Anarchist attacks around Chicago Wednesday

Why do we fight? Why do we even attempt to fight the totality of domination and exploitation? If what we seek is a world in which we are free to truly express our desires, then we must create it by destroying all relations based on power and commerce. These three targets were chosen for that reason.

Last night, April 22nd, an Olympic ad was defaced and altered in East Pilsen. This target was chosen simply because we refuse to allow the city and its corporate pals to celebrate the intensification of capitalism and the displacement of people.The three sided ad originally had glorified pictures of athletes and the word "Imagine". The largest side now reads "NEVER" and has a nice big circle A as well. The right side now reads "Imagine RIOTS".

The next target was a building owned by capitalist land lord Podmajersky. Podmajersky is a major force in the gentrification of Pilsen. Once you look, you can see his high rise condos and buildings that plague the area all around. Two windows were smashed on a building owned by Podmajersky near his headquarters on Halsted. A third window was smashed with a parking meter that bore a message. The message reads "Dear Racist Capitalist Scum, You and your tenants are displacing us. This is our response and it is only the beginning." And we left a winking smiley face at the bottom just for you, Podmajersky!

But do we really need a campaign to attack all these oppressive institutions? Do we need any other reason then to destroy all relations based on domination and capital? To highlight this point, a large window was smashed and another window was damaged on a Standard Bank near the Sheridan red line. We did this for no other reason than to attack an institution that perpetuates our misery and feeds off our exploitation. Do we want the system to change or do we want its total abolition? Even if the city doesn't get its corporate circus and even if all the capitalist scum like Podmajersky stop gentrifying our neighborhood, we will continue to attack. Insurrection ends when domination does.

Towards a Spring Social War!

from Chicago IndyMedia

an interesting related article from the Sun-Times

Finding our Roots, April 24 - 26

Finding our Roots has posted its schedule and descriptions of the workshops for this weekend's conference.

Saturday 11-12:15
Department of Space and Land Reclamation: 8 Years Later
Gentrification: Containment, Displacement, Yuppie Infestations, and the Resistance to Come Which Way To Nowhere? A Short History of Anarchist Spatial Theory and Practice

Saturday 12:30-2
“The Left is Dead”: “Ultra-Cutronism” and the “Anarcho-Autonomous” Milieu
Bash Back 101: Tactically Queering Environments
Let’s Organize the Hood: Organizing in Poor Communities of Color and Among Impoverished Populations

Saturday 3-4:15
The Politics of Nonviolent Action
Mad Liberation and Safe Space

Saturday 3-6
Collective Living Spaces: A Roundtable Discussion
Teaching and Organizing In, Around, Alongside, and Between the Spaces of Academia

Saturday 4:30-6
Spaciality and Transformation
Prison as a Liberated Space: Anarchism and The Revolutionary Prison Movement of the 1970’s

Sunday 11-12:15
Anarchist Alternatives to Coerced Living Spaces
Creating and Maintaining Anti-Authoritarian Queer Space
The Seizure of Space and the Public Sphere: Enduring Lessons from the Zapatistas

Sunday 11-2
Relationship Anarchism: A 3-part Workshop

Sunday 12:30-2
Creating Safe Space in an Unsafe World: Supporting Survivors Whilst Respecting Their
Autonomy
Grey Pollution and Electronic Toxicity
Leisure’s Role in Space and the Anarchist Movement

Sunday 3-4:15
Demilitarizing Space
Public Sex and Social War
Sobriety Within the Struggle
A Return to the Land

Closing plenary, Sunday 4:30-6
A History of Anarchist Spaces in Chicago

Tweens trash car dealership

MILWAUKEE--Surveillance video shows several suspects destroying dozens of brand new cars parked on the Don Jacobs car lot at night. The damage is severe... broken windows, ripped interiors, dents, and smashed windshields.

"We can't believe how much damage they did," Don Jacobs General Manager Andy Haros said.

from TMJ 4

Chicago Insurgent Network's First Strike at the City Of Chicago and the IOC

There has been a recent spark of sabotage among Chicago's residents in regards to the coming Olympic bid, the economy, and gentrification in general. An Olympics 2016 "Imagine" billboard was altered near the intersection of Diversey and Elston Aves last night. The buildboard now reads a truer sentiment: "Imagine (A) Social War". To give them a taste of what we meant, 30 parking meters and 2 ATMs were disabled; later in the night, the locks were glued shut on a Chipotle and a T-Mobile store.

The infamous CPD have scared us into hiding for too long. Spring is here, a season of renewal, and the time to act is now. The city continues to demean us with their Olympic advertising and corporate pride, giving free 2016 shirts to the same members of our communities who'll be displaced if we recieve the bid; all the while using symantics like Obama's: "hope", "change", "imagine". The state won't wait to destroy our communities, so we can't wait to fight back.

The words echoed on the billboard, foretelling of SOCIAL WAR, are just the beginning. We will continue to strike, in the dead of night, when you least expect it. Though, there is one thing you can expect: an all out riot on the streets of Chicago in 2016, and continuous, more and more rapid struggles and direct action from us here in these communities, already ravaged so much with poverty, stricken with fear, and with (almost) nothing left to lose.

from Chicago IndyMedia

Murderous Chicago pig confronted at courthouse

A melee broke out this afternoon after a bond hearing for a Chicago police detective charged with drunk driving and causing an auto crash two days ago that killed two people.

Joseph Frugoli, 41, was ordered held in jail in lieu of a $500,000 bail at the noontime hearing.

As the hearing ended, dozens of friends and relatives of the two victims spilled out into the halls of the Cook County criminal courthouse. Moments later, loud shouting could be heard echoing from the hallway near the courtroom and a fight then broke out, causing several Cook County sheriff's police officers to rush from the courtroom, their radios bursting with chatter.

Officers eventually pushed the crowd outside the main entrance of the courthouse, then across California Avenue onto a grassy area. Tense moments ensued, as people in the crowd hurled epithets at the police.

As of about 12:45 p.m., 10 officers stood guard in front of the courthouse and much of the crowd remained.

Cook County Sheriff's spokesman Steve Patterson said the family and relatives apparently became infuriated at the bail amount, and left the courtroom talking loudly. Once outside, they confronted passersby "insisting this was a travesty, that the police are covering this up, that because he's going to be released it's all a conspiracy," Patterson wrote in an e-mail.

from the Trib

Direct action against potholes

What to do when there are potholes on your street and the city won't pave them fast enough?

Patch them yourself.

