teachers? A fake trade-off
Union officials deal blow to solidarity
(feature article)
BY STEVE CLARK
Last week members of the Socialist Workers Party branch in Los Angeles submitted an article to the Militant reporting on a May 13 rally there of some 2,000 teachers and their supporters. The demonstrators were protesting threatened teacher layoffs and cuts in funding for public schools.
Sacramento’s plans to “balance the budget” on the backs of government employees come on top of $11.2 billion in earlier cuts, including measures to kick workers off welfare for life after four years (it’s currently five years!); to close California’s senior day-care centers; and to substantially reduce spending on Medi-Cal, a health-care program depended on by working people across the state.
Union officials from the California Teachers Association (CTA) called the May 13 protest to rally support for their demand that the state legislature back Democratic governor Edmund Brown’s proposal to extend a hike in state income tax for four years and an increase in sales tax and driver’s license fees for five years—measures initiated by previous Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The article on the protest, drafted by Norton Sandler, quoted extensively from a statement handed out by members and supporters of the Socialist Workers Party in Los Angeles, as they talked to teachers and other rally participants and sold subscriptions to the Militant.
The statement opposed the tax hikes and sought to explain why such measures, far from aiding public employees in California, are a blow to the working class. This initiative by socialist workers in Los Angeles to