Between The Lines - Jitu Brown: Parents, Teachers and Activists Engage in Hunger Strike to Save Dyett High School in Chicago (Week Ending Sept. 11, 2015)

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Between The Lines on Stitcher

Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

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Parents, Teachers and Activists Engage in Hunger Strike to Save Dyett High School in Chicago

Posted Sept. 2, 2015

Interview with Jitu Brown, community organizer in Save Dyett High School hunger strike, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

On Aug. 17, a group of black parents on the southside of Chicago, along with a few teachers and other supporters – 12 in all – began a hunger strike to stop the privatization of public education in Chicago and advocate for their vision of what a good neighborhood public high school could be. They've been protesting in front of the recently closed Dyett High School, demanding that the Chicago school board recognize their proposal to create a Global Leadership and Green Technology Academy in the Bronzeville neighborhood made up of mostly low-income, African Americans.

Chicago Public Schools put out a request for proposal, or RFP, seeking plans for reopening the school, but rejected the community's submission. After the hunger strike began, the school board hinted that perhaps the school would not reopen at all. Strikers maintain that the school board and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel have responded positively to similar proposals made by parents in whiter, more affluent areas.

At least two hunger strikers have been briefly hospitalized while participating in the juice- and water-only fast. Between The Lines' Melinda Tuhus spoke with one of the hunger strikers, Jitu Brown, national director with Journey for Justice Alliance, on the 12th day of the strike, shortly after American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten visited to lend her support. Here, Brown explains how their struggle relates to the mayor's closure of more than 50 Chicago public schools last June, with the rationale that they were under-enrolled and underperforming.

JITU BROWN: What we began to do with the core parents from the feeder schools is talk about what do we need to do to win with Walter Dyett Global Leadership and Green Technology High School. We had went through a process of about three years of developing a comprehensive plan not just for Dyett High School, but six of our feeder schools - what we call a sustainable community school village. We got the buy-in from those schools; they want to be part of the process. As Chicago Public Schools basically gave us the runaround, lied, played misdirection with us, I think the final straw was when there was supposed to be a hearing on Aug. 10 and we tried to get the location and the time of the hearing and they would never answer. So finally on Aug. 7 and 4:30 p.m. we found a press release on CPS's website saying the hearing is canceled and the board vote would not happen on Aug. 26. So that was the last straw.

We had done everything else you can do: we had met with every bureaucrat; we had jumped through every hoop; we did sit-ins, we protested, we got arrested. Everything you can do, and before that, engaged over 3,000 people in Bronzeville in support of this particular plan. We had submitted this plan to the Board in April of 2015, and instead of the board saying they would work with the community's desire, they opened an RFP. And we felt that was discriminatory, but we made the decision to participate in it, to pressure the district. Now, mind you, in other communities in the city of Chicago - Rogers Park, parents did not want Intrinsic and Noble Street Charter School. These are middle-class, white parents, and within two weeks the deal was off the table. Parents in a community called Hyde Park - a diverse group with a large number of white, middle-class parents, wanted a closed school by the name of Cantor to relieve the overcrowding at Kenwood Academy. There was no RFP; they didn't have to do any protest; they didn't have to get arrested. And in two-and-a-half, to three months, the keys to Cantor were handed over to Kenwood Academy to become the seventh and eighth-grade academy. So there's a two-tier system; there's a devaluing of the voices of African American parents, and it's just the truth.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Jitu Brown, what kind of support has the hunger strike gotten from the community?

JITU BROWN: It's amazing. When we're out in front of Dyett, people come from all walks of life. You get a lot of people from the neighborhood. You get people that have just heard about it that you don't know that walk up to you and bring bottles of juice and just say, "We really want to support what you're doing." Today, we had about 50 young people from the Albany Park neighborhood surround us and sing around us, you know, because the hunger strikers are beginning to get weak. You may know that two hunger strikers were hospitalized. They're both out now; Jeanette was released yesterday, so this is taking a toll physically. But support like that has helped bolster this effort.

In addition to that, what's happened on social media. We're very clear there's been a media blackout of this, but they can't stop it. So, what's happened is we've trended on Twitter for five straight days. It's going crazy on Facebook. So what happens is, people have been really pushing so the day before yesterday we had an enormous press conference. Washington Post began to cover it; Al Jazeera covered it; so it's growing, and that's all because of people's support because they realize it's not just about a high school. It's about school privatization in general.

And our schools haven't struggled because of bad teachers or ghetto kids who don't want to learn, or jaded black teachers. Our schools struggle because our schools have been failed. It's plain and simple: our schools struggle because they've been designed to struggle. And that's what this is about. You know, Dyett High School was not a failing school; it was not. Our young people were the national trainers for restorative justice. Our young people were going to D.C., Baltimore, Philly, Oakland, California, training adults in how to implement restorative justice. We led the city for two straight years in reductions in arrests and suspensions. We had the largest increase in students going to college in the entire city. Our science team routinely went to state finals.

BETWEEN THE LINES: About 10 days into your hunger strike, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten came to Chicago to support your efforts. What’s been the role of the local chapter of the teachers' union? I know they opposed Rahm Emanuel's massive school closures.

JITU BROWN: I think the Chicago Teachers Union has been very supportive, and I think they personify a fighting union. As a matter of fact, two of the hunger strikers are teachers; they're teachers who live in the Bronzeville community. I think that this particular fight has been community led, because that's what community fights should be, and then labor works with you, labor supports. But the soul of this has been mothers and fathers.

For more information, visit Coalition to Revitalize Dyett High School at progressillinois.com/category/tags/coalition-revitalize-dyett-high-school and on Facebook at facebook.com/pages/Dyett-Global-Leadership-Green-Technology-HS.