That's what a West Side organization did today. Residents from the Austin neighborhood bought four bags of Quikrete from Home Depot for $50 and used shovels, rakes and a roller to fill about seven holes on the 4800 block of West Van Buren Street.

"The city's not doing it so residents need to take the matter into their own hands," said Elce Redmond, organizer with the South Austin Coalition.

The group fronted the $50 for the bags of asphalt mix. Neighbor Ernest Roberts luckily had a 50 pound roller in his garage -- left behind by a previous owner.

Roberts complained about Mayor Daley's slow efforts in repairing potholes in the neighborhood.
"He's too slow to getting around to here," he said.

Chicago Department of Transportation spokesman Brian Steele said that the agency plans repairs based on the volume of 311 pothole complaints and the amount of traffic streets experience.

CDOT received just one call about potholes in the 4800 block of Van Buren in the last two months, he said. The agency has repaired about 300,000 potholes since Dec. 1 and hasn't received state funding for resurfacing since 2006, he said.

from the Trib

FYI

New sport-utility vehicles arriving in Chicago police districts have officers concerned after discovering gaps in the cage between the back and front seats.

The gaps have been covered with a heavy-duty plastic and secured with Velcro, police sources said. But some officers are concerned a detainee could still break through.

The gaps have been covered with a heavy-duty plastic and secured with Velcro, police sources said. But some officers are concerned a detainee could still break through.

Greg Bella, a Fraternal Order of Police official, said he worries a detainee "could push the plastic, reach around and choke the guy in front."

thanks to the Trib

Protestors to convince IOC Olympics are bad

A small group of protesters has gotten the attention of the International Olympic Committee inspection team that’s in Chicago to take a closer look at the city’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Nine people from the group No Games Chicago carried a banner that read "Shut Down the Olympic Bid" this morning outside the Fairmont Hotel in downtown Chicago, where the IOC evaluation team is staying.

Soon after, a spokeswoman for the protesters said they’d gotten word that the IOC team would meet with them later today.

from the Sun-Times

New Midwest anarchist zine

Although I disagree with their assertion the Midwest is a dead-zone of radical activity, a neat little zine has come out called Words & Letters. It seems to be based more toward the Great Plains areas and is a welcome addition to the developing activity in the Midwest.

Anarchist Olympics: Chicago 2016 mural defaced

Someone defaced a 2016 welcome mural on the Mural Building in the 1700 block of North Ashland Avenue, in an incident that was discovered this morning. Police were called to the building about 7:55 a.m, authorities said.

The damage appeared to have been inflicted with paintballs and workers were already on the scene about an hour later, painting over the splatters.

The former warehouse, which faces the Kennedy Expressway just south of Armitage Avenue, was the site of traffic-stopping ads featuring then-Chicago Bulls player Dennis Rodman for now-defunct clothing retailer Bigsby & Kruthers.

from the Trib

Anarchist Olympics begin: Local Artist Collective Welcomes the IOC

This past week has left us feeling inspired. The bus stops ads, corporations supporting the bid, flags everywhere, buses themselves, the Olympic spirit has gripped the city. Never have we felt such a sense of pride in our greater community. We owe it all to these fine people, who have been kind enough to grace us with their presence for the week. Word got out about the soiree they were having last night, and we felt the need to do something to show them how the city feels, much more than dinner and drinks ever could. We couldn't hide our passionate pride for one more day.

April Fools you fucking idiots!

Last night we paint bombed two billboard monstrosities overlooking the Kennedy expressway. They were Olympic advertisements, just like the ones you see every time you turn your head. Except bigger. We kindly suggest fellow citizens to find friends, some eggs, or paint and bombard the advertisements that are trying to sell gentrification, police oppression, profits for the rich, and annoying tourists.

We Won't Pay!

Fuck the corporate circus, Sabotage the Olympic bid.

edited for readability, from Chicago IndyMedia

Bossnapping: Insurrectionary adventurism or opportunism?

PARIS (AFP) — Bosses across the world are having to break bad news to employees as companies go under. But that can be a risky business in France, where some furious workers have taken to holding their managers hostage to demand better pay-offs.

In the latest outbreak of "bossnapping", workers at a pharmaceutical factory were Wednesday holding their boss in his office for a second day to force him to improve their redundancy packages.

"This action is our only currency. But there is no aggression," said union representative Jean-Francois Caparros from the plant owned by the US industrial conglomerate 3M in the central town of Pithiviers.

The detention came less than two weeks after workers held the boss of Sony France hostage for a night and barricaded their factory entrance with tree trunks. They freed him only after he agreed to reopen talks on their pay-off.

In neither case did police intervene to free the managers, in a tacit recognition that such radical tactics were part of negotiations and that no harm would come to the bosses.

more from the AFP

Bash Back: Solidarity With All Cop Killers

On March 26th, Bash Back! operatives dropped a banner from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Union. The banner read only: "We (heart) Lovelle Mixon."

There have been a ton of Web arguments over the banner and the situation.

Vandalism at parking meters up after rate hike

Chicago motorists are venting their anger about higher parking meter rates tied to a 75-year, $1.15 billion lease — with a spike in vandalism and a drop-off in on-street parking, the private contractor acknowledged Wednesday.

“We’ve certainly seen an uptick in the amount of vandalism at the meters. That suggests to me that some people are unhappy with the increase in the meter rates," said Mike Kuziak, chief operating officer of LAZ Parking, the operator hired by Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners.

"We've increased our resources to respond to meter maintenance issues to make sure the integrity of the system remains intact."

Kuziak said he was "not authorized to talk about revenue" and, therefore, could not put hard figures behind the anecdotal evidence supplied by Chicago Sun-Times columnist Carol Marin that a boycott is brewing to protest rates that require motorists to pump 28 quarters into Loop meters for two hours of parking.

But he said, "Clearly, as the rates have increased, there are people who are unhappy about it, and there are people who will seek alternative parking. That will free up more spaces on the street for the benefit of the merchant community."

Marin reported Sunday that she had observed open meters on Clark Street in Lincoln Park, on Milwaukee Avenue in Wicker Park and on Columbus Drive around the Sheraton Hotel during midweek, mid-day hours, when it would normally be difficult to find a space.

A barrage of angry e-mails only bolstered her contention that the empty spaces signal a backlash to the rate hikes, elimination of free Sunday parking and to the contractor's decision to issue parking tickets to "supplement" the city's enforcement efforts.

from the Sun-Times

No to contracts, no to Olympics, no to police

Saying it has been "backed into a corner," the Chicago police department's patrolman's union announced today it will be having an "informational picket" at City Hall next Thursday to protest the lack of a contract.

