| How Many People Mobilized on March 4? AP Report Says "Millions" |
| Written by Alan Benjamin | |
| Tuesday, 09 March 2010 | |
|
Dear Sisters and
Brothers:
All day Friday I was swamped with
reports from across California and nationwide about the actions that
took place on March 4 in defense of public education and social
services. Some of them made the mainstream press -- the huge rally at UC San Diego campus
rally of 3,000, followed by a march in downtown San Diego of 5,000
people, or the various marches in San Francisco and the East Bay of Northern
California.
Media reports also highlighted the
walkouts and protest actions at places like the University of Maryland
or at UC of Illinois Urbana Champaign. In fact, major campus actions
(high school and college-level, mainly) also took place in 33 states.
It was a genuine National Day of Action.
For an excellent Labor Beat-Chicago
video on the protests at UIUC, please
visit:
But I also got reports from small
towns throughout the Central Valley of California, where entire school
districts and communities mobilized with their unions, PTAs, and local
organizations, standing near main intersections with hand-made picket
signs, waving at drivers who honked their horns in support of public
education.
I am hoping to find the time to
compile a list of all these reports (or at the very least compile
excerpts from these reports) for folks to get a full picture of what
the San Francisco Chronicle, in its lead story, called an
"historic day of action."
This brings up the question that a
lot of friends in Europe have asked me about March 4: How many people
would I estimate participated in these actions?
One reader of The Organizer
newspaper sent me a link to an Associated Press video report titled,
"Millions Protest Education Cuts in California." The
reporter begins the coverage as follows: "Millions of students
and teachers across the nation and here in California walked out of
classes Thursday voicing opposition to deep cuts in education
funding."
The AP story can be accessed
at:
Millions?
I could understand that a radical
publication, getting carried away with the enthusiasm and energy of
what was an incredibly powerful show of force on Thursday, could
inadvertently talk about "millions." But the Associated
Press? Anyone involved in organizing antiwar protests knows that AP
and the mainstream media usually cut the crowd numbers of our events
in half, or more. So what is this about?
The fact that California Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger came out in support of the March 4 Strike and
Day of Action must have sent a signal to the gatekeepers in the
editing rooms of the media that this was a "safe" issue and
that crowd numbers didn't have to be cut in half. Mind you,
Schwarzenegger, the man responsible (along with the Democratic
Party-dominated state legislature) for the Draconian budget cuts to
public education, only came out in support of the protests on the very
eve of the March 4 Day of Action, when it was already clear that these
would be the most massive protests in defense of public education in
the history of our nation. Schwarzenegger switched gears to try and
co-opt the movement, promising the protesters a "seat at the
table" where decisions are made.
Even in San Francisco, Mayor Gavin
Newsom, had the gall to endorse the protests -- the very day after he
announced that 15,000 public-sector jobs would be cut -- which angered
city workers and helped swell our Civic Center rally
numbers.
What I am getting at is this. The
mainstream media -- following the lead of the politicians in the twin
parties of the bosses -- now want to co-opt the movement. The San
Francisco Chronicle editorial this morning (March 6) could not be
clearer: March 4 was fabulous, they write, but now the next Day of
Action must be Election Day in November. Now the politicians must take
the reins, and, oh, by the way, if there is to be progress on the
public education front, we have to push back the California teachers'
unions, which have opposed the so-called "reforms" (via the
Obama-Duncan-Bush "Race to the Top" program) aimed at
gutting teacher unions and privatizing education. This is their
spin.
Their strategy is clear: Embrace the
protests (which they had tried to prevent all along) to derail the
movement into safe channels for the powers-that-be.
How many people really mobilized on
March 4?
Certainly there were hundreds of
thousands. Were there millions? Possibly, but we may never know, given
the entirely decentralized character of these events, mirroring the
decentralization of public education itself.
It's a big breakthrough that the
media could not ignore our March 4 protests (even though they have
spent more attention than warranted to a few arrests and minor
disruptions here and there), but now we need to remain vigilant and
not allow the Co-Optation Machine to take us off course.
No! The next Day of Action has to be
March 20 -- the national day of actions against the wars -- for Money
for Schools, Not for War! The next Day of Action has to be May 1,
where immigrant workers and the entire working class needs to take to
the streets for jobs, full rights for all undocumented immigrants,
peace and justice. The next Day of Action has to be whenever any Board
of Education anywhere decides to send out pink slips or whenever any
city government lays off workers.
We -- with the unions taking a lead
in this ongoing struggle -- have to draw a line in the sand to say, No
More Cuts, No More Layoffs, No More Fee or Tuition Hikes! Tax the Rich
and the Corporations! Money for Public Education, Not for Wars! Bail
Out Public Education, Not the Banks and Wall Street!
We cannot accept any cuts or layoffs
of any kind today in the name of getting more funds tomorrow. We have
to say: We are fired up, and we won't take it no more!
The fight has only begun. We were
hundreds of thousands in the streets on March 4, perhaps more, but we
haven't won our demands -- not by a long shot. We were not in the
streets to let off steam or to hand our baton over to the politicians.
No. We were angry and mobilized because we want to prevail. But to
win, we need to keep on course with our independent, mass action
strategy.
We can win -- and we will win -- our
demands!
In solidarity,
Alan Benjamin
Editor
The Organizer Newspaper
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