On Chicago Teachers Union

(Letters)

28 May 2016

To the editor:

I wanted to add a point to the article on the one day Chicago Teachers Union strike in WV #1088 (Teachers One-Day Strike Draws Wide Support). It is standard fare for the trade-union bureaucracy to herd their membership into the voting booths for the Democratic Party and pour millions of hard-earned union dollars into the coffers of these enemies of the working class, which the CTU most certainly does. But the “militants” of the Caucus of Rank and File Educators and their left hangers on, particularly the International Socialist Organization, have gone whole hog by touting the line that the Chicago Public Schools administration and the CTU should be on the same side in this bitter contract dispute.

This was captured best by CTU vice president, self-proclaimed socialist and “principled trade unionist,” Jesse Sharkey, when he spoke to ABC news a day before the CTU’s 1 April strike: “CPS and CTU are going to have to come together for some agreed solutions in Springfield. If we are fighting about which bills are going to actually produce solutions it’s going to make it even harder to get bills through and so hopefully this [strike] produces some public pressure and CPS and CTU can come together with some joint solutions down at the capital” (my emphasis). Lest anyone was still confused, on Chicago Tonight, CTU president Karen Lewis stated, “CPS should be with us marching for the revenue.” Let’s be clear, CPS is hell-bent on smashing the union and to suggest anything different serves to disarm the union in the fight for its life.

In the face of widespread sentiment for an all-out strike, April 1st was organized explicitly to apply pressure on the Illinois state legislature and to let teachers blow off steam. The bureaucracy’s lobbying efforts push the lie that teachers and the bourgeoisie are all in this boat together.

Lewis says, “We will eventually get a contract. But what good is a contract if there’s no money to pay for it?” The union leadership put forward numerous tax proposals and pushed their members to engage in a lobbying campaign. It is not the job of the Chicago teachers to find the money for their paychecks and pensions. Quite frankly, a solid strike by the CTU would do more to help “find the money” than all the lobbying in the world. It is a question of power and program. The leadership’s legalism in the face of the anti-union law SB7 and their futile pursuit of collaboration with CPS deprived the members of the chance for a powerful strike when Chicago Mayor Emanuel’s fortunes were rock-bottom. Now the membership has little choice but to wait until schools reopen in the fall.

The collusion of the trade-union bureaucrats with the bosses goes hand in hand with their abandonment of union militancy. What the unions need is a genuine class-struggle leadership that is dedicated to fighting against all capitalist exploitation and oppression, not misleaders who advise the workers to put their trust in the very forces that are attacking their wages and benefits.

Chicago teacher