Parents and revolutionaries have come together in response to a series of events within Oakland schools in the last school year including abuse by teachers, the threat of denying many students the right to graduate and one incident where the Secret Service was called in and berated students, denying them their constitutional rights.
A recent forum sponsored by the International Peoples' Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) featured Dr. Randolph Ward, the newly appointed administrator of Oakland Unified School District, Chairman Omali Yeshitela of the African People's Socialist Party, and Nneka Simon who is the mother of a boy who was beaten by his teacher in the Claremont school in Oakland. The beating of Simon's son was one of the many recent incidents that has brought attention to the education system in the community. Despite having 16 witnesses there has been no investigation and the teacher was not brought to jail in handcuffs as is common procedure with students who use physical violence.
In her presentation Simon brought together anecdotes and statistics to link the education system to the systematic oppression of Blacks in the u$. She cited that Black students are expelled twice as much as they were in 1974 and they are 2.6 times as likely to be expelled as white students, who usually have to objectively break the law to be expelled. This treatment of oppressed youth as criminals from such a young age only prepares them for the more aggressive treatment they will receive by the criminal injustice system. This system in turn takes away oppressed people's access to education through the Higher Education Act which prevents convicted felons from getting financial aid. That's 13% of Black men who cannot get financial aid or even vote in most states. These questions of access to knowledge and political power have existed since Africans were first brought to this continent as slaves. Therefore to attempt to solve the problem of education in the Black community without solving national oppression by imperialism is attacking a symptom without killing the disease.
After touring some Oakland schools for the first time, Dr. Ward's first criticism of their condition was the prevalence of graffiti, which he claims prevent "a sense of pride." Besides being the expression of students themselves in making the school their own, graffiti is hardly the greatest concern for their successful education. Maybe a sense of respect for the school would decrease graffiti. But even if that is so, Ward's approach is backwards. The solution is to make the school serve the kids, not eliminate graffiti to create "a sense of pride." Other problems in the physical conditions include leaking ceilings and the usual lack of materials in oppressed nation schools. Yeshitela's response to all this is that you should be able to get a good education sitting outside under a tree with no books. The fundamental aspect of the problem being the approach of the system and not the materials available to the school.
The greatest example of this is the eurocentric curriculum that comes from the materials that are available. How can students relate to school when the system is telling them that they have no worth and do not even merit mention? Yeshitela stressed that Bill Cosby and peanut farming do not represent the reality of Blacks in the united $tates now or ever. As long as that is the Black history that appears in text books, more books is not going to help the situation.
The conclusion that was being reached in the discussion was that there is money in the schools. However it is not being used effectively, but more importantly, money cannot solve the problem of national oppression. The disparity between white suburban schools and those in the ghetto and barrio are real and unjust. But the principal contradiction that is preventing oppressed nation students from getting an education is not this difference in material funding but the contradiction of national oppression itself.
During the mass demonstrations opposing the U$ invasion of Iraq, MIM repeatedly criticized amerikan slogans such as "Money for Jobs, Not for War," while participating in campaigns to cut money from prison construction and put it into education. The reason the first slogan is reactionary is that demanding more money, whether as jobs, health care, or pensions, only wakens the self-interest of amerikans, which is opposed to that of the oppressed. One way to avoid this when we're talking about the allocation of money in the u$ is to demand it be used for the survival needs of the oppressed. Access to healthy food, life-saving medicine and clean water must be made non-negotiable rights, yet often the question of for who is just as important as what. For example, the proposal for universal health care for people in the u$ has been championed by many who organize for the interests of amerikans, mostly groups based in the labor aristocracy. Making this demand will do little to further advance the contradiction between the oppressed and the imperialists, even though the oppressed will benefit from universal health care. In the current political arena the main thrust of such a campaign panders for more pay offs from the imperialists to whites and other bought off sectors of the u$ population. In contrast, the Black Panther Party carried out Serve the People programs to address Sickle Cell Anemia and other health concerns not being addressed in the Black community. This served the oppressed independently of the state, therefore increasing the level of of consciousness and organization in opposition to the imperialists.
This begs the question of whether revolutionaries should organize around the use of state funds at all. This is a timely issue in California where many are bemoaning the cutting of social services. The Department of Corrections (DOC) however will be receiving a net increase in funding. Notably, the correctional officers union is Governor Gray Davis' number one contributor at $3.4 million since 1998. The benefits the DOC will receive include an increase in average CO salary to $73,000 a year by 2006, a new department headquarters for $160 million and a $220 million state-of-the-art death row unit for San Quentin State Prison. Cuts from the DOC budget include $46.2 million for prisoner education programs. (1) Here we see a clear example where the allocation of funding could be demanded to go in the opposite direction with progressive results. The revolutionary content of such a campaign is inherent in the class content of those involved. We are asking for money to be taken out of repression and put into basic needs. The same could be said of "money for health care, not for war." The key difference here being that we are organizing against repression while serving the needs of the oppressed, which in itself will have a transformational affect on those whose interests are opposed to imperialism.
So if we are asking for the money proposed for funding death chambers and increasing the pay of pigs to go to the education of predominantly oppressed nation males in prison, why not extend that to those who have yet to become caged victims of the system and preempt the oppressive cycle? The main thrust of such a campaign will be strong only to the extent that our organizing efforts to get the money allocated differently will in turn allow us to decide how that money is used. While it is unlikely that we will see MIM getting state funding for its prisoner education programs, the contradictions limiting education behind bars are different from those on the outside. In prisons it is a question of access to materials due to censorship and lack of funding, as well as access to other people to study with in the case of Security Housing Units and similar isolation cells.
In an effort to exert real power in the Oakland school system, InPDUM will be holding weekly meetings for a committee to address education in the community that will be in direct contact with Ward and will work with parents and teachers who have seen their efforts crushed by the school system. Continued vigilance on these issues is urgent since education is one of the biggest concerns facing the Black community in amerika. Along with prisons and the police, it is of the most blatant faces of oppression that the u$ government is showing the oppressed within its borders. And without the bigger picture, provided by Yeshitela and Simon at this forum, reforms in the school system are nothing more than a band aid for the problems of oppressed people under imperialism.
The amerikan school system is threatening the oppressed by alienating children. Rather than giving them an education that will help them survive, it prepares them for life in oppressive government institutions. As Yeshitela pointed out, this is not an issue of money, this is the issue of why do oppressed people exist in this system and how the system treats those people. It is the seizure of control that will change things, and the shifting of funds is only secondary to the question of power. Fighting to win requires the complete elimination of all forms of oppression to ensure quality education and other survival rights for all people.
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