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Socialism is better than
capitalism. So say 20 percent of Americans, and another 27 percent say
they can't say which is better, according to an April 9 Rasmussen poll.

There's hope.

When
you consider that virtually no newspaper, broadcaster, well-funded
think tank, teacher, or anybody's boss or commander ever said something
nice about socialism, it's remarkable that only 53 percent of us still
favor rule by the moneyed class. Perhaps folks are learning how
capitalism sacrifices happiness for individual gain.

The United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) has left teachers and workers defenseless in the face of these attacks. At an April 24 meeting called for teachers given RIF notices, union officials repeated the refrain that the Obama administration’s stimulus money will be enough to save their positions, if only Superintendent Ramon Cortines would spend it all this year instead of spreading it out over two years.

The notion that there’s enough money in the stimulus package to save all the teachers’ jobs is disingenuous at best. In reality, the total amount of funding for the state of California to offset cuts in education is $4.875 billion.

This money is to be allocated statewide, and is not to be used exclusively for the preservation of teachers’ jobs. The Obama administration has made clear that further funding will be made conditional on the implementation of right-wing education reforms, including increased testing and merit pay for teachers.

The UTLA has done everything in its power to ensure that this so-called protest against the budget cuts will be as painless as possible for the local school district. In addition to the fact that it is limited to a single day and has been announced weeks ahead of time so that school administrators can make advance preparations, it will also take place on a testing day, when teachers are not needed in the classroom and can be easily replaced by exam proctors.

The absurdity of expecting results from a one-day “work stoppage” (the union refuses to even say “strike”), announced weeks before undertaking it, was not lost on one first grade teacher, who asked, “Why is it a one-day strike? Why aren’t we striking until we get what we want?”

“Saving jobs,” like “shared sacrifice,” has long been a mantra used by employers in the auto and other industries to exact ever more concessions from workers. The concessions never achieve their supposed goal. In fact, job cuts continue unabated, as the recent experience of Michigan’s auto workers can attest.

All the arguments of the UTLA are intended to obscure the basic issue: the attack on California teachers is part of a coordinated drive to make workers pay for the economic crisis created by the financial speculation of the ruling elite. This drive has the full support of the Democratic Party, both on a statewide and national level. The Democratic Party not only overwhelmingly passed the latest cuts to education in the state senate and assembly, but also helped to initially craft them.