DALLAS, June 15 — This year there has been an upswing in student and teacher activism against school cut-backs at a high school here. A combination of anger over the cuts plus talk with students about fighting back has sparked a militant spirit among many students and teachers, one absent for many years on this campus. The fact that these cuts affect a predominantly black and Latino student body reveals their racist nature.

The school bosses fired a veteran English teacher and, having no intention of hiring another teacher, rotated substitute teachers in and out of the class every day. With no curriculum, students created their own lesson plan: using the wasted time in class to make protest posters and organize a rally and walkout.

The following day, about 30 students walked out of class during 2nd period, the one used to calculate the average daily attendance. As students streamed out they chanted to bring back the fired teacher.

Students held their ground throughout the period and into the next one. Then 40 more students joined the rally. A few teachers, including a PL’er, stood nearby to show solidarity with the protest. As the rally grew, administrators became increasingly worried and sent cops to threaten students with $500 fines. Most students then returned to class.

Back in the classroom students told their stories: about how the media refused to cover the event and how administrators made threatening and degrading remarks to individual students. The rest of the day we discussed how the budget cuts would bring even more layoffs and the need for more student fight-back.  For the first time many students began to see the real impact of the cuts on the school as well as their own power to fight the cuts.

The challenge since the walkout has been to maintain this heightened level of struggle and student confidence in their power to make change. Even though the teacher was not rehired, it was a learning experience showing the potential to build a movement against the cuts and eventually for communism, a system without profiteers.

In the following weeks, the level of fight-back has been uneven.  While activity died down after the walkout, several faculty and students have participated in off-campus rallies and demonstrations opposing the cuts. Primarily the liberal teacher unions and other liberal misleaders, with the explicit message of “voting for change,” have led these actions.

At one rally, the local teachers’ union organizers held up signs displaying the phone numbers of congressmen. They told the crowd right then and there to call “their” legislators to “save our schools.” Instead of phoning these political phonies, PL’ers and our friends began chanting, “No cuts, no way! Make the bosses pay!” Soon the entire crowd joined our chant and, in order to save face, even the union misleaders did so.

As this school year ends, several faculty are being laid off or placed in “excess” pools from which their hiring is questionable. At a final faculty meeting, a PL teacher publically denounced all the layoffs in the entire school district, pointing out to those in attendance that they may not have a job next year, saying we should hold the administration and school board accountable.

While many teachers agreed with this speech, very few said so publically. The fear that these fascist cut-backs bring is evident; the majority of teachers are afraid to simply talk about the cuts for fear of losing their jobs.  This is the paralyzing grip of fascism, a fear forcing one to accept worse and worse conditions, and bite the bullet one more year, even as everyone around you is being laid off. This grim reality means we must re-double our efforts. Despite heightened levels of fight-back throughout this school year, there is still much work to be done.

PL’ers and the new friends we’ve made are planning to continue the struggle into the summer with a study group to discuss the relationship of the cuts to capitalism and imperialism. As was revealed during the struggle, the ruling class’s inexorable drive to finance its imperialist wars is behind the constant cuts in budgets allotted to workers’ and students’ needs, especially for blacks and Latinos. We will make these connections by showing CHALLENGE to more people and developing CHALLENGE study groups out of these summer groups.

In order to raise the level of class struggle even higher, we must do more to involve parents and win more students and faculty to a spirit of unity and fight-back like never before. This will enhance our ability to recruit them to the Party

PHILADELPHIA, June 15 — On May 9, a racist Philadelphia cop murdered a 19-year-old unarmed black worker, Albert D. “Audi” Purnell, Jr. This young man was shot in cold blood after he had followed police orders and raised his hands in the air and surrendered. He was shot in front of a number of witnesses. The KKKops claimed he had a gun and “fit the description” of a suspect they were searching for. The witnesses have all declared that the police murdered him.

Audi’s father, Albert Purnell, Sr., a hospital worker and friend of PLP, and his mother Tracey are demanding justice for their murdered son. Hahnemann hospital workers are mad as hell and supporting this struggle against the racist cops.

Audi had just graduated from high school and begun working in the mechanical engineering section of the Department of Welfare. He was the father of a young daughter whom he loved dearly. He was on his way to visit his fiancé and their daughter when he was killed. The police and district attorney are doing everything they can to cover up this racist murder, including arresting and trying to intimidate the witnesses and seizing any video surveillance cameras in the area. They’re refusing to reveal the names of the cops and other details of the investigation.

Since this police murder, they have shot seven more black men in Philadelphia, including a SEPTA bus driver. PL members, along with their friends among the hospital workers, are taking an active part in the growing movement against this racist police terror. (More details in future issues.)

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, June 13 —  Bravely refusing to buy into the rhetoric of “shared sacrifice,” 62,000 members of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike against the three major Southern California supermarket chains: Ralph’s, Albertson’s, and Vons.

The workers’ contract expired in March, and a strike could start in June or early July. It is critical for workers throughout Southern California, the United States and the world to support this strike. Progressive Labor Party should take the lead in organizing support from workers in other unions and from non-unionized workers, from community organizations, churches, schools…everywhere.

The supermarket chains are out to take another bite out of workers’ health benefits and pensions, as they did in 2003. That was when they introduced a two-tier wage system, which divided workers and gave the bosses an incentive to get rid of better-paid veteran workers. The workers’ willingness to strike is especially noteworthy given the defeat they suffered in the five-month strike/lockout in 2003.

When members of our church talked to workers at a nearby supermarket, they were excited to hear that we wanted to support them on the picket line and serve meals to striking workers at the church. Activities such as these could build class solidarity and create an environment in which we can win workers to the need for communist revolution, which would be the most important outcome of this strike.

