tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-334313902024-03-18T18:00:31.131-04:00Ed Notes OnlineWritten and edited by Norm Scott:
EDUCATE! ORGANIZE!! MOBILIZE!!!
Three pillars of The Resistance – providing information on current ed issues, organizing activities around fighting for public education in NYC and beyond and exposing the motives behind the education deformers. We link up with bands of resisters. Nothing will change unless WE ALL GET INVOLVED IN THE STRUGGLE!ed notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.comBlogger8260125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-20320069297265919222024-03-18T18:00:00.011-04:002024-03-18T18:00:00.240-04:00UFT Paras for A Fair Contract - Resolution for A Living Wage and Fair Contract <p>I posted about the para chapter election earlier where an alt slate to Unity called <b>UFT Paras
for A Fair Contract</b> is being formed. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9ND18xHkbLRUx9zB3A6hhHaZIxKN4udqL26R00s3EfS14NqgMWa1c_pJpv0lfIviS-hYb5A9Q3hDBmc8YsviAbjR9_h_OVs6wH6z6U2RSbXVZQ7vjjJ7gm7C9VpffirAkpL9PDWKF5UQoM2RaCmqhiInL0PfSL2ws6XosgGijGLcl2mU9FJC-/s512/Screenshot%202024-03-18%20at%2012.00.03%E2%80%AFPM.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="512" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9ND18xHkbLRUx9zB3A6hhHaZIxKN4udqL26R00s3EfS14NqgMWa1c_pJpv0lfIviS-hYb5A9Q3hDBmc8YsviAbjR9_h_OVs6wH6z6U2RSbXVZQ7vjjJ7gm7C9VpffirAkpL9PDWKF5UQoM2RaCmqhiInL0PfSL2ws6XosgGijGLcl2mU9FJC-/s320/Screenshot%202024-03-18%20at%2012.00.03%E2%80%AFPM.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name"><blockquote><a href="https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2024/03/unity-changes-rules-for-para-election.html">Unity Changes Rules for Para Election without the consent of the para chapter, EXBD AND DA</a></blockquote></h3><p>Here is a reso for the March 18 UFT Exec Bd and the March 20 DA - which Unity will try to make sure does not see the light of day. I will update it with outcomes of the Ex Bd later.<br /></p><p></p><blockquote><p>It’s time we fight for our paras in a meaningful and
sustained effort. Both co-writers along with several others will be
forming a slate for the upcoming para chapter election called ‘UFT Paras
for A Fair Contract’.</p><div dir="auto">Their
program leads with a living wage for NYC paras, along with major
improvements to their pay structures and contractual benefits and
protections.</div><div dir="auto"><br /></div><div dir="auto">We believe this reso is timely and it also is something the AFT has endorsed with recent proposed legislation.</div><div dir="auto"><br /></div><div dir="auto">In addition, to bringing it to the EXBD, we will bring it to the floor of the DA.</div><div dir="auto"><br /></div><div dir="auto">You can find it here also:</div><div dir="auto"><div><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wJc3nEjaveLKzfTvNDhEtEtR5lZsNDQfT6ihE8LKrAU/edit&source=gmail&ust=1710762878505000&usg=AOvVaw0DO9D4KhUHQK1AeXmKxljW" href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wJc3nEjaveLKzfTvNDhEtEtR5lZsNDQfT6ihE8LKrAU/edit" target="_blank">https://docs.google.com/<wbr></wbr>document/d/<wbr></wbr>1wJc3nEjaveLKzfTvNDhEtEtR5lZsN<wbr></wbr>DQfT6ihE8LKrAU/edit</a></div><div> </div></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Resolution to Meaningfully Support New York City
Paraprofessionals’ Fight for a Living Wage and Fair Contract</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">co-written by: </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Migda Rodriguez, Second Vice-Chair of UFT Paraprofessional
Chapter and para; Marie Wausnock, para; and Daniel Alicea, special education
teacher </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><b>Whereas</b>, UFT
paraprofessionals/para-educators play an essential and invaluable role in our
school communities by providing accessible, quality educational and support
services to all of our schoolchildren;</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; margin: 12pt 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Whereas,</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"> New York City public schools are
experiencing hundreds of para vacancies that may result in thousands of New
York City school children not receiving federally mandated IEP services due to
shortages of full-time, qualified paras; and</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; margin: 12pt 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Whereas,</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"> our New York City public school paras
are struggling to earn a </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><a href="https://livingwage.mit.edu/counties/36061"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11pt;">living wage
in our city</span></a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"> and often have to work
multiple jobs to survive; and</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; margin: 12pt 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Whereas,</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"> the American Federation of Teachers
(AFT), and National Education Association (NEA), alongside dozens of other
labor and education organizations have endorsed the November 2023 Senate
resolution called </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><a href="https://www.markey.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senator-markey-introduces-bill-of-rights-for-paraprofessionals-and-education-support-staff#:~:text=My%20Paraprofessionals%20and%20Education%20Support,stronger%20schools%20and%20stronger%20communities.%E2%80%9D"><i><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11pt;"> The
Paraprofessionals and Education Support Staff Bill of Rights</span></i></a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">, which calls for fairer pay, better
benefits, workplace safety, job security, and increased access to training that
will give these jobs and the educators who do them the respect they deserve;
and</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; margin: 12pt 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Whereas,</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"> the AFT and NEA have also endorsed
the January of 2024 Senate and House of Representatives legislation called the </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><a href="https://www.markey.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senator-markey-introduces-legislation-to-support-recruitment-and-retention-of-paraeducators-in-schools"><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt;">Preparing
and Retaining All (PARA) Educators Act</span></i></a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">, that would establish a grant program
to help schools recruit, train, and retain paraeducators by funding pipeline
and credentialing programs, high-quality professional development, and higher
wages; therefore be it</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; margin: 12pt 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Resolved;</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"> that the UFT shall support and
educate its members about the significant implications of <i>The
Paraprofessionals and Education Support Staff Bill of Rights and the Preparing
and Retaining All (PARA) Educators Act</i>, emphasizing the potential benefits
for paraprofessionals; and be it further</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; margin: 12pt 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Resolved;</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"> that the UFT develop a comprehensive
bargaining plan, with a clear timeline and objectives, for achieving a living
wage for paraprofessionals, including equitable longevity raises, injury paid
leave parity, and chapter 683 and ESY pay parity, ensuring they are compensated
fairly for their crucial role in education.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">——————————</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Signed by: Ronnie Almonte;
Nick Bacon; Edward Calamia; Alex Jallot; Ibeth Mejia; Luli Rodriguez; Ilona
Nanay; Michael Schirtzer</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; margin: 12pt 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Other supporters - Michael Shulman, Bobby Greenberg, Norm Scott, Education Notes.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"> </span></p></blockquote><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style>ed notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-45687446608490780882024-03-18T09:49:00.002-04:002024-03-18T11:51:50.171-04:00Unity Changes Rules for Para Election without the consent of the para chapter, EXBD AND DA, UFT Paras for A Fair Contract<p>I've always believed that the chapter elections every three years are more important than the regular UFT elections (next one is spring 2025). These chapter elections in the schools and in the functionals are about to heat up.</p><p>A group of paras are getting together to run in the election under the banner of <b>UFT Paras
for A Fair Contract.</b></p><p>I reported on Thursday (Mar. 14) about picking up petitions for the retiree chapter election: <br /></p><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name"><a href="https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2024/03/retired-teacher-chapter-election.html"><blockquote>Retired
Teacher Chapter Election - Opening Day for Petitions - And Retiree
Advocate will be signing for the 300 candidates on the slate</blockquote></a></h3><p>The para election petitions were out on the counter. The para chapter has 28k members and is second to the retiree chapter 70K member and crucial for Unity to maintain control of the UFT. With the possibility of the control of RCT slipping, tightening up the para chapter is major for them. If they lose control there, the end for Unity would be on the horizon. The opposition has not done a good job in reaching out to paras. Hopefully that is changing. But Unity, while showing incompetence in servicing the members, is very competent in finding ways to keep control. And they changed an important rule in the para chapter after facing a dissident group a year ago in a special election, the first time that has happened. <br /></p><p>Below, note the change in the para chapter election rules between 2023 and this year by the addition of slate voting to the chapter with at least 7 required to be a slate. Until now, only the retiree chapter had slate voting. All other functional chapters do not have slate voting. Not the secretaries or the social workers, for instance. </p><p>This is a naked attempt to keep total control of the para chapter after Unity lost 2 out of 5 seats in last year's special election. The dissident group actually recruited 7 candidates but Unity gave one a job and "talked" another into not running. Thus the new requirement of having to run 7 people to be listed as a slate on the ballot is significant. <br /><br />Unity worries about delegate assembly are a factor in the decision as there are about 300 delegate positions at stake and by forcing people to run on a slate it prevents any oppo para voices from becoming delegates. Also worries that in case Retiree Advocate should win their election, they would elect 300 delegates. <br /><br />There are rumors floating around that Unity may try to separate out para retirees from the Retirees and form a separate chapter. </p><p>Note that paras do not make a living wage in the UFT. Look for my follow-up post later tonight on some questions at tonight's Ex Bd on this issue.<br /><br />This move reinforces the dictum that Unity operates under a prime directive: Hold on to total power at all costs. Servicing the members is not a factor. <br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh55HhtmIl-LyFsbzYYIbUCE23aHSxzg1ap_d4sVpi_xjWsjcK4znZrTC7E0NX-O8icAvPxl8MtShO3Ivsp822wz8NHU7ZwpVvgaGiFyic7dXvtl85PdPFmE4xamC8gdHt6QikopnKYBtDJXp9Wf8qN935c3BsmH2mSWcEzP2NL-kcB28kd-AXD/s1466/Screenshot%202024-03-18%20at%208.43.25%E2%80%AFAM.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1466" data-original-width="590" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh55HhtmIl-LyFsbzYYIbUCE23aHSxzg1ap_d4sVpi_xjWsjcK4znZrTC7E0NX-O8icAvPxl8MtShO3Ivsp822wz8NHU7ZwpVvgaGiFyic7dXvtl85PdPFmE4xamC8gdHt6QikopnKYBtDJXp9Wf8qN935c3BsmH2mSWcEzP2NL-kcB28kd-AXD/w258-h640/Screenshot%202024-03-18%20at%208.43.25%E2%80%AFAM.png" width="258" /></a></div><br /><br /> <b>EONYC posted:</b><br /><p></p><p>The @UFT para chapter constitution reads: </p><p>ARTICLE IX.
Nominations and Elections
Nominations and elections of all officers, other Executive Board members
and representatives shall be held in accordance with the provisions of
Robert's Rules of Order, except as otherwise specifically provided by
this constitution or under its bylaws. <br /></p><p>This election change was made without the consent of the para chapter, EXBD AND DA. </p> It
is illegal. Educators of NYC@educatorsofnyc
Mar 14 @UFTUnity patronage entourage continue to make up rules as they
go — a la carte. After, losing 2 para seats in last year’s para chapter
election… they simply changed decades of rules for this upcoming chapter
election. <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM9heIYIfPW023yv5n9A5tiQhpH5vflA2D4mLpGfRyfX_hyQIPYEuE8EfZ-ARY8QgpujH3O2BO2LDEeuevAa3bzEGMmnQS6C2XhaLqjWlNZfFG_7ZHYCau-J5jUvGAxzMcXm3cNMq5_P4ew13VAVhY0wHmT4lcnGGhDndT2yRa6McwiUGxT_E4/s1988/Screenshot%202024-03-18%20at%208.42.41%E2%80%AFAM.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1094" data-original-width="1988" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM9heIYIfPW023yv5n9A5tiQhpH5vflA2D4mLpGfRyfX_hyQIPYEuE8EfZ-ARY8QgpujH3O2BO2LDEeuevAa3bzEGMmnQS6C2XhaLqjWlNZfFG_7ZHYCau-J5jUvGAxzMcXm3cNMq5_P4ew13VAVhY0wHmT4lcnGGhDndT2yRa6McwiUGxT_E4/w640-h352/Screenshot%202024-03-18%20at%208.42.41%E2%80%AFAM.png" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><br /><p> </p><p> </p><p><br /></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>To get the full story, we need to go back a year ago when 2 paras not approved by Unity got elected in a special election. Now facing the full-scale election this spring, Unity has created a barrier by forcing slate voting in a para election for the first time.</p><p>We learned that when the names of people running a year ago, some in Unity, were
revealed, Unity gave one of them a full-time job and forced another to
withdraw, thus leaving the group with 5 instead of 7 people running. <br /></p><p><b>NOTE: The new rules chose the "arbitrary" number of 7 to constitute being listed as a slate on the ballot. </b><br /></p><p></p><p>In some of his final posts on the ICE blog, in April 2023 James Eterno reported on a special para election:</p><blockquote>
<div class="post-header">
<div class="post-header-line-1"></div>
</div>
<p>Unity Caucus, the UFT's ruling political party for over sixty years,
is facing a challenge in the interim Paraprofessional Chapter Election
from people who appear to be independent but also had some Unity
supporters. <br /></p><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name"><a href="https://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/2023/04/meet-challengers-to-unity-in.html">MEET THE CHALLENGERS TO UNITY IN THE PARAPROFESSIONAL CHAPTER ELECTION </a></h3></blockquote><p></p><p> And he also posted this on <span></span><span>April 15, 2023</span></p><blockquote><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name"><a href="https://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/2023/04/unity-campaigns-improperly-in-para.html"></a></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name"><a href="https://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/2023/04/unity-campaigns-improperly-in-para.html">UNITY
CAMPAIGNS IMPROPERLY IN PARA ELECTION; </a></h3></blockquote><p>I also reported on the election on the same day:<br /></p>
<div class="date-posts">
<div class="post-outer">
<div class="post hentry uncustomized-post-template" itemprop="blogPost" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting">
<a name="1947317185520443543"></a>
<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<a href="https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2023/04/corruption-uft-in-para-election-full.html"></a></h3></div></div></div><blockquote><div class="date-posts"><div class="post-outer"><div class="post hentry uncustomized-post-template" itemprop="blogPost" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting"><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name"><a href="https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2023/04/corruption-uft-in-para-election-full.html">Corruption
@UFT in Para Election: Full-time patronnage jobs -- Unity is more
interested in Unity than its membership, Petition on UFT Healthcare Vote
Passes 6K</a>
</h3></div></div></div><p></p><p>Maria a para running posted this:</p><p>This is from Marie Para showing Unity cheating at an official UFT event. The video is on <a href="https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0HZJwoDMe4QHBa9otGbhrk91kqt8eRTA9o5jZoU1MJxm9tDDtUXZfFMFfRkobGGA5l&id=100007753606388&mibextid=Nif5oz">Facebook</a>.</p></blockquote><p></p><p><i></i></p><blockquote><p><i>Spotlight on Truth </i></p><p><i>You can’t say you didn’t….cause ‘ya did!! Lets look at the video tape!</i></p><p><i>Let’s
pay attention to the rules of the UFT. Let’s be clear on a few
things….the UFT is our union, Unity is a caucus within the union. Just
as there other caucus’, such as MORE, ICE and SOLIDARITY. Unity has
been the controlling caucus within the union. Whenever there is a
function that the UFT pays for, NO caucus can campaign at these events.
If they did allow this, all candidates should be given the same space,
time, and expense of campaigning on the UFT’s dime…or should that be on
YOUR UNION DUES.</i></p><p><i>Now let’s pay attention to the timeline.
January 26, 2023 the UFT held the BRONX SRP at 4PM at the Bronx Borough
Office….(this was a UFT paid event), yet the Unity Candidates were there
campaigning BEFORE THE OFFICIAL ELECTION PROCESS WAS ANNOUNCED. </i></p><p><i>The
nomination petitions weren’t even ready until February 16, 2023. There
was no official announcement of when this special election was going to
be…..so why were the Unity Candidates already being introduced as
candidates and what position they were running for? And how did only
Unity know about the election ahead of the official announcement? And
again, no caucus is allowed to campaign at UFT paid events!!!</i></p><p><i>This
is obviously and attempt to gain an unfair advantage over other
candidates. If Unity has no regard to adhere to the rules and
regulations in this election process, which would ensure a fair and
transparent election, what can you expect from them if elected?</i></p><p><i>Ultimately, you want leaders that know and respect the rules and regulations governing this election process.</i></p><i></i><p></p><p></p></blockquote><p>Unity played it very cagey with the results of the election.<br /></p><p>Ed Notes May 30, 2023<br /></p><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name"><a href="https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2023/05/unity-caucus-contract-gaslighting.html"></a></h3><blockquote><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name"><a href="https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2023/05/unity-caucus-contract-gaslighting.html">UFT Election Officials Refuse to Reveal Para Election Numbers</a></h3><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>Rumors that
oppo in para election won two out of 5 positions up for grabs. The para
chapter is the second largest (28k)after retirees in the UFT. Try to
imagine how a general election (in 2025) would look of both of these
chapters were close. Unity will pull out all stops, especially in the
2024 chapter elections. Watch those numbers (if they are honest) for
signs of breakage in the Unity front.<br /></b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">When
people used to claim Unity cheats in elections I always responded they
don't have to steal an election - until elections get close and
contentious. Then it's Katy bar the door. I firmly believe that if UFC
ever won, Unity would pull a Trump and refuse to leave. </span></p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">There's
a breaking story on the recent UFT para chapter election to replace
leaders who have retired or left for the next year until the regular
2024 chapter elections with hints of Unity playing games and a refusal
by UFT election officials to release voting counts. <a href="http://ators.nyc/p/breaking-news-opposition-team-wins">Educators of NYC has the preliminary story</a></span></blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span><p>The dissidents actually did win 2 seats and that set off shock waves in Unity, which has exerted dictatorial control over the chapter since its inception. How these 2 have been treated since that election is a story in itself -- see how the OT/PT chapter leaders were treated when they won - the attacks on them escalated until Unity regained control of the chapter.</p><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name"><a href="https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2023/08/unity-caucus-of-knifing-membership-in.html"><blockquote>Unity: Caucus of Knifing Membership in the Back - A parody of the Unity Caucus blog </blockquote></a></h3><p></p>ed notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-35179469645821450142024-03-14T08:44:00.000-04:002024-03-14T08:44:53.938-04:00Retired Teacher Chapter Election - Opening Day for Petitions - And Retiree Advocate will be signing for the 300 candidates on the slate<p>March 14, 2024</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTiTSMMCmLTbRYmfFBLR_jbiwE6_ZZ6wDTcc41kKQOPoOTVTFEECUECE4Lb4MFeuTHFWM0GSF8Ml8Mu4TGoITmoQBuBQHPLEdCeJWgA2u53AM_24TRIk5Qy3V5P7-i1JSvkWMzpK4OBqm_zFOSucKLC7PwyiJ_ao0vTbM1nr-30ujx_mWfejb3/s1700/Screenshot%202024-03-14%20at%208.38.38%E2%80%AFAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1094" data-original-width="1700" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTiTSMMCmLTbRYmfFBLR_jbiwE6_ZZ6wDTcc41kKQOPoOTVTFEECUECE4Lb4MFeuTHFWM0GSF8Ml8Mu4TGoITmoQBuBQHPLEdCeJWgA2u53AM_24TRIk5Qy3V5P7-i1JSvkWMzpK4OBqm_zFOSucKLC7PwyiJ_ao0vTbM1nr-30ujx_mWfejb3/s320/Screenshot%202024-03-14%20at%208.38.38%E2%80%AFAM.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Today is <a href="https://www.piday.org/">Pi Day</a> (<span style="font-weight: 400;">π) </span>- where we celebrate the circumference of the circle being a little over 3 times its diameter. Today is also the first day we can pick up petitions, opening day for the upcoming titanic battle between Retiree Advocate (RA) and Unity Caucus for the soul of the almost 70 thousand member UFT retiree chapter. In recent elections, Unity didn't get 3.14 times the vote RA got -- it was a 70/30 split and we hope that when ballots are tallied on June 14, that gap will be eliminated. </p><p>So today I and a few RA colleagues will be at 52 Broadway to pick up the blank petitions and begin the chore of filling out the headings for the 10 officer, 15 exec bd and 300 candidates for delegate assembly. Do you think that having 300 delegates critical of Unity in the DA, even if old codgers like me, will make a difference? Many of the candidates are old war horses from battles over the past 50 years and we will make a difference because we are not only here to stand up for the interests of retirees only but for the working members of the UFT too -- building alliances with the rank and file.</p><p>I'm about to head out, so I will leave you with a few things to read by Arthur:</p><h2 class="post-title unpublished" style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://arthurgoldstein.substack.com/p/if-you-support-real-unionism-support?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1752095&post_id=142358361&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=3qu3t&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email">If You Support Real Unionism, Support NYC Retirees</a></h2><h3 class="subtitle">They are fighting for our rights, AGAINST our corrupt union bosses.</h3><p> </p><h2 class="post-title unpublished" style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://arthurgoldstein.substack.com/p/all-hail-king-michael-the-first?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1752095&post_id=142559792&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=3qu3t&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email">All Hail King Michael the First</a></h2><h3 style="color: grey; font-family: 'SF Pro Display',-apple-system-headline,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif,'Apple Color Emoji','Segoe UI Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol'; font-size: 18px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 12px; margin: 4px 0 0;">Answerable only to Mayor Eric Adams.</h3><p></p>ed notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-70320444577327328992024-03-05T22:25:00.001-05:002024-03-05T22:25:04.672-05:00NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees Stands in Solidarity with DC37 Retirees: Press Conference and Rally in Protest to AFSCME Takeover<div style="text-align: left;"><p class="preFade fadeIn" style="text-align: justify; transition-delay: 0.25814s; transition-duration: 0.8s; transition-timing-function: ease; white-space: normal !important;"></p><blockquote><p class="preFade fadeIn" style="text-align: justify; transition-delay: 0.25814s; transition-duration: 0.8s; transition-timing-function: ease; white-space: normal !important;"><b><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">“[AFSCME]
seems to be pulling at strings, to be honest,” Pizzitola says. “I think
they're going to make any accusation that they can make to see whatever
sticks.” The
DC37 Retirees Association decided to pause its regularly occurring
contributions to the New York City Organization of Public Service
Retirees for several months before ultimately deciding to resume them
once again a month before AFSCME swooped in, suspended the officers, and
changed the locks. </span></b></p></blockquote></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrYJUpP29Dki7j4z_OZ5vlLHLcfWkCRmmDLW0NjTMdUk9wzw28yBvdexiAlflX5pEc0ZsTrd9kZ8t76frItp5e8tJfnhYGdIzEcfX1wCl0I4fDWJaWMEu1mp1XNvvwzR1PcYtYRvlyRDWqKB0XSKs0bJODfPC45u_5CtJcTMgXF1r80rhXud5m/s242/Screenshot%202024-03-05%20at%2010.23.28%E2%80%AFPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="196" data-original-width="242" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrYJUpP29Dki7j4z_OZ5vlLHLcfWkCRmmDLW0NjTMdUk9wzw28yBvdexiAlflX5pEc0ZsTrd9kZ8t76frItp5e8tJfnhYGdIzEcfX1wCl0I4fDWJaWMEu1mp1XNvvwzR1PcYtYRvlyRDWqKB0XSKs0bJODfPC45u_5CtJcTMgXF1r80rhXud5m/s1600/Screenshot%202024-03-05%20at%2010.23.28%E2%80%AFPM.png" width="242" /></a></div><br /> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Tuesday, March 5</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Sorry I won't be here to make the rally and presser. Going to Philly Flower Show. Today Retiree Advocate organizers were outside 52 Bwy handing out leaflets to 50, 60, 70 year UFT member retirees being honored with a luncheon. I was eligible as a 56 year member but somehow my invitation was lost. If I'm still here I will go next year when I turn 80 and be honored by the new retiree regime after we win the chapter election this May.<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In case you missed it, there was a hostile takeover of the DC 37 Retiree Association, using a bogus reason when the real reason was that they have been contributing to the </span><strong><span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">NYC
Organization of Public Service Retirees </span></strong><span style="font-size: medium;">which has led the court battles to counter the city/union attempt to undermine our current medicare situation.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><h2 class="KPwZRb gKR4Fb" style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.work-bites.com/view-all/p5ec3e07mm8rq4r9nr8g2gjukqwwnw"><span class="qFQw9e"></span></a></h2><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.work-bites.com/view-all/p5ec3e07mm8rq4r9nr8g2gjukqwwnw&source=gmail&ust=1709779676247000&usg=AOvVaw2oNo6UTyZg3lrmWdm7jUkv" href="https://www.work-bites.com/view-all/p5ec3e07mm8rq4r9nr8g2gjukqwwnw" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">DC 37 Retirees: AFSCME Takeover is All About Medicare Advantage — Work-Bites</a></span></li><li><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name"><a href="https://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/2024/02/statement-on-asfcme-trusteeship-of.html">Statement on ASFCME Trusteeship of the Retirees Association of DC 37</a>
</h3></li></ul></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p class="MsoNormal"> Now, this is interesting - having a national take over a local - Randi and the AFT have done that a couple of times that Ed Notes covered.<br /></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name"><a href="https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2015/06/eia-intercepts-aft-set-to-take-over.html">AFT Set to Take Over Florida Local - lack of democracy an issue -- HA!</a></h3></li><li><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name"><a href="https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2009/10/aft-takeover-sanctioned-by-us-labor.html">AFT Takeover Sanctioned By US Labor Department</a></h3></li><li><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name"><a href="https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2009/07/aft-hack-attack-on-portland-local-5017.html">AFT Hack Attack on Portland Local 5017</a></h3></li><li><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name"><a href="https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2010/08/labor-dept-rules-randi-take-over-of.html">Labor Dept. Rules Randi Take Over of Nurses' Union Illegal</a></h3></li><li><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name"><a href="https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2015/12/randi-invades-detroit.html">Randi Invades Detroit</a></h3></li></ul><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name"> <br />A question I've been asked: What it Retiree Advocate were to actually win the chapter election. Would Unity resort to drastic moves to prevent us from taking over? I can imagine them creating some irregularities and calling for a new election. Or make it extremely difficult for RA to run the chapter by tossing all kinds of roadblock in their way and then look for any transgression they can create and go to AFT asking for a trusteeship. <br /></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">Well, back to the rally:<br /></h3><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p align="center" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif;"><strong><span style="font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif;">FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE</span></strong></span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif;"><br /><br /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p align="center" style="font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; text-align: center; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; word-spacing: 0px;"><strong><span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">NYC
Organization of Public Service Retirees Stands in Solidarity with DC37
Retirees for A Press Conference and Rally in Protest to AFSCME</span></strong><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p style="font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; word-spacing: 0px;"><strong><span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif;">Manhattan, NY, March 5, 2024</span></strong><span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif;"> Outraged by the hostile takeover of the<strong><span style="font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif;"> DC37 Retirees Association</span></strong>, the <strong><span style="font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif;">NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees</span></strong> stands in unwavering solidarity with our fellow retirees.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p style="font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif;">For
years, we've fought tirelessly to defend traditional Medicare, only to
face betrayal from those who once swore to fight for us. Now, the DC37
Retirees, despite belonging to a supposedly powerful union with a long
history of leadership, face draconian punishment for simply advocating
for the exact cause we champion.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p style="font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif;">Their
supposed leaders, failing their fundamental duty, offered no support or
guidance before seizing control of the DC37 Retirees Association. This
outrageous double standard becomes even more egregious when considering
other union groups with similar issues faced no such consequences.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p style="font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif;">This betrayal goes beyond the takeover itself. In June of last year, a powerful <strong><span style="font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif;">AFSCME</span></strong> official, <b>Ann Widger</b>,
threatened the DC37 Retirees Association for daring to support our
legal fight to protect traditional Medicare. Her message: continued
donations would result in receivership. Following through on her threat,
the hostile takeover occurred when donations resumed.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p style="font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif;">Unions, once beacons of dissent, now stifle these very voices and threaten those fighting for their fundamental rights.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p style="font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif;">We
are the backbone of the labor force who demand a swift return to the
core values of unions: protecting workers and retirees, not silencing
them.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p style="font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif;">This attack on retirees trying to protect their earned Medicare benefits is shameful. AFSCME, once a champion for <b>Medicare</b> alongside <b>Dr. Martin Luther King</b> and <b>President Johnson</b>,
now allows its largest district council to force retirees into a
privatized, for-profit plan that weakens their access to doctors, denies
care, is rejected by many of our healthcare providers, and puts
seniors’ lives at risk.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p style="font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif;">We thought we were UNION!</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p align="center" style="font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; text-align: center; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; word-spacing: 0px;"><strong><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">PRESS CONFERENCE</span></strong><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"></span><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></p><p align="center" style="font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; text-align: center; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; word-spacing: 0px;"><strong><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Join
us on Wednesday, March 6th at 11 AM at 75 Maiden Lane as we fight for
justice, our healthcare future, and the soul of the union movement!</span></strong><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p align="center" style="font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; text-align: center; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; word-spacing: 0px;"><strong><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> ###</span></strong><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal">Contact: <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Marianne Pizzitola<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">President<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees<u></u><u></u></p><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif;"></span></b><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: navy; font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">Marianne Pizzitola</span></b><span style="color: black;"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: navy; font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">President<u></u><u></u></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: navy; font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees<u></u><u></u></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: navy; font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">And<u></u><u></u></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: navy; font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">FDNY EMS Retirees Association<u></u><u></u></span></b></p></div>ed notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-59408733619505555922024-03-01T20:53:00.007-05:002024-03-02T10:16:42.363-05:00RTC Chapter election in the media: In the New York City teachers union, anger over a plan to privatize retiree health care could send a longshot campaign over the edge.<blockquote><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"><b>If it’s successful in this year’s election, Retiree Advocate has its sights set on a bigger target: the overall UFT elections next year, when the long-serving president, Michael Mulgrew, and the other leadership members will be up for reelection.
