Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Rahm Emanuel & Bruce Rauner On Jihad to Eliminate Unions in Chicago, says Former Union Organizer Jane McAlevey
01 Apr 2015
🖨️ Print Article

by Doug Henwood at KPFA's Behind The News

US living standards for ordinary people have deteriorated the last 40 years because Democrats and Republicans have systematically de-unionizeds the country, says former union organizer Jane McAlevey.  Illinois governor Bruce Rauner and Chicago's Mayor Rahm Emanuel are on a jihad to kill the last unions in Chicago, the better to impose more privatizations, cuts in child care, wages, education and more austerity.

McAlevey, author of "We Need Syriza Here In Illinois" published last month in The Nation, declares the distinction between people working in the so-called “public sector” and “private sector” is nonsense. There are not two economies, there is one, and there are not two ways that workers get treated, depending on whether they work for government or corporations, there is one.    She reminds us that real unions create traditions and institutions of internal democracy, which is not the same as "horizontalism" that they run strikes regularly, and that they are frequently led, as the Chicago Teachers Union was in 2012 by black women.  

McAlevey was a remarkably successful union organizer for SEIU in Nevada, a so-called right to work state.

Left economist Doug Henwood, among much else the host of KPFA's Behind the News, interviews Jane McAlevey on the connection between Bruce Rauner, Scott Walker and Rahm Emanuel, how the 2012 Chicago Teachers Union strike kept Mayor Rahm Emanuel from closing 100 Chicago public schools instead of just 50, and the ultimate collective power of organizing the workplace.

Catch Doug Henwood's program every week here.

McAlevey is the author of Raising Expectations, Raising Hell.

 

 

 

 

 



Your browser does not support the audio element.

listen
http://shout.lbo-talk.org/lbo/RadioArchive/2015/15_02_19.mp3

More Stories


  • Monroe Doctrine Plays Out in Perú
    Clau O'Brien Moscoso
    Monroe Doctrine Plays Out in Perú
    15 Mar 2023
    The people of Peru continue to protest the coup which ousted President Pedro Castillo Terrones. The 200-year-old Monroe Doctrine is a discredited relic, but Washington still considers the…
  • SNAP Benefits for African Mothers Are Gone, While Ukraine Eats Good
    Erica Caines
    SNAP Benefits for African Mothers Are Gone, While Ukraine Eats Good
    15 Mar 2023
    The perfect storm of austerity policies and US imperialism sends billions of dollars to Ukraine but ends pandemic era emergency Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.
  • The International Politics of Observing Elections
    Owei Lakemfa
    The International Politics of Observing Elections
    15 Mar 2023
    The practice of accepting observers to oversee elections is quite problematic. This practice leads to interference from entities with ulterior motives and legacies of colonial control.
  • Black Agenda Radio March 10, 2023
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio March 10, 2023
    10 Mar 2023
    This week we hear about the absence of home rule in Washington DC and the congressional and white house decision to overturn its city council’s criminal statutes, and the Chicago community’s…
  • A Tribute to Kevin Alexander Gray
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    A Tribute to Kevin Alexander Gray
    10 Mar 2023
    The Black Agenda Report team are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Kevin Alexander Gray, who was a Black Agenda Report contributor, an author, and a longtime activist from South Carolina.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us