McDonald's Truth Tour 2006

THE REAL RIGHTS TOUR - DAY FOUR
CENTRAL LEG: CHICAGO, IL

photo: JJ Tiziou As the East and West legs took on new cities throughout the Midwest, the Central crew focused their attention on the Windy City and began putting the last details into place for actions in Oak Brook and Chicago on Friday and Saturday.	photo: JJ Tiziou To tackle the job of educating and organizing an entire city, one must have the right tools. Here, Cruz Salucio, a farmworker from Guatemala, has been carting his tools all over the city for the past several weeks in preparation for his compañeros' arrival in Chicago. The tomato bucket he carries here is the same bucket that when filled with tomatoes weighs 32 pounds and is worth the same as it was nearly 30 years ago -- 40-45 cents. In fact, given the increase in inflation and the decrease in what a dollar can buy these days, the real value of the piece rate has actually fallen.
photo: JJ Tiziou But the buckets brought to Chicago aren't filled with tomatoes right now, but rather with consciousness...	photo: JJ Tiziou ...which was then imparted to students at St. Gregory's High School, where students were excited to participate in Saturday's march and rally...
photo: JJ Tiziou ...and later, at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where tour participants inundated the campus with flyers about the situation faced by farmworkers in McDonald's supply chain and invited students to get involved in making real change for those workers.	photo: JJ Tiziou Meanwhile, the team took the opportunity to take in some of Chicago's sights...
photo: JJ Tiziou ...all without losing sight of planning for the upcoming weekend's actions.	In the nearby suburbs, the Truth Tour crew took a moment to share their struggle with Bishop Imesch and Auxiliary Bishop Roger Kaffer of the Diocese of Joliet--which includes the Village of Oak Brook...
...home to McDonald's Headquarters, where the crew got in a little practice for Friday's Oak Brook demonstration.	photo: JJ Tiziou And while the Central team made their way to West Chicago, members of the Suburban Project for Autonomy, Community and Equality (SPACE) Collective prepared to open their collective space to the CIW...
photo: JJ Tiziou ...who were joined by old friends, like Simon Sedillo of Austin Indymedia who presented his film 'El Enemigo Comun' ...	photo: JJ Tiziou ...and new allies eager to begin supporting the CIW's campaign in their hometown. What a better way to start than to join the Real Rights Rally on Saturday. For all of the details, click here. Next up: Another day of Chicago preparations...
For more photos from day 4's central leg, click here. For the report from the East leg, click here. For the report from the West leg, click here.