Cancel Wall Street and Fund Our Schools!
Online event on March 11, 4:30pm. Register here. Facebook event page.
If you’ve been following this newsletter, you know I do a lot of writing and thinking about school funding. But I do some organizing too, which I think is actually just as important if not more so.
How do we get changes to happen in issues like unequal school funding? Organizing is the only way. We have to work together to educate and agitate for our demands. For academics like me, that means joining and working with groups making these demands.
I belong to a socialist group called LILAC (local initiative/local organizing committee). We work in coalitions with other organizations across the left spectrum to fight capitalism. We’ve got a pretty record too!
LILAC is working with the Action Center on Race and the Economy on their national campaign to Cancel Wall Street in Philadelphia.
The demand
The demand should be familiar: we’re demanding that the Federal Reserve provide no-cost loans to local governments. This could be a key revenue stream for school districts like Philadelphia, whose schools are toxic and need billions of dollars of infrastructure improvements.
Why does this cancel Wall Street? The loans made available to school districts and other local governments (like for infrastructure) are investments made in credit markets.
Extremely wealthy ruling class types park their exploited wealth tax-free in municipal bonds. These bonds are known to have a ‘reliable’ growth rate since governments don’t crumble like businesses (though they’re left to suffer). These investments are packaged by private bankers who charge big fees; are subject to high interest rates; and generally favor governments with high property taxes who—you guessed it—are on the benefitting side of racial capitalism.
The action
City Councilwoman Kendra Brooks will be introducing a resolution to support the campaign this week, and next week we’re holding an online event to hear from her, State Representative Rick Krajewski, as well as community members like teachers, students, and parents on this issue.
We’ll also take action on the call to demand that leaders in the city support the campaign. Please come and participate! And share widely!