Chicago Teachers Union Headquarters Hosted a Conference Rehearsing Sabotage —
While U.S. Forces Were Actively Striking Iran.
On July 11 and 12, 2026, the headquarters of the Chicago Teachers Union at 1901 W. Carroll Ave. hosted the second annual conference of the Anti-War Action Network, a national coalition of anti-war and Palestine-solidarity groups. Washington Free Beacon reporter Jon Levine bought a ticket and spent both days inside, documenting Marxist literature for sale, breakout rooms named for figures including 1969 bomber Rasmea Odeh, and speakers who did not merely criticize U.S. policy — they rehearsed sabotage and violence.
This was not a hypothetical backdrop. The same week, U.S. Central Command struck more than 140 Iranian military targets after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps attacked a Cyprus-flagged container ship in the Strait of Hormuz — part of the active 2026 Strait of Hormuz crisis between the United States and Iran. Inside CTU’s own building, speakers praised Iran’s “axis of resistance” while American service members were engaged in a live shooting war with the regime they were praising.
CTU, led by President Stacy Davis Gates and Vice President Jackson Potter, did not respond to the Free Beacon’s request for comment. An AWAN organizer said the union merely rented the space. That claim sits alongside CTU’s own recent record — a sponsored “Hands Off Iran” rally, a public tribute to a convicted cop-killer, and the forced resignation of a mayor-appointed school board president over posts endorsing violence — which this piece documents precisely, without conflating the union’s institutional conduct with what individual speakers said from its podium.
- 2 days — July 11–12, 2026 — the Anti-War Action Network's second annual conference, held at CTU headquarters, 1901 W. Carroll Ave. · Source: Washington Free Beacon; Anti-War Action Network
- ~200 — cheering attendees at Saturday's closing session, told by a speaker to leave "ready to fight when they get home" · Source: Washington Free Beacon
- 140+ — Iranian military targets U.S. Central Command struck the same week, after an IRGC attack on a Cyprus-flagged container ship in the Strait of Hormuz · Source: 2026 Strait of Hormuz crisis (Wikipedia, cross-referenced)
- March 13, 2026 — date CTU sponsored a "Hands Off Iran" protest — four months before hosting this conference · Source: Algemeiner; JNS
- Oct. 31, 2024 — date a Brandon Johnson (D)-appointed school board president resigned after a week, over posts endorsing a right to "attack their oppressors by any means necessary" · Source: CBS News Chicago; NBC Chicago; CNN; Chalkbeat; WTTW
The Anti-War Action Network held its founding conference in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 2025, drawing together Palestine-solidarity groups, anti-war committees, and self-described Marxist organizations under one national umbrella. Its 2026 conference — its second — moved to Chicago and into the Chicago Teachers Union’s own headquarters building, a venue AWAN’s own site and its Eventbrite listing both confirm for July 11 and 12.
Levine’s account describes tables of Marxist-Leninist literature for sale in the hallways and a breakout session named for Rasmea Odeh, convicted in a 1969 Jerusalem supermarket bombing that killed two people before she was later deported from the U.S. for immigration fraud. The Freedom Road Socialist Organization has separately described its relationship with CTU, in its own 2023 pamphlet, as a “strategic alliance” — a claim made by the organization itself, not by CTU.
The sharpest material from the conference is not organizational branding — it is what named individuals said from the podium. Sara Flounders, a Secretariat member of the Marxist-Leninist Workers World Party, told the crowd change “doesn’t ask for permission,” adding it “will be violent” and “stormy” and “unpredictable.” Ryan Delaney, chair of communications for the Jacksonville Palestine Solidarity Network, told roughly 200 cheering attendees at Saturday’s closing session he hoped “everybody leaves here ready to fight when they get home.” Chrisley Carpio, of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, told the room “the best protests are often the ones that are not always within the confines of the law.”
A breakout session tied to the Elbit Out of SC campaign, which targets the Israeli defense contractor’s South Carolina supply chain, went further still. An unnamed representative told attendees, “Ports are like integral pieces of the war machine, right? So we need to be in those spaces,” and estimated the payoff of direct action: “If we can shut down even one terminal for two hours, that’s millions of dollars out in logistics.” No footage of this specific July session exists publicly yet; the two clips below are AWAN’s own recordings of a prior year’s panels covering the same divestment and “war profiteers” themes, offered here as background on the network’s messaging, not as video of this event.
Hatem Abudayyeh, national chair of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network and executive director of the Arab American Action Network, told the conference “the U.S. is losing” and praised what he called “principled Iranian support for the axis of resistance in Palestine, Lebanon, and Yemen,” adding that “with unequivocal Iranian support, the Lebanese resistance continues to defend its people and land.” Those words were spoken inside a Chicago union hall at the same moment U.S. Central Command was carrying out strikes against the government he was praising.
