Bold call for post-electoral strategy that Mayor-elect Johnson's people should pursue to defeat the Right, who have their own "well-tested playbook"

. . . not only offers hope for transforming a ruthlessly unequal city, but signals what the Left could accomplish elsewhere.

Johnson’s victory in the mayoralty run-off election was “a first step toward transforming [this] deeply unequal city,” says Kevin A. Young, history prof, U. Mass Amherst, in Jacobin Magazine.

What’s called for now are “protests and strikes to fend off the inevitable capitalist attacks.”

Johnson’s win has elicited fear and rage from the lords of the city and trepidation from the national business press. Investors are issuing dire warnings of capital flight, while police officials are predicting an explosion in street crime.

But unlike earlier Chicago reformers, who pragmatically chose to accept the inevitable compromise with capital, the new mayor will have a “militant union” behind him, capable of taking that next step.

His own Chicago Teachers Union has proven itself up to the challenge since 2010, when reformers “won power” within the union.

“A crucial impediment” to success in 2010 had been “the structural power of capitalists and the lack of a militant, non-electoral mass movement that could force concessions from them and thereby open space for governmental reforms.”

To the extent that Johnson and his allies on the city council attempt to deliver, they will incur a phalanx of resistance. Reactionary forces may have lost the election, but they retain enormous power to coerce both policymakers and the general population.

What to do?

Neutralizing that resistance will require learning from the history of would-be reformers, most of whom fell short of their campaign promises. The ultimate outcome in Chicago will depend on whether progressive forces continue to deepen their capacity for mass militancy outside the electoral realm, as the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) has been doing since 2010.

Previous reformers “undercut” this process, abandoning the “mass disruption” that had given them “leverage to shape policy.”

Even now, after their historic electoral victory . . .

. . . progressives will be tempted to focus exclusively on [further] electoral mobilization. The administration will feel tremendous pressure to accommodate the city’s capitalists, particularly as federal COVID funds dry up, budget deficits persist, and a possible recession looms. If crime remains at high levels, Johnson will also be tempted to revert to a traditional tough-on-crime approach.

Would make sense, would it not? But . . .

. . . whether or not we live in Chicago, we must be ready to stand with Chicago’s workers during the coming confrontations — for example, by donating to union strike funds.

The future?

Entrenched elites can be forced to accept meaningful reforms. Those wins can then become springboards to bigger victories. If Chicagoans succeed, their example will reverberate far beyond the city.

Man the barricades.