“If we won this election, it would give a shot in the arm to the opposition and make people look at next year’s general election as winnable,” said Scott, the Retiree Advocate spokesperson.... NY Focus<br /></b></span></blockquote><p><img alt="People stand in front of a New York City newsstand holding a sign that says "Retiree Advocate/UFT Protecting Retirees Supporting Working Members Fighting for Public Education"" class="w-auto md:w-full pb-3" height="480" src="https://imgproxy.gridwork.co/_31R66w4Chemg6SKQaNq8Z7xjywxNbD8bbDyrDQot-A/w:820/h:615/rt:fill/g:fp:0.5:0.5/q:90/el:1/aHR0cHM6Ly9zMy51cy1lYXN0LTIuYW1hem9uYXdzLmNvbS9ueXNmb2N1cy9yZXRpcmVlLWFkdm9jYXRlLmpwZWc.jpeg" width="640" /><span style="font-size: medium;"> <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span>Retiree Advocate members rally in New York City on February 16.
<span class="opacity-50"> | Norm Scott</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">This is an excellent article in NY Focus by Sam Mellins, one of the best local reporters. I spoke to him for almost a half hour and he asked all the right and probing questions, sometimes twice.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><div class="md:w-1/2">
<h2 class="font-bold font-serif text-3xl md:text-45xl xl:text-5xl tracking-tight leading-tighter pb-2 px-6 md:pl-10 max-w-4xl" style="text-align: left;">
Retired Teachers Seek Union Shakeup to Dodge Medicare Advantage
</h2>
<h2 class="leading-snug xl:leading-snug py-4 px-6 md:pl-10 font-serif text-lg md:text-2xl xl:text-25xl max-w-4xl">
<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In the New York City teachers union, anger over a plan to
privatize retiree health care could send a longshot campaign over the
edge.</span></div>
</h2>
<div class="text-lg md:text-xl pt-4 pb-4 px-6 md:px-10 max-w-5xl font-caps">
<a class="yellow-underline" href="https://nysfocus.com/author/sam-mellins">Sam Mellins</a> · February 26, 2024
</div>
</div><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <a href="https://nysfocus.com/2024/02/26/medicare-advantage-uft-retiree-advocate">https://nysfocus.com/2024/02/26/medicare-advantage-uft-retiree-advocate</a></span></p><div class="w-full relative pt-6 md:pt-24 pb-8">
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<p dir="ltr"><span class="inlinehead">A group of</span>
dissident retired public school teachers is seeking to take over part of
the New York City teachers union in an upcoming election — and they
hope to galvanize opposition over a proposed change to retirees’ health
care and turn it into votes this June. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Retirees fear that the proposed change — a shift from
public Medicare to private Medicare Advantage plans — could leave them
with higher costs and fewer benefits. It’s been a major source of
controversy since New York Focus <a href="https://nysfocus.com/2021/04/21/nyc-retirees-medicare-advantage">broke the news</a> of the proposal nearly three years ago. Though the plan has been <a href="https://www.thecity.nyc/2023/08/11/medicare-advantage-switch-ban-retirees-adams/" target="_blank">on ice</a> since last year, when a court sided with retirees who sued to block it, it still looms large as the city pursues an appeal. <span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<p dir="ltr">With fear and anger running high, a group of retired
teachers known as Retiree Advocate hopes those feelings will propel its
insurgent slate into leadership positions at the retiree chapter of the
United Federation of Teachers. The teacher union is one of the foremost <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/2023/03/21/nyc-retirees-opposed-to-medicare-advantage-plan-eye-loophole-that-could-let-them-keep-traditional-coverage/" target="_blank">backers</a> of the Medicare Advantage switch.</p> </div>
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<div class="font-serif font-bold text-xl md:text-2xl leading-tight text-black py-2 headline"><a class="yellow-underline-hover" href="https://nysfocus.com/2021/04/21/nyc-retirees-medicare-advantage">Health Care Costs for Retired City Workers Could Dramatically Increase Under City Plan</a>
</div>
<div class="text-xs md:text-sm font-caps py-2">
<a class="yellow-underline-hover" href="https://nysfocus.com/author/sam-mellins">Sam Mellins</a> </div>
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<p dir="ltr">“Our plan for the campaign is about preserving
our Medicare and standing up to the union leadership,” said Bennett
Fischer, a Retiree Advocate member who is running for retiree chapter
leader.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The union, which represents the city’s public school
teachers, has been led by the dominant Unity Caucus since 1962. Though
it’s been around for decades, Retiree Advocate has never succeeded in
challenging the Unity Caucus.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The group hopes to change that this spring, when the <span class="caps">UFT</span>
will hold elections for 25 leadership positions in its retiree chapter
and the 300 seats reserved for retirees in the union’s delegate
assembly, a 3,400-seat body that effectively serves as the union’s
legislature. Retiree Advocate is running for all 325 positions. The
votes are cast by caucus, not by candidate, and whichever party gets a
majority of the votes wins all of the slots.</p>
<p dir="ltr">If successful, Retiree Advocate members plan to advocate
against the Medicare Advantage switch and for better pensions and health
benefits for working teachers, members told New York Focus. They also
want to build energy to challenge <span class="caps">UFT</span> leadership in the union’s general election next year.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Though that more ambitious goal might be out of reach,
winning the upcoming election could still be a sign, according to Joshua
Freeman, labor historian and professor emeritus at <span class="caps">CUNY</span>.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“A change of leadership of the retiree chapter might make a difference in the battle over Medicare Advantage, since the <span class="caps">UFT</span> and [<span class="caps">UFT</span>
President] Mike Mulgrew have been among the strongest supporters of
moving retirees from traditional Medicare to Medicare Advantage,” he
said.<br /></p> </div>
<div class="pullquote print:hidden z-60 pt-8 relative px-4 md:px-10 float-right w-full md:w-3/5 md:px-10 pt-4 pb-12 md:pl-20">
<div class="font-headline text-25xl md:text-3xl lg:text-4xl leading-snug md:leading-snug lg:leading-tight py-6">
<p>“The opposition is across factions and caucuses.”</p>
</div>
<div class="font-headline text-left pb-8 text-sm uppercase tracking-wider">
—Bennett Fischer, Retiree Advocate candidate </div>
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<p dir="ltr">Winning 300 of the 3,400 assembly seats
wouldn’t necessarily enable Retiree Advocate to make the whole union
change its position on Medicare Advantage. But it could send a signal
and provide a bully pulpit for advocacy against the health care switch
and on other issues, Retiree Advocate members said. </p>
<p dir="ltr">“You would have the people most affected by the change
actually organizing in opposition to it,” said Norm Scott, a
spokesperson for Retiree Advocate. </p>
<p dir="ltr">The caucus could recruit additional members to oppose the
Medicare Advantage switch and pass resolutions opposing it, Fischer
said.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The current leadership, meanwhile, has discouraged dissent
from the plan. Tom Murphy, a Unity Caucus member who has served as
president of the retired teachers chapter since at least 2011, has <a href="https://www.uft.org/news/rtc-information/seeing-doctors-you-know-and-trust" target="_blank">supported</a> the health care switch and criticized its opponents. </p>
<p dir="ltr">“As a middle child, having grown up in a family that spoke
to one another respectfully, I try to foster positive interactions,”
Murphy <a href="https://www.uft.org/news/rtc-information/seeing-doctors-you-know-and-trust" target="_blank">wrote</a>
in a column last spring, chiding members for an “outburst” over the
switch at a retirees meeting. As teachers, he wrote, “we were on the
front lines of setting the tone of good behavior for students entering
society, but it’s still important for us to be guardians of civility.”<br /></p> </div>
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<img alt="People stand in front of a New York City newsstand holding a sign that says "Retiree Advocate/UFT Protecting Retirees Supporting Working Members Fighting for Public Education"" class="w-auto md:w-full pb-3" height="240" src="https://imgproxy.gridwork.co/_31R66w4Chemg6SKQaNq8Z7xjywxNbD8bbDyrDQot-A/w:820/h:615/rt:fill/g:fp:0.5:0.5/q:90/el:1/aHR0cHM6Ly9zMy51cy1lYXN0LTIuYW1hem9uYXdzLmNvbS9ueXNmb2N1cy9yZXRpcmVlLWFkdm9jYXRlLmpwZWc.jpeg" width="320" />
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<div class="pt-2 md:pt-0 font-sans text-sm lg:text-base px-6 md:px-8">Retiree Advocate members rally in New York City on February 16.
<span class="opacity-50"> | Norm Scott</span> </div>
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<p><span class="inlinehead">Three years ago,</span> news of
the proposed Medicare switch drove Retiree Advocate’s most spirited
challenge in years. When the plan became public, just a few weeks before
the election for leadership of the retiree caucus, Retiree Advocate
started organizing in opposition, stressing what it might mean for
retired teachers’ health care. </p>
<p>When the votes were tallied, Unity emerged with a clear victory, but
Retiree Advocate won 30 percent of the vote, a high water mark for its
recent efforts.</p>
<p>The leaders of Retiree Advocate hope to build on that momentum in the
upcoming election. Several signs show that opposition to the potential
Medicare change remains a powerful motivating force.</p>
<p>For one, it’s become much easier for Retiree Advocate to recruit
candidates. In 2021, Retiree Advocate recruited 130 candidates to run
for the chapter’s 300 delegate slots, leaving the rest uncontested.</p> </div>
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<a href="https://nysfocus.com/2022/10/31/mayor-issues-ultimatum-on-retiree-health-care-medicare-advantage">
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<div class="font-serif font-bold text-xl md:text-2xl leading-tight text-black py-2 headline"><a class="yellow-underline-hover" href="https://nysfocus.com/2022/10/31/mayor-issues-ultimatum-on-retiree-health-care-medicare-advantage">Mayor Issues Ultimatum on Retiree Health Care, Seeking End to Standoff</a>
</div>
<div class="text-xs md:text-sm font-caps py-2">
<a class="yellow-underline-hover" href="https://nysfocus.com/author/sam-mellins">Sam Mellins</a> </div>
</div>
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<p dir="ltr">In the runup to this year’s election, Retiree
Advocate got more applications than available slots. According to
Michael Shulman, a current Retiree Advocate candidate who has been
following the caucus’s activities since the 1980s, that was a new
phenomenon.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“We’ve never seen this kind of support for the opposition slate,” he said. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Even in parts of the union where the Unity Caucus dominates, there have been signs of dissent. <span class="caps">UFT</span>
leadership established a committee of retired members focused on health
care issues in 2021. That committee hasn’t met since late 2022, Fischer
and Retiree Advocate member Sarah Shapiro told New York Focus, shutting
down after intense opposition to the health care switch from a broad
array of members.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“The reason we’re not meeting isn’t because me and a couple
of other pains in the ass from Retiree Advocate were complaining,”
Fischer said. “That committee is shut down because the opposition to
this is across factions and caucuses.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">Some dissatisfied Unity caucus members have recently
reached out to Retiree Advocate about getting involved with the
challenge to union leadership, Shulman said. “I don’t mean tons of them,
but we’re getting a good number of people who were once Unity
stalwarts,” he said.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Turnout in the retiree chapter elections has generally been
fairly low, so boosting participation will prove key to achieving
victory. In 2021, only about a third of the 70,000 retired members
voted. And Unity Caucus’s control of the <span class="caps">UFT</span>’s communications apparatus and email lists gives it a significant advantage for driving turnout. <br /></p> </div>
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<p dir="ltr">Though Retiree Advocate has collected several
thousand emails through its organizing effort, “we don’t control the
mailing list,” Fischer said. “We’re not going to get access to it.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">Retiree Advocate has received support and assistance from
other retirees opposed to the switch. They include the New York City
Organization of Public Service Retirees, which formed in opposition to
the change and has spearheaded the so-far successful legal strategy to
block it. </p>
<p dir="ltr">“Retirees have to support retirees, because it seems like
nobody else does,” said Marianne Pizzitola, the organization’s
president. Her group has helped Retiree Advocate put out communications
and broadcast its events, including contacting retired teachers to make
them aware of the election. </p>
<p dir="ltr">“I applaud Retiree Advocate for putting up candidates and
getting 300-plus people to try to take back their retiree chapter,”
Pizzitola said. </p>
<p dir="ltr">If it’s successful in this year’s election, Retiree Advocate has its sights set on a bigger target: the overall <span class="caps">UFT</span>
elections next year, when the long-serving president, Michael Mulgrew,
and the other leadership members will be up for reelection.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“If we won this election, it would give a shot in the arm
to the opposition and make people look at next year’s general election
as winnable,” said Scott, the Retiree Advocate spokesperson.<span class="pt-2 pl-4 h-6 w-10 bug inline-block"><svg id="uuid-bd46b89b-fecc-4fe5-a056-5c11757466b7" viewbox="0 0 89.01 67.22" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"></svg></span></p> </div>
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<span class="text-sm font-headline uppercase pr-1"><a href="https://nysfocus.com/author/sam-mellins">Sam Mellins</a></span> is
senior reporter at New York Focus, which he has been a part of since
launch day. His reporting has also appeared in The San Francisco
Chronicle, The Intercept, <span class="caps">THE</span> <span class="caps">CITY</span>, and The Nation. </div>
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<span class="pl-3">Follow</span> </a><a class="bg-blackish hover:bg-black mb-2 md:mx-1 px-4 py-1 text-white flex items-center hover:text-yellow transition-all font-bold uppercase text-xs" href="mailto:sam@nysfocus.com" target="_blank"></a>ed notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-62862611128255559092024-02-29T16:12:00.004-05:002024-02-29T16:16:16.943-05:00PROTECT YOUR PENSION-UPCOMING TRS ELECTION - Ben Morgenroth For Teacher-Member Trustee of NYC TRS Board <p></p><h2 class="post-title unpublished" style="text-align: left;"></h2><h3 class="subtitle"><blockquote><span style="color: #660000;">Ben
is the most qualified candidate for trustee on the NYC Teacher
Retirement System pension board. Help him get on the ballot. Vote for
him on Wed, May 8, 2024.</span></blockquote></h3><p>Thursday, February 29 - and happy birthday to all you youngsters.<br /></p><p>I have a post ready to go explaining the background of how this election has come to be with current TRS board member David Kazansky being replaced/or leaving willingly for a position with the AFT willingly -- choose your poison. Unity endorsed his replacement at the Feb. 5 EB and Feb. 7 DA. </p><p>Elections are held in the schools on May 8 and are run by the DOE - with principals in charge. Only working members may vote (no retirees). There will be a major effort to make sure they are properly held. The last time over 1/3 of the schools didn't even hold an election. <br /></p><p>There's a so-called election every year for one of the rotating members of TRS -all Unity) and I and others have talked about one day running someone against the Unity candidate to break their monopoly on the position. Or at the very least to be able to raise questions about the role they play or should be playing.<br /></p><p>If Kazansky was still running there would likely not have been an alt. candidate- there hasn't been an election in decades. Kazansky was pretty well respected as being responsive and knowledgeable. In fact a good friend who recently suffered a death in the family of a UFT member had some questions and I gave him David's email and he responded with satisfactory answers just last week. </p><p>Some people seemed pissed off at what seemed to be yet another power move by the UFT leadership.</p><p>Did Unity, under the leadership of Michael Mulgrew, once again shoot itself in the foot. (See <a href="https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2023/10/unity-caucus-and-amy-gate-reasons-for.html">Amy-Gat</a>e)?</p><p><b>A question asked on the ICE-mail listserv:</b></p><p>How does the election of this single (sole, one) candidate change things
for all TRS members, active and retired? Will this candidate be running
things going forward or will he just be one in a
group? Please explain the drastic difference electing this single
candidate will make.</p><p><b>Responses:</b></p><p>An interesting question. This is one of three teacher members. Then there is the comptroller- Brad Landers and an appointee from the mayors office. Having a person on the board as qualified as Ben would
benefit every member. They oversee the investments and allocations of
billions dollars in funds. He can ask the right questions, make
inquiries and convince the other board members to vote one or another.
We want someone with a financial and academic background that Ben has
to oversee the consultants working for TRS, he’s a classroom teacher who
will have our best interests at heart.</p><p>My reply: To me the most important thing is Ben is not controlled by Unity and slave to decisions by the leadership. Can he change things? Probably not much but he can reveal things that are going on that Unity keeps under cover.</p><p>First, Ben needs 1000 signatures to get on the ballot and Unity went into quick panic mode to get theirs. So if you are in a school, follow the instructions below and get Ben some signatures. <br /></p><p>My own experience with Ben goes back a few years when he approached me outside the DA when we held a healthcare rally and he began to attend Ex bd meetings with us. He has become an expert on the sad state of Tier 6 people and their pension systems and having a strong advocate like Ben in an official position would be benefit the 54% of current UFT working members who are shockingly in Tier 6. <br /></p><h2 class="post-title unpublished" style="text-align: left;"></h2><blockquote><h2 class="post-title unpublished" style="text-align: left;">Ben Morgenroth For Teacher-Member Trustee of NYC TRS Board </h2><h3 class="subtitle">Ben
is the most qualified candidate for trustee on the NYC Teacher
Retirement System pension board. Help him get on the ballot. Vote for
him on Wed, May 8, 2024.</h3><p><a href="https://thewire.educators.nyc/p/ben-morgenroth-for-teacher-member">https://thewire.educators.nyc/p/ben-morgenroth-for-teacher-member</a></p><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-flexDirection-column pc-paddingBottom-16 pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-flexDirection-column pc-paddingTop-16 pc-paddingBottom-16 pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-12 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset byline-wrapper"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-alignItems-center _flexGrow_1cr80_199 pc-reset facepile"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-alignItems-center pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-alignItems-center pc-reset _faces_dhr36_7 _size-40_dhr36_15"><div class="profile-hover-card-target _profileHoverCardTarget_ooez6_45"><a class="pencraft pc-display-flex _flexAuto_1cr80_202 pc-reset" href="https://substack.com/profile/28956590-educators-of-nyc" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><picture><source type="image/webp"></source><img alt="" class="_img_16u6n_1 facepile-face _face_dhr36_7 _size-40_dhr36_15 _first_dhr36_51 _last_dhr36_55 pencraft pc-reset" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_80,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd003ecad-9013-4465-bebf-36a7c6688839_400x400.jpeg" style="z-index: 1;" width="80" /></picture></a></div></div></div></div></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-flexDirection-column pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-reset _color-pub-primary-text_13a18_204 _line-height-20_13a18_95 _font-meta_13a18_131 _size-11_13a18_35 _weight-medium_13a18_162 _transform-uppercase_13a18_239 _reset_13a18_1 _meta_13a18_439"><div class="profile-hover-card-target _profileHoverCardTarget_ooez6_45"><a class="pencraft pc-reset _decoration-hover-underline_13a18_295 _reset_13a18_1" href="https://substack.com/@educatorsofnyc">Educators of NYC</a></div></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-4 pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-reset _color-pub-secondary-text_13a18_207 _line-height-20_13a18_95 _font-meta_13a18_131 _size-11_13a18_35 _weight-medium_13a18_162 _transform-uppercase_13a18_239 _reset_13a18_1 _meta_13a18_439">Feb 29, 2024</div></div></div></div></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-16 pc-paddingTop-16 pc-paddingBottom-16 pc-justifyContent-space-between pc-alignItems-center _flexGrow_1cr80_199 pc-reset _border-top-detail-themed_1cr80_48 _border-bottom-detail-themed_1cr80_51 post-ufi"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"></div></div></div><div class="visibility-check"></div><div><div class="available-content"><div class="body markup" dir="auto"><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link is-viewable-img image2" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb1d6f006-6a8e-4442-a7da-9d53041faa49_1080x1080.png" rel="" target="_blank"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp"></source><img alt="" class="sizing-normal" data-attrs="{"src":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/b1d6f006-6a8e-4442-a7da-9d53041faa49_1080x1080.png","srcNoWatermark":null,"fullscreen":null,"imageSize":null,"height":1080,"width":1080,"resizeWidth":540,"bytes":2073026,"alt":null,"title":null,"type":"image/png","href":null,"belowTheFold":false,"topImage":true,"internalRedirect":null}" height="540" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb1d6f006-6a8e-4442-a7da-9d53041faa49_1080x1080.png" width="540" /></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg class="lucide lucide-maximize2" fill="none" height="16" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" stroke-width="2" stroke="#FFFFFF" viewbox="0 0 24 24" width="16" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"></svg></div></div></a></figure></div></div></div></div><h3 class="header-with-anchor-widget">Let’s get Ben on the ballot <div class="header-anchor-widget offset-top" id="§lets-get-ben-on-the-ballot"><div class="header-anchor-widget-button-container"><div class="header-anchor-widget-button" href="https://thewire.educators.nyc/i/142161501/lets-get-ben-on-the-ballot"><svg class="header-anchor-widget-icon" fill="none" height="20" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" stroke-width="2" stroke="currentColor" viewbox="0 0 24 24" width="20" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"></svg></div></div></div></h3><p>Help
get fellow NYC public schools teacher, Ben Morgenroth, on the ballot
for the May NYC TRS board election as part of the three teacher trustees
who oversee the more than $100 billion in our pension fund. </p><p>This
trustee position is the second to change hands in two years. We need
qualified trustees with a solid financial background, like Ben’s, to
keep our pensions safe, secure and stable. </p><p><span>We need to put the best qualified candidate on the ballot and Ben is the </span><i>most qualified c</i><span>andidate.</span></p><p>Ben
teaches AP Calculus and Algebra II at Brooklyn Technical High School
and has served as a passionate teacher in the New York City public
schools for the past decade. He also serves as an adjunct lecturer in
Mathematics at Hunter College, City University of New York. He is a
life-long New Yorker and a graduate of New York City public schools. He
comes from a family of educators; he and three members of his immediate
family are all TRS members. </p><p>Ben holds a BA in Applied Math-Economics from Brown University and a MA in Applied Mathematics from Hunter College. </p><p>Prior
to teaching, Ben served as a business technology consultant and hedge
fund risk analyst, helping to manage $3 billion in client investments.</p><p>He
is the only candidate with a strong investment background who can be
trusted to keep our pension stable, solvent, and ensure that it
continues to grow.</p><p>Ben is an independent-thinking, union-proud,
classroom educator who will serve the best interests of all NYC
educators. He will fight to fix Tier 6 so all members have a fair
pension and have the option to retire at 55 with the same contributions
that Tier 4 members have.</p><p>He needs 1,000 signatures to get on the
ballot. Please help by circulating his nomination petition (link and QR
code below). Any active in-service TRS member may sign the petition,
including teachers, counselors, school staff, administrators and active
CUNY employees who are members of TRS.</p><p>Please circulate this petition in your school to all NYC TRS members. </p><p><i>Please return signed petitions as quickly as possible. We are hoping to collect all signatures in the next 15 school days.</i></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{"url":"http://tinyurl.com/ben4trs","text":"Download & Print Ballot Petition","action":null,"class":null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="http://tinyurl.com/ben4trs" rel=""><span>Download & Print Ballot Petition</span></a></p><p><span>If you have questions, concerns or comments, contact the Committee to Elect Benjamin Morgenroth at </span><a href="mailto:ben4trs@gmail.com" rel="">ben4trs@gmail.com</a></p><div><hr /></div><h3 class="header-with-anchor-widget">Vote For Ben - Election Day, Wed May 8, 2024<div class="header-anchor-widget offset-top" id="§vote-for-ben-election-day-wed-may"><div class="header-anchor-widget-button-container"><div class="header-anchor-widget-button" href="https://thewire.educators.nyc/i/142161501/vote-for-ben-election-day-wed-may"><svg class="header-anchor-widget-icon" fill="none" height="20" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" stroke-width="2" stroke="currentColor" viewbox="0 0 24 24" width="20" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"></svg></div></div></div></h3><p><i><span>When asking people to sign the petition ballot, please remind and urge them to vote for Ben Morgenroth on </span><b>May 8, 2024</b><span> - </span><b>Election Day.</b></i></p><p>We will share more details about these NYC DOE run elections in the coming days and weeks.</p><div><hr /></div><blockquote><p>Editor’s note: </p></blockquote><blockquote><p>Only
someone with a strong investment background can be trusted to keep our
pension stable, solvent and can skillfully manage it so that it
continues to grow. Ben’s classroom and financial experience and
expertise makes him inarguably the best qualified candidate for teacher
trustee of TRS.</p><p>Mulgrew’s establishment Unity caucus candidate for
this election has served as a pension specialist/union staffer, but is
far removed from being in the classroom full-time. </p><p>And while this
staffer may be helpful in a one-on-one consultation about your service
record and your future payouts, managing a multi-billion dollar pension
fund is not remotely the same responsibility or job description. In the
same way that an oil change/car service specialist by no means makes one
uniquely qualified to be an auto engineer, or to serve on the board of
Ford or Tesla.</p><p>Mulgrew’s trustee candidates are selectively chosen
to be merely rubber-stamps for his agenda and often are years removed
from our classroom perspectives and issues. </p><p>We also know that
Mulgrew’s track record has only proven to bring about the erosion of our
pension and health benefits. Under his watch, we have been burdened by
state’s establishment of Tier 6 and his plan to “fix it” lacks
specifics, vision and strength.</p></blockquote><p><i><b>Ben’s top priorities for managing our pension plan:</b></i></p><ol><li><p>Ensure financial stability and fund solvency to secure financial futures for retirees.</p></li><li><p>Aggressively and judiciously pursue investments that maximize returns while minimizing risk.</p></li><li><p>Hold
webinars and workshops in schools to ensure members understand our
pension, including benefits, investment, and retirement options.</p></li><li><p>Improve pension and disability benefits for members of all tiers.</p></li><li><p><span>Restore the 8.25% TDA rate (received by everyone </span><i>except </i><span>UFT members).</span></p></li><li><p>Restore retirement age to 55 for Tier 6 members.</p></li><li><p>Reduce pension contributions for all tiers and end pension contributions after 10 years of service.</p></li><li><p>Improve
pension flexibility for members who change careers or relocate,
including pension credit for teachers entering from other school
systems.</p></li><li><p>Improve Final Average Salary calculation for pension benefits that better reflect real earnings.</p></li><li><p>Update COLA law for benefit increases that keep pace with inflation.</p></li><li><p>Offer swifter movement of funds between TDA investment options (reduce time lag to one day from the present one to four months).</p></li></ol><div> </div></blockquote><div class="subscription-widget-wrap"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><div><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.tinyurl.com/ben4trs&source=gmail&ust=1709305293114000&usg=AOvVaw1h39SGLnghVr4Uy9qTicgd" href="http://www.tinyurl.com/ben4trs" target="_blank">PLEASE CIRCULATE PETITION</a></div><div>ONLY ACTIVE TRS MEMBERS MAY SIGN</div><div>INCLUDING ADMIN/CSA</div><div><br /><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Help get fellow NYC teacher, Ben Morgenroth, on the ballot for the May election for one of the three teacher trustees who oversee the more than $100 billion in our pension fund. This trustee position is the second to change hands in two years. </span><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We need qualified trustees with a solid financial background like Ben’s to keep our pensions safe and stable. We need to put the best qualified candidate on the ballot and Ben is the most qualified candidate.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ben needs 1,000 signatures to get on the ballot. Please help by circulating his nomination petition (link and QR code below). Any in-service TRS member may sign the petition, including teachers, counselors, school staff, administrators and active CUNY employees who are members of TRS.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ben is an AP Calculus teacher at Brooklyn Tech. He holds a BA in Applied Math-Economics from Brown University, a MA in Applied Mathematics from Hunter College, and has private sector hedge fund experience. He is the only candidate with a strong investment background who can be trusted to keep our pension stable, solvent, and ensure that it continues to grow.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ben is an independent-thinking, union-proud, classroom educator who will serve the best interests of NYC educators. He will fight to fix Tier 6 so all members have a fair pension and have the option to retire at 55 with the same contributions that Tier 4 members have.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Please circulate this petition in your school to all TRS members.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Please return signed petitions as quickly as possible. We are hoping to collect all signatures in the next 10 days.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When asking people to sign, please remind them that we hope we can count on their vote for Morgenroth on </span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">May 8, 2024</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - </span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Election Day</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: medium; display: inline-block; height: 178px; overflow: hidden; width: 173px;"><img class="CToWUd a6T" crossorigin="" data-bit="iit" height="178" src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/xiB_KtU8MjFM_rrnORw0u3SJxqbaIehViEycEx2R61HuNhMs5S5x7T7ytoiIpGpFvTM7uk_WNZ_z4b_zneRknw6UVLWBzeoJiPyPhRrMCLdOgFeUSV22GVcqessHRaYPSblvMpJMVRFFiYdGHajNzLk" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" tabindex="0" width="173" /></span></span></p></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.tinyurl.com/ben4trs&source=gmail&ust=1709305293115000&usg=AOvVaw2vyMpy3TMdzYZZgB2D5iHN" href="http://www.tinyurl.com/ben4trs" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">www.tinyurl.com/ben4trs</span></a></p><br /><br /><p></p></div></div></div>ed notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-36063950720138441472024-02-27T11:03:00.001-05:002024-02-27T12:16:39.674-05:00ICE Met, ICE Talked, ICE Ate - And Other News<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">Feb. 27, 2024 <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">Last Wednesday, ICE had another in-person meeting, the second this year: <a href="https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2024/02/ice-gathers-today-james-eterno-legacy.html">ICE Gathers - James Eterno Legacy, Retiree and TRS Election - is Tom Murphy Toast?, Whither COPE</a></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">Sixteen people showed up, some original ICErs from its founding over 20 years ago, and some newcomers. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">We met for 3 hours and everyone got a chance to talk about the retiree election, the TRS election, a PhD student talked about his thesis on the UFT, Chicago and LA. I have always learned new things at ICE meetings and the congeniality is affirming. We will meet next in person during spring break on April 24 - Bring your own Matzoh. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXXE9pD7uCiJHeuvB9U7xn4osyKgrYOYzjt4WBFVzGPPZRwNuvrPzBA6T7F9SXvmrNu21Yd8_HNahkf70u6SFv3AK8e6m2fVxmV5RNel7CLpfThJbPedQFnfspuZZCZpppURyPHLDpd6CRjriTPk-WvG7_045YD3P1sgnvcASpuRccs6ZH7E3h/s1804/Screenshot%202024-02-27%20at%2011.00.53%E2%80%AFAM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="356" data-original-width="1804" height="63" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXXE9pD7uCiJHeuvB9U7xn4osyKgrYOYzjt4WBFVzGPPZRwNuvrPzBA6T7F9SXvmrNu21Yd8_HNahkf70u6SFv3AK8e6m2fVxmV5RNel7CLpfThJbPedQFnfspuZZCZpppURyPHLDpd6CRjriTPk-WvG7_045YD3P1sgnvcASpuRccs6ZH7E3h/s320/Screenshot%202024-02-27%20at%2011.00.53%E2%80%AFAM.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">Of course there was sadness over the death of core ICEer James Eterno, whose funeral was the day before. Many of us saw each other at the wake. So there was some communal feeling.We talked about a possible memorial for James. Maybe even see if UFT was willing to take part. But the key was the decision to keep ICE going as a tribute to the efforts James put into ICE. This reso was presented and there was agreement on going forward. Over the years, James maintained the blog and I did the listserve and handled meetings. The <a href="https://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/">blog</a> is a key and we are hoping people will step up and contribute. Send me something if you have something to say. Once things settle down in the Eterno household. we hope Camille will take on some role.<br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-171ae89c-7fff-8901-d01a-07bb3087d42d" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></p><blockquote><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-171ae89c-7fff-8901-d01a-07bb3087d42d" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Resolution for the Independent Community of Educators to Continue the Work of James Eterno</span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Whereas the late James Eterno was a co-founder of the Independent Community of Educators (ICE-UFT), was a UFT Presidential candidate in 2010, was part of the committee that formulated the extensive 2010 ICE-UFT platform </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="(http://uftelections2010.blogspot.com/">(http://uftelections2010.blogspot.com/</a>), a long time Chapter Leader, a 12-year member of the UFT Executive Board and fierce advocate of labor unions,</span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Whereas James was determined to keep ICE as a vibrant group that meets regularly and continues to contribute its experience in organizing in the UFT and fighting for a better, militant, democratic UFT,</span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Whereas James was a key organizer in the United for Change coalition in the 2022 UFT election, ran as an Executive Board candidate in UFT elections over 25 years for UFC, MORE, ICE/TJC and New Action as a strident supporter of opposition groups within the UFT, while being a fervent advocate for union, </span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Resolved that ICE will continue to meet on a regular basis, maintain its email list serve and the ICE blog in order to continue the work James did,</span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Resolved that ICE will continue to be open to all UFT members, regardless of caucus affiliation, political persuasion or otherwise</span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Resolved that ICE will continue to serve as venue for civil, open discussions, where union members can respectfully disagree, yet still find common cause in fighting for strong unions and good public schools for all,</span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Resolved that ICE will continue to demand and advocate for a UFT that embraces a variety of viewpoints, open debates on collective strategies, militant unionism, responsive union leadership and engages an active membership,</span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Br it further resolved that ICE will continue to support and participate in union elections as members of coalitions and caucuses that fight for; responsive leadership, engaged membership, and rank and file militant union.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">------</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">Here is some other important news with links to what is going on - so much I would have to spend the day working on it but it's beautiful out, so here's all I got. <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></span></p><h4 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/2024/02/statement-on-asfcme-trusteeship-of.html">Statement on ASFCME Trusteeship of the Retirees Association of DC 37 </a></h4><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name"> </h3><p></p><h2 class="date-header"><span></span></h2>
<div class="date-posts">
<div class="post-outer">
<div class="post hentry uncustomized-post-template" itemprop="blogPost" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting">
<h4 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/2024/02/bennet-fischer-and-marianne-pizzitola.html">Bennett Fischer and Marianne Pizzitola on WBAI with Daniel Alicea "Talk Out of School"</a>
</h4></div></div></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/conversations-with-bennett-fischer-and/id1490313171?i=1000646815704" style="font-family: times;"> https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/conversations-with-bennett-fischer-and/id1490313171?i=1000646815704</a></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">Hey, union family:</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">I’m inviting to join me for a very special broadcast of Talk Out of
School on WBAI 99.5 FM.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">I speak to retired educator and union activist, Bennett Fischer. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Bennett, along with over 300 retirees, is running on the </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="http://retireeadvocate.org" rel="">Retiree Advocate</a><span> slate to lead the </span><a href="https://www.uft.org/chapters/retired-teachers-chapter" rel="">Retired Teachers Chapter</a><span> within the United Federation of Teachers. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="http://retireeadvocate.org" rel="">Retiree Advocate</a><span> (RA) is political caucus in the Retired Teachers Chapter (RTC) of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT).</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://thewire.educators.nyc/p/uft-rtc-election-race-launches-with" rel="">They will challenge Michael Mulgrew’s deeply entrenched Unity caucus with a full slate of three-hundred retired educators</a><span>
— teachers, paraprofessionals, therapists, counselors, nurses,
secretaries and other UFT titles - in the triennial chapter elections
this spring.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">For nearly three years, Retiree
Advocate/UFT and our allies from across the spectrum of NYC municipal
unions, have been fighting to preserve our traditional Medicare
benefits, as they face attacks from the mayor's office, the Municipal
Labor Committee, and Mulgrew, </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://thewire.educators.nyc/p/mulgrew-and-uft-unity-not-mlc-initiated?utm_source=%2Fsearch%2Fintiated&utm_medium=reader2" rel="">the architect behind the city’s privatized Medicare Advantage plan (MAP)</a><span>. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">Health
care decisions should be between us and our doctors. Big private
insurance corporations should not profit at the expense of our health.
