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Are you curious about the “S” word? You’re not alone. A number of recent polls show that young people (18-30) are more positive about socialism than they are about capitalism. And, of course, voters under the age of 30 turned out in droves to back Bernie Sanders, a self-described socialist, a few months ago. But what exactly is socialism? How do we get from here to there? And what role can student activists play?

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by Orlando Sepúlveda (via SocialistWorker.org) 

THE U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is retaliating against an outspoken undocumented immigrant activist–and she is fighting back.

In May, Nadia Sol Ireri Unzueta Carrasco was denied renewal of her status under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program because, according to the USCIS ombudsman, she “was arrested on May 29, 2013, after her initial DACA grant…She was charged with civil disobedience, resisting arrest, obstruction of traffic and reckless conduct…Ms. Unzueta’s case raised public safety concerns.”

The irony of Ireri’s case is that without her “civil disobedience, resisting arrest, obstruction of traffic and reckless conduct”–along with those of countless immigrant youth in the years leading up to the Obama administration finally acting in June 2012–there would be no DACA program in the first place. Unzueta Carrasco is now suing.

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THE 29-year-old Unzueta Carrasco had been fighting for years, together with millions of other immigrants, for the legalization of all undocumented workers and their families. At age 18, she was an organizing member of an ad-hoc group of individuals and organizations that called for rallies against the draconian anti-immigrant Sensenbrenner bill in July 2005 and March 2006.

The massive March “mega-march” in Chicago was repeated in cities around the country, culminating in a massive national mobilization on May Day 2006 all over the U.S. The right-wing Sensenbrenner bill was defeated.

The movement for immigrant justice unleashed in the spring of 2006 utilized all types of political action–from massive protests to civil disobedience–with the aim of winning amnesty for more than 11 million immigrant workers. Obama was a beneficiary of this activism–he won a huge majority of votes from immigrants who believed his election would lead to immigration reform, especially with Democrats winning a majority in both houses of Congress.

But as the Democrats showed themselves unwilling to use their political power to push for immigration reform–and as Obama took his first steps toward earning his current title of Deporter-in-Chief–a section of the immigrant rights movement, particularly the undocumented youth in the country not by their choice, but brought in by their parents–began to grow impatient.

In 2009, a group of undocumented youth came together in Chicago to address the Obama administration’s stalling. They formed the Immigrant Youth Justice League (IYJL). In March 2010, the group staged a Coming Out of the Shadows rally to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the mega-marches, but also to provide a new direction for the movement–one led from the bottom up by undocumented immigrants who were putting themselves in the spotlight.

Ireri was one of the youths who came out of the shadows that day.

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EVENTUALLY, THE IYJL, and other emerging youth groups around the country inspired by it, became leading proponents of the DREAM Act [the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act]–but not without opposition from Democrats and mainstream liberals who thought that the youth’s independent direction and action could upset attempts to pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR). On the left, some also abstained from supporting the bill because it included a provision offering legal status in exchange for military service.

In July 2010, as part of a national coordinated action to try to win passage of the DREAM Act, a group of over 20 young undocumented immigrants, wearing their graduation caps and gowns, organized a sit-in at the Washington offices of various senators, Republican and Democrats alike.

Unzueta Carrasco, holding a banner that read “Undocumented and Unafraid, DREAM Act Now” was one of them. She was arrested but not prosecuted.

Young undocumented immigrants organized similar in many cities. Every protest exposed more and more the absurd federal system of immigration that deemed unlawful the presence of millions of young people who came to the U.S. with their families when they were young children.

In 2012, a presidential election was looming, and Obama and the Democrats had broken all their promises to the immigrant rights movement. Congressional Democrats had dismissed the Dream Act in favor of the more elusive CIR. But growing pressure from undocumented youth put pressure on the White House to deliver some action.

In mid-June 2012, President Obama announced that undocumented youth could apply for DACA, giving them a temporary relieve from deportation and work permits, but they would have to comply with a long list of requirements.

They had to be under 31 years old, have entered the U.S. before their 16th birthday, reside in the country continuously from 2007 to the present, be enrolled in school or have graduated or obtained a certificate of completion from high school, and not have a felony conviction, to name a few.

Sol Ireri’s other instances of civil disobedience cited by the USCIS include in 2011, when she was part of a group protesting the use of local police in immigration matters in Chicago; in September 2012, when a group of undocumented youth engaged in a sit-in outside the Democratic National Convention in North Carolina; and in May 2013, during a protest of Obama in Chicago.

