Former IDF soldier and Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel |
By Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired
Rahm Emanuel, friend of Obama and mayor of Chicago is having
an easy time destroying public education in the Windy City, made all the easier
when the leadership of the teacher’s union is so cooperative when it comes to
handing over their members’ wages and benefits and a community resource.
Chicago’s schools and the education of working class
children is being devastated by the same forces that are waging a war on the
Greeks and a war on Detroit.. "School
will start, but our ability to hold the impact of finances away from the
classroom, that's going to change," Emanuel is quoted as saying in today’sChicago Tribune. This is his goal
all along.
Tuesday evening his school board agreed to borrow $1 billion
from moneylenders in order to pay some $600 million it owes the teachers
pension fund. In order to pay the loan,
some 1500 jobs will be eliminated as well as other cuts. Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said
at a press conference last week , “We
understand that there is a serious financial problem and we are willing to work
within that framework. We accept that there will be a 0 percent raise. But give
us something to make that 0 percent feel better.” (see the CTU press conference on the
union’s You tube channel here.)
Of course, in other statements Lewis, like most of the union
hierarchy admit that these crises, the lack of social spending and downright
cuts are “manufactured”, is austerity
amid plenty, or to use their phrase, “Broke
on purpose”, but when faced with capitulation or a fight they choose
capitulation. Karen Lewis and the
union’s Vice President, Jesse Sharkey, who is a socialist apparently, both
accept that the cuts have to be made as do all of them. As we have pointed out
on this blog many times in the past, union officials rarely, if ever have to
work under contracts that they and the employers impose on union members,
contracts that are also extremely detrimental to working class children and
communities especially communities of color.
Lewis (left) and Sharkey, Not time for raises. |
Think about the language they use, “we accept that there will be a 0% raise.”, WTF, as they say in
modern day text speak. Jesse Sharkey said on WGN radio, “When we say
‘broke on purpose,’ both parts are important, including the recognition that
CPS is broke. We don’t think it’s a good time to be asking for big raises or really
expensive reforms.”
Haven’t we heard that before? Now’s not the time. During the 1990’s boom
when profits hit a 40-year high and labor was so tight market forces forced
fast food employers to pay above the legal minimum the labor hierarchy mobilized
no one. It is never the time for them. CTA officials also talk of Emanuel and the
board “giving us” this or “giving us” that. The bosses’ have never
“given” workers anything. Workers
have waged heroic struggles against the most brutal opponent in order to bring
us this far and it is the present union leadership that is doing the “giving” handing over the results of
this struggle without a fight.
The employers, their politicians and the hedge fund managers
and other coupon clippers cannot but revel in the glory and how easy it is. The
union officials are joining forces with politicians of both capitalist parties
in attacking workers and our communities. And this comes after Emanuel was
successful in closing 5O schools but there’s more to come as hedge fund owner Ken Griffin, the wealthiest
man in Chicago, wants Emanuel to close another 75, while at the same time
opening private charter schools. Judging by the leadership’s performance so far
this shouldn’t be a problem. The more the union officials give, the more the bosses’ want. The Republican
governor of Illinois, Bruce Rauner is attempting to ban strikes and from what I
understand, my former union, AFSCME, is supporting the legislation.
What lies behind this treachery in the form of open class
collaboration on the part of workers’ leaders is the Team Concept ideology that
I have written about in the past. This
is the view that workers and bosses have the same interests, that it is in our
interest to help the boss compete and win “market
share” from their rivals. In public
employment this takes the form of “competitive
bidding” or did when I was still working. We were told that we have to
compete, have to work more efficiently, which to so-called free market
proponents means eliminating benefits and any workplace control’s workers have input
in so that our work is not contracted out to the private sector.
This has been disaster for workers as we compete with each
other in order to increase the bosses’ welfare.
We cannot build the solidarity and unity necessary to drive back this
offensive of the 1% and build an offensive of our own with this philosophy and
the concessionary strategy and tactics that flow from it. One Chicago teacher
tells Facts For Working People:
“Of course, we can
blame Emanuel and Rauner and their backers for what has transpired. But Karen
Lewis, Jessie Sharkey and those rank-and-file members who are supporting them
have to be held accountable as well. Lewis and Sharkey said they were
blindsided by last night's announcement that 1400 teachers would be laid off.
Are they really that stupid? What did they expect? They spent $5 million trying
to unseat Emanuel. Did they really think that he would not retaliate? While
Lewis and Sharkey's jobs and hefty salaries, benefits and salaries will
continue to be protected, teachers are losing jobs, working conditions are
deteriorating further for those who are left as class sizes increase and
excessive standardized testing continues and they continue to pay union dues.
For what? At this rate, the teachers unions will be destroyed within 10-15
years. And once they have been picked off the transit workers will be next
followed by the firefighters. That will leave a bunch of cops as the only
public sector workers who have union jobs.”
