I attended a rally called by the Castro Valley Teacher's Association yesterday. CVTA is affiliated to the NEA, the largest Union in the US. Castro Valley, is a small unincorporated town east of Oakland CA and, like all school districts, it is facing cuts.
The support for teachers and against cuts in education was made clear by the constant honking of car horns throughout the rally. For more than an hour, the noise at the busy intersection didn't stop. Youth, parents and teachers were out there.
The school board meets tonight and is recommending cuts. Like all local bodies of this type, the school board has no plan for fighting back, only a damage control policy. They accept, as all the politicians do, that there is only so much money and their job is to dole it out as best as they can.
If we are to stop this offensive of capital we have to reject their reality, reject their budget, and build a generalized working class movement against it demanding what we need and not what they say is realistic. Some of us handed out a flier that was well received. (see previous blog)
Like every struggle over the past period, even those with massive public support, the Union leaders will find some way of snatching defeat from any jaws that indicate a victory might be possible. Part of the problem of course is that their starting point is retreat, is to accept that cuts are inevitable. Consequently, they never place any demands on the table other than concessions.
Because they are wedded to the market and see no alternative to capitalism, they are terrified of increasing worker's expectations or mobilizing their members as it can only lead to chaos.
The crisis has not played its course yet mind you and I think we will see increasing hot spots where workers begin to go on the offensive, incuding aginst the obstacle of their own leadership.
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