Chicago after Mayor Washington's death: 'Machine' politics comes back with a vengeance

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Mayor Washington endorsed school board campaign to force teachers back to work. of teachers prevented cutbacks that would have laid off 700 school workers.

SOCIALIST ACTION FEBRUARY 1988 $888810+x ЛЕТ. ЛП - 00) .Post Broc 212-966-9619 During the 19-day teachers' strike, Only the independent mobilization By ADAM CHICAGO-The death of Mayor Harold Washington brought forth two immediate reactions: a deep sense of mourning in the Black community and a rapid jockeying for position among the city council "politicos" and ward-heelers.

Washington had a heart attack at 11:03 on the morning of Wednesday, Nov. 25. By 11:30, only four minutes after the ambulance had reached the hospital, Alderman Richard Mell, a leader of the white-racist bloc in the city council, was already on the telephone lining up votes in the struggle to elect a new mayor.

The stage was being set for an extraordinary week of political wheeling and dealing and screaming headlines about "mob violence in the streets of Chicago." If we untangle the mess of intrigue and headlines, some very old lessons about the nature of the Democratic Party stand out clearly.

Chicago politics has been dominated for several years by the constant struggle between Harold Washington's city-council bloc and the anti-reform, racist faction now led by Alderman Ed Burke.

This faction realized soon after Washington's death that they did not have the strength to elect one of their own as the new mayor. They decided, therefore, to settle on the next best thing—a pliant Black puppet who would do their bidding.

After much "to-ing and fro-ing," they settled on Alderman Eugene Sawyer (who has a long history as a minor figure in the Democratic Party machine) as such a candidate.

The Washington forces selected Alderman Tim Evans, who had been Washington's floor leader in the city council. Evans, an up-and-coming political star, had few ties sklyn, NY 11240-4830 IMPACT Office Box 404830 ISUALS Affordable photos, cartoons, caricatures and illustrations for the movement and the progressive press sieer to the reform movement before joining Washington's camp.

Demonstration of Black pride This backroom intrigue was not the only thing going on in Chicago over the Thanksgiving weekend. The lying in state of Washington's body became the occasion of a huge demonstration of Black pride. Hundreds of thousands of Black people walked past the casket, often having to first wait for several hours in freezing weather.

Monday, Nov. 30, saw two important events. In the morning, there was Washington's funeral. Interestingly, a large crowd which had waited for hours was unable to attend the funeral, as the church was already full of "visiting dignitaries" (read: political hacks and hangers-on attempting to cash in on Washington's popularity).

In the evening, there was a 13,000-strong memorial rally at the University of Illinois Pavilion. This rally became a pro-Tim Evans, anti-Sawyer rally. The crowd sang the South African ANC anthem and enthusiastically cheered calls for a demonstration at City Hall the next evening when the city council was due to vote on who the acting mayor was going to be.

One of the highpoints of the Pavilion rally was the speech by popular Black journalist Vernon Jarrett. Jarrett lambasted Black capitulationists (that is, Sawyer and his supporters) and said that they should be "dealt with in the same way as the Ku Klux Klan."

Racist leader Ed Vrdolyak then organized a massive campaign attempting to get Channel 7 and the Sun-Times to dismiss Jarret—for "racism!" However, Channel 7 and the Sun-Times feared the Black community more than they feared Vrdolyak, and so far Jarrett's job is safe.' Rally demands "No deals!"

On the evening of Tuesday, Dec. 1, a crowd of 5000 Washington supporters gathered outside City Hall as the council began its deliberations. "No deals!" was the main logan of the demonstration. Placards and chants denounced "Uncle Tom" Sawyer.

This demonstration threw the Chicago media into pure hysteria. TV reporters talked of plans to take over City Hall and even of death threats to aldermen supporting Sawyer. The next day, the papers talked This uproar shows how frightened the bosses' press is of any Black mass action.

As a matter of fact, the demonstration was multiracial, orderly, and disciplined. While the crowd was outside, the city council was having a marathon session inside. It was an orgy of floor fights, procedural motions, and tactical maneuvers. Finally, Sawyer was elected the new mayor by 29 votes to Evans's 19.