The picket will happen the same day the International Olympic Committee is set to come to Chicago. Buses will drive officers from meeting points around the city to City Hall for a picket at 11 a.m.

Forward with the FOP General Strike!

from the Trib

"Snitches get stitches"

A convicted drug dealer from the West Side has been charged with attacking a 73-year-old man who routinely called police to report him, Chicago police said today.

Police say Bennie Hale, 21, learned that the manager of a laundromat in the 5400 block of West Chicago Avenue, had been calling police whenever he allegedly saw Hale selling drugs in his business place and nearby.

Hale allegedly confronted the man, hitting him on the head and body with his fists, and damaged the victim's office and office equipment. Hale fled, but police later arrested him.

Hale, of the 4300 block of West Washington Boulevard, was charged with aggravated battery of a senior citizen and is due in court this morning. He was paroled in August after serving prison time on a 2007 drug conviction and has a 2006 conviction for manufacture/delivery of cocaine, according to the Illinois DoC Web site.

from the Trib

NSM rally under the arch in St. Louis

The National Socialist Movement, America's Nazi Party[,] announces that it will rally under the Arch in St. Louis, Mo.[,] on Sat., Apr. 18th[,] from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

This is the same group at the blunt end of the anti-fascist riots in Toledo a few years ago.

This week, Calgary saw a cat-and-mouse chase of a neo-Nazi by Canadian anti-fascists. Some wack claiming to be a spokesperson from Calgary ARA condemned attacks against the Aryan Guard, but we're hoping this was a slip of the tongue and not ARA going soft on fascism.

Banner drop in Pilsen

Published at Chicago Indymedia with some discussion of gentrification there.

River Forest cop cars vandalized and set ablaze

An arson investigation is underway following a vandalism spree that damaged four River Forest government cars early Friday, including the burning of a squad car and a community service officer’s car.

Police Chief Frank Limon said besides the two police vehicles, two of the village’s Public Works Department vehicles had windows smashed out. All four were parked just west of Village Hall. One of the squad cars was extensively damaged, the other is being repaired, Limon said. “We know it wasn’t accidental,” said Limon.

“We’re looking at everything and anything.”

from Pioneer-Local

Independent social space shutdown

In yet another blow to Chicago’s arts community, local performance space and nonprofit resource center AV-aerie has gone on “indefinite hiatus” following a visit from a dozen city officials this past Friday (which unfortunately put an early end to a benefit show for local upstart Dill Pickle Food Co-op).

As anyone who’s followed its trials and tribulations is well aware, this isn’t the first time the space—formerly Open-End gallery, Ideotech and the home of DEPART-ment—has run into problems with the zoning board. Last May, AV-aerie chief Marshall Preheim was slapped with a citation for not having a Public Place of Amusement license, and ever since he’s been ensnared in a lengthy and expensive tug of war with the city.

from Time Out

32 Illinois banks at risk for failure in 2009

More than 30 Illinois banks and thrifts have high levels of delinquent loans and stand a greater risk of being closed by regulators in 2009 if they don't improve performance, raise capital or get acquired, according to a new report.

from the Trib

Government hates competition

Russell Cole once called his extravagant Deerfield home "the house that Best Buy built," according to federal court documents that outline how more than $31 million allegedly was swindled from the national retail giant.

The $2.75 million that Cole and his wife, Abby, used to buy the land and build their two-story house with its distinctive cupola were "the proceeds of fraud," investigators say in the documents.

Missing from the Kenmore Avenue property are the Ferrari coupe, Lamborghini convertible and a collection of nine other luxury and high-performance vehicles worth about $2.8 million that federal agents seized in November and December.

...

Even though Best Buy and National Parts officials sometimes questioned price discrepancies, those concerns were smoothed over by a Best Buy employee who received money and gifts from the Coles, officials alleged.

In one example outlined in the documents, Chip Factory won a bid for 20 computer parts at $42 per part, while the next lowest bid was $72. Chip Factory later charged Best Buy $571 per part, according to documents.

from the Trib

Panopticon and the social prison

CHICAGO — At first glance, Chicago’s latest crime-fighting strategy seems to be plucked from a Hollywood screenplay. Someone sees a thief dipping into a Salvation Army kettle in a crowd of shoppers on State Street and dials 911 from a cellphone. Within seconds, a video image of the caller’s location is beamed onto a dispatcher’s computer screen. An officer arrives and by police radio is directed to the suspect, whose description and precise location are conveyed by the dispatcher watching the video, leading to a quick arrest.

That chain of events actually happened in the Loop in December, said Ray Orozco, the executive director of the Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications.

“We can now immediately take a look at the crime scene if the 911 caller is in a location within 150 feet of one of our surveillance cameras, even before the first responders arrive,” Mr. Orozco said.

The technology, a computer-aided dispatch system, was paid for with a $6 million grant from the Department of Homeland Security. It has been in use since a trial run in December. “One of the best tools any big city can have is visual indicators like cameras, which can help save lives,” Mr. Orozco said.

In addition to the city’s camera network, Mr. Orozco said, the new system can also connect to cameras at private sites like tourist attractions, office buildings and university campuses.

Twenty private companies have agreed to take part in the program, a spokeswoman for Mr. Orozco said, and 17 more are expected to be added soon. Citing security concerns, the city would not say how many cameras were in the system.

Mayor Richard M. Daley said this week that the integrated camera network would enhance regional security as well as fight street crime.

Still, opponents of Mr. Daley’s use of public surveillance cameras described the new system as a potential Big Brother intrusion on privacy rights.

“If a 911 caller reports that someone left a backpack on the sidewalk, will the camera image of someone who appears to be of Arab or South Asian descent make police decide that person is suspicious?” asked Ed Yohnka of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois.

“There seems to be this incredibly voracious appetite on the part of the city to link up cameras to the 911 system,” Mr. Yohnka said. “But there are just no longitudinal statistics that prove that surveillance cameras reduce crime. They just displace crime.”

Some experts, including Albert Alschuler, a law professor at Northwestern University, say the surveillance cameras and updated 911 system do not violate privacy rights because the cameras are installed in public locations.

“In America, we protest the use of cameras for things like enforcing laws that reduce crime or traffic accidents, but we probably ought to do more,” Mr. Alschuler said.

