The right wing anti-teachers union blog, Intercepts, just discovered that anti-war activist and conspiracy theorist Cindy Sheehan was planning on joining the California Teachers Association protests at the California State Capital next week. The discovery sent them into paroxysms of paranoid conspiracy theories of their own, calling it a “public relations coup,” and sarcastically speculating that CTA would have to “collectively bargain a jurisdictional agreement over who gets to occupy what.”
The problem is that the CTA has no intention of occupying the state capital. They have called upon members to show up throughout the week of May 9th to rally, lobby legislators and beg them to put a regressive tax on the ballot that would bail out the state on the backs of working Californians, so the rich and their businesses can continue enjoying some of the lowest taxes rates they’ve ever experienced. CTA wants people there only during business hours. They are even paying for hotels for their members, so they have a safe and conflict-free place to rest up before another busy day of lobbying. CTA lawyers are particularly worried about their members getting arrested and are thus discouraging civil disobedience and direct action.
Of course the right wingers are fine with confrontation, civil disobedience and provocation when done by their people and when the goal is to increase their wealth or intimidate their enemies. But let’s forget about them for the moment. If the CTA truly wants to get lawmakers to change their behavior, then a true occupation—with people spending the night, refusing to leave and risking arrest—would have a much better chance of success than their tepid week of mass lobbying. It would stand an even better chance of success if lots of different groups got involved, too, like students, nurses, firefighters, anti-prison and anti-war activists, environmentalists, and any other group that has a grievance with the state. And it would stand an even better chance if large numbers of workers refused to work and came out in support of them. So from this perspective, why not have Cindy Sheehan, Breasts Not Bombs and the usual lefty orgy? The more the merrier.
However, if the CTA leadership wanted to create an occupation like the one in Wisconsin, they missed the opportunity by not encouraging other groups to join them, especially public sector unions and students. Budget cuts threaten health care workers, firefighters, police and numerous other service providers, too. Students are a particularly obvious ally, as the UC and CSU university systems have had $1 billion slashed from their budgets already and face even more cuts if the remaining $15 billion state deficit cannot be closed. Furthermore, the energy and momentum are already there, as students in both systems have been engaging in ongoing sit-ins and occupations at campuses throughout the state (see here, here and here).
What this event is really about is bolstering the stereotype that teachers are self-sacrificing public servants and sympathetic professionals, who not only care tenderly for your child each day, but who are also willing to chip in and do even more to ensure your child’s well-being, like voluntarily paying more in taxes. It’s also about demonstrating acceptance of the economic relations that keep so many children living in poverty, and showing support for the democratic system, even if that system exists to perpetuate these economic relations. Radical students, lefty wing nuts, civil disobedience, confrontation, and any other behavior unbecoming to a teacher would only undermine these goals.
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