Montreal Teachers 4 Change.org

By Rick Salutin | Published August 2, 2013 by rabble.ca

Excerpt:

Why doesn’t the union protest loudly that they’re taxpayers, too? Or that fairness in pay is something anyone who has a job can identify with and support. Plus: higher wages lead to more demand in the economy, therefore more jobs and taxes paid, lowering deficits, etc.

In other words, why don’t they contest the battle for the public mind? I don’t know why but they don’t, or rarely do. They seem to have lost track of that tactic. It went missing in the Ontario teachers conflict this year, too. The unions made little or no effort to explain their case and enlist parents, students and citizens on their side. That left the McGuinty government with the role of defender of the taxpayers. It’s not inevitable. The Chicago teachers’ union laboured for wider support and won their strike with it.

This matters not just because it would be smart for unions. It’s because they, for about a century, have been central to general social improvement. They provided inspiration, resources, organization: without them there would not have been public health care, universal pensions, health and safety laws, the whole panoply of the (now disputed) welfare state. It’s hard to imagine today how central they recently were to the electoral and legislative calculations of all political parties, not just Democrats in the U.S., or Liberals and NDP here.

Read more: http://rabble.ca/columnists/2013/08/labours-battle-public-mind-and-crucial-social-role-unions

By Lee Sustar | Published August 8, 2013 by The Socialist Worker

Excerpt:

CERTAINLY, OUSTING ineffective or conservative leaders is an important goal of militants among teachers, as it is for other union activists. And as the Chicago experience shows, a fighting union leadership can make a critical difference. But for most teachers union locals, those are long-term goals. So what do they do now?

That’s where CORE’s history is key. While the caucus only came into existence a couple of years before taking office, its roots go back decades to previous CTU reform movements. More recently, many CORE members were part of the reform administration of Deborah Lynch from 2001-2004, which was ousted after negotiating a weak contract. Others were active in the fight against the militarization of schools as well as school closures. Many first met in organizing around issues of violence that claimed their students.

As CTU President Karen Lewis often points out, CORE wasn’t formed with the idea of taking over the union, but simply making it more effective. The first step was understanding the enemy: hence a study group around Naomi Klein’s book, The Shock Doctrine. CORE’s first big public meeting in January 2009 drew 500 people in the midst of a classic Chicago blizzard, compelling the then-union president to show up to speak.

…

Certainly there’s much to be learned by trade unionists everywhere in studying CORE’s activist orientation and organizational savvy. But what makes CORE different is the politics behind the operation. While it is far from a politically homogenous group–CORE unites everyone from Democrats to socialists–the role of the left has been crucial. Socialists, radicals and militants from various organizations and political currents work together in CORE to emphasize union democracy, rank-and-file activism and militant action. This comes not from a nostalgia from labor’s better days, but from a sober recognition of the prospects for unions in an era of a depressed economy, a rollback of the public sector and rampant social inequality.

Just as important, CORE militants saw from the beginning that the teachers’ struggle had to be the same as that of students and parents. Thus, there was no difference between the CTU’s message to its members during the strike and to the wider community: Chicago teachers were defending public education, and got overwhelming support as a result.

CORE’s argument can be summed up as this: Teachers unions will have to struggle harder than they have for decades simply to hold on to what they have–and their fight must be part of a wider working-class movement to defend public services and a decent standard of living. If the revival of teacher reform groups is any indication, it’s a message that teachers are ready to hear.

Read more: http://socialistworker.org/2013/08/08/building-fighting-teachers-unions