DETROIT TEACHERS CARRY OUT MILITANT STRIKE — MASSIVE PRESSURES AGAINST
THEM
The Detroit Federation of Teachers, influenced by deteriorating conditions and a long term educational effort by militant rank and file teachers, recently took an heroic stance in their two week long strike against the Detroit Public Schools district management, a gang of liars and manipulators and wasters of money. The teachers said very clearly that, regardless of any court orders and injunctions, they WOULD NOT go back into the schools until there was an acceptable contract agreement that was then ratified by the membership. And so, even after a court injunction against them from supposedly “liberal” judge Susan Borman to return to the classrooms during negotiations (an age old ploy to weaken strike struggles and disunify strikers), the teachers held strong and remained on the picket lines.
Many rank and file teacher spokespersons are comparing their struggle to the US civil rights movement, the fight for Indian independence led by Mahatma Gandhi, the Underground Railroad, the union struggles of the 1930’s, and the American Revolution itself. They are saying clearly that unjust and oppressive laws must be broken, violated, disobeyed. That this is a well established American tradition; a right and DUTY in order to defend Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. These rank and file leaders are absolutely right.
Then, during a secret, closed negotiation “meeting” on September 11th, the union President and executive board were bullied and threatened by Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick ( a notorious would-be union buster, privatizer, and corporate servant), by “liberal” governor Jennifer Granholm, and by a host of other “dignitaries”, and they tentatively approved what is reported by rank and file spokespersons to be a contract proposal that is filled with concessions and surrenders that will continue the hostile and crisis ridden reality for teachers and students in the Detroit school system.
This is unacceptable, pure and simple, and many Detroit teachers saw it that way, said so, and voted as such at the mass teachers’ meeting on the night of Tuesday September 12th, even though the union brass tried time and time again to close debate before everyone, especially militant rank and file leaders, had said their piece. Rank and file militants made it clear that teachers have fought too long to let this concession ridden contract go through now, and that it would only make their problems and the problems of students and the community worse. However, many teachers at the meeting, a SLIGHT majority, felt that if the strike went on they would be intensely up against the whole political machine/corporate media/repressive apparatus in their struggle to get a just and livable contract. They obviously felt, tragically, that the proposed contract was about as good as they were going to get, and so the next day the teachers went back into the schools, awaiting a formal balloted vote to soon be completed.
We of the Socialist Party of Michigan feel that the slim majority of teachers have more than likely made a serious error here and that the arguments of the militants should have been given more consideration by them. But it is not our call. It is up to the teachers themselves. And given the array of forces against them, and the cowardly surrender by the “leadership’ of the Detroit Federation of Teachers (and the silence of the other “leaders” of other unions, whose main occupation for years has been ramming concessions down the throats of their own members), the rank and file teachers can’t be fairly seen as having been too timid themselves.
The stark fact is that in order for teachers or any other workers to make significant gains in this day and age there is going to have to be a deep going sea change in the nature of the unions, peoples’ movements, and the political/attitudinal orientation of social struggles. It’s going to take the united, militant, class struggle motivated mobilization of THE ENTIRE LABOR MOVEMENT (made up of fully democratic, mass, rank and file controlled unions), THE WORKING CLASS IN GENERAL, THE COMMUNITIES AT LARGE, all progressive social activists and forces, students, the poor and unemployed and all popular layers of society working together and in tandem. If there was going to be a real victory for the Detroit teachers, these kinds of multiplied forces would have had to come to their aid and support. Only then could the majority of teachers have felt strong enough to persevere as they fought on against the anti-labor atmosphere that permeates today’s society. Otherwise, some kind of sell out or concession contract was almost inevitable. And so it happened.
However, even though it only went so far this time, the Detroit teachers have provided an example, in mild form, that unions and workers everywhere must begin to emulate, extend, and deepen— We must build the forces to massively violate the anti-union, slave-labor laws of this country, such as Taft-Hartley. TO HELL WITH INJUNCTIONS AND COURT ORDERS! Picket massively. Shut down struck facilities. KEEP SCABS OUT! Carry out support strikes, secondary boycotts and hot cargo agreements and actions. OCCUPY STRUCK FACILITIES. DEMAND THAT CORPORATIONS AND ALL EMPLOYERS OPEN THEIR BOOKS TO THE WORKERS. NO BUSINESS SECRETS! If they’re really “too poor” to meet just worker demands, let’s see the evidence. If the capitalists and their fellow travelers in the social services can’t run things in a rational manner, LET THE WORKERS CONTROL THINGS THEMSELVES!
And do it all regardless of what judges, two faced union hacks, politicians and police and so on say. If the system cracks down, attacks people, jails people, fines unions, accuses them of being “criminal enterprises”, etc., for fighting for their rights, then CALL GENERAL STRIKES and bring the whole country to a standstill. MAKE ANTI-LABOR LAWS UNENFORCEABLE. Write our own labor law in the streets. We’re a long way from all that, but every example, even modest ones, help to make the point over time.
But business as usual thinking and acting among union officials will not carry out such a militant approach. ONLY RANK AND FILE CONTROLLED UNIONS AND STRIKE COMMITTEES, taking part only in COMPLETELY OPEN NEGOTIATIONS, will have a chance of carrying the day. NO SECRET NEGOTIATIONS! And only complete solidarity, in MILITANT DEEDS, not just words, involving the whole labor movement, can bring to bear the muscle to back it all up.
The days of concessions and give backs and surrenders must now be over, for all workers everywhere. IT HAS GONE TOO FAR! IT SHOULD NEVER HAVE STARTED AT ALL! Ultimately the whole working class — skilled, and “unskilled”, union and non-union, employed and unemployed, white and blue collar, industrial, service and agricultural, public and private sector, the homeless, marginalized, and super-poor. — must be united and become organized and mobilized to fight back and take back/create anew what is ours by right: Decent employment at good living wages/salaries, good health care for all, full union rights and the full right to strike, full democratic rights, real economic democracy and workers’ power, decent and safe neighborhoods, GOOD AND FULLY-FUNDED SCHOOLS, an end to imperial wars of conquest, good and affordable housing for all, and a host of other basic HUMAN RIGHTS.
It will all take a huge, massive struggle in this country to get these things. It will take the spirit and militancy of the 1930’s and the 1960’s combined to even have a crack at it. But we can do it if we unite and fight together and don’t give up or give in. The Detroit teachers have given us a courageous and heroic example of where to start. Let’s join with them and with all working people everywhere.
VICTORY TO THE DETROIT TEACHERS! NO DECENT, LIVABLE CONTRACT, NO WORK — PERIOD!