FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!
	International Communist Workers Party
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The recent weeklong strike of Seattle Teachers Association (SEA) meant a lot of things to a lot of different people.
To the school district administration it was a message that education workers were fed up with the dwindling paychecks and erosion of their benefits, and angry about the worsening conditions in their schools.
To the union it was a constant struggle to try to keep rank and file leaders from taking the strike to a higher level, and therefore ruining their pacifist sellout strategy.
To the strikers it was a lesson in how you can fight the good fight, but you can never beat this rotten system with reforms. Only moving the masses forward to communism can change the world.
One of the rank and file leaders has been teaching for awhile, but this was the first time she had been in a strike. She had become known at her school as an organizer and someone who fought for the students and staff. And she is no stranger to our communist politics.
During the strike, the workers were angry with the negotiating team because they seemed to be backing down even though the strike had become stronger and was gaining support daily. They wanted to march to the District headquarters and have a mass picket there.
The union immediately sent in their well-paid state and national staffers to squelch this idea. Our friend, however, gathered over 200 strikers from 2 schools and they marched 5 miles through the city to hold a very spirited rally at the Stanford Center. The union scrambled to the rally in cars so that they could meet the press and take credit!
In the end, school employees got a salary increase that was 6 years too late, and the district backed down on several issues like decreasing recess and increasing the length of the school day without paying staff. While these things might help workers cope better with life, there is no guarantee that the bosses won’t take them back any way they can. They usually do. They have the power.
The real mistake that we made in this strike was that we missed many chances to win more people to communism. “I didn’t really talk to many about communism,” our friend admitted as we analyzed the strike a week later.
It was not this comrade’s fault. We should have gone to the line and meetings at her school with literature and food, etc. and engaged the people in her base in conversations around the issues, and related them to the articles in the Red Flag. It is very hard to do this work by yourself, even for so-called veterans.
She said that some of her friends were also very critical of capitalism, and some were even for revolution. However, no one seems to bring up the logical question of “What happens after the revolution?”  Except the ICWP.
We have a vision of what real communism could be like, based on studying the past. And we apply our vision to all areas of life, especially education. We have had very good reception from teachers and other school staff when we have given them our pamphlet on Communist Education and when we discussed what communism would look like in general.
This comrade teaches history. Although a few students came out to support she admitted, “We could have done a better job reaching out to students (and their parents).” After all, capitalist education attacks students most of all.
We discussed the opportunity we now have to organize discussions (and more) in her classes (and outside) with students using our communist leaflet about the refugee crisis. She took some leaflets.
The strike has ended, but the real opportunity lies in front of us. Our communist vision is exciting. “We’re not going back to capitalism or socialism after the revolution this time,” vowed a retired school worker. We will continue to struggle to learn the lessons of the strike and use them to advance our work.

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