Beware of Bosses’ School ‘Reform’ Schemes Philly Rulers’ Attack on Teachers Will Hit All Workers

PHILADELPHIA, April 20 — Workers across the country are being forced to supposedly “share” the sacrifices by giving up raises,  benefits,  pensions,  and even their unions!  There are some differences among the ruling class as to how the attack should be carried out (out-right smashing of unions as in Wisconsin vs. using the sellouts to “only” roll-back wages and benefits) but in the end,  all of the ruling-class plans will be devastating to workers.

Here in Philly,  the main brunt of the attack is on teachers.  Teachers are being blamed for lousy test scores and the general deterioration of education.  The offensive against teachers is more than “just another group of workers being singled out for punishment.”  They are a key part of the bosses’ anti-communist arsenal.  The schools both teach and reinforce all of the anti-worker lies that the ruling class wants the next generation of workers to learn:  (1) anti-communism,  the bosses’ trump card in destroying worker fight-backs,  (2) racism,  the key to worker disunity,  (3) individualism,  the basic philosophy of capitalism,  and (4) patriotism, loyalty to the ruling-class government.

While the bosses need the schools to miss-educate the working class,  they can no longer afford the expense that requires.  As a result,   it is vital that teacher salaries,  benefits,  and pensions be drastically reduced.  Here are some of the ways this is being done in Pennsylvania (and Philadelphia in particular):

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France: Bosses’ Divisive Strategy Victimizes Hard-Hat Strikers

PARIS, April 15 — Construction workers here have won an illusionary “victory” against Eiffage Construction and Eiffage Public Works, two subsidiaries of the country’s third-largest construction company. A two-week strike brought an overall 2% wage “increase,” which is no increase at all given a 2% inflation rate over the past year, which meant a wage-cut for those workers awarded a 1.7% hike.

The strike froze work on a score of construction sites in Paris and on the 282-million-euro (US $385 million) Great Stadium in Lille. It came within legally-mandated annual wage negotiations.

“It’s the first time that a strike has gone on this long against this company, which makes fat profits but never gives anything to its workers,” said a union spokesman.

The workers had been demanding an 85-euro (US $115) across-the-board hike, averaging to a 3% increase. (An across-the-board pay hike narrows the gap between the highest- and lowest-paid workers, whereas a flat percentage raise widens the gap. Unions here generally demand across-the-board increases.)

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Join the PLP and make a RED entrance at…

MAY DAY 2011

NYC MAY DAY 2010

Los Angeles: Sunday, May 1^st at 11:00am

W 12^th street and W Broadway  

San Francisco: Sunday, May 1st at 11:00am

24th  Street and Mission St

New York City: Sunday, May 1^st, 2011 at 12:00 PM

Chatham Square (intersection of Bowery and Park Row)

Chicago: Sunday, May 1^st, at 2:30pm

Union Park (intersection of Lake St And Ashland Ave)

PLP’s Ideas Inspire Workers from Senegal At Harlem Protest

NEW YORK CITY, March 19 — “Abdoulaye Wade, dictator!” and “Wade, degage!” [Wade, get out!] rang out through Harlem. Over 100 Senegalese workers, inspired by the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, participated in a demonstration of their own against the flagrantly corrupt president of Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade. Since the PLP convention last August, our PLP club has built a small presence in the West African community of Harlem. A comrade and I were at a Senegalese cafe in the neighborhood when we heard the commotion about the demonstration forming at 116th Street and Lenox Avenue.

Abdoulaye Wade was elected president in a coalition of electoral parties called the “Sopi Coalition” [“Sopi” is Wolof — an indigenous language spoken by many workers in west Africa — for “Change,”] in 2000. Eight years before Barack Obama ran for president in the United States, Wade promised sweeping reforms after 40 years of the corrupt, governing Socialist Party.

Steals $3.4 Billion

It was recently revealed that over the past ten years since the election, Wade stole over 1.6 trillion francs (about $3.4 billion USD) from the government treasury, including $400 million for a new private jet that previously belonged to French president Nicholas Sarkozy, who upgraded to a better jet himself. Wade, who is 84 years old and sick, refitted the jet with a state-of-the-art hospital clinic staffed by French doctors and nurses and (perhaps wisely) insists that only French pilots be allowed to fly the jet.

