Welcome Jason as MAVReC Rallies for Reparations

Jason Ware is the newest member of MAVReC, taking over as our adult advisor. He began working in social justice 2 years ago as a member of the International Socialist Organization (ISO) doing advocacy for education justice against racism. The mass school closings and budget cuts of the Chicago Public School system was the last straw for Jason and he began doing community organizing work. In 2014 he joined We charge Genocide and began doing Cop Watch/Know your Rights training sessions. With the experience he has doing activism and the passion he has for  social justice campaigns, we at MAVReC are more than glad to have him on board. He is already making connections between MAVReC and outside experience by taking us to the Rally For Reparations on February 14th, a rally organized by The Chicago Torture – Justice Memorials, Project NIA, Amnesty International USA, and We Charge Genocide. The rally was called to demand that Rahm Emanuel and other Chicago Politicians support the proposal for reparations for the survivors of John Burge’s torture. John Burge was the Chicago Police Chief in the 1970’s through 80’s and was discovered to have tortured over 100 African American males during his time in the office. Now, over 40 years later, the people of Chicago are close to giving those victims of the torture the resources to rebuild their lives and to give better lives to their families. The reparations ordinance will not only guarantee that monetary compensation be given to the survivors, it also includes the building of a trauma center in the south side of Chicago. This center will help those who went through the torture as well as serve those still being targeted by Chicago’s racist and brutal police force.

 

The Next event lined up is the “Too Angry To talk About It” conference at our own Alternatives Inc. the conference is a time for activists to meet one another and to inform those not up to speed about the Black Lives Matter Movement. Its being held here at 4730 N Sheridan Rd at 6:00 pm on tuesday February 24th. Come to both learn about the movement and to connect with others who share the same passion for the movement.

MAVReC Watches the Watchers

(Photo credit to Sarah-Ji member of We Charge Genocide)

On January 24th, instead of a normal work day, all members of MAVReC attended the Watching the Watchers Conference at Roosevelt University. The conference was organized by We Charge Genocide and Project NIA, and was also co-sponsored by many other Social justice and civil rights groups. The conference consisted of 3 sets of workshops to educate people on the Black Lives Matter movement and other pressing matters like police brutality, the school to prison pipeline, cop watching, the LGBT, bail and bonds for criminals, and many others.

(Photo credit to Sarah-Ji member of We Charge Genocide)

Our 10 members split up and attended as many workshops as we could in order to get the most out of the conference. One of the many workshops we visited was the Arts and Resistance workshop led by Ann-Meredith. As a whole, the conference revitalized our energy and inspired us to continue our own work. Being surrounded by those who’ve done this sort of work for years and even those just starting gave us a great amount of new information and new connections to call on. In the end it left us with more questions than answers. However, that makes our work even more important as we look for way to provide answers to these questions.

MAVReC Marches with Masses

  

On January 19th members of MAVReC took part in the MLK 4 mile march from the Chicago historical Water Tower to the Chicago Trade Center. The national event was lead by the Coalition Against Police Violence and Total Blackout For Reform, with a member of Total Blackout For Reform, Otis Buckley, being the head organizer of the march. At the march the two groups involved announced their 10 demands of the government in order to “fix the broken legal system and end police brutality” or else they would call for an economic shut down of America until the demands were met.  Along the march there were 4 minute pauses to show support for Mike Brown and all others murdered by police officers. We felt honored to be apart of such a widespread protest on such an important day to both the Black lives matter movement and all civil rights activists.