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Welcome Kane County for Bernie Sanders – UPDATED

by , posted on Thursday, March 17th, 2016 at 11:56 am
Ten minutes after the meeting ended

Ten minutes after the meeting ended

Last night I attended a Kane County for Bernie meeting that was intended to wrap up our effort, and to develop a list of suggestions that might be useful to the national campaign as it moves on into other states. After Bernie’s not-so-crushing defeat in the primary the day before I expected to be met with a bunch of depressed and morose volunteers.
Sure, many of us touched on our disappointment that Bernie had not won Illinois outright, but we were pleased that Bernie did win the areas we were working in, Kane and Kendall Counties with more than 57% of the vote, and Aurora (one of those urban areas where Bernie supposedly does not do well) with 52%.

As I said, I had expected sorrow, but what happened at that meeting was not a wake but a wake-up. I sat there listening, with my legs still aching from canvassing and my mind kind of foggy with exhaustion as it had been all day, and I gradually started realizing that talk was turning from how the national campaign can tweak things going forward to how we can go forward.

How can we organize Kane County progressives to run for local elections?
How can we continue to help the Bernie Sanders campaign, beyond making calls to other states?
How can we stay in touch with each other and grow the movement?
How, how, how?

A lot of great questions, with some preliminary answers, including the formation of teams to hone messaging, to develop tech training for volunteers, and to research election laws in two adjacent states with upcoming primaries. And an agreement to meet back in the office on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. to be trained in whatever those teams develop.

Because at this point, it looks like we are going on to Wisconsin, followed by Indiana.

At one point in the evening I offered up this blog as an online space where local progressives can post and follow local progressive news and races over the long term. The blog is not going anywhere and anyone is welcome to post, comment, read and stay aware.

To Kane County’s Bernie team I extend a heartfelt Welcome!

I came very late to the Kane County for Bernie effort and wish I had put in a tenth of the effort that so many of you in that room last night have given. You are the future of progressive causes and elections in Kane County, and you give me great hope for that future.

You can respond to the event invite for Monday’sTuesday’s event here.

You can donate to Bernie here.

You can volunteer here.

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Challenging the right to work for less in Oswego

by , posted on Wednesday, April 1st, 2015 at 8:29 pm

On Tuesday night, March 31st, the people showed up to participate in the democratic process in Oswego. The Village President put a resolution on the agenda for discussion to support Mr. Rauner’s so-called “turn around”

landes-oswegortw-l
agenda. The 100 plus people in attendance were not pleased that the Village President would want to support this anti-worker policy. Most of the comments related to Mr. Rauner’s right to work for less zones euphemistically called “enterprise zones”.

Ten to fifteen spoke on the issue and not one supported it. Many were from Oswego but citizens came from all around. DuPage, Will, Lake, Cook, and Kane counties were represented. There were at least twenty unions represented by some seventy union members which shows that the unions know how much damage Mr. Rauner wants to do to the working people of Illinois.

Some comments touched on the illegality of local right to wage slavery zones. Others talked about Mr. Rauner’s stated desire to destroy Unions. Still others talked about the value and importance of a decent middle class wage to stimulate

landes-oswegortw-r
and strengthen the economy. If middle class wages are destroyed from whom will Oswego collect tax dollars? If middle class wages are destroyed who will shop in Oswego’s stores? Contrary to the common rhetoric the true job creators in America are working people that have money in their pockets to spend in their community.

Pay attention this resolution will be coming to a town council, county board, school board, etc., near you. Stand up and fight back against this unbridled attack on the working people of Illinois.

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Oswego RTW: Rauner’s right-to-poverty zone

by , posted on Monday, March 30th, 2015 at 1:55 pm

The Illinois AFL-CIO received notice that the Oswego Village Board will consider a Bruce Rauner initiated resolution supporting the creation of a Right to Work Zone in Oswego. Besides being illegal under the National Labor Relations Act, right to work zones create a “race to the bottom” pitting community against community and further erode the gains made by the Illinois middle class.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has issued an opinion explaining that Illinois law does not authorize or recognize right to work zones created by any unit of local government in Illinois.

Please contact the members of the Oswego Village Board today (phone and email below) and let them know that Right to Work in any form is wrong for Illinois.

