[permalink]In Chicago, pretty much anyone has the right to remove graffiti from private property, thanks to a citywide initiative known as Give Graffiti the Brush. So a few weeks ago, a trio of champions used the rule to their advantage and painted over a graffiti-style billboard for Axe, the perfume for boys.

Taking matters into their own hands, Ed Marszewski, Elisa Harkins, and Matt are loved by some and hated by others. It’s only natural that not everyone feels the same about the action. As the trio was putting the final touches on the paint job, a rep from Axe's ad agency, called Critical Massive, showed up, livid. The owner of the building had a litany of complaints as well; many of them even making sense.

In a world where public and private space is shamelessly exploited to sell the latest product or lifestyle, what’s a corporation to do if it wants to be “authentic” and reach new markets? One way is for the corporation to co-opt forms of cultural expression, such as graffiti, and utilize those forms in order to “validate” their product to, in this case, a youth market. The Axe body spray “graffiti,” with its misogynistic messaging, attempted to do this until a group of angry community members took matters into their own hands and “authenticated” the graffiti through the act of painting over it. Because of their actions people will no longer see the ad, but as any real graffiti artist will tell you, those are the breaks. Read more.

Media: Quicktime Movie of Action
Chicago Reader Articles: 1 | 2
Stay Free! Daily's Original Blog Feature: Stay Free! Daily: Axing Corporate Graffiti
Additional Information: Graffiti Artists in the Policy Realm (.pdf file) | Give Graffiti the Thumbs Up | Mayor Daley's Graffiti Blasters Program | Chicago's Draconian Law Banning Spray Paint and Large Markers | Wikipedia: Undercover Marketing | 'Corporate Graffiti' Targeted in Council Crackdown

On June 27, 1905, 186 labor visionaries, including Lucy Parsons, Eugene V. Debs, Mary "Mother" Jones, William Trautmann, Vincent Saint John, and Ralph Chaplin gathered at Brand's Hall in Chicago to hear Western Federation of Miners organizer William D. "Big Bill" Haywood open the founding convention of the Industrial Workers of the World with the following words: "Fellow workers...this is the Continental Congress of the working class. We are here to confederate the workers of this country into a working class movement that shall have for its purpose the emancipation of the working class from the slave bondage of capitalism". Some speech. Some union. The American labor movement would never be the same.

Nicknamed the Wobblies, the IWW sought to recruit unskilled and exploited immigrants, people of color, women and migrant farm workers who were excluded from craft unions of skilled workers organized by the AFL. Seeking to build the "One Big Union" across industrial lines, the IWW enthusiastically promoted the concept of working class solidarity by adopting the motto "An injury to One is an Injury to All", and the revolutionary tactics of direct action - which included sit down strikes, chain picketing, flying pickets, car caravans, and other organizing inovations. IWW organizing stretched from coast to coast - in factories, mills, mines, logging camps, agricultural fields, and shipping docks across the continent. Confronted with brutal attacks from both employers and the State, including the the murder of Wobbly activists [ 1 | 2 | 3 ] the union led "free speech" fights to defend the right of workers everywhere to organize, speak out and dissent. The IWW's vocal opposition to WWI also led to the arrest and imprisonment of 165 IWW organizers. In the decades that followed, the Wobblies continued to organize among marginalized workers - frequently ignored by mainstream business unions - and their vision of a militant, radical and democratic labor movement continues to inspire new organizing efforts to this day. An IWW Chronology

Now, one hundred years later, the IWW is gathering once again in Chicago to celebrate a rich legacy of struggle for the rights of working people. Read More

[permalink]Some 700 to 1000 people took part in a solidarity rally on June 14, 2005 to mark the second anniversary of the start of the strike of the employees of the Congress Hotel in downtown Chicago. The rally involved a picket line spanning the entire front of the Congress Hotel

Unlike the 2004 anniversary, which saw an assortment of dramatic actions, the 2005 anniversary was accompanied by a more festive mood, as the strike was accompanied by a mariachi band, and a sound system playing music.

More photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

One of the dirty secrets of the U.S. war and occupation of Iraq has been the efforts of U.S. authorities and their Iraqi proxies to thwart genuinely democratic labor organizing throughout the country. That policy has played out in the United States, as well, with mainstream labor groups and anti-war labor projects divided on which voices and projects should be permitted to talk about their struggles to the American people.

This Friday at 6PM at UNITE hall, Chicago anti-war labor activists are sponsoring a delegation of secular, progressive Iraqi labor activists who'll talk about conditions on the ground. The event is part of a controversial national tour that has brought three separate delegations -- some of whose members tacitly work WITH occupation forces -- to the States, and included a bitter fight to win visas for the Chicago delegation members, who have been vocal in opposing the U.S. occupation.

Read more. | Download the flyer. | Listen to a Labor Express interview with progressive Iraqi labor activist Amjad Al Jawary.

[permalink]Under large banners proclaiming "Opposing Equal Rights is BIGOTRY” and "Gay Marriage is Our Right," about 30 pro-gay protesters, including members of the Gay Liberation Network, the Chicagoland Anarchist Network, ANSWER, and other allies, demonstrated against the Illinois "Family" Institute at the Columbia Yacht Club.

On June 10th, the IFI was holding a $100-per-plate fundraiser aboard the "Spirit of Artemis" to promote an Illinois constitutional amendment that would ban equal access to marriage by same-sex couples. By protesters' estimates, some 60 people passed through the protest to attend the event. Read more.

Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
Related Links: Gay Liberation Network

[permalink]June 11th marks the day when cities world-wide participate in the World Naked Bike Ride. The annual ride is organized to "protest oil dependency, liberate the streets from wingless caravans of guzzling self-hate mongers, and to inject the hearts of our neighborhoods with the reality of our beautiful bodies which have developed over millions of years into their current perfect beingness." Hundreds of happy, naked and partially naked, Chicagoans rode in the free, non-sexual, fun bike ride that traveled through the north and northwest sides of the city as well as the Loop displaying their nakedness on prominent streets like Michigan Avenue and Lake Shore Drive. Clothing was optional as it was a "bare as you dare" event.

Six, possibly seven, people were arrested near the beginning of the ride for public nudity. Some criticism has been aired around the organizers’ lack of contingent plans in regards to what to do if arrested and how to conduct effective jail support. It should be noted that there was minimal jail support from the moment people were arrested (around 9:45pm) until very early the following morning when the last person was released at 5am. Otherwise, the ride was a success. Read more.

Related Links: Chicago's Naked Bike Ride | World Naked Bike Ride Homepage
Other Indymedia Coverage: Portland IMC Coverage of World Naked Bike Ride
Video from 2004/2005 WNBR: Real Media Player | Windows Media Player

[permalink] On May 26, 2005, some 30 community represenatives held a vigil at the 19th Precinct police station at Belmont and Western where, one year earlier, community activist May Molina had died while in police custody.

Molina, active in Chicago's anti-police-brutality movement and a co-founder of Families of the Wrongly Convicted, was held in custody shortly after police raided her home on May 25, 2004, on alleged drug possession charges. Molina, a diabetic with assorted health problems, died when police did not allow Molina access to her medications.

May's son, Michael Ortiz, was also arrested in the raid and held by police, though charges against Michael were ultimately dismissed. In response, Michael is suing the Chicago Police on charges of false arrest. A police "investigation" into May's death is supposed to be finished by the end of June 2005. Read more

Photos from the vigil: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

Previous coverage: 1 | 2 | 3

After working diligently for more than twelve years, Yahale Yadede's freedom of speech will no longer grace WZRD's Sunday night programming.

Some say it started when someone was smoking pot in the vicinity of WZRD's little room in the basement of Northeastern.

Others say that is just an excuse to censor the station. Some believe it started when C. J. Laity called George Bush an anus live on the air during Charlie Newman's Poetry Circus show. Others claim the FCC's closing of the station was all about paperwork. Some think it has to do with the recent formation of a union. And there are those that claim that back door politics has put the very essence of freedom of speech at stake. Read More