Letters...July 5, 2023

Contract pushers out themselves as anti-worker
When all the union chapters under one high school campus united to discuss the new proposed contract (see page 3), my naive self didn’t expect the union leaders to attack rank-and-file workers for merely raising concerns. I also didn’t expect so much dissent, which goes to show how we should never underestimate the working class.

Every rank-and-file member who spoke raised a reasonable concern: no livable wages for paraprofessionals, inflation, cuts to healthcare, privatization, and more.

One of the union heads who is also part of  the NYC Central Labor Council showed up to defend the contract and later apologized “if I sound defensive.” The district leader kept interrupting and began shaming workers who are vocal for “not being active.” I told him to stop blaming the victim. The contract pushers and their bed-partner politicans are not our friends!

When given room, people reveal themselves. The union leadership’s contract was correctly critcized for, in the words of many education workers, “throwing us crumbs,” being “threatened, pressured, and rushed” to sign “without knowing our healthcare details’ “and being a “business union” instead of a “social justice union.” The misleadership had to listen when I finally got the chance to speak uninterrupted:

Many of us have said the union should be representing us workers but they sound more like another managerial boss who just wants to keep us in line…I agree with my co-worker here who said, ‘we don’t need another boss.’ If the richest city in the richest country can’t meet the needs of the U.S.’s largest education system, this just further exposes how absolutely hollow the union leadership is and how none of these capitalist institutions can meet our basic basic needs.

Listen, we are not dumb…when a pay cut is being sold as a wage increase, that’s an insult to our labor. But more importantly, what about students and parents? That’s who we are here for. Where are the ‘social justice’ and ‘common good’ demands? The remote option [that you are lauding] is an assembly line model to funnel kids out of the system as fast as possible.

What we really need is more support for the influx of refugee students, resources to meet special needs of all students, fighting the push-out of Black and Latin students, the de facto segregation of schools, smaller class sizes and bigger mental support services, and a living wage for paraprofessionals. Otherwise, this is a racist contract. I’m not even saying anything radical yet. This is the bare minimum.

You keep saying ‘that’s the way it is,’ and expect us to just take it. What we are all saying is ‘the way it is isn’t working for us.”In the heat of the moment, I didn’t think to end with, “a racist system that can’t meet students’ and workers’ needs does not deserve to exist.

Many education workers—some from the other schools—approached me later to thank me for “speaking up.” When we are isolated, it’s easy to think “maybe it’s just me.”

But when we unite, the truth is undeniable. And that’s why the union misleaders kept interrupting and getting defensive—they are threatened by just the potential of a united working class that realizes their power.

If the UFT misleaders are threatened by just a few questions, imagine their shock when we organize for real. Imagine the might of family-worker-student unity.

The next day, I distributed the Progressive Labor Party flyer against the contract and invited some to a communist fundraiser. The brouhaha of the meeting became a conversation starter with many other co-workers.

When we speak up, it invites the passive antiracists to also speak up and build working-class unity. There is usually more support for pro-communist ideas than we give our class credit for. Having confidence in our people—parents, students, workers—to act in the interest of our class is key.Whether or not the contract passes, this fledgling  group of education workers are learning what it means to serve the working class. It means to unite our class, fight back, expose the phonies and enemies,  and build a better world.
*****
For Oscar, prove power of our class
This latest Juneteenth, workers are still fighting the fascist bosses over the racist capture and deportation of our class brothers and sisters across state borders. Monday June 19th, I went to a rally hosted by the Cosecha Movement encouraging workers and youth to challenge the deportation of Oscar. He was snatched by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after he was accidentally driven across the Canadian border while on the road for work. As I stood in the crowd, one of the organizers struggled with me to speak. I empathize with the pain of Oscar’s family and shared the following:

For those of us who have attained a legal status, many can understand, though it is difficult to fight for, that papers will not protect us from the growing wars and fascism of the bosses. Deportations are symptoms of it…Organizing for a longtime, many have developed a cynicism of why call on the liberal politicians to tell them…, “If you are good Democrats show us.” That prevents some of us from building the type of fightback that Oscar and his family need…though we understand that the only thing that will stop the bosses’ growing war and fascism is to take the bosses’ power over their states. But that is something that takes millions of workers.

Every time we launch fightbacks [such as those] against deportation it reveals tools to build that…By getting our loved ones together to challenge the politicians we can also struggle to win them to see that what is primarily protecting Oscar is not the power of the Democratic liberal politicians [or prayer]. It’s not that they’re doing us a favor, it’s not that if they stop the deportation it means we can support them, that we can have confidence in them, that they are not as bad as other Democrats or Republicans. Instead what we can prove is the power of our class. So that in the future we can better respond to [broader attacks needed in preparation for their wars]…On that basis we will rip state power from the hands of the bosses. That will take…time. We can begin today by leaving this demonstration…and mobilizing those around us. Much gratitude to Oscar’s family who dared to fight back and opened the struggle to the rest of us.

Workers are being won to recognize our power as a multiracial class. Seeing this as the only force able to stop both liberal and openly fascist bosses’ from using their state to enact the material racist differential treatment embodied in such attacks as the increasing quotas of deportation. So too, can workers be won to see that it is that same class conscious power and level of organization that will make common workers’ seizure of state power through communist revolution inevitable.

We must fight our cynicism and depression through this historical period of dark night to join these fights that will accelerate workers’ confidence over these communist ideas more sharply.
*****
Racist ideas are deadly
The inspiring report on fighting biologic racism reported in the last issue of CHALLENGE was an excellent example of how serious collective work over years can win an important reform while developing the understanding of the need for revolution among our co-workers. The article makes a point about how structural racism in the U.S., built over centuries from the time of slavery, also hurts white workers.

Come to think of it, it’s no coincidence that the one rich capitalist country without universal health care today is the U.S. Obviously this hurts white workers and Black workers alike. The economic foundation laid in England’s North American colonies in the 1600s and 1700s was wealth extracted from the unpaid labor of kidnapped Africans brought to these shores. In 1776 those colonies, with their extensive set of racist ideas, customs and laws, became the United States of America. Racial divisions seen in the U.S. today date from that special history. No wonder despite a desperate need for a system of universal medical care, the population in the U.S. can’t develop sufficient unity across “race” lines to demand it. Racism truly hurts all workers, even though the worst abuse is reserved for Black workers.
*****
Murder by imperialism: refugee boat sinks
Migrants fleeing wars, starvation and climate change disasters attempt life threatening journeys from crossing the Mediterranean Sea to walking thousands of miles to reach the Mexico/U.S. border. On Wednesday, June 14 up to 750 migrants (Reuters), including many women and as many as 100 children, were locked in a hold below deck, when the overloaded boat sank in deep waters 50 miles from the Greek shore. The boat had left Libya bound for Italy. On Tuesday and Wednesday they reported distress but no rescue operation was launched. 104 men were finally rescued, including from Egypt, Syria, Pakistan and Palestine. 78 men were reported dead and ALL the others missing, one of the worst drownings in the Mediterranean in recent years! Protests erupted across Greece on Wednesday and Thursday as thousands took to the streets against the horrific deaths and the failure of the Greek government to respond to the distress signals (Al Jazeera). We in the Progressive Labor Party are outraged. Workers of the world must unite to fight back. Protesters in Greece lead the way! Join the long term struggle for communist revolution to free our class from racist genocide.