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STRIKE! Teacher strikes likely to increase in number, have to be defended against scabs and ruling class propaganda

Rich Gibson - April 24, 2010

I don't know much about this NEA local in Orange County other than the fact that they are among the first to strike back, to resist, recognizing that concessions do not save jobs but, like giving blood to sharks, give-backs only make bosses want more. The Capistrano strike will probably be followed by an April 29 strike by the Oakland Education Assn (CA). Whether or not OEA rank and filers can extend that is an open question.

In that Capistrano is positioned so that they are being watched by both school workers and bosses all over the US, it's important to back them. The clearest way to do that is to not only send them a note, but send them real money--unless you can go join the picket line; better still. Here is a link for donations http://www.cuea.org/indexAlt.htm Even $5 dollars is a concrete way to say to the school workers that they are not alone.

The famous rat warning workers that a job is being done by scab labor on Irving Park Road in Chicago, where the Bricklayers union was picketing a non-union construction site on April 13, 2010. Photos of the rat are being provided to all striking teachers and other workers by Substance, while union workers figure out how to mass produce the two-story tall rat for the growing use it will receive as schools around the country offer $300 per day for scab "substitute teachers," such as those hired to break the strike in Orange County California since the strike there began on February 22, 2010. Substance photo by Sam Schmidt. Over time, it is difficult to defend school strikes from scabs (and internal betrayal). In some areas, like Crestwood, Michigan, scabbing and betrayal combined to wipe out an entire teaching force that courageously went on strike, then was told by their union bosses they would "win in court," while at the same time the union hacks told the rank and file that the school grounds were too big to really enforce a picket line (despite the fact that dozens of non-teachers joined the lines and held them fairly strong). The Crestwood teachers let the scabs in, and lost in court. Many of them never taught again.

What can we learn?

The courts are not a place where these fights can be settled successfully.

Scabbing cannot be tolerated. One way to stop scabs is to seize buildings. Teachers have keys to the buildings. They buildings are fairly comfortable places. People can bring the school workers food, etc. There are valuable things inside those buildings that bosses don't want destroyed. It's difficult for cops to go in and drag people out of buildings. With cell phones, etc, communication with the outside is easy. Other people can picket outside seized buildings, protecting those inside.

An extension on this tactic is to "reverse strike," that is, to seize the building and invite students inside to conduct real classes, not the daily rubbish that is capitalist schooling, but real education that examines why things are as they are. Why is society offering youth perpetual war and meaningless jobs, or no jobs at all? What can be done about that? It is even more difficult for cops (one armed wing of the ruling class which never goes and hits superintendents on the head for provoking a school worker strike) to attack educators conducting classes with students.

This is a job action primer I wrote some time ago with several other people while working for NEA locals. Since several of us wrote it, it's far more restrained than I am, and it's a bit dated, but it might be helpful for those who are taking up the idea of fighting back in serious way. This little template is no substitute for a concrete grasp of real local, national, and international conditions, nor a substitute for the trusting personal relations that must be developed before and during a job action. Again, this is a fight not a chat. Those who do not want to fight only prepare others for losing. (http://richgibson.com/JOBACTIO.html)

The core issue of our time is the reality of the promise of endless war coupled to booming color-coded inequality--met by the potential of mass, active, class conscious resistance.

Good luck to us, every one.. 

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