Strike looms in Los Angeles as struggles by educators set to continue in 2019

 

Strike looms in Los Angeles as struggles by educators set to continue in 2019

By
Nancy Hanover

31 December 2018

The new year is set to begin with teachers around the world determined to reverse decades of attacks on jobs, working conditions and the right to high quality public education. Fearing the continued escalation of the teacher rebellion of 2018, the US News and World Report and other corporate media outlets are already warning that “2019 could bring more of the same.”

All indications point to an even more explosive series of struggles. Following a powerful rally of 50,000 educators, students and parents in Los Angeles on December 15, more than 30,000 teachers are scheduled to walk out January 10. A walkout in the second largest school district in the US would be the first since 1989.

50,000 LA teachers and their supporters rally December 15

“The issues facing LA teachers are part of a national calamity that has been taking place over the last 30 to 40 years,” said one teacher, Brett, to the World Socialist Web Site. True, indeed! The worldwide social counterrevolution against the working class, which was escalated after the 2008 global financial crash, has already propelled millions into struggle against social inequality.

• Thousands of French teachers and students have, since November, joined tens of thousands of workers and taken to the streets in yellow vests against the “President for the Rich” Emmanuel Macron. They have opposed national cuts in education and the rise of contract labor, calling for increased wages among educators, among many other social necessities.

• As the year begins, 45,000 para teachers in the east Indian state of Jharkhand are already on strike over mass layoffs and low pay in rural India. On December 24, they began…

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