Chicago Teachers Union and Brandon Johnson, with In These Times’ Miles Kampf-Lassin

Something big has been happening in Chicago. If you have not heard, Chicago recently elected the most progressive mayor in the country. Brandon Johnson was endorsed by a variety of unions, especially the Chicago Teachers’ Union, of which he was previously a member and an organizer. He was also endorsed by Bernie Sanders. 

In this episode we have Miles Kampf-Lassin, a journalist from In These Times that followed the Brandon Johnson campaign, to talk about something we have talked about a number of times on this podcast: when workers come together they can fight back against the capitalist class. 

Miles Kampf-Lassin is a writer and editor at In These Times magazine. Follow him on Twitter @MilesKLassin

Brandon Johnson Defeated Paul Vallas’s Austerity Agenda Last Night

https://jacobin.com/2023/04/brandon-johnson-mayoral-election-paul-vallas-austerity-agenda-left-victory

Why Chicago’s Mayoral Election Is One of the Most Important Races of 2023

https://perfectunion.us/why-chicagos-mayoral-election-is-one-of-the-most-important-races-of-2023/

Chicago’s Political Revolution

https://inthesetimes.com/article/chicagos-political-revolution

Credits:
Producer: Elton LK
Logo by Michaela Brangan
Sound Engineer & Opening Music by Casey Stikker
Additional Assistance, including content by Palmer Conrad

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Transcript

Elton LK: 0:00

Something big is happening in Chicago. If you've not heard, Chicago recently elected the most progressive mayor in the country. Brandon Johnson was endorsed by a variety of unions, especially the Chicago Teachers Union, of which he was previously a member and an organizer. He was also endorsed by Bernie Sanders. Today we have Miles Kampf-Lassin, a journalist from In These Times that followed the Brandon Johnson campaign to talk about something we have talked about a number of times on this podcast. When workers come together, they can fight back against the capitalist class. Unfortunately, Miles's coworker Alex Han, In These Times' new executive director, had a scheduling conflict so he was unable to join us. Prior to joining In These Times, Alex Hahn helped start United Working Families, an independent political organization backed by CTU and SEIU Healthcare Illinois, Indiana. This organization helped put Brandon Johnson into office. Now, it should be noted that Chicago DSA did not endorse Brandon Johnson, and this episode should not be seen as an endorsement of Brandon Johnson by DSA. To be clear, Brandon Johnson is not a democratic socialist. As a political education podcast, we want to dig into working class politics. This episode is a closer look into what we as socialists can learn from militant labor movement like we have seen in Chicago. First question for a little context, would you describe Paul Vallas , his history in Chicago's school system, and who supported his campaign?