He added: “My more serious concern would be if they start using new audio technologies, which can be calibrated to alert police to loud noises, like a scream or a car crash. What worries me is if police can use technology to listen to anyone who happens to be talking in a public location, which would raise serious privacy concerns.”

from the Times

Pathetic pleading politican gets prison

"Folk in my community understand there can be false allegations when there is someone who is the voice of the people," Troutman told the Tribune at the time. But in August a subdued Troutman admitted that prosecutors had been right after all and that for several years she had solicited cash from developers to back projects in her ward.

from the Trib

Faggot anarchists fuck up pig cruiser

Early Sunday morning, Chicago police broke up Glamourqueer, a massive Bash Back fundraising dance party. It is rumored that as crowds poured into the street, the gas tank of one of the six police cruisers was punctured, rendering it inoperable. 

Coming Insurrection

A wave of refusal in Rome, an occupation in New York. The trashing of a factory in Dongguan, the mobile blockade of interstates in DC. Flames in Athens, riots in Oakland.

Every day we're moving farther from the total stupidity of all political and social milieus. The coming insurrection will be a revolt whose terrain is everywhere and whose weapons are blockades, strikes, sabotage, and solidarity: the inseparable embrace of building power and insurrection.

It is in new social formations and new forms of attack that our potential lies. This is the emergent threat of social war, our war.

Thursday March 5th 7pm at the CCC in Milwaukee there will be a multi-media presentation, talk and discussion touching on a veritable multitude of topics ranging from the ideas of the Invisible Committee's 'The Coming Insurrection', recent sustained rioting in Greece, the state-of-exception, the ever present yet new impending forms of global crisis of capital and a perhaps newly realized terrain of global civil war.

This event is free. People are encouraged to bring food and ideas to share. There will also be free literature available on topics relating to the presentation.

from Mke Indymedia

Don't make waves over Olympics rowing plan

The Chicago Yachting Association, an umbrella group for 15 yacht clubs in the Chicago area, has asked members to keep a lid on it, noting in a memo obtained by the Tribune that yacht clubs "are vulnerable to retribution."

Mayor Richard Daley's office and the Chicago Park District have made it clear "that they do not wish to talk about issues that may be confrontational until after October 2009," according to the memo by an association committee charged with formulating an approach to the city's Olympic plans.

City officials say they aren't trying to stifle dissent before Oct. 2, when the International Olympic Committee, which values popular support, selects a host city. But critics of the bid, from parks activists to concerned taxpayers, believe boosters have worked to suppress public criticism and withhold potentially controversial information.

from the Trib

Is Your Boss Faking It?

This article from Time magazine questions the competency of bosses but also offers a neat look into some social psychology and group dynamics. Anarchists for the most part seem keenly aware of these phenomena and have devised some interesting ways to handle them. However, my first reaction was toward the first-answer scenario, and how this might affect the development of consensus:

An overwhelming 94% of the time, the teams used the first answer anyone shouted out — often giving only perfunctory consideration to others that were offered.

The article points out many reasons why obedience is irrational but disappointingly closes on the note that we'd better follow our leaders. Let's not.

Free Ronald Haddad Jr!

A 28-year-old River Forest man was arrested today in connection with the mailings of a series of threatening letters to city and county officials, the FBI said late today.

Ronald Haddad Jr. was expected to spend the night in federal custody, and appear Wednesda charged in a criminal complaint with making threatening interstate communications, said Ross Rice, an FBI spokesman in Chicago.

Some of the mailings, received by Mayor Daley and others, date to 2007.

Haddad was taken into custody at his home on Park Avenue in River Forest without incident, Rice said.

According to the criminal complaint filed in the case Tuesday, Haddad mailed more than 25 letters between December 2007 and January 2009 threatening harm against numerous public officials. Many of the missives included complaints about high taxes.

"This is the end of Daley and his empire," some of the notes allegedly read.

Certain of the envelopes contained shotgun shells that Haddad unsuccessfully rigged to detonate on opening of the letter or package, the charges alleged.

In addition, plastic baggies containing scented oil were mailed to then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich and others last month with an expletive-filled message, authorities said.

from the Trib

War on God continues

Arson was suspected in an overnight fire at a Catholic church in the Bridgeport neighborhood, where red tape was found across three doors with a rape message.

The fire was reported around 3 a.m. on the outside of All Saints St. Anthony's Church, 518 W. 28th Pl., near some cellular phone equipment but was put out within about 15 minutes, officials said.

On one of the church's doors, though, authorities found the word "RAPE" formed in pieces of red duct tape. On another door close by the words "GOD IS A LIE." On an adjacent door were the words, HAPPEND'S HEAR," written in the same way. Police removed the tape about 8:30 a.m. as evidence.

"This was obviously an arson fire," said Fire Cmdr. Will Knight.

from the Trib

the Sun-Times has a better article.

Creative proletarian solutions to the credit crunch

Hackers were able to access the computers of RBS WorldPay, an Atlanta-based firm that processes electronic financial transactions, the FBI said. Using information gleaned from the company's computers, the FBI said, the hackers cloned payroll debit cards—which some companies use to pay wages.

Then, in a Hollywood twist, they got the cards into the hands of people all over the world—including six to eight in the Chicago region—who made thousands of ATM withdrawals over 10 hours starting Nov. 8, the FBI said.

"What makes this different than a typical case . . . is the tremendous amount of coordination and the very high degree of sophistication that those behind this scam obviously have," said Frank Bochte, an FBI spokesman in Chicago.

from the Trib

You don't need a weatherman to know: Hot Summer ahead?

Below, a call coming out of Britain; not really a call, though, more like a shrug and a suggestion. The suggestion, though, is not only for the return of summit-hopping but what looks like a variety of events and actions hoping to capture the momentum and move it beyond the summit. The spirit reminds me of the 7-Week Revolt in Eugene. I have no idea what traction this call has or who's supporting it -- this is just one of those whispers or rumors that pop up every now and then.

There’s no doubt that the six weeks from March 28th - May 4th offers our anarchist movement a chance to move out of the shadows. Against the background of recession there has been rioting across Europe from Riga to Sofia. These are riots not by activists but by poor people hurting badly. The Greek uprising has provided a fine example of anarchists being prominent in a wider social movement for radical change. In Britain the war on Gaza and the Heathrow runway decision has brought protests - and direct action - back on the street across the country. They are not yet focused on the recession but they may become so. The G20 summit in London on April 2nd provides an opportunity for all these strands across Europe to come together as in the PARIS DECLARATION calling for a mass demonstration in London on March 28th - Saturday before summit - and across Europe on April 1st-2nd. In London the Trade Unions, Stop the War are organising marches on April 2nd. ‘THE BEHEADING CAPITALISM’ event by the folks behind J18 is planned for the same day. Other anarchists are planning a large central London anarchist rally on the night of April 1st with speakers from across Europe. After G20 the European leaders move on to the NATO summit in Germany - sure to get the anarchists back on the streets.