Call To Action! Please pass along this message to people who can attend this Tuesday night’s Oswego Village Board Meeting.
The Oswego Village Board, under the President’s Report, will be presenting a resolution in support of the Rauner “turnaround plan”, known also as “enterprise zones” or “right-to-work zones”, for review and discussion this Tuesday, March 31st , @ 7 pm immediately following the Committee of the Whole, which starts at 6 pm. Oswego Village Hall, 100 Parkers Mill, Oswego, IL.

PUBLIC FORUM IS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE MEETING. YOU MUST SIGN IN TO SPEAK.

http://www.oswegoil.org/PDF/2015.03.31regvb.pdf .

If you cannot attend, call Steve Jones @ 630-551-2360 and ask him to remove this resolution from Tuesday’s agenda.

Oswego Village President:
Brian LeClercq
bleclercq@oswegoil.org
630-554-1555

Oswego Village Board of Trustees:

Tony Giles
tgiles@oswegoil.org

Terry Michels
tmichels@oswegoil.org

Gail Johnson
gjohnson@oswegoil.org

Pam Parr
pparr@oswegoil.org

Judy Sollinger
jsollinger@oswegoil.org

Scott Volpe
svolpe@oswegoil.org

To leave a voicemail for any of the Village Board of Trustees, please call the Village’s main number at 630-554-3618.

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Dennis Anderson begins string of town hall meetings in bid to win U.S. House seat in IL-14

by , posted on Wednesday, June 4th, 2014 at 8:25 pm

To unseat what essentially is a ghost incumbent in the 14th district of northern Illinois, Democrat Dennis Anderson has decided to take his message to the people of the district by holding 20-25 town hall meetings. In St. Charles on Tuesday, Anderson said the only thing that will prevent more meetings is securing venues to hold them.

This is Anderson’s

il14-anderson-flagbannerfinal9
second run for this office and he feels he learned a lot from the previous loss to make him a much stronger candidate. Anderson, who is now retired, said he is not looking for a career in politics. He vowed to do his best to address the issues of the day and if the voters of the district liked his accomplishments they would return him to office. With approximately fifty voters in attendance, Anderson limited his opening comments to a brief history of his past. After that he began taking questions regarding his views on every possible issue facing the nation today.

Here’s a synopsis of issues raised and his view regarding them:

(more…)

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Dennis Anderson for Congress “Town Hall Tour” Stops in St. Charles

by , posted on Wednesday, May 28th, 2014 at 8:12 pm

Baker Community Center is Site for Open Public Forum on Tuesday, June 3

Dennis Anderson, Democratic Candidate for Illinois‘14th U.S. Congressional District, will hold a public town hall forum on June 3rd from 7:15 to 8:30 PM at The Baker Community Center, 101 S. 2nd Street. All constituents in the Tri-Cities are invited to attend and encouraged to bring questions for the candidate.

The Anderson Campaign is observing

bakercommctr
the time-honored American tradition of the open political town hall forum as a highly effective way for candidates to directly talk to constituents regardless of party affiliation. The St. Charles Town Hall is open to all and scheduled in the evening to meet the needs of working constituents. The campaign will hold town hall meetings throughout the District for the entire the campaign season.

Throughout the country – including here in the Illinois 14th – we’ve seen a reluctance on the part of incumbents to participate in unscripted public forums with constituents, particularly in joint forums with their challengers. The Anderson Campaign believes that town halls are a valuable opportunity for candidates and constituents to meet and to hear from one another.

Upcoming town hall tour stops include Sandwich, Antioch, Warrenville, Elburn, Gurnee and Plainfield. For more on future town hall dates, go to: http://www.dennisanderson14.com/calendar_of_events

A resident of Gurnee, Illinois, Dennis Anderson is the Democratic candidate for the United States Congress for Il-14, a seat currently held by Republican Randy Hultgren.

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Love, Love, Love Those Government Regulations

by , posted on Sunday, March 16th, 2014 at 2:42 pm

Hey you Tea Party folks, how’s that ‘drowning the government in the bathtub’ routine going??? How’s that ‘getting rid of government regulations’ working for you, huh?

My neighbor just opened up her Nicor gas bill to see a ONE month charge of $960.00. The month before was nearly $700.00. The bills were double and triple the bills from last year.

Nicor Advanced Energy LLC - Get Started

No, she doesn’t live in a house the size of a public library. Her house is about 3,200 square feet—large for sure, but not enough to warrant one month’s heating costs of well over $900.