Thankfully, RA and NYC retirees are fighting to preserve and strengthen
NYC laws that protect our benefits.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">This upcoming spring retiree
chapter election may have a big impact on our union leadership in
regards to the fight to stave off attempts by the city to force all
Medicare eligible city retirees into the highly litigated and much
maligned MAP.</span></span></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{"url":"http://retireeadvocate.org","text":"Learn more about RA","action":null,"class":null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a class="button primary" href="http://retireeadvocate.org" rel="" style="font-family: times;"><span>Learn more about RA</span></a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">In the second segment, I speak to Marianne Pizzitola, president of the </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="http://nycretirees.org" rel="">New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees</a><span>. Her organization, comprised of NYC retirees from our city’s unions, has been </span><i><b>leading the fight</b></i><span>
against the city and the top establishment union bosses who are
partnering in cost savings healthcare givebacks that endanger the
healthcare benefits of retired and active city workers. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">She
will share updates on the fight the NYC retirees are waging to preserve
their hard earned benefits. We also have an very interesting
conversation about the upcoming RTC election and the history behind the
misuse of the Healthcare Stabilization Fund.</span></span></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{"url":"http://nycretirees.org","text":"Learn more about NYC Retirees","action":null,"class":null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a class="button primary" href="http://nycretirees.org" rel="" style="font-family: times;"><span>Learn more about NYC Retirees</span></a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">You don’t want to miss tonight’s broadcast! You can listen to the livestream on your computer or mobile device at </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="http://wbai.org" rel="">wbai.org</a></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The show will be available to download as a podcast on Apple, Spotify, and here, at </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://thewire.educators.nyc/s/tos" rel="">The Wire</a><span>.</span></span></span></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{"url":"http://wbai.org","text":"Listen live","action":null,"class":null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a class="button primary" href="http://wbai.org" rel="" style="font-family: times;"><span>Listen live</span></a></span></p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">The
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This post is public so feel free to share it.</span></span></p></div><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{"url":"https://thewire.educators.nyc/p/a-special-talk-out-of-school-broadcast?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo2MjkwOTIxLCJwb3N0X2lkIjoxNDIwMjk0OTQsImlhdCI6MTcwODg4MjE2NiwiZXhwIjoxNzExNDc0MTY2LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMjkzNjQ2Iiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.DDOe1Pta1le1A0fIdLb-6vb1OWI1mx5w2NVr0wr8dCc","text":"Share"}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a class="button primary" href="https://thewire.educators.nyc/p/a-special-talk-out-of-school-broadcast?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo2MjkwOTIxLCJwb3N0X2lkIjoxNDIwMjk0OTQsImlhdCI6MTcwODg4MjE2NiwiZXhwIjoxNzExNDc0MTY2LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMjkzNjQ2Iiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.DDOe1Pta1le1A0fIdLb-6vb1OWI1mx5w2NVr0wr8dCc" rel="" style="font-family: times;"><span>Share</span></a></span></p></div><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></span></p><h1 class="post-title unpublished"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">DC37 Retirees Robbed of Voice</span></span></h1><h3 class="subtitle"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">Union bosses prevent them from fighting for Medicare.</span></span></h3><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-flexDirection-column pc-paddingTop-16 pc-paddingBottom-16 pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-12 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset byline-wrapper"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-alignItems-center frontend-pencraft-Box-module__flexGrow--mx4xz pc-reset facepile"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-alignItems-center pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-alignItems-center pc-reset frontend-components-Facepile-module__faces--FVkdk frontend-components-Facepile-module__size-40--pH6IT"><div class="profile-hover-card-target frontend-reader2-ProfileAndPublicationHoverCard-module__profileHoverCardTarget--Od_YL"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a class="pencraft pc-display-flex frontend-pencraft-Box-module__flexAuto--CnX9I pc-reset" href="https://substack.com/profile/153388808-arthur-goldstein" rel="noopener" style="font-family: times;" target="_blank"><picture><source type="image/webp"></source><img alt="" class="frontend-components-responsive_img-module__img--Pgjj2 facepile-face frontend-components-Facepile-module__face--uAQkp frontend-components-Facepile-module__size-40--pH6IT frontend-components-Facepile-module__first--TZamh frontend-components-Facepile-module__last--DT3p3 pencraft pc-reset" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_80,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9a436587-95d8-43f5-a529-bee002dfe06b_144x144.png" style="z-index: 1;" width="80" /></picture></a></span></div></div></div></div></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-flexDirection-column pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-reset frontend-pencraft-Text-module__color-pub-primary-text--RzL7j frontend-pencraft-Text-module__line-height-20--p0dP8 frontend-pencraft-Text-module__font-meta--U_nxy frontend-pencraft-Text-module__size-11--k1e8b frontend-pencraft-Text-module__weight-medium--x7khA frontend-pencraft-Text-module__transform-uppercase--IDkUL frontend-pencraft-Text-module__reset--dW0zZ frontend-pencraft-Text-module__meta--jzHdd"><div class="profile-hover-card-target frontend-reader2-ProfileAndPublicationHoverCard-module__profileHoverCardTarget--Od_YL"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a class="pencraft pc-reset frontend-pencraft-Text-module__decoration-hover-underline--BEYAn frontend-pencraft-Text-module__reset--dW0zZ" href="https://substack.com/@arthurgoldstein" style="font-family: times;">Arthur Goldstein</a></span></div></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-4 pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-reset frontend-pencraft-Text-module__color-pub-secondary-text--OzRTa frontend-pencraft-Text-module__line-height-20--p0dP8 frontend-pencraft-Text-module__font-meta--U_nxy frontend-pencraft-Text-module__size-11--k1e8b frontend-pencraft-Text-module__weight-medium--x7khA frontend-pencraft-Text-module__transform-uppercase--IDkUL frontend-pencraft-Text-module__reset--dW0zZ frontend-pencraft-Text-module__meta--jzHdd"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">Feb 24, 2024</span></span></div></div></div></div></div><p><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://arthurgoldstein.substack.com/p/dc37-retirees-robbed-of-voice?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1752095&post_id=142008068&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=3qu3t&open=false&utm_medium=email "><span style="font-size: medium;">https://arthurgoldstein.substack.com/p/dc37-retirees-robbed-of-voice?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1752095&post_id=142008068&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=3qu3t&open=false&utm_medium=email </span><br /></a></span></p>ed notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-78637462388854572142024-02-21T11:28:00.000-05:002024-02-21T11:28:04.027-05:00ICE Gathers Today - James Eterno Legacy, Retiree and TRS Election - is Tom Murphy Toast?, Whither COPE<p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The past 2 weeks has been wrenching for the many James Eterno fans since he passed on Feb. 6. The past 2 days with the viewing and funeral have brought out hundreds of people. Monday night was very touching seeing so many people who have bonded over the years in union struggles. Watching the coffin be lowered yesterday was beyond sad.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPCODb-8ZPid61pUsa8p8_uwEKPY53iSvl-__JILgrIlykJSh29mSai3mT9SwFvk9CehbmHias_CG0aSuR1_LTz6o5Ch3Kta3EVKIOPrfAQLPNHFYtlFWa8crTF2Ooj0HyBx6vm8RWByhyjlQ3ax1fwVpqjWT_LHBhPwkKnKzHE_Xw4jFh0G-M/s652/Screenshot%202024-02-21%20at%2011.26.19%E2%80%AFAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="652" data-original-width="566" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPCODb-8ZPid61pUsa8p8_uwEKPY53iSvl-__JILgrIlykJSh29mSai3mT9SwFvk9CehbmHias_CG0aSuR1_LTz6o5Ch3Kta3EVKIOPrfAQLPNHFYtlFWa8crTF2Ooj0HyBx6vm8RWByhyjlQ3ax1fwVpqjWT_LHBhPwkKnKzHE_Xw4jFh0G-M/w174-h200/Screenshot%202024-02-21%20at%2011.26.19%E2%80%AFAM.png" width="174" /></a></span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">In
the months before his stroke in May, James was bugging me to start
calling ICE meetings again and we were about to begin but I felt
paralyzed without his counsel.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Today's pre-planned ICE meeting seems so fitting. Jews have healing shiver after funerals. </span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">We will talk about James' legacy and how hard he worked to keep
ICE going after we started working with MORE, especially after ICE left
MORE. Given his efforts, we have no choice but to continue ICE in some form. </span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">We
will have a rice pudding ICE meeting to help us heal. I hope we can talk about the possibility of a memorial for him to celebrate his work.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">There's lots to
talk about regarding the RTC and TRS election (we may have a candidate
at the meeting). </span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The RTC election is looming and how well Retiree Advocate does can be a game changer in the UFT -- I will expand on this in my next post. Our super successful press conference last Friday where we announced we have a full 300 member slate to run and also introduced some of the 10 officer candidates is a good sign. We had heard that Mulgrew is so insecure he wanted to keep Murphy who he knows will be unfailingly loyal and would not trust someone else.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Arthur posted this tweet: </span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><blockquote><span style="color: #660000; font-family: times; font-size: medium;">We're hearing that @UFT RTC boss Tom Murphy will be replaced with
another Mulgrew lackey, who will continue the fight to decimate our
health care. Her working motto is, "I'm not Tom Murphy." Appealing
though that may be, protect your rights and vote for @RetireeAdvocUFT.</span></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">There are some rumors former UFT Spec Ed VP Carmen Alvarez may be the candidate. We remember her shameful testimony at the City Council hearings begging them to change the law so she could have the choice of opting out of the very plan the union was pushing. As a UFT staffer since 1990 she could afford to pay for opting out. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">If Carmen is campaigning inside Unity for the position does that make Mulgrew feel condideent if he does prefer Murphy? Or has Murphy outlived his usefulness and the RA threat is so real they feel they have to make a change? </span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Will Mulgrew run
again in '25 or will be fazed out as it seems Tom Murphy may be as RTC
head? </span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">We will share ideas for the election campaigns at the ICE meeting. And lots more. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">A PhD candidate doing a thesis on the UFT compared to other unions will be at the meeting.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">And if there is time, we will talk about the concept of COPE and should people withdraw in protest or call for some level of more democracy.<br /></span></p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">James
was one of 20 or so founders of ICE 20
years ago in late 2003 when I called a bunch of key people together to
discuss the deal New Action was making with Unity for the 2004 election.
James, Camille, Ellen Fox and Lisa North left New Action to become part
of the future ICE core. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">ICE
ran in the
2004, '07, '10 UFT elections before merging with TJC and others into
MORE. James was the 2010 presidential
candidate against Mulgrew who was running for the first time and Camille
was the UFC candidate vs Mulgrew in the '22 election. James got the
most VP high school votes in the 2016 election but due to UFT election
manipulation rules the VP position are voted on by all UFT members.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">ICE was different, with no official
membership - just show up at a meeting - no steering committee, few if
any limits on what could be discussed - open meetings to all, even from
other caucuses. </span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">One thing that James was so much part of was the sense of family people connected to ICE felt about the group and each other, a feeling I never felt on other groups I was involved in where they were run like a business. ICE has been as much a social group as a union political group. A space where you felt safe enough to bring up issues that would be uncomfortable talking about in other groups. Where you could disagree with the prevailing winds and not get cancelled. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">We set up a zoom this past November and an in-person during the Xmas vacation. And that was so great even if only a
dozen. We talked about issues for almost 3 hours. And everyone seemed to leave happy. We propose an every two month schedule on the Wednesday during school vacations </span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">so
in-service people can attend. The meeting today meets that schedule. The next one would be April 24.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">It's hard to describe what ICE is at this point, given James Eterno's illness and the stillness of the ICE blog which he assiduously maintained over the years. Some mistakenly believed it was his personal blog but James always rejected that idea. He wanted ICE to remain a presence.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>ed notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-68678157661745368922024-02-16T05:35:00.004-05:002024-02-27T09:41:47.514-05:00JOIN US TODAY - Retiree Advocate Campaign Kick-off - 1PM at 52 Broadway followed by celebration - And Party Afterward<div class="gmail_default" style="color: black; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>See video here: <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/127ZCDRrE7657PqwABWonWGnGQZbL5QI8/view">https://drive.google.com/file/d/127ZCDRrE7657PqwABWonWGnGQZbL5QI8/view </a></b></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b> </b></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>300 retirees sign up to run a full slate in the chapter election - and we had to turn people away.</b></span><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><i> </i></span></b></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><i> </i></span></b></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN6EQJDqsmPDD0U0ld5qa6AjOUD-2z1PWzrC5rSkThB_WYVFQ3FRWiR7MMIAQaIWumkwPX6zbQBIVWDEKlwt3o1d339kADgsT6WK05co-EkS-wKVRdZZC7XXDFJnQMNYMaBkCU_n9Gxv-rRMqbXiYLly0FPBVfs3zvgqX7W5csQPoPWtv7-7CO/s1034/Screenshot%202024-02-16%20at%205.28.47%E2%80%AFAM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="868" data-original-width="1034" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN6EQJDqsmPDD0U0ld5qa6AjOUD-2z1PWzrC5rSkThB_WYVFQ3FRWiR7MMIAQaIWumkwPX6zbQBIVWDEKlwt3o1d339kADgsT6WK05co-EkS-wKVRdZZC7XXDFJnQMNYMaBkCU_n9Gxv-rRMqbXiYLly0FPBVfs3zvgqX7W5csQPoPWtv7-7CO/w400-h336/Screenshot%202024-02-16%20at%205.28.47%E2%80%AFAM.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /></i></span></b></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><i> </i></span></b></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>TAKE BACK OUR UNION<br /></i></span></b></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><i> </i></span></b></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" style="color: #222222; font-size: large;"><b><span><i>Retiree Advocate/UFT</i> announces its run in the spring 2024 UFT Retired Teachers Chapter Election</span></b></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" style="color: #222222; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><i>Retiree Advocate/UFT</i></b>,
a caucus of retirees within the United Federation of Teachers, will
open its campaign to win control of the 60,000-member UFT Retired
Teachers Chapter in the spring chapter elections. Candidates will be
introduced at the press event and will greet the public immediately
following, at the White Horse Tavern, 25 Bridge Street, New York, NY.</span><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><i>Retiree Advocate/UFT</i></b> is
fighting to preserve the Medicare benefits that UFT President Michael
Mulgrew, the Municipal Labor Committee, and the NYC Office of Labor
Relations are trying to take away from NYC municipal retirees.</span><div><br /></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;">What: <span class="gmail_default" face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" style="color: black;"><i>Retiree Advocate/UFT</i> </span>Campaign kick-off event</span></b><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;">When: Friday, February 16, 1pm</span></b><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Where: 52 Broadway, New York, NY - in front of the UFT</span></b></div></div></div></div></div></div><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibziV8T3sLCrOi_5gbAsUyKd6WLD7zvCAHImfFVlNevEBXLiTP60S9nLFTS8I8gtCutaEtlr4wNurJnnBF5aaWBKGqF9j5J-SGi8gacEOtfyF5rg77EcTjztTzpH_NxGBG-TknMaZARwFoXKDR4nQUB2puoCZ1kLHcx0ccu1xe4jcCgOGx90rr/s824/Screenshot%202024-02-14%20at%208.54.35%E2%80%AFAM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="190" data-original-width="824" height="74" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibziV8T3sLCrOi_5gbAsUyKd6WLD7zvCAHImfFVlNevEBXLiTP60S9nLFTS8I8gtCutaEtlr4wNurJnnBF5aaWBKGqF9j5J-SGi8gacEOtfyF5rg77EcTjztTzpH_NxGBG-TknMaZARwFoXKDR4nQUB2puoCZ1kLHcx0ccu1xe4jcCgOGx90rr/s320/Screenshot%202024-02-14%20at%208.54.35%E2%80%AFAM.png" width="320" /></a></div><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>From the WIRE: </b></span><br /></p><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-top: 0; margin: 32px auto;"><figure style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 100%;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td align="left" style="text-align: center;" width="522"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/d8469bb4-c9c7-43d4-b423-16bd0b0d7268?j%3DeyJ1IjoiM3F1M3QifQ.uX8umPzUb6HBRPsqNLM7sW1fohFkrR5HHG4iJQ3YrxM&source=gmail&ust=1708089208442000&usg=AOvVaw15sgKt69kK45X9Q-GpYlzC" href="https://substack.com/redirect/d8469bb4-c9c7-43d4-b423-16bd0b0d7268?j=eyJ1IjoiM3F1M3QifQ.uX8umPzUb6HBRPsqNLM7sW1fohFkrR5HHG4iJQ3YrxM" rel="" style="border: medium; display: block; height: auto; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; width: auto;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="CToWUd" data-bit="iit" height="652.5" src="https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/meips/ADKq_NY_C2E7swpCjL8G9Snyr52uolPO8wRJ5J2o5_sljEQ-zVFpmCnrTup0fTDbHCvMS9QId3reXRwHoWEnFon3-QeWT6NKx3qY5KDgTb_lCNqfGZf-5B_vNec1JVLKiYUJYNf0q384hZ_K0Lj9u1HjVjXNwUMuz28bIFu3vWdRs7m1pMmxe8oshcFs_Kd5zEMZhXFQ8GdxEu4OUy2SgWR3EsJVHl43KY6OOphWipRCCxoXg5co6x3HO3ax2QDXR420-LENlxtpEFmHcZkCCh_S-5NygPCYMBJ4YebEPRO0uCMgQKLHvCV_FbuDYg=s0-d-e1-ft#https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_522,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fef34f76a-d842-4d20-885e-dd2ab2418188_1080x1350.png" style="border: medium; display: block; height: auto; margin-bottom: 0; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: auto;" width="522" /></a></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table></figure></div><p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span class="il">A</span>
group of retired teachers chose to take back their retiree chapter!
