March 4th 2010, Students and Workers Fight Back

Richard Mellor

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A few comments about the student and workers' protests and strikes in 2010 against the increasing costs or fees at public universities and for workers, attacks on wages, benefits and working conditions. I discuss here an issue that arose when two small business owners, food and drink vendors who had concessions at UC Berkeley called a strike in opposition to the University contracting out a much larger chain.

Students rightly sided with the small business owners against the contracting out of work to a chain but completely ignored the workers in these small businesses. The strike was called by the bosses, not the workers. This lack of class consciousness, was so obvious. I raise it not to condemn young workers, particularly those at university, for this weakness; I understand it to a degree. But it reflects the petit-bourgeois culture of much of the self styled socialist groups along with overconfidence, and at times, arrogance of those students that were from middle or upper middle class backgrounds.

After all, they went to the best schools, they lived in successful communities and they have been told from day one how bright they are and how they are born to lead. Working class youth in the workplace or union hall are very different.

Wall Street Journal more worried about the movement to defend education.

Last week on this blog we reported that the mouth piece of US capitalism, the Wall Street Journal was smearing the March 4th movement to defend education which held its great national strike and day of action last week. The stooges who produce this paper on behalf of the class they represent, Wall street and the banks, smeared the students and workers with: ""the crassest of self pleading."

They were referring here to the students refusal to accept the increased fees and the increased cut backs they were facing. The Wall Street Journal represents Wall Street and the banks and financial institutions. These are the people who ran the US and world economy to the verge of complete collapse in 2008/2009, and when they did they ran squealing in panic to Washington, with the "crassest of self pleading' and got bailed out with trillions of dollars of taxes, that is our money.

Given the hatred of the bankers and the bail out this smear against the student movement is a bit hard to sell, so today in a half page editorial the Wall Street Journal comes back to sharpen its attack. It and its class were shaken by the energy, size, militancy and power of the March 4th events. They were concerned that workers were joining with the students. They were concerned there were so many calls to make the rich pay. So in today's editorial they set the stage for a more thought out strategy. This can be spelled out in three words. "Divide and rule."

Today's entire editorial focuses on public sector workers' pay and benefits. Their claim is that it is these workers who have brought the state's finances to a state of bankruptcy. They select a few figures of highly paid administrators in the public sector and try to portray the situation as the state being ripped off by public sector workers. It addresses itself to the students. It says: "Unions get the lifeboats, and everyone else gets thrown over the side. Sorry kids." They are claiming here that it is the public sector unions that are to blame. We need to look at this a little closer. We think that there are a few others who are not mentioned who are the ones who are actually in the life boats, we are talking about the rich, the corporations, the oil industry, that is the California capitalist class.

Many public sector workers are working for low wages and with inadequate benefits. Many formerly public sector jobs have been privatized with the consequent cut in wages and benefits. Along with these facts we must reject capitalism's logic in its entirety. They say that where public sector workers have half decent wages and benefits these must be cut to solve the economic crisis of the state. The March 4th movement must reject this argument and instead build even greater unity with all workers and to bring all workers pay and benefits up to the level of the best paid and rewarded workers in the state. Any other approach would drive a wedge between the workers and students, and this is what the capitalists want, they want to split the movement and defeat it. Divide and rule. We have to stand unyieldingly for the defense of the wages and benefits and pensions of the public sector workers, we want these for us and for our parents and all workers public and private and we will not be divided. Unity between the students and workers. Unite and win.

Another aspect of this Wall Street Journal Article and the approach of the capitalist class it represent is its extreme censorship. California state finances are in bad shape. We do not deny this. This has to be dealt with. We do not deny this. But where we disagree with the mouth piece of capitalism, the Wall Street Journal and those for whom it speaks is the selection it makes in terms of what options are available to solve the crisis. We disagree with its censorship. For them there are only two options. They censor the others out. Either the students have to take the pain. Or the public sector workers have to take the pain. We reject this choice. For us neither take the pain. There are other players in the California and US economy. Let us drag them out from where they are hiding and take a look at them. It is no accident that we find them to be friends of the Wall Street Journal.

These forces which brought California to a state of bankruptcy are not even mentioned in its editorial due to the Wall Street Journal's censorship. They have to be kept out of sight. California had more natural resources than any other state. Its huge central valley with its agricultural capacity, its gold reserves, its oil reserves, one of the greatest natural harbors in the world, its great fishing reserves, but yet the state is now on the verge of bankruptcy. It was not the public sector workers who were running the state all these years, nor was it the students. No it was the California capitalist class. They took all these resources, plundered them at every turn and the result is they have bankrupted the state. Now they want the public sector workers, the students and all workers to pay. We have to state first of all by opening the books of the state and this includes the books of all the corporations who are based in the state. then we can see what is what.

