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Recent Sustainer Blogs
Chicago teachers join Elwood IL warehouse workers to confront Walmart
By Bob Simpson at Sep 21, 2012
Striking teachers from the Chicago Teachers Union(CTU) had joined Warehouse Workers for Justice(WWJ) at a rally aimed at Walmart to protest its employee abuses and the dumping of millions of dollars into school privatization efforts.... (More) Comments (0)
The U.S. Postal Service is essential to our democracy and our economy
By Bob Simpson at Aug 13, 2012
The free exchange of ideas is critical to representative government and was one of the reasons why the US Postal Service(USPS) was created. At its founding the Postal Service had a deliberate policy of subsidizing the mailing of newspapers and other periodicals, precisely to encourage the communication of ideas.... (More) Comments (0)
The Chicago Teacher Revolt—- of 1933
By Bob Simpson at Aug 03, 2012
Depression Era teachers understood the importance of organizing resistance to the corrupt oligarchy who had made Chicago’s school funding crisis the worst in the nation. ... (More) Comments (2)
Corporate America wants inexperienced teachers in the classroom
By Bob Simpson at Jul 23, 2012
Corporate funded attacks on public education and teachers’ unions have portrayed higher paid, more experienced teachers as the villains of the current financial crisis. It’s good-bye, Mr. Chips and sayonara, Ms. Frizzle. ... (More) Comments (2)
The new Chicago school budget strangles public education
By Bob Simpson at Jul 14, 2012
The 2013 Chicago Public Schools(CPS) budget received a resounding thumbs down at a community forum held at Malcolm X College on the West Side the evening of July 11. Over 200 people filled the auditorium to listen to an explanation of the budget from Chief Operating Officer Tim Cawley and then ask questions and make their own recommendations. The reaction of those who spoke from the audience was overwhelmingly negative. ... (More) Comments (0)
By Bob Simpson at Jul 05, 2012
State governments across the USA have been cutting Medicaid and health care-related funding faster than Smithfield butchers hogs. These programs were supposed to help low income people, many of whom already suffer from the poor health that often comes with poverty. ... (More) Comments (0)
Chicago Nurses Say: We Need a Robin Hood Tax!
By Bob Simpson at Jun 21, 2012
Easily recognized by their red scrubs along with their Robin Hood hats and masks, NNU members described the Robin Hood tax in signs that read,”It’s Not a Tax On the People. It’s a Tax For the People.”... (More) Comments (0)
Big Banks Slam the Brakes on Public Transit
By Bob Simpson at Jun 11, 2012
What subprime mortgages did to the housing market and what payday loans do to hard-pressed working class families, credit default swaps are doing to transit systems. No wonder transit activists were chanting “Banks got bailed out. We got sold out” in the lobbies of big banks from coast to coast the morning of June 7.... (More) Comments (0)
The Killing Towers of the US Telecom Industry
By Bob Simpson at Jun 04, 2012
A total of 100 people died falling from communication towers between 2003-2011. Of these, 50 fell from cell phone towers. The death rate for tower climbers is about 10 times that of construction workers.... (More) Comments (0)
By Bob Simpson at May 27, 2012
It's been a week since the NATO protests and I've been thinking about them on and off, especially after reading a few Crain's Chicago Business articles that questioned whether the whole shebang was really good for the city and its businesses.... (More) Comments (0)
Do Nurses Have an Rx for Our Ailing Economy?
By Bob Simpson at May 27, 2012
They became a Chicago media sensation after they streamed into Chicago’s Daley Plaza on the morning of May 18, wearing the now familiar National Nurses United (NNU) red scrubs. Many of them had the green caps and masks you've seen in nearly every Robin Hood movie ever made. The NNU is the largest union of nurses in the USA and one of the more progressive unions in the AFL-CIO.... (More) Comments (0)
Chicago Mercantile Exchange Entrance Blockaded
By Bob Simpson at May 24, 2012
Seniors, people with disabilities and health care workers blocked the front entrance to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange(CME) on Wednesday, May 23 around 9:30 am, as well the adjacent Jackson and LaSalle Streets. ... (More) Comments (0)
By Bob Simpson at May 15, 2012
The Caterpillar workers of IAM Lodge 851 did not go on strike May 1 on a careless whim. They clearly believe they can win against a viciously anti-union company.... (More) Comments (0)
By Bob Simpson at May 04, 2012
How does a person of faith live a purposeful life in a world gone wrong? Where does a moral vision come from, a vision that can thrive despite the inevitable blows that fall upon it?... (More) Comments (0)
Occupy Mental Health! Save Chicago’s Clinics
By Bob Simpson at Apr 18, 2012
While riding the Blue Line downtown to the April 16 Monday morning press conference by Chicago’s Mental Health Movement, I couldn’t help but reflect on Mayor Rahm’s Emanuel’s obsessive-compulsive disorder. He is obsessive about funneling money to Chicago’s wealthy and compulsive about his attacks on services for Chicago’s working class. Rahm’s latest offensive is the closing of 6 of Chicago's 12 mental health clinics. ... (More) Comments (0)


