A Strategy to Win
The victory in West Virginia and the impasse in Oklahoma raise important questions for the Left. Drawing out the strategic lessons of these strikes is crucial for the fights ahead.
Putnam City West band director Edward Hudson leads the The Oklahoma Teacher Walkout Band, an improvised group of music teachers from across the state, in a pep rally on the steps of the state Capitol on April 4, 2018 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.Scott Heins / Getty
On March 29, the threat of a looming strike forced Oklahoma’s Republican state government to concede a $400 million funding bill granting a historic teacher pay raise of $6,000. Inspired by the example of West Virginia, Oklahoman educators nevertheless decided to push forward with their strike. But two weeks of striking proved insufficient to force an intransigent Republican government to concede to the educators’ demands for increased school funding. Schools reopened this Monday.
As education struggles continue to spread across the US — from Arizona to Colorado to North Carolina — there is an urgent need to learn from the experiences of both Oklahoma and West Virginia. Jacobin’s Eric Blanc sat down with organizer and scholar Jane McAlevey to discuss some of the major strategic lessons of these recent strikes.
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Even though Oklahoma’s strikers weren’t able to achieve their funding demands, I think it’d be wrong to minimize the victories that they did win. Getting a $6,000 pay raise for all teachers is a big deal in a state where no new taxes have been raised since 1990. If they hadn’t pushed for a strike, there’s no way the Republicans would have made that concession.