To often momentum is built over a few events then dribbles away. But this year we have the Mayday marches, a planned UK anarchist conference in London over May2-3rd and a Reclaim the Streets event in Brighton on May 4th. The fates are with us comrades, the sheep's entrails are promising, all we need are a few portents and omens to kick the whole fucking thing off.

JOIN THE SPRING OFFENSIVE!

I occasionally forget that anti-war marches take place on March 20. Is this a sign of my growing apathy or am I becoming more human? The recent anti-war movement died before the U.S. even invaded Iraq. It's become a voter base and a campaign slogan, a messy recruiting ground for socialist slugs and prime turf for Leftist power plays. As my more pessimistic friends might argue, this is of course exactly why some anarchists are interested in inserting themselves upon the anti-war sects, to recruit and get a hand in the game ("Beheading Capitalism," though, sounds weird enough to perhaps warrant investigation, if one happened to be in London).

On the other hand, the remnants of the anti-war movement have been doing their thing for over six years now, they have the experience to gather and restrain large crowds and they regularly try to manifest them (even if in recent years ticket sales are down). The extent to which anti-war happenings have any substance is the degree to which they can be used to point at, and beyond, the larger contemporary social situation that sinks more and more into crisis.

In Chicago, the traditional anti-war party crew is getting into its annual legal battle over where to parade. A press release suggests the organizers decided this years anniversary march is going to be a dual "peace/immigrant rights" march, so instead of focusing on the economy as a whole they'll be making sure to break it down into "issues." Immigrant rights marches still attract larger crowds than the anti-war movement, so perhaps it's an issue of increasing numbers.

Even though it's totally fucked for the government to deny a permit to this kind of event, it's kind of hilarious watching organizers squirm. The press release makes it sound like the city is trying to destroy the anti-war march, but it appears the city's primary concern is the chaos of St. Patrick's Day. Why anyone would want to compete with St. Patrick in this town is unknown to me; the city has offered the 21st, a day that is closer to the initial invasion date, but apparently there's an anti-war march in D.C. that day and some of the organizing group wants to be able to go to both (I doubt that a march in D.C. would have a significant impact on attendance at the Chicago march, except maybe a few less group leaders). What they're actually saying is that a D.C. march is as much a holy day to a Leftist as St. Patrick's is to many a Chicagoan (come to Chicago, it's a party). How many folks go to D.C. for marches anyway?

The permit fight will attract some publicity to the event, but most of Chicago -- even those attracted by the inclusion of an immigration plank next to opposition to the war -- will see the event as the usual stuff by the usual crowd; they're not even expecting 3,000 marchers this year.

Chicago is hosting Finding Our Roots in April and Bash Back's Queer Convergence in May; the ISO usually holds "Socialism 200x") out by O'Hare and joining the fray is Platypus with their "national convention" in June. Chicago appears to be flexing for activist cred, but the signs of brooding social revolt are few and far between. Are gatherings like these lightning rods for discontent or do they just further alienate theorists of revolution from those aching to revolt?

An assortment of Left groups have also begun mobilizing against Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid. I'm not really sure what this is going to entail beyond anti-Olympics forums, but the bid committee visit itself could offer a chance to let the IOC know directly how Chicagoans feels about the opportunity to host the games. A simple fuckup by the Chicago police in the weeks beforehand could unleash anger that might mix with and emerge against the bid, turning Chicago into Oakland at the most inopportune of times. The strength of the recession might somehow inflame citizen passions into resistance; but we're used to being robbed. It's just as likely everything will go on without a hitch.

At this point the future is as confusing for us as it is the capitalists predicting and praying for economic recovery. Over the past several months the opening salvos have been fired, and as economic decay quickly spreads across the globe discontent follows. The desire to exacerbate conflict has our mouths watering like wolves, but if we give in to our urge, our attention is drawn to a hundred different arenas. On what specific cause should we set ourselves, some ask, so as to be nearest the next social rupture?

Economic crisis binds us in new ways, it makes obvious to all the way every aspect of our lives is dominated by capitalist order. We do not need to look any further for a reason to revolt. We would do better to focus on our own experiences than chasing around the causes of others; our commonality is found in sharing ourselves in revolt and overcoming this order collectively.

The U.S. hasn't seen a period of generalized anger and social disorder in ages, but the approaching summer has every possibility of heralding a new age. The authorities tremble and we both know what is coming. Spring offers a handful of playgrounds for experimentation filled with the profound sense of urgency and yet dwarfed by the gravity of what may lie ahead. Do we dare try out these last few chances and fool ourselves with dreams of our own agency, or will anarchists be left as surprised as any others when the wicked economic whip wraps itself around our necks?

Bean sculpture defaced by vandal

Authorities are investigating after police discovered damage Monday on the steel sculpture known as the Bean in Millennium Park in the Loop.

Police discovered the defacement -- someone’s name scratched onto the Bean -- during the day on the north side of the sculpture, according to a Central District police captain.

There was no description of the person who defaced the piece, which is located near Michigan Avenue and Randolph Street, and the captain did not know whether any cameras might have captured what happened.

Cloud Gate, or the Bean as it has become affectionately known, is British artist Anish Kapoor's first public outdoor work installed in the United States, according to Millennium Park’s Web Site. The 110-ton elliptical sculpture is forged of a seamless series of highly polished stainless steel plates, which reflect the city's famous skyline and the clouds above, the site said.

A 12-foot-high arch provides a "gate" to the concave chamber beneath the sculpture, inviting visitors to touch its mirror-like surface and see their image reflected back from a variety of perspectives, according to the site.

A spokesperson for Millennium Park was not immediately available Tuesday morning.

from the Sun-Times

Republic spirit spreads

In Ireland, in an act reminiscent of a situation in Chicago a couple months ago, workers at a glass factory stormed the factory lobby when they discovered their company would be going out of business. So far, they are demanding to meet with a company official.

Bomb threat brings suburban school evacuation

Students at Westview Hills Middle School near Willowbrook were evacuated this morning because of a bomb threat.

According to the district's Web site, the students were safe and being supervised by the staff at the school, 630 65th St. in the southwest suburb.

