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.

The next panelist made a systemic analysis of the crisis of capitalism. She explained how both the Democratic and Republican parties were enemies of working people and warned that organized national campaigns attacking unions could pave the way for fascism.

At the Saturday street rally delegates were joined by thousands of other workers, NYSUT rank-and-filers and members of other unions as well. The crowd was militant and ready to fight but clearly the”leadership” is not going to lead a fight against capitalism — they’re part of that system. While Wisconsin Governor Walker aims to eliminate collective bargaining and unions entirely, governors like Cuomo here want to retain the unions as long as they’re led by phonies who hold workers back.

The only speech at the rally which had any analysis and substance was from a leader of CUNY’s Professional Staff Congress who described the harsh effects of the cuts and explained their racist and sexist nature. CUNY’s student body is pre-dominantly black, Latino, and Asian and they are taking the brunt of these cuts while most of the budget is paying for wars, not workers’ needs.

PL members distributed CHALLENGE at the Peace and Justice forum and at the outdoor rally. We could have had mass distribution inside the convention and issued a special convention leaflet similar to efforts at national conventions. The workers are open to communist ideas and we’ll do a better job next time. 

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!

For those of us who did organize for the meeting, it was a positive start. Two drivers spoke at the union meeting, and passed out flyers at work for about five hours during the week. We also called around 15 drivers and texted about 50; this resulted in four drivers coming with us to the meeting.

Despite the fact that we just suffered a disastrous arbitration and currently pay back 6% of our check every week, many drivers are still hesitant to see themselves as activists. There was much more interest at the union meeting around the issue of whether to hold a special election for a new union president or to wait eight months for the scheduled election. Most drivers believe that the key is having a good leader (a “fighter,” someone “knowledgeable,” someone who “can’t be bought,” or all of the above). Also, most drivers are hanging on to the hope that things will get better once the economy starts to recover, and we can hold on to our standard of living. 

But these attacks seem likely to continue for the foreseeable future. As CHALLENGE frequently reports, the U.S. corporate class is in worldwide competition. Their main solution is squeezing the working class here in the U.S., and waging war abroad to maintain their stranglehold on oil and other resources. Once more drivers take a serious look at this “world situation,” they might conclude that we need many, many more rank-and-file leaders.

We invite all transit workers to Progressive Labor Party’s May Day celebration this year, where we will celebrate international working-class unity, discuss the rebellions in the Middle East and the Wisconsin fight-back, and look toward a world free of capitalism, where public services would come first, not last. 

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.

The demonstrators denounced the attack as proof of “the feverishness of a government which is attempting at all costs to force through the destruction of public services and whose only answer to our demands is force and obstinate silence.”

Since 2007, over 50,000 education jobs have been cut nationally, with another 16,000 slated for September. This is part of the government plan to reduce the budget deficit by 100 billion euros (US$136 billion) in order to satisfy “the financial markets.” The budget “deficit” is due mostly to the bailout of the banks.

According to Eurostat, the European Union’s (EU) statistics bureau, the EU bank bailout cost 15.4 billion euros (US$21 billion) and the EU’s total government debt in 2009 amounted to 8.7 trillion euros (nearly US$12 trillion). The interest on that debt goes straight into the pockets of the capitalists. To ensure they get their’s, the capitalists demand public service cuts.

Under capitalism, education is always run in the bosses’ interest. Only under communism can education be totally transformed into an activity that promotes both the development of the individual and the good of society. 

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.

Next time we will make an even more organized effort to distribute PLP’s literature with a solid communist  political line which would definitely have had an even more profound influence than our chants and signs.

We are making gains. Party members are active in several immigrant rights groups and are building strong personal and political ties as we deepen our involvement in this important fight against racist oppression. These struggles bring to life the lessons of the need for communist revolution in Indiana and all over the world.

With strong anti-racist, communist leadership these battles will inevitably expand beyond their current limitations en route to international working-class revolution.