She checked all over her house for changes in her venting, open storm windows, and any heating leak problems she could find. NADA. NONE. Everything sealed tight. Everything.

So she called Nicor.

(more…)

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Two January Events Focus on Charter Proliferation/Privatization

by , posted on Wednesday, January 8th, 2014 at 3:16 pm

dont-privatize
In Chicago Rahm Emanuel has closed 50 “underutilized” public schools and is rapidly replacing them with charter schools.  The unelected board of education (CPS) will consider 21 total charter applications on January 22nd.

Additionally, a stacked, special “charter school funding task force” put together by Springfield lawmakers and led by State Rep., Dan Burke, will come out with their “findings” prior to the general assembly returning to session (Jan 28th).  We expect that Dan Burke will be recommending more money for charter schools – big surprise (possibly at a Jan 13th task force meeting).  And, what a waste considering that the “too broke to pay the bills and pensioners” general assembly gave UNO (in Dan Burke’s district) $98 million dollars that was wasted on scandal-riddled construction projects.

The hedge fund managers and their politicians (Rahm, Rauner, Madigan, etc.) are not going to stop their privatization assault on public schools so we need to push back. You can help by attending and bringing a friend to either the Jan 14th event in Chicago, or the second event in the suburbs scheduled on Jan 23rd.

Event details and flyers are below the fold. (more…)

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Thanksgiving Walmart Solidarity Action at Aurora Walmart – Pay a Living Wage

by , posted on Friday, November 29th, 2013 at 8:20 am

Low Wages = food stamps
About 35-40 activists braved the cold on Thanksgiving evening at the Walmart on the corner of Butterfield Rd. and Kirk Rd. in Aurora, IL.   Thanks to the Northern Illinois Light Brigade (NILB), we had beautiful, lighted signs that shoppers and ongoing traffic could see.  The signs read, “Living Wage Now!” and “Fight for $15”  You can check out some of the photos that will eventually be loaded to the NILB Facebook page.

The action was peaceful and our really cool lighted signs earned a number of honks from holiday travelers.  There was a bit of controversy when we approached the Walmart store.  A number of security guards attempted to stop us from taking up a spot in front of the store and told us that “we had to leave now or they would call the police.”  We stayed for 3-5 minutes and chanted, “Low Pay is not OK” and “hey-hey, ho-ho, the poverty wages have to go!”

living-wage-5

(more…)

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Chris Lauzen at Odds with the Pope Francis on Economic Issues

by , posted on Thursday, November 28th, 2013 at 7:16 pm

It is Thanksgiving and I can’t get over the conversation I had with Chris Lauzen last week over the topic of a living wage ordinance. Even though I was born and raised on the mission field in West Africa, I don’t think that a politician’s faith should matter, unless that politician makes it part of his or her campaign. Chris Lauzen has put his faith front and center in most of his political endeavors – his political views as one who professes very publicly to be Roman Catholic are fair game. And, if you read the press release linked above you will notice that Lauzen doesn’t mind criticizing the Pope when the Pope admonishes Republicans. Maybe Chris is more in tune with God than the Pope is?

living-wage-now

This morning I read a recent speech by Pope Francis who condemned the idolatry of cash in capitalism and called for a society with people, not money, at its heart. “It is the consequence of a global choice, an economic system which leads to this tragedy; an economic system which has at its center an idol called money.”

It made me think that the phone conversation Chris and I had should be made public and I should let readers decide if they think Lauzen is a man of faith or another hypocrite.

(more…)

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Unions of Illinois Unite–Our Families Are Counting on You

by , posted on Wednesday, November 13th, 2013 at 8:41 pm

Okay Union leaders, Union members, Everybody and Anybody else who cares about Illinois families, get out of your comfort zone and get to work. The time for sitting on the sidelines is over.

We need to endorse another candidate to run for Governor. Quinn/Vallas would be a disaster. A Republican would be a disaster. We can no longer fear what traditional Democrats will think–or what traditional Republicans will think–if we ‘rebel’ against our ‘traditional’ party lines. They have both abandoned us in support of a corporate-driven tax loophole culture which is cannibalizing our schools and our state. We need to think of our children and their future in Illinois. Our kids are counting on us.

All of us who care about the education of our children, our tax burden, and the maintenance and structure of our beautiful state’s infrastructure need to open our eyes. We have a real crisis brewing and we cannot live in denial any longer.

(more…)

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