Fair Economy Illinois is a coalition of four social justice groups, in the United States, that advocates against state budget cuts and for higher income taxes on wealthy individuals and businesses in Illinois by organizing urban, suburban and rural residents. [1] It began in May 2011 as Make Wall Street Pay until it changed to its current name in March 2013. [2] [3] The group has also worked to pass a statewide ban on hydraulic fracturing and protested against financial support for the Illinois coal industry. [4] [5] Fair Economy Illinois organizes Moral Mondays Illinois protests.
The members of the Fair Economy Illinois alliance are The People's Lobby Education Institute, formerly known as the Illinois-Indiana Regional Organizing Network (IIRON), Illinois People's Action (IPA), Organizing Neighborhoods for Equality: Northside (ONE Northside), and Jane Addams Senior Caucus. It is also affiliated with National People’s Action (NPA), a community organizing network that partners with labor unions and left-wing activists. [1]
Fair Economy Illinois is led by Toby Chow. [6] Chow is a socialist and has been affiliated with a number of other left-wing groups including IIRON, National People’s Action, People’s Lobby and Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation. [7] [8] [9] [10] He participated in Occupy Chicago, an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street. [11] Chow was a panelist at the International Socialist Organization’s Socialism 2015 conference and has advocated for “class war.” [12] [13]
The Christian left is a range of Christian political and social movements that largely embrace social justice principles and uphold a social doctrine or social gospel based on their interpretation of the teachings of Christianity. Given the inherent diversity in international political thought, the term Christian left can have different meanings and applications in different countries. While there is much overlap, the Christian left is distinct from liberal Christianity, meaning not all Christian leftists are liberal Christians and vice versa.
The history of the socialist movement in the United States spans a variety of tendencies, including anarchists, communists, democratic socialists, social democrats, Marxists, Marxist–Leninists, Trotskyists and utopian socialists. It began with utopian communities in the early 19th century such as the Shakers, the activist visionary Josiah Warren and intentional communities inspired by Charles Fourier. Labor activists, usually Jewish, German, or Finnish immigrants, founded the Socialist Labor Party of America in 1877. The Socialist Party of America was established in 1901. By that time, anarchism also rose to prominence around the country. Socialists of different tendencies were involved in early American labor organizations and struggles. These reached a high point in the Haymarket massacre in Chicago, which founded the International Workers' Day as the main labour holiday around the world, Labor Day and making the eight-hour day a worldwide objective by workers organizations and socialist parties worldwide.
The Intercollegiate Socialist Society (ISS) was a socialist student organization active from 1905 to 1921. It attracted many prominent intellectuals and writers and acted as an unofficial student wing of the Socialist Party of America. The Society sponsored lecture tours, magazines, seminars and discussion circles all over the US to propagate socialist ideas among America's college population. The group expanded into a philosophy in the 1920s that did not focus exclusively or even primarily on college students. To symbolize the shift in emphasis, the group changed its name to the League for Industrial Democracy in 1921.
Socialist Alternative is a Trotskyist political party in the United States. SAlt formed as Labor Militant in 1986, when members of the Committee for a Workers' International created a US branch.
The anti-austerity movement in the United Kingdom saw major demonstrations throughout the 2010s in response to Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government's austerity measures which saw significant reductions in local council budgets, increasing of university tuition fees and reduction of public spending on welfare, education, health and policing, among others. Anti-austerity protests became a prominent part of popular demonstrations across the 2010s, particularly the first half of the decade.
We are the 99% is a political slogan widely used and coined during the 2011 Occupy movement. The phrase directly refers to the income and wealth inequality in the United States, with a concentration of wealth among the top-earning 1%. It reflects the understanding that "the 99%" are paying the price for the mistakes of a tiny minority within the upper class.
The Occupy movement was an international populist socio-political movement that expressed opposition to social and economic inequality and to the perceived lack of real democracy around the world. It aimed primarily to advance social and economic justice and different forms of democracy. The movement has had many different scopes, since local groups often had different focuses, but its prime concerns included how large corporations and the global financial system control the world in a way that disproportionately benefits a minority, undermines democracy and causes instability.
Eugene Puryear is a far-left American journalist, writer, activist, politician, and host on BreakThrough News. In 2014, he was a candidate for the at-large seat in the DC Council with the D.C. Statehood Green Party. In the 2008 and 2016 United States presidential elections, Puryear was the vice presidential nominee of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), despite being ineligible to become vice president due to his age.
The 2012 presidential campaign of Stewart Alexander war formed soon after the 2008 presidential election. Alexander, who had previously campaigned for the Socialist Party USA nomination in 2008 and served as their Vice Presidential nominee, selected Alejandro Mendoza as his running mate. He was often discussed as a potential candidate for the 2012 Socialist Party USA presidential nomination.
Jerome "Jerry" White is an American politician and journalist, and is the Labor Editor reporting for the World Socialist Web Site. He is a member of the Socialist Equality Party of the United States, and was a member of its predecessor the Workers League, joining the movement in 1979. White was the SEP's nominee for the United States presidential elections four times, running in 1996, 2008, 2012 and 2016.
Scholarism was a Hong Kong pro-democracy student activist group active in the fields of Hong Kong's education policy, political reform and youth policy. It was reported to have 200 members in May 2015.
Martha Lena Morrow Lewis (1868–1950) was an American orator, political organizer, journalist, and newspaper editor. An activist in the prohibition, women's suffrage, and socialist movements, Lewis is best remembered as a top female leader of the Socialist Party of America during that organization's heyday in the first two decades of the 20th century and as the first woman to serve on that organization's governing National Executive Committee.
The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a broad tent, democratic socialist political organization in the United States. After the Socialist Party of America (SPA) transformed into Social Democrats, USA, Michael Harrington formed the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC). The DSOC later merged with the New American Movement (NAM) to form the DSA. The organization is headquartered in New York City and has about 80,000 members. It leads organizing and protest campaigns, and has members in the House of Representatives, state legislatures, and other local offices.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) is a communist political party in the United States. PSL formed in 2004, when its members split from the Workers World Party.
Socialist Action is a Trotskyist political organisation in Hong Kong. It is affiliated with International Socialist Alternative (ISA) and works closely with the ISA sections in China and Taiwan. It describes itself as being based on the method and analysis of Marxism, to politically re-arm and organise the working class in the fight for a socialist world. They oppose the Chinese Communist Party, which they claim has made China the 'Sweatshop of the World' with one of the most extreme wealth gaps on the planet. They stand for the creation of fighting independent trade unions by Chinese workers to fight against capitalist exploitation and authoritarian rule.
Deborah James is an American activist. She is director of international programs at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) and is on the Board of Directors of Global Exchange. Prior to her work for CEPR, James had been called "a top U.S. protest organizer" by the Center for Public Integrity. She was formerly the Director of the WTO Program at Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, the Global Economy Director at Global Exchange, and the Executive Director of the Venezuela Information Office.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa is an American politician. He has served as the Alderperson for Chicago's 35th Ward since May 18, 2015. He was first elected to the Council in 2015, become one of the chamber's youngest members ever elected at age 26. He was re-elected in 2019 and 2023.
Moral Mondays Illinois is a series of protests modeled after similar Moral Monday demonstrations that took place in North Carolina. The demonstrations are organized by Fair Economy Illinois and led by clergy members. Moral Mondays Illinois protesters "demand that Illinois' elected officials tax corporations and the rich in order to fix the state's gaping budget deficit" rather than the budget cuts proposed by Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner.
Lamont Lilly is an American writer, political activist, and community organizer based in Durham, North Carolina. He is also a former vice-presidential candidate with the Workers World Party in the 2016 presidential election.
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