CHICAGO, June 14 — At 6 am on a Tuesday morning hundreds of teachers and supporters picketed the downtown offices of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) before work. Later that day, the Board of Education passed a resolution allowing schools CEO Ron Huberman to increase class size and fire teachers. The demonstrators were sending a message that they intended to fight any increase in class size. As one sign put it: “When you cut teachers, students bleed.”
The demonstration came on the heels of a hotly-contested election for union officers that resulted in a victory for the reform Caucus of Rank and File Educators (CORE). CORE has a history of fighting the Board on behalf of school workers and students.
The current fight against increased class size is one fraught with both danger and opportunity, as are all reform struggles. The danger is in thinking that the working class has the power to stop the ruling class from implementing their plan to further destroy the education received by the predominately black and Latino students who attend Chicago schools.
The ruling class runs the show, with their legal system, their media and their power to both hire and fire workers. Any working-class victories will be limited and short-lived.
The opportunity, on the other hand, is that class struggle, as Lenin said, can be a “school for communism.” It appears that these struggles may be increasing. Four thousand teachers and supporters took over the streets on May 25. Three hundred came to the June 15 early morning picket on only one day’s notice (the Board meeting was an “emergency” meeting called at the last minute). Twelve thousand out of 20,000 Chicago Teachers Union members voted for an activist, militant caucus to lead the union. If communists in the struggle do their job, many of these workers can learn the truth of our analysis from the reform struggle.
PLP members have been active in all of these struggles. At the May 25 demonstration, we urged participants to consider the extreme racism of the CPS system and to realize that racism and capitalism are tied together and must be fought together. More than 50 years past Brown vs. Board of Education (to “integrate” the schools), Chicago schools are still segregated, with African-American schools bearing the brunt of attacks from CPS. Without marshalling our working-class forces together with the aim of overthrowing the profit system, any gains we make in the struggle will be temporary.
PLP members have been active in the CORE caucus since its beginning two years ago. The caucus is filled with young and old, black, Latino and white activist education workers who want to fight for a better world, particularly in the educational sphere. During the election campaign, hundreds of CORE members went to other schools to speak to fellow unionists, not just about voting for CORE, but also about educational issues facing us such as: fighting the proposed layoffs, school closings and turnarounds, high stakes tests and issues at the local school level.
The incumbents in the election ran a nasty campaign based on lies and red-baiting. One campaign flier threatened that the “militant idealist socialist” CORE would go on strike immediately and the union would be destroyed. Because CORE has organized alliances with parents, students, and community groups, the incumbents claimed that if CORE won, they would turn the union into a community organization.
Interestingly, the red-baiting was countered by many members who thought the union would be better off if led by militants. This is not to say that a sophisticated red-baiting campaign could not be successful, but it does indicate a potential openness to communist ideas.
The next three years (CORE’s term of office) promise to be interesting and exciting times for union members, parents and students to learn first-hand about fighting back, the brutality of the ruling class, the limits of reform, and the possibility for a new communist world.