Oakland Strike exposes capitalist education in crisis

BAY AREA, June 7—In the interest of the “common good” (read: pro-student and class-solidarity demands), over 3,000 education workers went on an eight-day strike against the Oakland Unified School District. Communists in the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) went to picket lines at schools where we knew striking teachers to build solidarity, raise class consciousness, and communicate communist ideas.

From May 4 to 15, these workers honored the picket line, 34,000+ students were out of schools, parents & students joined the picketing and rank-and-file teachers set up solidarity schools for younger children of working parents. A Temporary Agreement (TA) for 2.5 years was signed late Sunday night on the 7th day for a return to school on Tuesday.

The school bosses used legal tactics to create planned Chaos, “delay, deny and blame the victim,” all typical strike-breaking tactics. The contract expired in Oct 2022. Finally, Oakland Education Association (OEA) called a strike in May due to unfair bargaining practices; a “legal” cover for immediate action rather than months of fact finding. This was after a rank-and-file caucus carried out a one-day wildcat strike in March, mainly in high schools, and demanded a 50-person bargaining committee to be responsible to the membership.

What did we learn? What did we teach?
PLP went in solidarity with and to learn from the strikers: how did they view their struggle and the world that produced it?  We learned that conditions in and out of the schools had many teachers talking about the problems of capitalism, but that they did not have a full explanation of “why are things so bad?”
We learned that the Oakland R&F Caucus understands working class power: “We are…committed to transforming the Oakland Education Association into a democratic, member-led union that fights for high-quality schools for all.”

One big lesson developed during the previous teachers’ strike in 2019 when teachers organized with members of the ILWU (International Longshore and Warehouse Union)  to shut down the Port of Oakland. The California Teachers’ Association (CTA) sabotaged this action due to fear of being sued for a secondary boycott. Building on that experience, that’s when teachers led the wildcat strike.

During this strike, teachers shut down OUSD (Oakland Unified School District) construction of a new administration building costing $57 million to point out the hypocrisy that $57 million is needed to upgrade the schools, not produce a fancy building for the administration. Many construction workers on site supported this one-day shutdown). They kept the strikers informed on progress and mobilized parent support.

Racism part and parcel of capitalism
The strike’s demands addressed conditions for teachers and students. OUSD is one of the lowest paid districts in the Bay Area, which creates difficulty recruiting and retaining teachers and staff. Schools with the largest population of working-class Black, Latin, immigrant, Indigenous, disabled and special needs students had the most unmet needs, had unhoused families and deteriorated physical plants. For example, one teacher said, “The school’s buildings” have  “lead in the soil and a rat and mice infestation in the classrooms, and they’re concerned about lead in the water.”

Years of school closings, charter school privatization, and real estate profit-motivated displacement had increased these disparities and overcrowding in these neighborhoods. This goes along with imperialist-war related education cutbacks.

A district spokesperson said “the district has a total of $3.4 billion in upgrades and other changes that must happen to get all schools upgraded and modernized.”  OEA’s common good proposals are “far too costly for the district to handle” and should not be included in any collective bargaining agreement (KQED, 5/12).

Developing class consciousness
On the picket line, PLP members discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the reform struggle. We distributed CHALLENGE with a report from the Los Angeles teachers strike, and international news of class struggle to those who were interested and planned follow up activity after the strike. Many events in this strike showed that workers can oraganizr figure out how to run things for the benefit of the whole working class where humans strive to collectively build a world of equity; based on production for need, not for profit. That system is communism. A teacher reported on the strike at our PLP May Day celebration.

One of our goals was to support and expand on the class consciousness in the “common good” demands. At one school, an AFSCME member struggled with coworkers to honor the picket line. Students from a solidarity school joined the picket line with their own chants. This was an opening to bring up the history of Industrial Unionism. The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was founded with the leadership of the Communist Party USA that organized for everyone in an industry to be in the same union. In Oakland in 1947, transit worker solidarity with striking retail workers sparked a general strike.

Such history helped develop an understanding of capitalism’s stratified wage system using racism, sexism and anti-immigrant ideology. This lowers wages for all. These ideas made sense even though some teachers had never heard of the CIO.

Imperialism and finance capitalism on display
Our PLP picket signs addressed the war budget, imperialism and privatization with charter schools increasing segregation. They were well received (see picture) and we had many conversations about the decline of U.S. capitalism, imperialist wars with rivals, mainly China, over control of labor, natural resources, markets, and even the threat of replacing the dollar as the world currency.

We brought up that finance capital has been moving into the public sector to secure tax money to make up for shrinking profits in other areas. Privatization includes charter schools, the testing industry, and an army of “private” consultants and NGOs (non government organizations).

The Wall St Journal directly attacked the teachers and belittled the “common good” demands: “the teachers’ union strike that is holding children hostage in the name of climate and housing for the homeless…  How about “remedying the enormous learning deficits the union has caused by protecting bad teachers and closing schools during the pandemic?” (WSJ, May 9).

We explained that the WSJ represents finance capitalists who understand the danger when workers move away from business unionism or electing Democrats to develop working-class solidarity social justice unions. This can unleash the united working class to challenge capitalist rule; like back in the day when communists developed class solidarity against capitalism and fought for communism.

The role of liberal reformers                                                                                                           
During the strike, we had the opportunity to discuss the role of the liberal reformers who led the vicious attack and echoed the call to exclude common good demands from the contract. Many teachers agreed that voting for a leader who is a lesser evil, has personal credentials including identity politics, is a deadend when that individual accepts the limits set by capitalists’ budgets.

Superintendent of OUSD Kyla Johnson-Trammell (salary $452,500/yr)  grew up an Oakland student, taught 25 yrs in OUSD, agreed with WSJ:  teachers “should not hold children’s learning hostage or deprive students of the services that schools provide.” One teacher told us that a poster exposing Kyla was controversial since she is Black.

President of the Oakland School Board, Mike Hutchison, promotes himself as an “OEA Baby,” product of Oakland schools with his mother aOUSD teacher, and an organizer fighting school closings/ budget cuts. He attacked “items that are outside of the scope of the contract, which are basically compensation and work conditions, are not going to be negotiated…Common Good proposals... do not belong in the contract language…” (The Oaklandside, 5/8).

We discussed: Why do liberal politicians and leaders end up attacking working-class teachers and students? Is it personality? Ego? Many teachers recognized that the memorandum of understanding makes the OEA leadership a partner with OUSD to administer shrinking tax dollars that will continue to produce failed solutions to the issue of housing, school closing, community school funding, and racist conditions. We agreed with the activist teacher organizers that such a partnership would try to stop direct rank-and-file actions, like future wildcat strikes, or port shutdowns.

These partners could use corporate laws to justify firing, jailing, and legal suits for damages and school closures. Capitalism in decline won’t provide the money for an equitable education for the working class.
                                                                                                  
Capitalism attacks those who dare to struggle. Class solidarity and revolutionary potential grow when we dare to win!