The Wall Street Journal's options must be rejected. We say no to both their options. The March 4th movement showed the way. Unite students and all workers in a mass direct action movement to make the rich, the capitalists pay for the crisis they have caused. Make the corporations pay for the looting they have done. Enact an extraction tax on oil, California is one of the few, if not the only one of the major oil producing states, that does not have one. Make the rich pay for the crisis they have caused. They have bankrupted the state, they have forfeited the right to own and control the state's wealth, they have forfeited the right to rule. This must be the movements answer to the Wall Street Journal and their capitalist hacks and banks.

The March 4th movement must be strengthened. The existing committees must be maintained, new ones built and pulled together in a state wide network. But we must not be parochial or state centric in our view. March 4th shook the capitalists nation wide. The Obama regime wasted no time in striking back nation wide. It is no accident that in a day the entire teaching and other staff in Central Falls high School in Rhode Island were fired and that the education secretary and Obama himself came out and supported this. And the Republicans back them up too. A united capitalist assault. They can get together on this but on giving everybody health care. The firings in Central Falls are their answer to the march 4th movement and its fight. In their arrogance they are saying:'You are getting nothing. We will decide what is done and we are going to fire teachers and staff and cut wherever we like. Your March 4th movement means nothing to us. Just today Kansas City announced that it was closing 29 out of 61 of its high schools. They are throwing down the gauntlet to the March 4th movement. We must respond by picking it up.

The students in Central Falls have already had marches and come out against the firing of their teachers and staff. This is wonderful. (By the way we need to use our imagination. Where will these teachers and staff get jobs and how will they be able to pay their house note. What is being said by Obama and his Education Secretary about this?) The March 4th movement must not allow the Central Falls students to be isolated. Their struggle must be integrated into the national March 4th struggle. The attack on them must be put at the top of the agenda. This is where it is being placed by Obama and the education secretary, Duncan. It is being placed at the cutting edge of their attack. If Obama and his regime get away with firing the Central Falls, teachers and staff, they will try it all over the country and they will try and use success on this front to intimidate and cow the movement. The March 4th movement must step up its actions and respond. Obama and Duncan, who are supported by the Republicans in this must not get away with firing these teachers and staff in Central Falls.

The union leaders have millions of members. They used these and many tens of millions of dollars to put Obama in power. We said this was a mistakes. We said he was a slick capitalist politician who would do what the capitalists wanted when he got in. We have been proven right. The union leaders should recognize their mistake and now come out openly against the education policies of the Obama regime and put its full resources into the March 4th movement. Not to tame it, but to show a little humility after the disastrous mistake they have made with Obama, and mobilize their forces under the leadership of the youth and this developing direct action mass movement.

In this way we can build a movement that deals with the problems of education in a way that reshapes it in the interests of all involved in it, the students, the teachers, the parents, the workers, by democratically bringing together all these component parts in a democratic process to determine how education would be organized, education can be turned into a system which is democraticly controlled, accessible to everybody and which realizes the full potential of all students and all who are involved in the system.

M4: Militancy led by women

March 4th Movement: Militancy led by women
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kls5uAmYMek exellent video!

I just watched the video of the UC Davis. (Spoiler) the film shows students led by a woman activist marching down the I-80. She is watched by a crowd of people discussing the consequences of walking onto the freeway. Without judgment she told people that we should not be “alarmist” but recognize we are going into a situation of conflict. In front arm and arm with bicycles protecting her and her comrades they marched slowing to the one line flank of police. They gently but forcefully continued to march- the crowd of hundreds- some chanting in the back and those in front with silent resolve. The faces of the police were shielded by their riot helmets- still no one threw anything at the police. They were all united in their method to push back. With the woman- in front and arms link through the bike spokes they pushed and pushed and stood their ground not moving back and inch. They broke the police line with the might of their numbers. Without succumbing to the fear of violence the students of UC Davis marched onto the 1-80 freeway.

Still they were not left alone. The police (this time in black clad) came with a two line flank with pellet guns. The students continued their resolve only they did not have bicycles in front of them. Men, women, activists with only clothes as protection continued to march toward the police. The police came back with a vengeance. They began to spray pellet bullets at the students. The ricochet from the ground created a dust of smoke. The activists bodies were sprayed with pellets. The police let fly first the feet then the legs and then the torso. Still crowd slowly pressed forward. As you watch the video another person- a woman joins the ranks in arms to press onto the freeway. Unarmed or protected the students retreated from that front. If only momentarily.

