Cali's K-12 Hordes

Typical California Class Size? (Image by EddieHosa)

Class sizes have been growing in California for the past several years, due primarily to budget cuts. The state has slashed $20 billion from K-12 education over the last three years, and is set to cut another $4 billion next year.

In Oakland, K-3 class sizes could jump 30% from 23 to 30, according to the Bay Citizen. The Sunnyvale School district expects to see K-3 class sizes increase from 20 to 23. Cupertino expects to increase class sizes for grades 6-8, as well as 1-3. However, California State School Board President Michael Kirst says some schools may see K-4 classes approach 40 students.

Supposedly the state has a $1.3 billion per year class size reduction program. Fifteen years ago, the state mandated a strict class size limit for grades K-3 of 20 students per teacher. However, starting in 2009, the state relaxed its class size requirements, allowing school districts to still collect state class size reduction subsidies even if their class sizes rose as high as 28 or 30 students.

Of course this is all irrelevant. Education experts like Arne Duncan and Bill Gates insist that class size doesn’t matter (contrary to most of the research). Arne Duncan even said he would rather have his own kids in a class of 28 with a “good” teacher, than in a class of 23 with a mediocre teacher. However, a class size of 28 must sound pretty good to California’s teachers who have had more than 30 kids per class for years. It is also pretty hypocritical coming from a guy who went to a private school with an average class size of 19 (see Value Subtracted: Ed Reform’s Privileged Private School Brats).

Today in Labor History—May 2

It Is Forbidden to Forbid, May 1968, Paris

May 2, 1886 – Twenty-five hundred workers marched in Milwaukee for the 8-hour day. Governor Jeremiah Rusk supplied the Milwaukee National Guard headquarters with increased ammunition and the entire city police force with four companies of infantry & artillery. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 2, 1896 – U.S. Marines landed at Corrinto, Nicaragua, to "protect" US interests. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 2, 1911 - The nation’s first workers’ compensation law was passed in Wisconsin, providing benefits for employees injured in the workplace. (From the Daily Bleed)

Gustav Landauer, 1890s

May 2, 1919 – Gustav Landauer, Education Minister in the short-lived Bavarian workers Republic, was murdered by soldiers. Landauer was a signatory to the Ernst Joël Petition (1915), along with other leading cultural figures of the day, like Walter Benjamin, Martin Buber, Kurt Eisner, S. Fischer, Alfred Kerr, Heinrich Mann, and Thomas Mann. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 2, 1919 – Beginning of a Brazilian General Strike that involved 50,000 workers throughout Sao Paulo. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 2, 1924 – The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the involuntary sterilization of mentally retarded persons. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 2, 1933 - Adolf Hitler abolished all labor unions, leading to the mass arrest and murder of thousands of communists, anarchists and labor activists. (From Workday Minnesota and the Daily Bleed)

May 2, 1963 –Bull Connors jailed 958 children in Birmingham, Alabama. Those not jailed got blasted with fire hoses and attacked by dogs. (From the Daily Bleed)

Barricades, Paris, May 1968

May 2, 1968 – A Protest at University of Nanterre escalated into the French student strike. By May 20, six million workers were on strike, growing to ten million within a few days. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 2, 1968 – Though Martin Luther King, Jr. had recently been assassinated his Poor Peoples' March on Washington, D.C. proceeded as planned, led by successor Ralph Abernathy. 3,000 people erected Resurrection City on the Mall until the 17th. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 2, 1980 – Pink Floyd's hit single "Another Brick in the Wall," with its chorus of kids chanting "We don't need no education," was banned by the South African government. The song was adopted by striking black teachers and black children, upset about inferior education. The Apartheid government called the song is "prejudicial to the safety of the state." (From the Daily Bleed)

Paulo Freire, 1997 (Image by Slobodan Dimitrov

May 2, 1997 – Paulo Freire (1921-1997), Brazilian philosopher & educator, died of heart failure in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (From the Daily Bleed)

Solidarity: What is it Good For? (Absolutely Everything!)

Poster for League for Industrial Democracy, by Anita Willcox Great Depression,

For a while, the term solidarity developed a negative image among Americans, with many associating it with communists, stodgy old school unions, or the right-wing Polish Solidarnosc movement. Sometimes I would use the word when talking with teachers and immediately notice defensive posturing, perhaps a sign of anxiety or discomfort over the inevitable request to join a picket line or to do something extra beyond their teaching duties on behalf of other teachers or workers.

Recently we have been hearing more positive talk about solidarity, like it is a good thing, a personal responsibility, such as showing support for Wisconsin public sector workers fighting state attacks on their right to strike and to collectively bargain. The California Teachers Association and other unions sent out messages saying “We stand in solidarity with you.” However, this is not solidarity at all. Rather, it is a message of spiritual support. Organizations that sent money were providing material support. Solidarity, in contrast, is when a group or individual that is not currently in conflict with the bosses goes out and physically supports another that is in conflict, generally by taking the same or more extreme risks in the process.