Let's support them. If you are available to support them in <span class="il">a</span> kick-off event, tomorrow, in front of UFT HQ, join them for <span class="il">a</span> day of celebration to launch their campaign!</p><p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">Retiree Advocate/UFT, <span class="il">a</span> caucus of retirees within <span class="il">the</span> United Federation of Teachers, will open its campaign to win control of <span class="il">the</span> 70,000+ member UFT Retired Teachers Chapter in <span class="il">the</span> spring chapter elections. </p><p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><b>Candidates will be introduced at <span class="il">the</span> press event and will greet <span class="il">the</span> public immediately following, at <span class="il">the</span> White Horse Tavern, 25 Bridge Street, New York, NY.</b></p><p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">Retiree Advocate/UFT (RA) is fighting to preserve <span class="il">the</span> Medicare benefits that UFT President Michael Mulgrew, <span class="il">the</span> Municipal Labor Committee, and <span class="il">the</span> NYC Office of Labor Relations are trying to take away from NYC municipal retirees.</p><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;"><hr style="background: rgb(224, 224, 224); border: medium; height: 1px; margin: 32px 0px; padding: 0px;" /></div><p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><b>What:</b><span> Retiree Advocate/UFT Campaign kick-off event</span></p><p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><b>When: </b><span>Friday, February 16, 1pm</span></p><p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><b>Where: </b><span>52 Broadway, New York, NY - in front of <span class="il">the</span> UFT</span></p><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;"><hr style="background: rgb(224, 224, 224); border: medium; height: 1px; margin: 32px 0px; padding: 0px;" /></div><blockquote style="border-left: 4px solid rgb(221, 33, 96); margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-left: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><b>Editor’s note</b><span>: Clearly, this election for <span class="il">the</span> retiree chapter is <span class="il">a</span> referendum on President Michael Mulgrew. <span class="il">The</span> embattled </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/533899ff-3137-49c4-8e36-f7f10ed39778?j%3DeyJ1IjoiM3F1M3QifQ.uX8umPzUb6HBRPsqNLM7sW1fohFkrR5HHG4iJQ3YrxM&source=gmail&ust=1708089208442000&usg=AOvVaw1kc3fnwERvr4CKdwMJFiSN" href="https://substack.com/redirect/533899ff-3137-49c4-8e36-f7f10ed39778?j=eyJ1IjoiM3F1M3QifQ.uX8umPzUb6HBRPsqNLM7sW1fohFkrR5HHG4iJQ3YrxM" rel="" style="color: #dd2160; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Mulgrew is <span class="il">the</span> self-proclaimed architect of <span class="il">the</span> unpopular, highly litigated, privatized Medicare Advantage Plan that he, along with <span class="il">the</span> City and MLC, seek to force on all city retirees</a><span>. </span></p><p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-left: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">Many UFT members are frustrated with Mulgrew’s handling of <span class="il">the</span> depletion of our benefits, like healthcare and pensions, by acting unilaterally and his stifling of union democracy.</p><p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-left: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span class="il">The</span>
Retiree Advocate slate of officers and 300 delegates will receive
cross-caucus and independent members’ support and endorsements. </p><p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-left: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span><span class="il">The</span> </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/2756a036-c1fe-4593-b9b8-0212bd5f86eb?j%3DeyJ1IjoiM3F1M3QifQ.uX8umPzUb6HBRPsqNLM7sW1fohFkrR5HHG4iJQ3YrxM&source=gmail&ust=1708089208443000&usg=AOvVaw1cyKrsFvIfER0u0GI-WkrN" href="https://substack.com/redirect/2756a036-c1fe-4593-b9b8-0212bd5f86eb?j=eyJ1IjoiM3F1M3QifQ.uX8umPzUb6HBRPsqNLM7sW1fohFkrR5HHG4iJQ3YrxM" rel="" style="color: #dd2160; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees</a><span>, <span class="il">a</span>
labor organization with over 20k retired municipal workers, including
retired educators, and led by Marianne Pizzitola, has also signaled
support for <span class="il">the</span> Retiree Advocate/UFT member-driven campaign to take back their union.</span></p><p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-left: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">Visit <span class="il">the</span> RA Facebook page to learn more. <br /></p></blockquote><p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-align: center;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/3a42fdc4-d6e6-4793-b3c0-34576843c447?j%3DeyJ1IjoiM3F1M3QifQ.uX8umPzUb6HBRPsqNLM7sW1fohFkrR5HHG4iJQ3YrxM&source=gmail&ust=1708089208443000&usg=AOvVaw0Gdj8ewILQMgA-GwbjmB6g" href="https://substack.com/redirect/3a42fdc4-d6e6-4793-b3c0-34576843c447?j=eyJ1IjoiM3F1M3QifQ.uX8umPzUb6HBRPsqNLM7sW1fohFkrR5HHG4iJQ3YrxM" rel="" style="background-color: #dd2160; border-radius: 6px; border: medium; box-sizing: border-box; color: white; display: inline-block; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600; height: auto; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; opacity: 1; outline: none; padding: 12px 20px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;" target="_blank"><span style="color: white; text-decoration: none;">Visit RA Facebook page</span></a></p>ed notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-25291680969702513152024-02-14T09:35:00.001-05:002024-02-16T05:39:02.882-05:00Will Mulgrew Flip Flop on Mayoral Control Like Randi did in 2009?<p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_2YAWR0ytbQo/Sif8ShlEEdI/AAAAAAAAFEY/edEas2PWFJw/s1600-h/randi-dip.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="369" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5343516878080053714" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_2YAWR0ytbQo/Sif8ShlEEdI/AAAAAAAAFEY/edEas2PWFJw/w418-h369/randi-dip.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 231px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 262px;" width="418" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Randi and Bloomberg do the flip in mayoral control renewal 2009<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #660000;"></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"> <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Deja vu all over again?<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Mulgrew at the Feb. 2024 DA on Mayoral control – </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #660000;">-----when it sunsets, know what our position is. Want to be
a little bit more. Position mayoral control, went through Cleveland’s,
Boston’s, New Haven’s – they have mayoral control, the mayor chooses the
final decision making panel (i.e. PEP), but the Mayor may only choose
from people selected by nominating committee, of which they often have
little control. Once put on these boards, they’re on a fixed term, mayor
can’t do anything about it. Not saying what want, but have to dispel
myth that changing mayoral control from way it is here—with mayor
picking majority of PEP—is only version of mayoral control. People here
fired for not doing what they’re told – that’s crap. Goal of last week
was to tie different things together. Has the mayor supplanted school
funding (yes), was there a financial reason (no)... How do you give the mayor any sort of control, who supplants funding,
who removes money from funding despite being bound to lower class sizes
by NYS law. One thing in that law that allows process to be stopped.
Happens in a year in a half. Had all the money we needed and since then
2.5 billion dollars have been taken out of the capital plan, because
trying to use financial review period to stop the law. ... <a href="https://newaction.org/uft-delegate-assembly-notes-2-7-2014/">Nick Bacon Notes at NAC</a></span></span></blockquote><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://newaction.org/uft-delegate-assembly-notes-2-7-2014/"></a></span><p></p><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Let me take you back to the 2009 battle over renewal of mayoral control:<br /></span></p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 fAQmnu body-paragraph" style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 fAQmnu body-paragraph"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 fAQmnu body-paragraph"><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">Chalkbeat/Gotham Schools: The frustration began with <a href="http://gothamschools.org/2009/05/21/rise-shine-randi-says-she-can-abide-a-mayor-controlled-pep/">a May 21, 2009 New York Post column</a>,
in which Weingarten indicated that she is open to allowing the mayor to
continue appointing a majority of members to the citywide school board.
A union task force <a href="http://gothamschools.org/2009/02/02/uft-set-to-suggest-yanking-majority-of-board-votes-from-mayor/">recommended</a>
in February that the state legislature reverse that majority as a way
to strengthen the board, known as the Panel for Education Policy or PEP.</span></p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 fAQmnu body-paragraph"><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">Weingarten’s
Post op/ed dismayed some members of her own union. “I was quite
disappointed and angry, actually,” said Lisa North, a teacher who sat on
the union’s task force to consider revisions to mayoral control.</span></p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 fAQmnu body-paragraph"><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">North
said the task force never seriously considered recommending that the
mayor keep his majority of appointments, and so when union delegates
ratified the committee’s final recommendations, she expected Weingarten
to promote them. “The delegate assembly is supposed to be the highest
authority of the union, and it voted for it,” she said.</span></p></blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I wrote this in June, 2009 - Weingarten Didn't Flip on Mayoral Control-- <span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;">UFT positioning is akin to planes spreading tin foil to try to fool radar.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #660000;">We opposed the very idea of a phony UFT task force dominated by Unity
Caucus that would give cover to Randi's doing what she intended to do
anyway over the past 7 years. (I have been a lone voice in ICE urging
boycotting these farce task forces.) I spoke to Philissa (Kramer of Gotham) and made the point that Randi's flipping
on the constitution of the PEP panel is just flack covering Randi's
consistent support for mayoral control. More egregious, I told her, is
her modifying the report of the UFT task force that spent a year
addressing the issue that was voted upon at a delegate assembly. One of
the few good things the report <a href="http://gothamschools.org/2009/02/02/uft-set-to-suggest-yanking-majority-of-board-votes-from-mayor/">recommended</a>
was taking away the mayor's ability to appoint a majority of the PEP.
That is where Randi has flipped. The task force was c0-headed by UFT VP
Carmen Alvarez, who has been racing around the city representing the UFT
on panel discussions and trying to give the impression the UFT supports
checks and balances. Tsk, tsk, Carmen.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #660000;">“I do feel betrayed,” said Michael Fiorillo, another chapter leader who
sat on the union’s task force. “I just wish I could say I felt
surprised.” He said Weingarten has veered away from members’ consensus
on other topics in the past, and so he had early doubts that she would
hold firm on the task force’s recommendations. (Fiorillo ultimately
voted against the recommendations, saying they weren’t aggressive enough
curbs on mayoral control.) “My guess would be the sense of betrayal
would be stronger among people outside the union,” Fiorillo said, noting
that union members were accustomed to watching Weingarten change her
mind.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #660000;">Weingarten doesn't exactly change her mind. What she does is throw up
lots of tin foil like those planes trying to foil radar detection do in
manipulating public perception of where the UFT stands. It is necessary
to see through the flack and keep one's eye on where the real plane with
the bomb is.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #660000;">Why does the UFT leadership love mayoral control? Because it allows them
to negotiate in back rooms with one person instead of opening up the
process to democratic scrutiny. Totalitarians behave that way. When
Obama was talking in Cairo today about bringing the light of democracy
to places of darkness he might has well been talking about mayoral
control and the UFT.</span></span></p></blockquote><div class="post-header">
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">As I said then I do support the UFT current position of opposing the mayor choosing a majority of members on the PEP but will they stick to that position? Mulgrew </span><span style="font-size: medium;">still claims to be for mayoral control. If the mayor can't appoint a majority is it really mayoral control? Yes in the world of UFT machinations. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> <span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKtF-WTZR4AMUs-PgkZ8nhovQZTm97Ac2G_H6BxXxJpLzIzSwadjJzdHKKOrEwE2JcFwvE_KdJMj4Jvcn8NDSbnAzGE349XsLnYEDnf7bBEQ88CENzA8FsbimyA3yewb0RRyX56LIycxmYpFKaXnpdL1fej-EsQmZxGD4Gh-EbmKDxXpD75FF8/s764/Screenshot%202024-02-13%20at%2010.31.27%E2%80%AFPM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="764" data-original-width="638" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKtF-WTZR4AMUs-PgkZ8nhovQZTm97Ac2G_H6BxXxJpLzIzSwadjJzdHKKOrEwE2JcFwvE_KdJMj4Jvcn8NDSbnAzGE349XsLnYEDnf7bBEQ88CENzA8FsbimyA3yewb0RRyX56LIycxmYpFKaXnpdL1fej-EsQmZxGD4Gh-EbmKDxXpD75FF8/w534-h640/Screenshot%202024-02-13%20at%2010.31.27%E2%80%AFPM.png" width="534" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">There is some teeth here but it still leaves the school system under the management of the Mayor who still gets to pick the Chancellor. (How about the PEP picking the chancellor?)</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I don't want to see one man in control of the schools, especially with the privatization move. Imagine Giuliani in control. <br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We know from years and years - say about 50 or more, that the UFT fears the public getting too much influence. The argument has been "let the professionals"run the schools but the mayor is not a professional and often clueless. Look, no system is perfect. Even the ICE plan put forth in 2009 calling for a bottom up system where School Leadership Teams (SLTs) play a major role. It's detailed but worth reading - I posted it on the ICE blog last month - <a href="https://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/2024/01/mayoral-control-history-repeats.html">Mayoral Control: History Repeats</a>.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">If you look through Ed Notes searching for mayoral control you will see me pounding the UFT leadership over the years, especially in the 2009 renewal battle where Randi did a flip flop when she changed her mind and
renounced the position of the UFT's own Task Force on this very issue, thus handing Bloomberg another 4 years of control.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;">
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<p class="date-header" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>Sunday, May 24, 2009 - </span><a href="https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2009/05/nyc-teacher-arthur-goldstein-speaks-out.html">NYC Teacher Arthur Goldstein Speaks Out Against Mayoral Control</a></span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Marjorie Stamberg points to the flaws in the UFT 2009 position with something that could written today.<br /></span></p><p class="date-header" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>Wednesday, May 27, 2009 - </span><a href="https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2009/05/bloomberg-front-group-uses-uft-pro.html">Bloomberg Front Group Uses UFT Pro-Mayoral Control Position</a></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">I just got an e-mail from our Chapter Leader alerting us that Mayor
Bloomberg's funded lobbying group, Learn NY, is lurking outside the
schools asking teachers to sign a petition supporting mayoral control.
Even worse, they are saying that this is the UFT's position, so they're
telling teachers it's ok to sign the petition. ...</span></p><p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">starting in 2002 the union supported Bloomberg's power grab for control
of the schools. Even today it says "the UFT's support for mayoral
control was instrumental of the passage of the law" (from UFT School
Governance Task Force report, February 2009). ... despite its talk of "checks and balances," the UFT's proposal says
explicitly that "the mayor should retain control of the school system"
by selecting the chancellor, appointing five members of an education
policy council, and control of the budget.<br /><br />The UFT's
"modifications" are for a couple more members to the education council
appointed by the city council types, and a couple less appointed by the
mayor. As if that would fundamentally change anything. As for the
P.E.P.--the Panel for Educational Policy, it has well earned it's
nickname of "Panel for Educational Puppets." </span></p><p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">When the vote on the UFT's position came up at February's special
delegate assembly, many delegates were deeply concerned about any form
of mayoral control. Many wanted the vote put off until they could bring
it back to their chapter members for discussion. People had at most a
couple days to look at the UFT report. But the vote was rammed through.<br /><br />So, it's no wonder Bloomberg's hacks and flacks are trying to capitalize on the glaring ambiguity in the UFT's position.</span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And Randi even flip flopped off even these minor reforms, as pointed out in the Chalkbeat and NY Post articles below. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Will Mulgrew do a Randi flip on appointing a majority of PEP members? </b>And by the way -- that is no panacea because the mayor can influence others who appoint and get his way anyway. <br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2009/6/4/21085414/randi-weingarten-under-fire-for-mayoral-control-position/&source=gmail&ust=1707743286679000&usg=AOvVaw0bfXAV_lTK8YSv4DWy_58P" href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2009/6/4/21085414/randi-weingarten-under-fire-for-mayoral-control-position/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.chalkbeat.org/newy<wbr></wbr>ork/2009/6/4/21085414/randi-<wbr></wbr>weingarten-under-fire-for-<wbr></wbr>mayoral-control-position/</a></span></p><p class="byline" style="text-align: left;"></p><section class="main" id="main" role="main" tabindex="-1"><div class="container layout-section"><h1 class="b-headline"></h1></div></section><blockquote><section class="main" id="main" role="main" tabindex="-1"><div class="container layout-section"><h1 class="b-headline"><span style="font-size: medium;">Randi Weingarten under fire for mayoral control position</span></h1><div class="byline"><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"><span class="author">By <div class="Page-byline"><div class="Page-authors"><a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/authors/philissa-cramer">Philissa Cramer</a></div></div></span><span class="separator"> | </span><span class="date">June 4, 2009, 12:27am EDT</span></span></div></div></section><div class="container layout-section"><article class="default__ArticleBodyCivic-sc-1px4eze-2 bekrrS article-body-wrapper"><figure class="c-media-item article-body-image-container article-body-image-container--mobile-right-float"><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"><img alt="" class="c-image" data-chromatic="ignore" height="240" src="https://www.chalkbeat.org/resizer/v2/GIRAJKSV2BGIFHM3F2SA5RU42M.jpg?auth=26d8272e0e9fba285bc4ddda8324d528f22b96d39d63649461b7507fd820a8f6&quality=85&width=400&height=300" width="320" /></span><figcaption class="c-media-item__fig-caption"><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"><span class="c-media-item__caption">Randi Weingarten testifying at a mayoral control hearing in February. (GothamSchools) </span></span></figcaption></figure><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 fAQmnu body-paragraph"><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">A
group of parent activists and union members is expressing anger with
teachers union leader Randi Weingarten, telling her that she has dropped
the ball in fighting for checks to the mayor’s power over schools.</span></p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 fAQmnu body-paragraph"><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">The frustration began with <a href="http://gothamschools.org/2009/05/21/rise-shine-randi-says-she-can-abide-a-mayor-controlled-pep/">a May 21 New York Post column</a>,
in which Weingarten indicated that she is open to allowing the mayor to
continue appointing a majority of members to the citywide school board.
A union task force <a href="http://gothamschools.org/2009/02/02/uft-set-to-suggest-yanking-majority-of-board-votes-from-mayor/">recommended</a>
in February that the state legislature reverse that majority as a way
to strengthen the board, known as the Panel for Education Policy or PEP.</span></p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 fAQmnu body-paragraph"><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">Weingarten’s
Post op/ed dismayed some members of her own union. “I was quite
disappointed and angry, actually,” said Lisa North, a teacher who sat on
the union’s task force to consider revisions to mayoral control.</span></p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 fAQmnu body-paragraph"><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">North
said the task force never seriously considered recommending that the
mayor keep his majority of appointments, and so when union delegates
ratified the committee’s final recommendations, she expected Weingarten
to promote them. “The delegate assembly is supposed to be the highest
authority of the union, and it voted for it,” she said.</span></p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 fAQmnu body-paragraph"><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">In
an interview today, Weingarten acknowledged that people have reached
out to her with concerns about her position, including her own union
members. “I did get a couple of e-mails from members saying, ‘Why are
you doing what you’re doing?'” she said. She said that she empathizes
with those concerns. “I totally and completely understand and concur
with the frustrations that many have that this mayor and this chancellor
have not listened to and respected enough the voices of those who go to
our schools, their parents, and those who teach them,” she said.</span></p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 fAQmnu body-paragraph"><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">But
she also said that she has to weigh concerns about checking the mayor’s
power against the reasons she supported giving the mayor control in
2002. “It’s always been a balance of stability, cohesion, and
responsibility, which is what mayoral control brought us, and modifying
it to create sufficient checks and balances and transparency,”
Weingarten said.</span></p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 fAQmnu body-paragraph"><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">Parent
leaders, who had hoped to ally with the United Federation of Teachers
to lobby in Albany, also say they feel alienated by Weingarten. Lisa
Donlan, a Manhattan parent who is part of the Parent Commission on
School Governance, which is calling for significant changes to mayoral
control, said the Post column ended discussions between the union and
parent leaders who are strategizing about how to lobby lawmakers. Donlan
said the Parent Commission had been trying to identify areas of
agreement among all of the groups who have suggested revisions to
mayoral control so that it could present a unified slate of
recommendations in Albany.</span></p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 fAQmnu body-paragraph"><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">“We
felt very comfortable going into that conversation [with the UFT] that
we all believe that the mayor should not have control of the central
board,” Donlan told me.</span></p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 fAQmnu body-paragraph"><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">The
confidence disappeared with the Post article, Donlan said. “That
conversation did stop when [Weingarten] pulled back on the composition
of the PEP,” she said. “We feel very disappointed that we don’t have the
UFT advocating any more for that shift at the central level, where
policy is made.”</span></p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 fAQmnu body-paragraph"><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">Activists
within the teachers’ union are also showing their concern. “The idea
that [Weingarten] would have a task force that spent a year studying the
issue and then on her own, say something different … This is a betrayal
of the task force concept,” said union activist Norm Scott.</span></p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 fAQmnu body-paragraph"><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">“I
do feel betrayed,” said Michael Fiorillo, another chapter leader who
sat on the union’s task force. “I just wish I could say I felt
surprised.” He said Weingarten has veered away from members’ consensus
on other topics in the past, and so he had early doubts that she would
hold firm on the task force’s recommendations. (Fiorillo ultimately
voted against the recommendations, saying they weren’t aggressive enough
curbs on mayoral control.)</span></p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 fAQmnu body-paragraph"><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">“My
guess would be the sense of betrayal would be stronger among people
outside the union,” Fiorillo said, noting that union members were
accustomed to watching Weingarten change her mind.</span></p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 fAQmnu body-paragraph"><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">In
the interview, Weingarten emphasized two checks to the mayor’s power
that do not involve the school board: empowering district
superintendents and parent councils to have more decision-making power.
“There’s different kinds of ways to get to the standards I just set
out,” she said, referring to her commitment to ensuring “checks and
balances” and “transparency.”</span></p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 fAQmnu body-paragraph"><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">Weingarten’s
critics say that checks and balances are insufficient in a system that
is fundamentally flawed. “From the Parent Commission’s point of view,
unless we change the balance of power, all of the minor adjustments to
the system would be severely handicapped,” Donlan said.</span></p></article></div></blockquote><div class="container layout-section"><article class="default__ArticleBodyCivic-sc-1px4eze-2 bekrrS article-body-wrapper"><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 fAQmnu body-paragraph"></p></article></div><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"><span class="date"></span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">And the Randi flip: <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://nypost.com/2009/05/21/mayoral-control-2-0/&source=gmail&ust=1707743286679000&usg=AOvVaw2G7OQePUCGdy12BiRtIA7b" href="https://nypost.com/2009/05/21/mayoral-control-2-0/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://nypost.com/2009/05/21/<wbr></wbr>mayoral-control-2-0/</a></span></p><h3 class="headline headline--single-fallback" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></h3><p></p><blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"></p><h3 class="headline headline--single-fallback" style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">
MAYORAL CONTROL 2.0 </span></h3>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"><span>Published </span>
<span>May 21, 2009, 6:25 a.m. ET</span></span>
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<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"> MOST of us who backed the 2002 law that gives the mayor
control of the city’s schools believed that it would bring stability,
accountability and cohesion to the system. We still believe there is
promise in that model, and we want to see the law, which expires next
month, renewed. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"> That is why we are offering the following suggestions to preserve it. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"> As many New Yorkers know, we think the model can be improved, based
upon what we have learned in the last seven years, by creating more
checks and balances. Think of it as Mayoral Control 2.0. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"> We have thought that a good way to do this would be to reduce the
number of mayoral appointees on the 13-member Panel for Education
Policy, which must approve policy changes, from eight to five. The mayor
would no longer control a majority of members, but others with a stake
in the system would be empowered. We have backed such a change in the
law. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"> But because Mayor Bloomberg, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver,
Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith and others (including The Post)
have disagreed, why not consider other possibilities that maintain the
mayoral majority on the PEP but similarly provide for greater public
input, broader discussion and more checks and balances on the mayor’s
prerogatives? </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"> What sort of alternative measures might work? Ultimately, it’s up
to the Legislature to decide, but here are some suggestions: </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"> * Give PEP members fixed terms. Under the current law, the mayor
can remove his appointees at any time. Giving them fixed terms instead
would make them more independent and allow them to weigh in on issues
without fear of being removed. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"> * Require the panel to hold hearings on the school system’s expense
and capital budgets. Although decisions may ultimately rest with the
mayor and the Department of Education, public exposure and debate of
these issues might also serve as a useful check. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"> * Have policy proposals made in public in advance of panel
meetings, complete with a list of pros and cons about the issues being
voted on. Again, the additional debate and exposure could help inform —
and improve — ideas pushed by the mayor and could act as a brake on
ill-conceived plans. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"> * Structure meetings to allow for more public discussion and have them broadcast and archived online. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"> The point here is not that any one of these measures is a
prerequisite for renewing the law, but rather to note that there are
many different possible ways to make improvements, bolster public input
and provide greater balance. Indeed, other ideas may yet surface that
would accomplish these goals. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"> In the end, all of us want a governance structure that creates and
nurtures high-quality, safe learning environments that prepare children
for college and life. The best such structure would ensure real
discussion and debate before major policy shifts occur by creating an
institutional voice for parents, students and teachers. That would lead
to policies that best serve the interests of all parties. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"> We know, for example, that schools that are collaborative, where
teachers’ voices are heard and respected, are better for learning.
Likewise, schools with parental input are inherently stronger. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"> Thus, the Legislature could bolster the law to strengthen
school-leadership teams, district-leadership teams and
community-education councils as the 2002 law originally envisioned.
Rather than being marginalized, these entities should be able to carry
out their responsibilities so that parents have a role in decisions
affecting their children and have their issues addressed. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"> Superintendents, who for a long time served as an important link
between their communities and the central Department of Education,
should also be re-empowered to provide schools with more local support,
strengthen instruction and improve parental access. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"> To improve confidence in student-achievement data and increase
transparency over spending, the Legislature could require broader access
to the numbers — and perhaps even an independent analysis. The public’s
trust in the data is crucial to its confidence in the system as a
whole. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"> Finally, lawmakers should strengthen oversight and enforcement
mechanisms. One shouldn’t have to go to court or hold a protest to get
the school system to do the right thing. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"> There are many different ways to run our schools. As the debate
over governance moves forward, we should be looking for ways to ensure
that every child has a quality public school to attend that actually
improves outcomes for its students. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"> Every company can improve its products. Teachers consistently work
to improve their methods. So, too, can the Legislature produce a Mayoral
Control 2.0 that improves the current system without totally reversing
course. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"> Doing so would put the city on the right track. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"> Randi Weingarten is president of the United Federation of Teachers.</span></p><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"> </span></p></blockquote><p></p>ed notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-44298160426801851672024-02-13T19:33:00.008-05:002024-02-13T22:30:35.236-05:00 Viewing and Funeral Service for James Eterno: Feb. 19, Feb. 20<p>The family and the many friends and fans of James Eterno have been through a ten-month wrenching experience. James' political family in ICE has had a meeting scheduled for Feb. 21 before we learned of James' passing. That will be a very appropriate way to remember him just a day after the funeral. There will be sadness but there will also be laughter.</p><p><br /></p><h4 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/2024/02/viewing-and-funeral-service-for-james.html">Viewing and Funeral Service for James Eterno</a>
</h4>
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<div class="post-header-line-1"></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">On Monday, February 19, 2024, we gather
to honor the memory of James Eterno, a remarkable individual who left
an indelible mark on the educational landscape and the hearts of those
who knew him. James, a retired educator and passionate union activist,
dedicated his life to advocating for the rights of teachers and
students.<br /><b><br /></b></span><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Viewing and Prayer Service</b></span><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Date: Monday, February 19, 2024</span></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Viewing: 4:00 PM to 9:00 PM</span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Prayer Service: 7:00 PM</span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Location: Martin A. Gleason Funeral Home, 149-20 Northern Blvd, Flushing, NY 11354</span></li></ul></div><div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Funeral Service and Interment</b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />On Tuesday, February 20, 2024, we come together once more to bid farewell to James and lay him to rest.</span></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Funeral Service: 12:00 PM</span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Location: St. John’s Cemetery, 80-01 Metropolitan Ave, Middle Village, NY 11379</span></li></ul></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">James
Eterno’s impact extended far beyond the classroom. His dedication,
resilience, and love for his community will forever resonate. As we
gather to honor him, let us reflect on the lessons he taught us and the
passion he instilled in our hearts.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />May his memory be a blessing and may his legacy live on.</span>
</div></div></div></div><p> </p>ed notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-7783896695430684122024-02-13T14:19:00.004-05:002024-02-13T22:12:17.286-05:00Chronicling Democratic Party Immolation - Special Election NY3 - How A Dem Win is really a Loss when they adopt the republican view of immigration<p><span style="font-size: large;"><b></b></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-size: large;"><b style="color: #660000;">We're fucked ... many Democrats</b></span></blockquote><span style="font-size: large;"><b></b></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Sometimes I feel like rooting for Dems to lose due to their ineptness. Note the hysteria over the Republican special counsel appointed by Merrick Garland so he can look like's he's playing fair with Republicans. James Carville even said - what law says all special counsels have to be Republicans? </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-size: medium;">UPDATE: At 10PM Suozzi is looking good and the Dems will take that as a way to move to the right. The long-time implications are not going to be good in terms of solving our problems when one party is nuts and the other fundamentally acts like the way the other party did.<br /></span></blockquote><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib8ZK_zLjRs1isdjCXBEYu-buxkelMtNW5he7MyS24W21TMS2FCjAGFllRiuWeeUbMsRwteiLVZsMwFHHGcxkRN5XJ5ehglaSsrwqqgMcaRjEKz9fIoBtbciALKkuhfzRyjsZ0RTsMytWR587dGd-enPEyB0lLhHJQBuuCjoZJTTrBy80qjoBZ/s932/Screenshot%202024-02-13%20at%202.17.25%E2%80%AFPM.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="932" data-original-width="756" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib8ZK_zLjRs1isdjCXBEYu-buxkelMtNW5he7MyS24W21TMS2FCjAGFllRiuWeeUbMsRwteiLVZsMwFHHGcxkRN5XJ5ehglaSsrwqqgMcaRjEKz9fIoBtbciALKkuhfzRyjsZ0RTsMytWR587dGd-enPEyB0lLhHJQBuuCjoZJTTrBy80qjoBZ/s320/Screenshot%202024-02-13%20at%202.17.25%E2%80%AFPM.png" width="260" /></a></span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">And their defense of Biden - who is desperate to get money to Ukraine or Israel but not so desperate to get money for oh say, childcare or children in poverty. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">And let me remind you that our own lovable UFT center right leadership is part and parcel of the very same fabric of the Dem party and their policy stances reflect that. And Dem party in NYS under Jacobs is one of the most inept -- <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">If Suozzi wins even by a hair, watch the celebration. But they have to do it all over again in November. Suozzi is on the right of the Dem party and ran to the right of Hochul in the gov race. Jacobs gotta go no matter what.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">If you want to see an example of an analysis of the fundamental failures of the Democratic Party and their never taking responsibility for their actions and placing blame on the left or the media of the failure of the public to get their message watch the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/mmHF2jmUjvI?si=Kdmb5HBejFCW73P1">Sam Seder interview</a> with Luke Goldstein on today's crucial election where I can't really root for Suozzi. Some say if he loses or its close that will send a message to the Dems to shift course from their right wing tack ala the Clintons of the 90s which led down the path to Trump.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The fact that right wing Democrat Suozzi is barely ahead against Mazi Pilip after the Republican George Santos disaster is a sign of the Dem disaster. Part of me wants them to lose so bad they go away and something new and vigorous can grow. Someone compared the Dems to the waffling Whigs of the 1840s from which arose a potent Republican Party in the 1850s.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Immigration is a biggie in this election and the Dems have become the right wing Republicans on the issue of immigration with no alternative narrative. So watch the outcome tonight -- it will be close and to me that's a Dem loss even if they win. The Dems have put $7 million into this campaign while letting APAC savage the Progressive wing of the party -- all people of color, bty. So if you wonder about slippage with people of color .... </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">They interview <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://am-quickie.ghost.io/r/a1d4592a?m%3D090953a3-4325-4922-941d-a16465b0a653&source=gmail&ust=1707920079465000&usg=AOvVaw3H-4UG2Ro2YcB6lzzwmind" href="https://am-quickie.ghost.io/r/a1d4592a?m=090953a3-4325-4922-941d-a16465b0a653" rel="noopener" style="color: #341aff; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Luke Goldstein</a>, writing fellow at <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://am-quickie.ghost.io/r/8c72bcca?m%3D090953a3-4325-4922-941d-a16465b0a653&source=gmail&ust=1707920079465000&usg=AOvVaw2wwbkC3idhaskw7X82GO2l" href="https://am-quickie.ghost.io/r/8c72bcca?m=090953a3-4325-4922-941d-a16465b0a653" rel="noopener" style="color: #341aff; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">The American Prospect</a></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/mmHF2jmUjvI?si=Kdmb5HBejFCW73P1">https://www.youtube.com/live/mmHF2jmUjvI?si=Kdmb5HBejFCW73P1</a></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">and here is Luke Goldstein's article</span><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://am-quickie.ghost.io/r/df2f3cbc?m%3D090953a3-4325-4922-941d-a16465b0a653&source=gmail&ust=1707920079465000&usg=AOvVaw37YmiK8j3ZIHFGaWqr7PZ4" href="https://am-quickie.ghost.io/r/df2f3cbc?m=090953a3-4325-4922-941d-a16465b0a653" rel="noreferrer" style="color: #341aff; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></a><span style="font-size: medium;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://am-quickie.ghost.io/r/df2f3cbc?m%3D090953a3-4325-4922-941d-a16465b0a653&source=gmail&ust=1707920079465000&usg=AOvVaw37YmiK8j3ZIHFGaWqr7PZ4" href="https://am-quickie.ghost.io/r/df2f3cbc?m=090953a3-4325-4922-941d-a16465b0a653" rel="noreferrer" style="color: #341aff; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">reporting</a> on the special election being held today in New York's 3rd Congressional District. </span><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><h3 itemprop="headline" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></h3><blockquote><h3 itemprop="headline" style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">NY-03 Special Election Tests Jacobs’s ‘Long Island Strategy’</span></h3>
<p class="subtitle"><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"><span>Tuesday’s primary to fill George
Santos’s seat is a toss-up, despite an experienced former Democratic
congressmember facing a largely unknown Republican.</span></span></p>
<p class="author"><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">by
<a href="https://prospect.org/topics/luke-goldstein/" rel="author">Luke Goldstein</a></span> </p>
<p class="date"><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">February 12, 2024</span></p><p class="lead"><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">While George Santos is busy building a post-politics
career as an online influencer, voters in his former district in New
York are preparing to wash the stain from the seat in a special election
on Tuesday that is being treated as a bellwether for the 2024 campaign</span></p><p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">Democratic
candidate and former congressman Tom Suozzi has returned to try to
reclaim his old seat in the Third Congressional District. Suozzi faces a
local Republican county official with little national recognition: Mazi
Pilip, an Ethiopian immigrant who served in the Israel Defense Forces
before coming to the U.S.</span></p><div class="adthrive-ad adthrive-content adthrive-content-1 adthrive-ad-cls" data-google-query-id="COH-0432qIQDFfuYgwgdof0FOQ" id="AdThrive_Content_1_desktop" style="min-height: 250px;"><div id="google_ads_iframe_/18190176,22499723596/AdThrive_Content_1/64e6772a7c204b7052cfc8aa_0__container__" style="border: 0pt;"><p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">Immigration and abortion are listed as top concerns by voters and
have dominated the sparring between candidates, including at the first
and only debate of the race last Thursday night. The election will test
whether the now dead-on-arrival border package legislation in Washington
will backfire against Republicans, as national Democrats hope, and how
much staying power abortion still has for voters in a blue state.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">Even in a tough swing district, you’d expect the Democratic candidate
to trounce the opponent after the scorched rubble left by Santos’s
disastrous ten months in office. Yet despite vastly outspending his
opponent nearly 3-to-1, Suozzi’s margins in recent polling <u><a href="https://punchbowl.news/article/suozzi-focuses-on-immigration-in-ny-3-race/" target="_blank">are razor-thin</a></u>, with some pollsters designating the race a toss-up. The most recent public poll from Emerson College has <u><a href="https://emersoncollegepolling.com/new-yorks-3rd-congressional-district-poll-suozzi-holds-slight-edge-over-pilip/" target="_blank">Suozzi up 50-47</a></u>.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://prospect.org/topics/luke-goldstein/"><i><b>More from Luke Goldstein</b></i></a></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">The special election will put the New York Democratic Party under
scrutiny after underperforming the rest of the country with a series of
defeats in the 2022 midterms. State party chair Jay Jacobs is a close
ally of Suozzi and a longtime chair of the Nassau County Democratic
Party, the home of the NY-03 district. Jacobs has fashioned a “Long
Island strategy” that’s shifted the party in a more conservative
direction to win contested seats across the state. So far, that strategy
hasn’t borne out, and Jacobs has received criticism for not tapping
into the party’s more grassroots base.</span></p><p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">“This race should be the ultimate shoo-in,” said one progressive
strategist in New York. “If Suozzi loses or really if it’s even a close
race, that raises serious questions about the Democratic establishment
in New York, especially for a race in Jay Jacobs’s backyard.”</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"><b>THE NATIONAL STAKES FOR THE SPECIAL ELECTION</b> are mixed.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">For one, the winner will only hold office for roughly eight months
before the contest is redecided this November in a redrawn district. The
New York Supreme Court ruled last December that the New York
independent redistricting commission will have to redraw the
congressional map. The decision is <u><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/12/politics/new-york-redistricting/index.html" target="_blank">expected to</a></u> shift the seat in a direction more favorable for Democrats in November.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">But until then, there could potentially be near-term implications,
given the slim majority that Republicans currently hold in the House and
constant tumult over the Speakership. Just this past week, Republicans
failed to impeach the Biden administration’s secretary of homeland
security, Alejandro Mayorkas, by the thinnest of margins, prompting Rep.
