#TBT #1250 Teachers at the forefront of a resurgent progressive labor movement (Throwback)
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 28 July 2023
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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Original Air Date: 2/15/2019
Today we take a look at recent teachers union strike in the Los Angeles school district and see it as another event in an emerging pattern of progressive uprisings that have been stirring for the last decade, fighting back against the status quo, neoliberal instinct to privatize everything for the ultimate benefit of billionaires.
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SHOW NOTES
Ch. 1: Why Teachers Are Striking in Los Angeles - NowThis - Air Date 1-20-19
‘This strike is a strike to save public education.’ — Here’s why Los Angeles teachers are striking in their own words.
Caputo-Pearl talks about a wide range of issues that led to the strike. Building up to the strike as a leader in the union. UTLA received criticism for being too bold but with an issue this large, it's important to be bold.
The people in power are all about privatization. Public education attacks are compared to citizens united. Public schools have become a competing marketplace instead of educational services.
Ch. 4: A surge in strikes! - Past Present - Air Date: 1-28-2019
Niki, Natalia, and Neil discuss the Los Angeles teachers’ strike. Enthusiasm for collective action since the election of '45. Fighting for the very existence of public schools. Charter makes things better for some, public makes things better for all (when properly funded and supported). Charter squirms around Unions.
Sarah Jaffe discusses why the parents agreed with the strike. Librarians who have to travel to different schools every day of the week. Will austerity reign, or can they turn it around. Fight for a society that actually provides what people need.
Ch. 6: LA Teachers Striking For All Of Us - The Michael Brooks Show - 01-07-2019
While the LA Teachers Union strikes, their demands are referred to as shiny distractions. Increased privatization by charter schools reduces the effectiveness of public education.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to this throwback edition of the award-winning Best of Left by Cast, where we remember |
| 0:07.8 | the past and choose to repeat it. |
| 0:10.4 | Today's episode was originally published on February 15, 2019, and I wanted to play it |
| 0:16.0 | now because our most recent full episode is telling the story of the strikes among writers |
| 0:22.2 | and actors in Hollywood. |
| 0:24.0 | Those strikes are being put in the context of a wave of other strikes and unionization |
| 0:29.3 | efforts. |
| 0:30.3 | One article compiled a few, quote, on the ninth day of the writer's guild of America's |
| 0:35.3 | strike, they don't know that the screen actors guild, or SAG, will join them, or that |
| 0:41.1 | 340,000 UPS workers and 30,000 Los Angeles unified school district employees will vote |
| 0:48.5 | to authorize the same, or that Sega of America will soon become the largest union shop in |
| 0:54.8 | gaming, end quote. |
| 0:57.1 | So it's undoubtedly true that we are in a rising wave of unionization and strike efforts |
| 1:03.0 | to push back against, frankly, the insufficiency of neoliberal economics for providing what |
| 1:10.3 | people need to survive and thrive. |
| 1:13.4 | So today's throwback episode is looking at essentially the same movement, but from the |
| 1:18.3 | perspective of 2019 and through the lens of the LA teacher's strike. |
| 1:24.1 | To save you time, I've removed a couple of clips that were focusing on charter schools |
| 1:28.0 | that were in the original version of the episode. |
| 1:30.2 | If you want our take on charter schools, we have a more recent one you can check out. |
| 1:33.9 | It's number 1554, destroying education and democracy for fun and profit. |
| 1:40.4 | But for today, just think about how the demands being made by teachers in 2019 continue to |
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