Sawyer's election has led to a real sense of demoralization and despondency among Washington's supporters and in much of the radical movement.

An article in the Chicago Reader (Dec. 25, 1987) was entitled "The Day the Movement Died." A recent editorial in The Nation (Dec. 19, 1987) spoke of how "the hopes of the progressive, multiracial coalition that briefly dominated Chicago politics died with Harold Washington."

There is indeed a tragedy in Chicago politics-but a different one than portrayed in these publications. The tragedy is that a real outpouring of Black pride and struggle has been totally sidetracked and channeled into the Democratic Party, which has proven yet again to be the graveyard of every progressive social movement that has entered it.

The huge crowds at Washington's lying in state, the Pavilion rally, the City Hall demonstration were all signs of Black action and movement. However, these actions were not focused on jobs and better housing, or against cutbacks in social services. They were supporting one faction against another faction in the racist, reactionary Democratic Party.

Tim Evans clearly capitalized on this as he addressed the crowd outside City Hall following Sawyer's election. "You will be mine in '89!" he told the crowd, expressing perfectly how a Democratic Party politician views the movement in the streets.

The Democratic Party "captured?"

Many activists in Chicago have spoken of how "the Washington movement captured the Democratic Party from the machine." It is true that certain elements of the city patronage system were weakened under Washington. Affirmative action was promoted in municipal hiring, and collective-bargaining agreements were won for thousands of city workers.

Nevertheless, a few short days after the mayor's death, the machine was back in control. Within hours of Washington's burial, 12 Black aldermen, almost half of Washington's faction, were thinking of making a deal with Ed Burke, Washington's arch-enemy. In the end, six actually did.

This should come as no surprise. Every attempt by progressive social movements to "capture" the Democratic Party has always been a failure. Both the Republican and the Democratic parties serve the interests of the capitalist class.

Ultimately, both capitalist parties are antagonistic to the demands of working people and the oppressed for a higher quality of life. In the words of Malcolm X, "You can't get a chicken to lay a duck's egg."

The Washington administration dutifully paid some $230 million in annual interest to the banks while communities were ravaged for "lack of funds." Social services were cut, and property taxes and other fees were raised.

Yet, according to recent reports, Chicago's minorities continue to have the highest unemployment, the worst schools, the highest crime rates, the lowest percapita incomes, and the most completely segregated neighborhoods of any big city in the country.

The official unemployment rate among Blacks in Chicago stands at a staggering 25 percent. Last year, Washington bragged that more than 100,000 neighborhood jobs had been created since he took office. But most of these jobs were in low-paying services. Higher-paying industrial jobs continue to disappear.

The teachers' strike settlement Washington's office did little to obstruct union-busting attempts by Chicago employers. In fact, the mayor supported lobbying efforts in the state legislature to prohibit strikes by city workers.

During the 19-day teachers' strike in September, Washington early on endorsed the school board's efforts to force the teachers back to work. In fact, Washington's allies on the city council prevented moves to forward $17 million to the school board to settle the strike.

Late in the strike, the Chicago Teachers Union asked Washington to help gain a settlement by getting his appointees on the school board to negotiate. But when Washington did act to get an agreement, it was not what teachers had been waiting for. The teachers' 4-percent annual raise was to be paid for with layoffs of at least 700 people.

A spokesperson for a parents' complained: "We met with Washington, and he promised the schools would be open—which they are. But he promised reform. And the first thing the school board did was cut teacher positions and areas directly affecting the students. That's not reform. That's business as usual."

The strong reaction against the layoffs— by teachers, other school-board employees, and parents-forced the school board to "discover" funds to restore some 600 jobs. After a rally of 1500 at the state capitol, the legislators came up with funds to prevent spring layoffs.

These successes owed nothing to the anti-union school board, supported by the Washington administration. They flowed from the strength of the teachers-union mobilization during the strike.

Socialists share the aspirations for social change expressed by many of those who voted for and who mourned Harold Washington. But recent events in Chicago have shown that the Democratic Party is an obstacle toward achieving real gains for working people and all the oppressed.

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