Eugene V. Debs is the socialist icon we need in 2020

Nationwide union membership has significantly declined with only 10% of workers belonging to a union. However, unions help increase wages and create a stronger middle class. A study from the Economic Policy Institute found that private-sector union decline since the late 1970s has contributed to substantial wage losses among workers who do not belong to a union.

Despite the decline in union membership there were 20 major labor strikes in 2018, the largest amount in over a decade. This resurgent labor movement has not come from beleaguered factory workers but from America’s educators.

The teacher strikes that occurred last year in Oklahoma and West Virginia started a chain reaction that led to teacher strikes in six other states. It is no surprise as to why they are rising up. Public school teachers receive low pay, work for long hours, and have many responsibilities both inside and outside the classroom.

Indiana ranks 51st in the nation regarding teacher pay with starting salaries as low as $30,000. One in five public school teachers have to work a second job just to make ends meet. Yet, teachers often have to pay hundreds of dollars for their own classroom school supplies.

U.S. school teachers work on average 12-16 hours a day for nine months, the other three months are spent planning curriculum. In addition to teaching, teachers sponsor extracurricular activities and many act as de facto counselors on the front lines of a growing mental health crisis in America’s youth.

Whether it be the Pullman car workers of the 1890s or the public-school teachers of today, unions are the best way to ensure workers receive the respect and dignity they deserve. For example, last month, Chicago public school teachers went on an 11-day strike after reporting issues of low pay to asbestos in classrooms. The strike ended in $1.5 billion concessions that will go toward pay raises and to reduce overcrowding in schools.

On Nov. 19, over 16,000 teachers rallied at the Indiana Statehouse, canceling lessons in 147 school districts. The Indiana teacher’s union is asking the state to allocate part of the state’s more than $2 billion surplus to schools and pass a hold-harmless provision to protect teachers and schools from any negative consequences related to low 2019 ILEARN test scores.

Basically, Hoosier teachers want a fair and livable wage, and steady funding to address student needs that is not at the mercy of standardized test scores.

House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Greenfield, said “We get it. We get that you’re frustrated. We get that you are concerned.” He added that teacher pay would probably have to wait until the next budget writing session, in 2021. Bosma’s words are not a sufficient substitute for educators’ demands.They have been asking for this much needed change since January, which led to a rally of 1,000 teachers at the Statehouse in March 2019.

This is just another attempt by the Republican dominated legislature to stall education reforms. The Republican Party, both nationally and in Indiana, has continually sided with business interests over public schools.

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U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos consistently pushes to expand federal vouchers and cut education spending. She unveiled a voucher bill in March 2019 that would invest $50 billion in private school vouchers for over 10 years. She also supports President Trump’s plan to cut education spending by $8.5 billion in 2020. This would eliminate essential programs that include teacher development and after school activities.

Over the next two years in Indiana, the state will increase funding for charter schools by 20% compared to 4% for public schools. Furthermore, during the last legislative session, Gov. Eric Holcomb changed the elected state school superintendent to a governor-appointed position, suppressing teacher input in the formation of education policy and replacing it with whomever the governor appoints.

Charter schools often end up benefiting the rich and powerful like DeVos and Holcomb. They are funded by taxpayer dollars but managed by private companies that prioritize profits over education. These profits can then be funneled into campaign contributions to politicians to continue to cut regulations around charter schools.

Eugene V. Debs helped workers around the nation realize their rights by using a worker’s most powerful weapon–the labor strike. The Red for Ed movement, in a way, has become a revival of Debs’ legacy in a political and economic climate where the rights of the working class have once again been trampled on by the rich and powerful.

Hopefully, the recent demonstrations led by teachers will inspire workers in other industries headed by multi-billionaires like Gates and Bezos to unite and demand better treatment.

Wage inequality continues to grow, reaching a point that was prevalent before the Great Depression. Racial discrimination in the workplace continues to advantage the majority White population at the expense of employees belonging to any racial minority. Debs feared these consequences of a failing capitalist economic system. His efforts to highlight the need to alter the course of the economy must not go unnoticed.

“Every man has the inalienable right to work,” Debs proclaims. “Here I stand, just as I was created. I have two hands that represent my labor power. I have some bone and muscle and sinew and some energy. I want to exchange it for food and clothing and shelter. Between my right to apply my labor to the tools with which work is done there stands a man artificially created. He says, ‘No, no!’ Why not? ‘Because you cannot first make a profit for me.”

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Instead of supporting a failing capitalist system rooted in economic inequality, Debs supported the inalienable right to work in the U.S. Not to get confused with the “right to work” legislation pursued by anti-union legislatures that hinders the ability of labor unions to collectively bargain, the “inalienable right to work” Debs supported provides individuals with fair access to the economic rewards produced by work and labor. This is the leadership the nation thirsts.

“Now my friends,” Debs declared, “I am opposed to the system of society in which we live today, not because I lack the natural equipment to do for myself, but because I am not satisfied to make myself comfortable knowing that there are thousands upon thousands of my fellow men who suffer for the barest necessities of life”. Almost 41,000 days have passed since these words were spoken, yet the inequality and struggle that Debs recognized over a century ago continues to plague the U.S. today.

In times of economic insecurity, wealth inequality and workplace discrimination, the inalienable right to work must be defended. Smart public policy centered on labor union protections, mitigating income inequality, eliminating the gender pay gap and ridding the workplace of racial discrimination are essential facets of that inalienable right. The protection of such a principle can usher in an era of equality and economic fairness, just as Eugene V. Debs hoped to see 111 years ago.

These goals have been fought for by the activist movements of the 20th century, but the most prominent figures, or at least the ones to which the media gave attention, did not always organize in the context of socialism.

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The Red Scare brought government officials cracking down hard on any socialist organization and the subsequent Cold War created a strong negative connotation with the word “socialism,” tying it directly to the negative Western view of the Soviet Union. No matter the goal or who was fighting, socialism was a bad and scary word in mainstream American politics. This is not to say there were not socialists at all, because there were many, but they found themselves silenced by the government.

Luckily, Sanders is not afraid of fighting to bring socialism back to the American political stage, and he has a large audience. He is campaigning against establishment Democrats that are backed by billionaires and build their campaigns on neoliberalism, as is par for the course, but this proves a stark and obvious contrast—Sanders, much like Debs, is fighting for the equality of the people instead of for his own self-interest.

It’s difficult to break out of the political box the U.S. has created in which everyone should work only for their self-interest, picking themselves up by their bootstraps and working for individual wealth.

The truth is, it’s not realistic in a country in which so many barriers to equality exist. This is what Debs fought for and what Sanders, and many activists even more radical than him, continue to fight for, because if compassion for other people isn’t at the core of your political beliefs, then what is the point? Debs said, “I am for socialism because I am for humanity. We have been cursed with the reign of gold long enough.”