The International Socialist Organization, Jacobin hail betrayal of Los Angeles teachers’ strike
By
Adam Mclean
28 January 2019
Bhaskar Sunkara, the editor of Jacobin and former vice chair of the Democratic Socialists of America, made a revealing comment on Twitter January 17, as the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) was preparing to shut down and sell-out the Los Angeles teachers strike.
“The DSA and the ISO [International Socialist Organization] sending tacos to striking teachers is pretty good. But the SEP [Socialist Equality Party] is sending them the correct program, and let’s not forget that’s the most important thing.”
Dripping with his characteristic cynicism, Sunkara meant his comment as a snide attack on the SEP and the World Socialist Web Site. How could anyone, after all, consider the most important thing in developing the strike of teachers to be a program and perspective? Clearly, the DSA/ISO’s “Tacos for Teachers” initiative was far more important.
Behind the sarcasm was also a worry—that the program advanced by the SEP was winning broad support, and that the UTLA and its allies in the DSA and ISO were losing control of the situation. The ISO and the DSA in fact had and have a political agenda, which is aimed at reinforcing the political domination of the Democratic Party via the trade unions and thereby ensuring that the strike was isolated and defeated.
This fact was confirmed five days later, when the UTLA shut down the strike in the most blatantly undemocratic manner possible, giving teachers only a few hours to review and vote on a deal announced by the UTLA and the school district that repudiated all the major demands of the teachers. The conditions surrounding the end of the strike have not gone unnoticed by teachers and the…