SEATTLE, July 11 — Progressive Labor Party members played important roles in the biannual convention of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) ending here today. We helped lead a rally exposing the Obama Administration’s Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and a walkout and  rally against billionaire Bill Gates. We helped organize and spoke at three forums held by the AFT Peace and Justice Caucus, distributed 600 CHALLENGES, 300 Juneteenth Anti-Racism Supplements and 4,000 leaflets to delegates.

We helped the Peace and Justice Caucus recruit for forums on Haiti, on the fight-back against the racist, anti-working class Race to the Top competition and on Afghanistan and Gaza. They were attended by many rank-and-file delegates. The discussions there raised interesting questions about fights against the ruling class and built ties between delegates. (See box page 7)

The militant walkout against Gates was caused by Party members having political conversations with their friends and others in general meetings about why we should oppose his presence at a union convention. Gates is spending lots of money through his foundation to make changes in education. While he first used his money to help build small schools, now he’s focusing on “teacher quality.” The AFT leadership invited him because he’s already given millions to four school districts for pilot projects.

Gates uses his foundation’s money to influence policies that attack teachers and students. Smaller schools often exclude students with the greatest needs — special education students, English-language learners and many students whose neighborhood schools have closed. Through actions like “school turnaround,” as we’ve seen in Chicago, the Board of Education fires the school’s staff. Then lower-paid, inexperienced teachers are hired in their places — in urban areas the firings are racist because a disproportionate number of black teachers lose their jobs in the process.

At the same time, students are hurt, now having younger, inexperienced teachers, rather than teachers with skills in managing a classroom and teaching their subjects. The reorganization of the schools also resegregates the schools. The AFT has conceded this battle everywhere — only the organization of angry workers in NY, Chicago, Rhode Island, and Washington, D.C. has led to any defeat of the ruling-class’s attacks.

Due to the dysfunction of so many schools in many cities, parents are choosing charter schools and the smaller schools. Studies show that these new schools aren’t doing any better than the original schools. However, parents are desperate to find what they hope are better schools for their children. The major weakness in these education struggles is the lack of a teacher-parent-student alliance. 

The AFT is tightly controlled by the leadership of its NYC local (UFT), and struggle against the pro-ruling-class line of the AFT is difficult. The AFT refuses to criticize U.S. foreign policy. Their Afghanistan resolution was filled with outright lies — such as the U.S. being “drawn into” supporting the government of Hamid Karzai.

Delegates, friends and members of PL and others, fought hard to brand the war in Afghanistan a war for resources, especially oil and gas, rather than a war against terrorism. Other AFT resolutions build plans for further collaboration between the union, politicians and the ruling class. For the union, these conventions are important tools to help win members to the ruling-class’s political agenda — for war and fascism, building patriotism to convince working-class students to fight and die for oil.

Party members on the convention floor and in committee meetings analyzed the situation in Chicago Public Schools, where a rank-and-file caucus has won the leadership of the 35,000-member local and tied poor school conditions to the failure of international capitalism. Some of our ideas took the form of resolutions for debate, which provided talking points for political discussions with teachers and allows us to sharpen our struggles with people we know well.

We held a PLP picnic, bringing friends of the Party to a Seattle park to learn more about our Party and our organizing against the ruling-class attacks. We must build close ties with other workers. PL members spent time with teachers having discussions over lunch and breakfast about the Party and the need to bring revolutionary ideas to our parent, teacher and student relationships.

From the classroom, to the caucus meetings, to the convention floor, to parent conferences, communist teachers must continue to seize opportunities to build the Party. Our Party was essential to the organization of the rank-and-file opposition forces at the convention, providing tactical and political leadership.

Our literature provided ideas and analysis about issues specific to education and also tied those issues to the broader world situations of increasing war and fascism. Our leaflet about the BP oil spill explained how we can’t rely on the ruling-class’s government to solve our problems — either in the Gulf or in the schools. Our comrades led struggle, made new political friends and built stronger ties with old friends.

