Labor Beat: Karen Lewis at Daley Plaza Rally for Public Education

On Sept. 21, 2010 a spirited rally of some 500 teachers, community organizations and students was held in Daley Plaza, just across the street from Chicago's City Hall. The rally protested the ongoing plundering of public education being led by City Hall, CPS head Ron Huberman, and corporate Chicago which gives them their orders. "Our communities are not for sale," Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis told the crowd. "You cannot destroy communities one by one through neglect, through under-funding, under-resourcing and then punish those very communities and say 'you're not living up to standards'. No, you're [pointing to City Hall] not living up to standards!" Referring to the ongoing occupation by parents of a school in the Pilsen area of the city, President Lewis said: "We have parents right now at Whittier demanding a library for their kids. Across this city the Board of Education has said our students do not need libraries. They have said not only do we not need a library, we do not need librarians. How do you learn to read, how do you learn to read for pleasure without a library in your school? How do you learn to do research without a library in your school? They don't want our children to do research, they don't want our children to know what they are doing in the name of business." Length - 5:40. Produced by Labor Beat. Labor Beat is a CAN TV Community Partner. Labor Beat is a non-profit 501(c)(3) member of IBEW 1220. Views are those of the producer Labor Beat. For info: mail@laborbeat.org, www.laborbeat.org. 312-226-3330. For other Labor Beat videos, visit Google Video, YouTube, or blip.tv and search "Labor Beat".