The workers at the demonstration added to the list of abuses under Wade. According to a recent article, when a journalist recently accused him of looting the government treasury, Wade retorted, “at least I admit I’m using the money!” Wade’s son, Karim, is Minister of State for International Corporations, Minister of Regional Development, Minister of Regional Transportation, and Minister of Infrastructure. Meanwhile, other attacks include:

2.5 million workers in the capital, Dakar, suffer electricity blackouts for four hours a day;

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Imperialists vs.Tea Partiers: Bosses’ Budget Brawl Masks Rulers’ Dogfight over War Needs

Obama averted a government shutdown on April 8 by brokering a flimsy budget compromise between two increasingly hostile camps of U.S. capitalists.

One is composed of imperialists who need ever-expanding and more costly U.S. wars. This faction’s power and wealth depend on forcibly reasserting its once almighty control of the world’s energy trade. Until 1975, Exxon, Mobil and Chevron — descendants of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil colossus — (along with ally Texaco) legally owned all of Saudi Arabia’s unsurpassed oil reserves. But today, rival oil and gas barons in China, Russia and Iran, unrest in the Arab world, and al Qaeda threaten the empire headed by U.S. flagship Exxon Mobil.

So, from Libya to Afghanistan, the U.S. war machine seeks to rescue the Rockefeller-Exxon wing of U.S. capitalists, at a cost of trillions of workers’ tax dollars; 27% of everyone’s federal taxes go to pay for these wars, which consume more than half of the Federal Budget.

On the other side of the split stand smaller, domestically-oriented bosses like oil billionaires Charles and David Koch, who consider war taxes an unnecessary burden. They rally popular support by bankrolling the anti-tax Tea Party. Koch Industries’ big new project, a proposed 900,000 barrel-per-day pipeline from Alberta, Canada, to Texas won’t require paying one dime for a single aircraft carrier, bomber or soldier. By contrast, Exxon’s newfound gushers in Iraq [see box] help explain why U.S. “Defense” chief Gates “suggested that American troops could remain [t]here for years.” (San Francisco Chronicle, 4/10)

Each side in this ruling-class divide, highlighted by the budget battle, employs think-tanks to organize opinion among fellow capitalists and mislead the working class. The Cato Institute, founded and funded by the Kochs, decries the U.S. invasion of Libya; calls for halving the Pentagon’s financing; and supported the government shutdown Obama sidestepped. The U.S. war machine does relatively little for the Kochs and allied minor-league bosses.

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NYS Teachers Convention: Rank and File Ready to Fight — ‘Leadership’ Not

NEW YORK CITY, April 7 — The hall was packed with 2,500 New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) delegates, many from districts plagued by budget cuts and layoffs. Usually soft-spoken union President Ianuzzi opened the assembly by leading chants of, “This is what democracy looks like!” and “We are all Wisconsin!” But Ianuzzi & Co. have no plans to lead workers in fighting back.

He proudly showed pictures of himself speaking in Wisconsin but New York labor leaders did not organize the rank and file to support that struggle. When he reported that 180,000 NYSUT workers (one-third of the membership) from Buffalo to NYC were working under long-expired contracts, someone yelled, “Well, what are we going to do about it?”

The main speakers at the convention and at a Saturday outdoor rally spoke about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer but made no criticism whatsoever of billionaire Mayor Bloomberg or millionaire Governor Cuomo! 

A weekend highpoint was a workshop, “From Wisconsin to New York — Building the Struggle,” organized by the American Federation of Teachers Peace and Justice Caucus. The main speaker, a teaching assistant from Madison, Wisconsin, gave a detailed report about the attacks Wisconsin public workers faced and how they organized the occupation of the Capitol.

Two NYC school workers reported how parents, teachers and students were fighting the privatization of public schools, noting its racist nature, given that the students were overwhelmingly black and Latino and suffering disproportionately from these attacks.

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Drivers, Riders Unite vs. Service Cuts, Fare Hikes

SAN FRANCISCO-OAKLAND BAY AREA, April 9 — “I really don’t have a problem raising the price of the youth pass.” These were the words of one of the AC Transit Board of Directors last month, as they discussed a range of plans to raise bus fares. How insulting! These are the bus passes that kids need to get to school!

The bus already costs $2 a ride, plus 25 cents for a 1-use transfer. On top of that, service was cut 15 percent in 2010, stranding many passengers and leading to longer waits and crowded buses. Where else but public transit can you get away with charging much more for less and worse service?

