Earlier today, Brandon Johnson was inaugurated as mayor of Chicago. Johnson is a former rank-and-file teacher and an organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), and his victory is the product of decades of working-class struggle in the city. He and the movement behind him now have the chance to remake the city into one that serves the many rather than the few.

A key force in that struggle since 2014 has been United Working Families (UWF), the political arm of the movement that the CTU has led. Jacobin has covered the UWF and CTU closely since the union’s 2012 strike. In 2014, Jacobin editor Micah Uetricht and scholar and writer Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor interviewed Johnson about the nascent UWF. Since then, the group has reshaped the political landscape in the city, electing not just Johnson but numerous city council members, Cook County commissioners, state legislators, and a member of Congress, Rep. Delia Ramirez.

Emma Tai is the executive director of UWF. Shortly after the mayoral runoff election, Uetricht spoke to Tai about the UWF’s work and the ideas informing it.