Salem Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) rejoices in the victory of the four progressive Salem-Keizer School Board candidates. We believe that the slate won because of their honesty and integrity and their grasp of the issues that most concern people of color and working-class people in Keizer and Salem. They were able to inspire people to vote for change and begin breaking the hold of the most reactionary forces on our schools. This is a victory for people of color, youth, and working-class people. Salem DSA was a part of the coalition that supported these candidates. We were at the doors in working-class neighborhoods, on the phones, and with the unions through the campaign.
This is the beginning, not the finish line. The four newly-elected School Board Directors will need our help. They will need our advice and our support, and they should be able to count on our ability to mobilize for positive change.
The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) will provide large sums of money for our schools, and every working-class person, every union, the youth, and all people of color in our communities have a direct interest in how that money will be appropriated. There should be no contradictions between what people of color, youth, our unions, and all working-class people want as this funding becomes available. We can win an equitable and productive distribution of this money and then demand more and better from the state, the federal government, and the corporations. Our on-going struggle for racial justice in the schools must continue and must win over forces that have not yet fully committed to the fight. The unions representing classified school staff and teachers now have a new opening to help lead the fight for change. Solidarity is always a two-way street, and it is in everyone’s interest to see that we all advance together.
This win opens the door to future wins. We can build from the School Board races to wins for socialists and progressives in 2022, we can win health care for all, we can win a Green New Deal, we can put Trumpism away, we can oppose imperialism and win, and we absolutely must win passage of the PRO Act and all of the fights for equitable distribution of ARPA funds and an end to deportations and violence against people of color and LGBTQIA+ people. Every victory creates another.
The struggle continues!
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