Abstract
Uetricht opens the book Strike for America with a stark contrast of American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten laughing and serving as a copanelist at a speaking event with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel, while, at the exact same time, Chicago’s public school teachers were voting 98% in favor of striking against Emmanuel’s assault on public schools, his support for charter schools, and his harmful education policy. This theme of top-down business unionism versus grassroots social movement unionism is one of many themes found in this effective book that not only chronicles the strike of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) but also serves as a how-to guide for both reclaiming fiercely democratic community-minded unions and challenging neoliberal education policy.
The book begins with the story of CORE, the Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators, who, in 2010, won the leadership of the CTU. The militant grassroots slate’s ability and willingness to connect with parents, students, and their neighbors helped them to effectively engage in the 2012 strike against the neoliberal education policies of Mayor Emmanuel. Uetricht rightly notes that “the story of CORE offers some practical lessons for how teachers can take over their unions to defend public education and how radical democratic unionism of all types can spread” (p. 19). To that, I would add that the story of CORE, as told in Strike for America, offers practical lessons for how any social-justice-minded rank-and-file activists can take over any union, particularly those in the public sector, and defend and improve public services in the process.
In addition to highlighting the pitfalls of top-down, bureaucratic business unionism and explaining a practical way to eliminate them, Strike for America also offers a well-reasoned critique of neoliberal education. With a particular emphasis on exposing and undermining charter schools, Uetricht lays out how a strategic coalition of community members and teachers can defeat them. He stresses that if neoliberal education policy has any chance of being defeated, or even halted, an effective union-community coalition needs to be in the works for a long time. The same is true of a strike in the education sector, even if quality public schools are at the heart of the strike.
Uetricht persuasively cites the New York City bus drivers’ strike of early 2013 as an example of a labor stoppage in the education sector in which an effective union-community coalition was not in place, much to the detriment of the striking workers. In this instance, the New York City mayor and its education chancellor were successfully able to villainize the workers’ actions as being “a strike against our children” (p. 123), something that could not be said of the CTU strike.
The book issues a much-needed call for a more grassroots form of radical unionism, one that is capable of challenging both conservative labor bureaucracies and neoliberal politicians and their policies. It does not, however, champion radicalism for the sake of radicalism. Uetricht rightly notes that “unions should not oversimplify the CTU’s example” (p. 121). While he argues that its example can—and should—be reproduced elsewhere, he cautions unions that while the willingness to strike will be an important and necessary tool, workers cannot withhold their labor without first taking the time, effort, and resources to connect with local community activists and parents in a common struggle against a common enemy.
The easily accessible writing style and important topics covered make Strike for America a book deserving a wide audience. The book should be read by any rank-and-file activists looking to insert democracy and radicalism into their locals. It should also be read by any unionists in the education sector. It provides an effective analysis of one of the few bright, and successful, stories of the American labor movement in recent years.
Any education-sector (or public-sector) union looking to take on neoliberal education policy would benefit from using the CTU struggle as a model. Likewise, Strike for America is an important tool for education policy reformers and parents worried about the attack on their community’s public schools. It would also make a great text for an undergraduate labor studies class.