As communists we know that billionaire capitalists run things in our world and in the city of Chicago. The recent election of Brandon Johnson for Chicago’s mayor won’t change that. The election was seen as a win for progressives and antiracists by many (Johnson is Black and his opponent white). Antiracist, working class wins don’t happen through elections—they are the result of protests, strikes, and ultimately, communist revolution.
Brandon Johnson defeated Paul Vallas, a former head of Chicago Public Schools. Vallas worked to privatize public schools in Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Bridgeport, Connecticut after leaving Chicago.  More recently he spent time serving U.S. imperialism in Chile and in Haiti. His school policies are in line with those in the ruling class (be they Democrats or Republicans) who promote charters and school vouchers to replace public schools. Johnson’s policies are in line with those capitalists who support public schools as the best way to prepare working class youth to be future workers and soldiers. Only communist revolution will create spaces that truly educate all.
Johnson was backed by Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, the Chicago Teachers Union, and many other politicians and unions who are considered progressive. The outlook of their movement is that through elections and protests, the working class can diminish racism and improve  education, health care, housing, and working conditions. Progressive Labor Party’s analysis is based on history and science, which indicates that U.S. capitalism is in an economic crisis. Until the capitalists are defeated with communist revolution, racist attacks will continue, and the rich will take back any gains we make as soon as they can. Under capitalism, inter-imperialist wars as well as wars against the world’s working class, will continue.
While open racists like Trump and Vallas appear to be our main capitalist enemies, liberals are actually the main danger. Whether they are well-intentioned and naive, or manipulative and brutal, liberal politicians, including Johnson, serve  the capitalist class.  As the capitalist system falls deeper into crisis and chaos, Johnson too will have to make budget cuts and ignore or crush dissent when it inevitably arises. Capitalism is a brutal system regardless of the face serving it, and there is no election that can change that.
Johnson and most of his supporters believe that his election will improve conditions for Chicago’s workers. Chicago has about equal shares of Latin, Black, and white residents, and also contains a growing Asian population. In general, Chicago’s white population is much wealthier than the other populations. Johnson has pledged to prioritize housing, education, and public safety. At the same time, he calls for a city that “respects the workers who keep it running and supports the entrepreneurs who keep it growing” (from his acceptance speech). This is an irreconcilable contradiction: the rich got that way because of their exploitation of the workers!
Crime was an important issue in the campaign. Johnson pointed out that many calls to police would be better handled by social workers and talked about the relationship of poverty to crime. However, he backed off previous support for “defunding police”, even though 40 percent of the city’s budget is spent on policing and Chicago has twice as many police per capita as the typical U. S. city. Under capitalism, police always “serve and protect” the rich— we won’t need them under communism.
Some members of PLP were active in the Johnson campaign even though we don’t agree that this racist, capitalist system can be changed through electoral politics. We join reform movements so that we can build relationships with workers who may later join our fight for communism. This election campaign is over, but the struggle continues, and we will invite many of those we worked with in the campaign to our upcoming May Day march.