Our fight is only just beginning

With the economic crisis hitting California, public education has suffered enormous attacks, from class cuts to fees hikes for students, and pay freezes, furloughs and layoffs for staff and faculty. Headlines speak of over-crowded classrooms and rising costs of graduation, while California now has the lowest per student funding for preK-12. The reality behind these statistics is immense: the hope of a better life through education is being eroded for vast numbers of working class people.

But students, staff and faculty have not taken this lying down. In the Fall, as administrations were working to push through the cuts, walkouts across the UC system sparked a new movement up and down California. In October, hundreds of activists gathered to plan for a unified day of strikes and actions.

This day is now upon us. From building occupations and walkouts to street marches of thousands of children, families and teachers, March 4 promises to be a leap forward for our movement.

As socialists we see there is money available for education in California. At the moment, the rich pay far less than their share of taxes in this state. Taxes on corporations contribute only 10 per cent to the California budget, while last year, 73 per cent of California corporations paid no tax at all. Since the early 1980s, corporate tax rates have almost halved, while social services and education have suffered.

The only way we're going to win to have this wealth redistributed to fund services for working people is through more struggles like March 4th.

Come to hear participants from across the hot spots of struggle on the day speak about their experiences and the next steps in our fight back against the budget cuts.

Support the struggle against racism at UC San Diego

Recent racist attacks at UC San Diego have highlighted the growing inequality in California public education. This can only worsen under the budget cuts, which disproportionately affect people of color and have threatened support services and ethnic studies departments. Join us for a discussion on how we can place the fight for racial justice and affirmative action at the center of our movement.

Featuring:

• Karen Zapata — is a founder of Teachers for Social Justice and Educators for a Democratic Union, and a member of United Educators of San Francisco, AFT Local 61/NEA*
• Brian Malone — is a member of the March 4 Strike Committee and Graduate Student Organizing Committee at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and is local unit chair of UAW 2865*.
• Dora Elizabeth Palacios — is a member of the City College of San Francisco General Assembly against the Budget Cuts.
• Kathryn Savvides — is a member of Students, Faculty and Staff United against the Cuts at SFSU, and a member of the International Socialist Organization.
• Katy Rose — is a former union organizer, and founding member of Cañada Strikes Back.
• Michelle Araica — is a founding member of Skyline Against Cuts at Skyline College.
• Adrienne Johnstone — is a founding member of Educators for a Democratic Union, a reform caucus in the United Educators of San Francisco*, and a member of the International Socialist Organization.
• Plus — speakers from UC Berkeley, San Francisco State University, and more

* For identification purposes only

Check out these articles in Socialist Worker about how schools in California are fighting against the budget cuts on education:

This fight is about saving hope
Police invade S.F. fundraiser
Our chance to send a message
Join us in resisting the cuts
Taking back our library at CCSF

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