First of all the acts of bravery captured on tape at UC Davis should be hailed by our movement. Even still there are countless other acts across the country and our fists go up to you and your comrades. Women have contributed to the militancy, dynamism, complexity and creativity of the movement. This is in part because women of color in particular have been admitted into college in higher levels than our male counterparts while male admission into colleges has dropped at higher rates. We have had more access to higher education in recent years which contributes to the diversity and leadership of women in the Public Education Defense Movement.

Women also are represented in higher percentages as K-12 teachers and support staff ( T.A. yard supervisors, janitors etc). The consequences of that are more women are involved in the movement and taking leadership roles.

It is incredible to see how situations are different in terms of female leadership. In my experience as an activists organizing mainly with women I have seen women be reluctant to join the movement. But when women join they do not quit easily and they are willing to challenge not only the problems put in front of them but all the obstacles which keep us from moving. At UCLA it was a woman who jumped over the police barricades and threw open the door of Covel Commons. It was women who organized the siege after the Regents voted for the increase and a majority of women who sat around the parking lots and refused to let the Regents go without a fight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yYpjYDd7Og

Now that March 4th has passed women will most likely continue to play a leading role in organizing for Free Education for All People. We will speak up and will not shut up! The movement must still address the needs more so of working women and be more inclusive.

We need to offer child care at our meetings.

Spanish translation for Spanish speaking only people

Try to have meetings after 5pm and on the weekends

Welcome younger people’s voices in the movement

Listen and respect women’s suggestions in meetings. It is my experience that women’s suggestions tend to be attacked with more ease and less tact by both genders.

Welcome and encourage women speakers at rallies

Recognize essential auxiliary tasks which women tend to take the lead on (banner/poster making, chant sheets, handing out literature, meeting facilitation/ chair) encourage men to take on these tasks and women to take on others.

Women will continue to play a leading role in this movement. Women throughout the world stated they wanted a world run by ourselves. Students, workers and community to run education. We can not stop there. The capitalist system will continue to try to divide us and use sexism to encourage male egoism in our meetings and movement. This will hurt all of us. The system attempts to discourage female involvement because we tend to have children, work and go to school. Our movement needs to continue to accommodate the needs of women and encourage more involvement of all people.

Happy International Women’s Day! Thanks to all the women militants for standing up for our rights and the male comrades for supporting us! The March Forth Movement has begun a new era of activism and strength and women led the way.

March 4th: Japanese students support students in the US at home and in the US

Japanese students demonstrate in Tokyo in solidarity with the March 4th movement resisters in the US.  A delegation also came to the San Francisco Bay Area to participate in and support the US March 4th movement and strike joining picket lines at UC Berkeley and the rally and convergence at Frank Ogawa Plaza in downtown Oakland.

You can see a short clip of the students visit to Oakland here.

March 4th in Los Angeles

March 4th in Los Angeles was a great success. Students from CSULA, CSUN, PCC, LACC, ELAC, Jefferson High, Belmont High, LA High, Manuel Arts, LACES High, and many other schools that I am sure I am not naming here, walked out! At CSULA, where I am active with the No Cuts Coalition, there was a rally that started at 9:30am. Students and community gathered in the free speach area. We had alumni of CSULA, Radical Women, the Brown Berets, LMV, ISO and the ANSWER coalition. 

We walked through several buildings calling students and professors out of class. We held signs that read "Tax the Rich, Bail Out the Students, Teachers and Workers" and "Can't Pay Wont Pay for this Crisis!" People were chanting "Walk-Out, Walk-Out". We started our rally with about 40 people, but once we walked through three or four buildings we had over 100 folks with us. We held an open mic rally in front of financial aid and the administration buildings. The crowed was fired up. Many spoke out about the economic crisis, pointing out that the cuts in education were not an isolated incident but rather an extention of the failure of our economic system, capitalism. The crowed was largely composed of women of color. A few sisters who came said they had never been to anything like this before and were very inspired to fight and will continue to get involved. 

There were some obstacles along the way, with the police fallowing us around and the student president trying to calm peoples anger, by telling people who were speaking not to use "bad words". The crowed responded with "don't try to censor us!" and he went away. The leaders of the student wing of the CFA which is Student for Quality Education also did their part to make sure students wouldn't be mobolized to leave school and attend the 3pm rally that was planned by the LA March 4th Committee. They even went as far as to tell SURGE, the AB540 student group at CSULA, not to join in the march with the NCC because we did not have security which was completely untrue. This we will have to continue to discuss as we push forward in our struggle against the privatization of education. 

