Social Unionism
Micah Uetricht, Strike for America: Chicago Teachers Against Austerity
Verso, 128pp, £8.99, ISBN 9781781683255
reviewed by Jake Kinzey
Two separate areas sit side by side, separated by City Line Avenue. North of City Line is Lower Merion Township. It is part of the ‘Main Line’, one of the wealthiest areas in the country. Overbrook lies south. Some of the neighbourhood lives in relative affluence, but the rest are like many other Philadelphians, and live in a world of poverty and violence.
One of the major differences between the two neighbourhoods is the state of their public high schools. In 2010, Lower Merion High School spent over $20,000 per pupil, making it one the top spenders in the state of Pennsylvania. Overbrook High School hovered around $10,000 a student, making it one of the lowest. 97.6% of students were eligible for a subsidised lunch at Overbrook High School; in Lower Merion, 7.3%. While the School District of Philadelphia is closing schools, laying off thousands of workers, and supporting the growth of charter schools, nothing of the sort is occurring on the Main Line. Both schools receive money through property taxes, which is standard in the rest of the US; this irritating detail is the major stumbling block for anyone attempting school reform.
The obvious solution is social democratic reform, but this is problematic for two reasons. First, the (post-World War Two) ‘Golden Age’ of capitalism is long gone, and with it the possibility of a long-term and sustained project for reform. Also, the United States has been - throughout its history - an exception among wealthy, industrialised nations in its rejection of social democracy. With the American system squarely opposed to successful social-democratic reform, asking for small changes can quickly turn into something larger. This happened in Québec, when during the 2012 student strike, hundreds of thousands of students were on strike for months protesting against a proposed tuition increase. During this time, Montréal was seeing an average of two protests a day, some of which had over 200,000 participants.
However, Québec is politically viewed as an exception within North America (even in comparison to the rest of Canada). This is what made the 2012 Chicago Teachers Union strike so exciting; it proved that the 2011 Occupy wave was not just a nihilistic rejection of politics, but a call to do something positive. Even more, it happened in the US, a place where leftist agitation had long been considered a ‘dead dog’. A strike by public sector workers was assumed to be impossible in our age. Americans were supposedly frothing at the mouth with hate for government employees, seeing them as little more than a leach on ‘the taxpayer’.
The surprise story of the CTU’s strike and its ability to win significant public support is chronicled in Micah Uetricht’s Strike For America. Of course, to the 30,000 members of the Chicago Teachers Union, the strike was not a surprise, but part of a long-term campaign ran by the Caucus of Rank And File Educators (CORE). Since CORE was formed in 2008, the CTU has been completely transformed. The United Progressive Caucus (UPC) had previously run the CTU, and had long ceased to be relevant. In its heyday (the late 60s/70s), the UPC had played a progressive role, particularly when fighting against institutionalised racism affecting both students and staff members. When it came to dealing with neoliberal attacks on education however, it was almost entirely ineffective.
Chicago has been the neoliberal ‘testing ground’ for decades when it comes to education. The Chicago elite have sought to make ‘education [into] another public good to be dismantled and handed over to the marketplace’; they are vultures that only see education as a set of numbers and balance sheets. This shows itself in the need to boil down school, teacher and student performance to standardised testing scores. Merit-based pay is a neoliberal favorite: it ensures that teachers spend class time teaching for the test rather than for the students. Failing schools receive less money, and many are closed permanently, often with a charter school opening up in the same building.
Testing and charter schools seem to be the two biggest weapons in the neoliberal arsenal. Charter schools are schools that receive state funding, but do not have to adhere to the same kind of standards as public schools. The staff is usually not unionised, which highlights the main goal of education ‘reform’: to break the power of the last big unions left.
When CORE was elected in 2010, it ran on a platform of seeking to change education’s neoliberal turn. It ‘originated as a group working not simply to push for better salaries or health-care coverage for teachers but to advance a broad vision of educational equality.’ In terms of union democracy, CORE pushed for more than just the election of a ‘good’ leadership: it sought to make its rank-and-file more active, by pushing for greater accountability with the union; increased contact with other teachers, parents and the larger community; and hosted reading groups, activist summer schools, etc. This kind of rank-and-file involvement is integral to achieving meaningful social change; voting in the ‘right’ leadership is not enough.
