EVERY school public school in West Virginia is SHUT DOWN due to a historic teachers strike. This is what solidarity looks like
Teachers and other school staff participated in a statewide walkout on Thursday to demand better salaries and health insurance. Educators in all of Virginia’s 55 counties are involved in the walkout, which will continue on Friday. It’s the first time teachers have staged a statewide strike in 30 years.
On Thursday, American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten went to West Virginia to support the work stoppage. Educators gathered at the capitol grounds on Thursday.
According to a 2016 Learning Policy Institute (LPI) report, the average starting salary in West Virginia in 2013 was $32,533. According to the National Education Association, the average salary for a West Virginia teacher was $45,622 in 2016, which ranked 48th among all states. Don Scalise, a government and history teacher at Cabell Midland High School, told HuffPost that health insurance used to be a bright spot for West Virginia teachers, despite the lower salaries. “In West Virginia, we know they weren’t known for having high salaries, but they were known for good health insurance …That used to be something to attract people. Now that’s eroding,” Scales told HuffPost.
Fucking right we were talking about this in our local Democrat Cops of America chapter last night. Glad to see they went balls deep on that bitch. Solidarity with all the teachers.
Nolan Bennett
They'll just all be fired and WV will move to a voucher program like other states, including Indiana (home to VP Mike Pence) have. California is considering it as well. Teachers unions are dead and not coming back due to the dual forces of the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act (which ties all school funding into standardized exams) and the 2010 Common Core (federal control over school curriculums).
I don't mean to shit on the parade but seriously, it's not going to go anywhere. The textbook publishers have already won.
Xavier Anderson
*caveat: this could all be stopped if textbook publishers had their houses bombed and their families slaughtered, instigating a revolution. But I doubt WV teachers are willing to arm themselves and murder people in other states to facilitate this, and I doubt they would have any allies.
Henry Hill
You can’t fire every teacher in the state at the same time. The whole state would shut down. All those kids need babysitting while their parents work.
Gabriel Davis
So what other choice to the teachers have mister revolutionary man? Just roll over and get fucked out of benefits?
The only way to save unions at this point is to arm them. It's one thing to just ignore a strike and fire everyone. It's another thing entirely when they all have guns.
Chase Brown
I agree tbh
Zachary Reed
Not like its the first time West Virginia had armed unions.
pic related Armed unionized coal miners during the West Virginia coal wars.
Why would the state care? Send the kids to summer school. It's up to parents to get the voucher, get the kid to a private tutor, and redeem it. Capitalists don't care, they've never cared about the people of WV and aren't going to start now.
What choice do they have? Society just told them No. And society will keep telling them No all the way down the rabbit hole until the entire school system is privatized. It will then be held up as a model for the rest of the nation to follow.
Kayden Gonzalez
The labor force needs to be at least semi-literate, user.
Gavin Cook
Arm all the teachers. Make education cheap
Adrian Robinson
you mean free, right user?
Asher Mitchell
What a time for the GOP to talk about arming the teachers.
Colton Cook
These don't line up user, they don't match whatsoever.
Anthony Flores
For the students, you fuck
Nathaniel Jenkins
It's already free for them. It's not free for their parents though.
Jeremiah Roberts
Doesn't West Virginia have a Human development score on par with fucking Central America and a few of the "more developed" chunks of Africa?
Easton Martinez
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Brody Martinez
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Kevin Foster
ARM THE TEACHERS
Zachary Turner
there are people on leftypol RIGHT NOW who think its a bad idea to give these people guns
Henry Diaz
You can't make things free or cheap in this way user.
Carson Cooper
In West Virginia? Nope. The people who fund that place live along the MARC tracks and work in DC. They don't care about what happens to the mountains south of them, all those people could just die and they still won't care. All it is just a drain on their wallets via tax money, they wish all those people would move out of WV so they can keep more tax money for themselves.
It's selfish, but this is what raw capitalism looks like. Workers strike, get fired and immediately privatized. Everyone is left poorer and stupider, causing the underlying poverty to get much worse. Eventually the only things left in these communities will be abandoned coal mines, moonshine stills and guns. The exact type of place for a revolution.
Sebastian Perry
This is one conservative proposal I agree with but let’s not stop with the teachers
Samuel Taylor
What if we cut on the military instead of increasing taxes?
