Comrades continue their occupation of an elementary school to assert the right of free education for all.
The closing of schools, the enlargement of class sizes, the shrinking of the school year...WHY? Are there none who would teach? Are there none who would learn? Are the schools, hospitals, parks, libraries, etc that they are closing not utilized? Its the same thing with jobs: Are there not homes, roads, sewers, bridges, that could be mended or built? Are there mot crops that could be planted, tended, harvested and whose fruits could eliminate hunger? Are there not women and men ready, willing and able, if not to take up tools to do these things, then ready to acquire these skills, to learn these trades? It is not that there is no work, it is that they won't let us. It is not that the products and services we could create are not needed, wanted, desired. It is that they can no longer be produced and sold at a price that would bring them profit. It is not that children can't or don't want to learn, grow and thrive. It is that they and them no longer need us as they are secure and have not all that they want but more...much more than that. So much more that borders on insanity. Who is this they? Who are them them? Name the beast: Capitalism. JAI RAC-LA ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: The Organizer <[email protected]> Date: Fri, Jun 22, 2012 at 4:51 PM Subject: Open Letter -- Labor Supports Lakeview Sit-in (Oakland, CA); All Out for Sat., June 23 Rally at Oscar Grant Plaza (14th & Broadway in Oakland) @10 a.m., then March to Lakeview Elementary To: ** [*please excuse duplicate postings, and please distribute widely. To unsubscribe, contact [email protected]*.] The parent / teacher / community - organized sit-in and People's School for Public Education at Lakeview Elementary in Oakland, Calif., is circulating an open letter of labor support. We've attached the letter and our accompanying media advisory. Jack Gerson Bob Mandel Joel Velasquez - - - - *Media Advisory* ** *Local Labor Leaders Announce Support for Lakeview Sit-in* June 22, 2012 Local labor leaders and activists have kicked off a campaign to support the sit-in and People's School for Public Education at Lakeview Elementary. The Lakeview sit-in has entered its eighth day, as the People's School continues to flourish and public awareness and support grows for this fight to keep all neighborhood public schools open and fully funded, and to end the downward spiral of closures, cuts, downsizing, and privatization. The Lakeview sit-in has just been endorsed by the executive boards of two of the most prominent education unions in the Oakland area: the Oakland Education Association (OEA , representing Oakland public school teachers) and University and Professional and Technical Workers Local 1 (UPTE/CWA Local 1, representing U. of California Berkeley and U. of California Office of the President research, health, and technical staff. More than 30 present and past local union presidents and executive board members have released an open letter calling for labor to mobilize its membership to actively build support for and display active solidarity with the Lakeview sit-in and People's School. For more information, contact: Jack Gerson 510.682.4381** **[email protected] Bob Mandel 510.205.1556** **[email protected] Joel Velasquez 510.473.5635** **[email protected] * * * * * * * * * * *Open Letter: Labor Leaders Support* *the Lakeview Sit-In and People's School* Dear Brothers and Sisters, We are writing to declare our support for the parents, teachers, and community member sit-in and People's School for Public Education at Lakeview Elementary in Oakland, and to urge full labor support and outreach for this fight to keep all Oakland neighborhood schools open, public, and fully funded, and to oppose the anti-union policies of the Oakland school district administration. At the end of this school year, the Oakland Unified School District closed 5 public elementary schools, displacing over 1,000 students. The school district plans to convert some of these school buildings into district administration offices, and to turn the others over to privately controlled (and non-union) charter schools. This continues a downward spiral of cuts, downsizing, privatization, and union-busting that has decimated Oakland public education, and has been particularly devastating to schools and students in the black and brown communities. In protest of the school closures and the privatization of OUSD, on June 15 parents, teachers, students and community members launched a sit-in at one of the closed schools, Lakeview Elementary, and re-opened the school's doors for the "People's School for Public Education", a free social justice summer program for children in pre-K through 6th grade. Specifically, here are their demands: * Don't close the 5 schools. Keep all neighborhood schools open. * Stop union busting: defend the OEA and all school worker unions * Repudiate the state debt * Fully fund quality public education for all * Demand OUSD Superintendent Tony Smith reopen all closed schools or resign What is the background to this struggle? A decade ago, the Oakland Unified School District had 54,000 students in public schools. Now it has only 36,000. Ten years ago, Oakland had 2,000 students in charter schools. Today there are over 8,000. Schools have been shut down. School libraries have been closed, and librarians have been laid off. Electives have been eliminated, vocational programs closed down, support staff positions have been consolidated. Much of this was done under the state takeover of Oakland schools, when the district's debt to the state was tripled (from $37 million in 2003 to $110 million in 2010) because the state administrators spent proportionately double the California school district average on outsourcing to consultants and vendors, and double the school district average on administration. Why should labor support this struggle? The school closures, privatization, and overall downsizing of OUSD are part and parcel of the austerity, downsizing, and privatization attack on public sector unions and on essential public services. The game plan is clear: to do to the public sector unions what was done in the private sector in the 1970s and 