don't get a weed's roots then it will just grow back.

[Billy]

     As many of you my know I am against concrete demands on a national level. Locally I have no issue with. I really think we need to discuss this stuff better though. These are really important and I think we need to spend more time on this stuff.

 

     One example is that with the police abuse. As long as the cops are in charge of policing themselves there will be no change. You have to get a third party involved. Maybe a citizen board or a seperate department set up that does not answer to the police could help here. Regardless of how it's done there has to be a clear seperation between who is doing the investigations and the police both in structure and funding. 

 

     Also saying that workers need to be able to unionize is one thing but what about stores like walmart that not only will not let their workers organize but won't let union drivers make deliveries? We would need to have some long talks about how to make demands from nation wide companies that could make some real change. 

 

     I'm not saying these are bad idea just that they should be thought out a little better. 

 

     Also these demands seem to cause havoc at the GAs and cause a lot of really bad feelings within the group. How many of these divisive GAs do we have to have before people stop or at least slow down? They are very bad for group cohesion.

[Chopin]

A good idea:  Propose these separately and explain why as to each item.  Also, do not bump something up on the agenda simply because of the person suggesting it.  I've seen plenty of better ideas with more consensus, shorter proposals, etcetera that have not been proposed @ general assembly yet.

[Lucki]

Since I can't be at every GA, I sincerely hope I manage to be at the one where this list comes up for vote. My concerns fall into four categories:

1. Should we mix demands and position statements into the same list? They're different things, so shouldn't we list and handle them differently?

2. Have we emphasized the focus on "Get the $$$ out of politics"? Should we?

3. Are the changes we're asking for achievable, quantifiable, and measurable? If not, how will we know when we've succeeded in getting our demands met?

4. Regardless of what items end up in the list, are we using the best language and articulation? Shouldn't we be careful to address problems, not attack persons? When we use antagonistic and accusatory language, don't we risk hardening the hearts -- against our Movement and its underlying causes -- of the very people whom we want to start thinking about, rethinking, discussing, caring about, and changing things? Aren't the too-greedy members of the 1% too involved in making money to waste their time actually BEING career politicians? Aren't our ward aldermen, our city commissioners, our mayor, our governor, even our President really just people nearer the top end of the 99%? Shouldn't we address them with the same verbal courtesy that I've seen us give to the rest of the 99%?

I understand and applaud the raw enthusiasm of youth. We need it. Heaven knows I no longer have the energy I had when I was part of the anti-war and civil rights efforts in the 60s. I do, however, have a 40-year career in writing and editing. I have experience in making written documents not only articulate and well prioritized but also powerful and persuasive.

I'm willing to spend whatever time it takes -- be it 10 short minutes or 10 long days -- consulting with the framers of the proposed grievances so that the document we end up with is not only satisfactory and complete to us, but also understandable and persuasive to people who have not sat in GAs with us over the weeks, and especially to the people we want to present our grievances to. Because what is our goal? To engender knee-jerk reactionary denial that the problem exists and that they are unfortunately part of it? Or to receive non-adversarial attention and support of change from those who can help make change happen? 

[Guest1250]

CLOSE YOUR BANK ACCOUNTS!  Stop relying on big corproations and big bankers.  Keep your gold at home and become self-sufficient!

 

Grow your own food and trade with your neighbor.  If you take away their money, they are no longer in power!  CLOSE YOUR BANK ACCOUNTS!

[Billy]

     Getting the money out of politics? I've said this before and I'll say it again. As long as we keep voting the guy with the most money into office then money will find it's way into politics.

 

     There is no way we can look to the elite to legislate our own personal weaknesses. Stop voting for the candidate with the most money. Stop voting in the slickest talkers. Stop voting in the most charismatic person. As long as we allow ourselves to bought with charm and lies and money and marketing then there will be those who step up to take advantage of us for such a bargain blow-out sale.

 

     Look behind the bullshit to what people are really saying. If we can not do that than this movement will only turn into a similar version of what we have now only run by different people. I will say this one more time do not externalize blame for cause that lies within yourself.