As the day progressed we began to get word that 100+ students from Pasadena City College walked out, 100+ students from East Los Angeles College walked out, Los Angeles City College walked out, Roosevelt High walked out! We were all on our way to meet at Union Station, we would then march together to Pershing Square where we would join the hundreds of brothers and sisters from throughout Los Angeles who had also walked out to fight the cuts. It was an electrifying scene as hundreds of students poured out from Union Station and again later when we joined everyone else at Pershing Square.

When we arrived a marching banned was playing music and people were jumping, dancing and chanting at the top of their lungs. 

We then began our rally and people jumped on stage for the open mic. Students, teachers and various community activists came up to express their rage at the attacks to our educational system. They pointed out that the democrats were also behind these cuts and that we could only rely on each other to stop them. People spoke against the privatization of education, and one high school student Felipe pointed out that this "would only serve to increase the gap between the rich and us the poor." 

March 4th in Los Angeles was overwhelmingly a success and the first victory of many to come for the working class in LA. There were some who doubted the ability of the LA M4 Committee and doubted the fighting spirit of the youth and workers we were reaching out to. And they underestimated the union bureaucracy's desire to contain this movement. I am sure that this day has helped us all to better understand where the strengths and weaknesses of this movement lie.

I am extremely proud and grateful to have been a part of the first victorious steps of this movement. Power to the people!

In solidarity,

Angelica

Labors Militant Voice

Wall Street Journal attacks the movement to defend public education.

We have said numerous times on this blog that is very important for activists to develop the skill to read the capitalist mass media. The Wall Street Journal is the main voice of Wall Street and of US capitalism. It represents our enemy and gives us the chance to see some of the thinking of our enemy. This is very important. We cannot fight effectively without knowing the thoughts of the enemy.

The Wall Street Journal, like the class it represents, tends to be very crude and blunt in its approach. However it is also shrewd in that if it thinks a movement of opposition will benefit from its criticism rather than being damaged by its criticism it will hold back and its analysis will be voiced only in small circles. So when it launches a broad side against the March 4th movement to defend public education as it did in its major publication the Wall Street Journal on Sat/Sun March 6/7 edition, then we know that the our movement is having an effect. Capitalism is worried about the movement of March 4th and is trying to warn its class to take notice. We are making progress.

The Wall Street Journal is attacking the movement at this early stage by providing its class with a few basic smears and slanders which do not hold up for a moment but which give its members a way to respond. Unbelievably and unashamedly it condemns the movement for wanting more money for education for being a "me generation." "It has a sub heading: "In the midst of the great recession students protest in favor of themselves." It goes on to criticize the movement for replacing the "idealism of youth with the crassest self pleading." This article was written by Peter Robinson, a former writer for Ronald Reagan, and an employee at Stanford University. Just so we are clear what we are dealing with. He is a right wing well paid hack propagandist for finance capital.

Imagine what is being said. The article accuses the student movement of being a "me generation," which in any case it is not. The movement demands education and a decent life for all. But think more about what this hack of finance capital is saying. He is condemning people for demanding more money for education when his class and friends looted hundreds of billions from the US economy and taxpayers and then when they were on the verge of bringing down the entire US and world economy they rushed with the "crassest self pleading" to the US tax payer, that is us, and were bailed out to the tune of trillions. A fraction of this could solve all the problems in education.

This article in the Wall Street Journal is an admission that the rich have no serious arguments to put up against the movement to defend education. Only slanders and smears. It should be condemned and rejected. More important for our movement is the article on the front page of the Wall Street Journal on Thursday 4th, the day of the great movement itself. This stated: "US corporations are flush with cash." So then if they are flush with cash after being bailed out by the US tax payers then let us have the money from the rich and the corporations to solve the problems of education and give everybody the opportunity to have a good education. This is the solution the March 4th movement advocates. It is obviously very feasible when as the Wall Street Journal admits itself, "US corporations are flush with cash."

The article attacking the March 4th movement has some more serious comments which should be taken note of. It quotes slogans on banners on the March 4th strike and day of action to defend education. "Shut it down like '68." (San Francisco State.) "Today we strike, Today we march, Today we show solidarity with the workers." (Berkeley) "Students of color have been fighting around these issues for quite a while in the UC system......So we see this as a struggle to not only save the university, but......to make those issues of access and opportunity......visible to all." (Berkeley) The Wall Street Journal article goes on: "We have here the vocabulary of the peace movement, of the struggle for decent conditions for migrants and other exploited workers and of the civil rights movement......" The article quotes a marcher as saying:" I am hoping that students feel connected to Montgomery, to Selma, to the sit ins, to the Freedom Riders, to the farm workers struggle of the 1960's and 1970's." The movement is rooting itself in the history of struggle. This is a big step forward. The Wall Street Journal and its capitalits friends are getting a little nervous.