By the time that the CTU voted to strike in 2012, CORE had already reached most of the membership. Because of a legal measure that had been put in place specifically to stop a strike by the CTU, over 75% of the membership had to vote for a strike. When the ballots were counted, 98% of those who cast ballots (and 90% of teachers overall) voted to strike. On 10 September, the strike began. There were marches downtown, as well as in other parts of the city, and the city seemed to be covered in red. In Strike For America, we hear about some of the countless acts of solidarity across the city. A cashier at a café assumed that Uetricht was a CTU employee (because he was wearing one of their red shirts) and so gave him a free coffee. One wishes at times that Uetricht had shared some more of these details, as they helped to give the story experiential texture. On 18 September, the teachers decided to accept the offer that had been given to them and to return to work. The schools were open again the next day.
In many respects, the strike had been successful. In addition to winning some concessions, the CTU had managed to get a majority of the parents of Chicago Public Schools students on their side (as well as having a large segment of the city’s support). They did this by reaching out to the larger community, and asking them to join in their shared struggle. This ‘social unionism’ is quite different from the ‘we’ll get ours’ mentality that has long pervaded American unions. Uetricht correctly points out that ‘teacher’s unions’ fates in the 21st century will rest on their ability to represent the concerns of the students, parents, and communities they serve while arguing forcefully that free market forces do not serve these groups. Anything less will be suicide.’
However, the CTU lost on its two main issues: school closures and the shift to per-pupil funding. ‘Despite organizing at the community and rank-and-file levels, taking on the mayor and the Board of Education and the free market reformers, filing lawsuits and taking over public hearings, leading mass marches and civil disobedience actions, and winning the hearts and minds of a strong majority of the Chicago public, the CTU suffered stinging defeats.’
It is hard, then, to escape Uetricht’s conclusion that ‘no matter how well-organized communities and workers are, the overwhelming power of free market forces and their representatives in public office may still triumph.’ This, maybe, is the limit of the recent CTU actions (as well as, perhaps, Uetricht’s analysis). Managing to break away from the Democratic Party was a plus, because that is where radical movements go to die. What is called for is a shift from the current social democratic view to a more radical one. An example is the CTU’s proposal to raise the tax on Chicago’s financial traders engaging in financial transactions. Karen Lewis, the CTU president, described this as ‘an opportunity to actually make heroes out of these people.’ Maybe it’s time to realise that this will never happen: The problem is capitalism, not neoliberalism. The perspective of totality is required: this means that for every Lower Merion, there will always an Overbrook.
One of the major differences between the two neighbourhoods is the state of their public high schools. In 2010, Lower Merion High School spent over $20,000 per pupil, making it one the top spenders in the state of Pennsylvania. Overbrook High School hovered around $10,000 a student, making it one of the lowest. 97.6% of students were eligible for a subsidised lunch at Overbrook High School; in Lower Merion, 7.3%. While the School District of Philadelphia is closing schools, laying off thousands of workers, and supporting the growth of charter schools, nothing of the sort is occurring on the Main Line. Both schools receive money through property taxes, which is standard in the rest of the US; this irritating detail is the major stumbling block for anyone attempting school reform.
The obvious solution is social democratic reform, but this is problematic for two reasons. First, the (post-World War Two) ‘Golden Age’ of capitalism is long gone, and with it the possibility of a long-term and sustained project for reform. Also, the United States has been - throughout its history - an exception among wealthy, industrialised nations in its rejection of social democracy. With the American system squarely opposed to successful social-democratic reform, asking for small changes can quickly turn into something larger. This happened in Québec, when during the 2012 student strike, hundreds of thousands of students were on strike for months protesting against a proposed tuition increase. During this time, Montréal was seeing an average of two protests a day, some of which had over 200,000 participants.
However, Québec is politically viewed as an exception within North America (even in comparison to the rest of Canada). This is what made the 2012 Chicago Teachers Union strike so exciting; it proved that the 2011 Occupy wave was not just a nihilistic rejection of politics, but a call to do something positive. Even more, it happened in the US, a place where leftist agitation had long been considered a ‘dead dog’. A strike by public sector workers was assumed to be impossible in our age. Americans were supposedly frothing at the mouth with hate for government employees, seeing them as little more than a leach on ‘the taxpayer’.