Miles Kampf-Lassin: 1:44

Sure. Well, great to , uh, be on the show and talk to you about this really historic election that just occurred in Chicago. Uh, you know, it's not every day that a longtime labor organizer , um, a card carrying member of the working class , uh, can defeat an establishment opponent and , uh, become mayor of the third largest city in the country. It's really , um, a watershed and signal victory , uh, I think for the left. And as much as electoral politics, as you know, an arena in which the , uh, left wing groups and , uh, pro working class organizations operate , um, the ability to elevate somebody like Brandon Johnson into , uh, the fifth floor of City Hall, I think shows the promise of , uh, really putting the chips on the table when it comes to , um, fighting for elected office. So, you're right, he, Brandon Johnson faced off against Paul Vallas. Paul Vallas is kind of a perennial candidate , uh, these days in Chicago and in Illinois politics. He's run for a whole host of , um, offices, and he's always lost. He's never won an election, and that reputation continues after his , uh, defeat at the hands of , uh, Brandon Johnson. What , uh, he has done though, is racked up an incredible , uh, record of , uh, devastation when it comes to working class communities, and especially as it pertains to , uh, the realm of public education in cities across the country. But he's done that through , uh, administrative roles largely that were appointed. Um , and he started that in Chicago back in the early nineties. He served as budget director for then Mayor Richard M. Daley , who's the son of Richard J. Daley , the historic mayor, known for all kinds of , uh, anti- working class , uh, policies, you know, tearing down whole neighborhoods and replacing them with , uh, giant expressways named after his friends in the Democratic Party and so forth. Um, his, his son, Richard M. Daley , uh, established a reputation as more of kind of a neoliberal mayor, and certainly one of the early , um, participants in a lot of the type of policies that later became , uh, really prevalent in national Democratic party politics. Uh, and one of the main forms of that was , uh, both austerity, you know, the economic form of neoliberalism, of nickel and diming , uh, working people through regressive fines and fees and taxes, while providing massive , uh, subsidies to corporations and allowing them to really , uh, take advantage of the inequities that existed in the, in the city. And that was largely what Paul Vallas oversaw was , uh, this, this austerity program. Um, and the other major policy that he participated in was the , uh, what we now call corporate education reform. That became the , uh, calling card of the Democratic Party later, you know, started in the nineties, but especially in the aughts and the age of, you know, Michelle Rhee and Eva Moskowitz and waiting for Superman and all that, you know, pro-charter school , um, uh, fervor that was going on within Democratic party circles. Paul Vallas was , uh, at the , uh, the , the , the front of that fight by , uh, serving under Mayor Daley as , uh, the head of the Chicago Public Schools, a position called the CEO is what it's referred to in Chicago, the, you know, chief Executive officer. And , um, in that role , uh, he definitely was, started this whole series of privatization , uh, programs that then carried on under successive , uh, CEOs of the public school system. But he privatized a number of different services and really mainstreamed it within the system so that that became more popular, even though there was no real legible benefits, certainly not to students in Chicago, and definitely not to the, you know, poor and , uh, poor students, especially those from communities of color that were going to the public schools. You know, I was a, a Chicago public school system, a student myself back in the nineties, and I remember Paul Vallas for, hi , his, his role in , um, a lot of these , uh, these , these things like privatizing custodial services, the janitors, they'd replaced the janitors with some private contractors. They would do a terrible job, and obviously they would make tons of money. That's part of, you know, what Richard M. Daley did when he was in Chicago. He really turned to privatization as a key tool , um, to deal with city finances and budgets. Part of that is the parking meter deal folks might have heard about , um, that Chicago was still in a 75 year deal. That means that the city doesn't get to have any regulation over its , uh, parking spaces that all of the money that now is being paid into , uh, parking and Chicago is going off to a conglomerate based in Abu Dhabi that , uh, the city signed over , um, the service of the parking meters too . And that's just an example of the kind of politics, right, that Paul Vallas really represented. Um, in this campaign. He was certainly running as a , uh, establishment representative, somebody who can get the job done, you know, who understands the business community. And as some of his biggest backing came from the , uh, Chicago Police Union, the Fraternal Order of Police, a really right wing , um, extremist organization that , uh, whose head John Catanzara, who is a huge Trump supporter defender of January 6th. Um , and somebody who was very, as you can imagine , uh, opposed to the Black Lives Matter movement and, you know, appeals for racial justice and actually promised that there would be blood on the streets of the city if Paul Vallas lost the election. Um, and so these are the types of forces that were aligning themselves along with, you know, real estate developers and , uh, hedge funds, all the kind of corporate capitalist interests were all getting behind Paul Vallas , uh, in this race. And as a result of that, he was able to outspend Brandon Johnson by two to , uh, two to one margin. Um, and that, you know, took place in TV ads and all kinds of different promotions and even, you know, hiring of people to knock doors on the street. You know, Brandon Johnson had an army of committed volunteers from progressive groups that were , uh, spreading the good word about his agenda. And Paul Vallas had hired campaign staff, some of which, you know, I talked to people that met them and said that they were voting for Brandon, but they had to take the job because it would pay money. You know, that's what having this kind of like big business backing can do, allow you to , um, spend money on things like that. But ultimately it didn't work. He , um, you know, that money kind of went down the drain for him and that the investment made by , uh, the city's corporate community did not pay off. And , uh, Brandon Johnson was able to defeat him. And I do think that, that it goes to show the power of , uh, people that come out of movements when they run for office and have a base of support that trusts them because you're never going to be able to match, or at least not under a current, you know, set of , uh, circumstances. You're not going to be able to compete , uh, financially with the other side when it comes to a fight of, you know, progressives versus conservatives, which largely I think this race came down to because they do have the money and , um, they're able to benefit from people like, you know, Ken Griffin, who was somebody who was one of the richest people in Illinois before he moved to Florida a few years ago, cuz he said it was getting too liberal. Um, hi , he runs Citadel, this giant hedge fund of which tons of representatives funded Paul Vallas. There aren't that many people like that on the left that can right, just throw in money into , into a race. And so that means you're gonna have to be able to match that kind of organized money with people power and , uh, actual excitement on the grassroots level. And that's what , uh, Brandon Johnson's campaign showed throughout the various months , uh, of the election. And that's how he won.