The Wall Street Journal and its class are especially concerned that the March 4th movement is the beginning of a new era of struggle and one which will put down deep roots in the great struggles of the past and will have the power to force US capitalism to make major concessions and even that the movement could transform itself into a force which could threaten to end US capitalism and replace it with a Democratic Socialist Society. US capitalism and the US capitalist class have brought the the country to the bring of collapse. They have forfeited the right to rule. The California capitalist class presided over some of the richest resources in the world, the agricultural land of central valley, the gold reserves, the oil reserves, one of the greates natural harbors in the world, the fishing reserves, yet in spite of all of these Californian Capitalism has brought the state to where it is today, a state of bankruptcy. Californian capitalism has forfeited the right to exist, the Californian capitalists have forfeited the right to rule.

Just take one example. The California oil industry is one of the largest in the US. Unlike just about every other major oil producing state it pays no extraction tax. It is getting away tax free. The oil industry is looting the state. At the same time the rich are to able keep down their taxes on their property partly because of the undemocratic two thirds law which demands a two thirds majority to pass revenue increases and also because of their monopoly of politics through their ownership of the Republican and Democratic parties. The California corporations just like their pals nation wide are flush with cash. The money is there to solve the education and budget crisis. But their control of the state and their addiction to profit means that the money will not be used for this purpose.

Their control of the stae and their addiction to profit lies at the root of the problem. What did Schwarzenegger do when faced with drawing up the last budget? He cut about $600 million in overall funding from the 10-campus University of California and the 23-campus California State University State System. Then the UC Regents and CSU Trustees came and reduced programs, furloughed workers and increased tuition fees by huge 32%. Schwarzenegger is trying to solve the State's budget crisis and the education systems problems on the back of the poor, the students and the workers. The March 4th movement is opposing this and saying make the rich pay. March 4th was a great step forward along these lines. Full support to develop the March 4th movement and make it a force strong enough to defeat all attacks on students, education and working people across the country and a force strong enough to make the rich and the corporations pay and a force strong enough to end the profit addicted capitalist system and replace it with a Democratic Socialist system.

Sean.

Eyewitness account: High School Walk out

Manual Art’s Walk out Eyewitness account


The students at Manual Arts have been organizing for only 1 day before March 4th. A member of the LA M4 committee gave a student a flyer and on March 3rd there was a meeting of 6 students and an organizer explaining the risks, strategies and the possibility of a walk-out the next day. They all agreed to “go for it”. The next day the police were surrounding the school. On the flyers passed out the students called for “No Layoffs, Schools Not Jails and ‘Fuck Room 190”. Room 190 was organized by a former parole officer. If a student is late to first period they could be sent to room 190 for the WHOLE DAY without being able to talk to their classmates in the room. Even during lunch time they are forced to stand separately from their classmates and are sent back to the room. ‘Fuck room 190’ inspired many of them to walk out.

The day of the students inside reported extreme police and administration surveillance. LA M4 organizers were told the students would have an easier time walking out if one of the organizers came inside. The organizer entered the school legally and hid in the room with the assistance of staff on the inside. When the lunch bell rang she found a group of supportive students. The administration and the police harassed the students and the organizer but could not stop flood of students running through the halls of Manual Arts chanting “walk out”.

Students brushed past the administration and police and flooded the streets. The students marched down the street Vermont and King. 6 police cars and bike police followed. The students were unfazed marching through the streets and around West Adams High school to get the students out. The students at West Adams were on “lock down” and could not leave however they managed to get signs into the school and post them on the windows as a message to solidarity. During the march the students shared the bullhorn to inspire the traffic they stopped to honk their horns. When the police rang their sirens for the students to go faster the students rang the bullhorn siren in return chanting “Fuck the police” and blowing the siren in the bike cops ears.

Through the 3 mile walk students would come up to me (an older non-student) and ask me if they could leave. I said, “Sure, you are a free person and you walked out because it was your own choice”. Their peers would then say, “Fool this is about our education! We didn’t walk out to play around come on lets go!” The students always ended up staying. We passed some cynical cholos who scoffed at their protest. The students teased them calling them “Cholos sin barrios” (Gangsters without a gang). We marched ahead.

Here is a picture of them with a banner they made. They were a spirited group and discussed fighting back for their education and confronting the police. Ironically when we arrived a Pershing Square the students started chanting “Manual Toilers” The name of their school. Their energy was welcomed by the crowd as we approached. They were not alone- at least 540 students out maneuvered, were supported or broke out of school to demonstrate. Thanks to the daring and humor from Manual Arts High and all other students who walked the streets for to protest. Solidarity with Manual Arts and all students who walked out. Fuck Room 190- Schools Not Prisons, No Layoffs.

