The Rank & File Caucus stands in solidarity with the parents of Parker K-8, La Escuelita Middle, Community Day and Rise Elementary which have all been closed by the Oakland School Board. We applaud and fully support the Parker parents (and supporters) liberating the building and the land, once Parker k-8 (owned and operated by OUSD), now Parker Community School, liberated for the community that lives in the surrounding neighborhood.

This direct action has been impactful in many ways, including bringing sustained attention to the racist school closures directed by the Oakland School Board in early Jan. 2022. OUSD has been closing schools since the 2003 state takeover. Back in 2012, a similar occupation of a shuttered elementary school wasn’t enough to save Lakeview or the other four elementary schools the district closed, but it did put enough of a stain on their neoliberal brains for school closures to stop for the next seven years (2012-2019).

Parker is now a liberated school heading into a third month of direct action, and still holds potential for continuing and increasing struggle around school closures, bargaining and so many other issues plaguing working people, including the still omnipresent dangers of covid-19. The building itself is big with spacious classrooms and plenty of yard space, which includes five portables, a large synthetic grass field, play structure and basketball courts. Parker k-8 did not suffer from a lack of quality facilities, therefore we must ask the question: what is behind this decision and does it have something to do with the gentrification of the neighborhood?

Having spent a considerable time volunteering at the liberation, Rank and File activists have learned that residents at two public housing units located across the street from Parker (on Ney Ave.) are under threat of eviction and dislocation. This signals that there are likely larger forces of gentrification at play in the neighborhood, and with Parker K-8 for years being unfairly labeled as low-performing based on test scores but also high levels of staff/teacher turnover (according to a former teacher anywhere from a third to a half of the teachers have left Parker each of the last two years, with an avg. of five leaving mid-year). OUSD is refusing to even consider negotiating with the Parker parents and students in any meaningful way. Yet, we can still be positive about the fact that the Parker Liberation School Campus belongs to the people, and big shout out to the core of people running the day to day operation of a large campus while being harassed by a hostile district admin.

The Parker Community School, of which the liberation made possible, is running a small summer camp with around 10-15 students , sometimes more sometimes less, with classes in STEM, political education, gardening, double dutch, jewelry making, chess, screen printing and art. It has been a very inspiring endeavor despite the consistent harassment from Chief Governance Officer Josh Daniels (who had the nerve to come take pictures of the students and then the audacity to accuse the adults at Parker for not making the students safe), this along with a consistent lack of people power has made it all the more inspiring . We need many people for an occupation of a school this size, what we have is a relatively small but committed group that is running on fumes, and many of this smallish group have waning capacity. With school starting in the first week of August, the teachers involved at Parker will have even less capacity for support and solidarity.

What this direct action could also use, and still could use, is the institutional support of the Oakland Education Association (OEA) and possibly the Alameda Labor Council (ALC) (as Keith Brown is president of both OEA and the ALC). Truth be told, OEA executive leadership has shown no interest in stepping up to provide support for the parents and supporters of the Parker Liberation/Community School. While this is quite disappointing (even more so if you consider for years OEA has had a teacher on full-time release to organize community schools) it is hardly surprising. The OEA executive leadership, led by the Build Our Power Caucus, call plays using the California Teacher Association playbook, a public school liberation is not in that playbook. CTA is politically aligned with the CA Democratic Party which is very much in favor of these privatization schemes. Thus, and although it would be ideal to have institutional support, the status quo leadership approach of OEA would likely be detrimental to Parker and to the broader movement against school closures, considering the end of the 2019 OEA strike and their collaborative business union approach with OUSD since.

Although the Oakland Unified School District has shown no signs of moving to end the Parker liberation, the looming start of the school year, should necessitate conversation around the future of this direct action. Time will tell if we are able to leverage this into a decisive win for the movement against school closures and/or the Parker Liberation continues. Regardless of what happens at Parker Community School, the Rank and File Caucus will continue to stand in solidarity with all people taking direct action for the human right to free and quality public education and neighborhood public schools.

The good news is we already have had a meeting to re-energize the movement against public school closures. There will be a broader town hall style meeting later this month (8/14) at the Parker Liberation Community School. Whichever way this movement goes, we in the Rank and File Caucus are greatly inspired by the actions of the Parker parents, Azlinah and Rochelle, for their courageous direct action to defend their kids’ public school from the vultures of the private sector and their lapdogs on the Oakland School Board.

Written by Shane Redden

Editors’ note: This article was written before the most recent assaults on demonstrators by hired private security last Thursday, August 4, as well as the retaliation against at least three educators, who have been fired by OUSD and who have been very visibly involved in the Parker liberation movement. For more information, read this article by Ike Sasson, published on the World Socialist Web Site. You can write a letter of support for the recently fired educators condemning OUSD’s retaliatory tactics here.