Seattle Black Lives Matter Organizers: “We are in full support” of the Seattle educator strike! | I AM AN EDUCATOR:
Seattle Black Lives Matter Organizers: “We are in full support” of the Seattle educator strike!
Students joined the picket line to make their voices heard
The 5,000 members of the Seattle Education Association led a five-day strike that was nothing short of transformative of our education system and our city. Thousands of parents joined in solidarity with the teachers, including the celebrated “Soup for Teachers” group that formed to bring sustenance and solidarity to picket lines at just about every school in the district. The Coalition for the Schools Seattle Deserves united community organizations and joined Kimya Dawson to host abenefit concert to raise funds for the striking teachers. The Seattle City Council, led by councilmember Kshama Sawant, passed a unanimous resolution in support of the strike. Marching band students used their pep-band anthems to root on striking educators. There can be no doubt that this strike was overwhelming supported by the people in the Seattle area–except, perhaps, for the regions’ wealthiest resident, Bill Gates, who has invested his fortune in schemes to privatize education and reduce our schools to test prep centers.
So many of the union’s social justice demands were advanced in the current strike and negotiations–creating a compelling model for educators around the country who believe in social movement unionism. This is why so many were greatly frustrated that the union ended the strike before a fair workload and pay agreement could be reached between the union and the school district.
Still, the union’s demand for “race and equity” teams was groundbreaking. The Seattle Education Association advocated for every one of the Seattle Public Schools to have such a team to tackle issues of institutional racism. The Seattle school district originally said they would only agree to having these teams in six schools. However, the power of the strike pushed the district to agree to allow 30 schools to have these anti-racist committees in the tentative agreement that was reached between the union and the Seattle Public Schools. Given that the Seattle schools have been found to suspend African American students at four times the rate of white students, it is clear that every school in the city needs to take to organize actively against inequality and racism.
Tomorrow, Seattle educators will vote on the tentative agreement. Many of us will ask the Seattle Black Lives Matter Organizers: “We are in full support” of the Seattle educator strike! | I AM AN EDUCATOR:
