Thompson Center Rally for Education Justice in Chicago takes place on the day the CTU and Board of Eduction began contract negotiations...
A significant public schools coalition rally took place on March 26, 2015, the day after the March meeting of the Chicago Board of Education. The rally was on the day the Chicago Teachers Union began its new contract talks with CPS, and it was just 12 days before the historic runoff election between mayor Emanuel and the CTU-endorsed underdog Chuy Garcia. Although the specific makeup of the next city government was not yet clear, speakers focused on what would still be certain, what would remain constant between now and the months following April 7, election day. The CTU contract expires on June 30, 2015, unless both sides agree to a one-year extension which includes all current contract provisions and the current raises in place.
A rally for education justice took place at the Thompson Center and City Hall in Chicago on March 26, 2015, and is now noted on video in a video "Jump Your Butt In! Rally for Education Justice..." published by Labor Beat. The video is available from Labor Beat on YouTube at:
http://youtu.be/ptXdW76KNlE. It is also archived at: laborbeat.org.
A common theme in all their messages was that the working class needed to prepare for the long haul. Jitu Brown (Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization) put it this way, and gave us our title: "If you just had your foot in the river of struggle, you better jump your butt in. If you just dipped it in a little bit... 'but it's too cold!' Jump you butt in the water and swim with us."
The rally at the Thompson Center then made a short march over to City Hall, where CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey spoke. He stood before the door of the seat of city government and reminded us that the fight for public education will be arduous. "It's the beginning step of what will be a long journey...We know that the fight for justice in our schools is a long struggle...This might not be a journey that is over today, and frankly, when we move this mayor out of office [cheers], it might not be over then. I'm hopeful about political change, but I'm also a realistic person...the basis of our power is our union power, and the basis of our movement in the halls of power has to do with the basis of our movement in the streets."
Ed Hershey, a teacher at Lindblom Math & Science Academy and CTU-endorsed candidate for 25th Ward Alderman in the recent election, talked about political strategies following the election: "We're going to need to fight for [funding for public education] whomever gets elected for mayor...We know we'll have to fight Rahm. But Chuy has said he accepts the framework of politics as it's done. He accepts that we're not going to charge the corporations, we're not going to make them support the society that they make money off of."
Hershey said that the CTU should stop supporting and funding the Democratic Party. "The CTU is powerful enough. We've been active in the political arena, we should do it in our own name. I think Karen Lewis [considered] running is a start. I ran for alderman. Sue Garza, Tim Meegan, Tara Stamps, Zerlina Smith, I think those are the kind of people we need to be running. We need to run our own people on our own platform. Working people need our own organization. The Democrats are...an organization of the wealthy interests and they want to keep a hold over it. I think our union strategy keeps us within that framework."
Tawanna Simpson, elected member of the Detroit Public Schools Board, was one of the invited out-of-town speakers. She described the new corporate dictatorship imposed upon her city, and how it impacted the public schools. "I'm a school board member in exile. In Michigan we have a law, PA 436, which allows our governor to appoint an emergency manager to serve as a 'reformer' who's taken away our public schools...Where emergency managers are, it's where brown and black students are." She then reminded the audience that current Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett got her school-closing chops in Detroit. Length - 14:28
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