Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Has Become Rahm Emanuel 2.0
Mayor Lori Lightfoot promised to end business as usual in Chicago. Instead, she’s antagonizing teachers, refusing to fully fund public schools, and giving the rich whatever they want. That agenda didn’t end well for Rahm Emanuel. It won’t for Lightfoot, either.
Striking Chicago public school teachers and their supporters rally in Union Park before marching through the streets of the west side neighborhood on October 21, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois.Scott Olson / Getty
On the campaign trail for mayor of Chicago late last year, Lori Lightfoot pitched herself as a progressive. “I’m not Rahm,” she repeatedly insisted.
But now that Lightfoot is in office, her actions are looking more and more like those of her anti-union, anti-public education, friend to Wall Street, never-met-a-corporate-giveaway-he-didn’t-like predecessor, “Mayor 1 Percent” Rahm Emanuel.
The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and school staff represented by SEIU Local 73 have been on strike since October 17. After four days of progress at the bargaining table, Monday was a turning point in the strike. Rather than meet the teachers’ demands for smaller class sizes and more support staff like nurses, social workers, and librarians, and the demand of support staff for a living wage after years of poverty-level earnings, Mayor Lightfoot and her negotiating team abruptly resorted to a slew of strong-arm tactics aiming to discredit the city’s educators and force them back to work.
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