Joshua King
look up MMT, cuck
Justin Morgan
Americans……………………
Matthew Young
Interesting thing about this walkout : they don't have the right to strike & what they're doing is essentially illegal. But pay is so low in WV that firing thousands of teachers and replacing them is virtually impossible.
Isaac Johnson
How long until yt lolberts start making videos about the mafiosi, lazy, parasitic, useless, communist teachers?
Jackson Howard
The government doesn't need to replace them, all they have to do is offer mail-in vouchers to parents and let it be their problem. They don't care if the K12 system shuts down, they've wanted to do that for a long time. Capitalism is self-destructive in the long run, this is what it looks like.
Christian Rogers
Arming teachers is the only rational choice for American lefitsts. 1. Rebuild union power by arming the most unionized workforce in America. 2. Create opportunities to build membership for leftist gun clubs and raise class consciousness. 3. Militarize the teachers and their union so they are prepared for violent measures. 4. Turn schools into hard targets to make them less likely targets for mass shootings. 5. Get the cops out of the schools, since with the teachers armed they aren't needed. 6. Give underpayed and unappreciated workers the means to directly redress grievances 7. Purge the unions of anti-militant views and undo decades of liberal defanging. Only anarkiddies would oppose this because "but muh authoritarian teachers would murder children!" There's no reason for real leftists to oppose arming teachers. We need to take advantage of shortsighted reactionary support for armed teachers and get guns into their hands pronto.
Oliver Collins
Sure we can! All we need to do it massively cut funding for military and tax churches.
Jayden Russell
I'd bet they're already on that
Chase Ward
This but unironically.
Aiden Gomez
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Alexander Barnes
what do?
Robert Turner
Alright! No other state's teachers or other public or business infrastructure workers strike, now! How are you getting to the strike? Think I'll take the uber.
Ian Ramirez
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William Morales
< tfw Amazon incentivizes its warehouse workers with a "Teach For America" program
Henry Lewis
Yeah man every teacher is just going to get fired all at once. It's not like that would have huge consequences for the state or anything.
Jayden Johnson
holy shit. You actually have a point user.
tfw might actually live to see prole revolution in burgerland
Xavier Green
You do realize that vouchers aren't free right? Vouchers are used because the state pays part or all of the private school's fees.
Jayden Adams
Oi! Some of us are (anarcho-)Syndies, insurrectionists and illegalists 'ere! A handgun as a tendril of proper organization is the manifestation of localized democracy.
Awesome concept with quite a bit sense behind it, though.
Juan Carter
One of if not the only job you can get right out of college that is practically guaranteed and pays you a living wage with decent benefits.
Nathaniel Walker
In some states you need a special graduate degree to teach in public schools.
Jace Allen
What did you think was going to happen if FDR didn't pass New Deal last time?
Jeremiah Cook
Have you spent time with American teachers? I wouldn't trust them to do my laundry let alone shoot a gun straight.
Justin Davis
Most companies already get a tax break if they do highschool internships.
Reagan did it with the FAA controllers. The backup plan already exists: vouchers. The entire framework is there, mandated by the Federal government through the 2002 NCLB.
Nicholas Clark
One of the biggest untapped sources of revolutionary potential is the conservatives who are only that because they think left = liberal SJW.
Ryder Hall
That's why you incorporate firearms training into your organizing strategy.
Austin Clark
You think we can train these idiots?
David Walker
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Cooper Foster
leftists get out
Nolan Jenkins
I've personally trained and drilled a moron who barely could tie his own shoelaces when he was conscripted. He managed quite well once the procedures and principles became instinctive. He didn't have any initiative of his own, but fortunately he didn't really need any as a basic rifleman.
Naturally there's a decisive difference between complete woodskulls, who you just need to "program" and point in the right direction, and stubborn fools who just won't take any advice, 'cause they know best.
Adam Taylor
Yes, and most American teachers fall in the second group.
Joshua Cooper
What the fuck is your problem? America is a huge fucking country, just because you had a bad experience in whatever shithole you grew up in doesn't mean the millions of US teachers are all the same. I had some fantastic public school teachers that were really passionate about their subjects, especially since it was Texas and they got pretty shit pay compared to other states, they were true proles.
