https://themilitant.com/2019/01/26/dont-make-us-go-west-virginia-on-you/
EXCERPT: ‘IN DEFENSE OF US WORKING CLASS’
‘Don’t make us go West Virginia on you!’
Vol. 83/No. 5
February 4, 2019
In the light of the strike by teachers in Los Angeles and upcoming
battles by teachers in other cities and states, we print below an
excerpt from In Defense of the US Working Class by Mary-Alice Waters.
Copyright © 2019 Pathfinder Press. Reprinted by permission.
When the [West Virginia] teachers and other school employees walked out,
when they saw the strength of their numbers, their confidence and
determination soared too. With support from their pupils, families,
unions, and churches — and a living memory of the many bitter strikes
fought by the miners — they organized emergency food services for the
students and strikers. Daytime activities for the children were put in
place. …
In the best traditions of trade unionism — and a precursor of the
fighting labor movement that will again be built — the strike took on
elements of a genuine social movement, battling for the needs of the
entire working class and its allies.
“What we’re seeing is a class of people rising up,” one striking worker
proudly told a reporter.
And he was right. These were the men and women whom Hillary Clinton
during her presidential campaign so contemptuously labeled “a basket of
deplorables.” People from the “backward” (that was her word!) expanses
of the country between New York and California. People she described as
“racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic,” and especially women, “married
white women” who, she told audiences, were too weak to stand up to
“pressure to vote the way your husband, your boss, your son” tells you
to. Is it any wonder Trump won West Virginia by a vote of 69 percent to
27 percent for Clinton?
The better class of people who engaged in this struggle across West
Virginia not only kept every school closed for nine days. They sent
thousands of demonstrators to occupy the state capitol day after day.
Midway through the walkout, teachers rejected their union officialdom’s
call to accept the governor’s promise of a deal. They’d heard promises
before. They stayed out until they forced the legislature to pass, and
the governor to sign into law, a 5 percent pay raise — not only for
school personnel, but for every single state employee. …
And as word spread across the country, teachers in Oklahoma, Kentucky,
Arizona, and other states were preparing their own strike actions.
“Don’t make us go West Virginia on you!” became their battle cry.
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Los Angeles teachers won with broad strike support
LOS ANGELES — A spirited and popular six-day strike by more than 30,000
teachers here ended Jan. 22 after a majority voted to approve a new
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other workers as they demonstrated…
In This Issue
Front Page Articles •Los Angeles teachers won with broad strike support
•UK capitalist rulers ‘Brexit’ political crisis continues on
•Florida voting rights victory spurs fights in Iowa, Kentucky
•SWP Dallas campaign attracts working-class interest in Texas
•Liberal, FBI anti-Trump ‘resistance’ is a threat to working people’s rights
Feature Articles •José Ramón Fernández: Revolutionary of exemplary integrity
Also In This Issue •Chicago cop who killed Laquan McDonald gets prison
•SWP takes books, ‘Militant’ broadly to working people
•Readers contribute to winter appeal for ‘Militant’
•An Unconditional Soldier of the Revolution
•‘Don’t make us go West Virginia on you!’
Books of the Month •Jew-hatred incited by capitalist rulers in times of
crisis
25, 50 and 75 years ago
Corrections
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Jules Verne
“ Reality provides us with facts so romantic that imagination itself could add
nothing to them. ”
― Jules Verne