WASHINGTON, DC, March 6—Today a bold elementary school teacher fought to present a ceasefire resolution to stop genocide in Gaza at his union meeting (the Montgomery County Education Association). Over 200 teachers – many more than usual – attended this meeting in response to the controversy over the runup to this resolution. This struggle demonstrated that fighting Israeli fascism and its US ruling class backers must be on everyone’s agenda. The communist Progressive Labor Party (PLP) brought revolutionary analysis to this activity, arguing that only armed struggle for communist revolution will ultimately defeat fascism.
Antiracists versus zionists
The teacher had submitted a request to present the NBI (new business item) containing the resolution for ceasefire back in January. After months of setbacks and redirections from union leaders, the resolution was finally cleared for presentation and ensuing debate at the March representative assembly meeting for the MCEA. The teacher worked with the union vice president who would chair the meeting to determine the best way to present the resolution. But the Jewish Community Relations Council of Washington DC (JCRC), a local pro-genocide zionist organization, got wind of this upcoming resolution from pro-Israel teachers, some of whom threatened to quit the union if the resolution was even brought up for debate!
The JCRC had already succeeded in pressing the Montgomery County school administration to place several teachers on administrative leave based on spurious antisemitism charges (CHALLENGE, 1/17 & 2/28).
The zionists set their sights on intimidating the union leaders into ruling that consideration of the resolution “out of order”. They issued a leaflet filled with distortions and lies and called for a pro-Israel rally outside the union meeting. The vice president gave in to the pressure and declared the resolution “out of order” and moved on to another agenda item. One angry teacher leaped from her seat objecting to that decision and was threatened with being removed from the meeting! Other teachers walked out of the meeting in disgust at their leaders. The lame excuse the vice president and the union lawyer gave for caving to zionist pressure was a bylaw in the Union’s rulebook that says the MCEA is a local entity and doesn’t have authority to speak on anything outside of the “local nexus”.
Antiracists keep fighting!
But the anti-genocide teacher was not done! During the “open mic” portion of the agenda, he declared that the bylaw and the vice president’s decision was what was “out of order” and gave a strong principled speech about the need for the union to come down on the side of oppressed workers everywhere, especially where ongoing genocide was occurring. “We are
antiracist teachers and if we are trying to fight racism we must fight it everywhere we see it—not just our town, county, state or country—we must be international and unite—Jewish, Arab, Black, White and Latin must unite and be one to fight racism!” He read the entire “out of order” ceasefire resolution to many appreciative teachers. Other teachers then stepped to the mic in solidarity. Since the meeting, other teachers have sent emails of support to the resolution’s author, so the future is bright.
Meanwhile, outside the meeting, PLP members and other anti-genocide organizers rallied in support of the teacher, chanting “Stop Killing Babies” and “Workers of the World Unite” while the JCRC members, defended by 11 armed police, pitifully chanted “School Solutions, Not War Resolutions”. PLP members distributed Challenges and PLP flyers and made contacts with new activists, ensuring that more revolutionary consciousness will be raised in the days to come. But an ominous fact was that the Zionists slightly outnumbered the anti-genocide organizers. We must increase our base building and mobilization among our friends and co-workers to ensure that we control the streets when fascists threaten.
