Solidarity with Los Angeles Teachers Strike
Today,
Monday, January 14, some 34,000 educators of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA)
are going on strike for the first time since 1989, affecting 640,000 students.
They are facing a hardline administration of the Los Angeles Unified School
District (LAUSD) dominated by proponents of “charter schools,” privately run
schools which siphon off hundreds of millions of dollars from public education.
L.A. schools have some of the most overcrowded classes in the country. In
response to the UTLA call for lower class sizes, last week the LAUSD made a new
“offer” that would raise the maximum number of students per class from
39 to 46!
Although
claiming that the District is on the verge of bankruptcy, the LAUSD is sitting
on $1.86 billion reserves of unrestricted funds, which has nearly quadrupled
over the last five years. This money is being deliberately withheld in a racist
offensive against the public schools, with a student body that is
overwhelmingly Latino (76%) and African American (10%), by bosses who are
privatizers and union-busters.
Supporters
of Class Struggle Education Workers (CSEW) and the Internationalist Group have
taken the initiative in fighting for active labor solidarity with the L.A.
teachers strike from California unions, notably transport workers and
university faculty and staff. Solidarity resolutions have been passed by Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1277 (public transport) and the
California Faculty Association (at California State University). Transport
workers and the faculty union have put out fliers (shown here) calling on their
members and other workers to build the picket lines in this key struggle.
In
addition, solidarity resolutions are coming from Mexico (CNTE Section XXII,
Oaxaca) and Brazil (SEPE-RJ, in the state of Rio de Janeiro).
Class
Struggle Education Workers has issued a leaflet (shown here) calling to build
picket lines so strong that no one crosses, highlighting the fact that, unlike
the “red state teachers revolt” last year, Los Angeles teachers are facing
school board, city and state officials who are all Democrats. We also call to
oppose all charter schools, while urging the unions to raise demands in favor
of charter school teachers and staff, in particular calling to end unpaid labor
demanded of them. The CSEW calls to break with the bosses’ parties and build a
class-struggle workers party.
CSEW
urges educators and defenders of public education to rally to the support of
the striking teachers of Los Angeles. All out to win the UTLA strike!
Class
Struggle Education Workers (CSEW) is part of the fight for a
revitalization and transformation of the labor movement into an
instrument for the emancipation of the working class and the oppressed. See the CSEW program here.