Seattle Educators On Strike!: Photos & stories of the struggle
Today was an incredible step forward in the struggle to fully fund education in Washington state: our union, the Seattle Education Association (SEA), went on a one day strike, joining over 50 local educators’ unions in a rolling strike wave to demand that the State Legislature spend billions of more dollars on the schools.
I have been part of a rank-and-file organization in Seattle called theSocial Equality Educators (SEE) who have argued for years that if we want to achieve the schools our students deserve, we will have to take collective action to force those in power to back down. We have helped organize collective action in the victorious MAP test boycott, the successful Garfield High School walkout against the proposed displacement of one of our teachers, and to support the mass boycotts of the SBAC testing this year. However, we have said that if the union as a whole were to take up these struggles, the power of our thousands of educators across the city would be strong enough to reverse the attack by the corporate education reformers.
Today, the SEA learned from these previous experiences of collective action by the rank-and-file, as well as other smaller locals around the state that began this one day rolling strike wave. The day began with educators, students, and parents rallying at designated high schools. Educators at these spirited morning rallies took up chants beyond the funding issues to also address abuses of high-stakes testing and Black Student Lives Matter. Then everyone boarded buses and headed for the Space Needle where we gathered to begin our march. As nurses, counselors, librarians, instructional assistants, family support workers, office staff, teachers, other educators, students, and parents stepped out into the street to begin the rally, I began to realize how many thousands of people were ready to take direct action to Seattle Educators On Strike!: Photos & stories of the struggle | I AM AN EDUCATOR:
