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Today we are talking with members of the Chicago Teachers Union, Ayesha Qazi, David Stieber and Hadeil Abdelfattah. As you may remember from our episode on the victory Chicago’s mayor, a former CTU member, Chicago’s students and educators have lived through a neoliberal hell. From 2003 to 2013 Chicago closed 50 schools, only making conditions for students worse. These closures moved the members of the teachers union to become militant. Their militancy changed the direction of Chicago’s education politics and reignited a labor movement in America that starting to reverse decades of decline of US union membership. Chicago educators recently joined 146 other unions, locals and caucuses, including United Auto Workers, United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of America and Association of Flight Attendants, signing a letter calling for basics rights to be restored in Gaza, hostages to be released, and for Biden to call for a ceasefire. 

Ayesha Qazi-Lampert is an AP Environmental Science Teacher at Chicago Public Schools. She is a member of the Chicago Teacher Union Climate Justice committee and is the Chair of the American Federation of Teachers Climate and Environmental Justice Caucus 

Dave Stieber is a 17 year Chicago Public Schools high school social studies and poetry teacher. He is National Board Certified and hold his Masters in Urban Education Policy. His partner is also a CPS teacher and together they have two children that both attend CPS.

Hadeil M. Abdelfattah, Ed.D. is a Palestinian-American born and raised on the northside of the city of Chicago. She is an educator of nearly 28 years and is currently a Lead Instructional Coach at Chicago Public Schools. She holds a doctorate in Educational Leadership and wrote an Autoethnographic study of her experiences as the child of immigrants in a large urban school district. 

Our Union Called for a Cease-Fire. It's About Our Students. (In These Times)

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