The struggle in Oakland, California is heating up! The last couple of weeks have been action packed as the multi-racial working class, students, teachers, parents and community supporters, has mobilized against on-going, racist plans to dismantle public education from k-12 to Community College. In the following three instances, Progressive Labor Party members and friends are actively promoting communist ideas, as they fight for better schools.
**
No More Chances for the Chancellor
January 17—As Oakland teachers gear up for a potential strike, Laney College and Peralta District staff put the bosses’ minions and cowardly unions on notice. A contingent of faculty at Laney Community College riled up the crowd at a pre-semester gathering and faced down the Chancellor. 300 members of the morning audience stood up, turned their backs for 30 seconds, and chanted along with us, “When education is under attack, what do we do? Stand up! Fight back!” Even though the chancellor was flanked by three large Alameda County Sheriffs, a cowardly boss tactic, the courageous workers did not back down and set the tone for the new semester. We cannot allow the status quo abuse to continue without causing a ruckus and hoped our action would spark more fight back.
For years now, the Chancellor has funneled money for needed classes and programs to hire chums and associates in the usual administrative shell gaming of public funds. A year ago, a collective of staff, students, community and at the last minute, union members campaigned to help defeat his attempts to sell district land to the Oakland A’s baseball team. He’s a true capitalist school boss, unapologetic, and as we say in the Bay, really “feelin’ himself.”
This fightback was discussed about a month ago. It was popularly received by a large part of the local union but it took the leadership of some teachers to turn talk into action. Despite the lack of time, we organized: created & printed a leaflet which documented the chancellor’s well known abuses, blasted fight tunes and crafted handmade signs.
Days later, the Chancellor tried to contain the damage and “flip the script” of this bold action with an email to the staff in the four Colleges in the Peralta Community College District. He called for unity “to institute a new culture” a New Peralta Way. Many know that this “unity” is garbage. The Chancellor’s “culture” is to destabilize the curriculum so students can’t get needed courses for graduation, create “debt peonage” among students who can’t afford the fees, destroy adjunct teaching positions with part-timing and drive dedicated teachers out of a job with below subsistence wages.
**
Oakland Unified School District, Ready to Strike!
January 18—Teachers and students from five Oakland high schools staged a sick out/wildcat rally and march on Oakland Unified SchoDistrict (OUSD). Not officially sectioned by the Oakland Education Association (OEA) meant that this action, like the previous wildcat, represented rank and file teachers on the move organizing at the school level and reaching out to students and families. “Ready to Strike” was the theme of the day. As we distributed over sixty Challenges, PLP members learned that many teachers in Oakland are committed to schools for the common good just like the teachers in Los Angeles(LA). They understand that teachers’ teaching conditions are students learning conditions. Students and parents both talked about how the high turnover rate of Oakland teachers was due to unsustainable pay, housing insecurity and arbitrary administration decision to “non reelect” teachers after one or two years.
**
Workers & students dig deep to keep Roots Academy open
January 23—Teachers, parents and students from Roots Academy shut down the OUSD to stop school closing. Citing Budget problems, “empty seats” and “under enrollment”, OUSD plans to close 24 schools over the next years while they process “public” Charter School applications to use “empty classroom” on public school sites.
Roots Academy is the first on the chopping block. Closing Roots is the epitome of institutional racism and displacement; it is a predominately Black and Latin school in the working class neighborhood of East Oakland, which is also subject to foreclosures, evictions, and profiteering in the housing market. The board’s “experts” have cited Roots as a “failing school.”
The bureaucratic drivel about following Board procedure and listening to the staff recommendations to close the school did not impress the students as they continued to denounce the board. A few days later at a special meeting packed again with Roots supporters—OUSD racist Board of Ed voted to close Roots Academy. OEA plans a legal challenge and the Roots community vowed that the struggle continues.
In the midst of these battles, PLP held a study/action meeting (see letter, page 6) on education under capitalism. We hoped to better prepare ourselves to marry the immediate fight against the destabilizing, privatization and re-segregation of education for the working class with the long-range goal of building an egalitarian communist world.