Jackson Potter
Jackson Potter is a Chicago, Illinois activist, Chicago Teachers Union. He is the son of Robin Potter. Stepson of Pete Camarata.
As a high school student in Chicago in 1995, Jackson Potter led a walk-out to push for equitable schools funding in Illinois. He taught at Englewood High School and was the union delegate there when the district slated the school for closure. He and Al Ramirez formed the Caucus of Rank and File Educators (CORE) in May 2008 and the Grassroots Education Movement, with community organizations, shortly thereafter. He and future CTU president Karen Lewis served together as the first co-chairs of CORE. After working as CTU’s staff coordinator for eight years, he went back to teaching and serves on the union’s Executive Board as a Trustee.[1]
Forward Motion
Jackson Potter, a founder of the High School Coalition, and recent traveler to Mexico, contributed an article "School cuts, walkout"Freedom Road Socialist Organization's Forward Motion, Spring 1996 issue. He planned to attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Fighting Project 2025
Ash-Lee Henderson, co-executive director of the Highlander Center, talks with Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jackson Potter and Convergence’s Stephanie Luce about what Project 2025 could mean for workers—and what we can do to push back against the Right’s plans.[2]
"Flattening the Curve"
Moderator Chris Brooks, News Guild of New York.
- Jia Lee United Federation of Teachers
- Sean Petty New Nork Nurses Association
- Elizabeth Lalasz National Nurses United
- Jackson Potter Chicago Teachers Union
Ilhan Omar connection
Jackson Potter May 4 2019·
With Robin Potter and Ilhan Omar.
Campesino land occupation
Matt Ginsberg-Jaeckle July 4, 2013:
Campesino land occupation in La Paz Honduras.
— with Jackson Potter, Francine Greenberg Reizen, Torii Nyell, Maria T. Moreno and Kidd Twin.
Fight Back! article
Jackson Potter of Chicago contributed n article to Freedom Road Socialist Organization's Fight Back! Volume 2, Number 1, 1999 issue "Say no to Harvard on Halstead."
"Support Bill Ayers"
In October 2008, several thousand college professors, students and academic staff signed a statement Support Bill Ayers in solidarity with former Weather Underground Organization terrorist Bill Ayers.
In the run up to the U.S. presidential elections, Ayers had come under considerable media scrutiny, sparked by his relationship to presidential candidate Barack Obama.
- We write to support our colleague Professor William Ayers, Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who is currently under determined and sustained political attack...
- We, the undersigned, stand on the side of education as an enterprise devoted to human inquiry, enlightenment, and liberation. We oppose the demonization of Professor William Ayers.
Jackson Potter, Teacher at Little Village Lawndale School of Social Justice signed the statement.[3]
Freedom Road event
The 22nd Annual People’s Thanksgiving Dinner, held in Chicago Dec. 8, honored her with the “Nelson Mandela Award: Opposing Israeli Apartheid is not a Crime.”
70 people gathered to recognize her and a number of other important activists. They met at the Trinity Episcopal Church in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood, despite an early blizzard that made getting to the church hazardous.
In presenting the award, Muhammad Sunkari of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network referred to the late leader of the national liberation movement in South Africa. “When Ted Koppel interviewed him after his release from prison, Mandela defended the ANC’s [African National Congress] ties to the Palestine Liberation Organization. He called the Palestinians, ‘comrades in arms.’ I would say that a great example of a comrade of Mandela is Rasmea Odeh.”
The event is held annually by Fight Back! news and Freedom Road Socialist Organization/FightBack! . The dinner raised over $3000 for Odeh’s defense campaign, as well as $1000 to help continue the work of Fight Back! news.
Another emotional moment in the dinner was an award presented to Pete Camarata. Camarata was a co-founder of the Teamsters for a Democratic Union . His award, entitled the “Big Bill Haywood: Class Struggle Award” was presented to him by Richard Berg. Berg, a long time reformer in the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), has known Camarata for 25 years.
The framed award, reading, “For his lifelong dedication to the liberation of the working class,” was accepted by Camarata’s stepson, Jackson Potter. Potter is the staff coordinator of the Chicago Teachers Union. He explained that Camarata couldn’t attend the dinner because he is fighting cancer.
A statement from Camarata read in part, “I thank FRSO for the award, and I accept it with the knowledge that my activism belongs to the movement and the brave people who built TDU, the movement in this country and around the world.”
Awards were also presented to Sarah Simmons and Newland Smith, both activists in the Anti-War Committee-Chicago and to Michael Sampson, a Dream Defender from Tallahassee, Florida.[4]
Comrades on a bus
Joe Iosbaker January 12 2019·
With Jackson Potter, Matt Ginsberg-Jaeckle, Sussan Navabi and Ryan Patrick Donnelly.
