Rahm Emanuel & Bruce Rauner On Jihad to Eliminate Unions in Chicago, says Former Union Organizer Jane McAlevey | Black Agenda Report

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.

listen

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

More Stories

Thomas C. Mountain
Africans Solving African Problems: Bringing Peace to Sudan
17 Jul 2019
The road to peace in the Horn of Africa once again ran through Eritrea, the socialist country the West loves to hate.
Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
Black Agenda Radio for Week of July 15, 2019
15 Jul 2019
Voices for Black Reparations – Then and Now
Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
Defend the Venezuelan Embssay Protectors
15 Jul 2019
The four US activists arrested for defending the Venezuelan embassy from supporters of Donald Trump’s hand-picked puppets face up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine. Glen Ford&nbs
Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
Janet and Janine Africa “Free at Last”
15 Jul 2019
New York City is preparing a “Free At Last” celebration for MOVe organization survivors Janet and Janine Africa, who were recently released on parole after 41 years in prison.
Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
Russia-China Alliance Sets Stage for Global “Great Leap Forward”
15 Jul 2019
US aggressions pushed Russia and China into an ever-deepening alliance that is now changing the direction of global trade and development, according to Anthony Monteiro, the P