Camden Thompson
Obviously they are proles, and obviously they're not all bad. Some of them are thoughtful, capable people. But most of them them seem to be very confused, and I just wouldn't trust them with guns, at least not before extensive training and a psychological evaluation. Not only would they have to be able to shoot accurately, but they would have to be able to act decisively in a high pressure situation.
Ryan Murphy
Most teachers would agree with you.
I think the government is shirking it's duties toward public safety by forcing teachers to both educate AND be a private security force. You might as well make schools prisons.
Eli Stewart
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Ian Wilson
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Colton Martin
The teachers don't want to be armed. A lot of them probably don't know how to use a gun. What an insane conversation though - clearly the gun lobby has too much power.
Jose Barnes
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Angel Taylor
This isn't enabling the working class. It's dividing it. No teacher should be expected to kill their students.
Caleb Long
No teacher should be expected to watch their students die and be powerless to stop it.
Wyatt Russell
Irrelevant.
Curricula of most jobs is chock full of things people don't want to do, this would just add gun training to teacher's.
Ryder Ross
pfft I just want armed unions
Samuel Gonzalez
UPDATE Still on strike, no end in sight
Liam Cooper
THROBBING ERECTION Somewhere, Joe Hill is pleased with this.
Lucas Cruz
That's a lot of red.
Noah Parker
in capitalism, Teachers are the most important group that reproduces capitalism. No one. not cops, not soldiers, not politicians, not managers has as big a role in transmitting ideology (false consciousness) to the next generation of workers than teachers.
They are the functionaries of capitalism, on the front lines everyday creating proletariat.
You can pay them more, you can pay them less, you can change their curriculum, but they'll be there to make sure the labor force is reproduced, behaved and ready to work another day.
Lincoln Young
t.bullied in high school
Connor Gomez
just read my Gramsci and Althusser. Capitalism is tricky and extremely smart. It outsmarted marx for chrissakes, and it really isn't so easy to overthrow as the new left thinks.
Dylan Barnes
Now We're Talking.
Just make sure they blame the right people, and the liberals and succdems don't get to them first with a 50 cent bump in foodstamps, and other minor concessions that make it seem like the relation between owners and workers is somehow 'reconcilable'
Levi Garcia
This overthrow talk is passé. Why not harness the beast untill it's dead. And I don't mean reform and tame I mean globally stranglehold the motherfucker. If it dies then we wear it's skin.
Sebastian Harris
why would you want to 'wear the skin' of capitalism? I don't understand how this metaphor works at all.
Ayden Campbell
Appalachia will have a maoist uprising in twenty years. Screenshot this.
Luke Phillips
I think I just came a little
Jason Parker
Ouch! what a shame got my hopes up for a sec
Carson Cox
You gotta think holistically bruv.
Jackson King
no, No, NO! The teachers are a bunch of settlers and the second amendment is racist!
Justin Taylor
I guess that settles it then seriously, I knew the Democrat Cops of America was bad but not this bad–I hope this isn't a trend on the American left
Joshua Turner
The old guard is basically all Democrats.
Levi Jenkins
STRIKE IS OVER instead of a 2% raise in pay this year they got a 5% raise in pay school will resume on thursday
Nathan Cox
Fuck, its worse then I thought now Jacobin and even Trots are starting to shill for it.
I'm glad they won their pay raise but what about that new Supreme Court ruling that could bust teachers unions? Isn't it best to keep pushing while you have leverage?
Tyler Wood
I would much rather have actual healthcare than gun restrictions. This liberal obsession with guns is a fucking disease.
Landon Moore
Who gives a fuck about a bunch of racist white drumpf supporters? I hope they all od on fentanyl.
Samuel Harris
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Justin Sanchez
It's the Harringtonites, yes they are terrible, but they don't have the dominance that they once did and are being challenged by Marxists.
Jason Sanchez
Well that's a strawman if I ever seen one.
Luke Flores
It's a meme dude.
Josiah Clark
Fuck off with your defeatist bullshit. If we wavered at every moment we were fighting against great difficulty, we wouldn't bother leaving our hovels. All Left fighting is an uphill battle, and underestimating the power of the working class renders all potential to wield that power harmless. With the proletarian power, anything is possible, and whether you believe in that or not makes a Communist… or not.
