CHICAGO, IL —The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) has called for a “Day of Action” April 1, involving other unions statewide and some 35 community organizations. The CTU called on its allies to “withhold their labor” as well as to conduct boycotts and demonstrations. The CTU House of Delegates approved this strike action in a special meeting March 23, but this is broader than a trade union engagement. It has elements of a class response.
Caught in a difficult position by a system that will not negotiate, CTU challenged Governor Rauner’s and Mayor Emanuel’s excuse that the state and the city are broke —the CTU says, “broke on purpose.” The union coalition has demanded the mayor bail out the schools with his Tax Increment Financing slush fund, and to renegotiate the high interest bonds that cost hundreds of millions in interest. They are calling on the state to levy a tax on Illinois’ “billionaire class,” which would fund services cut by the budget impasse in Springfield. They are tired of fighting scattered local economic battles. The federal government needs to fulfill its responsibilities to provide for its people. One thing the CTU knows: If they fail in their efforts to force the state to obtain new revenue, any contract they win will quickly be broken by Chicago Public Schools (CPS).
Illinois is using the excuse of the budget impasse to withhold funds not just from CPS schools, but also from public universities. Chicago State University is on the verge of closing, and NorthEastern Illinois University is also in dire straits. Some high school counselors are telling seniors not to apply to Illinois public universities. CPS is using scare tactics in messages to parents and teachers, labeling the April 1 action an “illegal strike.”
Leaders of the Chicago education movement are learning the toxic lessons of Detroit’s public schools and Flint’s water crisis. Emergency manager dictatorships in Michigan are seen as threats of what might happen here. Rauner has already threatened to take over CPS, declare bankruptcy, and gut pensions, wages and the union itself. We are learning of cover-ups of asbestos and lead in Chicago public schools, reminiscent of Michigan. Chicago, Flint and Detroit also have this in common: With the decline of industry and automation of whole divisions of labor, large areas of the cities are desolate, crowded with foreclosed or abandoned housing, the streets either forlorn and empty or teeming with the homeless and unemployed. Why educate young people that the corporate machine no longer needs?
At the same time, Mayor Emanuel’s coverup of police brutality has left him politically weak. The CTU and their allies know they must seize this moment or they will soon be ground up by the fascist offensive. Both Governor Rauner and Mayor Emanuel are maneuvering in the hope of forcing the CTU to self-destruct. For the movement to be successful requires the boldest fight for national funding for a national problem. The resources exist. Money is not the problem. Nationalization to deploy the resources for the benefit of all, according to need, could achieve a fully funded educational program.