1980s. Today, barely one in 20 private sector workers are unionized. That's what's in store for public sector unions - unless we stop playing the game the same way and by their rules. OUSD imposed terms on OEA two years ago, and now it's flagrantly flouting the terms of its own imposition: two months ago, the school district unilaterally declared that all teachers at Castlemont, Fremont, and McClymonds High Schools would have to reapply for their jobs this year (and every year thereafter), and would have to work a month longer than teachers in all other schools. This union busting is just another aspect of the privatization of OUSD, and thus is closely linked to the school closures. So why support the parents, teachers, and community at Lakeview? * School closures mean fewer members for all schoolworker unions, weakening them * Weaker unions are easier targets for union-busting attacks on wages, health care, pensions, seniority and due process * Smaller and weaker schoolworker unions weaken all of labor, making other unions more vulnerable and subject to downsizing * Smaller and weaker public sector unions go hand in hand with harsh austerity cuts to all essential services - not just schools. * And finally, we ask: if public education is trashed, where and how will we educate our children? Although police have entered the Lakeview site several times to post "Stay Away" notices in a clear attempt to intimidate parents from enrolling their children, the People's School is growing: from seven students on Monday to 23 on Tuesday, with larger enrollments anticipated as excitement about the program spreads. The People's School can succeed. Its demands can be won - if labor commits itself to join and build a united labor-community fight. * An injury to one is an injury to all". Let's seize this opportunity to fight alongside parents, students, and community. We will mobilize our members to support this struggle. We call on East Bay union locals - especially those in the greater Oakland area - to urge their members to: * Endorse the Lakeview Sit-in and "The People's School for Public Education". * Turn out for and spread the word about the daily 5pm rallies in front of Lakeview Elementary (746 Grand Avenue Oakland, across from the Grand Lake Theater). * Assemble at Oscar Grant Plaza (14th and Broadway) at noon on Saturday (June 23) and march to Lakeview Elementary. * Contact Alameda Labor Council secretary Josie Camacho and urge her to expedite declaring Lakeview Elementary to be a sanctioned picket site. In Solidarity, Betty Olson-Jones, president, Oakland Education Association John Green, president, Castro Valley Education Association Tanya Smith, president, University Professional and Technical Workers Local 1 (UPTE/CWA) Ana Turestsky, president, AFT Local 771 Ruben Rodriguez, president, AFSCME Local 444 Keith Brown, executive Board, Oakland Education Association Amanda Armstrong, head steward UC Berkeley, UAW Local 2865 Sara Smith, executive board, UAW Local 2865 Blanca Misse, executive board, UAW Local 2865 Brenda Medina-Hernandez, executive board, UAW Local 2865 Nick Kardahji, executive board, UAW Local 2865 Tenaya Lafore, northern California organizer, UAW Local 2865 Lisa Eberle, head steward UC Berkeley, UAW Local 2865 Shannon Ikebe, head steward UC Berkeley, UAW Local 2865 Katy Fox-Hodess, head steward UC Berkeley, UAW Local 2865 Andrew Higgins, head steward UC Davis, UAW Local 2865 Ethan Lavine, head steward UC Berkeley, UAW Local 2865 Marcel Rosaldo, head steward UC Berkeley, UAW Local 2865 Jessica Smith, head steward UC Berkeley, UAW Local 2865 Nikolai Smith, head steward UC San Diego, UAW Local 2865 John Stehlin, head steward UC Berkeley, UAW Local 2865 Veronique Fortin, head steward UC Irvine, UAW Local 2865 Duane Wright, unit chair UC Davis, UAW Local 2865 Peter Brown, executive board, Peralta Federation of Teachers John Gallagher, American Attendance Area Rep, Fremont Teachers Association Jack Gerson, (retired), former executive board and bargaining team, OEA Bob Mandel, (retired), former executive board and bargaining team, OEA Bill Balderston, (retired), former OEA executive board and bargaining team, OEA Craig Gordon, former OEA executive board Jack Heyman, (retired), labor activist, ILWU Local 10 Richard Mellor (retired), former executive board, AFSCME Local 444 John Reimann, former recording secretary, Carpenters Local 713 Stan Woods, former executive board, ILWU Local 6 Cheryl Zuur (retired), former president, AFSCME Local 444 New Directions caucus, CUE-Teamsters Executive Board, University Professional and Technical Employees Local 1 Executive Board, ATU Local 1555 (all signatories are listed as individuals, with positions added for identification purposes only) * * * * * * * * * * All Out for March and Rally on Saturday, June 23 from Oscar Grant Plaza to Lakeview Elementary! Let Us Come together to Defend the Lakeview Sit-in for Public Education! Public education in Oakland is under attack. Literally. On Tuesday, the 18th, Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) police and OPD threatened the parent and teacher led sit-in at Lakeview Elementary. We re-opened the school they shut down. Now we need a mass mobilization to defend the re-opening. Instead of keeping elementary schools open, the OUSD claims they're broke -- yet 6 million dollars goes to paying the state debt each year! Yet another example of how schools are run by people who think like capitalists! Mobilize: Saturday, June 23 @ Oscar Grant Plaza (14th and Broadway) 10 am March Begins March to the Lakeview Sit-In! Ways You Can Help: 1. Text Lakeviewsitin to 41-411 to get on our text blast service 2. Come visit at the school! 3. Donate! 4. Get your union, church, or community organization to write a letter of support for the Lakeview sit-in, write a letter to Tony Smith demanding that he Re-open or Resign - OUR DEMANDS: 1. Don't Close the 5 Schools! Keep All Neighborhood Schools Open! 2. Stop Union Busting: Defend the OEA and All School Worker Unions 3. Refuse to Pay the Debt: Demand the District Call on the Banks to Bailout Schools! 4. Fully Fund Quality Public Education for All! 5. Demand Tony Smith Re-Open the 5 Schools or Resign: Re-Open or Resign! 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