March 4: Hope awakens

The March 4 national action for education rights was a massive student and youth outpouring that brought hope to many. But it was not only an upsurge of university students, as welcome as that alone would be. Representative sectors of the working class and of people of color joined the struggle and broadened its meaning.

Teachers, cafeteria and maintenance workers, and others at public universities and public K-12 schools joined the struggle with enthusiasm. Outside the schools themselves, unions like the Transport Workers in New York and the Boston school bus drivers endorsed actions. These workers’ interests are closely connected with funding for transport of students, who may be their own children.

In working-class communities, parents of school-age youth identify completely with the struggle for a good education — tying this to future jobs for their children. Public high school and university students are themselves mostly from working-class families. They identify with their teachers. They may be working their way through school. Or they may have returned to studies after losing their jobs.

The March 4 actions provided, in embryonic form, a unity and solidarity of youth, community and workers of all nationalities, including immigrant workers. A look at the photos of the protests shows that women and people of color were in the front ranks, and that sections of the entire multinational working class were involved because they all have a common class interest.

Progressive organizers must do what is possible to help this solidarity and militancy continue to develop into a powerful struggle in defense of education rights. But one can also dream that it will become more than that. That the spirit of struggle and unity will spread to other sectors of the working class. That these workers will compel their unions, which have been passive in the face of ruthless ruling-class assault, to fight back with the same level of determination.

In the past weeks union workers in Greece have taken to the streets, refusing to submit to the dictates of the European capitalists and Wall Street financiers. Why not here? The March 4 struggle has opened the door to this dream.