The statement said police were on the scene, but an officer declined comment.

from the Trib

Insurrectionary discussion

I've been informed that someone from the magazine A Murder of Crows will be in Milwaukee on March 5 to speak about a synthesis of "The Coming Insurrection" and insurrectionalism in the U.S. Apparently they are working with semiotext(e) to publish an improved English translation of that text. Presumably the event will be held at Milwaukee's CCC but I'll post more info as it comes in.

Additionally, I don't think I've advertised it here yet -- Chicago Bash Back is hosting the second national Radical Queer Convergence May 28-30.

Little pig, little pig, let me in

A former member of the "police explorer" youth program who was infatuated with police work, Richardson is accused of getting dressed in a regulation police uniform on Saturday, walking into the Grand Crossing station and announcing that he was a Calumet officer assigned to traffic patrol there.

He signed out a police radio and joined another officer in a patrol car for five hours, police and Assistant State's Attorney Jennifer Rutkowski said Monday.

from the Sun-Times

Burn the schools, save the children

A Geneva teenager who has been charged with arson, burglary and criminal damage to property wrote on a social networking site that arson was among his interests, according to police and court documents, the Kane County Chronicle is reporting.

The 14-year-old boy is accused in connection with a fire last month at Western Avenue School in St. Charles.

Police obtained a search warrant to examine his MySpace.com page, where they found the boy had listed arson, anarchy, vandalism and mischief as some of his general interests.

from the Trib

Original story from the Republican

"We’re building a civilized space here"

Finding Our Roots is seeking workshop proposals for its third conference at the end of April. The first theme was "Theory" and the second theme was "Organization," this third year's theme is different in that it seems to offer more opportunity for different types of proposals (beyond simply presentation/lecture) -- "Space."

Why and how is space important to anarchists, and so often central to our struggles? What do we mean when we talk about “anarchist space”? What different spaces have anarchists created and struggled to keep and maintain; how have these spaces functioned and thrived, or failed to do so? What kinds of anarchist spaces exist currently, and how are they serving anarchist community as well as contributing to larger struggles for liberation and against capitalism? Examples could include infoshops, multiuse spaces, housing collectives, squats, farms, gardens, parks, free schools, workers’ collectives, or any other space dedicated to radical purpose and used by anarchists as a focal point or staging ground of struggle.

How are anarchists involved in struggles around space, both within and beyond our community? What kinds of spaces exist (or attempt to) within larger radical spaces: Why, for instance, are queer space, women’s space, or space by and for people of color important; how do these and other marginalized/oppressed groups use space as part of their struggles and organizing?

How does space operate within the social landscape and the machinations of capitalism? How can anarchists support and join poor and disenfranchised peoples’ struggles around space, such as fights against gentrification and displacement?

Potential workshop topics include but are not limited to: Gentrification and anti-gentrification struggles, squatting, community, Europe’s autonomous radical communities and their role in popular uprisings (ie, the recent events in Greece), self-sustainability in urban or rural environments, decolonization and resisting the police state, the relationship of anarchists to anti-imperialist/nationalist struggles for autonomy, Queer space, safe space, space as a human right, the use of autonomous spaces by oppressed groups, “spiritual space” - anarchism and non-hierarchical spirituality, the history and practice of anarchist spaces, problems of unity vs. fragmentation within anarchist space, collective living, workers’ collectives and non-hierarchical workplaces, reclaiming the commons, democratizing/infiltrating media space, the “infoshop movement,” reclaiming corporate and governmental spaces, “anarchist space” and its intersection with other spaces of resistance.

Yet, I also wonder whether such a vague theme will increase the likelihood of the same old cookie-cutter discussions and workshops, the same old activist outlines getting new names, annual NCOR presentations changing around a few words to fit the 'theme' but not changing in substance. This is kind of just my whining -- I'll of course go to FOR, and I'm not sure yet if I'll have anything interesting to contribute, I recognize how difficult it can be to put together an interesting presentation. But how much of the conference is going to be devoted to recycling the same old thing -- essentially working to reproduce anarchist ideology -- rather than using this gathering of anarchists, this "anarchist space," to learn and try new things together, to experiment with space?

Proposal and other information is available through the link above.

Chicago pigs play bad cop, bad cop

As if Chicago police need another black eye.

This one could come from a punch extended halfway across the country, from a former Chicago cop who allegedly has been recorded on tape telling students at Colorado State University that beating suspects and paying off informants with drugs is just a way of life for police in "Chi-town."

from the Trib

Yes, we ARE ninjas!

I just thought this was cute (even with the weird typo in the last line), in regards to the Milwaukee vandalism the other day. Anarchists need more witty replies:

Nearing bar close Monday morning the 19th of January, as we walked a few wandering drunks asked us if we were ninjas. One of us quickly replied "Yes, We ARE ninjas" and then seconds later the group continued on forward and proceeded to smash both ATMs, smash at least 9 windows (some of them bullet proof), destroy one camera and spraypaint "This is war" on the drive up window facade of a US bank building in Milwaukee. The group then seemingly disappeared.

Our laundry list of solidarity is far too long. We recognize that what we are up against is not a series of mishaps, corrupt and evil corporations, the good gone bad, but a system of control, and to act in solidarity is to work toward the annihilation of this control through acts of willed connectedness (as well as the fracture of what separates us).

This broken bank is but one contribution toward the discourse we are building.

We would like to contribute that we start believing again in the myth that we are a force to be not to be reckoned with.

from Mke Indymedia

Virgin Mary image defaced again

An image of what believers see as the Virgin Mary has been defaced again, this time with demonic graffiti that has lingered for more than two weeks, police said early today.

The image underneath the Kennedy Expressway at Fullerton Avenue on the North Side drew crowds in 2005 after Obdulia Delgado spotted it while driving home from work at St. Elizabeth Hospital.

It now draws worshipers who place flowers, candles and artwork around it, as well as graffiti taggers who have previously traced faint eyes and a gaping mouth onto it as if mocking Munch's "The Scream."

Police said today that the Illinois Department of Transportation would be responsible for eradicating the graffiti and that although visitors still frequent the shrine, police have not received many complaints about the most recent vandalism.

from the Trib

Social war by any other name

In general, I prefer not to reproduce stories that are tales of capture, but a lot of activities are invisible until someone gets caught.

This morning I read of two shops whose owners were operating beyond the law. At one, restaurant owners reported their capital stolen, collected insurance money, and then used that capital to open up another restaurant. At another, a restaurant owner was selling marijuana straight out of his shop.

