Open Letter to
Chicago Public School Teachers
The Equal Opportunity Now/By Any Means Necessary Caucus (EON/BAMN) salutes the brave teachers of Chicago Teachers Union Local 1. Your courage to stand up for the health and safety of your members, students, and community is a model for what teachers’ unions across the country must do to stop this deadly Omicron tsunami. We know that the vast majority of your students, their parents, and the community are behind you. We are certain of this because EON/BAMN has successfully repeatedly shut down Detroit schools when teachers would refuse to teach and parents and students would refuse to participate in face-to-face learning. Our struggle has been so successful that Detroit was the first large urban school district to institute 100% virtual education before the January 2022 term began.
Your strike is setting off a national strike wave. Seeing your determination to stand on the truth and to refuse to act on the lies of public health officials, politicians, the array of pundits, and journalists is inspiring teachers all over the country to strike. Inspired by your will to fight, the Oakland California chapter of EON/BAMN urged teachers to hold a sickout. On Friday, January 7, 2022, 500 teachers called in sick even though the action was not “officially” sanctioned by OEA leaders. Oakland students who were already circulating their own petition calling on the District to go remote, redoubled their efforts because they received confirmation that their teachers supported them.
Virtually every teacher already knew that the schools are not safe. Everyone was waiting for someone else to act. Your strike is the spark that has been needed. More are sure to follow. You are at the forefront of a national fight that, if successful, will save countless lives.
We know you will be put under tremendous pressure to agree to a fudge or “compromise” that would actually mean sacrificing your health and the health of your students. If any of us agrees to anything less than stopping face-to-face teaching, we will give up the tremendous power we have. The aim of any “compromise” or pretend “victory” will be to give the power to determine what must be done to make our schools safe into the hands of the inveterate liars, school, and city officials.
It’s clear that Mayor Lightfoot’s opposition to testing students is pure cynicism. It has nothing to do with her claimed belief that a covid test is an “invasive medical procedure.” The mayor’s problem with testing is that she knows that if Chicago’s school children are tested, a huge proportion of them will test positive, and that will make it impossible for her to sustain the lie that it’s safe to operate in-person schools.
EON/BAMN pledges to do everything we can to support your strike. There are school districts that we teach in that have not gone virtual. We have argued for strike action in every one of these districts. Your strike is the tipping point we have needed to get teachers to act with or without official union sanction. 
Where our school districts have already closed, we will dedicate our efforts to organizing popular and material support for your strike. Please tell us whatever you need to keep your strike strong. You are the hope and voice for the millions of us who have refused to accept the premise that we should learn to accept the continuing death of tens of thousands of us, to support the scheme that is certain to fail to restart the economy.
Thank you for giving everyone license to be liberated from the frustration of knowing we have to fight, but not seeing even the beginning of the nationwide movement. We need to get every school to go virtual until they can be made safe.
We took the streets to win justice for George Floyd, now we must take to the streets again to save the lives of the children and youth we teach and everyone else who will get infected with COVID-19 if the schools reopen.
We can not win without a movement. We face an unthinkably cruel and dangerous future if we fail. People who do nothing when the lives of children are at stake are giving up their humanity.
Chicago teachers, we thank you for your courage. Your fight can be the catalyst to restoring decency and a steadfast commitment to standing on the truth. You are the spark. Now it is up to all of us to use that spark to build the movement to literally save our nation.
