It’s already been three months since our historic four-day strike in February, the first since 1979! There were many political victories, but we saw some representatives who were clearly sellouts (read CHALLENGE, 3/11 issue).

Punishing us for striking, the school district extended our school calendar to “make-up” for the lost instructional days. The union leadership said they “had” to agree to the plan. Our unity between credentialed teachers, therapists, nurses, and non-credentialed instructional aides, security guards, et al got stronger as we approached the end of the school year. Soon, we will be rejuvenating ourselves and preparing for the next full year of struggles AND education.

Our strike and everything leading up to it was not revolutionary, but 100 percent reformist. However, the struggle consisted of workers acting in solidarity and without individual incentive, which is a communist concept. We have a long way to go, but being present in the struggle helps us fight towards revolution.

This is the perfect time to analyze what we learned and what our next steps should be. Our party club had a meeting to discuss some of these issues:

Lessons Learned

Clearly, rank-and-file workers are ready for escalated action. We need to maintain and build on this momentum.
It is possible to expand struggles in our contracts beyond our working conditions to include “common good” demands such as housing for our unhoused students and their families and protection from ICE.

Workers were receptive to our line that the liberals are the main danger, especially in San Francisco where illusions of being “progressive” among city leadership are used to quell dissent. Working people did not go for this and responded with anger and disgust at the powers-that-be for not prioritizing a fairer contract for educators. One chant openly criticized the superintendent’s $385,000 salary (“Listen up, Maria Siu. You need us, we don’t need you. Please tell us why—-your salary is so damn high!”)

Youth are leaders in educational struggles and often have a stronger line than adults. One student spoke at a rally directly criticizing the state. She asked why there is always money for bombing Palestine and parts of Asia, but not enough for schools and workers.

In our huge bargaining team under the guise of our size being more “democratic,” there were examples of the leadership trying to dispel critical thinking and dissent from the rank-and-file. For example, the bargaining team was told that they were “not allowed to offer objections” to the union’s counter proposals. They were also told to “temper” our expectations and to be “realistic” about the budget.

That is what we learned. Our club also came up with a few important next steps for our work.

More to do

We need to work with youth organizations and clubs. We also need to consider our role within the unions. Would it be enough to focus on teacher-student communication and base-building?

We need to consistently put out the party line and study former labor struggles and even local labor history and make connections with non-unionized sectors.

Onward, educators and students! We have a world to win!