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


  • Conference Organizing Committee
    Declaration of the International Conference Cuba 2024. Decade for People of African Descent. Equality-Equity-Social Justice
    18 Dec 2024
    Delegates representing organizations from around the world gathered in Cuba for the conference “Cuba 2024 Decade for People of African Descent.” The following declaration was produced and approved at…
  • Black Agenda Radio
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio December 13, 2024
    13 Dec 2024
    In this week’s segment, we hear a 2019 analysis from the late Glen Ford on US support of jihadist proxies as part of regime change efforts. Also, Margaret Kimberley discusses the 2024 election, Joe…
  • Tanks in Syria
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Gerald Horne Analyzes the Collapse of the Syria Government
    13 Dec 2024
    Dr. Gerald Horne joins us to discuss the recent and very rapid collapse of the Syrian state and its international impacts, including in Africa.
  • Biden's tweet about Syria
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    U.S. Still Protects Jihadists in Syria
    13 Dec 2024
    BAR continues coverage of the collapse of the Syrian state with a look back at Black Agenda Report analysis from May 27, 2019. The late Glen Ford, then Executive Editor, analyzed the history of the U…
  • Jamarl Thomas
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    2024 Election, Hunter Biden Pardon, Uhuru 3 with Jamarl Thomas
    13 Dec 2024
    Margaret Kimberley recently appeared with Jamarl Thomas on his YouTube channel. They discussed the 2024 election, Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter Biden, and the case of the Uhuru 3.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us