For a unified struggle of Oakland students and teachers to defend public education!

 

For a unified struggle of Oakland students and teachers to defend public education!

By
the International Youth and Students for Social Equality – Berkeley

23 February 2019

The International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE), the student and youth movement of the Socialist Equality Party (SEP), expresses our utmost support for striking Oakland teachers. The strike, which began Thursday, is only the latest in a national and global explosion of teacher and working class struggle.

As a youth organization, composed of high schoolers, college students, and working class youth opposed to capitalism, the IYSSE supports and applauds the tens of thousands of teenage students in Oakland who have protested in solidarity with their striking teachers.

The fight to defend public education is a fight that will be conducted by teachers, students, and the entire working class. The interests of teachers and students are not opposed; they are the same.

For the past decade, following the financial collapse in 2008, public education has been the subject of a bi-partisan onslaught. Democrats and Republican alike have repeatedly claimed that there is no money to fund schools, no money to fund teachers’ salaries, health care or retirement, and no money to feed, clothe or shelter the millions of students who are hungry and even homeless in this country.

Democratic politicians like to posture as “pro-teacher,” but the reality is that they have passed budget after budget of cutbacks and austerity. What does education look like if its run by the Democratic Party? Look no further than the Oakland Unified School District. Run by Democrats on the state, municipal, and local level for decades, Oakland has some of the worst conditions in the country. Now, after years of sacrifice from…

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