Kari Lydersen

This book, written before Rahm Emanuel's successful bid for a second term as Mayor of Chicago, is basically a call to action for Chicago-based activism against his anti-union and pro-privatization agenda. I don't get the sense that Lydersen uncovered much that is new; rather, she excavated Emanuel's miserable policy agenda through previously published news reports. The book is especially light on Emanuel's record as a Representative in Congress and as Obama's chief of staff where his fingerprints on policymaking are more opaque. Lydersen's publisher was associated with a now-defunct Chicago-based socialist organization that published the Socialist Worker newspaper; her writing style is very similar to that publication's style. The writing is basically at the fifth-grade level and like SW, she romanticizes activists fighting (but ultimately losing) the good fight; what irritates me about this approach is that there is little reflection about what activists can learn from their previous fights to win (she doesn't bother to see what lessons are to be learned from the one activist group that did beat Emanuel, the Chicago Teachers Union). I am grateful for the book's rundown on Emanuel's callous disregard for public workers, who suffered due to his privatization agenda.… (mehr)