CTA in Sacramento: "Week of Action" or "Week in Traction"?

Posted this morning at Substance News:
http://substancenews.net

CTA’s “Week of Action”: What The Heck Was Going On In Sacramento?
by Jack Gerson

On the evening of Monday, May 9, 68 Bay Area college students, public school teachers, and their supporters chanting “Tax the Rich! That will fix the deficit!” were arrested for occupying and refusing to leave the state capitol building in Sacramento, California. Although this happened on the first day of a “Week of Action” called by the California Teachers Association (CTA) to protest cuts to state funding for K-12 education, CTA leadership walked away from the occupiers and literally pulled CTA members out of the Rotunda, saying that the protesters were “not on message”. Oakland Education Association (OEA) secretary Steve Neat, one of the arrestees, described it thus:

CTA leadership had the perfect opportunity to join a group of students and teachers fighting for real long-term change with direct action. They were very conspicuous by their absence. In fact they left and tried to usher CTA members away when we started chanting ‘tax the rich!’ I guess that wasn’t quite on message enough.”

Yet three days later, CTA president David Sanchez and several other CTA leaders were arrested for sitting in at the offices of Republican state legislature leaders Robert Dutton and Connie Conway. In the words of CTA’s press release, “CTA members refuse to leave capitol and demand passage of tax extensions to keep deeper cuts away from schools, colleges and essential public services.”

What is going on here? On Monday CTA leadership did all in its power to prevent and – failing that – limit and undercut an occupation of the Capitol by students and teachers demanding funding for public education and services. On Thursday, CTA leadership occupies the Capitol to demand funding for public education and services. If you feel confused, you’re not alone. I’ve gotten phone calls and emails from around the country asking, “What the heck is going on in Sacramento?”

So here’s what’s going on. CTA leadership’s strategy all along has been to throw their full support behind Democratic governor Jerry Brown. Last year, California labor unions contributed $20 million to Brown’s gubernatorial campaign last year. CTA was one of the biggest contributors. But as soon as Brown was elected, he started talking up the need for austerity. Brown has proposed an austerity budget that includes about $12 billion in cuts to essential public programs (($1.7 billion from medical care for the poor; $1.5 billion from welfare, $1.4 billion from higher education; cut hundreds of millions from programs for the disabled, for home assistance for the elderly, etc.) and an equal amount from extending regressive taxes set to expire this year for another five years (among them increases to state sales tax, vehicle license fees, and a decrease in tax deductions for dependents). Brown’s cuts have already been approved by the legislature, but Republicans are blocking extension of the regressive taxes. So the argument in Sacramento has been between Brown -- who wants to extend Schwarzenegger’s soak-the-poor taxes for another five years -- and the Republicans – who call for more program cuts instead of more taxes. Two rotten choices, right? Well, CTA leadership is openly and ardently demanding immediate approval of Brown’s tax package. Brown warns, “There is no other alternative. We all must sacrifice.” And CTA agrees: “We must fight for this budget. It is balanced. It mixes cuts with taxes. We must fight for it because the alternative is so much worse.” That is their focus, pure and simple. That was why they sat-in at the offices of Republican leaders Dutton and Conway. They tried to break up the Monday sit-in because its message was “tax the rich”, not “pass the tax extensions” (i.e., “tax the poor”).

However, it’s hardly a secret that not everyone is sacrificing. Not the banks – huge bailout and rip-off of taxpayer money, record profits, big bonuses, minimal taxes. Not the oil companies (especially in California, the only oil-producing state without an oil extraction tax). Not corporations (more than half of all profitable California corporations pay no state income tax). Not the rich (state income tax is lower now than it was under Republican governors Ronald Reagan and Pete Wilson). Making the banks, corporations and the rich pay would provide the money needed to restore and expand all essential programs and rescind all layoffs.

In fact, the Brown / Sanchez call for “shared sacrifice” was so hollow that even many long-time supporters of the CTA leadership (and of the Democrats) bridled. At CTA state council in early April, the 800 delegates forced the leadership to revise their plans for the May “Week of Action”. The call that emerged from this meeting supported Brown’s proposal for extending regressive taxes “short term”, while calling for progressive taxation “long term”.

