DEDHAM, October 25—A hundred-year-old law makes teachers’ strikes illegal in Massachusetts. But Dedham teachers voted to strike anyway—248 to two. It’s this kind of courage that the working class needs to challenge anti-worker laws and put workers on a fight-back footing.
Although reformist, strikes show the potential of working-class unity and strength. When education workers fight for better working conditions, they are in practice also fighting for better learning conditions for students.
Teachers’ working conditions are students’ learning conditions
Dedham teachers struck for a strong anti-sexual harassment policy in the contract; for a better healthcare package; for wage increases to make up for the $4,000 per year healthcare deductible imposed in the previous contract; and for a system-wide policy to help students learn by cutting classroom cellphone use.
The teachers were also fed up with the arrogant disrespect from the administration.
Just as West Virginia teachers illegally struck last year, education workers must strike over what they and their students need, legal or not.  Capitalist laws are written to keep workers down.
 We communists in Progressive Labor Party (PLP) are fighting for workers’ rule: a world free from exploitation and oppression. That means revolution and  for that we need to break the bosses’ laws.
Hundreds supported the strikers
Hundreds of union members from across the state, and many parents and students, attended a big support rally on October 26. PLP members walked the picket lines, and, in a small victory, met an educator who may work with us.
Not all issues were covered by the strike. Paraprofessionals and substitutes are poorly paid. And although paras and subs are on strike, they were not even able to vote to strike (they have a separate union).
The union must fight harder for the lowest-paid school workers including substitutes.  Higher substitute pay would mean Dedham could hire enough subs, so teachers wouldn’t have to cover classes for absent teachers.
A tentative agreement was drawn up after one day of striking, and the members were sent back to work before the proposed four year contract was ratified. The 10-15 percent raise over four years won’t even cover the ­­healthcare deductible. Such is the nature of union misleadership. They accept minor reforms and then funnel the rank-and-file back into the classroom.
Chicago teachers, who just ended an 11-day strike, have shown that fighting for students, demanding nurses and social workers in every school, fighting for services for immigrant and homeless students, is the way to win.
 Parent-student-teacher unity is the key to fighting for decent schools! But in the capitalist system, reform victories can always be taken away. Winning means building the communist movement and the organization that embodies it, the PLP.