The Chicago Teachers Union strike on Friday will reportedly be joined by some 50 unions, community organizations, student groups, miscellaneous activists in a protest against the Rauner-Rahm regime. Demands include “ending corporate welfare … make the rich pay their fair share of taxes … end criminalization and targeted brutality within Black and Brown communities … Stop the School to Prison pipeline … enact community control (elected school board, elected police accountability board, participatory budgeting).

Striking Chicago teachers march, October 2012. Photo by Chris Johnson, F Newsmagazine. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

This day of action is extraordinary — a union – community coalition that, if the participation is as broad as organizers claim, may be the first of its kind since the 1930s. The huge Chicago Occupy march brought out some unions, but this may be much bigger and more targeted (Rahm and Rauner and what they stand for).

A long day of event will lead to a mass rally at the Thompson Center at 4 pm, followed by a 4:40 pm “rush hour march.”   Some of the actions are listed by Chicagoist’s “What’s Happening When Chicago’s Teachers Walk Out on Friday.”

One highlight: “In addition to an unspecified number of pickets to take place in the afternoon citywide, a “youth march” to highlight the school to prison pipeline and call for the closure of youth prisons will begin at 2 p.m. at the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice, as well as demonstrations at City Hall and UIC.”