Matt Gaetz to remark that he’d “never missed George Santos more.”</span></p><p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">But primarily, the race is receiving national attention for a check of
the national mood heading into the 2024 presidential year. To underscore
just how dramatized this storyline has become, a recent Politico
Magazine story put as its <u><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/02/08/george-santos-race-2024-election-00140127" target="_blank">headline</a></u> “Nassau County Is Replacing George Santos—and Maybe Picking the Next President.”</span></p><p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">Some surrogates close to Suozzi’s campaign have downplayed this
Beltway narrative somewhat, at least as a presidential indicator.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">“It’s called a special election for a reason and the dynamics are
different; we’re not picking the next president, but that’s not to say
this isn’t highly important,” said Zak Malamed, who was one of the many
Democratic candidates running in the primary to challenge Santos before
the congressman’s expulsion.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">In an unconventional procedure, national leadership in consultation
with the state party got to select the candidate for the special
election and cleared the way for Suozzi. Malamed endorsed Suozzi and has
been supporting him in the race ever since.</span></p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"></span><blockquote><p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">The special election will put the New York Democratic
Party under scrutiny after underperforming the rest of the country with a
series of defeats in the 2022 midterms.</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">But the coronation of Suozzi was somewhat more contentious in other
quarters. The bad blood is because Suozzi left the seat to make a failed
run for governor against Kathy Hochul in 2022. Many believe that
Suozzi’s exit opened the seat up for the Santos drama that New York and
the country have endured for the past year. Despite that criticism,
Suozzi was rewarded by the party that saw him as the safest bet to flip
the district.</span></p><p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">Suozzi, a conservative Democrat who helped found the Problems Solvers
Caucus, also has a mixed record on abortion, a major factor in sinking
his bid for governor. Suozzi initially supported the Hyde Amendment,
which bans the use of federal funds for abortion procedures, but has
since reversed himself. Still, some of his opponents questioned whether
his track record on the issue might make him a poor fit for the seat,
given how mobilizing the issue has been against Republicans since the
overturning of <i>Roe v. Wade</i>.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">One lesson New York Democrats took away from the 2022 midterm races
is that they didn’t adequately turn abortion into a central issue, which
carried Democrats elsewhere. Suozzi seems to agree. He’s shored up
support from reproductive rights groups such as Planned Parenthood and
gone on the attack against his Republican opponent over her party’s
extreme position. He’s repeatedly pressed Pilip on what exactly her
stance is on supporting <i>Roe v. Wade</i> or the proposed national
abortion ban legislation. Pilip has only offered vague responses about
respecting a woman’s “decision,” both bucking the conservative flank of
her party without fully committing to supporting <i>Roe</i> either.</span></p><p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">Pilip has other issues as well. She hid from the public for a stretch
of the campaign, only appearing on the trail occasionally. In her
absence, a major controversy broke that echoed her Republican
predecessor’s corruption. A <i>New York Times</i> <u><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/13/nyregion/mazi-pilip-finances-santos-district.html" target="_blank">investigation</a></u>
revealed that Pilip’s financial disclosures included a number of
inconsistencies and omissions compared to her previous filings for
Nassau County, where she served as a legislator. Her campaign
immediately corrected some of the errors, claiming they were mistakes,
but there are still outstanding questions about her and her husband’s
financial holdings.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">Despite the national tenor of the race, both candidates have <u><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/05/politics/george-santos-replacement-seat-suozzi/index.html" target="_blank">distanced</a></u>
themselves from the presumptive nominees of their respective parties
and exhibited nothing but angst about the possibility of them visiting
the district. Pilip won’t even say whether she voted for President Trump
in 2020 despite being pressed on this question constantly by Suozzi’s
campaign. In swing districts like NY-03, with scores of independent and
moderate voters, it’s a reflection of the extreme unpopularity of both
presidential candidates and even the toxicity of the national brands of
both parties. In fact, both candidates also <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/02/tom-suozzi-house-special-election-santos/677382/" target="_blank">opted</a>
not to publicize when House Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader
Hakeem Jeffries each visited the candidates for rallies in the district.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">Yet, the adage “all politics is local” doesn’t seem to be holding
true so far in the race, where hot-button national issues predominate.
While Santos won on relatively parochial issues like crime and migrant
busing, this contest is centered heavily on the southern border
situation, along with abortion.</span></p><p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">Both candidates have exchanged <u><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/02/08/george-santos-race-2024-election-00140127" target="_blank">barbs</a></u>
on immigration. Up until the past few weeks, Pilip, an immigrant
herself, was accusing Democrats of allowing an invasion at the southern
border. The tenor has changed somewhat since the collapse of the border
deal brokered in Washington to pair restrictive immigration enforcement
with military aid for Israel and Ukraine.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">Republicans killing the deal, to avoid delivering Biden another
legislative victory, has given Suozzi a talking point in the race to
fend off the open-borders charge from Republicans. He’s pushed Pilip to
respond to the collapse of the border deal, accusing Republicans of not
being serious about solutions. Whether that will change the minds of
voters is yet to be tested.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">The border package also raises the question of support for Israel and
the ongoing war in Gaza. Suozzi is a loyal supporter of Israel and even
visited the country in December. For that, he received the endorsement
and financial support of Democratic Majority for Israel PAC, even though
his opponent actually fought in the IDF. Suozzi has used his backing by
the Israel lobby to try to defang his opponent’s charge that his party
welcomes “terrorist sympathizers.”</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;"><b>THE MAIN QUESTION HANGING OVER THE RACE</b> is whether the state
party can revamp itself after suffering four humiliating congressional
losses in 2022, two of which were in Long Island, which also saw wipeout
down-ballot at the local level.</span></p><p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">Those four races arguably cost Democrats control of the House, which
Republicans won back by just four seats. National Democratic leadership
has made it clear they believe their path back to the majority in 2024 <u><a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/03/new-york-democrats-2024-house-majority-pac-war-room.html" target="_blank">runs</a></u>
through Long Island and retaking those lost seats from the midterms.
They’re already dedicating an incredible amount of resources to those
races up and down the state, upwards of $45 million from the national
party’s coffers. That vast amount of money earmarked for what would
usually be state party responsibilities <u><a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/03/new-york-democrats-2024-house-majority-pac-war-room.html" target="_blank">indicates</a></u> national Democrats might not fully trust the abilities of the Albany bosses to get the job done.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">Democrats are also spending big in the special election. Just over a
week before the election, the GOP’s Congressional Leadership Fund was <u><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/31/ny-house-race-santos-00138801" target="_blank">forced</a></u>
to pump $2.6 million into TV ads to try to make up the yawning gap
Democrats had put between them and Republicans on spending. Prior to
that infusion of funds, Suozzi <u><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/25/george-santos-ad-battle-democrats-00137723" target="_blank">led</a></u> almost threefold on spending for television and digital ads, at $8 million to $3 million.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">House Majority PAC, the main vehicle for Democratic leadership spending, <u><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/05/dems-pour-more-money-into-last-minute-ny-ad-blitz-before-special-election-00139588" target="_blank">dumped</a></u> $7 million on the race for Suozzi.</span></p><p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">That amount of spending is obscenely high for a special-election race
that will just be redecided in November, likely under more favorable
conditions for Democrats after redistricting. While leadership PACs
expend resources on Suozzi, they have all but refused to lift a finger
to protect the incumbent house progressives facing well-financed primary
challenges, funded largely by <u><a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/02/ilhan-omar-jamaal-bowman-rashida-tlaib-aipac-israel-lobby-democratic-primary-megadonors.html" target="_blank">right-wing donors</a></u>.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">Some progressives in New York also question the tactics that the
state party has decided to run with under the leadership of party chair
Jay Jacobs to win back Long Island.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">As Gov. Hochul has consolidated power, the state party for the most
part has supported the more moderate candidates in state and local races
across the state against progressives.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">In contested Long Island races, the party believes tacking right to
win over middle-of-the-road Republican and independent voters is the
necessary path to victory. In 2022, that more conservative strategy led
not just to the losses of congressional candidates but also the <u><a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/130-opinion/11759-new-york-democrats-mistakes-2022-elections-house-seats" target="_blank">unseating</a></u>
of the Democratic Nassau County executive, Laura Curran, and several
district attorney candidates who tried to distance themselves from
criminal justice reform positions.</span></p><p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">The alternative approach would be to try to mobilize more energy among the party’s core base of voters.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-size: medium;">Tuesday’s election has been made out to be a referendum on President
Biden. In reality, it may be more a reflection of the state party in New
York, and whether it’s up for the task in 2024.</span></p></div></div></blockquote><div class="adthrive-ad adthrive-content adthrive-content-1 adthrive-ad-cls" data-google-query-id="COH-0432qIQDFfuYgwgdof0FOQ" id="AdThrive_Content_1_desktop" style="min-height: 250px;"><div id="google_ads_iframe_/18190176,22499723596/AdThrive_Content_1/64e6772a7c204b7052cfc8aa_0__container__" style="border: 0pt;"><p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">And here's another Sam analysis on Dem road to nowhere with their Republican talking points position on immigration: </span></p><h4 class="style-scope ytd-watch-metadata" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Biden’s Immigration Deal Fiasco Is Way Worse Than You Thought</span></h4><p><span style="font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/v36KEI86WzI?si=G-BAjwCXqmAOulb7&t=39</span></p></div></div><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> Immigration lawyer going under the monicker Ronald Reagan points to the failures of current immigration policy and how the proposed "solution" is not a solution.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Discussion of how the US for business interests helped destabilize central American nations and sparked immigration. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">No energy, no will to get the alternative view of immigration out there. When you cede the argument to Republicans - not address the funfamental flaws in the Republican view -- a double disaster for Dems -- policy ans electoral politics.<br /></span></p>ed notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-17993351523902570062024-02-11T08:28:00.002-05:002024-02-11T08:28:17.453-05:00James Eterno: Mentor, Friend, Inspiration By Mike Schirtzer, UFT Executive Board <p style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"></span></b></p><blockquote><b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #990000;">Mike Schirtzer gives James Eterno major credit for helping him become an activist in the UFT.</span><br /></span></b></blockquote><b><span style="font-size: medium;">February 11, 2024</span></b><br /><p></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-b454d852-7fff-9f79-8aff-8175c2e666cb" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">James Eterno: Mentor, Friend, Inspiration</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">By Mike Schirtzer</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UFT Executive Board</span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYzE0i5vtcwz26Ily0wKi6YUMUOUrOY45Atrr6K3hGsLvHq_1jptSw9TkCzw5y-6g-4hDkvFMjbYqlUPoydTISJ7jEdDuxepvLF9ASVxXPgiQ6wchBvoSE6RPwzfZdCmLCum4f1OsL7IrItRroX9-vRBxK_ouFVnnYXt5Qw_GELqRELCUrr_r4/s752/Screenshot%202024-02-11%20at%208.27.44%E2%80%AFAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="394" data-original-width="752" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYzE0i5vtcwz26Ily0wKi6YUMUOUrOY45Atrr6K3hGsLvHq_1jptSw9TkCzw5y-6g-4hDkvFMjbYqlUPoydTISJ7jEdDuxepvLF9ASVxXPgiQ6wchBvoSE6RPwzfZdCmLCum4f1OsL7IrItRroX9-vRBxK_ouFVnnYXt5Qw_GELqRELCUrr_r4/s320/Screenshot%202024-02-11%20at%208.27.44%E2%80%AFAM.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is the day of a UFT Delegate Assembly sometime in 2013. James Eterno looks over at me and says “you’re motivating the resolution..” He wrote it. I helped a bit, but it was his idea. It is my first time speaking at the DA. I’m excited and nervous at the same time. A lot of old timers who had been in the union for over twenty years, our union leadership, and all my comrades in opposition are looking on. Mulgrew points to me. Oh no! But James has prepped me and I am ready. One of the earliest memories of my relationship with James Eterno. </span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I started with “Good morning everyone.” President Mulgrew laughed and said “you meant good afternoon.” I replied “for those of us in school all day, it feels like one long morning.” The room broke up laughing. I looked at James next to me, who was hysterical. Later Norm Scott would say “You’re a natural you know how to win people over,” but my confidence was built on the preparation with James. </span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The resolution called for the UFT to reject any evaluation system based on test scores, a major plank of the education deform movement, which the UFT leadership, ironically, supported, and our MORE Caucus rejected. Our side of the room was cheering while the front-center, dominated by Unity Caucus members and UFT staff, was hissing and mocking. </span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When the first UFT staffer rose to speak against me, James immediately called a point of order. He carried a pocket size Robert's Rules of Order with him. I had no clue what a parliamentarian was, nor Robert's rules, and absolutely no clue what a point of order was. James was the master and he asked, in his cunning, working class New York City accent: “Can we at least have a classroom teacher, someone actually working in a school, speak against this?” Our crew cracked up. It was classic James, always ready with an answer. Quick, smart, with knowledge of the contract and Robert's Rules, like a rabbi knows the Torah. The contract was James’ Torah.</span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When he was done arguing with the parliamentarian, James came right over to me and said, “Great job Mike, you were amazing today”. No compliment made me feel better than one from James. We may have won a few people over that day and it was the first of many resolutions we would write together.</span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thanks to James’s mentoring and support, what could have been an embarrassing experience that might have made me gun-shy in the future, instead, built my confidence as an activist. Needless to say neither James nor I made many friends in the Unity Caucus that day. But James helped me discover a relaxed way of addressing even hostile forces in a manner that has worked for me over the past ten years.</span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">James was a thorn in the side not only of union leadership, but even our comrades as well. It was fine to disagree with him and Norm. Boy did we disagree. We’re New Yorkers and trade unionists. Our disagreements may be a bit loud for others, but it was how we communicated. We never got mad, never hurt each other, and always laughed about it the next day. </span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He had the unique ability to get under your skin but still make you love him at the same time. I think everyone knew he was coming from a good place, a love for our public schools and union. Over the years our debates made me a better union organizer and human being. He taught me you can disagree but be civil. On any union or contract question in my school he was my go-to. He was a lot of people’s go-to for his encyclopedic knowledge and the process of collective bargaining. </span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Having a mentor like James Eterno had a major impact on so many people. Read the many comments on the <a href="https://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/">ICE blog.</a> After all, he was the chapter leader of one of the largest high schools in Queens, Jamaica High School. He served for a dozen years on the UFT Executive Board with New Action Caucus and then the Independent Caucus of Educators (ICE), which had merged with TJC and others to form MORE in 2012. That was when I first got involved in union politics. Outside of Randi Weingarten or Michael Mulgrew, James was one of the only UFT people recognized citywide. </span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Needless to say, ICEers are devastated by the news of James' illness and death. ICE, whose open meetings always revolved around some kind of food - people don’t fight as much when they are not hungry - continued to meet as an informal dinner group over the years. I was invited and made to feel very comfortable in what seemed to be a group with a sense of family that still resonates. Camille and James would often attend, sometimes with their kids. Norm would dominate with his rice pudding and long drawn out sermons that James and Camille would laugh at days after the meeting ended. Camille always joked that anything Norm says starts with a comma and ends with the ‘68 strike. One hilarious meeting was when James, Camille and I argued against Norm as to whether we should run in an upcoming union election. We were livid with Norm. We won the debate and Norm, as always, ended up leading the cause he had spoken against. </span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We worked to win back Executive Board seats and celebrated when we finally brought one of James’ first UFT loves, New Action Caucus, which he had left in 2003, back into the opposition fold due to his willingness to reach out, forgive old grudges, and work together to win these seats. One of the best phone calls I ever received was from James telling me “Congratulations we won the Executive Board seats”, he was as excited as I was.</span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We were always planning, plotting, one strategy session after another. Often on daily chats and phone calls until he was felled by a stroke in May. We tried to keep MORE as a place for regular rank and file where everyone would feel welcome. We challenged the union leadership at DA’s, Executive Boards, district meetings, borough meetings, wherever and whenever there was a public platform. We challenged Unity on the state level at the 2014 NYSUT convention where James was a driving force, along with a local Long Island President Beth Dimino. James and my other UFT hero, Julie Cavanagh, decided I should be one of the two speakers along with Lauren Cohen representing MORE. Julie and James revised and edited the speeches (Video </span><a href="https://youtu.be/AbkqXmDz62Y?si=UDe0V_FJMvkf_wMY." style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.) </span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When we got pushed out of MORE, James was half “I told you so,” always a naysayer to the far left influences within the group, but also upset that so much of his work had been lost. He mended fences with key players in MORE along the way. Despite being very anti-Unity, he gave me his blessing to run with them when I had the opportunity. With James it was never personal, only political.</span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the last few years James was a driving force in bringing the various UFT opposition groups together and forming the United for Change coalition of seven or so different union groups (not an easy feat) to run against Mulgrew and Unity. He willed it, even though these groups had different ideologies and personalities. His crowning moment came when his wife Camille, a fierce and outspoken unionist, was the 2022 UFT presidential candidate, echoing James’ 2010 presidential run against Mulgrew.</span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Although we ran on different slates, Camille, James and I had a hearty laugh on the night of the election results. Camille didn’t win, but we still enjoyed talking the night away. Our love for the UFT may have taken us down different paths, but it didn’t divide us. </span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Being part of a chat group that touched base regularly often made my day. When my mom died James and Camille joined the rest of the group in a Shiva call. Not hearing his voice almost daily over the past nine months has left a major gap. One good friend told me upon hearing of Jame’s death, “some of the people who work at UFT don’t love the union as much as James did”. No truer words have been spoken. </span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He was not only my good friend, but my mentor, my teacher, a fellow New Yorker, traveler, dad, husband, social studies teacher and dedicated unionist.</span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s been hard the last few months, since he got sick, to feel passionate about union work. Now that he has passed I wonder if that passion will ever return but just thinking of him and the work he did will inspire me.</span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I will miss James so much. I miss him more than these words can express. I loved him as a brother in arms.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"> </p>ed notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-49498392019227284852024-02-07T11:40:00.003-05:002024-02-15T08:41:33.718-05:00JAMES ETERNO - We've lost a Giant - Tributes role in<p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"></span></span></p><blockquote><p><b><span style="color: #660000; font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Along with all the other things James was about, he was the best human being one can be... many comments</span></span><span style="color: #660000;"> <br /></span></b></p></blockquote><blockquote><p><b><span style="color: #660000; font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Even within the UFT leadership and Unity Caucus, James always received the utmost respect. There will be a moment of silence for James at today's Delegate Assembly. </span></span></b></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"></span></span><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span class="css-1qaijid r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0 r-poiln3" style="font-family: times; text-overflow: unset;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4muXJIpm0n8017Rxq8uZqFZm6v0zTUFT6tQpfTC2X0LY_OimppQwHyytvgwZHDND01zSg0FXwB0ABQBued9oChMzffHFN2IycxzUJ7wg8BBFtWF5GUnlRFs4pzO6d9n-nZM4EnXvZITC5evB-5pvMztADE4EDJ-D-jmGAYtZnLFRRSSNDDiuB/s1086/Screenshot%202024-02-07%20at%209.38.43%E2%80%AFAM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1086" data-original-width="798" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4muXJIpm0n8017Rxq8uZqFZm6v0zTUFT6tQpfTC2X0LY_OimppQwHyytvgwZHDND01zSg0FXwB0ABQBued9oChMzffHFN2IycxzUJ7wg8BBFtWF5GUnlRFs4pzO6d9n-nZM4EnXvZITC5evB-5pvMztADE4EDJ-D-jmGAYtZnLFRRSSNDDiuB/w294-h400/Screenshot%202024-02-07%20at%209.38.43%E2%80%AFAM.png" width="294" /></a></div><p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />I’m still trying to find the words to express the impact of James Eterno's passing yesterday when his giant heart gave out after being hospitalized due to a devastating stroke last May, from which he never recovered. Since then and the stilling of his work on the ICE blog I have lost some of my enthusiasm for the work we were doing. James was part of a small chat group for years where we shared comments and phone calls almost every day. Not having his influence and advice has left a big hole. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Wednesday, February 7, 2024</span></span></p><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="css-1qaijid r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0 r-poiln3" style="font-family: times; text-overflow: unset;">When I saw a call to the group coming in from James on April 29, I was in a diner having breakfast with Arthur Goldstein. "That's James calling, probably to push me to call an ICE meeting." </span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="css-1qaijid r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0 r-poiln3" style="font-family: times; text-overflow: unset;">It was Camille to let us know James had had a stroke the day before. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="css-1qaijid r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0 r-poiln3" style="font-family: times; text-overflow: unset;">When I saw Camille calling yesterday at 3PM, I dreaded picking it up, thinking the worst. James died a few hours before and Camille was being driven to pick up their daughter at school. </span><span class="css-1qaijid r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0 r-poiln3" style="font-family: times; text-overflow: unset;">Camille
always maintained hope James would regain enough faculties to be able to
come home where the environment would speed his recovery. She reported
that at times he tried to speak. He had been moved from the hospital to the nursing home on Monday and died Tuesday afternoon. Beyond the family, the entire educational community has been devastated. Texts have been coming in all morning from admirers. <br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="css-1qaijid r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0 r-poiln3" style="font-family: times; text-overflow: unset;">Michael
Fiorillo and I went to see him in the hospital a few weeks ago and
despite the respirator and all the wires hooked up his color was good and his face looked like it always had. He
looked at us a few times but we couldn't be sure if he heard us. There
was always hope he would come out of it at some point. Camille had hoped
he would get well enough to go home. Hospitals and nursing homes can be
dangerous due to infections and that seems to have done him in.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="css-1qaijid r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0 r-poiln3" style="font-family: times; text-overflow: unset;">When
Mike Schirtzer and I visited during the summer, James' pulse jumped when
we talked union politics, especially about the healthcare issue. Six of us went to see him as a group at one point and we told him all about the struggles in the UFT. Camille felt he was hearing us. <br /></span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="css-1qaijid r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0 r-poiln3" style="font-family: times; text-overflow: unset;"></span></span><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="css-1qaijid r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0 r-poiln3" style="font-family: times; text-overflow: unset;">While we know how devastating this news is to the family, it is equally devastating to the union movement and the UFT, especially the opposition. James was especially important in the 2022 United For Change UFT election campaign. In fact, I'm not sure the opposition would have come together if not for him and Camille, who was our presidential candidate. Remember, James was the ICE/TJC presidential candidate in 2010, Mulgrew's first election. The only husband/wife team to run for UFT president. They were a team - the golden couple of the UFT for many of us. James also was the HS VP candidate in the 2016 election and received the most high school votes. Before they changed the constitution in 1994, James would have been on the AdCom - and what a difference that would have made.<br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="css-1qaijid r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0 r-poiln3" style="font-family: times; text-overflow: unset;">James had been bugging me in the month before his stroke to have an in person ICE meeting and I was intending to call one in May. I was so thrown for a loop (notice how little blogging I've done since), it
took me until December 27 to have an ICE meeting because I couldn't
imagine one without James. Camille and James often schlepped into the
city on Fridays after school, sometimes with the kids, to attend ICE
meetings, which James at times termed "Norm Seminars" since I talked so
much.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="css-1qaijid r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0 r-poiln3" style="font-family: times; text-overflow: unset;">I'm calling another ICE meeting during the Feb. break where those who show up can reminisce about the impact James had. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="css-1qaijid r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0 r-poiln3" style="font-family: times; text-overflow: unset;">After ICE joined with TJC in 2012 to form MORE in 2012, James insisted on keeping ICE alive though meetings and the influential ICE blog which he took over from Jeff Kaufman around 2008. James never felt quite at home in MORE and liked the family type atmosphere in ICE. When a segment of MORE asked the ICE people to leave, James often said "I told you so."<br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="css-1qaijid r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0 r-poiln3" style="font-family: times; text-overflow: unset;">To let ICE die after James put so much effort into it would besmirch his memory and all the hard work he did. But without the daily blogging James did, finding a role for ICE in the context of the current opposition and without James' counsel will not be easy. <br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="css-1qaijid r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0 r-poiln3" style="font-family: times; text-overflow: unset;">While
I knew James when he was with New Action from 1995-2003, we became
closer when ICE was founded in 2003 and James, who was a UFT Exed Bd