Overall, the convention was a success for the Party. The recent developments in the Chicago Teachers Union have created opportunities for Party members to focus our work in the AFT while broadening our base among large numbers of workers who are students, parents and fellow teachers. Concentrating on the goal of building the Party and communist relationships while working in the bosses’ organizations challenges us all. Our collective strength and our confidence in the workers will guide us on the road to revolution. 

The AFT Peace and Justice Caucus sponsored a forum on the after-effects of the earthquake in Haiti. There was much debate after two teachers from Haiti spoke about the

efforts of rank-and-file workers to improve conditions in Haiti.

The forum revealed that many workers have illusions, fostered by the media and the U.S.
government, that the UN “peacekeeping” forces and the non-governmental organizations (NGOs), like the Red Cross, are the good guys.

At the forum educators from Haiti stated that these NGO workers in Haiti live off the NGO’s U.S.dollars, drive around in  large dark SUVs with tinted windows, and live in big houses. The desperation for U.S. dollars has led to an increase in prostitution paid for by this NGO money. Friends from Haiti warned that if workers want to send money to Haiti we should find workers to send it to, and not send money to the NGOs to steal. And while we’ve all been told that the UN forces are the saviors of the working class in Haiti, we heard reports of the UN troops abusing and terrorizing young men there.

A PLP member from the Dominican Republic called for the unity of the working class to  over-throw the yoke of U.S. Imperialism in Haiti and around the world.

At the forum about fighting back against the Race to the Top (RTTT) competition, the panelists described their fights against attacks on educators and students. Unfortunately, too many of the panelists described their struggles merely to get more tax money to pay for schools during this period of capitalist crisis. However, that just means taxing the working class, not the bosses, and it does not suspend payments to the banks. No matter how the budgets are cut everywhere, the debt service (money to banks to pay back debts) is never cut. Another serious weakness in the RTTT forum was the lack of discussion of the affects of RTTT and budget cuts on students, and the lack of any clear call for unity between parents, students and educators.

We should continue these kinds of discussions, continuing to bring our line to honest educators, parents, and students, to build our movement.

CALIFORNIA, July 2 — Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members and friends from all around the state met up for three days of activities and study during a camping trip in central California last weekend. Six students from the high school where a comrade teaches came on the trip. We started out at seven in the morning and drove six hours to get to the campgrounds.

During our quick stops for meals on the road, we met to discuss how to organize a study group around the current anti-immigrant racism in Arizona. The high school students took the lead and created questions to help keep the discussion moving. A few drew on their prior experience leading a discussion on a similar topic at a forum in Los Angeles.

At the campgrounds, after a refreshing dip in the river, we prepared dinner collectively before the study group, which went really well.

After the study group, we made s’mores and told ghost stories. Everyone got along really well. People partnered up to make the s’mores, since it turned out to be a two-person job. The high school and middle school students told stories to the younger children. The next day, we made breakfast together and continued our study group from the night before. This time, we also talked about communism: what is it and how do we achieve it? Once again the high school students impressed us all by helping to lead the discussion and asking questions. They also learned a lot. They said:

“At the camping trip we had a very good discussion about communism and what everyone thought it was. We also talked about what Barack Obama was doing and what he was supposed to be doing. Communism to me means making the world a better, more diverse place to live without all the differences.”

“The camping trip was really fun and a good experience for me, since I’ve never been camping before. It was good hanging out with other ‘races’ and hearing their opinions.”

Many of the teacher comrades who came were inspired by the work at this high school and felt encouraged to go back to their schools and bring up our ideas more openly with their students. The success at this high school was in part the result of a year-long curriculum that incorporated discussions on racism, sexism, working-class consciousness and the need for black students (like the ones who came on this trip) to unite with others and take the lead in the fight to change society for the better.

There has also been some limited work with the parents at this school. The grandmother of one of the students disagreed with us on the question of immigration. She believed that immigrants who come to the U.S. without documentation are criminals and should be punished, and that Latino immigrants were taking jobs away from black workers. The student was unclear on the issue and had a lot of questions about it. After a discussion with the comrade teacher, the grandmother agreed to let the student go camping, and the student has since spoken up in favor of helping all people, no matter what color. Another grandmother also reads the paper and agrees that her granddaughter should learn to fight the system.