March 4th. A great victory. They'd like to crush it. Here's how we can stop them.

March 4th was a great success. We have to celebrate this and allow our success to nurture us and to give us new energy and enthusiasm for the coming battles.  Check out the videos below to get some idea of the great movement we were all part of. Thanks especially to all the school students who gave leadership on the ground and made this day the success it was.

But while doing this we also have to be realistic. This is not the end of it. Capitalism wants these cuts to try and save its bankrupt system and while the heroic movement of youth on March 4th will give them pause they will be coming back again. Unless they are forced to, these people are not going to take the money out of their own pockets to pay for the crisis their looting of their own capitalist system caused.

We published on this blog yesterday the need for a strategy that continues to take our movement forward into conscious mass direct action confrontation with the capitalist offensive. That also would protect our movement from being damaged by its own right wing which wants to pull it into a subservient relationship with the Democrats and the union bureaucracy. And that also would protect it from ultra left pressures which wants it to adopt policies which would at this stage cut it off from mobilizing the hundreds of thousands and millions it needs to win. The actions of the anarchist forces and their refusal to consider how their actions negatively affect the bringing into the movement the hundreds of thousands and millions of new forces we need, is an example of this.

We need to keep this approach in mind and continue to fight for it. It will be a continual struggle. The extremely positive side is that the movement and those active in it are maturing through this process of struggle.

While we take our movement forward we need to think in an imaginative way of the forces we are up against. Wall Street, the financial institutions and their bought and paid for politicians in the Republicans and Democrats have looted this country over the years and left it bankrupt. At the same time they have financed the military industrial complex and wars and occupations abroad to defend their power and wealth and resources and to make hundreds of billions producing destructive scrap iron in the shape of weaponry. At home they have their state apparatus, the military and cops and so called legal system which they use ruthlessly, and even in their own terms illegally, if their wealth and power is challenged. And they have their mass media to lie about any and all subjects including the movement we are building. These forces combine to make up the ruling class, the capitalist class in this country.

These people are criminals, they are ruthless, they are utterly unprincipled and inhumane people of the most degenerate type. And they are running this country and dominating its politics and military policies. These are the forces we are up against. We have to be conscious who we are fighting, we must not underestimate them. This is a serious enemy that we are challenging.

But there is no reason to be pessimistic. We have what they do not have. We have the potential to mobilize the tens and hundreds of millions that can out number their forces and defeat them. This is our power. The potential power of the gigantic 200 million strong US working class. But to realize this power and to organize it into a cohesive fighting force we need to have a clear strategy.

This starts with program. We have to explain our program for a better life for all working people and for this to be financed by making the rich pay and in the process taking the financial institutions and resources out of their hands and putting these under public ownership and democratic working class control and management.  On this basis, society can be organized along democratic socialist lines in the interests of the majority, not in the interests of the profit-addicted tiny minority of capitalists and their flunkies that exists now. We have to take this alternative to the working class majority in language which is their language and we have to distill it down into clear demands that we can unite and fight for. The movement must wage a relentless struggle against racism and sexism two of the main pillars of so called US democracy. 

At the same time we have to develop the March 4th committees that provided the leadership last Thursday into a nation wide network of working class based action committees drawing in school students, college and university students, workers from the work places and unions, parents and community activists and our brothers and sisters in the communities of color. With these rank and file bodies we can  build the movement  that can defeat the capitalist offensive. Such a network can relate to the official union movement by linking with and integrating with the rank and file of this movement while at the same time maintaining its independent fighting program and its mass direct action methods.

As we do so we have to always be prepared for the viciousness of the capitalists and their state machine. But also always remember that our alternative is more powerful if we can mobilize it, our alternative is the tens of millions of working class people united, organized and on the march.

But to look again at the viciousness of the capitalists and how the youth who are leading this movement must be prepared and also how the older sections of the working class and movement must protect the youth.

In today's New York Times, Saturday March 6th, there is an article entitled "cops versus Kids." It is about developments in New York Schools. The New York City police system, representing the New York City elite, that is the capitalist class, have what are known as safety officers in the schools. They work for the NYPD and have the power to detain, search, handcuff and arrest students. Look at some of the things they have been doing.

The article in the New York Times runs a story about two sixth grade kids who drew a line on each others desk with an erasable marker. The teacher told them to erase them and they went to get tissues to do so. The so-called safety officer got involved and in no time a NYPD officer arrived and handcuffed the two kids. The young girl asked for her mother and began to cry. The cops refused and took the two kids to the local precinct station house in handcuffs. These heros, the city's "finest" were determined to keep the city safe from sixth graders with erasable markers.