Incidents like these make me contemplate agorist theory and its intersections with anarchism -- more importantly, the bits and pieces that can be culled from agorism in shaping insurrectionary strategy. At the very least, this means taking a second look at hardline Marxist class theory and considering all the agents that have a stake in the abolition of the state (and, for that matter, in defending it). Even the Greek anarchists were willing to support a kiosk owner hit by recent riots, and if that doesn't rile dogmatic classism I don't know what will.

This does not mean those of us who are workers should be forgetting where the balance of class power lies, however, as everyday work experiences remind us.

We become powerful in shared moments

Anarchist insurrectionalists in the U.S. seem to have been keeping themselves busy recently. In the Bay Area, numerous solidarity attacks took place in the wake of the Oscar Grant protests and riots.

In Milwaukee, even after two folks were arrested this weekend in connection with ongoing investigations into the RNC protests, a U.S. Bank was smashed up and tagged with an anarchist symbol.

In Olympia, an audacious bunch attacked a police station with torches and rocks, trashing at least one police car in addition. A fairly creative reportback offers motivations and a look into ostensibly the northwest anarchist scene, though the issues seem as though they would resonate beyond:

All of the ingredients are here. We have each other, we have our friends and the friends of friends. But we are usually consumed with our lives and the things which fulfill us. We know that insurrection would fulfill us, but that, of course, is something which will never happen here. Mobilizing those around us for a common purpose seems to be impossible. And when we actually get 25 or 39 or 76 people on the street, we are flooded with a cacophony of criticism for everything we should have done and did not do. Sometimes this criticism comes from friends. And when we ask why they were not there, they reply, “I did not want to be disappointed.” With these friends, we continue to go to parties and shows.

It's interesting that although there are numerous references to the Coming Insurrection, authored by "The Invisible Committee," the conclusion of the reportback suggests invisibility as a drawback:

But our invisibility, so far, has made us irrelevant. In the United States, our invisibility is no different than other invisibilities: invisible murders, invisible poverty, invisible misery. We do not grow stronger with our invisibility. We rot with it. And no one outside our circles knows that we exist.

The Invisible Committee take an opposite stance, seeking power in insivibility:

Visibility must be avoided. But a force that gathers in the shadows can’t escape it forever. Our appearance as a force has to be held back until the opportune moment. Because the later we become visible, the stronger we’ll be. And once we’ve entered the realm of visibility, our days are numbered; either we’ll be in a position to pulverize its reign quickly, or it will crush us without delay.

So, which is it? The Olympia authors equate invisibility with isolation -- for them, the invisibility of the U.S. anarchist scene is not a force gathering in shadows but an irrelevant subculture. Visibility is relevance, and relevance is reality: "we need to convince our friends that we are real and that our desires and rage our real." Ergo, the degree to which one is "real" is the degree of visibility one has.

This points to a tension within forms of clandestine action. The nature of the action demands degrees of silence on the part of the participants, yet the ability of the form to spread is dependent upon the degree of attention and mediated coverage the act receives. The value of insurrectionary acts lie in the nature of the relationships formed and transformed, not the particular acts themselves. But it is the particulars and not the relationships that are the focus of attention in the aftermath of such an act.

The emphasis on visibility as a pathway toward insurrection is a recipe for spectacular actions escalating in militancy without gathering the social strength to defend themselves. The desire to be visible may distort the reality of irrelevance and lead to dangerous and foolhardy measures taken by a minority with delusions of grandeur. I don't mean to speak ill of actions like those in Olympia, only to caution against the mindset this communique seems to encourage with lines like, "Everything is cumulative, and one expression of anger fuels the next one." Anger is fuel, but it burns hot and dies fast.

Be safe.

The change we need

Early Monday evening, a broken window was seen at a real estate office located on Logan Square at Kedzie & N. Milwaukee.

"People in masks feel uninhibited by morals... let alone laws."

Protests and rioting erupted in Oakland over the New Years Day murder of Oscar Grant by police. From some of the news reports and raw video I've seen, it seems the escalation was caused by about only 200 protesters who left an evening rally to head towards downtown.

Although it's been difficult to piece together the exact timeline, it seems like an initial police contact with the group was overwhelmed and scared off -- hence the abandoned cruiser that got trashed in the intersection.

I found the video of the attack on the McDonalds pretty interesting also, because it looks like a handful of folks separate themselves from the larger mob and just start heaving shit, in spite of being away from the cover of the group and in plain view of non-participants just driving down the road.

One article claims that "a group of anarchists, who were not part of the organizations hosting the protest rally, were responsible for igniting the violence." There's also an interestion mention that:

The core group of the mob appeared to be about 40 people, several of whom were with Revolution Books, a Berkeley bookstore. A man distributed the "Revolution" newspaper - whose tagline is "voice of the Revolutionary Communist Party, U.S.A." - as he shouted "This whole damn system is guilty!"

The author doesn't really explain what is meant by "core group" but presumably means the folks engaging in most of the criminal behavior and encouraging others to do the same. Another account documents how anarchists were maintaining momentum when others backed off -- inasmuch as folks continued to return to the action, it is obvious anarchists provided a necessary opening that allowed others to express their desires. The spontaneity of the action meant that police were somewhat unprepared for what was happening and the protesters were able to control their space for a period of time.

The small size of the crowd and the brazen MickeyD's attack are evidence to me, though, that it doesn't really take a lot of folks to get something like this going. Assuming the vast majority of the crowd did not have any street fighting experience, and if what the newspaper reports is true, then a handful of agitators that ignited the violence were able to share that energy with others and keep folks going for several hours roaming through the street.

In the end, however, there were over 100 arrests made, which is about half of the estimated participants, so the longer-term success and sustainability of their spontaneity is debatable. Proportionately, though, compared to the resources and effort put into creating the RNC riots and the retaliation therefrom, these smaller events yield as much fruit or more with a fraction of the input.

The real difficulty is finding creative ways to open space so that one's daily urge to, say, smash up a McDonalds becomes something that feels realistic. Total spontaneity burns out quickly, and formal organization is ripe for repression. The street-level fallout from this murder will fall short the wrath exacted by anarchists in response to the murder of Alexandros Grigoropoulos in Greece; what insights can be gleaned from the Greek experience that we can translate into our own organizing in Chicago, San Francisco and elsewhere?

Capitalism is the disaster

I've noticed a disconcerting trend in the news media that's been accelerating in the last few weeks -- a huge influx of articles aimed at reminding workers and the unemployed to work harder, lower their expectations, demand less and tighten their belts. A "survival guide" to keeping one's job suggests even:

For now, forget about work-life balance. A major preoccupation when the economy was humming along nicely, "having time for outside interests has to go right out the window now," says Bright. "You need to concentrate on doing whatever it takes to make yourself indispensable."