member since 1995, ran on the ICE-PAC/TJC* slate in 2004 and was elected, along with Jeff Kaufman and Barbara Kaplan-Halpert (who died not long ago). Thus James served for a dozen years on the UFT Exec Bd, a consistent voice for those opposing Unity policy. He and Jeff were a dynamic duo. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="css-1qaijid r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0 r-poiln3" style="font-family: times; text-overflow: unset;">*TJC and ICE ran completely separate slates except for the high schools where each group cross-endorsed 3 HS candidates and won.<br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="css-1qaijid r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0 r-poiln3" style="font-family: times; text-overflow: unset;">With the retiree chapter election coming, Retiree Advocate had expected James to play a major role during the election and especially if we win, as a member of the RTC Exec Bd. We thought of running him as a delegate to honor him and leave a blank seat but decided it would not be appropriate. But if we do win, it will be so sad him not being there with us after so many decades of struggle with him.<br /></span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="css-1qaijid r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0 r-poiln3" style="font-family: times; text-overflow: unset;"></span></span><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="css-1qaijid r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0 r-poiln3" style="font-family: times; text-overflow: unset;">There's no way for me to describe my 25-year relationship with James, which was at times contentious, including some yelling. But no disagreement ever stuck beyond a few minutes. In the past few years we had a running joke about how we were both lunatics for putting so much time into union activities after we retired. We were addicted to the union action, though he didn't always have as much fun as I did. When things for the opposition were at their bleakest and we thought of an alternative to our addiction, we would just say, "Time to go play some gold." </span><span class="css-1qaijid r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0 r-poiln3" style="font-family: times; text-overflow: unset;">Sometimes after a particular trying time he would call and just say "Golf?" By the way, neither of us could play golf. If I ever do get over my UFT drug habit, without James this may be sooner than later, and go play golf, I will think of not having James there with me.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="css-1qaijid r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0 r-poiln3" style="font-family: times; text-overflow: unset;">------ <br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="css-1qaijid r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0 r-poiln3" style="font-family: times; text-overflow: unset;"><b>One of many memories: Our NYSUT adventure </b>- <a href="https://youtu.be/AbkqXmDz62Y?si=UDe0V_FJMvkf_wMY">https://youtu.be/AbkqXmDz62Y?si=UDe0V_FJMvkf_wMY</a>. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="css-1qaijid r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0 r-poiln3" style="font-family: times; text-overflow: unset;">Powerful speeches in the glory days of MORE. (One day I will tell the entire story in my memoirs.<br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="css-1qaijid r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0 r-poiln3" style="font-family: times; text-overflow: unset;">
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AbkqXmDz62Y?si=Vo3QTKEeOrYt1hYn" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe> <br /></span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="css-1qaijid r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0 r-poiln3" style="font-family: times; text-overflow: unset;"></span><span class="css-1qaijid r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0 r-poiln3" style="font-family: times; text-overflow: unset;"></span></span><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"> --------</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">Jeff Kaufman posted on the <a href="https://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/2024/02/in-loving-memory-of-james-eterno.html">ICE blog:</a></span></span></p><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/2024/02/in-loving-memory-of-james-eterno.html" style="font-family: times;">In Loving Memory of James Eterno</a></span>
</h3>
<div class="post-header">
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of our
dear friend and colleague, James Eterno, on February 6, 2024. James was a
cherished member of our community, and his absence will be deeply felt.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">James’ life was marked by his unwavering dedication to
education and his tireless advocacy for teachers and students alike. His
contributions to the ICE-UFT blog have been invaluable, and his insights and
wisdom will be sorely missed.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">In honor of James’ memory, we would like to invite all who
knew him to share their anecdotes and memories of James. Whether it’s a story
that makes you smile, a lesson he taught you, or simply a sentiment about what
James meant to you, we welcome your contributions.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">Please submit your anecdotes and memories to Jeff Kaufman at
JeffBKaufman@gmail.com. Jeff will be compiling these tributes and sharing them
on the ICE-UFT blog, as a testament to the remarkable impact James had on all
of us.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">In these difficult times, let us come together to remember
James, to celebrate his life, and to carry forward the values and principles he
held dear.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">Thank you for your contributions. Your words will help keep
James’ spirit alive in our hearts and in our community.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">With deepest sympathy,</span></span></p><p>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">Jeff Kaufman</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">Lydia Howrilka, who has been like a rock to the family, already has posted: <a href="https://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/2024/02/my-memories-of-james-eterno.html">My memories of James Eterno</a></span></span></p>ed notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-65760609249144055422024-01-24T14:34:00.002-05:002024-01-25T09:46:03.552-05:00What Is 'Settler Colonialism'? NYT<p><span style="font-size: medium;">I'm very interested in this discussion as I have not been in the loop on the details of the concept of settler colonialism. Many on the left view it from a racial lens, which has often been true but as the article points out Japan engaged in it. And I remember that Stalin used Ukraine as a form of it -- and today's war is partially an outcome of his policies in the 30s and current eastern Ukraine is very Russian and used as a reason for the invasion. I need to do a lot more reading on the subject and there are some sources in this article.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Of course the major issue today is the question of Israel. There are lots of links in this article to check out. Of course I expect to be called a self-hating Jew for just posting it.<br /></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><a data-jsarwt="1" data-usg="AOvVaw3CAcHnc5FGDNqIVzNoDOy0" data-ved="2ahUKEwi32Kz_t_aDAxXOg4kEHaMICBcQFnoECA0QAQ" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/22/arts/what-is-settler-colonialism.html"><h3 class="LC20lb MBeuO DKV0Md">What Is 'Settler Colonialism'?</h3></a></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/22/arts/what-is-settler-colonialism.html</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">A look at the academic roots of the idea, which has stirred fierce debate when applied to Israel.</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="css-103l8m3"><div class="css-1u5onbp epjyd6m1"><div aria-hidden="true" class="css-165eim7 ey68jwv0"><a class="css-uwwqev" href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/jennifer-schuessler"><img alt="Jennifer Schuessler" class="css-dc6zx6 ey68jwv2" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/02/16/multimedia/author-jennifer-schuessler/author-jennifer-schuessler-thumbLarge-v2.png" title="Jennifer Schuessler" /></a></div><div class="css-233int epjyd6m0"><p class="css-4anu6l e1jsehar1"><span class="byline-prefix">By </span><span class="css-1baulvz last-byline" itemprop="name"><a class="css-n8ff4n e1jsehar0" href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/jennifer-schuessler">Jennifer Schuessler</a></span></p></div></div></div><div data-testid="reading-time-module"><div class="css-3xqm5e"><time class="css-8blifj e16638kd2" datetime="2024-01-22T05:00:34-05:00"><span class="css-1sbuyqj e16638kd3">Jan. 22, 2024</span></time></div><div class="css-3xqm5e"><time class="css-8blifj e16638kd2" datetime="2024-01-22T05:00:34-05:00"><span class="css-1sbuyqj e16638kd3"> </span></time></div><div class="css-3xqm5e"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">In the intense war of words over the Israel-Gaza war, a particular phrase has popped up repeatedly. At <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/columbia-suspended-pro-palestine-student-groups-the-faculty-revolted" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">protests</a>, on fliers and in some <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nybooks.com/online/2023/03/03/enforcing-apartheid-in-the-west-bank/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">mainstream publications</a>, it is common to see Israel described — or more likely, assailed — as a “settler-colonial” state.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The concept of settler colonialism originates in academia, where its use <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=settler+colonialism&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">has surged</a>
over the past two decades, whether in case studies of particular places
or sweeping master narratives that purport to explain everything since
Columbus. It has also been widely taken up on the activist left, invoked
in discussions of <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.hamptonthink.org/read/gentrification-as-settler-colonialism-urban-resistance-against-urban-colonization" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">gentrification</a>, <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26879582" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">environmental degradation</a>, <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/__data/assets/file/0015/1032720/ICS_Seminar_Series_Max_Haiven.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">financial capitalism</a> and other subjects.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The
term “settler colonialism” may combine two words that are very
familiar. But in combination, the term can land as a moral slander — or
worse.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Those who call Israel a
settler-colonial enterprise see a country formed by waves of Jewish
arrivals who pushed Arab inhabitants out to create an exclusive
ethnostate. To others, that is a gross distortion that redefines
refugees as oppressors and ignores the long history of the Jewish
diaspora’s attachment to its ancestral land — as well as the continuous
existence of a Jewish community whose ancestors never left.</p><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">More
broadly, critics say that the embrace of the term reflects a
dangerously simplistic view of history — a kind of “moral derangement,”
as Adam Kirsch, an editor at The Wall Street Journal, <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/campus-radicals-and-leftist-groups-have-embraced-the-deadly-idea-of-settler-colonialism-b8e995be" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">wrote recently</a>, which justifies violence and rests on “the permanent division of the world into innocent people and guilty people.”</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div><div class="css-79elbk" data-testid="photoviewer-wrapper"><div class="css-z3e15g" data-testid="photoviewer-wrapper-hidden"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">But for many
scholars, settler colonialism is a serious and useful analytic concept.
For them, it is meant not to condemn or delegitimize, but to illuminate
similarities and differences across a wide range of societies, past and
present.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“I believe there is purchase
to the term,” said Caroline Elkins, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian
at Harvard and a co-editor of the 2005 collection <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.routledge.com/Settler-Colonialism-in-the-Twentieth-Century-Projects-Practices-Legacies/Elkins-Pedersen/p/book/9780415949439" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">“Settler Colonialism in the 20th Century.”</a>
“From a strictly empirical perspective, there are colonies — and in
some cases, nations today — that were founded on the premise of sending
settlers to different locations in the world.”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">But
amid today’s fierce polemics, even scholarly discussion of the term is
fraught. “We have all become very cautious about how we use it,” Elkins
said, “out of fear that we’ll be misunderstood.”</p><div class="css-53u6y8"><h2 class="css-kypbrf eoo0vm40" id="link-217fb9f3">‘A Structure, Not an Event’</h2><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Historians have identified <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.historians.org/research-and-publications/perspectives-on-history/october-2015/a-typology-of-colonialism" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">many forms of colonialism</a>.
Some involve trade or natural resource extraction managed from afar.
Others involve systematic exploitation of a local labor force, with the
profits sent back to the imperial center.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">While
uses differ, settler colonialism generally refers to a form of
colonialism in which the existing inhabitants of a territory are
displaced by settlers who claim land and establish a permanent society
where their privileged status is enshrined in law.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The
concept emerged out of postcolonial studies, which arose in the 1960s
and ’70s as a way of understanding colonialism from the point of view of
the formerly colonized across the world. Among the key thinkers was the
Afro-Caribbean psychiatrist and philosopher Frantz Fanon, whose classic
1961 book “The Wretched of the Earth” argued that colonized people were
<a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/02/books/the-doctor-prescribed-violence.html" title="">justified in using violence</a> to throw off their oppressors.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Fanon,
who wrote in French, did not use the term “settler colonialism.” But
his ideas are echoed in today’s conversations, said Adam Shatz, the
author of <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/21/books/review/the-rebels-clinic-adam-shatz-frantz-fanon.html" title="">“The Rebel’s Clinic,”</a> a new biography of Fanon published this week.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">But
Fanon’s ideas, he said, have also been distorted, particularly by those
who have emphasized his justification of violence. For Fanon, he said,
decolonization did not involve a simple act of violent “cleansing,” but a
social transformation that would reorder the relations between
colonizer and colonized.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“It does not necessarily mean that the solution to a situation of
colonial injustice is for the colonizers to simply pack up their bags
and leave,” he said.</p><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Many
scholars trace the current sense of “settler colonialism,” and its
exploding influence in academic circles, to Patrick Wolfe, a
British-born Australian scholar and the author of the 1998 book <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1238448.Settler_Colonialism_and_the_Transformation_of_Anthropology" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">“Settler Colonialism and the Transformation of Anthropology.”</a></p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">In <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2201473X.2016.1176393" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">a tribute to Wolfe</a>
after his death in 2016, the scholar Lorenzo Veracini wrote that Wolfe
said he had included the phrase in the title at the last minute, at the
urging of his publisher. (It occurs infrequently in the book itself.)</p><div></div><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“Like
the British, who had supposedly set up an empire without really wanting
to,” Veracini wrote, “this committed anti-imperialist scholar
kick-started a scholarly field in a fit of absent-mindedness.”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Wolfe’s
densely theoretical book, which focused on Australia, where white
settlers styled themselves as arriving in “empty land,” included two
much-quoted phrases. “Settler invasion,” Wolfe wrote, “is a structure,
not an event.” That is, it is not a historical episode that ends, but a
set of relationships embedded in the legal and political order. And it
rests, he wrote, on “the logic of elimination.”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“It’s
‘a winner take all,’ a zero-sum game,” Wolfe told an interviewer at
Stanford in 2012, “whereby outsiders come to a country, and seek to take
it away from the people who already live there, remove them, replace
them and displace them, and take over the country, and make it their
own.”</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The
term gained ground across various disciplines, sometimes shorn of its
harder-edged absolutes, like the idea that it always involves an effort
to eliminate existing populations. In 20th-century instances, those
populations often remained a majority, albeit a dominated one.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The
essays in “Settler Colonialism in the 20th Century,” the 2005
collection edited by Elkins and Susan Pedersen, looked at examples
including various European settlement projects in Southern Africa,
French colonization of Algeria, Japanese expansion in Korea and
Manchuria in the 1930s, Nazi plans to resettle ethnic Germans in
occupied Poland, and <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203621042-4/settler-citizenship-jewish-colonization-palestine-gershon-shafir" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">Jewish immigration to Palestine</a> between 1882 and 1914.</p><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">That book did not discuss the United States. But the concept also has deep roots <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/30131259" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">in Native American studies</a>, while also being in some tension with it.</p><div><div><div aria-labelledby="storyline-latest-updates" class="css-ya6f0r" role="complementary"><div class="css-8atqhb"><h2 class="css-kqyof6" id="storyline-latest-updates"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/01/24/world/israel-hamas-gaza-news?name=styln-israel-gaza&region=MAIN_CONTENT_2&block=storyline_latest_updates_recirc&action=click&pgtype=Article&variant=undefined&index=1">Israel-Hamas War: Live Updates</a></h2><div class="css-1rqamrr"><time aria-hidden="true" class="css-101kej7" datetime="2024-01-24T16:02:03.000Z"><span>Updated </span><div class="css-ki347z"><span class="css-1stvlmo" data-time="abs">Jan. 24, 2024, 11:02 a.m. ET</span><span class="css-kpxlkr" data-time="rel">25 minutes ago</span></div></time><span class="css-1dv1kvn">25 minutes ago</span></div><ul class="css-15zvb7e"><li class="css-10f7xa5"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/01/24/world/israel-hamas-gaza-news?name=styln-israel-gaza&region=MAIN_CONTENT_2&block=storyline_latest_updates_recirc&action=click&pgtype=Article&variant=undefined&index=2#an-attack-caused-fire-and-mass-casualties-at-a-shelter-for-displaced-people-the-united-nations-says">An attack caused fire and ‘mass casualties’ at a shelter for displaced people, the United Nations says.</a></li><li class="css-10f7xa5"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/01/24/world/israel-hamas-gaza-news?name=styln-israel-gaza&region=MAIN_CONTENT_2&block=storyline_latest_updates_recirc&action=click&pgtype=Article&variant=undefined&index=2#israel-orders-evacuations-from-a-packed-area-with-2-major-gazan-hospitals">Israel orders evacuations from a packed area with 2 major Gazan hospitals.</a></li><li class="css-10f7xa5"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/01/24/world/israel-hamas-gaza-news?name=styln-israel-gaza&region=MAIN_CONTENT_2&block=storyline_latest_updates_recirc&action=click&pgtype=Article&variant=undefined&index=2#us-houthis-yemen">The U.S. strikes 2 more Houthi targets in Yemen.</a></li></ul><div class="styln-survey-component" id="storyline-survey-latest-updates"></div></div></div></div></div><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Ned Blackhawk’s book <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/23/books/review/the-rediscovery-of-america-ned-blackhawk.html" title="">“The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History,”</a>
which won last year’s National Book Award for nonfiction, refers
frequently to settler colonialism. But Blackhawk, a professor of history
at Yale, has also expressed reservations about the concept’s
“totalizing features.”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“As an idea
that emphasizes ‘Indigenous elimination’ as one of its central features,
it often minimizes the agency, adaptation and resurgence of Native
American communities,” Blackhawk said in <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203621042-4/settler-citizenship-jewish-colonization-palestine-gershon-shafir" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">an interview with Mother Jones</a> last year.</p><div class="css-53u6y8"><h2 class="css-kypbrf eoo0vm40" id="link-caef4c4">From the Margins</h2><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Since
2005, the term “settler colonialism” has continued to spread in
scholarly circles, migrating into political science, literary studies, <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/is/2019-v39-n1-is05836/1075341ar.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">musicology</a> and many other fields.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Aziz Rana, a political scientist and professor of law at Boston College Law School, is the author of the 2010 book <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674284333" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">“The Two Faces of American Freedom,”</a>
which argues that settler colonialism lies behind both the nation’s
enduring racial hierarchies and the emancipatory possibilities of its
political tradition.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">When he was in
graduate school in the early 2000s, Rana said, the concept was used by
some scholars of empire. But it remained “really at the edge” of fields
like American history and American political science.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">That
changed, Rana said, as scholars of the United States began to embrace
new thinking about race, slavery and Native Americans, and as the Iraq
war and its aftermath forced <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/25/books/the-last-empire-for-now.html" title="">a rethinking of the traditional consensus</a> that the United States <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/13/books/review-how-to-hide-empire-daniel-immerwahr.html" title="">was not an empire</a>.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">At
the same time, the term migrated out of the academy and was embraced by
the activist left, where it became useful for drawing connections
across a broad range of issues.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“Movement
activists have very consciously sought solidarities across efforts to
confront anti-Black racism, Native American dispossession and immigrant
mistreatment,” Rana said. “The concept has been a powerful way of
showing the links across these experiences.”</p><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">But seeing settler colonialism as inherently connected with “whiteness,” some scholars argue, is simplistic.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><a class="css-yywogo" href="https://aeon.co/essays/settler-colonialism-is-not-distinctly-western-or-european" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">In a recent essay</a> in the online magazine Aeon, Lachlan McNamee, author of the new book <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691237817/settling-for-less" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">“Settling for Less: Why States Colonize and Why They Stop,”</a>
argues that settler colonialism is not just a “historical Western
evil,” perpetrated by white nations against Black and brown people.</p><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">McNamee, a
political scientist, cites Japan’s invasion in the 1930s of northeastern
China (where it used the promise of free land to lure 270,000 Japanese
settlers to the newly created state of Manchukuo, or Manchuria), as well
as Indonesia’s resettlement of 300,000 farmers in West Papua in the
1970s and ’80s, following Indigenous uprisings. (Scholars have also <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41412797" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">cited the example of Liberia</a>, which was colonized after the U.S. Civil War by emancipated African Americans, who became the dominant elite.)</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><a class="css-yywogo" href="https://101.visualizingpalestine.org/visuals/settler-colonialism-still-reality" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">Online maps depicting settler colonialism</a>
today “almost exclusively depict areas settled by Europeans,” McNamee
writes. “Colonized peoples in the Global South have experienced a double
erasure: first by settlers and second by settler colonial studies.”</p><h2 class="css-kypbrf eoo0vm40" id="link-cc0417e">Israel: An Outlier?</h2><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Nowhere is the idea of settler colonialism more charged than in <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/10/world/europe/colonialist-word-gaza-ukraine.html" title="">discussions of Israel</a>,
whether it is used to describe Israel’s current settlements in the West
Bank or the processes that led to the founding of the Jewish state
itself in 1948.</p><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">A version of the argument appeared as early as 1967, in the French Marxist scholar <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://jacobin.com/2021/01/maxime-rodinson-islam-middle-east" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">Maxime Rodinson</a>’s book “Israel: Fait Colonial?” (It was published in English in 1973 as <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.amazon.com/Israel-Colonial-Settler-State-English-French/dp/0873488660" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">“Israel: A Colonial-Settler State?”</a>)</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">More
recently, Rashid Khalidi, a prominent Palestinian American historian at
Columbia University, drew on it in his best-selling 2020 book <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/28/books/review/the-hundred-years-war-on-palestine-rashid-khalidi.html" title="">“The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017.”</a></p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The
concept, he said in an interview, was present in Palestinian writing of
the 1920s and ’30s, even if non-Arabic-speaking scholars were not
reading it. He said it also reflected the self-conception of early
Zionists, who primarily came from Eastern Europe.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“This
was a movement that saw itself as operating as a colonial project”
under the sponsorship of the British, who controlled Palestine from 1918
to 1948, Khalidi said. “They made no bones about it until World War II.
They called themselves settlers. They described <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-colonization-association-ica" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">their process as colonization</a>.”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">But to many Jews, connecting Israel with settler colonialism is <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/10/decolonization-narrative-dangerous-and-false/675799/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">anathema</a>
given the Jewish people’s historical connection with the land. The
notion also gets mixed reactions among Israel’s left-leaning “New
Historians,” who have challenged the country’s traditional nationalist
narratives.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">In <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2023-11-27/avi-shlaim-israel-hamas-war-q-a" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">a recent interview</a>
with The Los Angeles Times, Avi Shlaim, the author of “The Iron Wall:
Israel and the Arab World,” said that “Palestinians have had the
misfortune to be at the receiving end of both Zionist settler
colonialism and Western imperialism, first British and then American.”</p><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">But in an email, Tom Segev, <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/00/11/12/reviews/001112.12bartovt.html?scp=39&sq=palestine&st=cse" title="">whose books include</a>
“One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate,”
said that “colonialism is irrelevant to the Zionist experience.”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Zionists
were motivated primarily by “a historical vision for their future
identity in what they considered their ancient homeland” rather than an
“imperial strategic or economic vision or a desire to dominate the local
population.”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Besides, Segev said, “most Jewish immigrants in Palestine and Israel did not come as Zionists but as refugees.”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">For some historians, it is not a yes-or-no question.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“Are Jews ‘indigenous’ or settler colonialists in Palestine?” the scholar Barnett R. Rubin wrote in <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/false-messiahs/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">a recent essay</a> in Boston Review. “They are both.”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“Today’s
settlers in the West Bank and the Golan Heights could indeed return —
their ‘mother country’ is Israel — but the same is not true of the
citizens of Israel as a whole,” he wrote. “They cannot return to the
scenes of the Holocaust or to the Arab and Muslim states that expelled
them.”</p><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">For
the United States, the idea of settler colonialism may not carry the
same explosive charge. While the phrase is still outside the political
mainstream, the idea lies behind the land acknowledgments — which
recognize and name the Indigenous inhabitants of places — that have
become commonplace across universities and cultural institutions.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">To some observers, including some <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.anthropology-news.org/articles/rethinking-land-acknowledgments/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">Indigenous critics</a>,
those acknowledgments are just toothless moral theater. But Rana, of
Boston College, argues that taking the idea of settler colonialism
seriously allows for a more honest view of how the United States — not
just its territory, but its enduring legal and political structures —
was formed.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Still, he cautions against treating settler colonialism as a historical master key.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“This
lens doesn’t tell you everything you need to know,” Rana said. “But it
allows you to see something that you otherwise would not be able to
see.”</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div class="css-1jp38cr"><div class="css-cw8msf eqi4ubu0"><div class="css-kzd6pg"><p><span class="css-97bxx6"><a class="authorPageLinkClass overrideLinkStyles" href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/jennifer-schuessler">Jennifer Schuessler</a></span> is a culture reporter covering intellectual life and the world of ideas. She is based in New York.<span class="css-kzd6pg"> <a class="authorPageLinkClass overrideLinkStyles" href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/jennifer-schuessler">More about Jennifer Schuessler</a></span></p></div></div></div><div class="css-13ldwoe">A version of this article appears in print on <span class="css-1dmwf73" data-testid="todays-date" datetime="2024-01-23T05:00:00.000Z">Jan. 23, 2024</span>, Section C, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: A Complex Lens for a Knotty World<span>. </span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></aside></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>ed notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-49616708105952206182024-01-22T08:31:00.004-05:002024-01-25T09:46:33.010-05:00Norm Reads: Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson<p>I've been a science fiction fan since I was a kid reading Jules Verne. I don't read a lot of it but lately I've been focusing on getting away from politics and into the future. Kim Stanley Robinson is on of my favorites. It took me a year to read the Mars Trilogy. What's interesting about Robinson is he deals with the realm of possibilities. </p><p><a href="https://orionmagazine.org/article/the-ministry-for-the-future-book-excerpt/">Ministry of the Future</a>, while overlong and tedious at times, dealt with the horrors of climate change, echo-terrorism, which actually had a major impact, and almost every solution for global warming being tried, and often succeeding. </p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-weight: 400;">Many also called its portrayal of the
climate crisis—and of human society on the verge of collapse—prescient.
