Los Angeles teachers protest budget cuts
By Adrian Garcia
Los Angeles
If the administrators of the Los Angeles Unified School
District thought teachers would simply sit back and accept
proposed budget cuts that threaten salaries, health benefits
and, most importantly, the wellbeing of students, a June 13
protest by thousands of union members proved them wrong.
The protesters, including members of the United Teachers of
Los Angeles, Service Employees and other labor organizations,
converged on LAUSD headquarters. Chants of "Sick-out" and "We
will strike" resonated among the teeming crowd and set the
stage for a struggle against the reactionary policies that
serve as an attack against the working people of Los
Angeles.
Speaker after speaker demanded that LAUSD and its members be
held accountable for their decision-making regarding the use of
funds. A major item of contention was LAUSD's funding of a new
building for its offices, a facility that has been determined
not to have the necessary capacity to house the number of
people it was intended for. This glitch in plans will, of
course, necessitate further spending.
And guess where the money will come from?
This wasteful spending continues while Los Angeles schools
suffer overcrowding, lack of materials, decrepit maintenance
and looming budget cuts--cuts that threaten teachers with class
size increases, salary freezes and benefit reductions.
"Their waste and abuse tells me that, like the movie
'Network,' we're mad as hell and we're not going to take it
anymore!" said incoming UTLA President John Perez, rousing the
crowd to shout the day's signature slogan: "We will
strike."
After the protest, teachers said it had given them new
enthusiasm to stand up for what is just. It also gave school
management and the city's wealthy rulers a glimpse of the
united power that the working people have.
Teachers will not stand by and allow the LAUSD to make
decisions that will have detrimental consequences for students
and educators in the nation's second-largest school district.
Every working person has something at stake in this struggle
and must unite and support the teachers' demands.
Reprinted from the June 27, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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