We need to pay close attention to these wise words: "The only way to
move forward is to organize independently of the capitalist
politicians, Democrats and Republicans alike. We can only rely on
ourselves."
True, the "Sleeping Giant" is finally stirring, but it's a far cry
from the days of the I W W, and the Labor Movement in the USA back in
the late 1800's and early 1900's. And yes, the key to change will be
in how we learn to educate our children and ourselves. That is our
real challenge.
Carl Jarvis
On 5/5/18, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://themilitant.com/2018/8219/821902.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 82/No. 19 May 14, 2018
(front page, editorial)
Workers are starting to act up today. Join in!
The strikes and protests by teachers and other school workers from
West Virginia to Oklahoma, Kentucky, Colorado, Arizona and now North
Carolina is something new. We have not seen a working-class fight like
this in decades.
“It’s a class of people rising up,” one of the teachers in Morgantown,
West Virginia, said. After decades of economic contraction and attacks
by the capitalist rulers and their political parties in Congress and
state legislatures, workers are saying, “Enough!” They are setting an
example of how to fight, not just for themselves, but for the working
class as a whole, and how to do so effectively.
The capitalist class tries to convince us that “education is about
ensuring that your family’s children have the best shot at getting ahead
in the lifetime struggle of each against all,” Jack Barnes, national
secretary of the Socialist Workers Party, points out in the introduction
to the pamphlet The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning.
Barnes approaches education from the opposite perspective, a
working-class point of view. He says it has to be looked at as a “social
question. As the fight for the transformation of learning into a
universal and lifetime activity.”
The pamphlet presents this fight as part of preparing workers and
farmers “for the greatest of all battles in the years ahead — the battle
to throw off the self-image the rulers teach us, and to recognize that
we are capable of taking power and organizing society, as we
collectively educate ourselves and learn the exploiters in the process.”
The only way to move forward is to organize independently of the
capitalist politicians, Democrats and Republicans alike. We can only
rely on ourselves and our fellow workers.
The ruling class doesn’t need workers to be educated. This helps explain
why funds for schools are at the bottom of their priorities. They want
workers who are obedient. Despite the best efforts of teachers, Barnes
points out, “schools under capitalism are not institutions of learning
but of social control, aimed at reproducing the class relations and
privileges of the prevailing order.”
In West Virginia and Arizona teachers say with pride that students have
learned more from the walkouts, the mobilizations, the discussions and
organization than anything they get in the classroom.
The Cuban Revolution is a living example that something different is
possible. Fidel Castro and the July 26 Movement viewed learning as a
social question, a requirement to advance the revolution. One of the
first great accomplishments of the revolution — in fact one they began
when they were still in the mountains fighting to topple the Batista
dictatorship — was the massive literacy campaign of 1961.
Some 100,000 young students from the cities volunteered to live with
peasant families in the countryside and teach them to read and write.
Literacy — and culture — are crucial for workers and farmers to wield
political power. Both the students and the Cuban people were transformed
by the revolution and the campaign. The dog-eat-dog morality of
capitalism was dealt a powerful blow.
No one can predict how long the teachers’ uprising will last or how far
it will spread. Teachers in North Carolina are planning a statewide
mobilization May 16. Join members of the Socialist Workers Party to go
and take part. Help get out the Militant, The Working Class and the
Transformation of Learning, and deepen the discussion on how the working
class can make progress.
Things have changed!
Related articles:
Teacher battles: Example for all working people! Arizona teachers,
school workers get broad solidarity
South Africa workers strike, protest for wage raise, rights
On the Picket Line
‘Hardhat Mass’ marks deaths of construction workers
Denver rallies demand school funding, pay raises
W.Va. workers proud of victory of teachers strike there
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