Tens of thousands
of teachers, students, parents and their allies engaged in a week of
actions beginning May 9 to draw attention to what the California
Teachers Association has called a state of emergency.
There is a crisis
of public education in California. Billions of dollars have been cut
and tens of thousands of teachers and other education workers have
been fired. The week of action helped to build solidarity and
consciousness against the attacks on education.
The CTA led the
week of action, and for that it deserves credit. But the message it
put forward was limited and shortsighted. The solution proposed by
union leaders was to support the tax extensions called for by Gov.
Jerry Brown.
The extensions are
not a true solution, even in the short term. While the tax extensions
will make the cuts less than they would be otherwise, they do not
stop painful cuts to education and services. The budget already
includes $18 billion in cuts. The income, sales and vehicle taxes
that would be extended also adversely affect working and poor
people—who pay more than their fair share already. The rich and
corporations regularly pay little or no taxes.
The week of action
is important but only if it becomes a step towards building a
stronger movement. Teachers, students and their families, and the
labor movement and its allies need to build a powerful movement
against the attacks on education and public services. Any movement
that aims to win real change—and it is only a people’s movement
that is capable of forcing real change—cannot be hamstrung by the
will of the Democratic Party and opportunistic calls for limited
demands.
A movement is
needed that recognizes public education as a right for working people
and fights for adequate funding for this and other services that meet
people’s needs. A movement is needed that is willing to take on the
powerful corporate and bank owners the system serves—along with
their bought-and-paid-for politicians who continue to fund war and
corporate welfare rather than education and public services.
The following is a
roundup of the actions in Sacramento, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Sacramento
May 9 marked the
beginning of a week of action at the State Capitol. On this day,
hundreds of people rallied outside and inside the Capitol against the
budget cuts and in particular cuts to education. The rally started at
10 a.m. and continued throughout the day. People entered the Capitol
at 5 p.m., having planned a civil disobedience action. By 6 p.m., the
California Highway Patrol officers announced that people would be
arrested if they did not leave. There was a line of people waiting to
speak, and people started chanting: “There’s a line! There’s a
line!”
Soon people started
to get arrested and a solidarity rally began forming outside. Yeimi
Lopez, who was outside with the rally, said, “It comes to show
that the rising student movement is about taking action for somebody
other than yourself.”
It took the
officers about an hour to arrest all of those inside. Arrestees sat
around at the CHP station, some until 3 a.m., before being taken to
jail. There they sat in holding and release cells for three to eight
hours while being processed. They were charged with “Trespassing:
Skiing on Closed Trail.”
The police tried
intimidation, but people went back to the Capitol and continued to
protest. As one of the arrestees put it, “They used the political
move of arresting 65 people to try and stomp out the movement, but we
will continue the struggle.”
From Tuesday to
Thursday, smaller rallies were organized to recruit and build
people’s consciousness. The CTA lobbied politicians, but on May 12 a
group of 25 teachers were arrested for civil disobedience and rallied
outside politicians’ offices in the Capitol demanding to be heard.
On May 13, at a
CTA-organized final rally of a few thousand, teachers spoke about the
cuts and problems in the classrooms and the need for change. A number
of students and teachers called for intensifying the struggle.
This seems to be a
growing sentiment. Students and teachers are losing faith in the
capitalist political process, and it is time now to take change into
our own hands. Teachers, students and workers must unite to fight
back against these cuts and demand that the rich pay for their
crisis!
—Jesse
Thomson-Burns, college student (participated in the week of action
and was arrested for civil disobedience at the Capitol May 9)
San Francisco
Almost 3,000
teachers and students and their parents rallied May 13 in San
Francisco’s Civic Center to culminate the CTA-called week of action
to protest the budget cuts. The demonstration was one of five that
happened statewide and altogether included more than 10,000
protesters.
The rally featured
a long set by the Angry Tired Teachers’ Band as well as speeches by
teachers, parents and labor leaders. Teachers from all over the Bay
Area, including San Francisco, Oakland, Fremont, Hayward, Richmond
and other cities, participated in the demonstration.
Elementary, middle
and high school students—although they did not share their voices
from the stage—made their mark on the demonstration. A contingent
of fourth- and fifth-grade students led teachers and parents from
Fairmount school to the Civic Center, chanting, “We’re fired up,
we won’t take it no more! Tax the rich, not the poor!”
The students
carried homemade signs demanding that the budget cuts be stopped and
their schools be saved and attacking the lie that there is no money
for schools. Students marched to the Civic Center and took buses from
different schools in San Francisco to participate in the rally.
—Nathalie
Hrizi, public school teacher at Fairmount Elementary (participated in
the week of action in Sacramento and San Francisco)
Los Angeles
On May 13, 5,000
teachers gathered at Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles to
protest the ongoing attacks on public education in California. As one
regional action amongst many that took place in the state, tens of
thousands of teachers throughout California have proven that they are
willing to fight back and take action to save public education.
Pershing Square was
filled with thousands of teachers from various unions who traveled
from all corners of the Los Angeles area to be there. Since the rally
took place on a Friday, and the downtown area is prone to ferocious
traffic jams, the turnout displayed the dedication of the many
professionals in attendance. It was also evident that the fight for
accessible and quality education is an issue with great potential,
since it is a struggle that unites broad sections of the working
class, including union members, parents and students.
Parents were
present in considerable numbers at the rally, but especially
heartening was the significant presence of students who understood
that mass layoffs not only impede workers’ rights but imperils their
own futures as well.
Earlier in the day,
teachers took part in many rallies at their schools, then afterwards
traveled along with parents and students to Pershing Square. Chanting
slogans such as “When they say get back, we say fight back!” and
“Furlough? Hell no!”, workers were in an angry yet spirited mood.
It was inspiring to see Pershing Square filled with thousands of
teachers united for the common purpose of protecting their rights and
speaking up for students.
It was apparent
that the teachers, parents, and students gathered on that day were
far ahead of the organizers, the California Teachers Association,
since many were ready to take further action and march. Yet the CTA
is unfortunately tied to the Democrats and was not oriented towards
real struggle. Teacher unions must channel the justified outrage of
teachers about layoffs and budget cuts to a more militant approach,
more taking to the streets and occupations of places such as the
State Capitol and the Los Angeles Unified School District main
office.
At two LA City
schools earlier, students walked out of their classes to show support
for their teachers and public education. Judging from the well-placed
anger of many in attendance, the CTA could have mobilized the
thousands at Pershing Square to march to either the LAUSD building or
City Hall, both of which were nearby.
Many teachers had
signs that read, “Tax the rich to fund education,” a common theme
among protesters. CTA leaders want to extend regressive taxes such as
vehicle license fee and sales tax increases, which workers primarily
pay, to evade $12 billion in statewide cuts to social services. But
workers are ready to take a more strident “Tax the rich!” stand.
Despite the
shortcomings of the leaderships of CTA and other unions, teachers
must unite with parents and students and keep organizing. Only
because of actions by workers in Wisconsin and pressure from their
own members did CTA members occupy the State Capitol in Sacramento
and organize the various statewide “state of emergency”
demonstrations last week. We are starting to push our unions in the
right direction. We must continue to fight to make our unions fight.
—David
Feldman, public school teacher in Los Angeles
