Interview by Kevin Prosen

Ten years ago, Mexican society was electrified by the explosive struggle of Oaxaca’s teachers against neoliberal education reform. What began as a teachers’ protest turned into a mass movement of Oaxacan society against neoliberalism and the brutality of the Mexican state. Over the course of six months of struggle in the face of intense repression, the movement — dubbed the “Oaxaca Commune” — captured the world’s imagination and led to the ouster of the state’s governor.

In 2016, under the rubric of “reform” and “accountability,” Mexican teachers are facing a raft of proposals from the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto designed to weaken their unions. After Mexican police opened fire on protesters in the Oaxacan town of Nochixtlán, killing six, Oaxaca’s teachers once more found themselves leading a national movement against neoliberalism in the face of tremendous police violence.

Here in the United States, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) shook up the American labor movement four years ago with its defiant strike against Democratic mayor Rahm Emmanuel and his program of budget cuts, austerity, and privatization.

In April, the CTU struck again, leading a broad-based community alliance of labor unions, low-wage workers, and antiracist movements like Black Lives Matter against Emmanuel’s transformation of Chicago along the austere lines of neoliberalism. In the dismal landscape of American unionism, the CTU is notable for its cultivation of these alliances, principled opposition to austerity, and vibrant, democratic spirit.

Meanwhile in the United Kingdom, the National Union of Teachers (NUT) went on strike last week against the Tory government’s school budget cuts and unsustainable working conditions. In a context of heightened xenophobia in the wake of the Brexit referendum, the strike was notable for foregrounding the issue of migrant rights alongside teachers’ pay and working conditions.

What’s driving this global movement to reform education along neoliberal lines, and why do teachers find themselves everywhere at the center of movements against austerity?

Mary Compton, a lifelong teacher and past president of the NUT, has carefully documented the neoliberal education reform movement through the website Teacher Solidarity and her book The Global Assault on Teaching, Teachers and Their Unions (co-edited with Lois Weiner). She spoke with New York City teacher Kevin Prosen about the NUT strike, the global assault on teacher unions, and why teachers need to take the lead in movements for social justice.