‘Solidarity forever’: Meet the ardent socialists throwing their weight behind the LAUSD teachers strike

Every day this week, Carly Towne, 25, has pulled herself out of bed in the morning dark to walk a 7 a.m. picket line at Venice High School for two hours before heading to work. The bespectacled staff member of left-wing activist organization Code Pink is not a teacher, a parent nor a former L.A. Unified School student.

Like the 100 to 150 other members of Democratic Socialists of America and International Socialist Organization who have showed up to schools every day this week in support of the L.A. Unified teachers strike, she’s simply a devoted socialist.

Members of DSA Los Angeles, part of an organization that has emerged in national politics as the burgeoning progressive wing of the Democratic party with robust New York City and Chicago bases, have become some of the most visible non-education-related participants in the teachers strike that has thrown LAUSD’s near 900 schools into disarray.

For many of these mostly millenial age anti-capitalists, in full swing Friday morning leading a “solidarity forever” tune on the banjo and supplying teachers with free burritos, this “fight for the soul of public schools” at the center of national attention is a rare and meaningful opportunity to act on their leftist politics in real life.

“Their demands are aligned with what we believe,” said Towne over blaring picket chants and car horns. She cites grassroots organizing and regular text reminders as reason for the group’s consistency in numbers.

“These 30,000 teachers deserve a wage that allows them to live in their city, but they’re also going on strike for a truly public education system and schools rooted in their community. It runs the gamut of things we want to do in as socialists.”

As part of the Reclaim our Schools coalition of organizations to support the United Teachers Los Angeles strike, DSA has deployed around 100 members to North Hollywood High School, Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools and Venice HS every morning of the strike.

Along with ISO and in partnership with Reclaim our Schools, members made headlines after raising over $30,000 to bring taco trucks to the picket-lines in a “Tacos for Teachers” GoFundMe campaign, and have joined marches to district leaders’ doorsteps including Superintendent Austin Beutner and school board President Monica Garcia.

For the past five days, a staunch majority of UTLA-represented LAUSD educators have been on strike – picketing in front of schools and marching downtown – making demands for both improved conditions in public schools and higher wages the district says it cannot afford.

On paper, predominant issues include high class sizes and the need for full-time support staff like nurses, counselors and librarians. Not on the negotiating table but central to the dispute between LAUSD and its teachers union is the expansion of the charter school industry in recent years.

Independent charter schools, in which around 112,000  Los Angeles students are enrolled, are privately managed but publicly funded. While advocates say they give students more alternatives, critics allege their unregulated proliferation has undercut neighborhood public schools and led to a vicious cycle of district underfunding.

Since Thursday, the parties have been back in closed-door negotiations at City Hall, with some moderation help from Mayor Garcetti’s office. They plan to continue negotiating through the weekend.

On Day 5 of #LAUSD strike, spirits appear high at Venice HS pic.twitter.com/85vLbet6eK

— Ariella Plachta (@AriPlachta) January 18, 2019

Why would staunch socialists throw their weight behind this teachers strike?

“We believe in having a voice in public institutions. In L.A. Unified, it’s a fight about public education and the front lines of a battle between public schools and charter schools,” said Max Belasco, one of the main organizers of DSA’s efforts during the strike.

Ideologically, democratic socialists advocate raising the minimum wage, securing a national health system and right-to-strike legislation championed most famously by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont) and freshman member of Congress Alexandria Occasio-Cortez (D-New York).

In broader strokes, they seek “radical transformation” of governmental and economic structures to reflect the will of workers and consumers – a race and class based ideology with a well-documented appeal to millenials.

DSA in cities across the country reflect socialism’s newfound popularity with a glaring generation gap – that is, organizations are populated predominately by twenty-somethings and sixty-somethings but little in between.

Belasco contended that for many members, whether they’re university students, working people with flexible schedules or taking time off to support, this is their first time experiencing a picket line.

“Many millenials also aren’t members of labor unions and so they don’t know the experience. I think they find that not only is it a really powerful sign of solidarity but its also very personally transformative.”

But just because Ocasio-Cortez is wildly popular doesn’t mean every teacher striking for lower class sizes and a full-time nurse feels comfortable picketing next to an ideologue aiming to take down capitalism.

Venice High teachers said few colleagues here and there expressed distaste for the far-left ideology, but finding a critic of the supporters proved difficult.

“Certainly some aren’t into it and many aren’t politically engaged,” said DSA LA member Ari Huber. But “you’d be surprised” by how much interest he’s heard from teachers in joining the group, he said.

“When I talk with a teacher and I explain what DSA is about democratic control over the economy and you put it that way, they say ‘wow that’s really logical.’”

Campaign director with Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, coalition partner of Reclaim our Schools Rudy Gonzalves said DSA is one of the groups that have “come through” for the union during the strike.

“They don’t come to our meetings and try to impose a strategy or ideology,” he said Friday. “We’re trying to really work with everybody with a common vision of what we want our schools to be.”

Chorizo burrito in hand, Gilbert, who declined to share his last name, said “The way I see it is, they’re out here. They’re giving us support, and that’s all that matters. We’re appreciative.” His wife, an adult education teacher near Venice High, nodded in agreement.