In her complaint before the court, Ireri’s lawyers to this last arrest:

Ms. Unzueta Carrasco had volunteered for [Obama’s] senatorial campaign while in high school, and was disappointed at the high number of deportations under his administration, including many people whom she knew. Ms. Unzueta Carrasco and a group of individuals blocked Michigan Avenue, connected to each other and sitting in a circle.

Her case is becoming a rallying point for all those who support both the right of all immigrants to reside in the country without fear and the right to political action in the face of injustice. Now that she is suing, more than 130 organizations are supporting her case and have signed onto a letter that concludes:

Civil disobedience actions, a tactic of nonviolent protest, are viewed as acts of conscience and remain a cornerstone of American social reforms and democracy. It is deeply troubling that in the decision over Ms. Unzueta Carrasco’s DACA renewal DHS views civil disobedience as a public safety concern, and not as protected First Amendment activity.

Nadia Sol Ireri Unzueta Carrasco has demonstrated to the people she met in this country that she is a hero, not a “threat to public safety.” She came to the U.S. in 1994, when she was 6 years old, and has lived in the U.S. for the last 22 years of her life. She graduated from high school and college. She enrolled at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), studying at the UIC Honors College, from where she graduated with the highest distinctions in her department.

She isn’t only an activist for justice, but also works for the extracurricular After School Matters program in Chicago. Thousands of educators are signing a letter in support of her not only because they want to see justice done, but because Sol Ireri is the type of person who should be recognized for helping to bring change for millions of people–not retaliated against by a vindictive administration shamed by her actions.

by Mario Cardenas (via SocialistWorker.org)

by Lee Sustar (via SocialistWorker.org)

THREE YEARS after their strike defeated an attempt to gut their contract and further entrench the corporate education deform agenda in city schools, Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) members could soon be walking the picket lines again.

Like last time, a Democratic mayor, Rahm Emanuel, is poised to cut jobs and pay and gut classroom resources. But now they face a Republican governor, Bruce Rauner, who is seeking to crush the union outright.

CTU members–who in December voted by an overwhelming 88 percent margin to authorize a strike–vowed to walk out as early as April 1 if Chicago Public Schools (CPS) unilaterally pushed more pension costs onto teachers.

CPS backed off its threat–for now–after the union began preparing for an unfair labor practices strike. But the school board claims that unless the CTU makes major concessions, it will be compelled to take this step as a result of a budget deadlock in the state legislature, a squeeze on Chicago city finances and a long-running fiscal crisis at CPS itself.

The CTU–which is still planning protests for a day of action on April 1–counters that CPS is “broke on purpose.” The union points out that the district began the current school year with a $1 billion deficit as a result of the decades-long tax dodge by big business; a push for expensive, nonunion charter schools; and high-interest loans to CPS that benefit the big banks at the expense of kids. If CPS unilaterally imposes higher pension costs on workers, the CTU has stated that it will invoke its right to strike against an unfair labor practice.

A strike over a new contract could still come this spring or in the fall if no agreement is reached. The CTU has been working under an extension of the old contract, which expired in June 2015.

Emanuel and Rauner–whatever their own differences–are both targeting the CTU, presenting the union with one of the greatest challenges in the organization’s 79-year history.

Even so, the CTU can still prevail if it builds on the public support it won in the 2012 strike to lead a wider labor-community fight against sweeping budget cuts in education and across the public sector–this time making the fight against racism and inequality even more prominent. A solidarity meeting for the CTU, set for March 9, will focus on many of those themes.

With Emanuel still reeling from the disclosure of a video showing the 2014 police murder of Laquan McDonald and Rauner saddled with popularity ratings that show a majority of Illinois voters disapprove of him, the CTU can rally popular support behind a program of challenging austerity and taxing the wealthy to pay for schools and social services. 

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THE NUMBERS tell the story of the CPS financial crisis: a $500 million payment due to teachers’ pensions this year, the result of systematic underpayments by CPS for decades; borrowing, most recently some $725 million, at extortionate interest rates that will cost the system hundreds of millions of dollars; and a long-term drain of tax dollars away from schools to fund development schemes for businesses that don’t need the money.

In the past, the hard-charging Emanuel would have used the crisis to simply try to ram through cuts. But with his approval ratings dropping to 27 percent–the lowest of any Chicago mayor in the modern era–he has tried to reach a deal by giving considerable ground on issues important to the CTU, including a ban on economic layoffs and a freeze on the creation of charter schools.