But, CTA leadership never had any intention of a massive mobilization to Sacramento for their “Week of Action”. CTA has over 300,000 members. CTA State Council alone has 800 members, and they have several hundred paid staffers. CTA leadership could have turned out five thousand to Sacramento without really trying. But that wasn’t their plan. Their plan was to keep everything small, mild, and most of all under their control. Had thousands shown up on Monday, the Rotunda occupation might have turned into a sustained occupation, and the calls for “Tax the Rich” might have grown in substance and appeal. Things might have gotten out of hand. And so there were well under two hundred at the leadership’s Monday noontime “mass rally”, where the speeches were all about supporting Brown and his regressive taxes.

Here’s what happened after that rally, in the words of Oakland Education Association president Betty Olson-Jones (one of those arrested on Monday).

“By later in the afternoon, scores of UC Santa Cruz students had arrived, drawn to support teachers and occupy the State Capitol -- after all, that's what they'd heard CTA was planning to do! So when CTA members filed into the Rotunda at 5pm -- as planned -- to chant and march, the students joined us in a lively, energetic show of solidarity. And that's where CTA leadership got scared, started pulling (literally!) blue shirts from the crowd and ushering them to a side hall. When many of us just kept on circling the Rotunda chanting, some of them got angry started yelling at us to leave. We didn't. The irony (among many) is that CTA had a permit until 6pm! There was no reason to abandon the demonstration at 5:10, except that it wasn't under CTA's control. They were upset that the students were "taking over their action"! The reality is that the students had been unfailingly respectful, asking me and others how they could support us. What kind of a message did it send to the students when CTA leaders pulled teachers out of the Rotunda? They later told us in jail that they felt CTA had abandoned all of us. Had more teachers stayed it would have been an extraordinary opportunity to act in unison with our allies, the students.

“By 5:30 most CTA teachers had been moved out of the building (having been told by CTA staff and leadership that we faced immediate arrest and that our permit allowed us to sing, not chant (!)), and went to "rally" outside.”


And so the leadership tried to squash the Monday occupation, opting instead for a late-week “on-message” tame action unambiguously supporting Brown and demanding that the Republicans stop blocking the regressive tax extensions.

Unfortunately, despite their unquestioned courage and commitment, the “short term / long term” approach adopted by some of the Monday occupiers (OEA’s Olson-Jones included) is, at best, inadequate. Brown’s proposal – supported by Sanchez and by State Council is for a five-year extension of the regressive taxes. If five years is short term, what is long term? Furthermore, vague calls for “long-term” progressive taxation are already condensing into proposals for modest increases to high-end income taxes and equally modest adjustments to corporate taxation.

The fact is, CTA leadership’s short-term and long-term strategies are identical. They are to co-opt dissent and channel it into the Democrats; provide massive funding for Brown and Democratic politicians; phone-bank for Democratic candidates; usher incipient mass movements off the streets and into lobbying, phone banking, fundraising, etc. And the Democrats’ strategy – short-term, long-term, and in-between-term – can be summarized in one word: austerity. This is more than just a California strategy. In state legislature after state legislature, Democrats and Republicans agree that public worker unions and pensions and essential public programs must be rolled back, and labor bureaucrats support this call for “shared sacrifice”.

Fighting austerity requires a mass movement that rejects the whole notion of “shared sacrifice” and insists on rolling back all the cuts and all the layoffs and getting the money that’s needed from the banks, from the corporations, and from wealth (earned and inherited). The old slogans still apply: People before profits; Make the bosses pay!

April 4: Oakland Rally to Bail Out Schools Not Banks, End Foreclosures

On April 4, nearly 100 Oakland teachers and supporters shut down Wells Fargo Bank's Oakland City Center branch for three hours, demanding an end to the Great Bank Heist: Bail Out Schools Not Banks and End Foreclosures.Among those who joined the action were longshore workers from ILWU Local 10, who shut down the Port of Oakland and other west coast ports for the entire day. Also present were a group of homeowners whose mortgages were being threatened by Wells Fargo. This was the third and most successful action OEA and allies have held at Wells Fargo branches throughout the city. More actions are planned in the coming weeks.

