Envisioning MTI as a Social Justice Organization
As educators, we need to marry racial, gender, LGBTQ+, and economic justice for Madison with the fight for our own wages, benefits, and working conditions.
Question: Why was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee when he was assassinated?
Chances are Dr. King wouldn’t have been in Memphis in April 1968 if Echol Cole and Robert Walker, two sanitation workers, weren’t crushed to death by a malfunctioning garbage truck in February. In the weeks to follow, T.O. Jones and Jerry Wurf organized the workers to demand better wages, better safety standards, and the recognition of their Union. After striking and being threatened by the police and 4,000 National Guardsmen, the workers, the NAACP, and local leaders needed a national voice to rally the people to move forward. They needed (and got) Dr. King to come.
It’s always a little telling when people like to throw out Dr. King quotes on his holiday, but forget about everything that the person stood for. They remember the nonviolence and the “I Have a Dream” speech, but they tend to forget that expanding voting rights and integration cannot truly happen without economic reform, social reform, and the guarantee of the rights of those most marginalized. And one of the means to get that socioeconomic justice was through Unions and other groups collectively pushing for such justice.
Somewhere along the way, whether it was because of internal corruption, an adherence to white supremacy culture, the rise of resentment politics, or most likely, a combination of the three, our Unions lost their way when it came to approaching socioeconomic justice and racial justice as one in the same. Thanks to decades of anti-Union policies from both moderate Democrats and Republicans, the internal conversation in Unions seem to have centered around “bread and butter” topics like wages, work hours, and benefits instead of the injustice our multiple systems have wrought on the voiceless.
So to some of us, the idea of dedicating our energy towards the socioeconomic and racial justice of those who aren’t necessarily educators (i.e. children, families of color, undocumented citizens, etc.) seems counterintuitive to supporting the educators who financially and politically support MTI. But we should know, as Dr. King knew, that our wages, work hours, benefits, and protections mean little if we don’t use our privileges to support those we love and educate.
But our external campaigns for justice cannot happen if we don’t do some deep reflection and restructuring internally to ensure that we are walking the talk when it comes to recognizing and uplifting marginalized voices.
The following ideas are just that: ideas. They are not policy and can only move forward if our Union members agree that these measures are the best way to advance our Union’s mission. And they are not wholly my own, but from the past couple years of discussions with MTI committee and Board members, school colleagues, students, and community members. I wish I could accurately attribute everyone involved in these ideas. And if you read these and recognize any of these as your idea or passion, please let me know and I’ll properly attribute it to you.
- Reparation programs for members of color
Our Union has often ignored or devalued the work of educators from marginalized groups (especially those who identify as womxn). BIPOC and LGBTQ+ members who step up and lead within MTI, whether as faculty reps or committee members, often find themselves in isolated positions within the larger group due to their identities and the experiences they carry into such spaces. As a Union, we could encourage more diverse leadership and compensate them justly if we offer reduced dues to such leaders.
Another way to drive up membership of color within MTI is to establish a “Reparations Fund” where members can donate a little extra into a fund to reduce the dues for members of color. As our educator ranks diversify and become younger, we need to strategize ways such as this to recruit young, energetic members to push our Union forward.
2. Internal structures to restore and repair harm between colleagues should racist, sexist, homophobic, ageist, ableist, and other acts of harm occur between educators.
Often, when an offensive incident occurs at a school, educators from marginalized groups are isolated (intentionally or unintentionally) and afraid to confront their colleagues or speak truth to power. If we are to call on the district to move away from zero tolerance policies for our children and employees, and focus on repairing relationships whenever harm occurs, we need to have similar structures to support each other in this struggle. If our only mechanism to repair harm is to report behavior to administration, we are not giving each other the needed tools to improve our connections as a Union. We need to develop internally to be stronger externally.
3. Bringing the NEA Opportunity Audit to MMSD
As of now, the district controls the narrative on equity in Madison. The Every Student Succeeds Act Plan on the MMSD website is from 2018–19. If we are to take equity seriously and not just use it as a casual buzzword to appear “woke” in conversations, we need to train ourselves as a Union to look at our buildings’ allocation, budget priorities, and initiatives and determine independently if what is happening is good for our students, our educators, and our community. We know our schools do not have an adequate amount of counselors, nurses, psychologists, social workers, mental health professionals, EAs, Special Education teachers, and ELL teachers. We need to call this out systematically and with numbers to show how deeply underserved our children are.
Our Union’s answer cannot always be us only demanding that they cut Central Office staff and administrators, but rather us creating a compelling narrative to bring to the community and establish our case of what a just and equitable school system looks like. The Opportunity Audit is not a panacea, but it is a step in the right direction.
4. Reflect and develop campaigns for social services beyond our building
COVID-19 has exposed a lot of inequities in our systems, and one of the most glaring ones is the lack of Internet access for our children. Even when we have a plan to return to school buildings, we need to recognize and push on MMSD our cities, our county, and our state to develop affordable public Internet access for all citizens. We cannot rely on another catastrophe to force us to focus our efforts. Based on our experiences this school year, educators, students, and families know the district’s T-Mobile hotspots are far from perfect and often falter in densely populated locations (like large apartment complexes).
It’s not MMSD’s fault when our children and families are neglected and traumatized from unstable housing, food insecurity, inequitable job opportunities, barebones transportation systems, and choked access to physical and mental health providers. These are all consequences from a socioeconomic system built on their labor and suffering. As long as we have a voice, we should use it to improve our community’s circumstances. Doing so ensures that our children will be healthier, safer, and in a better place to learn and grow under our care. And that, in turn, will improve our own conditions in a way that goes beyond salaries and building conditions (although those need to be improved too).
Again, these are not campaign promises that I will unilaterally enact, if elected. But as President, I owe it to all of our members to be as transparent as possible when it comes to my philosophy, hopes, and dreams for our Union.
If you have better ideas, I will make a place at the table for you so you can plan and act with us already here. The good news is that we’ve done this before. Dr. King knew this. It’s why he said:
“The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress. Out of its bold struggles, economic and social reform gave birth to unemployment insurance, old-age pensions, government relief for the destitute and, above all, new wage levels that meant not mere survival but a tolerable life. The captains of industry did not lead this transformation; they resisted it until they were overcome.”
We’ve done it before and we can do it again. That is the only way we will move forward as a Union. Together.
