Women Organized to Resist and Defend (WORD) stands with the striking Chicago Teachers Union and teachers across the United States who are fighting for quality education for all.

We salute the striking teachers and staff of Chicago’s public schools. It took great resolve and courage to conduct this strike. We urge all members and supporters of WORD to join demonstrations, rallies and picket lines in their cities to show their solidarity with the Chicago strikers.

This strike affects us all – if the striking teachers are successful, teachers and students across the United States will benefit from a blow to the greed and corporatization that threaten education nationwide. If they win, we will all win.

Democratic Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel – with the full support of Republican Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney’s running mate – has been trying to defeat this strike by Chicago’s teachers.

Teachers and their unions have become the scapegoat for the failures of the U.S. education system.

The Chicago Teachers Union is fighting for the future of public education in Chicago and across the United States. The “reforms” Emmanuel and his supporters in both parties seek are aimed at de-funding and shutting down public schools, leading to the privatization of education for profit. If the corporate “reformers” have their way, public schools will be non-union and above any sort of public accountability. Characterizing CTU teachers as “greedy” helps distract from the real issues.

These dishonest attacks on teachers are directed at a majority female work force. Across the United States, teachers are predominantly women; at the elementary level, 90 percent of teachers are female. In the Chicago School District, 76.3 percent of teachers are women.

Attacking teachers as lazy and greedy, blaming them for government failures and social problems, is part of a long history of attacks on women as scapegoats for problems caused by the rich and powerful. The myth of “welfare queens” perpetuated in the 1990s is one example, blaming women of color for systematic failures to justify cutting social programs. Although women have won considerable gains in political power since the “witch hunts” in Salem, we are still blamed when the system fails.

WORD stands with the Chicago teachers, women and men, as they fight back against these attacks. Support public education and fight for our future! Victory to Chicago Teachers!