solidaridad: October 2015

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Looking back to OccupyLAUSD as the way forward

"This is a call out to the 99% who live, work, play and learn in the Los Angeles Unified School District. It is time we Reclaim Our Schools from the 1% wealthy Billionaires (like Eli Board, Gates, and Walton) and Corporate Management Companies who continue to set educational policies of school giveaways, increases in corporate charter schools, and constant school lay-offs." — OccupyLAUSD

Four years ago today activists stood up to neoliberal bagman John Deasy, his ‪#‎NPIC‬ backers including the United Way of Greater Los Angeles, and his corporate charter ‪#‎LAUSD‬ BOE enablers Monica Garcia and Tamar Galatzan. We demanded they rescind their draconian budget that eliminated Adult Education, SRLDP, EECs, and K-12 Arts. In conjunction with the OccupyLA movement, OccupyLAUSD camped in front of Beaudry for weeks. Surviving the elements and constant ‪#‎LAPD‬ harassment, we were able to counterpose a community-first message that resonated and forced them to back down on some of their cuts. Deasy still stuffed the pockets of greedy charter operators, like Ref Rodriguez, full of our money, but at least some of the programs our community relies on were preserved. Glad to have participated in OccupyLAUSD, and know that our struggles are going to get more difficult as the death-spiral of empire will see our rulers look for more ways to gut the public commons.