SP

Our core group of organizers that make up Virginia Educators United, we’re scattered all over the state. We initially met primarily through our union, the VEA [Virginia Education Association], though a few of us are in AFT [American Federation of Teachers].

We first got connected at last year’s delegates assembly of the VEA. At that convention, a good number of us delegates were on fire because of what had happened in West Virginia. Lots of us were so moved by West Virginia that we started talking with each other after the assembly. And what we concluded was basically that to win we needed a larger coalition than just union members, which aren’t even a majority of educators in Virginia. We knew we had to bring in parents. Really, we took a page out of what we’d seen work in these other states, where they were engaging the larger community. It was incredibly inspiring.

So we started a closed Facebook group and we invited everybody we knew to it; ever since it’s been steadily growing. We’re still pretty small, but over the past two weeks, every single day we hear about more schools and districts planning on coming to Richmond on January 28 for our day of action, which we called to coincide with the union’s lobby day. Lots of teachers on their own have started self-organizing to get off work and get to Richmond — so this thing now has stronger legs than just those of us in Virginia Educators United.

One of our goals of putting out the call for a mass rally and action on January 28 was to show what collective and direct action looks like, for both union members and nonunion members. Another was to make sure that while there are some VEA members inside our legislative building lobbying, we’ll also have thousands of people outside carrying the same message from all over the state in our rally and our march.