Elton LK: 10:30

Alex Han was gonna join us today, and unfortunately he was not able to do that. He's the new executive director of In These Times, he's a , also a founding member of the United Working Families, which was a key part of Brandon Johnson's campaign. So can you talk about what happened to Chicago schools under Rahm Emanuel , uh, Clinton's senior advisor and Obama's chief of staff, what CTU did in response and why did they form United Working Families?

Miles Kampf-Lassin: 11:10

Sure. So this election didn't come out of nowhere. It was the result of over a decade of organizing and going on long before that. But especially over the past 10 years , uh, what we've seen is , uh, organized response to the type of , um, policies that have been put in place that serve to devastate communities , um, across the city that don't have seats at the table when it comes to decision making . And traditionally, the areas that are most locked out of power are the ones that have the least amount of money, the least amount of, you know , political and financial connections. Those are, you know, areas across the south and west side of the city that are largely black and Latino, that are not , uh, able to parti have , have not historically been able to participate in , um, the ways that money is being accumulated in this city, which is largely in the financial sectors and have been left behind and faced , uh, decades of disinvestment. And the role of Rahm Emanuel when he was mayor. Um , uh, from 2011 to 2019, he , uh, carried out an agenda that was based on taking advantage of the segregation that exists in , in Chicago and on the power disparities that exist to push through , uh, neoliberal agenda that included , uh, fighting the unions at every step. And he came into office initially , um, with, and, and this is, you know, follows a long trajectory, obviously you mentioned that , uh, Rahm Emanuel worked under Obama. He also was the head of the D Triple C (DCCC; Democratic Congrssional Campaign Committee) is a long time kind of Democratic party operative and strategist and has, and , and worked under Bill Clinton as well, and has long , uh, believed in a more centrist, third way conservative approach to , um, politics and carried that out within the Democratic party. But it's all about elevating, you know , corporate power and diminishing , um, the voices of the working class. And when he was in office under Obama Rahm Emanuel famously said f the UAW, you know, he said it more clear terms, but so it was his quote. Um , when it came to the big three , uh, being negotiating with the Obama administration over the auto bailout, he wanted to, you know, screw the unions. That was, that's long been kind of the Rahm Emanual approach. And when he came into office in Chicago as mayor, he had a similar posture towards the Chicago Teachers Union and , um, said a similar, very similar thing he said, F you to Karen Lewis, who was the longtime head of the Chicago Teacher's Union, and really helped to revitalize it as a democratic and militant force, not just in the labor movement, but also as a political body. Um, and turned the CTU into a real fighting union that embraced social justice unionism and bargaining for the collective good. Um, and that was seen most clearly in the 2012 , uh, Chicago teacher strike where , um, where I think it was nine days teachers took the streets, walked out of work, and demanded a fair contract. And Rahm Emanuel was mayor at the time and fought them tooth and nail. And by almost every account , uh, he lost, you know, he was not, he didn't have the public with him. The teachers did end up, while it was not certainly a perfect contract, they ended up with a much better deal than was what was initially offered. And most importantly, I think it showed the power of , um, solidarity because the city came together behind the teachers union and proved that taking that militant action of walking off the job , um, and striking for your rights is effective and , um, popular and people like to see it. You know, it was a beautiful , uh, period in that , uh, at that time in 2012 when the teachers were out. Um, and at red , thank it really did help kick off the whole kind of red wave of strikes. We later saw in places like West Virginia where teachers, you know , went on wildcat strikes to, to demand their rights. So this is kind of the , some of the history of Rahm Emanuel. He later then someone would say, you know, his , uh, retribution for the