But the CTU’s bargaining committee didn’t buy it when they voted on the city’s offer. Teachers on the committee rejected the deal unanimously, pointing out that retirement incentives would have resulted in a net loss of 1,500 CTU jobs, and the proposal that teachers pick up pension payments would have amounted to a cut in compensation once inflation is taken into account.

Chicago schools CEO Forrest Claypool, a veteran Democratic operative, has set an April 1 deadline for rescinding a portion of the pension cost that it has paid for decades and cutting $85 million from school budgets. This will involve the layoff of some 1,000 teachers and paraprofessionals. The union has responded by stepping up the action, including “walk-in” protests at some 200 schools.

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THE BATTLE is reminiscent of union struggles in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when the CTU went on strike against payless paydays and the Illinois state legislature created the School Finance Authority to oversee spending, amid political turmoil in the Chicago Democratic machine following the death of Mayor Richard J. Daley. Of the CTU’s nine strikes between 1969 and 1987, most took place during that era–including three against Mayor Harold Washington, the city’s first African American mayor.

But the threat to the CTU goes deeper than the budget squeeze or attacks by Emanuel and Rauner. Chicago teachers find themselves at the center of multiple, converging crises: the failure of pro-business neoliberal policies to revive the city’s economy after the Great Recession; growing resistance to racist police violence; cracks in the two main political parties, as evidenced by the Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump phenomena; and the struggle by organized labor for continued relevance after decades of decline.

Perhaps the closest analog for today’s struggles is the Great Depression of the 1930s, when Chicago teachers–then organized in several unions–embarked on series of battles that would lead to the founding of a unified Chicago Teachers Union in 1937. Then, as now, the corporate establishment and the politicians sought to force teachers to bear the brunt of conditions in schools crippled by budget cuts.

For his part, Bruce Rauner, a hedge fund boss worth nearly $1 billion who bought himself the governor’s office in the 2014 election, wants to turn back the clock to the days when public-sector unions had no right to collective bargaining.

Although he has been in office for 14 months, Rauner has refused to reach any budget deal with the Democratic legislature unless lawmakers capitulate to his demand to include anti-union measures. The result is huge cuts in spending in vital social programs and state institutions. One consequence: layoff notices were sent to all faculty, staff and administrators at Chicago State University, where the student body is heavily African American.

The governor is doing his utmost to provoke a confrontation with the CTU by pushing a plan for bankruptcy that would void union contracts and seeking to block CPS from selling bonds to finance school operations.

The Democrats control the Illinois legislature and the state constitution limits his authority, so Rauner is trying to create a crisis in which he can assert executive power to impose a contract settlement on the CTU, directly or through a judge’s order–and/or create the political conditions for a legislative settlement in his favor.

In this context, the CTU’s fight cannot be won through conventional trade union bargaining–at least as it has evolved since the CTU won formal collective bargaining rights in the late 1960s. Rauner has already proposed that the Illinois National Guard do state workers’ jobs in the event of a public employees strike–a throwback to the 19th century, when governors regularly used the state militia, the Guard’s predecessor, to put down strikes by railroad workers and coal miners.

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THE CTU enters this fight with a reservoir of popular support. According to an opinion poll, three times more Chicagoans trust the union on education issues than Rahm Emanuel.

Moreover, the union has forged links with numerous community, issue-oriented and faith-based organizations, many of them grouped into the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM).

Labor support for the CTU is much more uneven, however.

The teachers do have solid relationships with several different unions, including the liberal Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare Illinois-Indiana, the home health care workers union that Rauner is out to destroy. Another ally is the reform leadership of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308, which represents city transit workers who were hammered by Claypool a few years back when he was their boss. The National Nurses Organizing Committee, the activist union representing workers at Cook County Hospital, was a prominent backer of the CTU strike in 2012 and remains an ally today.

The list of the CTU’s labor supporters is notable by who isn’t on it, however. The Chicago Federation of Labor (CFL), which groups together the city’s main unions, is missing in action, as are most of its affiliates. The CFL and the state AFL-CIO did mobilize against Rauner’s attempts to push through local anti-union “right to work” laws, but they have been mostly quiet since then. In Chicago, several big unions, including the Teamsters Joint Council and most of the building trades, back Emanuel.

The CTU’s most natural ally in its fight is American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31, which is trying to negotiate a contract with Rauner that covers some 100,000 state workers.

