Celebrating Juneteenth and W.E.B. Du Bois

Greetings, 

MTA members and their families gathered in Framingham to celebrate Juneteenth this past weekend, with a brilliant storyteller, a drumming circle, a giveaway of banned books, all as a way to honor that day, June 19, 1865, when news of the Emancipation Proclamation reached Galveston, Texas.

I (Max) spoke at the celebration of one our most important public school graduates, W.E.B. Du Bois, Great Barrington High School, Class of 1884. Du Bois reinvented the field of sociology, founded the NAACP, wrote one of the greatest works of American history, “Black Reconstruction,” among many other books, and was a key inspiration for battles for racial and economic justice until his death.

On July 19, Great Barrington will unveil a statue in honor of Du Bois with a series of events before and after. 

Why all this celebration of Du Bois now? Simply put, the accusation that Du Bois was a communist and had given up his citizenship (he died in Ghana, famously, the day of the March on Washington in 1963) led to an organized silence about the town’s most famous citizen. But over the decades the Black community of the Berkshires (and allied white activists) pushed to acknowledge Du Bois and embrace the full genius that he was as a scholar, activist and radical.  

MTA Events, Opportunities and Actions

RetirementPlus Advocacy Day 

When: Wednesday, June 25, 9:30 a.m.
Where: Massachusetts State House

The final push is on to get the Legislature to pass a RetirementPlus fix, allowing thousands of our members who were unfairly denied an opportunity to join R+. Come to the State House on Wednesday, sign the action alert and call your legislator. 

Local Wins

Congratulations to the many locals that have settled strong contracts in the past few weeks, from preK through higher ed. A special shout-out to Somerville, which years ago helped propel the ESP Living Wage Campaign forward, initially with $25,000 starting salaries, and then $35,000. Somerville just won a starting salary for ESPs of $50,000, very close to a true living wage.

Fair Share Billions

The Fair Share Amendment, which MTA members were crucial in winning, is likely to bring in $3 billion dollars this year. Listen to this conversation I had about it and check out the Paid for by Fair Share website to read about what Fair Share has allowed us to invest in, in just the first few years. Last week, the Legislature passed a supplemental budget to spend the money above and beyond what it expected Fair Share would bring in this year. This means hundreds of millions of additional dollars for public education – over $200 million for capital projects for vocational and technical schools and public higher education; nearly $200 million to make sure we have sufficient funds this coming year for local special education expenses; and another $58 million to make up for the shortfall this past year in special ed funding. Read more here.

Virtual MCAS Graduation Council Listening Session & Survey

The Massachusetts K12 Statewide Graduation Council recently has added two more virtual listening sessions to inform recommendations on how the state can ensure all students graduate with the skills necessary to succeed in college, careers and civic life.

• Community Listening Session - Wednesday, June 25, at 5 p.m. (Open to the public)

• Student Listening Session - Monday, June 30, at 5 p.m. (For students only)

You may also share your feedback by completing this survey.

Big Terrible Budget Bill

Our Senators Warren and Markey are completely with us in fighting the terrible budget bill being forced through a Republican-majority Congress, but please remind them to stand strong. 

Update on Parent PLUS loans

If you have a Parent PLUS loan, a consolidation loan that includes a Parent PLUS loan, or even if you’ve already used the double consolidation loophole for your Parent PLUS loans, Cambridge Credit strongly urges you to consider applying for the Income Contingent Repayment plan (ICR) immediately. You must be in repayment on the ICR plan the day before the budget bill is signed to remain eligible for any future IDR plans. Learn more and take action here: mtabenefits.com/student-loan-forgiveness-repayment.

Countering Democratic Backsliding: The Role of Unions

When: Monday, July 14, at 4 p.m.
Where: Virtual

U.S. democracy is rapidly backsliding, with growing impacts on people in cities and towns nationwide. Programs and institutions that once seemed stable are changing quickly, and it is challenging to figure out where, when and how best to respond. Yet, democratic backsliding is not a new phenomenon. It has occurred in countries around the world and received significant attention, and a growing body of knowledge can help us identify effective options to meet this moment. In particular, labor unions can play a powerful role in pushing back against rising authoritarianism. This session will share key research findings and practitioner insights that can help people strategize. Register here.

Political Education

W.E.B. Du Bois’s 1953 essay, “Negroes and the Crisis of Capitalism in the U.S.” lays out a searing critique of how American capitalism in the South exploited workers of all races, but especially perpetuated the economic exploitation of Black workers. 

Some of the language of the article is unsettlingly relevant today. It reminds us that we have had authoritarian regimes before in the United States. 

“This newest South, turning back to its slave past, believes its present and future prosperity can best be built on the poverty and ignorance of its disfranchised lowest masses — and these low-paid workers now include not only Negroes, but Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and the unskilled, unorganized whites. Progress by means of this poverty is the creed of the present South.”

“The organized effort of American industry to usurp government surpasses anything in modern history, even that of Adolf Hitler from whom it was learned. From the use of psychology to spread truth has come the use of organized gathering of news to guide public opinion and then deliberately to mislead it by scientific advertising and propaganda. This has led in our day to suppression of truth, omission of facts, misinterpretation of news, and deliberate falsehood on a wide scale. Mass capitalistic control of books and periodicals, news gathering and distribution, radio, cinema, and television has made the throttling of democracy possible and the distortion of education and failure of justice widespread. It can only be countered by public knowledge of what this government by propaganda is accomplishing and how.”

In solidarity,

Max and Deb

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