Lori Lightfoot: Another Savior Fills The Vacuum in US Politics

Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired

Lori Lightfoot, the former federal prosecutor is the new mayor of Chicago and she now promises the people of Chicago a new day.

As is usually the case in the US political arena where class is subordinated for the safe ground of identity politics, the first and foremost thing I must know about Lightfoot is she is a woman, she is black, she is a lesbian.  As for her politics, she is a member of that other war monger’s party, the Democrats. The article in yesterdays WSJ announcing her victory says little about her platform other than a few vague comments. But in the video above the platitude’s flow like water from a leaking pipe.

“We will build trust between our people and our brave police officers so that the community and police trust each other, not fear each other.” , says Lightfoot.  She speaks to parents about their children and how, “Boys and girls are seeing the beginning of something a little different, they’re seeing a city reborn.”

In Chicago from now on we will be witnessing a miracle indeed, and from an individual whose job it was to put workers and poor people behind bars, Chicago, under her reign as mayor, will be, “A city where it doesn’t matter what color you are….”  and promising a city, “where it doesn’t matter who you love as long as you love.”

I have woken up to a wonder winterland I must say. No more racism, no more violence and we all love each other. The Hippies are back.  

“We can and will break this city’s endless cycle of corruption”, Ms Lightfoot says although how we can do that and is not explained. She has talked of defending the interests of business which might give us a clue.

I had to cringe at the “our brave police officers” proclamation that reveals her disconnection, from the daily existence of working class people but most certainly the millions of black folks in urban centers like Chicago where the police are an occupying force.  Perhaps Ms Lightfoot is referring to “brave” Chicago officers like this one .  Perhaps she is talking about the “brave” police officers that worked at Homan Square, a notorious torture center when hundreds of mostly poor and working class people of color were detained and brutalized.

Ms Lightfoot’s Pollyanna promises will soon be revealed even further as just that.

There have been calls in Chicago for a financial transaction tax, taxing trades on the Chicago exchanges, two of the largest exchanges in the US. The tax is known as the LaSalle Street tax and although a very low tax would raise some $12 billion. Mayor elect Lightfoot had this to say about the tax to the Chicago Sun Times in January this year: “While I agree that higher income individuals like me and businesses must pay their fair share, I also want to be certain that in evaluating revenue options, we do not drive businesses from Chicago or create a disincentive for businesses to invest in our city.”

You can’t protect the interests of business and workers and the poor at the same time.  That she could even talk of the police in Chicago in the way she has given the history of the police in this city is staggering.

In some ways the new Chicago mayor is the anti-Trump, an accident of history as the US political scene and society in general enters a new era. The era in which the two capitalist parties that have thoroughly dominated US political life for a century or more is coming to an end. We have stressed this view many times on this blog. The turn out in the Chicago runoff between Ms. Lightfoot and her opponent Toni Preckwinkle was only 32% of registered voters according to the WSJ. Close to one hundred million never voted in the 2016 election too disgusted with the lack of political choice and the corruption in US politics. The trade union hierarchy continues to push their friends in the Democratic Party as the only political option on the table despite many of their members thinking otherwise and voting for Trump or opting out altogether.

A great opportunity exists in US politics today. The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has some 50,000 members and is predicted to gain another 20,000 by the next election in 2020. DSA members, as of this morning, have five members on the Chicago City Council (soon to be six possibly) and there are two DSA Congresspersons, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida TIab.

In Chicago, the trade unions represent a potentially powerful force. The Chicago Labor Federation has 300 unions affiliated to it representing 500,000 members but the trade union leadership, as is the case nationally, acts as agents of the Democratic Party inside these potentially powerful organizations, holding back any movement from within labor’s ranks that threaten this relationship, not only with this employers political arm (Democratic Party) but also in the class struggle on the job.  They do this primarily because their argument is that we cannot win and we cannot change the present system, the only option is capitulation. The teachers/educators strikes and protests in the states where such activity is illegal and that had significant victories has shattered that myth.

DSA, and the trade union leadership could transform the political scene in Chicago and tap in to the tremendous mood for change. Ms Lightfoot’s Pollyanna promises will soon be revealed even further as just that.

Rather than talking of our “brave” police officers to a community where this force has brutalized people, any candidate claiming to represent workers and the poor and talking about harmony and love, should be calling for an independent investigation in to the police department by representatives from the communities involved, the rank and file of the trade unions and so on. An investigation in to the murder of Fred Hampton, the chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, and deputy chairman of the national party is due as well, the Chicago police and the FBI coordinated his assassination and even had an informant drug him so that that resistance was futile. And what candidate calls for this? DSA and its 5-member caucus on the Chicago City Council should raise this. It’s time.   

The US bourgeois is trying to regain some sort of control over its political apparatus and we will see that Ms Lightfoot will play a helpful role in that.