Several transit activists and transit workers attended the meeting and spoke out against the proposed fare increases: “You say there’s no money. Why don’t you go talk to Chevron?” said one speaker. Another commented, “It’s ironic that you talk about honoring Rosa Parks with a poster — if Rosa Parks were here, she would be disgusted by these proposals. It’s not about whether you sit in the front or back of the bus, but about whether there’s even a bus at all to catch!” These fare increases will have a racist and anti-working class effect as they hit our riders who are around 70% low income.

Unfortunately, there were very few in attendance (perhaps 15 passengers and nine transit workers). It will take much, much more pressure to slow down these major attacks on the ridership. Our union leadership says they are in favor of this type of activism, but they didn’t even put out a memo to the members, letting them know about this board meeting!

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‘Education’ in France: Layoff Protest Hit By Riot Cops’ Clubs, Tear Gas

BESANCON, FRANCE, April 6 — Riot police attacked 500 parents, teachers and high school students with riot clubs and tear gas during a peaceful demonstration outside the board of education protesting teaching staff layoffs in this city of 117,000.

The action was called by Federation of Councils of Parents of Pupils (equivalent to the Parent-Teacher Association [PTA] in the U.S.). The demonstrators chanted, blew on whistles and beat saucepans with wooden spoons. When a long-distance coach drove down the narrow street, the crowd was forced to surge towards the police, who immediately reacted violently.

Some parents had brought small children. One two-year-old child’s eyes went all red and was seized with a fit of trembling.

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1,000 March vs. Indiana’s Fascist Anti-Immigrant Law

EAST CHICAGO, INDIANA, April 2 — Today, a large multi-racial group of nearly 1,000  people  marched against SB 590, the proposed state anti-immigrant law. This may have been the largest protest in this part of Indiana in decades, demonstrating that the working-class is ready to fight back.

The bill, similar to Arizona’s racist SB 1070, would allow local police to question and potentially detain individuals who they “suspect” to be “illegal.” In fact, the Indiana bill even exceeds the Arizona bill. Indiana’s bill would require that only English be used in a variety of public and formal settings. The bill also enables the state to maintain its independence of federal law, something that slowed the enactment of Arizona’s law.

The demonstration, named “La Gran Marcha (The Great March),” was organized mainly through numerous different churches and immigrant rights coalitions in northern Indiana and had a distinctly religious tone. Numerous bishops and religious leaders dominated the michrophones during the opening rally, leading chants with slogans such as “Somos el pueblo de Dios (We are the people of God).”

Though church leaders organized the bulk of  the demonstrators, the contingent of PL’ers and allies projected a communist perspective, countering the church leaders’ dead-end liberal reformist “solution.” Signs expressing the need for international working-class solidarity were proudly held high, in stark contrast to the few U.S. and Indiana state flags being waved. During lulls in the religious hymns, chants of “Obreros unidos jamas seran vencidos!” won a positive response.

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Japan Quake: Rail Union Raps Bosses’ System of Profits First, Workers Last

JAPAN, March 24 — The reaction of Japan’s capitalist government to the disaster unfolding in that country reflects the horrors of a system that puts profits before workers, a fact that has spurred Japan’s rail union into mass protests.

While the ensuing controversy over the possibility of a nuclear disaster continues to unfold, the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) has confirmed that 27,000 people are dead or missing following the recent earthquake and tsunami that hit Northeast Japan on March 11. The  situation has become dire for over 200,000 living in temporary shelters (mostly in school gymnasiums) with limited access to hot meals, fresh water, adequate hygienic utilities or medicine, amid outbreaks of influenza and other contagious diseases. All this particularly affects the elderly who comprise a large percentage of the evacuee population.

NHK reports that many hospitals have had to move patients into shelters, which has also increased the risk of disease and death to those already housed there.

The most immediate threat is the continual decline of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, which the Japanese government and the operators of the plant, Tokyo Electric Power Corporation, (TEPCO) have been unable to control. A significant amount of radioactive material has leaked from the plant and into soil and drinking water within a large radius which has forced restrictions on local produce. NHK website reports, “Efforts to cool the plants are being hampered by the leakage of highly radioactive materials” which have forced rescue operators to abandon some of the reactors.

Shell Game Downplays Profit System’s Role

As local officials, the Japanese government and TEPCO play the blame shell game among each other about the possibility of a nuclear disaster little has been said about the system which has produced the problem in the first place: capitalism.

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