Rauner’s contract demands are intolerable and would gut the union. But it is Rauner, not AFSCME, that is pushing for a strike. The union, by contrast, is backing legislation that would eliminate its own right to strike, but bar Rauner from locking them out–leaving the final contract decision to an arbitrator.

Certainly, AFSCME’s opposition to Rauner’s austerity drive puts it on the same page as the CTU. But AFSCME’s abandonment of the strike, labor’s most powerful weapon, is in sharp contrast to the CTU’s strategy.

Instead, AFSCME has looked to the legislature for relief. Since a handful of Rauner’s Democratic allies in the legislature have refused to support the no-strike, no-lockout bill, labor spent heavily in the Democratic primaries set for March 15, even as Rauner’s wealthy backers pour their own money into the race.

The result is that rather than mobilize AFSCME members for an inevitable confrontation with Rauner and present themselves as proud defenders of public services, the top AFSCME leadership has urged members to appear moderate and merely paint Rauner as a villain who should be ousted from office.

The problem is that the next election for Illinois governor isn’t until 2018–and the struggle will come to a head long before that. In any case, Rauner, who was already wealthy and powerful before taking office, doesn’t care if he is re-elected. He was installed in office by his superrich circle of allies in order to demolish the state’s welfare system and stomp on unions.

If Rauner succeeds but gets tossed out of office as a result, he’ll count it as a win, go back to asset-stripping companies and relax at one of his seven homes around the world.

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THE RELUCTANCE of the big unions to fight alongside the CTU may reflect the opportunism or caution of their leaderships–but it doesn’t mean that there is a lack of support for teachers.

The union has the potential to tap widespread solidarity by appealing directly to members of other public-sector unions in the city–after all, their children attend CPS schools.

Just as importantly, the union can draw on the widespread anger at Emanuel over his complicity in the epidemic of racist police violence against African Americans. That anger erupted late last year when the video of Laquan McDonald being executed by cops emerged, and Emanuel’s once-undisputed power was shaken by the worst crisis in Chicago politics since the 1980s.

CTU support for the Black Lives Matter movement wasn’t automatic, however. Some CTU members are married to police officers, and a vocal minority criticized union President Karen Lewis and CTU officials after a November union rally where a young African American activist was given a chance to speak and decried police racism and violence. Since then, the union supported and mobilized for anti-police protests.

Still, the exposure of a widespread cover-up of the McDonald video since then has shattered Emanuel’s aura of political invincibility. The mayor’s African American allies on the City Council, who were key to helping Emanuel win an unprecedented runoff vote to stay in office, are now far more worried about their angry constituents than appeasing the notorious bully of City Hall.

Tapping into this rebellious mood will require building on the political arguments that the CTU has made since Lewis and other Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators (CORE) activists took office in 2010: that CPS has been systematically underfunded for years by pro-business tax policies; that it became a nest for corruption and political patronage by funneling resources to clout-heavy charter schools; that bankers have been feasting on CPS by locking in the schools at high interest rates; and that Emanuel and the city have made Black and Latino communities pay the price.

The anti-banker mood, given voice by the Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, can be brought into this fight. It’s the banks and bondholders, after all, who dictate austerity policies to politicians. And in the case of Rauner, a banker is directly responsible for laying waste to state and city finances.

The struggle will be harder than it was in 2012, when Emanuel badly underestimated teachers’ resolve and the widespread sympathy for their union. This time, the CTU is up against both Rauner and Emanuel, and they are preparing for a showdown.

Nevertheless, by once again drawing on public sympathy–and this time, turning it into more active support, with protests, sit-ins and the like–the CTU can win. By linking its fight to broader working-class issues of fully funded public education and racial and economic equality, the CTU can defend good union jobs and build a wider movement for social justice.

The conference will be held at Bodhi Spiritual Center (2746 N Magnolia Ave, # 2750, Chicago, Illinois 60614).

There will be two sessions:

(1) BUILDING THE PARTY — How the Bolsheviks organized themselves and what activists today can learn from their experience.

(2) HOW THE REVOLUTION WAS WON — The role of the revolutionary party in the course of a revolution.

We are recommending that attendees read Paul Leblanc’s book Lenin and the Revolutionary Party in preparation for the two sessions. Those unable to read the Leblanc should read Ahmed Shawki’s excellent piece “Eighty Years Since the Russian Revolution.”

We look forward to seeing you there!