The situation is no doubt bleak. But we have been here
before, much worse in fact. By the early
1930’s the AFL was down to a couple million members. The bosses were on the offensive in the wake
of the Great Depression. Great textile
strikes covering hundreds of thousand of workers were defeated. Then in 1934 we
saw three general strikes in Toledo, Minneapolis and San Francisco, led by the
Mustieites, Trotskyists and the Communist Party respectively. In the Toledo strike the unemployed join the
battle, in Minneapolis, the strike drew
in many other workers other than those directly involved and local farmers as
well. In San Francisco, the Hiring Hall
job list was won liberating the worker from the absolute power of the dock
bosses. Soon after, thousand of auto-workers occupied factories culminating in
the historic 44-day Flint occupation in 1936-37. The AFL-CIO was formed and some 10 million
workers flocked in to the unions in this period.
There are differences today but this is our history. The
bosses’ gave us nothing. Coming on the
heels a victory over the UAW rank and file, it is the public sector that is
next. Some 35% of us are organized in unions compared to under 7% of our
private sector brothers and sisters---bringing that down is the goal of Rahm
Emanuel and his class. At some point the
bosses will not need the present union officials at all and the members
certainly don’t.
Despite the setbacks, the labor movement in Chicago is
potentially the most powerful force in that city. The Chicago Labor Council has
some 300 affiliated locals. This body has the potential to shut down this major
US city. We know the present labor
leadership will not mobilize this power; in fact they suppress it. In the Waste
Management strike here in San Leandro Calif. we had Teamster officials and the
management escorting Teamster drivers across the waste material sorter’s picket
lines. This is how bad it is.
But beyond Emanuel and the likes of Lewis and Sharkey we
have to say that the rank and file also has a responsibility. We cannot
continue to sit back. We cannot continue
to complain about the present situation and avoid a political confrontation
with the stifling bureaucracy that sits atop organized labor. We cannot avoid a fight any longer. Opposition
caucuses must be built at the rank and file level that openly challenge and
campaigns against the present leadership and its policies. Yes, the obscene
salaries and jobs for life in many cases are a problem. But it their
ideological bankruptcy that is at the root of their betrayals. Opposition caucuses that we build must also
reach in to our communities and draw them in to the battle. We must take
positions on international affairs and build links there. We must openly discuss and take on sexism,
racism and other divisions that weaken working class unity. The absence of the
voice of organized labor in the increased murder and terrorist attacks on
African Americans is criminal.
We must avoid being overly optimistic. We are in a struggle
against a powerful enemy and, as Warren Buffet said, his class is winning. The
influence of radical forces that were around in the 30’s are not yet present
today but there are struggles taking place throughout the country and at some
point these struggles will come together. We cannot manufacture a movement. But
despite the confusions, defeats and victories we will see in the period ahead,
increased resistance to the austerity being imposed by the 1% and their
representatives in Washington and the White House.
2 comments:
The Chicago Teachers Union strike in September 2012 received considerable national attention, and has been hailed as a model. CTU leaders traveled around the country taking bows. But the strike was not a smashing victory. Before, during, and after that strike, Rahm Emmanuel and Chicago Public Schools administration threatened to close at least 50 schools. And six months after the strike ended, they did. CTU warned that they would stage militant sit-ins at numerous schools in the event of closures -- but they did not. Nor have they responded in any other way. Now, Karen Lewis is apparently buying in fully to the idea that "There's just no money". Well, we know the money's there -- and so does Ms. Lewis -- it's in the coffers of the big banks and corporations, and in the hoardings of the super-rich. But getting that monehy will require a protracted and militant fight. Instead, it appears that Karen Lewis and her collaborators are throwing in the towel without fighting at all. No doubt, they will be proclaiming that they are "social justice unionists". Let's be clear: it's crucial to champion social justice causes. But not as an excuse for not fighting to defend the living standards of the union's own members. If CTU accepts this deal, what will come next? Because Rahm Emmanuel and company will come back, year after year, claiming that there's no money. What then? A permanent pay freeze? Dozens of more schools closed? More program cuts? Very disheartening.
This is not an usual position for the CTU to take Jack Gerson. They have been very strategic in messaging o their membership. As a former CTU organizer under Lewis, I knew this was going to happen when Lewis undercut her teachers and her caucus CORE, by going to Springfield and secretly signing the union busting bill Senate Bill 7. Actually i was over then. The strategy after that became how can we, THE CTU survive? In a CORE meeting after Lewis returned from a trip to Hawaii to escape the pressures of the fallout from SB7, Lewis broke down admitted she had "F' up and was literally in tears after the CORE people wanted to remove her as CORE president for signing the union busting bill. That's when the great idea to mobilize members to go on strike was hatched. Even though Lewis had gave up the right to strike by allowing the Senate to change the threshold from getting 51% of the voting members to 75% of the entire membership to approve a strike wit SB7. The CTU managed to get a group of retired Black teachers to sign onto this strike that would later erode the Black teachers population. Almost 7,000 African American teachers lost their jobs under Lewis. As Vice Chair of the SS CAC, I would go to the House of Delegates meeting and try to explain to Black Teachers that any concessions the CTU made would cost underutilized schools to be closed. Those schools were all on the South and Wets sides. The schools were half empty due the loss of almost 300,000 African American residents under Mayor Daley. So after the strike, which gained nothing for teachers and made Karen Lewis a media star, 5o schools were closed. This is exactly what CPS wanted to do. And YES, Lewis helped to accomplish their goal.
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