Spring Break the Bourgeoisie!

Self-Organized Walkouts and Protests Spread in Modesto Area

While occupations and protests at university campuses have died down since the March 4th Day of Action, in the Modesto area, students, teachers, and community members have launched a series of actions largely independent of any formal group or organization.

In the Spring, local school districts announced the possible closure of various schools in the area. California teachers also discovered that thousands of them would be laid off as the state issued pink slips. Meanwhile, in the local area, administrators with the district continue to in many cases, more than $200,000 a year and receive kick downs in the form of things like travel allowances. As one student recently pointed out at a board meeting, "Where are you traveling to, Argentina?" The recent budget crisis has exposed class lines and dug up old antagonisms that have always existed, but are now much more pronounced. The actions of students in particular are showing the way forward for the rest of the working and poor population that must respond to ongoing attacks against it.

In late February, parents and kids began a series of protests and marches in Salida (located 5 minutes north of Modesto), against the closure of a middle school. Much like the situation in Modesto, administrators and managers are paid in the range of 200K+, leaving many to ask why children and labor must suffer while the rich continue to wallow in wealth.

In mid-March, students at Modesto City Schools also responded to the lay offs of several hundred teachers by organizing a round of walk out strikes at their schools. At Davis High School, several hundred students walked out, and at Johansen High School, according to the Modesto Bee, 25 students walked out, despite a heavy police presence. At Enochs High School, student plans for a walkout were discovered by administration, who then offered to give the students "whatever they wanted," in return for a promise of no walkout. Students then demanded the use of two lunch periods for a rally, the printing (free of charge) of flyers designed by the students, and the use of a PA system.

On Monday, March 22nd, students from various schools that have been involved in these actions gathered in downtown Modesto to march on the Modesto City Schools District Office, in order to address board members and demand an end to the lay offs. The mood in the room was tense, with students and union members addressing the board demanding that administrators - not teachers and students face the ax.

Students have stated in the Modesto City Schools District that if the school board does not rehire the teachers that have been laid off, then they will launch another round of walk out strikes, this time, district wide. Students will have to be on guard for several things in the future however, firstly, the desire of the school administration to keep these protests in the "proper channels." While even the bureaucrats claim that they are on the side of education, their desire to keep the protests non-disruptive is a way of managing them and keeping them from being effective. The only way forward is to disrupt. To walk out. To strike. Students are workers in the education factory and their greatest power is in refusal. The spirit of student disruption is also fresh; in 2006, students by the thousands in the Modesto area walked out of school on strike leading up to May 1st in protest against racist anti-immigrant legislation

Many teachers must learn that students must have autonomy and control over their own struggles. They cannot direct them, only act in solidarity with them, which also means acting in their own interests as well. Lastly, we must all resist the power of the police to try and stop these events from happening as well as support various students that may face repression from their actions. Teachers are also in a position to act in more confrontational ways, being that so many of them are facing the unemployment line. Working together, students and staff can form united groups of people that can take action; outside and against the existing framework of power.

Students in public education face many challenges, but are in a position to possibly explode the struggle against budget cuts into a wider rupture with capitalism. Students in the local area aren't some weird group on a far away campus, they are the sons and daughters of all of us. They struggle against attacks on their own conditions but also on the conditions of other workers. They see the gulf between the order givers and the order takers. Between the bosses and the workers. The message is on the board: the rich want a class war. Let us give them one.

SCHOOL IS OUT!
CHOP THE TOP - NO LAYOFFS!