“The U.S. is losing.”
Hatem Abudayyeh, National Chair, U.S. Palestinian Community Network — at the Anti-War Action Network conference, CTU headquarters, July 2026
The timing is the story. Iran had declared the Strait of Hormuz closed and was threatening shipping through one of the world’s most critical oil chokepoints. U.S. forces struck more than 140 Iranian military targets that week after the IRGC attacked a Cyprus-flagged container ship. Abudayyeh’s praise for Iran’s regional proxies was not commentary on a settled or historical conflict — it was praise for one side of a war the United States was actively fighting as he spoke.
AWAN steering committee member Tom Burke told the Free Beacon that CTU “only rented the space” and had “no other involvement” in the conference’s content. That claim belongs on the record — and so does the union’s own recent history. On March 13, 2026, CTU sponsored a “Hands Off Iran and Lebanon” protest. The union has publicly mourned Assata Shakur, convicted of murdering a New Jersey state trooper in 1973 before fleeing to Cuba, where she died earlier this year. In 2019, a CTU delegation traveled to Venezuela in support of Nicolás Maduro’s government. And in October 2024, Rev. Mitchell Johnson resigned as Chicago Board of Education president — one week after Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) appointed him — after Facebook posts surfaced asserting people have “an absolute right to attack their oppressors by any means necessary.” Vice President Jackson Potter, not a speaker here, headlined CTU’s own “Palestine and Union Power” event in March 2025.
A tribute to Assata Shakur, following her death in Cuba — where she had lived since fleeing after her 1973 conviction for murdering a New Jersey state trooper.
“EMERGENCY PROTEST: NO WAR ON VENEZUELA” — a call to action posted from CTU's own account.
None of this proves CTU as an institution endorsed the sabotage or violence rhetoric aired inside its building. It does establish the union has, by its own choices, repeatedly given its name and platform to the same ideological current those speakers represent. Burke’s “we only rented the space” explanation and CTU’s pattern of sponsorship are not mutually exclusive — both belong in the record.
“No School. No Work. No Shopping.” — CTU's May Day call for a coordinated work stoppage.
Stacy Davis Gates has led CTU as president since 2022 and, since October 2025, has simultaneously served as president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers. She was not a conference speaker, and CTU did not answer the Free Beacon’s questions about hosting the event. Jackson Potter serves as CTU vice president and has repeatedly headlined pro-Palestine union events, though he did not speak at this specific conference. Brandon Johnson (D), Chicago’s mayor and a former CTU organizer, appointed the board president who resigned in 2024 over posts endorsing violence against “oppressors”; no comment from his office on this July conference has surfaced.
Brandon Johnson (D) — Mayor of Chicago, former CTU organizer; appointed the board president who resigned in 2024 over posts endorsing violence.
Stacy Davis Gates — CTU President since 2022; Illinois Federation of Teachers President since October 2025. Not a conference speaker; CTU did not respond to the Free Beacon’s request for comment.
Jackson Potter — CTU Vice President; not a speaker at this conference, but a repeat headliner of CTU-affiliated pro-Palestine union events.
Davis Gates and Potter hold union office, not elected partisan office; no party affiliation is asserted for either. Johnson’s party is a ballot fact.
The scrutiny is not limited to CTU. In 2025, the House Education and Workforce Committee formally rebuked CTU’s sister union, the National Education Association, over anti-Israel ideology in its ranks — a sign the same pattern Free Beacon documents at CTU is drawing congressional attention across the teachers’ union movement, not just in Chicago.
A statement from the committee criticizing the National Education Association — CTU's sister union — over anti-Israel ideology within its ranks.
No individual named in this piece has been criminally charged over anything said at the conference. Rehearsing sabotage from a podium is not, by itself, the same as committing it, and the presumption of innocence applies to any conduct that might later be adjudicated. What is documented, dated, and sourced is this: a national anti-war coalition rehearsed shutting down American ports and praised a wartime adversary’s regional proxies, inside a major public-sector union’s own headquarters, during an actual shooting war — and that union’s leadership had nothing to say about it.
For two days in July 2026, the Chicago Teachers Union’s own headquarters hosted speakers who rehearsed sabotaging U.S. ports and praised Iran’s “axis of resistance” — while U.S. forces were striking more than 140 Iranian targets in an active war. CTU says it only rented the space. Its own record — a sponsored “Hands Off Iran” rally, a tribute to a convicted cop-killer, and a board appointee forced out over posts endorsing violence — says the space keeps finding the same speakers. CTU President Stacy Davis Gates had no comment.
