Chicago Teachers Union Hosts France Call Where a Panelist Says 'the U.S. Government Must Fall'

The Chicago Teachers Union put its name on a Zoom call Sunday with French student protesters and a French labor federation. By the end of one panelist's pitch, the message to American viewers was blunt: "the United States government must fall," and there "must be a willing to kill and to be killed."

Nobody had to guess what was said. Anti-communist writer and streamer Karlyn Borysenko says she spotted the event on the union's own Instagram, joined the call and recorded it live. She then posted the full, unedited recording, a little over two hours long, plus an 8.5-minute cut on 𝕏.

Who put it on

This wasn't a few rogue members on a group chat. The moderator, Maximilian Alvarez, editor-in-chief of The Real News Network, opened by calling it an "international webinar organized and produced in collaboration with the Chicago Teachers Union, Haymarket Books, the Real News Network" and Force Ouvrière, one of France's big labor federations.

Two CTU leaders spoke. Jackson Potter, the union's vice president, introduced himself by name and title. Dennis Kosuth, a Chicago Public Schools nurse who chairs the CTU's Human Rights Committee, ran the opening. The union's own roster lists Kosuth as that committee's chair, and its officers page says the CTU represents "more than 30,000" teachers, aides and clinicians in Chicago's public schools.

Kosuth said the tie-up goes back to December 2025, when Force Ouvrière, which he said represents 300,000 workers, invited a CTU delegation to its convention in France. He said the French wanted to know how Chicago's union links "school fundings with the issues of our government's war spending."

"No one can be illegal on stolen land"

Then he turned to immigration. Kosuth described last fall's federal enforcement surge in Chicago as "a racist attempt to drive a wedge between undocumented people and those who have a piece of paper saying they're allowed here."

"Because let's be clear," he said, "no one can be illegal on stolen land built with stolen hands."

That "piece of paper" is called the law. The operation he was talking about, Operation Midway Blitz, was launched by the Department of Homeland Security on Sept. 8, 2025, and named for Katie Abraham, who DHS says was killed in a drunk-driving hit-and-run by an illegal alien. Crossing the border without permission is a crime. A union officer whose salary comes from Chicago taxpayers is telling a foreign audience that's not a thing.

Potter followed with a pitch about "the rise of extremist right-wing populism" and a wish list: "we want it all," he said, "housing, human rights," and to "feed and fund schools" at home instead of bombing them abroad.

The line that went viral

Later, a panelist who said she's a second-year student at the University of Southern California, from Chicago's South Side, and an "abolitionist since I was 13," closed her remarks like this:

"Our challenge will be getting people to move the way that you all are moving in France. It will be getting people to be completely destructive," she said. "In order for us to receive those things, the United States government must fall. There must be destruction to the material world that they've built. There must be a willing to kill and to be killed." She called it "life and death" and a matter of "what you are willing to die for at this point."

Here's the hole in most of the viral posts: that speaker was the college student on the panel, not a CTU officer. But here's what matters more. The union officer who handed her the floor took it right back without a word of pushback. "I definitely appreciate this entire conversation," Kosuth said next. "Anything that's decent that has been won was because regular people rose up and made it happen. It wasn't because it was handed down by someone we elected."

Think of it like a school assembly. If a guest speaker tells the kids to burn the building down and the principal walks up and says, "Great talk," nobody blames the guest alone.

Why it matters

The CTU isn't a fringe club. By its own account it helped put former CTU organizer Brandon Johnson in the mayor's office in 2023, and Potter's union bio says he represents the CTU on the national coordinating table of the May Day Strong coalition. These are the people who sit across the table from Chicago Public Schools at contract time.

And they knew the camera was rolling. Before the panel began, a moderator told the audience the call was being recorded for a podcast and a version on The Real News Network's YouTube channel, adding: "If anyone messes up, don't worry, we'll cut that part out in post."

That's why Borysenko's unedited copy matters. Whatever version gets posted later, the full tape is already out.

What happens next

As of Sunday night, we found no statement from the CTU, Potter or Kosuth on the recording. Chicago voters, and the parents who send their kids into CTU classrooms, now get to decide whether the union speaks for them.