More on last Thursday’s action

Just a few more articles.

Before the action, Megan Cottrell expressed skepticism about its impact. She has been rooting for the right side of the tenants’ rights actions we’ve been involved in recently, but the actions consistently outdo her expectations.

From the Sun-Times: Mayor Daley has agreed to order city inspectors to investigate Finney’s properties. And, in a nice touch, the title of the article unapologetically labels Finney a “slumlord”.

And, from Progress Illinois, an article with video footage, which also goes into some of the details of the relationship between City Hall and Leon Finney Jr., his Woodlawn Redevelopment Corporation, and The Woodlawn Organization.

MLK Day Celebration and Public Meeting

A multitude of SSN members and allies wait to squeeze through the entrance to the MLK Day event

Last weekend, well over 1000 people attended the 2010 MLK Day Celebration and Public Meeting at St. Thomas Church in Hyde Park, organized by SOUL along with two of its sister organizations.

This was the biggest event so far this school year for SSN. Together with allied activist and religious groups, SSN was responsible for a substantial proportion of the crowd in St. Thomas, turning out dozens of students from both the University of Chicago and the many seminaries in Hyde Park, as well as some of our old friends from Woodlawn.

"This little light of mine..."

Earlier in the afternoon, around 50 of us had gathered at the Disciple’s Divinity House for a mobilization party. We met new people, ate some pizza, sang some songs, and got ready for the main event. (As with many SOUL events, the atmosphere drew heavily from Southside churches. So being part of the audience meant making some noise, which doesn’t come naturally to a lot of us.)

There was also a well-attended afterparty later in the day. There are no pictures from that, but that might be for the best. We organize hard, we play hard—let’s leave it that.

For more information about the Celebration and Public Meeting and the issues it addressed, see this recap on SOUL’s blog. And see also:

Activists, Unions Rebuff Wal-Mart, Restarting Old Chicago Debate (In These Times)

Wal-Mart Struggles to Expand in Chicago (New York Times Chicago News Cooperative)

Tenants Take Fight to City Hall

Members of SSN joined around forty members and allies of the Kimbark Tenants’ Association (KTA) as they disrupted a meeting of the Chicago Plan Commission to denounce the owner of their housing complex, Leon Finney Jr (right), as a slumlord. The action was a huge success, and got a lot of press attention:

Chicago Sun-Times

Medill Reports

Chicago Public Radio

MLK Day: Sunday January 17th 2010

Remember the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Continue his work through community organizing

MLK Day celebration and public meeting

an afternoon of song, celebration and speaking truth to power, with local, state, and federal officials in attendance

FIGHT worker exploitation, urban decay, and suburban sprawl

SUPPORT living wages, green jobs, affordable housing, public transportation, sustainable development, and a socially responsible state budget

Date: Sunday, January 17, 2010

Time: 3:00pm-4:30pm

Location: St. Thomas the Apostle Church, 5472 S Kimbark

The Southside Solidarity Network (SSN) and other UofC students will join 1,000 Chicagolanders in celebration of the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. Local, state, and federal officials will appear in person and will be asked to pledge their support for issues affecting community members. Event organized by Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation (SOUL) and the Illinois Indiana Regional Organizing Network (IIRON).

For more info or to RSVP, contact Toby Chow at tobitac@uchicago.edu

Fighting Displacement from South Africa to Chicago

Wednesday, November 11
Harper 140
7:30 P.M.
Free dinner will be served

Southside Solidarity Network & Students for a Democratic Society present

FIGHTING DISPLACEMENT FROM SOUTH AFRICA TO CHICAGO
A Visit from Ashraf Cassiem & Southside Together Organizing for Power

Ashraf Cassiem is the lead organizer of South Africa’s Anti-Eviction Campaign in the Western Cape. An activist from the Mitchells Plain township with a long history in the anti-apartheid struggle, Ashraf has been one of the leading critics of the continuing attacks on poor people’s human rights in South Africa after the fall of apartheid. The Anti-Eviction Campaign has been written about and reported on around the world for its innovative, bold, and defiant resistance in the face of evictions, privatization and violation of the right to housing that have increased with the spread of IMF and World Bank-imposed economic policies through post-apartheid South Africa. Fighting Displacement from South Africa to Chicago will be a chance to hear reflections from Ashraf on the situation confronting South Africa’s poor, the resistance they have organized, and lessons to be learned by groups struggling for the right to housing in a U.S. housing market plagued  by foreclosure, evictions and destruction of public housing. Local leaders from Southside Together Organizing for Power, a tenant organizing group based in Woodlawn, will share their own struggles to stop evictions and housing demolition and engage with Ashraf and the audience in a discussion on making local-global connections in struggles for human rights.

Welcome to the Southside…

The Southside Solidarity Network is a group of students at the University of Chicago engaged in community organizing within the University and in the surrounding neighbourhoods of the South Side of Chicago. We build relationships with people outside of the University, and partner with other local community organizations, working towards positive change in the University and the South Side as a whole, and fighting for social justice.

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