 For more videos on people's struggles, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. Hello and welcome to Around the World in 8 Minutes, a show by People's Dispatch. In this show, we bring you the struggles of the toiling masses against oppression and exploitation as well as their fight for a better world. In this episode, we will first look at the victory of the teachers of Chicago after a two-week strike. We then go to South Africa where victims of xenophobic riots in September have been evicted from sit-in and we conclude with the story of a strike by ambulance workers in the northeastern state of Meghalaya in India. After two weeks of striking, the teachers of Chicago won a major victory which will lead to the single biggest hike in spending on public education in recent times. The city administration agreed to the demands of the Chicago teachers' union on October 30 and classes began on November 1. Some of the key promises of the new five-year contract under the deal include increasing the number of support staff and social workers, wage increases ranging from 17% to 40% and more investment in school infrastructure like libraries, medical units, sports and language instructions. Other provisions include up to 46 days annually and a sick leave bank of 244 days since 2012, reduction of overcrowded class sizes in a time-bound manner and a generous expansion of special education assistance across all the 660 schools. The CTO and the Chicago chapter of the Service Employees International Union Local 73 began the strike on October 17 after months of negotiations over a new contract failed. Nearly 25,000 teachers and 7,000 support staff took part in the strike. The new contract has already been ratified by Local 72 and the CTO will send it to its local branches for ratification. Once this happens, the new contract will be valid for five years, beginning retroactively from July 1, 2018 and ending on June 30, 2023. The end of the strike was delayed by a day after Mayor Laurie Lightfoot refused to accept the union's demand that more days be added to the school schedule to make up for those lost to the strike and that they be compensated for these days. However, after the teachers threatened to continue the strike, the city administration gave in. The most notable aspect of the entire strike was the unity between teachers and the grossly underpaid non-teaching staff at the CPS. This was best demonstrated when CTO's demand received unconditional support from Local 73. Even though non-teaching school staff have overwhelmingly ratified the new deal offered by CPS with over 97% voting in favor of it, they extended the support to the teachers calling on the mayor to add instruction days in the interest of the students. After the strike, the next step for the CTO would be to advocate for a pending bill in the Illinois State Legislature which proposes the formation of an elected Board of Education to administer the school district of Chicago and CPS. Currently, the city has a board entirely appointed by the mayor. The proposal has bipartisan support in both houses of the Illinois Legislature. The interest in the bill was renewed after the strike with presiding officers of both legislative houses and the governor voicing support for it to bring an end to the strike and avoid future actions. We now move to South Africa where hundreds of refugees were violently evicted by the South African police from a sit-in demonstration outside the UN High Commission for Refugees Office in Cape Town. The refugees who were victims of xenophobic riots in September were evicted from the sit-in on October 30th. The sit-in demonstration outside the UNHCR office began on October 8th a few weeks after the riots which left at least 10 dead and many more injured. The refugees, many of whom have resided in South Africa for over a decade, do not feel safe in the country anymore. They have been demanding that the UNHCR return them to their home country or to another country where they will be safe. On October 18th, a court ruled in favor of the owner of the property where the sit-in was being held and ordered an eviction. However, more and more refugees continue to join the hundreds who were already at the sit-in until the number was around 5,000 by October 23rd. On October 30th, about 100 police officers arrived at the scene and ordered them to clear the place. When the refugees refused to leave till the demand for relocation was met, the police fired three stun grenades at the demonstration. They then attacked the refugees. Tepper spray was used on many who were then dragged onto the floor outside the building. Footage showed the police overpowering women and forcibly snatching away their children. At least 7 children and 5 adults remained missing as of yesterday according to News 24. Of the at least 100 people who were injured, many continue to receive medical care. It is not clear how many of the mothers who had been separated from their children have been reunited as of yet. After the building was vacated, many women came back to the police who were cordoning off the building demanding that their children be returned to them. Many of the men's faces were bloodied by the time the police had cleared the building. In the meantime, about 200 refugees had gathered outside at the entrance to the arcade chanting slogans against xenophobia. The police used a water cannon against them and then fired stun grenades. By the end of the operation, about 100 refugees were arrested according to the police. Many activists and humanitarian groups are collecting medicines, first aid kits, sanitary pads for women and diapers for babies who are crammed into a church in the city. Their future uncertain. Finally, we go to the Indian state of Meghalaya where over 200 ambulance workers have been on a strike for over a month now. These workers belong to the GVK Emergency Management and Research Institute or EMRI. This is a private institute which is handling emergency ambulance services in the state through a contract with the government. The protesters are striking under the banner of Meghalaya EMRI Workers Union. The union has a number of demands. The primary one being that the government terminates its contract with GVK and takeover emergency services because of GVK's gross negligence towards the employees and maintenance of equipment. This the employees have said puts both them and the patients at risk. The employees have also said that they are understaffed because of which they have to work even after overtime hours. Another demand is a hike in salaries as the workers' current wages are much lower than their counterparts in other states and also less than the minimum wage. On October 1st, the Meghalaya government had enacted the Meghalaya Essential Services Management Act making it illegal for the employees to strike. Despite the risk to their jobs, the employees have been continuing with the strike action. Some of the striking employees have been on an indefinite hunger strike since the last few days and their condition is worsening. Eight of the union members have already been hospitalized. The union met with Meghalaya's health minister, A.L. Hick, to discuss their condition but were disappointed after the meeting did not yield any results. The chief minister of the state, Kondrat Sangma, had earlier said that the government will not intervene in the matter and that it should be resolved between GVK and the employees. Draupar Kharaswai, the president of the union said that this is an essential service and that the government cannot and should not let a private corporation handle it, putting thousands of lives in danger. But the government has no plans to take over the service as of now. And this is all we have in this episode of Around the World in 8 Minutes. For more such stories and videos, visit our website peoplesdispatch.org, subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Thank you for watching. Thank you very much.