A labor struggle cannot be won through messages of spiritual support, though such messages may be inspirational and help participants to persevere. Likewise, victory cannot happen through material support, though this is often helpful in sustaining a local struggle. What wins labor conflicts and most other progressive causes (on the rare occasions in which they do win) is sufficiently harming the bosses’ bottom line or so inconveniencing politicians that they decide it is easier and/or more profitable to negotiate than to continue strong arming workers.

An Injury to One is An Injury to All

Solidarity is not only about helping a group that is in conflict to win their struggle. It is also about connecting their battle to a larger struggle in hopes of building momentum toward winning that larger struggle, too. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) popularized the slogan: An Injury to One Is An Injury to All.  In other words, an attack on workers anywhere is an attack on workers everywhere. The threat to Wisconsin’s public sector workers threatens workers throughout the country because a victory by the bosses there emboldens them to launch attacks elsewhere. We can already see this happening with Democratically-controlled legislatures, like Massachusetts, also trying to gut labor protections (See Liberal Union Busting).

Ricardo and Enrique Flores Magon, L.A. Jail, 1917

The IWW not only supported other causes by sending members to join their picket lines. The IWW actively recruited people to “ride the rails” and physically travel across the country to help win local struggles. They even advertised for activists to “come fill the jails,” knowing that if they got enough of their members arrested, they would overwhelm the local government (both financially and physically) and be able to force them to negotiate. And they did not limit themselves to labor conflicts, either. They organized and recruited participants for Free Speech fights in Spokane, Fresno and San Diego, when local authorities tried to ban them from organizing and agitating on street corners. They even sent members to join the Mexican anarchist Ricardo Flores Magon in his uprising against the Mexican authorities. An IWW army briefly took over Mexicali and Tijuana in 1912 (See “IWW: Its First Seventy Years,” by Fred Thompson and Patrick Murfin).

ILWU Shuts Down West Coast Ports in Solidarity With Wisconsin Workers

Seattle ILWU Member Striking Against Iraq War (Image by WikiGolightly)

The International Long Shore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), especially Local 10 (San Francisco and Oakland), is one of the few fighting unions left in the U.S. Their website has even adopted the old IWW slogan: An Injury to One is An Injury to All.

Over the past 30 years, the ILWU has repeatedly shut down Bay Area ports (and occasionally the entire West Coast) in solidarity with other causes. On May 2, 2008, they shut down West Coast ports both to honor International Workers Day and to protest the war in Iraq. On October 23, 2010, they shut down Bay Area ports to support justice for Oscar Grant, an unarmed black man brutally shot to death by BART transit cop Johannes Mehserle. In 1995, during the San Francisco newspaper strike, they blocked newspapers from moving through Bay Area ports. In 1999 they shut down to ports in solidarity with Mumia Abu-Jamal, who continues to sit on death row despite overwhelming evidence of his innocence, including an admission of guilt by someone else for the crime Abu-Jamal was convicted of (See Mumia Death Sentence Ruled Unconstitutional). In the 1970s and 1980s they refused to handle cargo headed for the brutal totalitarian regimes in Chile and El Salvador, and in the 1980s, for 11 days, they refused to handle cargo from South Africa in solidarity with the anti-apartheid struggle (see Democracy Now, 4/29/11).

On April 4, 2011, the ILWU again shut down Bay Area ports, this time in solidarity with Wisconsin workers. For this they are being sued by The Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shipping companies, terminal operators and stevedoring companies that lost money as a result of their work stoppage. The ILWU believes the suit is not only about recouping lost profits, but also about stopping such solidarity from occurring in the future. Indeed, such lawsuits are one reason why we don’t see more solidarity actions elsewhere in the country.

Today In Labor History--May 1

May 1, International Workers Day!!!!

Mother Jones (Library of Congress)

May 1, 1830 - Mary Harris "Mother" Jones was born. Mother Jones was renowned for her militancy and fiery oration, as well as her many juicy quotes. She once said, “I’m no lady. I’m a hell-raiser.”  She also was an internationalist, saying “My address is wherever there is a fight against oppression.” Despite the difficulties of constant travel, poor living and jail, she lived to be 100.  (From Workday Minnesota and the Daily Bleed)

May 1, 1866 – Beginning on this day, white Democrats and police attacked freedmen and their white allies in Memphis. By the end of the three-day race riot, 48 were killed. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 1, 1883 - Cigar makers in Cincinnati threatened to strike factory owners continued to make them pay 30 cents per month to heat their factories.   (From The Unionist)

