No more school closings: School board elections in Chicago
Chicago, IL – The South Side office of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR) was filled by allied organizations, Saturday, October 17, in a day of campaign work for the November 3 elections.
Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), an affiliate of CAARPR, mobilized over 30 working-class and youth activists – Black, Latino, Arab, Asian and white – to put feet in the streets for progressive candidates in the November 3 election.
Altogether, 50 canvassers from various struggles and parts of the city joined forces to fight for two champions of workers and oppressed people – Hilario Dominguez and Mayor Brandon Johnson.
Hilario Dominguez is running for school board president. A special education teacher with ten years of experience working in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), Dominguez is a member of the community he seeks to serve.
Dominguez faces off against billionaire-backed candidates who support school closures and abandoning Chicago’s children, all to line the pockets of private interests. Chicagoans have first-hand experience of fighting the racist, neoliberal tactics of divestment in neighborhood schools that reached its apex under former mayor Rahm Emanuel. Mayor 1%, as he was known, notoriously shuttered 50 schools during his two terms. 80% of those schools were in Black communities.
Emanuel’s other legacy was the cover-up of the heinous murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, a CPS student with disabilities that was shot 16 times by Chicago police.
The fight against school closures is an historic struggle of Black and Latino working-class communities. Around these elections, there is a mass mobilization led by teachers and parents to support Dominguez and a slate that includes leading figures from the Black and Chicano/Mexicano movements: Jitu Brown and Rev. Emma Lozano, two legendary community organizers.
Rally with the mayor: The main event
Mayor Brandon Johnson, the first mayor since Harold Washington who was not handpicked by the ruling class, has a history of standing with Black and Latino working-class neighbors against school closures. As a former CPS teacher himself, Mayor Johnson has fought to reverse the racist disinvestment in the South and West Sides through historic levels of funding in housing, youth jobs, public schools and mental health centers. Johnson represents the African American national struggle for political power in Chicago, and has stood firm with immigrant communities against the Trump administration’s racist deportation attacks.
When canvassers returned from several hours “on the doors” in Woodlawn, Englewood and other nearby communities, they were greeted by the mayor. The message from the billionaires and their coat carriers among the city council and the press is that Johnson can’t win. Almost all the canvassers were youth – high school or college age. They greeted Johnson with cheers of “Four more years!”
Johnson informed the crowd that, under his leadership, Chicago saw a reduction in crime rates to levels not seen since 1965 – over 60 years ago. He also pointed out that while his administration had created 20,000 youth jobs over the summer, over 50,000 children had applied, and he would keep fighting during his second term until every student who wanted a summer job could get one.
20th Ward Alderwoman Jeanette Taylor co-hosted the rally with Frank Chapman, field organizer of the Chicago Alliance. Together with Jitu Brown, Ald. Taylor is famous for leading a successful hunger strike in 2015 against Emmanuel’s attempt to close Dyett High School. She reminded the crowd that Johnson served the people, not corporate-backed interests. Taylor preached unity of the many to fight back against the greed of the few and confided in the crowd that every time she saw Mayor Johnson occupying his spot at City Hall, she saw a community member who knew what it was like to face economic hardship living on Chicago’s South and West Sides.
Elections: A front of struggle
Joe Iosbaker of FRSO introduced Ald. Taylor. He recalled the CAARPR-led struggle for community control of the Chicago police, and Taylor’s history of fighting for community control of public schools.
In Chicago history, we have the legacy of Harold Washington’s campaign for mayor in 1983, with Rudy Lozano running for city council with Washington’s support to be his vice mayor. Chicago gave the country Jesse Jackson’s historic runs for president in 1984 and 1988, which also represented the Black liberation movement taking an electoral form.
From Harold and Rudy in the 1980s, to Brandon Johnson today, FRSO has long understood that while most elections in the U.S. are between two parties of monopoly capitalism, the national liberation movements can take electoral forms. When they do, revolutionaries have to get behind them and push.
The billionaire class and their racist and Zionist proxies are spending tens of millions of dollars for their handpicked tools – Jessica Biggs for president of the School Board, and Alexi Giannoulias for mayor – to defeat our movement and remove Brandon Johnson from the Fifth Floor of Chicago City Hall.
Chicago is ready for the fight.
#ChicagoIL #IL #PeoplesStruggles #Elections #SchoolBoard #BrandonJohnson
