Teachers’ rebellion spreads as tens of thousands strike in Oklahoma and Kentucky
3 April 2018
The teachers’ revolt in the United States entered a new stage on Monday as tens of thousands of teachers, students and working-class supporters took part in massive protests in Oklahoma and Kentucky. The growing wave of unrest among educators requires not only the attention and support of all workers, but their active participation.
The strike by 30,000 teachers in Oklahoma follows their rejection of a one-time pay increase of $6,000 and a miserly increase in school funding, financed largely through regressive taxes, passed by the state legislature on Thursday. The thousands of teachers protesting in Kentucky denounced the passage of a bill last week slashing pensions.
The walkout in Oklahoma, which the unions hoped to limit to a one-day strike, will continue today. School districts throughout the state have announced that they will remain closed, with many reporting that the closures will continue at least through Wednesday. While the unions are doing everything they can to get teachers back to work, there is a powerful sentiment for the extension and expansion of the strike.
The developments in Oklahoma and Kentucky are the latest expression of a resurgence of class struggle in the United States and around the world. They follow by less than a month the nine-day strike by teachers in West Virginia and the one-day strike by teachers in Jersey City, New Jersey. On March 28, thousands of teachers rallied in Phoenix, Arizona to demand a 20 percent pay increase and more funding for public schools.
The teachers’ strikes also follow the demonstrations of hundreds of thousands of student youth last weekend.
Beyond the borders of the United States,…