The surprise story of the CTU’s strike and its ability to win significant public support is chronicled in Micah Uetricht’s Strike For America. Of course, to the 30,000 members of the Chicago Teachers Union, the strike was not a surprise, but part of a long-term campaign ran by the Caucus of Rank And File Educators (CORE). Since CORE was formed in 2008, the CTU has been completely transformed. The United Progressive Caucus (UPC) had previously run the CTU, and had long ceased to be relevant. In its heyday (the late 60s/70s), the UPC had played a progressive role, particularly when fighting against institutionalised racism affecting both students and staff members. When it came to dealing with neoliberal attacks on education however, it was almost entirely ineffective.
Chicago has been the neoliberal ‘testing ground’ for decades when it comes to education. The Chicago elite have sought to make ‘education [into] another public good to be dismantled and handed over to the marketplace’; they are vultures that only see education as a set of numbers and balance sheets. This shows itself in the need to boil down school, teacher and student performance to standardised testing scores. Merit-based pay is a neoliberal favorite: it ensures that teachers spend class time teaching for the test rather than for the students. Failing schools receive less money, and many are closed permanently, often with a charter school opening up in the same building.
Testing and charter schools seem to be the two biggest weapons in the neoliberal arsenal. Charter schools are schools that receive state funding, but do not have to adhere to the same kind of standards as public schools. The staff is usually not unionised, which highlights the main goal of education ‘reform’: to break the power of the last big unions left.
When CORE was elected in 2010, it ran on a platform of seeking to change education’s neoliberal turn. It ‘originated as a group working not simply to push for better salaries or health-care coverage for teachers but to advance a broad vision of educational equality.’ In terms of union democracy, CORE pushed for more than just the election of a ‘good’ leadership: it sought to make its rank-and-file more active, by pushing for greater accountability with the union; increased contact with other teachers, parents and the larger community; and hosted reading groups, activist summer schools, etc. This kind of rank-and-file involvement is integral to achieving meaningful social change; voting in the ‘right’ leadership is not enough.
By the time that the CTU voted to strike in 2012, CORE had already reached most of the membership. Because of a legal measure that had been put in place specifically to stop a strike by the CTU, over 75% of the membership had to vote for a strike. When the ballots were counted, 98% of those who cast ballots (and 90% of teachers overall) voted to strike. On 10 September, the strike began. There were marches downtown, as well as in other parts of the city, and the city seemed to be covered in red. In Strike For America, we hear about some of the countless acts of solidarity across the city. A cashier at a café assumed that Uetricht was a CTU employee (because he was wearing one of their red shirts) and so gave him a free coffee. One wishes at times that Uetricht had shared some more of these details, as they helped to give the story experiential texture. On 18 September, the teachers decided to accept the offer that had been given to them and to return to work. The schools were open again the next day.
In many respects, the strike had been successful. In addition to winning some concessions, the CTU had managed to get a majority of the parents of Chicago Public Schools students on their side (as well as having a large segment of the city’s support). They did this by reaching out to the larger community, and asking them to join in their shared struggle. This ‘social unionism’ is quite different from the ‘we’ll get ours’ mentality that has long pervaded American unions. Uetricht correctly points out that ‘teacher’s unions’ fates in the 21st century will rest on their ability to represent the concerns of the students, parents, and communities they serve while arguing forcefully that free market forces do not serve these groups. Anything less will be suicide.’
However, the CTU lost on its two main issues: school closures and the shift to per-pupil funding. ‘Despite organizing at the community and rank-and-file levels, taking on the mayor and the Board of Education and the free market reformers, filing lawsuits and taking over public hearings, leading mass marches and civil disobedience actions, and winning the hearts and minds of a strong majority of the Chicago public, the CTU suffered stinging defeats.’
It is hard, then, to escape Uetricht’s conclusion that ‘no matter how well-organized communities and workers are, the overwhelming power of free market forces and their representatives in public office may still triumph.’ This, maybe, is the limit of the recent CTU actions (as well as, perhaps, Uetricht’s analysis). Managing to break away from the Democratic Party was a plus, because that is where radical movements go to die. What is called for is a shift from the current social democratic view to a more radical one. An example is the CTU’s proposal to raise the tax on Chicago’s financial traders engaging in financial transactions. Karen Lewis, the CTU president, described this as ‘an opportunity to actually make heroes out of these people.’ Maybe it’s time to realise that this will never happen: The problem is capitalism, not neoliberalism. The perspective of totality is required: this means that for every Lower Merion, there will always an Overbrook.