There's a broad awareness that Wall Street and the banks have ripped off trrlllions of dollars, with the aid of Bush, Obama, Paulson, Bernanke, Geithner et al. And there's growing awareness that they've done this by transforming their private debt into public debt, and telling working and poor people lthat we must pay off that debt by acqueiescing to devastating cuts to essential public programs, jobs, health benefits, and pension. But, at last, there's a stirring, a realization that we don't have to accept their demands.

Here's a video of a speech I gave at the April 4 OEA rally.

Banks Cheat Struggling Homeowners Out of Billions

Shared sacrifice? Austerity? Not for the banks!

Elizabeth Warren and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have found that the big banks -- JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Ally Financial -- have swindled struggling homeowners out of at least $20 billion by cheating, shortchanging, and outright fraud in dealing with their loans and, especially, in wrongful foreclosures. The CFPB's seven-page report is summarized by Shahien Nasiripour in the Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/28/big-banks-save-billions-homeowners-suffer_n_841712.html

Wells Fargo:Laying Waste to Coal Country

Not only did Wells Fargo promote and profit from the toxic asset home mortgage bubble, it also promoted and profited from the proliferation of toxic waste and wholesale environmental destruction in coal country.

OEA Town Hall, 3/26/2011: Bob Mandel Calls for Civil Disobedience at Banks

More than 300 Oakland teachers and community members attended a Town Hall on the crisis in education organized by the Oakland Education Association. Watch this video, where OEA executive board member Bob Mandel calls for civil disobedience against the banks.

FT.com / Capital Markets - Big banks investigated over Libor

FT.com / Capital Markets - Big banks investigated over Libor

There seems to have been no end to the ways in which the big banks cheated and looted in the run-up to the fall 2008 bubble-burst and near-meltdown. The FT article at the above URL describes yet another.

Bank debt never went away: It became public debt Profits have improved because working people paid for them.

In short, the bad bank debt that triggered the crisis in 2008 never went away -- it was simply shifted on to governments. Private debt became public debt....Put differently, the economic crisis of 2008-9 did not really end. It simply changed form. It mutated.


With that mutation, the focus of ruling classes shifted towards a war against public services. Concerned to rein in government debts, they announced an age of austerity -- of huge cuts to pensions, education budgets, social welfare programs, wages, and jobs. In so doing, they effectively declared that working class people and the poor will pay the cost of the global bank bailout.

...

Put simply, profits have improved because working people have paid for them, through layoffs, wage cuts, reduced work hours, and the decimation of social services.


The above is from a must-read book that views the world financial meltdown of two years ago as the opening of a global systemic economic and social crisis. The book is Global Slump by David McNally, PM Press (2010)

How Wall Street Ripped off Wisconsin Public Schools

Nearly two years ago, Les Leopold posted a gripping and disturbing -- if all too believable -- account of how Wall Street looted several Wisconsin school districts, leaving them drowning in debt when the real estate bubble burst in the fall of 2008.

http://www.alternet.org/story/140208/

It's an excerpt from his book:

The Looting of America: How Wall Street Fleeced Millions from Wisconsin Schools
By Les Leopold, Chelsea Green Publishing

Bailout Schools Not Banks and Stop Foreclosures

The opening demonstration in a campaign by Oakland Education Association and Community Allies.
Video by Craig Gordon




This brief video shows the beginning of a campaign to bail out schools and services, instead of banks, and to stop home foreclosures. The Oakland Education Association and community allies rallied at three bank branches on January 13, 2011, on the eve of the Martin Luther King, Jr., weekend. We chose this time, because King pointed out that in order to address racism and poverty, there must be "a radical redistribution of political and economic power." Similarly, we will not achieve quality education for all without, as King said, taking on the "captains of industry."