Christian Hughes
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James Bennett
solidarity, comrades
Angel Ramirez
WE WILDCAT NOW
These motherfuckers want fucking healthcare and are fighting for it THIS IS WHAT MOTHER FUCKING BOTTOM UP ORGANIZING BECOMES. Fuck the leaders rank and file are the true leaders
Benjamin King
You know what, I never thought it would be the Teachers that save America. Also btw, Country Roads has just become a union anthem.
Ryder Hill
What's with this meme? All churches would have to do is operate as a non profit, which most already do, and they'd again be tax free.
West Virginia, what are you doing? You're not supposed to be this Chad! Please go on, become a General Strike
Jordan Bailey
Are general strikes even legal in the US? I know they aren't in the UK.
Luke King
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Dominic Martinez
Don't know. Probably not, typically. Technically all strikes are illegal, unless under specific conditions, and too often justified strikes are labeled illegal on the flimsiest of technicalities.
Practically speaking legality doesn't matter the least as long as employer isn't ready to use hired goons and the gov't isn't ready to resort to violence, as long as the picket line stands firm. Hell, not even violence matters, if people are ready to stand firm despite it.
Brandon Baker
Yes. It's even lower in rural Alabama, the Mississippi Delta, and most of Kentucky.
Caleb Thomas
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Andrew Brown
imagine being so self-conscious that you call a joke a strawman
Christopher Carter
Can we arm the teachers NOW?
Bentley Baker
WILDCAT WORKING, EVERY PUBLIC SCHOOL CLOSED ONCE AGAIN THIS FRIDAY
Benjamin Bailey
It looks like its from Holla Forums so I honestly don't know if user is joking or is being "ironic." Plus the the plus tip meme is an old stale Holla Forums meme about the pizza delivery guy
Jaxon Ramirez
Hyes! Thanks for the news.
Xavier Cooper
I read this "Virgin Teachers Strike" for some reason…
Connor Allen
I thought wildcat strikes were actually illegal. Has anyone gone to jail yet?
Logan Murphy
It is but you can't arrest all the teachers, or just one, because if you arrest one they'll strike longer and they can't afford them. The teachers have WV's balls in a vice grip
Thomas Brown
The moment the government arrests teachers, it is fucked.
Jaxon Lee
Holy fuck boys
Ian Rodriguez
Have we started the fire?
Carson Cooper
makes me feel so warm and cuddly inside
i wish my union had these balls
Aiden Cox
Most unions are corrupt as hell these days
Adam Johnson
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John Gonzalez
Killing fees and mandatory enrollment will probably make unions more radical b/c they can't depend of compromise and bureaucracy for change.
The porkies at Bloomberg are afraid of it, so it'll probably be a good thing
one thing liberals dont want to talk about is how unionized coal jobs are being replaced with ununionized natural gas, wind, and solar jobs. it's an inconvenient truth that gets in the way of their "progress at all costs" narrative.
Jacob Miller
Union leadership, you mean.
Jaxson Perry
teachers just voted to occupy the capital until their demands are met
now this is interesting considering how this tactic did not work in Wisconsin 8 years ago , but also union leadership in that situation called for the teachers to leave the capital and work for a vote which ultimately failed. Now in West Virginia the vast majority of Teachers are no longer listening to the union leaders, saying they they deserve better
Ayden Collins
holy shit
Connor Rogers
any other states gonna join in? teachers make awful wages across the board. why is it only here? how about virginia proper? georgia? new hampshire even.
Justin Harris
"West Virginia teachers are some of the lowest compensated in the nation, ranking 48th out of 50 states and the District of Columbia in pay, according to the National Education Association. The state hasn’t given them an across-the-board raise since 2014. Meanwhile, rising health care costs have caused some workers’ take-home pay to go down. "
Jace Hernandez
You know an interesting thing about that is that Churchill ordered the British navy off coal precisely because of the ability of militant miners to bring the country to its knees. Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin point out in their book The Making of Global Capitalism: The Political Economy of American Empire that after WWII modernization in Europe entailed a shift away from coal towards oil precisely because it wasn't as unionized.
Bentley Carter
fucking relax, teaching is one of the few jobs you can get easily with a bachelors that pays a living wage.