Three years after its release, and mere weeks after</span> <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2023/nasa-finds-june-2023-hottest-on-record"><span style="font-weight: 400;">scientists declared June of 2023 the hottest June</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">on record, the accuracy with which Robinson’s predictions are coming true utterly terrifies....</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">despite the horrors its protagonists
face, the novel is quite optimistic: humans come to value collaboration,
mitigation, and adaptation over greed and selfishness. But to get to
that point, we first must go through hell. <br /></span></blockquote><p>There's always hope in his stories. In New York 2140, the seas have risen and Manhattan looks like Venice and high tides bring the ocean up to mid-Brooklyn. And Rockaway no longer exists. I could imagine the remnants of my house under water. But the city functions - sort of. </p><p>In today's NYT there are articles on all the nations sending stuff to the moon. The article mentions that only China has a good success rate. I just finished reading Red Moon written in 2015. And here he posits China as by far the most advanced nation on the moon, with a massive base on the South Pole. The United States is far behind but with its focus on the North Pole. Everything is real in the sense of it all looks possible. Robotic bulldozers have created space for very livable communities. And getting back and forth uses rocket sleds. </p><p>There are 3 key characters, 30 somethings American tech nerd named Fred, Qi, a Chinese princelingess as privileged daughter of a Politburo member, and a much older Ta Shu, a famous Chinese media/philosopher/poet who brokers much of the action. Qi is the major force, leading an underground movement in China to overthrow the Party. Ta Shu, while critical of the Party, also fears its demise. His view is that the so-called two party system in the US is not much different in actuality from the one party system in China - the book is from 2015 when that had more elements of truth than today.</p><p>Spoiler alert - in the end there are simultaneous revolutions from beneath in the US and China with the hope that there will be some unity between the masses in both countries. A dream for sure.</p><p>Here are some links and segments from reviews, many of which were critical of the wordiness of the book.<br /></p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p></p><p></p><blockquote><p></p><p>There are many pleasures to be found here, including the characters:
solitary, geeky Fred, who has never learned that to get on with other
people you have to play a part; sparky, entitled Qi; gentle Ta Shu, an
elderly poet and feng shui expert. The reflections are interesting, well
informed and humane, and weave together an extraordinarily wide range
of topics, including Chinese history, quantum theory, poetry, the
dynamics of capitalism, the origins of Earth and moon, the dependence of
language on analogy, even the nature of shyness. For those who like it,
there’s also plenty of future tech, (detailed descriptions of which do
sometimes slow the drama) as well as beautiful descriptions of lunar
landscapes. But for me the highlight was the relationship between Fred
and Qi: a delightful and touching depiction of two people who would
normally have nothing to do with each other, finding a way of getting
along.</p><p>https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/nov/17/red-moon-by-kim-stanley-robinson-review <br /></p><p>https://www.npr.org/2018/10/27/660725915/in-red-moon-too-much-information-eclipses-the-story</p><p><a class="WlydOe" data-jsarwt="1" data-usg="AOvVaw0ud4IoSIrl89NM8oLYWPw4" data-ved="2ahUKEwiXvJDt8O-DAxVVFlkFHSkhAHUQxfQBKAB6BAgJEAE" href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/3/18055324/kim-stanley-robinson-red-moon-science-fiction-book-review"></a></p><div class="MgUUmf NUnG9d"><a class="WlydOe" data-jsarwt="1" data-usg="AOvVaw0ud4IoSIrl89NM8oLYWPw4" data-ved="2ahUKEwiXvJDt8O-DAxVVFlkFHSkhAHUQxfQBKAB6BAgJEAE" href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/3/18055324/kim-stanley-robinson-red-moon-science-fiction-book-review"><img alt="" class="YQ4gaf zr758c" data-atf="4" data-frt="0" height="16" id="dimg_25" src="data:image/png;base64,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" style="border-radius: 2px;" width="16" /><span>The Verge</span></a></div><div aria-level="3" class="n0jPhd ynAwRc MBeuO nDgy9d" role="heading" style="-webkit-line-clamp: 3;"><a class="WlydOe" data-jsarwt="1" data-usg="AOvVaw0ud4IoSIrl89NM8oLYWPw4" data-ved="2ahUKEwiXvJDt8O-DAxVVFlkFHSkhAHUQxfQBKAB6BAgJEAE" href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/3/18055324/kim-stanley-robinson-red-moon-science-fiction-book-review">Red Moon is a novel full of fascinating ideas that never come together</a></div><div class="GI74Re nDgy9d" style="-webkit-line-clamp: 3; margin-top: 8px;"><a class="WlydOe" data-jsarwt="1" data-usg="AOvVaw0ud4IoSIrl89NM8oLYWPw4" data-ved="2ahUKEwiXvJDt8O-DAxVVFlkFHSkhAHUQxfQBKAB6BAgJEAE" href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/3/18055324/kim-stanley-robinson-red-moon-science-fiction-book-review">Kim Stanley Robinson's new novel Red Moon is full of interesting ideas
about the future of the US, China, and the Moon, but they never gel.</a></div><p></p><p><i>Red Moon</i>, is set within spitting distance of today, envisioning
the power struggle between an ascendant China and a declining United
States. </p><p><a class="WlydOe" data-jsarwt="1" data-usg="AOvVaw1QSp4MBhZrAqPGvJGCAnTw" data-ved="2ahUKEwiXvJDt8O-DAxVVFlkFHSkhAHUQxfQBKAB6BAgKEAE" href="https://www.space.com/42258-red-moon-book-kim-stanley-robinson.html"></a></p><div class="lSfe4c r5bEn aI5QMe"><div class="SoAPf"><div aria-level="3" class="n0jPhd ynAwRc MBeuO nDgy9d" role="heading" style="-webkit-line-clamp: 3;"><a class="WlydOe" data-jsarwt="1" data-usg="AOvVaw1QSp4MBhZrAqPGvJGCAnTw" data-ved="2ahUKEwiXvJDt8O-DAxVVFlkFHSkhAHUQxfQBKAB6BAgKEAE" href="https://www.space.com/42258-red-moon-book-kim-stanley-robinson.html">Author Kim Stanley Robinson Talks China and Lunar Settlement in Novel 'Red
Moon'</a></div><div class="GI74Re nDgy9d" style="-webkit-line-clamp: 3; margin-top: 8px;"><a class="WlydOe" data-jsarwt="1" data-usg="AOvVaw1QSp4MBhZrAqPGvJGCAnTw" data-ved="2ahUKEwiXvJDt8O-DAxVVFlkFHSkhAHUQxfQBKAB6BAgKEAE" href="https://www.space.com/42258-red-moon-book-kim-stanley-robinson.html">Kim Stanley Robinson's new book, 'Red Moon,' showcases how gritty and
tangled life on the moon could really be.</a></div><a class="WlydOe" data-jsarwt="1" data-usg="AOvVaw1QSp4MBhZrAqPGvJGCAnTw" data-ved="2ahUKEwiXvJDt8O-DAxVVFlkFHSkhAHUQxfQBKAB6BAgKEAE" href="https://www.space.com/42258-red-moon-book-kim-stanley-robinson.html"><span class="lO8SBd" tabindex="-1">.</span><div class="OSrXXb rbYSKb LfVVr" style="bottom: 0px;"><span>Oct 26, 2018</span></div></a></div></div><p></p><p></p><div class="SoaBEf" data-hveid="CBoQAA"><div><div data-hveid="CA4QAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwiXvJDt8O-DAxVVFlkFHSkhAHUQxPQBKAB6BAgOEAA"><a class="WlydOe" data-jsarwt="1" data-usg="AOvVaw2ywNMJ_4BnLOMvaft7yvwf" data-ved="2ahUKEwiXvJDt8O-DAxVVFlkFHSkhAHUQxfQBKAB6BAgOEAE" href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24032000-600-red-moon-review-history-lessons-power-great-new-lunar-future-novel/"><div class="lSfe4c r5bEn aI5QMe"><div class="gpjNTe"><div class="YEMaTe JFSfwc" style="background-color: #f8f9fa; height: 92px; width: 92px;"><div class="uhHOwf BYbUcd" style="height: 92px; width: 92px;"><img alt="" data-atf="4" data-frt="0" id="dimg_16" src="data:image/jpeg;base64,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" /></div></div></div><div class="SoAPf"><div class="MgUUmf NUnG9d"><img alt="" class="YQ4gaf zr758c" data-atf="4" data-frt="0" height="16" id="dimg_35" src="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABAAAAAQCAMAAAAoLQ9TAAAAUVBMVEX///8BHkHc4OUrQ2D+/vyfqrfn6u0iO1pCWHIFIkTZ3eL4+fr7/PyBj6HCydGosr4YM1Lu8PNhc4kPK0xJXnZkdovGzdRzgpZsfZELJ0jP1dsfRzpkAAAAgElEQVQYlW3P2w7CMAgGYP7V0sNGq1udzvd/UAuLF2vkgsCXQIBudImhHWJeLIsrVO+RagCCEE1AJA/HCdBSAaVDRcqP4k+IBhDWHQpY+8gGpJUNGhIc5WcnZ7Anq2h+AazA7w57zSw/4APO6y4bCYFJQvu0DUebLqcv/z8a3/8C+lUD3obrnLEAAAAASUVORK5CYII=" style="border-radius: 2px;" width="16" /><span>New Scientist</span></div><div aria-level="3" class="n0jPhd ynAwRc MBeuO nDgy9d" role="heading" style="-webkit-line-clamp: 3;">Red Moon review: History lessons power great new lunar future novel</div><div class="GI74Re nDgy9d" style="-webkit-line-clamp: 3; margin-top: 8px;">According to the new book by science-fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson,
China's long past makes its domination of the moon inevitable.</div><span class="lO8SBd" tabindex="-1">.</span><div class="OSrXXb rbYSKb LfVVr" style="bottom: 0px;"><span>Oct 17, 2018</span></div></div></div></a></div></div></div><div class="SoaBEf R24aHf" data-hveid="CBgQAA"><div><div data-hveid="CAgQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwiXvJDt8O-DAxVVFlkFHSkhAHUQxPQBKAB6BAgIEAA"><a class="WlydOe" data-jsarwt="1" data-usg="AOvVaw3eZc1W5Jlixf7_GwEPwodZ" data-ved="2ahUKEwiXvJDt8O-DAxVVFlkFHSkhAHUQxfQBKAB6BAgIEAE" href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/review-red-moon-by-kim-stanley-robinson-china-reaches-for-the-moon-322x36vk7"><div class="lSfe4c r5bEn aI5QMe"><div class="gpjNTe"><div class="YEMaTe JFSfwc" style="background-color: #f8f9fa; height: 92px; width: 92px;"><div class="uhHOwf BYbUcd" style="height: 92px; width: 92px;"><img alt="" data-atf="4" data-frt="0" id="dimg_5" src="data:image/jpeg;base64,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" /></div></div></div><div class="SoAPf"><div class="MgUUmf NUnG9d"><img alt="" class="YQ4gaf zr758c" data-atf="4" data-frt="0" height="16" id="dimg_26" src="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABAAAAAQCAMAAAAoLQ9TAAAAKlBMVEUAAAD////i4uLc3Nyjo6PQ0ND39/e2trazs7Pv7++rq6ulpaV/f3/n5+fB3i3dAAAAO0lEQVQYlWNgIAswMzKxMDKyMDGyQgXY2BkYGBkZGDg4oQJcDBABBm4kbWABBtoK8DAxMvLyEPQBDgAATGIAhTDnVvoAAAAASUVORK5CYII=" style="border-radius: 2px;" width="16" /><span>The Times</span></div><div aria-level="3" class="n0jPhd ynAwRc MBeuO nDgy9d" role="heading" style="-webkit-line-clamp: 3;">Review: Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson — China reaches for the Moon</div><div class="GI74Re nDgy9d" style="-webkit-line-clamp: 3; margin-top: 8px;">Read it as the work of a man who has looked long and hard at the modern
world and seen it for what it is with the clear gaze of a hyper-informed...</div><span class="lO8SBd" tabindex="-1">.</span><div class="OSrXXb rbYSKb LfVVr" style="bottom: 0px;"><span>Oct 20, 2018</span></div></div></div></a></div></div></div><div id="bottomads"></div><div id="botstuff"><div data-hveid="CAEQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwiXvJDt8O-DAxVVFlkFHSkhAHUQCHoECAEQAA"><div></div><div id="bres"></div><div role="navigation"><br /></div></div></div><div class="eqAnXb" id="res" role="main"><div id="search"><div data-hveid="CAYQIQ" data-ved="2ahUKEwiXvJDt8O-DAxVVFlkFHSkhAHUQGnoECAYQIQ"><div class="dURPMd" data-async-context="query:kim%20stanley%20robinson%20red%20moon" id="rso"><div class="MjjYud"><div data-hveid="CAcQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwiXvJDt8O-DAxVVFlkFHSkhAHUQyIQJKAB6BAgHEAA"><div class="SoaBEf" data-hveid="CAsQAA"><div><div data-hveid="CAoQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwiXvJDt8O-DAxVVFlkFHSkhAHUQxPQBKAB6BAgKEAA"></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><table class="AaVjTc" role="presentation"><tbody><tr valign="top"><td class="d6cvqb BBwThe"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p>At 70, Robinson — who is widely acclaimed as one of the most influential
speculative fiction writers of his generation — stands as perhaps the
last of the great utopians. It can be lonely work, he said. But lately,
his writing has been having an impact in the real world, as biologists
and climate scientists, tech entrepreneurs and CEOs of green technology
start-ups have looked to his fiction as a possible road map for avoiding
the worst outcomes of climate change...</p><p></p><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">At the United
Nations’ climate summit last fall, Robinson was treated as a
quasi-celebrity. He met with diplomats, ecologists and business leaders,
and made the case for implementing some of the ambitious ideas in his
fiction — geoengineering to stop glaciers from melting, replacing planes
with solar-powered airships, reordering the economy with carbon
quantitative easing, with a new cryptocurrency that could fund
decarbonization.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“These are deeply
researched, plausible futures he’s writing about,” said Nigel Topping,
the United Kingdom’s high-level climate action champion, who invited
Robinson to the summit.</p></div><p>https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/11/books/kim-stanley-robinson-sci-fi.html</p></blockquote><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"></span></p>ed notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-71759925296421956032024-01-20T12:27:00.003-05:002024-01-25T09:47:43.757-05:00UFT/Unity leadership has been the Major Obstacle to Ending Mayoral Control so direct fire at THEM, Plus Ronnie Almonte on reasons not to renew<p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b>"We cannot take a stand against mayoral control as long as the UFT won't openly oppose it." </b></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b> </b></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b>Politicians have said this openly to me. </b></span></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-h34iH2qb2ZgQ5q5ee1F-t0cWIFL2sD3B-sXAKv5zbvvWz1iWpjR8aZQrL6YRQiyFExGwHh8hxiU3W7YCzGER3eXLM7jr3rIrsO5AMpaqdk00vRcMkkysmyM9JfAE43mq2nQqap6RMiHeJ4R5wZz8RJe2qk2gp2wGSC0cWvRpsCKZegEk3yMM/s650/Screenshot%202024-01-20%20at%2012.24.40%E2%80%AFPM.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="312" data-original-width="650" height="154" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-h34iH2qb2ZgQ5q5ee1F-t0cWIFL2sD3B-sXAKv5zbvvWz1iWpjR8aZQrL6YRQiyFExGwHh8hxiU3W7YCzGER3eXLM7jr3rIrsO5AMpaqdk00vRcMkkysmyM9JfAE43mq2nQqap6RMiHeJ4R5wZz8RJe2qk2gp2wGSC0cWvRpsCKZegEk3yMM/s320/Screenshot%202024-01-20%20at%2012.24.40%E2%80%AFPM.png" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b>With the current sturm and drang over mayoral control, we must keep in mind that it will never end as long as the UFT/Unity leadership keeps supporting it. <br /></b></span><span style="font-family: times;"><b><br /></b></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">And those who speak at meeting after meeting making the case against it must keep this in mind. They should be speaking at every UFT forum to challenge the bullshit that the UFT wants real change instead of virtue signalling. <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">Ask people in the schools and I bet they want mayoral control to end. Their major complaint would be the level of micromanagement and control and their total inability to fight against it. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">One example of how committed to mayoral control the UFT has been was when Daniel Alicea, at that time not opposed to Unity, felt that they were open to discussing the issue and willing to make major reforms. So he put up a resolution for the DA to open the issue for discussion and saw month after month delaying tactics lasting a year before it faded. That opened his eyes to the deceptive games UFT/Unity play.<br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">Renewal of mayoral control of the school system is on our radar. The governor is pushing for a 4-year extension, and the UFT gives false signals of wanting some changes but not out-rightly opposing, as I reported in my last post:<br /></span></span></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2024/01/in-2002-i-warned-uft-about-evils-of.html" style="font-family: times;">In 2002 I Warned the UFT About Evils of Mayoral Control and they still only want Tweaks as Hochul calls for 4-year extension. </a></span></h3></li></ul><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">The very concept of mayoral control, no matter the city or the individual in charge, is inherently doomed to fail. And is undemocratic and a form of racism, given the racial makeup of the populations of most cities that have implemented it. Most school systems (mostly white suburbs) elect school boards. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">Mayoral control was a plot to remove regular oversight of massive school systems with massive budgets and remove fundamental oversight, thus opening the doors to extensive corruption where lobbyists get to operate. In the old days of community control with 32 school districts for k-8, of course there was corruption but it was hard work for the vested interests to deal with so many elected school boards. What was needed was more oversight, not the elimination of local involvement. The charter school industrial complex were major players in pushing for mayoral control, as was the testing industrial complex and other corporate entities with the power and influence to get in the door of the mayor.<br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">The "let schools compete" corporate business model cannot work for schools and that has been proven time and again since it was first implemented in Chicago in 1995 (now shifting to an elected school board) and NY in 2002. Teachers rated by test scores, schools rated the same way, enormous oversight and pressure on teachers that I in my 35 year from late 60s never faced, thought there was some pressure, especially from an ambitious principal who took over in 1979 and fundamentally gave me a taste of what became mayoral control to the point that I no longer wanted to teach a regular class and became a computer cluster. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">Thus, my experience prepared me to oppose mayoral control because I had seen what it would bring. And as I pointed out I shared all this with UFT leadership time and again. And 20 years later they still want only tweaks. In no way do they want a democratic election for school boards. But then again why would we expect UFT/Unity leadership to be interested in democratic institutions?</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">Of course the rub in all this is what are the alternatives to mayoral control? A topic for another day. <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">So I will state this once again for all those forces opposing mayoral control: <b><span style="color: #660000;"></span></b></span></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>WE WILL NOT GET ANYWHERE UNTIL THE UFT STOPS BACKING MAYORAL CONTROL AND FOCUS ATTENTION ON THEM.<br /></b></span></blockquote><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">I'm posting UFT Exec Bd (non-Unity) rep Ronnie Almonte's testimony at a hearing on Thursday. Ronnie didn't get a lot of time to present the entire case against mayoral control and focused on the incompetence of Mayor Adams and the fundamental injustices inherent in a school system controlled by one politician no matter what political party. </span></span></p><h2 class="post-title unpublished" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">Testimony Against Mayoral Control: </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">No single person should control NYC public schools</span></span></h2><h2 class="post-title unpublished" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href=" https://ronniealmonte.substack.com/p/testimony-against-mayoral-control" style="font-family: times;"> https://ronniealmonte.substack.com/p/testimony-against-mayoral-control</a></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"> <br /></span></span></h2><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-flexDirection-column pc-paddingTop-16 pc-paddingBottom-16 pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-12 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset byline-wrapper"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-alignItems-center frontend-pencraft-Box-module__flexGrow--mx4xz pc-reset facepile"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-alignItems-center pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-alignItems-center pc-reset frontend-components-Facepile-module__faces--FVkdk frontend-components-Facepile-module__size-40--pH6IT"><div class="profile-hover-card-target frontend-reader2-ProfileAndPublicationHoverCard-module__profileHoverCardTarget--Od_YL"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a class="pencraft pc-display-flex frontend-pencraft-Box-module__flexAuto--CnX9I pc-reset" href="https://substack.com/profile/43108807-ronnie-almonte" rel="noopener" style="font-family: times;" target="_blank"><picture><source type="image/webp"></source><img alt="" class="frontend-components-responsive_img-module__img--Pgjj2 facepile-face frontend-components-Facepile-module__face--uAQkp frontend-components-Facepile-module__size-40--pH6IT frontend-components-Facepile-module__first--TZamh frontend-components-Facepile-module__last--DT3p3 pencraft pc-reset" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_80,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbc47963a-8b4c-47a7-aced-8d1d269862e8_1773x1773.jpeg" style="z-index: 1;" width="80" /></picture></a></span></div></div></div></div></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-flexDirection-column pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-reset frontend-pencraft-Text-module__color-pub-primary-text--RzL7j frontend-pencraft-Text-module__line-height-20--p0dP8 frontend-pencraft-Text-module__font-meta--U_nxy frontend-pencraft-Text-module__size-11--k1e8b frontend-pencraft-Text-module__weight-medium--x7khA frontend-pencraft-Text-module__transform-uppercase--IDkUL frontend-pencraft-Text-module__reset--dW0zZ frontend-pencraft-Text-module__meta--jzHdd"><div class="profile-hover-card-target frontend-reader2-ProfileAndPublicationHoverCard-module__profileHoverCardTarget--Od_YL"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a class="pencraft pc-reset frontend-pencraft-Text-module__decoration-hover-underline--BEYAn frontend-pencraft-Text-module__reset--dW0zZ" href="https://substack.com/@ronniealmonte" style="font-family: times;">Ronnie Almonte</a></span></div></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-4 pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-reset frontend-pencraft-Text-module__color-pub-secondary-text--OzRTa frontend-pencraft-Text-module__line-height-20--p0dP8 frontend-pencraft-Text-module__font-meta--U_nxy frontend-pencraft-Text-module__size-11--k1e8b frontend-pencraft-Text-module__weight-medium--x7khA frontend-pencraft-Text-module__transform-uppercase--IDkUL frontend-pencraft-Text-module__reset--dW0zZ frontend-pencraft-Text-module__meta--jzHdd"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">Jan 19, 2024</span></span></div></div></div></div></div><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"></span></span></p><blockquote><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><span>NYC public schools are governed by a system of mayoral control.
This means that the mayor, currently Eric Adams, effectively makes
unliteral decisions about how the Department of Education runs. Mayoral
control was successfully implemented by Mayor Mike Bloomberg in 2002;
however, every few years it must be renewed by Albany. Current Mayor
Eric Adams was granted an extension of mayoral control in 2022, which is
up for renewal this year. Last night I attended the public hearing on
mayoral control in Manhattan, alongside families and fellow educators
who overwhelmingly spoke against it. You can view recordings of this
hearing (forthcoming) and past hearings </span><a href="https://www.nysed.gov/new-york-city-mayoral-control-hearings" rel="">here</a><span>. In the meantime, I’ve posted the testimony I (mostly) gave below.<span></span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><i>I'm here to speak against the renewal of mayoral control. I speak
against it, not only because Mayor Eric Adams is an incompetent and
obstructive school manager; but because a system built on the
disenfranchisement of Black and brown families, that can allow a single
person as inept and egotistical as Eric Adams–and de Blasio and
Bloomberg before him–to cause such widespread harm, is a system that
must end. School leaders advocate for students, they don’t cut their
funds, fail to pay their providers, crowd their classrooms, deprive them
of their services, throw them out of housing, and segregate them
racially.</i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><i>There are several things Mayor Adams has done
that disqualify him as the manager of the largest school district in the
country. For one, in his short tenure, he’s cut hundreds of millions,
probably billions of dollars from the school budget. This is at a time
when NYC’s economy is doing well. Every day on my way to work, as I exit
the subway, I see four or five of Adams’ new private security guards
standing at the turnstile gates, and while making my way out, I pass by
another four or five NYPD cops playing on their phones. I see these
adults and think about how much power Adams has to direct money toward
such waste, about how all mayors have let the NYPD blow their overtime
budget each year and get their multimillion misconduct cases covered by
taxpayers. I think about these things as I commute to a school where
Mayoral cuts had halted the funding of after-school clubs. And I think
about how Mayor Adams is effectively plundering education to fund
policing, and whatever pet projects he gets to pursue at his whim. Even
when the money is there, the Mayor cannot manage to pay preschools on
time, or bring himself to prepare to meet the legal obligation of
reducing class sizes.</i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><i>Some argue that Mayoral control
ensures accountability. But ever since the billionaire Mayor Bloomberg
steamrolled the Board of Ed, we’ve seen zero consequences for NYC mayors
as students learning English go without enough bilingual educators;
students with IEPs illegally have their services neglected;
asylum-seeking students get their education disrupted, by getting
evicted from shelters in the middle of cold stormy nights, and being
forced to transfer to new schools every few weeks. All of this - and
more - in a system where students of color bear the burden of a school
segregation crisis that deepens. These injustices keep repeating,
precisely because mayoral control prevents the mayor from being held
accountable. We would see, not only actual accountability, but real
improvements to our students' learning and safety under an elected
school board made up of people, who as members of the community, would
have an actual interest in not ransacking but nourishing the school
system.</i></span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i style="font-family: times;"></i></span></p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">------<br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b>In other UFT news</b>, Arthur pushed Amy for a UFT award as a way to aggravate Mulgrew.</span></span></p><p><span></span></p></div></div></div><blockquote><div class="subscription-widget-wrap"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>Many of you may have received an email from UFT HS Vice President Janella Hinds. Janella, evidently, is in charge of </span><a href="https://click.uftmail.org/?qs=9e3d8ce5d50471ebb94ae27310894440011568fcd98a064c6adc1fef55e7e8e978bfb4a451eb354270d1af87bf074b2d2701edaaa70d2a8f63021eae4261c54b" rel="">seeking nominations</a><span>
for an outstanding female colleague. I’ve no doubt there are hundreds,
thousands of deserving women. I can think of several off the top of my
head. (I won’t mention them here, because I’m certain I’ll have
forgotten someone crucial.)</span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">This notwithstanding, in my
career as a teacher, and as a union leader, one person stands out, and
that is now-exiled UFT Queens Representative Amy Arundell. </span></div></div></div><h1 class="post-title unpublished"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://arthurgoldstein.substack.com/p/nominate-amy-arundell-for-the-herstory?utm_source=cross-post&publication_id=1752095&post_id=140839187&utm_campaign=293646&isFreemail=true&r=3qu3t&utm_medium=email" style="font-family: times;">Nominate Amy Arundell for the HERStory Award</a></span></h1><h3 class="subtitle"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">Give Mulgrew that well-deserved conniption.</span></span></h3><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-flexDirection-column pc-paddingTop-16 pc-paddingBottom-16 pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-12 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset byline-wrapper"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-alignItems-center frontend-pencraft-Box-module__flexGrow--mx4xz pc-reset facepile"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-alignItems-center pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-alignItems-center pc-reset frontend-components-Facepile-module__faces--FVkdk frontend-components-Facepile-module__size-40--pH6IT"><div class="profile-hover-card-target frontend-reader2-ProfileAndPublicationHoverCard-module__profileHoverCardTarget--Od_YL"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a class="pencraft pc-display-flex frontend-pencraft-Box-module__flexAuto--CnX9I pc-reset" href="https://substack.com/profile/153388808-arthur-goldstein" rel="noopener" style="font-family: times;" target="_blank"><picture><source type="image/webp"></source><img alt="" class="frontend-components-responsive_img-module__img--Pgjj2 facepile-face frontend-components-Facepile-module__face--uAQkp frontend-components-Facepile-module__size-40--pH6IT frontend-components-Facepile-module__first--TZamh frontend-components-Facepile-module__last--DT3p3 pencraft pc-reset" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_80,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9a436587-95d8-43f5-a529-bee002dfe06b_144x144.png" style="z-index: 1;" width="80" /></picture></a></span></div></div></div></div></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-flexDirection-column pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-reset frontend-pencraft-Text-module__color-pub-primary-text--RzL7j frontend-pencraft-Text-module__line-height-20--p0dP8 frontend-pencraft-Text-module__font-meta--U_nxy frontend-pencraft-Text-module__size-11--k1e8b frontend-pencraft-Text-module__weight-medium--x7khA frontend-pencraft-Text-module__transform-uppercase--IDkUL frontend-pencraft-Text-module__reset--dW0zZ frontend-pencraft-Text-module__meta--jzHdd"><div class="profile-hover-card-target frontend-reader2-ProfileAndPublicationHoverCard-module__profileHoverCardTarget--Od_YL"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a class="pencraft pc-reset frontend-pencraft-Text-module__decoration-hover-underline--BEYAn frontend-pencraft-Text-module__reset--dW0zZ" href="https://substack.com/@arthurgoldstein" style="font-family: times;">Arthur Goldstein</a></span></div></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-4 pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-reset frontend-pencraft-Text-module__color-pub-secondary-text--OzRTa frontend-pencraft-Text-module__line-height-20--p0dP8 frontend-pencraft-Text-module__font-meta--U_nxy frontend-pencraft-Text-module__size-11--k1e8b frontend-pencraft-Text-module__weight-medium--x7khA frontend-pencraft-Text-module__transform-uppercase--IDkUL frontend-pencraft-Text-module__reset--dW0zZ frontend-pencraft-Text-module__meta--jzHdd"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">Jan 19, 2024</span></span></div></div></div></div></div><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></span></p></blockquote>ed notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-40309243787264416862024-01-17T12:24:00.003-05:002024-01-20T12:26:34.058-05:00In 2002 I Warned the UFT About Evils of Mayoral Control and they still only want Tweaks as Hochul calls for 4-year extension <p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b style="color: #660000;">Ed Notes, Sept. 2002: When UFT leader Randi Weingarten floated a
proposal to give the mayor control of the school system in May 2001,
Education Notes took strong exception, arguing that giving politicians
control would only result in a system of education by the numbers in a
corporate style system. </b><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b><span style="color: #660000;">Did Weingarten sell out our educational
interests for a pot of gold? The next few years will allow people to
judge for themselves. </span></b></span></span></blockquote><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I did some satire on UFT capitulation:</span></p><div class="page" title="Page 2">
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<p><span color="rgb(13.725000%, 12.157000%, 12.549000%)" style="font-family: 'Arial'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span style="color: #660000; font-family: "Arial";">Late breaking news: </span><span style="color: #660000; font-family: "ArialMT";">Bloomberg says he needs to take over UFT (some say he already
has) to make school system work and will ask the state assembly (a UFT subsidiary) for control.
