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


  • Francisco Dominguez , Roger D. Harris , John Perry
    Imperial Double Standards: Warfare for Venezuela and Welfare for Argentina
    22 Oct 2025
    The western response to crises in Venezuela and Argentina reveals a stark double standard. One nation faces economic pressure and isolation, while the other receives financial support.
  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio October 17, 2025
    17 Oct 2025
    In this week’s segment we hear analysis of the Gaza peace agreement, why it took place, and the future of Palestine. But first we hear about data centers, A.I., and their negative impact on the…
  • Data center
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Data Centers, A.I., and State Repression
    17 Oct 2025
    We speak with Kali Akuno, co-founder and Director of Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi. He joins us from Jackson to discuss the construction of an Amazon web services data center and the…
  • US Palestinian Community Network
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    U.S. Palestinian Community Network on the Gaza Peace Agreement
    17 Oct 2025
    Donald Trump traveled to Sharm al-Sheikh, Egypt to sign what is being called a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinian resistance that he takes credit for brokering. But what are the…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Nobel War Prize
    15 Oct 2025
    The Nobel Peace Prize is an anachronism and a compromised “honor” as the struggle against the U.S. and its collective west allies intensifies. The peoples of the world know who is fighting for peace…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us