I am regularly reminded by friends, family and media that, with the state of the economy, I need to put my nose to the grindstone, be productive and simply be thankful that I still have a job. The unspoken urging is also that I shouldn't grumble or complain, and should rely on the folks in power to fix up what is supposed to be a minor speed bump.

Naomi Klein uses the phrase "disaster capitalism" to describe particular instances of capitalist restructuring after conflicts, crises or natural disasters -- but the authors of the "End of the world" essay in Harbinger #5 would consider capitalism a state of constant disaster. Nevertheless, Klein's examples lay a foundation for interpreting capitalist restructuring during the current crisis and remembering who benefits from government intervention.

The demands forced on us in times of economic crises remind me of Harry Cleaver's interpretation of capitalism, and how crisis is used to intensify the "boundless imposition of work":

Capitalism is not just a social system which exploits people through work, such that we can think about ending the exploitation and keeping the work, it is a social system which tendentially subordinates all of life to work and by so doing alienates those it forces to work and prevents them from developing their own paths of self-realization. The subordination of life to work means not only are we forced to work long hours--such long hours that we have little energy left over for other activities--but that those other activities tend to be reduced to the mere recreation of life as labor power, i.e., the willingness and ability to work.

I also want to toss in a link to the section on work from a translation of "The Coming Insurrection," which points out capitalism's method of survival is by intensifying production and inventing more work -- keeping busy for the sake of keeping busy and maintaining commodity flow:

To work today is less about the economic need of producing commodities than about the political need to produce producers and consumers, to save the order of work by any means necessary.

These quotes have been on my mind as I contemplate the inanity of my own job -- its total crushing of my mind and spirit, and yet my own inability to quit (lacking both means and will).

Man who fired boss goes to trial

Just a day after Tom Tuduj received a subpar job evaluation and was told he would be docked $10,000, the construction employee swiped a knife from the Northwest Side company's kitchen and fatally stabbed his politically connected boss -- an act prosecutors said was motivated by pure rage and disgruntlement.

But Tuduj's attorneys maintained Tuesday their client was not in the right state of mind when Gary Poter was murdered 2½ years ago at the Poter Construction & Development Co., 5440 N. Cumberland.

Tuduj was depressed and sleep deprived days prior to the May 2006 crime, lawyers Tom Breen and Todd Pugh said during the first day of Tuduj's bench trial, adding that he fainted on the job two months before and was prescribed a toxic combination of medication about a week before the crime.

Poter, 48, of Northbrook, built and remodeled hundreds of low-income housing units in Chicago for developers, including mayoral ally Allison S. Davis and Tony Rezko, the once-powerful political fund-raiser convicted on corruption and fraud charges last summer.

Neither defense attorneys nor prosecutors mentioned Davis and Rezko but instead focused on the 36-year-old Tuduj's mental health.

Tuduj's former co-workers said Tuduj had job-related stress but never showed signs of mental instability.

The most aggravated anyone saw him was when he left Poter's office after the job review.

"He was angry and swearing," said Tamela Augusta, Tuduj's former assistant. "He said, 'I can't believe Gary [Poter] cut my fucking pay. How am I supposed to pay my fucking mortgage?' "

from the Sun-Times

Tribune article highlights needs for widespread squatting

Cindy Almendarez avoided the homeless shelter for as long as possible, shuffling her children from a friend's basement to a roach-infested apartment before bunking down in the back seat of her car, where, for nearly two weeks, they tried to pretend they were camping.

She tried to cheer up Zachary, 10, and Zarah, 4, by joking that the family was "temporarily unassigned a permanent location" before finally winding up at a PADS Crisis Services homeless shelter this fall.

Almendarez, 41, is one of the early victims of the foreclosure crisis, losing her Waukegan home in February 2007 after the death of her husband. Spiraling into depression, she lost her job, her financial footing and personal dignity as she tried to keep the children's daily routines intact while recovering from her losses.

Across the Chicago area, social service providers say more families are turning to shelters. Just as alarming, they say, is the ballooning number of people who aren't homeless—yet—but who, lacking intervention, could join the ranks in 2009.

Some have been evicted from apartments after their landlord was foreclosed upon, and cannot afford the security deposit required to rent a new one. Others had their hours cut back at work and are struggling to meet their monthly bills.

"They were already just hanging on," said Marilyn Farmer, the executive director of the Morning Star Mission in Joliet.

Since October, Chicago-area homeless shelters have reported increases of anywhere from 5 percent to 39 percent in people needing immediate housing, compared with the same time the previous year. The number of homeless students enrolled by Chicago Public Schools in November was 9,132—up 28 percent compared with November 2007, a spokeswoman said.

What's harder to quantify are the numbers of people on the brink.

Experts say that's because becoming homeless usually happens over time, not abruptly, and may never involve a formal shelter or governmental agency.

"People will use up every available resource, staying in a motel, staying with friends and family," even in their car, before going to a shelter, said Lynda Schueler, executive director of West Suburban PADS, based in Oak Park.

But social service providers are noticing an uptick in people asking for the kinds of help that often presages homelessness—primarily help in paying their rent or mortgage and to catch up with utility bills.

"Lots of people are living doubled up," said Darlene Marcusson, executive director of the Lazarus House in Wheaton, which has seen a 20 percent increase in people seeking help to pay rent.

full story at the Trib

Real estate CEO kills himself

A Chicago commercial real estate broker committed suicide in a Kane County wildlife preserve, police said Monday.

A maintenance worker discovered the body of Steven L. Good, 52, of Highland Park, Monday morning behind the wheel of his Jaguar parked in a lot at the Max McGraw Wildlife Preserve in East Dundee, said Kane County Sheriff's Department spokesman Lt. Pat Gengler.

Good had suffered a single gunshot wound to the head. Gengler said police recovered a weapon inside the car but he would not identify it. There was no note, Gengler said.

Investigators are not sure how long Good's body had been at the preserve or why he was in Kane County, Gengler said.

Last month during an industry forecast, Good said conditions in the commercial real estate market were very challenging. Investment activity in commercial space has slowed to a crawl because of tight commercial lending policies and the job market's contraction, he said.

Police are investigating what led to the suicide.

Good was chairman and CEO of Sheldon Good & Co., founded by his father, Sheldon Good, in 1965. Steven Good was largely responsible for the company's expansion as it became the largest real estate auction company in the nation.

from the Trib