This outlook is the opposite of the approach of the UFCW leaders. The union helped elect Jerry Brown governor of California by donating members’ money — which should have gone into their strike fund — and by organizing telephone banks. Brown wants to shore up the declining capitalist economy by pushing “shared sacrifice,” meaning working people sacrifice while bosses take more and more. (The LA Times reported that UFCW Local 770 President Rick Icaza was paid $273,404 in 2002—the last year his salary was made public.) Furthermore, it looks like the UFCW leaders, along with the Los Angles County Federation of Labor, are ready to replay the strategy that led to the 2003 defeat:

• No national union strategy to counter the national strategy of the supermarket chains, which used profits from stores throughout the U.S. to continue despite losses of $2 billion locally;

• Too little too late in organizing local support from other unions and community organizations;

• Allowing supermarkets to operate with scabs (who were paid almost double the wages of union workers). With mass support on picket lines, workers could have prevented access to the stores or even occupied them and shut them down;

• Returning to work despite the chains’ firing of over 600 militant workers for “misconduct” during the strike.

Icaza has repeatedly said that he thinks strikes are old-fashioned and should no longer be necessary. A few months ago he said in a radio interview, “I think the employers are gonna look at this and say to themselves, ‘We have the authority to go forward,’ and instead of what they’ve been doing in the past — stalling — they’re gonna sit down and bargain in good faith.”

On June 11, Icaza said, “We compromised on the pension issue. Now is the time for management to compromise on health care.” In other words, the union leadership has already agreed to give-backs on pensions in return, so far, for nothing. In fact, the supermarket chains are demanding give-backs in healthcare that could cost each worker $7,000 a year. No doubt Icaza is getting ready to announce a “victory” — workers will lose “only” $1,000 or $2,000 in healthcare benefits.

The average veteran full-time supermarket worker makes less than $30,000 a year — barely enough to live in high cost-of-living Southern California. Most workers make far less, as they get only 24 hours of work per week. Many keep their jobs only because of the health benefits.

This is a great chance for us to support and build class struggle and working-class unity. We can use this struggle to win workers to the real solution to their problems: dumping capitalism, with its profits and bosses, with communist revolution.  Let’s get out to the picket lines (or supermarkets outside Southern California) — with our friends — and support our fellow workers!

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, June 15 — “These cuts make one wonder whether the Cook County Board of Health is malicious or just incompetent,” a physician stated at a recent hearing.  One of the latest budget-slashing moves by the Cook County bosses is to not re-apply for WIC (Women, Infants and Children) program.  Mostly funded by federal money, WIC provides nutritional support to pregnant women and their infants or small children. Yet the Board is aiming to literally take milk away from babies!

At a recent hearing on this issue, pediatric healthcare providers spoke out against the cut.  One pointed out that it was racist because it will affect mostly black and Latino children.  A hospital board member felt compelled to criticize the use of words like “racist” or “Nazi” (a term used by the public to characterize the board at previous hearings). This time around, the Board voted down this particular cut. But keep in mind that these Board members are the same people who are going all out to try to close two of the County’s three public hospitals. They may yet scuttle the WIC program when they meet again on June 24.

Under instructions from recently-elected Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, a liberal Democrat, the Board of Health has advanced a plan to close Oak Forest and Provident hospitals, which serve primarily black and Latino patients on the city’s South and West Sides.  Multiple hearings on the closure of Oak Forest have brought out many residents to demand that the hospital remain open (see CHALLENGE, 5/11).  After the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board (IHFSRB) denied permission for the closure, Preckwinkle pushed a bill through the State Senate to close the hospital without IHFSRB approval. The bill failed to reach the House floor before the General Assembly adjourned this spring. 

Despite this stay of execution, Oak Forest services had already been drastically decreased. Only about a dozen patients are slated to remain at the hospital. There will be no surgeries, no intensive care, no acute rehabilitation; the “hospital” will be a glorified emergency room.  And there is no guarantee that it won’t be completely closed in the near future.

The bosses explain that these cuts are necessary to keep the state fiscally solvent, even if it means targeting the workers at the bottom. But budget shortfalls do not exist in a void.  According to Joshua Holland of U.S. Labor Against the War, “Forty-six states face budget shortfalls in this fiscal year, totaling $130 billion nationwide. The supplemental requests for fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan this year add up to $170 billion — that doesn’t include the Pentagon’s base budget, nukes or Homeland Security.”

The priorities of those ruling the U.S. have nothing to do with providing decent healthcare or pensions to workers, the two items most often blamed for the state’s budget woes. This past year, the County allocated $126 million in their capital budget to build administrative offices at the old Cook County Hospital — enough to fund inpatient care at Oak Forest for more than five years. At every level, capitalism is full of disconnects between its relentless drive for profit and the basic needs of workers for a decent life.

Despite the cutbacks, there are positive aspects to this struggle. A number of dedicated and principled people have come out repeatedly to try to save what’s left of healthcare in Cook County. Their example is inspiring, and none of our minor victories could have happened without their speaking up and banding together.  In addition, everyone involved has learned some important lessons from the fight over Oak Forest, which has lain bare the illusions of voting and “democracy.”  Preckwinkle was billed as “more competent” and “less corrupt” than her predecessor, Todd Stroger, but she is fighting tooth and nail to strip the County of healthcare services.

Finally, it has become clear that capitalism is at the root of these problems. A system that
places profits before people requires imperialist wars to be funded above all else, leaving workers in the cold.  Although we will keep fighting to keep our hospitals open and our children fed, we know that only the complete destruction of this capitalist system will lead to healthy outcomes for all.