May 1, 1884 – The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (FOTLU), forerunner of the AFL, resolved that "8 hours shall constitute a legal day's work from and after May 1, 1886." Ironically, the FOTLU, which was one of the first bureaucratized “business” unions and which was created as a conservative foil against the radical Knights of Labor, essentially contributed to the ensuing mass insurgency with its resolution. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 1, 1886 – The first nationwide General Strike for the 8-hour day occurred. 340,000 workers struck in Chicago, Milwaukee cities throughout the U.S. Four demonstrators were killed and over 200 wounded by police in Chicago. The US will set another day as Labor Day to undercut world solidarity. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 1, 1888 - Nineteen machinists at the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad, angered over a wage cut, voted to form a union, which ultimately became the International Association of Machinists. (From Workday Minnesota)

May 1, 1889 – The first International Labor Day was celebrated. The U.S. decided to create its own labor day in September to undercut worker solidarity and to white wash away its violent history of repressing strikes and worker protest. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 1, 1890 – The first May Day celebration in Poland saw about 10,000 workers assemble in Warsaw. All nine organizers were arrested and sent to Russian prisons, where two of them died. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 1, 1891 –The French army tested their new Lebels machine guns against peaceful May Day demonstrators that included women and children carrying flowers and palms, killing 14 and wounding 40. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 1, 1894- The cross-country march by Coxey’s Army of the Unemployed ended with in a march down Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington, D.C. (From Workday Minnesota. Also see Today in Labor History, April 29)

May 1, 1899 – Tzarist police arrested 3000 of the 20,000 participants in Warsaw’s May Day demonstration. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 1, 1901- The Cooks’ and Waiters’ Union struck in San Francisco. They were demanding one day of rest per week, a ten-hour work day and a closed union shop for all restaurants in the city. (From The Unionist)

May 1, 1905 – 60 workers found were killed in fights with police during May Day protests in Poland. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 1, 1906 – 1,200 members of the Iron Molders Union in Milwaukee struck for shorter hours and more pay. They lost the strike after two years of bitter struggle. One employer, Allis-Chalmers, spent $21,700 to hire the Burr-Herr Detective Agency, resulting in more than 200 assaults on union members, including union leader Peter Cramer, whose was killed. The agency offered one unionist 10 dollars for each striker he beat up. (From the Daily Bleed)

May 1, 1933 - The first issue of the Catholic Worker was published. The Catholic Worker was founded in New York City by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, anarchist-Catholics. The first run of the paper published 2,500 copies. By 1936, circulation had risen to 150,000. (From the Daily Bleed and Workday Minnesota)

May 1, 1938 - Congress enacted amendments to the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act, extending protections to the employees of state and local governments. However, these protections didn’t take effect until 1985 because of court challenges.(From The Unionist)

May 1, 2006 - Millions of immigrants, participating in a national day of mobilization, stayed home from work. Their goal was to demonstrate their economic power and demand comprehensive reform of U.S. immigration laws. It is estimated that 100,000 gathered in San Jose, California, 200,000 in New York, 400,000 each in Chicago and Los Angeles.  There were demonstrations in at least 50 cities. Despite their numbers, the country has seen a wave of increasingly repressive and racist immigration laws enacted locally in places like Arizona, Georgia, Florida. (From Workday Minnesota, The Unionist)

MAY DAY!!! International Workers Day

Haymarket Martyrs (Public Domain)

The Knights of Labor had been agitating for the eight hour work day for years, drawing in hundreds of thousands of workers who opposed capitalist power. On May 1, 1884, The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, forerunner of the AFL, resolved that "8 hours shall constitute a legal day's work from and after May 1, 1886."

By May 1, 1886, workers were taking to the streets to demand the 8-hour day. The movement was centered in Chicago. 50,000 workers were already on strike, with 30,000 more joining their ranks the next day, bringing Chicago manufacturing to a standstill. On Monday, May 3, a fight broke out at McCormick Reaper between locked-out unionists & non-unionist scabs. Heavily armed police moved in with clubs and guns, killing four unionists and many wounded.

Anarchists, led by August Spies and Albert Parsons, called on workers to arm themselves and to attend a demonstration in Haymarket Square on May 4. Expecting a huge crowd, only 3,000 showed up. At the meeting, a bomb was thrown, killing seven police. 67 were injured. The identity of the assailant was never determined, though many speculate that it was a police or capitalist provocateur.

Poster for Haymarket Meeting (Pub Dom)

The bombing created hysteria and led the police to round up anarchists throughout the city, including Spies and Parsons. Most of those arrested were not even in attendance at the Haymarket meeting and no evidence ever linked them to the bombing. Ultimately, eight anarchists were tried and convicted of murder and sentenced to death. On November 11, 1887, four were executed, including Parsons and Spies. 250,000 people attended Parson’s funeral procession to express their outrage at the miscarriage of justice.

The Haymarket tragedy became a symbol of the inequality and injustice of capitalism for radicals and trade unionists throughout the world, inspiring annual May 1 rallies in virtually every country in the world. May Day is still celebrated as International Workers Day. The United States, ironically (or deliberately, to white wash its sordid and violent history of suppressing labor) is one of the only countries that does not celebrate May 1 as International Workers Day. 

(From the Daily Bleed and Workday Minnesota. Please also see www.iww.org)