Education

From Wildcat to Union Reform: The West Virginia Teacher Struggle Continues

By Michael Mochaidean In the aftermath of the 2018 wildcat teachers strike in West Virginia that kicked off the #Red4Ed movement networks of militant teachers formed the rank-and-file caucus known as West Virginia United and for the past five months the group has been working to challenge the incumbent leadership of the West Virginia Education […]

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Strike While the Iron is Hot: Interview on the Growing Wildcat Strike at UC Santa Cruz

By It’s Going Down Since the wildcat strike at the University of California in Santa Cruz kicked off last Monday, thousands of students have blocked streets and shut down the campus, while riot police from across the State have been mobilized and made over a dozen arrests. Predictably, police violence has broken out on the […]

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Santa Cruz Grad Students Prepare to Launch Full Strike Next Week

Following up on our previous coverage of the wildcat strike and work stoppage launched by UC Santa Cruz grad student workers, participant Cameron A. writes on the workers next move: launching a full strike this coming Monday, February 10. See below for how you can follow and support. By Cameron A. Graduate Student workers at […]

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Wildcat Strike Launched by UC Santa Cruz Grad Student Workers

Could the #Red4Ed strike wave spill over to higher education and graduate student organizing? Participant Cameron .A. writes on the announced strike hours after the vote was taken. By Cameron A. Graduate student workers at the Santa Cruz campus of the leviathan University of California have voted to launch a wildcat grading strike in the […]

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Social Movements Gave Rise to the “Teachers’ Revolt,” Not Bernie

With the 2020 election already on the horizon we republish this commentary responding to the deeply flawed narrative that Bernie Sanders’ campaign played a key role in the teacher strike wave rather than social movement organizing with much deeper roots. The authors are a West Virginia teacher active in the 2018 strike and an education […]

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Red State Revolt: An Essential But Flawed Story of the Teacher Rebellion

Review of Red State Revolt, The Teachers’ Strike Wave and Working-Class Politics by Eric Blanc on Verso Books, 2019. By Michael Mochaidean Last year’s wave of public teacher strikes and walkouts was the highest number of workers walking off the job in three decades. Whether it will be the start of a larger trend across […]

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Striking For The Future of Education: Interview with a Los Angeles Teacher

Image: Hundereds of teachers gather for the chapter chair meeting of UTLA (United Teachers of Los Angeles). Source: BRRN-LA. More than 30,000 educators in the country’s second-biggest school district of Los Angeles are poised to strike Thursday, January 10 UPDATE: Monday, January 12 for the first time since 1989. In the aftermath of the inspiring wave of […]

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Is Student Activism Enough?

By Patrick Berkman Freddie DeBoer has a blogpost up at Jacobin, titled “Student Activism Isn’t Enough.” It’s classic Freddie: write an entire essay shitting on student activism, then closing it by saying actually, student activism is pretty great and important, keep it up! DeBoer claims “the university can’t be the key site of left-wing (or any other) […]

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