Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression

Cedric Cal was born to a single mother, in a family that lived below the poverty line on Chicago’s West Side. His father had left the family, married another woman and had very little to do with him. His mother Olivia worked constantly, doing her best to keep her family together. As the oldest of four, Cedric became the de facto father of the family and was entrusted with protecting his younger brother, who was legally blind.

I urgently appeal to Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal and to the members of the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole – L. Gale Buckner, Robert E. Keller, James E. Donald, Albert Murray and Terry Barnard – to spare the life of Troy Davis, a young African American citizen of your state. 

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by Ted Pearson

So Jon Burge has been sentenced to 54 months in prison by U. S. District Court Judge Joan H. Lefkow.  That's four and a half years.  That's twice the sentence suggested in the federal guidelines for perjury.  In sentencing Burge Judge Lefkow noted the total lack of remorse by Burge for his crimes and his continued denial that he did anything wrong.  She expressed shock that Burge's attorneys justified what Burge did because the people he tortured were members of gangs and had been convicted of crimes, even though many were wrongfully convicted.  She excoriated the City of Chicago and Cook County for what she called a failure of leadership, observing that had Burge's supervisors and the Cook County State's Attorney taken steps to stop Burge early in the saga of his crimes, "we would not have come to this point."  The State's Attorney at the time was Chicago's outgoing Mayor of 22 years, Richard M. Daley.  Lefkow's statement in issuing the sentence against Burge was an indictment of the city's leadership. 

But let's keep some perspective on this.  Burge's 54 month sentence equates to 1643 days in prison.  That's 15 days for each man Burge and his detectives tortured.

The Steering Committee meets every 3rd Saturday of the month at 10:00 am in the Alliance office.

1325 S. Wabash Ave. Suite 105
Chicago, IL 60614

If you plan on attending please call 312-939-2750 to R.S.V.P. and to confirm meeting time and place.

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All Politics are Global? The Alliance in the Fightback Against Racist and Political Repression

It is a real pleasure to be present in the city of Harold Washington and Rudy Lozano and Gwendolyn Brooks, a city that inevitably sets the pace that the nation eventually follows. This is certainly the case for the Alliance, which walks in the mighty footsteps of the Civil Rights Congress and the International Labor Defense, organizations which in the first six decades of the 20th century were in the vanguard of the movement to tear down the walls of Jim Crow through their vigorous defense of the Scottsboro 9 and Willie McGee and Rosa Lee Ingram and Claudia Jones.