This is only the beginning. The work with these students, and others, will continue throughout the summer and on into the next school year. Hopefully, this will result in these students taking part in the actions around the racist Arizona law (as well as other struggles) this summer. We have also asked them to join PLP. We discussed creating a PLP club at the high school next year that will take the lead in fighting the budget cuts and attacks from administration. The students are all open to participating in and leading these fights. We will update CHALLENGE as things progress. 

PARIS, July 13 — Europe’s bosses are driving to slash government budgets, shifting cash from the working class into their own pockets. How deep? A lecturer at Warszawski University in Warsaw recommended on state radio that, “Another way [to cut the budget] is to limit the amount of people who are getting compensation as a result of health problems or having been categorized as terminally ill or incapable to work. This is one area where a lot of government funds disappear.” Learning from the Nazis….

Karl Marx wrote in “Capital” about labor being the source of all value, that under capitalism, the value produced by living labor is divided into two parts: “an equivalent of the value of labor power” (which goes to the worker), and “surplus value” (which goes to the capitalist). The capitalist’s goal is to reap as much surplus value as possible, and “the rate of surplus-value is therefore [determined by]…the degree of exploitation of labor-power by capital, or of the laborer by the capitalist.” Europe’s bosses are out to squeeze as much of that surplus value as possible out of sweat of the continent’s working class.

The Bank Bailout

European governments went deep into debt when they spent $5.3 trillion bailing out the banks during the credit crunch, reported a European Union (EU) Economic and Financial Committee document (5/26). To pay off that debt, EU governments are now slashing social security programs and pensions and raising the retirement age. Thus, they’re transferring vast amounts of money from the working class to the finance capitalists and therefore, as Marx said, are increasing “the degree of exploitation of labor-power.”

Imperialist Rivalry

Consequently, European capitalists are increasing their profitability. “Unfair competition” squealed their U.S. rivals at the June 25-26 G8 summit in Toronto. “Nobel prize-winning economist and arch-liberal Paul Krugman said that the situation was getting out of hand and the U.S. government needed to take action. He said: ‘[German Chancellor Angela] Merkel says that budget cuts will make Germany more competitive but competitive against whom, exactly? You know the answer, don’t you?’” (The Guardian, 6/11)

Workers in the U.S. and worldwide can expect copy-cat budget-slashing from “their” capitalists, as the bosses in each country ratchet down their government budgets in a race to the bottom.

European Bosses’ Budget-Cut Assault

On June 17, the European Council — including the heads of government or state of 27 EU countries — mapped a coordinated attack to slash budgets affecting the working class, in its “Europe 2020” strategy. Among Germany, the UK, France, Greece, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Latvia, and Portugal, between now and 2015, current and planned budget cuts will total $409.4 BILLION, as the vaunted European “social welfare” state gets slashed to ribbons.

This is resulting in two- and three-year government-worker wage freezes; frozen pension and welfare payments; pension cuts and two- to five-year increases in retirement ages; huge privatization programs across many government-run services; elimination of checks for child births and child benefits; cuts in government reimbursement for medicines and in unemployment benefits; closing of hospitals and schools (900 in Portugal alone!); and layoffs of teachers, nurses and other government workers into the hundreds of thousands, if not millions.

 “These cuts will result in significant harm to people’s health,” said David Stuckler, Oxford University Sociology Department. “It’s not just about doctors and medicines to care for the sick — social care and support are vital to prevent people from becoming ill.”

Racist Cuts

As a result of institutional racism, cuts in social security programs and pensions and higher retirement ages will hit black people and immigrants harder than native-born whites. In the UK, among youth between 16 and 24, the jobless rate for blacks is 50%, for whites it’s 20%. (Institute for Public Policy Research, January 2010) Proportionally, they will be hit harder by cuts in unemployment benefits, schools, and health care.

