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The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), never a group to shy away from radical posturing, has officially declared its intent<\/a> to abandon the classroom on May 1. In a move that effectively amounts to a one-day strike, the union\u2019s 730-member House of Delegates approved a resolution joining a national movement calling for a day of \u201cno school, no work, and no shopping.\u201d<\/p>\n The CTU isn\u2019t just asking its members to walk out; it\u2019s demanding that Mayor Brandon Johnson and the school board use state law to excuse students so they can participate in what the union calls \u201ccivic action.\u201d<\/p>\n The choice of May 1 is no coincidence. While the date\u2019s origins trace back to the 1886 Haymarket Affair in Chicago, it was quickly co-opted by the global far-Left. In 1889, the Second International\u2014a collection of socialist and labor parties\u2014designated it as a day of demonstration. By 1917, it became the premier state holiday of the Soviet Union, complete with Red Square parades featuring tanks and missiles intended to signal the \u201cproletariat\u2019s\u201d triumph over capitalism.<\/p>\n While the United States spent decades trying to distance itself from these connotations\u2014establishing \u201cLoyalty Day\u201d and \u201cLaw Day\u201d on May 1 to counter communist influence\u2014the CTU appears eager to revive the day\u2019s most radical sentiments.<\/p>\n The CTU\u2019s resolution reads less like an educational mandate and more like a manifesto from a bygone era of class warfare. The union\u2019s demands are explicitly political and heavily flavored with the \u201ctax the rich\u201d rhetoric synonymous with communist agitation.<\/p>\n According to the resolution, the CTU intends to:<\/p>\n CTU Vice President Jackson Potter stated, \u201cTeaching our students what civic action looks like requires more than textbooks when the President sends federal agents to occupy our cities \u2026\u201d Meanwhile, CTU member Kevin Moore justified the walkout by claiming \u201cpublic education is under attack,\u201d asserting that taking children out of school to participate in political rallies is a way of \u201cteaching our students how to use their voice.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead of math and literacy, the CTU wants students to engage in \u201cage-appropriate\u201d civic education, which apparently includes \u201cmass resistance training\u201d and \u201cpolitical education,\u201d according to the union\u2019s resolution<\/a>. The union is also using the platform to weigh in on foreign policy, writing, \u201cTrump has illegally declared war on Iran built on lies and deception.\u201d<\/p>\n Mayor Johnson, a former CTU organizer himself, signaled support for the \u201cdirect action,\u201d though he vaguely promised to ensure \u201cno loss of instruction time\u201d\u2014a difficult feat when the union is actively calling for \u201cNo School.\u201d<\/p>\n As the CTU pivots from education to overt political activism, it remains to be seen how Chicago parents will react to their children being used as pawns in a movement that shares more DNA with the Soviet Union\u2019s \u201cWorkers\u2019 Day\u201d than with the American classroom.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n