This is not an isolated incident. Just last month a 12 year old girl was arrested for doodling on her desk, she was paraded out, also in handcuffs, and in tears to the local precinct station house. This young woman is taking a law suit against the the cops. In it there is reference to a case in 2008 when a so-called safety officer kicked in a door in a bathroom stall. The student in the stall who had done nothing wrong was hit in the head and injured. The so-called safety officer is alleged to have said in court:"That is life. It will stop bleeding." In the same year a five year old became unruly at a school event. The so-called safety officer grabbed him and shipped him off to a hospital psychiatric ward. Capitalism sees no price too high to keep its city safe from unruly five year olds and to train its future labor force to take orders.

These experiences are extremely traumatic for the children involved. And it is almost certain that these young children were children of color.  The capitalist class does not discriminate when it comes to violence, but in any society there are those workers who have added oppression based on race, religion, and at all times women.  But in a more general sense these experiences make clear the thinking of the capitalists who run this country and who run New York City. The criminals who run Wall Street and the financial institutions loot the country. With the exception of somebody like Madoff who robbed his own class they are not cuffed and ran off to the nearest precinct station house to Wall Street. No they run free, and not only that, they are pocketing even bigger bonuses from the money they were given by their corrupt politicians from working peoples' taxes. They are free to loot even more. There are no mass arrests on Wall Street of these criminals. But the little kid doodling on their desk, he or she can be carted off in handcuffs and put in the precinct station house or sent to a psychiatric ward. What a system this sick capitalist system, what a class, this sick degenerate capitalist class.

We must not underestimate the class we are fighting. They have large forces. They are vicious and immoral in the extreme. When we go up against them we must do so with hundreds and thousands and millions. This does not mean we do not act until we have such forces. But what it does mean is that our program, strategy and tactics must be determined by what is necessary to unite and mobilize such forces. We have to be as serious in our approach as they are in theirs.

Sean.

March 4th Oakland CA: Powerful words from a powerful young woman

Young high school youth talks about the classroom.

One of the best moments yesterday was when it became apparent that a Democratic politician had wormed her way on to the stage.  The woman MC, a young schoolteacher drove her off.  This was a "bottom up" rally and the folks that organized it are building a "bottom up" movement.  After the Politician (an ex leftist I might add who has participated in the cutbacks) was removed, the MC then went on, with a little help from myself, to shift either her aide or some business as usual flunky from the speaking area.  This politician is running for office or up for re-election this year and, as they always do, she wanted to use the rally as an elecyion platform.

The event in Oakland was a great and predominantly working class event.

Visiting Japanese students bring solidarity message to youth at Oakland March 4th rally

March 4th. A great success.

Great success.

The beginning of a new movement and hopefully a new era.

The March 4th strike and day of action took place all over the US. In spite of the refusal of the trade union leaders to mobilize their millions of members the March 4th strike and day of action was a great success. Particularly so because the high school students took a leading role. Seeing the youth take the lead was as good as a tonic. As the old Willie Nelson song goes, we are on the road again.

For activists we now face a serious challenge. We no longer have the excuse that people will not fight. In fact we never really had. But now it is undeniable. People are prepared to fight. This was shown yesterday. For activists like us we have to help them fight and take part in this fight in such a way that helps it broaden and deepen and keep on course to confront the capitalist offensive.

We must defend the movement against the right such as the trade union leaders who are scared by it because it challenges the capitalist system which the union leaders support and it threatens their policy of capitulation to the demands of the capitalist offensive. Nothing threatens the trade union leaders more than big victories against this capitalist offensive which they claim has to be accepted. Such victories would expose their policies of capitulation as being unnecessary, in fact as being as being downright betrayal and would threaten their position in the movement.

We also have to defend the movement from the damage that could be done by an ultra left approach, that is trying to take the movement forward around demands and tactics that would cut it off from the wider layers of the working class. The movement must be kept on target of taking on the rich, of taking direct confrontational action against the capitalist offensive but this must be done around demands and tactics that are capable of bringing in the new hundreds of thousands of working class youth and workers who are so far watching the movement, yes with sympathy but still only watching, and considering what if any action they are going to take. We need a movement of hundreds of thousands and millions to win this struggle. Our policies should be looked at in this light. We are involved in serious business. We want to win. We are not into building a small protest group. We are out to win. And we can win.

High Schoolers at The Fruitvale Rally, Oakland Calif March 4th. Scroll down for more clips.

