Holding Your Ground Against Austerity: Lessons from the Illinois Budget Deal

Instead of caving to lowered expectations, Illinois residents came together like never before. Social-service providers who normally remain apolitical rallied in the streets, not to advocate for one budget line item over another, but to say the wealthy should pay their fair share so we can expand services instead of cutting them. A group of residents being hurt by the budget impasse marched 200 miles to Springfield. Unions strengthened alliances with community organizations. The Grassroots Collaborative, Fair Economy Illinois, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Grassroots Education Movement, the Fight for 15 and others advanced aspirational demands during a period that could have easily been purely defensive.

In the midst of the crisis and chaos created by Gov. Rauner, we pushed an Illinois progressive agenda farther than ever before and made historic progress. Illinois became the first state to pass a $15 minimum wage in both the upper and lower houses. The Illinois Senate passed a bill to close the carried-interest loophole by placing a privilege tax on Wall Street money managers, becoming the first legislative body in the country to do so. Together, a broad coalition passed a bill to give Chicago an elected representative school board, something that Chicago parents have been demanding for decades. The General Assembly also passed the Illinois Trust Act that would expand protections of Illinois immigrant community running directly counter to Gov. Rauner’s anti-immigrant, anti-refugee policies.

We’ve made important strides toward a bold vision. What we still need to do is build the power to fully achieve that vision, by organizing with people in all parts of Illinois. To this end, Grassroots Collaborative is experimenting with building progressive statewide infrastructure, beginning with developing grass-roots leaders and engaging sporadic voters of color in Peoria. Working families, women and people of color must be at the center of our agenda. And unless we build meaningful relationships across the state, Rauner will continue to manipulate a racist anti-Chicago narrative and keep the state divided against itself.