Here's my writeup of the demo, which I posted to several lists back in January.
Jack

Oakland Teachers Say: Bailout Schools, Not Banks
by Jack Gerson
January 14, 2011

On January 13, more than 50 members and allies of the Oakland Education Association (OEA, the Oakland teacher union) staged a spirited protest calling for reversing priorities to bail out schools, not banks, and to end foreclosures. The demonstrators delivered their message at three Oakland bank branches -- Wells Fargo, Chase, and Bank of America -- all in the Rockridge Shopping Center. Their message was that the $4.7 trillion bailout of the big banks came at the expense of schools, essential public services, and the nine million families who have lost their homes to bank foreclosures. This message resonated with the many passing motorists who honked their horns in support, and with bank customers and shoppers who voiced their agreement that something is very wrong when banks are "too big to fail" but schools, workers and families are apparently just the right size to sacrifice.

The action began with a rally in front of the Chase branch at 4:30. At 5 PM the protesters marched to the Bank of America branch, where they picketed before moving on to Wells Fargo, where they presented the branch manager with a letter to be delivered to Wells Fargo President John Stumpf. The letter called on Wells Fargo to organize a bank bailout of the Oakland school debt; to publicly endorse increased taxation of bank and corporate profits; to endorse a "split-roll" property tax to tax corporate property at higher rates than homes; and to end foreclosures by adjusting mortgages to reflect homes' reduced market values.

The responsiveness of passersby shows that there's broad understanding of the direct relationship between the trillions ripped off by the banks and the mounting unemployment, foreclosures, homelessness, and hunger. Despite the impression conveyed by Obama and the mass media that the $800 billion TARP (Toxic Assets Relief Program) was the entire bailout, and that the banks have repaid nearly all of this, the fact is that TARP was only a small part of the federal giveaway to Wall Street. In fact, the banks were given $4.7 trillion of our money, and they haven't paid back $2 trillion. ($2 trillion is more than the entire debt of all states, counties, and cities combined -- including all unfunded public pension liabilities. It's also nearly double the total amount spent thus far on the Iraq War.) Most of the money given to the banks was done without even Congressional authorization, because it was disbursed by the Federal Reserve Bank. Clearly, the banks left their paw prints all over their Obama-aided appropriation of trillions of dollars of our money.

The Real Economy Project of the Center for Media and Democracy has put together a table that breaks down the full extent of the Wall Street bailout. That's available here:


http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Wall_Street_Bailout_Cost

As that table shows, in addition to the $4.7 trillion handed to the banks, the Fed and Geithner's treasury department gave the banks guarantees that the government would stand behind another more than $9 trillion of bank debt and obligations. That's $14 trillion for Wall Street. Taken from working and unemployed people. Taken directly from jobs, from schools, housing, libraries, shelters, and all the other essential services that have been cut back or eliminated.

The Oakland community's sympathetic and enthusiastic response to the OEA banks' protest is not an aberration. Just below the surface, the potential is there for mass action against the savage attacks on the working class. Last year's California-based fight to save public education provided a glimpse of what's possible. But much more is possible. This protest was only the beginning of a campaign, and hopefully it will take off in other communities.



Join the campaign. Go to oaklandea.org

The truth about the Great Bank Heist: indispensable web resources

Here are a few things about the bank bailout you won't see in the mainstream media, and where to go to find more about this.

First, the media would have us believe that the banks have repaid "nearly all" of the Federal handout they received two years ago. And they'd have you believe that nearly all of the bailout money came from Geithner's TARP program. Actually, TARP was only a small part of the bailout. Most of the bailout money came from the Federal Reserve Bank, and was done without Congressional authorization. The Fed's handout dwarfed TARP. Go over to banksterusa to get the details, and to learn that the banks still haven't returned $2 trillion. (To put this in perspective: $2 trillion is enough to pay off the debts of all 50 states, PLUS pay off the debts of all municipalities in the country, PLUS cover the "unfunded liabilities" of public employee pension plans. Here's the link to bankster:

http://www.banksterusa.org/content/bailout-not-over-taxpayers-still-owed-2-trillion-federal-reserve-loans-and-tarp-program-fund

The info at the above link gives a good overview. For a detailed breakdown of all 35 federal bailout the banks handout programs and the outstanding balance sheets for each, you'll want to check out the Wall Street Bailout Cost table at:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Wall_Street_Bailout_Cost

Finally, make sure to bookmark the Real Economy Project of the Center for Media and Democracy, which is a great resource. Here's the URL:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Portal:Real_Economy_Project

Jerry Brown Double-Deals -- But There IS An Alternative

Jerry Brown has dealt two cards face up and hidden the rest of the deck. Card one reads "Horrendous cuts to essential programs." Card two reads "Very bad cuts to essential programs and a regressive tax package." And, Brown warns, "There Is No Other Alternative".