In Sweden, on June 9-10 two days of rioting erupted in the Rinkeby neighborhood of western Stockholm when immigrant youth were denied entrance to a local school dance. Mariam Osman Sherifay, chair of the Center Against Racism, said racism against Somalian and Turkish immigrants in Rinkeby is worse than ever. But the Swedish government — presumably “for budget reasons” — provides no funds to help them integrate into Swedish society.

In a number of European countries, “cost-cutting” is specifically linked to these attacks:

• Italy has made “irregular migration” a crime. Schoolteachers and local government workers are legally required to report “illegal” immigrants to the police. This prevents immigrants from gaining education and medical care. Local governments are allowed to create unarmed posses to patrol towns. This “may result in discrimination and vigilantism” against Roma families, according to Amnesty International’s 2010 report.

• In Germany, “illegal” immigrants and their children have limited access to health care, education and the courts in cases of labor rights violations.

* In 2008, Ireland cut funding 43% for its Equality Authority. The Equality and Rights Alliance says Ireland no longer has an effective body to oversee anti-discrimination policy. In 2009, non-Irish nationals were three times more likely than native-born to experience discrimination while job-seeking; black people were seven times more likely. (Economic and Social Research Group)

• Eight Roma women have filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights for having been sterilized after giving birth in a hospital in eastern Slovakia. The racist sterilizations were presumably intended to reduce the Roma population and its potential use of government services, thus “cutting costs.”

Sexism

Institutional sexism means that women will suffer disproportionately from cuts in government services, lower pensions and higher retirement ages. In the UK, women are trapped in low-paid, part-time work. Two-thirds of low-paid workers are women. Average pay for full-time working women is 17% less than for men. Nearly a million more women than men live in poverty in the UK. Every year, 30,000 women lose their jobs in the UK simply for being pregnant. (All statistics for 2007, before the world economic crisis!)

In France, 50% of women don’t qualify for full retirement pensions, partly because they’re forced to quit work due to a lack of childcare, and partly because they’re forced — more so than men — to work part-time and temporary jobs. Of four million part-time workers, 82% are women. And now their small retirement checks will be cut even further.

Union Hacks Defend Capitalism

Union “leaders” have barely reacted to this massive attack on the working class. In Ireland, when the government decided on its austerity measures, “The Irish unions say outright that they deliberately shied away from widespread strikes for fear of sparking a bond market meltdown.” (Reuters, 7/7)

In the UK on May 24, Brendan Barber, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, fretted: “Taking any money out of the economy at the moment is dangerous, as there is a real risk of a double-dip recession.”

Bernard Thibault, head of France’s 711,000-member CGT union, worried that, “Austerity ... can be suicide for economic productivity.”

In Germany, Michael Sommer, chairman of the German Trade Union Federation, was tormented by the idea that, “The so-called savings concept of the federal government is a document [absent] of prospects and social imbalance. In view of the continuing crisis and demographic developments, it threatens the core of Germany’s sustainability.”

“Double-dip recession,” “productivity,” “sustainability” — these labor fakers are more concerned with saving capitalism than with protecting the working class!

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is planning protests and “possible” (!) work stoppages across the EU on Sept. 29 when EU finance ministers will meet. But on June 4, ETUC head John Monks still didn’t know how many unions or workers would join the protest. On June 9, Monks wrote to the EU heads of state and government begging them “to spread the reduction of national deficits over a longer and more realistic period.” He has no problem with stealing from the working class, as long as it’s done more slowly!

Communist Revolution

Clearly the working class cannot depend on these union hacks to defend it. The hacks’ very existence depends on the survival of capitalism. If you’re afraid of “hurting” the capitalist system, you cannot wage a meaningful fight against cutbacks. But as long as the bosses hold state power and control society, even gains against this assault will eventually be reversed. That’s why communist leadership is needed to turn this fight to roll back the cutbacks into schools for communism, to overthrow the whole capitalist system.

We make the whole cake. Why content ourselves with crumbs? Through communist revolution, we can create a society in which all the wealth created by our labor is shared by the whole working class