Robert Murphy
Is the strike still going on lads?
Nolan Richardson
late response, not even a small quarrell
Daniel Murphy
American teachers should just lube their bum
Juan Moore
Is it habbening?
Jacob Bell
yes and it might actually grow == Other Public Employees’ Union May Join the Strike in West Virginia =
The West Virginia School Service Personnel Association — an independent union that represents bus drivers, clerical workers, and janitors — has played a key role in mobilizing support for the wildcat strike. Under Carmichael’s plan, service personnel plan would receive only 2% raises in the first year and 1% in the second year.
Bus drivers in many counties refused to go to work, leading schools in those counties to cancel classes. The union has vocally opposed Carmichael’s attempt to dilute the plan to increase wages to acceptable levels. “Senate President Carmichael is wanting to strip HB 4145 and use the money for pay raises and direct it into a one time only appropriation that will only freeze PEIA (not fix it). In essence, he is wanting to only give teachers, service personnel, and state employees what they already have,” said the union in a statement.
They have also been reaching out to other state employees’ unions which may join the strike. Unlike teachers and school service personnel, who were offered a 5% raise, the union’s lower paid employees were offered only 3% — which Carmichael wants to further diminish by spreading over two years. Sources confirm to Payday Report that other public employees’ unions in the state inspired by the action are also considering striking in solidarity with the teachers. paydayreport.com/w-v-unions-may-join-teachers-strike-w-v-senate-refuses-pass-pay-raise-students-teachers-back/
David Wright
Richard Ojeda speaking in W.V.
Asher Kelly
Anons is he Smedley Butler reborn or nah?
I imagine the nat guard are gonna get called soon: then all hell is going to break loose.
Virtue signaling. Yawn. Wake me up when they decide to do something revolutionary for a change.
Dominic Ward
faggot
Brandon Kelly
No. GOP controlled states like WV are absolute shit.
Blake Perez
Ojeda is running for the House this year. I hope he wins it.
Ryan Foster
The state legislature is deadlocked over a pay increase but the teachers are more concerned about their ballooning healthcare costs that forced many to get second jobs. It seems unlikely the proposed pay increases of 5% (which lawmakers have rejected) would end the strike decisively. I don't see how anything gets done with the fossilized leadership in most states. It's more likely the legislators themselves go on "strike" by refusing to negotiate and crushing the unions a la Scott Walker.
Hudson Gutierrez
like posting on Holla Forums? kys
Jason Smith
At that point it develops into a general strike. People will only take their kids being out of school for sometime
Think about the consequences of a state wide strike of people working an over glorified Childcare centers All those People who need to stay home to take care of their children and thus must take a day off work The giant clusterfuck of catching students up with their studies after almost two weeks off
Plus its Important to remember that the strike has already begun to spread with Oklahoma apparently about to have a state wide walk out to
Noah Campbell
So we will see, and nothing will come out of it.
The teachers of old might have done something, but nu-teachers, nah.
Nathan Brooks
WTF Does "Nu-Teacher" mean to you?
Julian Parker
but they are literally on a wildcat strike at this very moment
Adrian Gutierrez
Shit like this is why I don't come here as often.
Nicholas Taylor
whot
Michael Harris
Reminder that at the same time the UK has been undergoing an even larger strike by university staff for the past week and a half:
West Virginia - gets the most benefit from the ACA - turns around and votes for Trump the hardest out of any state
wtf is wrong with burgers?
Also, aren't teachers just the functionaries of the state? Is there even revolutionary potential in this? I guess it could bring chaos and a shutdown of the state, and further weaken it.
Can W.Virginia become america's chiapas or over a dozen US military bases in Syria? Or will the teachers get a 5% raise and go back to making their students accept individualism and meritocracy?
Brandon Johnson
They tried that and it didn't work since the teachers are more concerned about their benefits rather than pay
Woke response from working class voice from the crowd in response to governor claiming to want to heal racial divides: This is an extremely rough transcription based on my memory of the live stream
Nicholas Martinez
If workers aren't cucked, I hope burger workers learn from this they can all get a 5% pay raise in a couple of weeks by organizing and going on strike.
Michael Torres
hold your horses, maybe they'll just keep on striking like last time