strike in 2013, he closed 50 public schools in the city a decade ago now. Um, that was the largest single set of school closings in US history , um, that he carried out. And those were, as, again, it's an example of this , uh, diminishing of the communities that are struggling the most. They were almost all located, or, you know, vast majority located in poor communities and communities of color across the city. And so it just sucks out a resource, you know, the schools, that's the promise of a lot of , you know, when we talk about American democracy and the city on a hill or something, it's like people are entitled to an education and when you close their schools and therefore can layoff educators. And , um, you know, especially when these communities serve, these schools, serve as engines of the community that breaks communities apart. And I think that that really inspired our resistance that , uh, United Working Families became an engine of , um, you know, it's not a new organization as much as it is a coalition of different unions in the city that wanted to have a political voice so that they could challenge Rahm Emanuel. Karen Lewis initially mounted a campaign to , um, to unseat Rahm Emanuel when they, when he ran for reelection in 2015. She unfortunately , um, had a brain tumor and health complications from that was not able to run. Um, Jésus Chuy García was , um, basically brought in as a alternative to , uh, to, you know, play that role as , uh, an opponent for Rahm Emanuel. He , he, he was not effective, but he did , um, take Rahm Emanuel to a runoff election then, which was historic at the time. And I think showed that even within a race where, you know, you have somebody who's very unknown , um, like , uh, Chuy García was, there was so much anger towards Emanuel and the type of policies he was carrying out that people were willing to , uh, to send him into a runoff election. And certainly those types of policies, the school closings, the anti-public education policies, in addition to a whole host of other , um, things that Rahm was carrying out from a regressive economic , uh, agenda and raising property taxes that are hit working families the hardest , um, to a police department run amok with all kinds of , uh, violent episodes carried out by cops. Um, there was anger towards Rahm Emanuel and that inspired people to become part of a political alternative. And United Working Families brought together the CTU as well as other progressive labor unions in the city, like SEIU Local 73 and , um, SEIU Healthcare , uh, unions at the forefront of progressive politics to put forward a vision for having a political system that represents multiracial democracy. And so, almost all of the candidates that they back are candidates of color and , uh, people that come out of working class backgrounds and that are affiliated with unions and are certainly big supporters of unions. And Brandon Johnson is a perfect example of that. As, you know, a black educator from the west side of Chicago who then moved on to become a union organizer with the CTU. Um, it makes sense that he was, you know , prime example. Another UWF member, for example, is Delia Ramirez, who's now a US congressperson from Illinois. She also was, you know, part of that , um, initial response to the Emanuel agenda. Um, her and Brandon Johnson were both fighting the school closings. Brandon Johnson actually went on a hunger strike back , um, in the 2010s to res , uh, fight school closings that Rahm Emanuel was carrying out. Um, so I think it goes to show that like when you can bring in people that are , uh, committed activists and organizers and show them that there's a route towards political power that can be backed financially and through, you know, volunteer organizing power that , uh, that can pay off dividends that you don't expect. Cuz the people at the time that Rahm was closing these schools 10 years ago, it seemed like a bleak political , uh, future for when it came to electoral politics. But now we fast forward to 2023 and we have, you know, the most progressive city council in a generation and a progressive mayor and, you know, representatives in Congress who come out of the working class. So that's, I think kind of what , what the , the , the vision is of having an organization like UWF and they weren't alone. I mean, there's a, there's a whole coalition of different groups that, that work to elect these types of individuals, but UWF definitely played a major role in that .

