Looking back on the union and the Democratic Party... October 2013, a year ago, what were union activists saying about the Democratic Party and Bruce Rauner? About Rahm and the aldermen in City Council? Does the nature of the discussion then help us understand the predicament the unions are in now?
Done with the Democrats... A year ago, what were union activists saying about Quinn/Vallas and Bruce Rauner, about Rahm and the aldermen in City Council? Does the nature of the discussion then help us understand the predicament the unions are in now going into the 2015 City Hall election? The October 2013 meeting indicated what the union would do: "The big town hall meeting in mid-October seemed to imply that the default strategy would remain that of pressuring and cajoling some Democratic Party politicians to adopt the movement's program of resistance..." The video can be accessed at: http://youtu.be/u8bSkYhmk74
One year before his defeat by Bruce Rauner in the 2014 election, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn arrived late for the "Take Back Chicago" event in October 2013. "We booed him, because Pat Quinn wants to cut our pensions...," said one commentator. "He says: 'unions give me your campaign contributions and I promise I'll do whatever I can'. And 'whatever he can' is cut our pensions...The Democratic Party is the only party that is putting itself out as representing our interests. But the reality is that they have a conflict. They also represent billionaires...they represent those who want us to work more for less." Quinn's efforts to get re-elected included the selection of one of America's foremost union busting, privatizing neo-liberals, Paul Vallas, as his running mate, despite the Vallas record. At its September 2014 House of Delegates meeting, the Chicago Teachers Union, following a forceful appeal by the union's political action chief Stacy Davis Gates to support "Quinn" (ignoring Vallas), voted by a majority to support Quinn again. Labor Beat photo.
We've decided to re-run a show we made a little over a year ago, to help our viewers figure out what has changed, and what has remained the same. Here's what we wrote then:
Chicago - CAN TV Channel 19
Thurs., Nov. 20, 9:30 pm
Fri., Nov. 21, 4:30 pm
Thurs., Nov. 27, 9:30 pm
Fri. Nov. 28, 4:30 pm
Evanston - Cable Channel 6. Check for listed times
On October 15, 2013 the "Take Back Chicago Town Hall rally" of some 2,000 brought together a variety of community and labor organizations vowing to launch a city-wide counter-offensive against corporate bulldozing of public sector human services, schools and unions.
In the words of one of the event's co-moderators, Brandon Johnson: "For far too long we've seen a corporate agenda that has worked to destroy public education at the hands of Rahm Emanuel and the politicians that are linked to him. There's a new day in Chicago, that no longer are we going to allow the corporate groups to dictate what our city looks like."
Building upon Take Back Chicago as a starting point, two Chicago activists -- Lauren Fleer and Marilena Marchetti -- challenge some political assumptions. The big town hall meeting in mid-October 2013 seemed to imply that the default strategy would remain that of pressuring and cajoling some Democratic Party politicians to adopt the movement's program of resistance.
Several aldermen, state legislators, and even Governor Quinn were invited to the meeting. But Marchetti observed: "That event brought a lot of different forces together...we felt our agreement and we felt the potential for our collective power. That being said, I felt there was yet more betrayal within the event that has the potential to wake people up and say 'these politicians are a joke. They don't really care about us'."
Evidence proving the historic exhaustion of the labor-Democratic Party relationship was out in the open. N'Dana Carter, a Mental Health activist, called out the entire [Democrat] Chicago City Council (a handful of whom were present on the stage) for voting to close six public mental health clinics in 2011, a decision that inflicted great pain on affected communities. And, later during the meeting, the aldermen present all said they would vote "Yes" for the TIF Surplus Ordinance, which would free millions of dollars of tax revenues to be used for struggling neighborhoods.
But, it turns out, three of the aldermen present who said "Yes" on the stage turned around and said "No" in mid-November at the City Council meeting, thus keeping the reform ordinance buried in the City Council's Rules Committee.
Democrat Governor Pat Quinn showed up (late) at the meeting and made a canned speech. Marchetti noted: "We booed him, because Pat Quinn wants to cut our pensions...He says: 'unions give me your campaign contributions and I promise I'll do whatever I can'. And 'whatever he can' is cut our pensions...The Democratic Party is the only party that is putting itself out as representing our interests. But the reality is that they have a conflict. They also represent billionaires...they represent those who want us to work more for less."
Fleer looked at the big question of how do we create a political party that represents only our interests: "Always there's the temptation to say not now, later, we have to wait, we have to take the pragmatic choice, that it's just not credible to run a third party candidate, we'll never win. But at some point we have to stake out our own political position. At some point we have to make the break." Also can be viewed at: http://youtu.be/u8bSkYhmk74