March 4th in Oakland California

downtown Oakland Rally

San Francisco students & workers march to the civic center

There are many thousands of marchers on their way to civic center.  Its a party on Mission street, the street is filled with people, we've drum corps, bands, people are dancing, etc.  Overwhelmingly high school students on the march as we turn onto 15th st.  I can't see the end of the march in either direction 
http://twitgoo.com/fs41l

March 4th Chicago.

About 200 attended the march and demonstration here in Chicago. The spirit was good with Tax the Rich, Make the Rich Pay, being the main chants. This was good. The marchers were looking in the right direction for the solution. The participants were overwhelmingly from the University of Illinois - Chicago. Unfortunately little or no out reach had been done to the high schools and the working class communities. This is a lesson for the future. But it was a good spirited march and the marchers were against any cuts in education, jobs or services and in favor of making the rich pay. The way to go.

On to the next ones.

Sean.

San Francisco March 4 Demo

We have around 75 folks turning out to SF Civic Center for the midday rally.  Its small, but spirited and I'm seeing that students from high schools and colleges are headed downtown now to join us.  There will be a giant rally this evening at 5pm, organized by the leadership of the unions in San Francisco.  The San Francisco March 4 Committee voted to have this rally at 1pm to encourage students to walk out of their schools and workers to walk off their jobs so that we truly shut down the state.  Unfortunately the union leaders didn't call a strike or build a rally for the middle of the work day.  But this is just the beginning and we will need to take more serious action in the future, including a strike of millions of students and workers in order to win our demands.  If you're in SF come to the next March 4 committee meeting March 13, 2pm, at 522 Valencia.

We chalked up the sidewalks in front of SF City Hall.  
http://twitgoo.com/frz46   

High School Walkouts across California: Oakland report

High School Walkouts across California
(don’t tell me people don’t want to fight!)

As we rolled up on Fremont High School about 40 students were picketing each of three entrances. As they merged to march off, their yelling and laughing and energy grew louder. Dozens of picket signs amplified their message: Schools not jails! Don’t cut my teachers! Don’t cut drama and music! And a few signs with creative expletives!

Across the road the adult education teachers and students, about 60 of them,
gathered to join the main contingent from Fremont High. This group was quieter, overwhelmingly women studying English as a second language and with lots of small kids in tow.

Close to 150-strong, we began marching through Oakland’s Fruitvale district, with its mostly Latino working class neighborhoods. It was once we hit the streets that it became evident how popular this fight is. The march was continuously encouraged by the non-stop honking of passing cars. Residents came onto their porches beaming big smiles. One old Asian man grabbed an arm of a protester to tell her, “this is a good thing, this is good.” I noticed two homeless guys with their lives in shopping carts, smiling and nodding their heads to give their endorsement. Every single City of Oakland truck that passed us, maybe a dozen or so, honked their horns long and hard. Young guys that drove by with music pumping slowed down and honked and gave off peace signs. It was a celebration and a holiday to see young people putting a fight up for anything. And today was for education.

This was the fastest paced demonstration I’ve ever been on. Eventually the raucus high schoolers left the Adult Ed students behind. We passed a big Tire replacement shop, where the workers downed tools to watch what all the commotion was. Youth after youth chanted Si Se Puede! And Money for Jobs and Education, not War and Incarceration. Another popular chant was “Black, brown, Asian, white: students, workers, lets unite.” This was significant voice for unity, as there was possibly not a single white student on the march.

A little after 10am we came up on Life Academy High School the next nearest public high school. As we chanted and yelled outside, I wondered why the Fremont students were not going in to appeal to the Life students to walkout. Then a young lady on the bullhorn said, “3 minutes to Recess! 3 minutes to Recess!”

This was perhaps the most emotive moment of the morning. The bell struck and there was nothing just 150 Fremonters outside the huge school wire fenced gate. Chanting and screaming – a slight majority of the protesters were young women who, given the call, would all scream as loud as possible. This, I imagine would scare the shit out of any enemy!! It was something else.

Then the tension broke as a huge crowd of Life students came out to recess behind a massive banner, “Tax the Rich!” Somewhere up to 200 students crossed the schoolyard and as the huge school gates were opened, there was a huge wall of noise as the two contingents merged.

And without missing a beat the demonstration was back off to its destination of Fruitvale station to hook up with the other marchers. We passed the Tire shop again and the workers looked shocked and excited that the march had doubled its size in a short few minutes. And this was just two of Oakland's many high schools.

What resonates with me is the huge community support for this strike. There were miles and miles of smiles and supportive gestures. People have had enough. They want to do more than just complain. As one teacher told me, “our future is decided, this is about the future for young people!”

Also at UC Berkeley

LATEST: we got a call from students at CalState Hayward that over a thousand are out on strike there