Elton LK: 20:47

So I appreciate you talking especially about the Chicago Teachers Union and the effect that that had on Chicago politics. Are you able to speak to what role labor played in Brandon Johnson's victory?

Miles Kampf-Lassin: 21:04

There's no doubt that money is an important part of any political campaign. And , uh, when we have a system which , uh, prizes those who can raise the most from their rich friends over , you know, a merito , a meritocratic system where we can, you know, the best candidate can win based on their merit , um, you're, you're gonna have to come up with funding to mount a serious campaign. Um, and that's only become much more difficult through all the changes in campaign finance laws over the past decade plus from Citizens United to all kinds of local level legislation that have opened the floodgates for corporate money to, and dark money to , um, tarnish races and create, you know, use them as ways for rich people to get what they want, basically. And that's often what different kind of elections, especially local elections , uh, come down to. And so in order to combat that level of , uh, you know, the financial disparity unions play a role because unions are able to , um, take, you know, members' dues and make that, put that into political financial contributions. And at this, you know, stage in American life and American democracy unions are the, I think, the most , uh, honest and uh, effective vehicle for the interests of the working class that exist at a mass scale. Um, and oftentimes that , uh, takes place through getting involved in the political arena. There's plenty of debates about whether unions should be doing that, but as it stands , um, that's a role that unions can play and often do play, especially when it comes to , um, contested elections. And, and , and in this case, one in which it was not simply throwing money behind like a stand in for the Democratic Party. Both candidates in this race claimed to be Democrats. I mean, Paul Vallas had, had shunned the Democratic Party previously and said he was more of a Republican and, you know, was cozy up to all these far right figures and such, but he still ran as a Democrat. So this wasn't just like a union getting involved to just throw their money behind a random Democrat. It was union taking a stand and saying that we need to, they basically recruited Brandon Johnson to run in many ways and be the house on him in that they, you know, invested. I think it was somewhat some , uh, number above 2 million from the Chicago Teachers Union, which is a massive sum. Um , and then they were joined by the American Federation of Teachers, the National Union, the CTU was part of that I think donated around another 2 million. And the IFT, the Illinois Federation of Teachers, along with a host of other labor unions like SEIU, all the most progressive unions. There were other unions that did not back. Brandon Johnson, of course, especially the buildings, trade building trades. And the police union, as I mentioned, that were , uh, in Vallas' camp. But the, but the progressive unions , uh, saw the potential of being able to get somebody in office who is not just gonna be more friendly to labor's interest, but has a view of the role of governing that includes labor as a partner versus an opponent to be crushed, which is largely how the status quo is operated , uh, in the city for a long time. So I don't mean to focus only on the money, but I do think that that's an important part because, you know, Brandon Johnson was able to win while being outspent two to one, if he was outspent like 10 to one, I don't know if he would've been able to win. You know, you have to kind of keep those numbers down, I think, in some way. And the , the , that union support was able to keep , um, keep him competitive. And then obviously members of the CTU played an instrumental role in broadcasting his vision through knocking on doors, through making phone calls, through sending texts, through doing all kinds of actual , um, grassroots support that , um, was able to ultimately get enough , uh, voters to support him both in the first round of voting. Um, where, you know, he, he, he didn't win, but he was able to , uh, take it to a run, enter the runoff , um, and then in the second round, obviously in April when he was able to defeat , um, Paul Vallas. So yeah, they played an instrumental role. And I'll just say it's not just the CTU as like a , as a thing because the CTU is, there's all kinds of different , uh, groups within the Chicago Teachers Union that are vying for power. Um, but the main one, and the one that has been able to, since I think since 2010, since they came into office, has been able to build the program that CTU currently operates under, is the Caucus of Rank-and-file, organiz Caucus of Rank-and-file Educators , um, CORE, which is just celebrating its , uh, 15th anniversary of being a, being in existence, I think. But I'm pretty sure they, yeah, they came into power in 2010. Um, and that was started by Karen Lewis, who I mentioned, along with a number of other people , um, in , uh, CTU , uh, like Jackson Potter of another great , um, organizer, Jesse Sharkey , who was a longtime president of the CTU as well. Um, and Brandon Johnson was part of CORE , um, CORE initially started as a reading group for Naomi Klein's book, The Shock Doctrine, the Rise of Disaster Capitalism , um, which really does point out that market fundamentalism and this , uh, allegiance to a neoliberal vision of society where , um, crises are opportunities to unleash , um, capitalism essentially, and , uh, take over the realms that were previously , um, run by the state or, you know, by public entities and replace those with as, as, as private actors. Um, that those are some of the sources for the many , uh, issues that working people face day to day . Um, and that when you have a , uh, system where profit determines everything, then there are very few avenues left to fight for a dignified life. And that, and so , and so shock doctrine was, you know , one of the ways in which this caucus was originally , um, built up. And I think it is instructive that then, you know , uh, decade plus later, you have a stand-in for this neoliberal model in Paul Vallas, a real architect of neoliberalism facing off against Brandon Johnson, who, you know, came to his political , um, came to political realizations for being part of this group CORE and reading Naomi Klein and fighting school closings and being on the front lines , taking part in hunger strikes, that that was the election that we saw take place. And granted, that didn't, you know, most of the mainstream media analysis didn't talk about that as the , as a , as a conflict. Uh , but at , at its heart, I do think that that's , um, was this proxy war that was going on between , um, the left and the right throughout this, this election. And for once, you know, we saw the left win .

Elton LK: 28:55

Thanks for listening to class, an official podcast of the Democratic Socialist of America National Political Education Committee. Thank you to Casey Stikker for sound engineering theme, music and editing, and to Palmer Conrad for help with content and administrative work. And one correction. I make reference at one point during the interview to the LA teacher strike. That was in 2018, not 2017. If you're inspired by anything we've been talking about, if you think the system is rigged and democracy is the solution, join DSA, become a member. If you're already a member of DSA, please share this podcast with your local chapter. Class is intended to be a resource for chapters and members to articulate, apply and share socialist theory with DSA and the wider working class. Also, remember to rate and review us on iTunes or your favorite podcatcher.