San Francisco, February 11, 2026
Socialists Without Borders salutes the 6,000 striking teachers and staff of the San Francisco United School District (SFUSD). These educators – members of the United Educators of San Francisco (UESF), have been preparing for months, organizing and building the strength to take this necessary stand against a system designed to maximize corporate profits while impoverishing the City’s workers. It is past time we said, ‘Enough!’
SFUSD is a working-class district where more than half of all students come from low-income households. Our students—Asian, Latino, and Black—are the children of the workers who keep San Francisco running every day. More than half of all students have at least one immigrant parent, under the constant shadow of state violence. Students from immigrant families go to school while ICE hunts their parents at the school gates. Our public schools are the frontline of a struggle for survival.
We Socialists Without Borders join our comrades in other socialist organizations in denouncing the alleged $100-million budget deficit as a lie. We agree that educators are a mostly female workforce, and that SFUSD’s refusal to pay them a living wage is institutional violence, pure and simple.
The striking UESF workers demand a 13% salary increase to keep up with the crushing cost of living in the Bay Area. We support this demand, and we also think this simply isn’t enough to live on. As people who live and struggle in this community, we propose an immediate 25% salary increase for all teachers and all workers earning less than $100,000 per year, whether unionized or not. This is the way to build the collective power needed to protect our public services.
We also must address the predatory housing market in San Francisco. Rent is the way landlords permanently extract wealth from those who work. We demand a legal framework that residential rents be capped at no more than 30% of a worker’s income, placing the right to a home above the right to profit.
This struggle must move beyond the negotiation room and become a movement of total resistance. The San Francisco Labor Council has the power to shut this city down, and teachers can spark this action. We invite our teachers to demand that the San Francisco Labor Council end its symbolic support for labor action and mobilize every sector of the working class—from the docks to the service industry—and the whole country toward a General Strike this May Day (May 1, 2026). This isn’t just about a contract; it’s about using our collective strength to defend our families and our schools.
Some say that those of us outside the union should stay silent. To that, we say: We must look out for one another as a class. We cannot limit our vision or our strength to the walls of a single negotiation. When the same government that hunts immigrants in the streets tries to force teachers to accept less than a living wage, the teachers’ fight is every worker’s fight. Our survival depends on fighting for the life of our entire community.
Socialists Without Borders stands for:
- The proposal of an immediate 25% salary increase for teachers and workers earning less than $100,000/year.
- An absolute prohibition on rent increases across the city and a legal cap at 33% of a worker’s income.
- The Abolition of ICE and an immediate end to all deportations: We demand papers for all (full legal status) and militant resistance to protect our families. No cooperation, no communication, and a total shutdown of the city to serve as a human shield for our community.
Victory to the UESF! Teachers at the head of the May Day General Strike! Tax corporate wealth, fund the people’s schools!