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


  • Democrats Play at Impeachment, But are Serious About War
    Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
    Democrats Play at Impeachment, But are Serious About War
    26 Nov 2019
    The impeachment hearings won’t result in ousting Trump, but they scream everlasting conflict with Russia and anybody that does not bow down to American exceptionalism
  • New York Activists Battle Police Brutality Underground: Shannon Jones Speaks
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    New York Activists Battle Police Brutality Underground: Shannon Jones Speaks
    26 Nov 2019
    Over 1,000 protesters recently confronted police repression and high subway fares at demonstrations in Brooklyn, under the banner “F.T.P.” Shannon Jones, of Bronxites for NYPD
  • Coup Plotters in Venezuela Have no Significant Social Base
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Coup Plotters in Venezuela Have no Significant Social Base
    26 Nov 2019
    “It’s pretty obvious that there is no significant force that wants to overthrow” the government in Venezuela, said Dario Azzelini, a visiting fellow in Latin American Studies at Cornell University
  • Margaret Kimberley: US Government and Media Collude in Propaganda
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Margaret Kimberley: US Government and Media Collude in Propaganda
    26 Nov 2019
    The US and corporate media lie about Washington’s regime change projects around the world and about the endemic theft of Black votes at home, said BAR senior columnist Margaret Kimberl
  • Don't Let Democrats Water Down Our Demands - William C. Anderson
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Don't Let Democrats Water Down Our Demands - William C. Anderson
    26 Nov 2019
    Activists must resist Democratic Party efforts to weaken demands for social change, said William C.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us