Brown is smart, and carefully planned this scenario to stampede us into backing the proposal on card two by making us forget the other 50 cards in the deck. "We all must sacrifice" he says.

The poor must suffer: Medical cut by $1.7 billion. CalWorks cut by $1.5 billion. Higher Ed must suffer: UC cut $500 million. CSU cut $500 million. Community colleges cut $400 million. Working and poor people must suffer through regressive taxation, too: extend Schwarzenegger's 'temporary' soak-the-poor taxes for another 5 years (i.e., until after the next gubernatorial election). And CTA and the State Federation of Labor say, "We must fight for this proposed budget. It is balanced. It mixes cuts with [regressive] taxes. We must fight for it because the alternative is so much worse."

But wait -- not everyone is sacrificing. Not the banks -- record profits, big bonuses, minimal taxes. Not the corporations, who enjoy huge tax loopholes. Not the oil companies. Not the rich. These are the names on the other 50 cards. Taxing them provides a real alternative. Why don't the State Federation of Labor, CTA et al. say to Brown, "We're not gonna take it any more. We're not going to accept more job losses, more pay cuts, more program cuts." Why don't we demand that they do? Now. Don't say it's too late, because this crisis won't be resolved soon. If we act, all sorts of things that seem impossible will become possible. Suddenly, more cards will appear on the table. And this means more money will appear. IF we act. IF we fight. Otherwise, we'll get a hybrid mix of Card one and Card two: more cuts than card two, to pay for more tax breaks for business. Because the Republicans will fight hard. They will stonewall and hold out for more concessions from Brown. And they'll get them. Unless we fight harder.

Time to stop kicking the progressive taxation can down the road. That's been done for years, because it's never the right time to fight -- it's always a 'long-term goal', to be muted in the present.

I guess that those who are for Brown's tax extensions are also prepared to go along with the cuts to medical care and welfare for the poor; for the cuts to higher Ed; etc. Because that's the package deal Brown is offering. And he'll offer more of the same next year. And the year after that. Unless we fight back. Wisconsin shows that if we fight, we don't have to fight alone.

There IS an Alternative

When Michael Moore -- hardly the face of Bolshevism, as witness his hero-worship of the 14 Wisconsin Democratic legislators -- came to Madison to speak this weekend, the AFL-CIO refused to allow him to speak under their sponsorship, claiming that he "might go off message". So some of the prominent local labor, media and community activists set him up under their auspices on the other side of the Capitol. Sixty thousand showed up to hear him. He remained in town for several hours afterward, and the AFL-CIO leadership was again contacted. Again, no interest in promoting his message. (The following day, when he was safely out of town, the AFL-CIO leadership made a positive reference to his speech on their web site.)

Moore did have something to say that the labor bureaucracy does not want to promote: Workers ought not and need not be making "economic concessions". This society remains fabulously wealthy -- but corporate and individual wealth is using the fiscal crisis of their own making as grounds for scapegoating and punishing working people. The labor bureaucrats echo Gates, Duncan, Obama, Jerry Brown, Andrew Cuomo et al. in repeating the Margaret Thatcher mantra: "There Is No Alternative" to deeply cutting essential services while simultaneously reducing overall compensation (directly, and by 'furlough days' and by increasing taxes on working people, and ...)

If we don't recognize where the money is and aggressively go after it by demanding prioritizing human needs and human rights first, then the banks, the war machine, the health insurance / pharmaceutical complex, and Big Oil will continue to devour us. If it wasn't clear before, by now it ought to be evident that one big part of the war against public education and the accompanying scapegoating of teachers has been to set up and go after not just education but all essential public services, and not just teachers but the basic rights of all public employees. We have a job ahead: developing an antidote to the "There Is No Alternative" Kool-Aid, convincing people that there ARE alternatives and the money IS there and WILL be available -- IF we fight for it.