</span></b></span></blockquote><span color="rgb(13.725000%, 12.157000%, 12.549000%)" style="font-family: 'ArialMT'; font-size: 10pt;"></span><p></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Well, in essence it was not satire as for most of his tenure the UFT put up a faux resistance, while fundamentally agreeing with most of the Bloomberg ed deforms: high stakes testing, closing "failing" schools, charters, etc. Their support for the horrendous 2005 contract enabled the Bloomberg assault.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">You judge given the past 22 years of mayoral control. I love to say I told them so. And I will continue to do so. Ed Notes was warning them about the consequences in the first tabloid edition which had a print run of 10 thousand after I retired in 2002.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjibNAhM6RSgBwmBZHqbm2uvzEx5ZRzkna1JcgsKFCss_czP6PV6npoUJ0zcnu6EMh2SgKcwMylVrfb3-Zv8jdw0IsDCXAyDgNmKFEFrvGAgw5HcXj7URn0vNt0ATUaWyRcJ4uOzZpmp34n-ZCh3wzgAKE68mO_LSJRndBscjD4ziVKMFWtdpSu/s1496/Screenshot%202024-01-16%20at%207.49.52%E2%80%AFPM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="850" data-original-width="1496" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjibNAhM6RSgBwmBZHqbm2uvzEx5ZRzkna1JcgsKFCss_czP6PV6npoUJ0zcnu6EMh2SgKcwMylVrfb3-Zv8jdw0IsDCXAyDgNmKFEFrvGAgw5HcXj7URn0vNt0ATUaWyRcJ4uOzZpmp34n-ZCh3wzgAKE68mO_LSJRndBscjD4ziVKMFWtdpSu/w640-h364/Screenshot%202024-01-16%20at%207.49.52%E2%80%AFPM.png" width="640" /></a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">But they never learn. Or rather they don't really care about the impact on members and students. What they care about is power and their allegiance to center/right Democratic Party allegiances. And big cities with mayoral control are often run by Democratic mayors who want the power of control over the schools - and the patronage it brings. What does the UFT get out of mayoral control? They only have to lobby and deal with one person instead of messy alternatives, like elected school boards. Plus who knows what else? Well actually we do know but I leave you to guess.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Knowing the membership is not happy with the job done by any of the mayors who controlled the NYC schools so far - Bloomberg, de Blasio and Adams -- UFT leadership maintains a fiction they want change, when all they want is minor tweaks.<span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">They're full of bullshit, as reporter Sue Edelman points out:</span></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAvbMc8ElHC3vKJ7DCjYbJZgc2Ufqn62LLgwWKBAzXQ08dXv1wPA3yzQSqsZBShC9pxDWdFm9Z-tfTy-M6lCIukkLh1d60nZfRX4cKxqMTg6KCcBwmbyv4wT7n0NMqKTVm3Ra3xTNrFSxZMiyJ8M1u8RZci8ee-jkbKr9HEPRDL1kjf_b3Wqe7/s966/Screenshot%202024-01-16%20at%207.56.12%E2%80%AFPM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="866" data-original-width="966" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAvbMc8ElHC3vKJ7DCjYbJZgc2Ufqn62LLgwWKBAzXQ08dXv1wPA3yzQSqsZBShC9pxDWdFm9Z-tfTy-M6lCIukkLh1d60nZfRX4cKxqMTg6KCcBwmbyv4wT7n0NMqKTVm3Ra3xTNrFSxZMiyJ8M1u8RZci8ee-jkbKr9HEPRDL1kjf_b3Wqe7/s320/Screenshot%202024-01-16%20at%207.56.12%E2%80%AFPM.png" width="320" /></a></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">EONYC calls them out </span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">in response to the governor's proposal to extend MC for 4 years:</span></p><p></p><blockquote><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicUYma1gUafPMaGNL6mZA823iYAEEkUh-_E2UjT9g3itWNBoTlZwCH0lgImxuaAxlVGr4PCTv9ygIgl8nINyMYa6BL7nmLRUesb0WAM7t1Kxj93hiLipsuevLVvnwUMJiINULZG9rUtM_eUFW8z_-cZxTU2Lz7Sui31-5fscg8Hb0ld7GGZGSX/s524/Screenshot%202024-01-16%20at%207.58.48%E2%80%AFPM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="524" data-original-width="382" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicUYma1gUafPMaGNL6mZA823iYAEEkUh-_E2UjT9g3itWNBoTlZwCH0lgImxuaAxlVGr4PCTv9ygIgl8nINyMYa6BL7nmLRUesb0WAM7t1Kxj93hiLipsuevLVvnwUMJiINULZG9rUtM_eUFW8z_-cZxTU2Lz7Sui31-5fscg8Hb0ld7GGZGSX/s320/Screenshot%202024-01-16%20at%207.58.48%E2%80%AFPM.png" width="233" /></a></blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span><br /><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Politico: </span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 1.125em; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; orphans: auto; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">Hochul also<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2024/01/hochul-calls-for-four-year-extension-of-mayoral-control-00135822" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #015da6; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s;" target="_blank">wants to use the budget to extend</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Mayor Eric Adams’ control of New York City schools for four years. Legislators blocked that when she proposed it as a budget item in 2022, dealing with it later in the year.</p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 1.125em; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; orphans: auto; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">“You all know how I feel about policy in the budget,” Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said when asked about mayoral control on Tuesday. The Assembly has long been critical of governors’ attempts to shoehorn bills that don’t deal with finances into the state spending plan.</p></blockquote><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 1.125em; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; orphans: auto; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"></p><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Other critics popped up. John Liu is one of the few politicians to stand up. </span><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.cityandstateny.com/policy/2024/01/legislators-object-including-mayoral-control-budget-negotiations/393416/">Legislators object to including mayoral control in budget negotiations - City & State New York</a></span></b></p><span class="J-J5-Ji"><div aria-checked="false" aria-label="Not important" class="pG" data-is-important="false" data-tooltip-align="b,l" data-tooltip-contained="true" data-tooltip-delay="1500" role="switch" tabindex="0"><div class="pH-A7 a9q"></div><div class="bnj"></div></div><div class="ahR"><span data-is-tooltip-wrapper="true"><div aria-label="Search for all messages with label Inbox" class="hN" data-tooltip-classes="wYeeg" data-tooltip-id="EZCsidc1102" name="^i" role="button" style="--cv-colored-label-bg-color: #ddd; --cv-colored-label-text-color: #666;" tabindex="0"><br /></div></span></div></span><p></p><blockquote><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2WQlf6InAUOaxg_l13dSmBbOpQNsMKlVCOBlnKS2DpZYFrO9QOteWuMZLvJq7F7o4mhzuIK6cjZcybcfecIEsNGqvCI8NR66CWRmBwtyX3FYoubdQ5DpH5xJPGh-U0mJFstjiAOGmvDguKXDqZZ3y-ICVW1XKUhiK9amFpqZ5_YByAzM6tyua/s1140/Screenshot%202024-01-16%20at%207.56.50%E2%80%AFPM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1140" data-original-width="1042" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2WQlf6InAUOaxg_l13dSmBbOpQNsMKlVCOBlnKS2DpZYFrO9QOteWuMZLvJq7F7o4mhzuIK6cjZcybcfecIEsNGqvCI8NR66CWRmBwtyX3FYoubdQ5DpH5xJPGh-U0mJFstjiAOGmvDguKXDqZZ3y-ICVW1XKUhiK9amFpqZ5_YByAzM6tyua/w365-h400/Screenshot%202024-01-16%20at%207.56.50%E2%80%AFPM.png" width="365" /></a></blockquote><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihRTFdwrIcPAzgdKqOVknukOkiKgk9mKurmb0WI9EA9yG15vwVg1CYU-g8KgMJ1GfQuDpJF7HgVa1Br-iQCH3_hKpXLwGyxYAs2DifeL1tmIk97ngpTHGbrlr5NlgFK9TFeiZbHMAMnSWpImRJlU_dhd0U3hJ9TfJbaeIob7igpeQ78K2-LlbM/s1008/Screenshot%202024-01-16%20at%2011.52.07%E2%80%AFPM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1008" data-original-width="764" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihRTFdwrIcPAzgdKqOVknukOkiKgk9mKurmb0WI9EA9yG15vwVg1CYU-g8KgMJ1GfQuDpJF7HgVa1Br-iQCH3_hKpXLwGyxYAs2DifeL1tmIk97ngpTHGbrlr5NlgFK9TFeiZbHMAMnSWpImRJlU_dhd0U3hJ9TfJbaeIob7igpeQ78K2-LlbM/w304-h400/Screenshot%202024-01-16%20at%2011.52.07%E2%80%AFPM.png" width="304" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi46YETxD8JvPh546su3jL_Y1H7WO_MuV1UyqwESkguvfzHU6Daq18zZ1_H8KzjL6jLWxfFGxvYmqStFNLLopO8GAiVX3EHLY2f6RERKKQmFu2Hlyhhiri7GA3P8MRBGP8tiebeJEw2oUA0XDlLGxc5htbA2fo42ZUmWd-9lXLZXJvxyWV2L3mN/s654/Screenshot%202024-01-16%20at%2011.53.50%E2%80%AFPM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="654" data-original-width="624" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi46YETxD8JvPh546su3jL_Y1H7WO_MuV1UyqwESkguvfzHU6Daq18zZ1_H8KzjL6jLWxfFGxvYmqStFNLLopO8GAiVX3EHLY2f6RERKKQmFu2Hlyhhiri7GA3P8MRBGP8tiebeJEw2oUA0XDlLGxc5htbA2fo42ZUmWd-9lXLZXJvxyWV2L3mN/w381-h400/Screenshot%202024-01-16%20at%2011.53.50%E2%80%AFPM.png" width="381" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIwL84945WwGB4R2waaS3e7YinQpi-2_JcELRsRt-29mFf2037iego7f36uQ9gVStiE9eYOixGtgNdN_JwRQPITYcfhsyKYj24dEZKsW0awMlz3BrivAEwgdZXNBp3zHPimTWSzAJE4BCqbDg-V3dc2sRd8cOwnKCvgamlkMbBHlGsSgsHTYCe/s946/Screenshot%202024-01-16%20at%2011.52.46%E2%80%AFPM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="946" data-original-width="910" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIwL84945WwGB4R2waaS3e7YinQpi-2_JcELRsRt-29mFf2037iego7f36uQ9gVStiE9eYOixGtgNdN_JwRQPITYcfhsyKYj24dEZKsW0awMlz3BrivAEwgdZXNBp3zHPimTWSzAJE4BCqbDg-V3dc2sRd8cOwnKCvgamlkMbBHlGsSgsHTYCe/w385-h400/Screenshot%202024-01-16%20at%2011.52.46%E2%80%AFPM.png" width="385" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Don't expect any real changes unless there is massive public pressure on an issue most people are not tuned into. There are hearings going on as Leonie points out:<br /></span></p><p><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #505050; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></p><blockquote><p><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #505050; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">The final hearings on Mayoral control are scheduled for this Thursday night in Manhattan and Jan. 29 on Staten Island. More <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://click.actionnetwork.org/ss/c/atcYNHk4Eh2YdGnwBh-YDM5yVAwqOsnqMIMzcWmqZR2PXnpdBNwMWcgi6G7pKomcVvBlPNZSu7JEuuzxNwdT4Ilf-WQmYYAc3imkqQUDVfjIdrsciZDwbgceeLDdDMv1eurA03659uhG20yeHTMzEQbomq0ZSYPMC5JxXXCvUhW9KMOuWh4Ro9hah3ngqT9rDeX1A3UbEWY9GCy-FgahZB5WxJTP8k-ixfZ1VB5AiN8a22URXjWLKC8uNStqpEZVgJBKrHsaDWFdVx2jRTdeA8DxL5pt6reHH8twpO_U-QU7N2nySltCma0-Uctx2wKCVzYHmnpVvEyXzSbP9WmzYgF0bIA2r7MjrcIlCml_B_Kcu3beubk2pWB8_SmtI-q617Gl5FxxEbjiWSBl6N2PYA85gmvgH-ACqejwkUDl9Z4SvlBNazl0p7nfX4GTU5ay/431/rfCaQjeQRs6tDPedVSlFvA/h6/FWP8kBqeH0nFwhhQkdOj823m_D9OgHgdDeqLYZWVyDw&source=gmail&ust=1705525394539000&usg=AOvVaw0fKn29O0hUfQKtyJnjYUSG" href="https://click.actionnetwork.org/ss/c/atcYNHk4Eh2YdGnwBh-YDM5yVAwqOsnqMIMzcWmqZR2PXnpdBNwMWcgi6G7pKomcVvBlPNZSu7JEuuzxNwdT4Ilf-WQmYYAc3imkqQUDVfjIdrsciZDwbgceeLDdDMv1eurA03659uhG20yeHTMzEQbomq0ZSYPMC5JxXXCvUhW9KMOuWh4Ro9hah3ngqT9rDeX1A3UbEWY9GCy-FgahZB5WxJTP8k-ixfZ1VB5AiN8a22URXjWLKC8uNStqpEZVgJBKrHsaDWFdVx2jRTdeA8DxL5pt6reHH8twpO_U-QU7N2nySltCma0-Uctx2wKCVzYHmnpVvEyXzSbP9WmzYgF0bIA2r7MjrcIlCml_B_Kcu3beubk2pWB8_SmtI-q617Gl5FxxEbjiWSBl6N2PYA85gmvgH-ACqejwkUDl9Z4SvlBNazl0p7nfX4GTU5ay/431/rfCaQjeQRs6tDPedVSlFvA/h6/FWP8kBqeH0nFwhhQkdOj823m_D9OgHgdDeqLYZWVyDw" target="_blank">info here</a>.
Though the registration list is already full for Manhattan, at the last
three hearings anyone who showed up was allowed to speak. Check out <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://click.actionnetwork.org/ss/c/7m9VDUTsZHJXsX_nbnqDrSsbrEtvxu0Wsco6aEf2QKgyI3bC1dH4ue6DoCO_9xVptx-fHzVpLB3qIgejXrlKLRDRYM2gemGZp7t3odJqodNdwm_SKaHQR3B9Sa2VeQlw95cCsvufBi8RdULFDsSAjkk9lMkU453ApU9I04H5LrPoSwx0CT--vzeRRhP5wZDxyGItqNcVlojVfaMLIc1h9Fflg4kPnRsQTW3-DVDZNec8aav5Tky4qA0HG4OIguTx6VPmAfxpMqrmnPKphaUiUjXje5pdh-gd_GaA4Ur2OnbHTbN_8wVy0ku0olQ3KHd3D_3uRxF2DXyp7XaYCrvY1OpG7dwa-DFbzgD6NOOmt-x6hB5RjMcA60A1uiY0kGcYJ_MdOjZwB2Elq_petNSmKQ/431/rfCaQjeQRs6tDPedVSlFvA/h7/lzHLgsMsHtdLN1RrbtiUW9H1TrYgaRlpetDeXwVdIYQ&source=gmail&ust=1705525394540000&usg=AOvVaw2FzWD21WHjZ6kWj27dlfsr" href="https://click.actionnetwork.org/ss/c/7m9VDUTsZHJXsX_nbnqDrSsbrEtvxu0Wsco6aEf2QKgyI3bC1dH4ue6DoCO_9xVptx-fHzVpLB3qIgejXrlKLRDRYM2gemGZp7t3odJqodNdwm_SKaHQR3B9Sa2VeQlw95cCsvufBi8RdULFDsSAjkk9lMkU453ApU9I04H5LrPoSwx0CT--vzeRRhP5wZDxyGItqNcVlojVfaMLIc1h9Fflg4kPnRsQTW3-DVDZNec8aav5Tky4qA0HG4OIguTx6VPmAfxpMqrmnPKphaUiUjXje5pdh-gd_GaA4Ur2OnbHTbN_8wVy0ku0olQ3KHd3D_3uRxF2DXyp7XaYCrvY1OpG7dwa-DFbzgD6NOOmt-x6hB5RjMcA60A1uiY0kGcYJ_MdOjZwB2Elq_petNSmKQ/431/rfCaQjeQRs6tDPedVSlFvA/h7/lzHLgsMsHtdLN1RrbtiUW9H1TrYgaRlpetDeXwVdIYQ" target="_blank">the video</a> and <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://click.actionnetwork.org/ss/c/c511-KAjM3jU_4OIFtitbdRSjhkg28ciDqZ0I_8rmQaWO67zjrNVQVpSqEuWtneUWFH-xLhqqohFEPxQpgH1tX0J1QeRZbGwNrP4Wh5IayrA9T24XTypnwFpZN8cGdHWDKyByfAuVWJ1kIatphxqp_DSOQEjISygOlHwUhccIffLYsieTJ5Xxf2yHERnDPdxYcg7z4_Vb3Ih6ZaVsCO1NemUzELerPD2DHapTS2FObNcd9KbVh7HeMidaaJm8FQvsbEYxNQBpXcw8aNwGJIPk8Trr5TX6-U_CDSWCgRqbA2oDn0yLi7UIXf4pMh1-pw_4SrbiTkPp54250fyKIzQfmJdmf_jRVQhNS4aZLT18aH-0xpZqUZiOOudwLVtPBN0YOP6sdfzOshDn1znqftkDN2E8FrPam6KjgALFEBbfAxzlw2m4ZOl9PUIlxTx7NSTn8cjx4N6ovFRUmQ6g0Ae3UhAMl7pH_amPHjFivzQZVg/431/rfCaQjeQRs6tDPedVSlFvA/h8/K8upcosfNpSQcx3JjnwjYwhGdBU3FPIr7cCNrAx7Hrk&source=gmail&ust=1705525394540000&usg=AOvVaw1-LX-IsSWan4pBCTIWQ0Zj" href="https://click.actionnetwork.org/ss/c/c511-KAjM3jU_4OIFtitbdRSjhkg28ciDqZ0I_8rmQaWO67zjrNVQVpSqEuWtneUWFH-xLhqqohFEPxQpgH1tX0J1QeRZbGwNrP4Wh5IayrA9T24XTypnwFpZN8cGdHWDKyByfAuVWJ1kIatphxqp_DSOQEjISygOlHwUhccIffLYsieTJ5Xxf2yHERnDPdxYcg7z4_Vb3Ih6ZaVsCO1NemUzELerPD2DHapTS2FObNcd9KbVh7HeMidaaJm8FQvsbEYxNQBpXcw8aNwGJIPk8Trr5TX6-U_CDSWCgRqbA2oDn0yLi7UIXf4pMh1-pw_4SrbiTkPp54250fyKIzQfmJdmf_jRVQhNS4aZLT18aH-0xpZqUZiOOudwLVtPBN0YOP6sdfzOshDn1znqftkDN2E8FrPam6KjgALFEBbfAxzlw2m4ZOl9PUIlxTx7NSTn8cjx4N6ovFRUmQ6g0Ae3UhAMl7pH_amPHjFivzQZVg/431/rfCaQjeQRs6tDPedVSlFvA/h8/K8upcosfNpSQcx3JjnwjYwhGdBU3FPIr7cCNrAx7Hrk" target="_blank">some of the compelling statements</a>
of parents and teachers who spoke at the Brooklyn hearings last week,
95% of whom were opposed to allowing Mayoral control to continue. <u></u><u></u></span></p><p style="line-height: 150%;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #505050; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">If
you do show up to speak at the hearings, please mention the failure of
the last three Mayors to lower class size, even though both Bloomberg
and de Blasio promised to do so during their campaigns. Meanwhile, Adams
is openly resisting compliance with the class size law. I will also
offer talking points soon if you’d like to submit written comments to
the state on Mayoral control; deadline Jan. 31. Thanks!<u></u><u></u></span></p><p style="line-height: 150%;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #505050; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Leonie Haimson<br />Executive Director<br />Class Size Matters</span></p></blockquote><p style="line-height: 150%;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #505050; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">See Leonie blog on the hearings: </span></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name"><a href="https://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2024/01/amazing-hearing-in-brooklyn-last-night.html">Amazing hearing in Brooklyn last night on Mayoral control; here are a few excerpts</a></h3></li></ul><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Below I reprise the articles from that first full tabloid edition of Ed Notes in Sept. 2002 and that was not the first time I warned about the impact of MC. Bloomberg took power in Jan. 2002 and had control by the summer while I was screaming at the UFT leadership to throw its energy against giving him control. Instead Randi raved about the possibilities. I retired that July and hosted the great George Schmidt from Chicago who regaled a group of future ICE people on the evils of mayoral control. See down below for his April 2002 letter to UFTers warning us. <br /><br />Howie Schwach, my future editor at </span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The Wave , the </span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">local Rockaway paper (I took over his School Scope column a year later), chimed in with an editorial: <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b></b></span></p><blockquote><p><span style="color: #660000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>Does Anyone Have A Clue?</b><br />From the Editorʼs Desk “The Wave”<br />by Howard Schwach (www.rockawave.com) May 25, 2002<br />Schwach had just met with members of the City Council Education Committee</span> <br /></p></blockquote><blockquote><p><span style="color: #660000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Of course, the question of education came up over and over again. I asked them if they really believed that education in New York City would be improved should the mayor take over without reforming what happens at 110 Livingston Street.</span> <br /></p></blockquote><blockquote><p><span style="color: #660000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Without imposing strict rules for student behavior and strict punishments for improper behavior. Without changing the fact that supervisors without any expertise in a subject area often supervise teachers who are experts at that subject. Without changing the fact that teachers are forced to pass students who do not deserve to pass and are sanctioned by administrators for failing too many students.</span> <br /></p></blockquote><blockquote><p><span style="color: #660000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">They looked at me as if I were from another planet.</span> <br /></p></blockquote><blockquote><p><span style="color: #660000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Those who do not work in the system do not understand why the system is failing in many schools and succeeding in many others. The system cannot be fixed by people who do not understand what is broken. If you donʼt know the questions, you will never get any of the right answers.<br />Giving the mayor control of the schools will not change much of what is going on in those schools; not unless some systemic changes are made at the same time.<br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #660000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Ed Notes cited historic teacher </span></p><p>
</p><div class="page" title="Page 2">
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<p><span color="rgb(13.725000%, 12.157000%, 12.549000%)" style="font-family: 'Arial'; font-size: 18pt; font-weight: 700;"></span></p><blockquote><p><span style="color: #660000; font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 18pt; font-weight: 700;">Deborah Meier on mayoral control
</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-family: "Times"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">Deborah Meier has been a hero to those who wanted to see change in
the NYC public school system. Meier seemed to have rational solutions
to complex problems. As a teacher she ran open classrooms, started
the small schools movement in NYC, and set up a progressive system
at the Park East complex in Dist. 4. She finally gave up on the system
and moved to Boston to set up a school. Now 71 she was the first public
school teacher to win the “genius” MacArthur Foundation grant.
</span><span style="color: #660000; font-family: "Times"; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700;">Excerpted from NY Times, 9/3/02, Jane Gross, author
</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-family: "Times"; font-size: 12pt;">"I can't imagine anything they can do that would make a
substantial difference," she said, except bucking a nationwide trend
of more and more standardized testing. "If the only thing you want is
better test scores, it poisons the game."
</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-family: "Times"; font-size: 12pt;">Ms. Meier said that the current "mania for accountability," with
rewards and punishments for students, teachers and administrators,
was borrowed from the corporate world. "It's like Enron," she said,
pointing to all the ways that educators can cook the books to make
attendance, graduation rates and test scores appear better than they
are. "When the goal is the numbers," she added, "it leads to distortion
of the data. The connection to reality gets problematic."</span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #231f20; font-family: verdana;">Here is the George Schmidt letter, which I first distributed at a UFT Ex Bd meeting back in April 2022. He pretty much covers many the evils of mayoral control. The CTU election of 2001 tossed out the old guard and brought in a reform movement that lasted 3 years before the old guard regained power from 2004-2010 when a new reform caucus called CORE won and has maintained power and in many ways has had a major influence on the revival of the union movement in this country. George Schmidt was a founding member of CORE in 2008. Unfortunately, a union reform movement against the collaborationist UFT has not had success and remains fractured.</span><span style="color: #231f20; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span color="rgb(13.725000%, 12.157000%, 12.549000%)" style="font-family: 'Times'; font-size: 12pt;"><b></b></span></p></div></div></div><blockquote><div class="page" title="Page 2"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="color: #660000; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><b>Mayoral Control in Chicago Disaster for Union by George Schmidt, Editor of Substance www.substance.com</b></span><span style="color: #660000; font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><b><br />(reprinted from Education Notes, 4/02)</b></span> <br /></p></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote><div class="page" title="Page 2"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="color: #660000; font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Dear Brothers and Sisters in New York, <br /></span></p></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote><div class="page" title="Page 2"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote><div class="page" title="Page 2"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="color: #660000; font-family: times; font-size: medium;">No teacher union should support mayoral control of the school system -- especially justify that control. Chicago's version of urban school governance based on a supposed "business model" of how things should be run is actually the major form of "deregulation" aimed at the heart of public education (and the unions representing teachers and other school workers) in the urban north. More than vouchers, charters schools, or the antics of Edison Schools Inc., the "CEO model" for urban school governance is an attack on democracy, on public school teachers, and on the unions that represent the men and women who work in public schools. Despite the massive propaganda (including regular reports in The New York Times) praising Chicago's version of "School Reform," the model is based on shoddy public relations and relentless attacks on democratic public schools and democratic unions. <br /></span></p></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote><div class="page" title="Page 2"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="color: #660000; font-family: times; font-size: medium;">In 1995, the Illinois General Assembly passed a law (the Amendatory Act) which gave Chicago's mayor complete control over the governance of the school system. At the time of the legislation, the Republican Party's most conservative wing controlled both houses of the Illinois General Assembly and the governor's seat. Thanks to the legislation he wrote with the Republicans, Chicago's mayor was able to abolish the old (appointed, but with many guidelines) school board, appoint a five- member "School Reform Board of Trustees", and appoint a "Chief Executive Officer" to replace the credentialed superintendent of schools. The legislation also prohibited collective bargaining on class size, abolished tenure, and took away other rights which Chicago teachers and other union workers in the city's public schools thought had been secured forever. <br /></span></p></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote><div class="page" title="Page 2"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="color: #660000; font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The Chicago system immediately went into an orgy of union busting, privatization, and teacher bashing. In July 1995, Mayor Daley appointed his former budget director (Paul G. Vallas) as Chief Executive Officer of the school system. Vallas, a career bureaucrat with no private sector experience, had no teaching experience and no other credentials to run the newly deregulated school system. President of the School Board went to Gery Chico, a lawyer who had most recently been the Chief of Staff for the mayor. <br /></span></p></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote><div class="page" title="Page 2"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="color: #660000; font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The key to the "success" of the Chicago "CEO Model" was control of public relations. From the very beginning of the Vallas administration, a careful campaign of slander and disinformation was launched against the unions representing those who worked in the public schools. Thanks to a sweetheart contract with the leaders of the Chicago Teachers Union, by the fall of 1995, the mayor's propaganda people made the false claim that the new "CEO" (Paul G. Vallas) had ended what was claimed to be a $1 billion "deficit." The "deficit" had actually been created on paper by inflating estimated expenses and deflating estimated revenues. Within a year after taking over the school system, the mayor then announced that test scores had begun to go "up." <br /></span></p></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote><div class="page" title="Page 2"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="color: #660000; font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Deregulation in Chicago's schools was based on the same types of manipulation of numbers that served the executives of Enron (and other crooked corporations) so well in the private sector during the "Dot.com" and stock bubble manias of the late 1990s. The manipulation of financial information (the budget "deficit" claim) and test score information ("trending up" was what Chicago's school administration called the test score reports during the same years the stock market bubble was being inflated) reduced the integrity of the school board's financial and educational data to a shambles. But that was no problem in the short term, because Chicago-based Arthur Andersen was doing for the financial data (through the annual audit of the ending financial statements) and many educational programs (through multi-million dollar "consultancies" to "audit" everything from pre school programs to some high school academic programs) the same jobs it was doing during the same years for Enron (and before that for Chicago-based Sunbeam and Waste Management, both of which cooked their books and cheated their shareholders and workers years before Enron did). <br /></span></p></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote><div class="page" title="Page 2"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="color: #660000; font-family: times; font-size: medium;">For the union to support the rampant teacher bashing and union busting that comes with mayoral takeovers like Chicago's the union leadership has to be willing to become a company union. The company is City Hall. <br /></span></p></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote><div class="page" title="Page 2"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="color: #660000; font-family: times; font-size: medium;">By January 1999, the mayor's team at the Chicago school board had busted several of the union's that represented Chicago school employees and was ready to attack the heart of teacher rights: tenure. In February 1999, after safely getting a new contract from the leaders of the Chicago Teachers Union (after a highly questionable referendum), the school board fired 137 tenured teachers, exercising its new power to terminate even those with tenure. When the union leadership challenged the firing in federal court, the school board, supposedly run by our friends from City Hall, not only used its own $8 million legal department but paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to the blue chip law firm of Jenner and Block to defeat the union's federal court challenge to the abolition of tenure for Chicago teachers. (To date, Jenner and Block has been paid more than $1 million to defend the school board against the union's challenge in the main federal case, Shegog et al v. Chicago School Reform Board of Trustees). <br /></span></p></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote><div class="page" title="Page 2"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="color: #660000; font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Throughout the entire attack on union and teach- er rights, the union leadership refused to criticize the City Hall school "team" that was undermin- ing the unions and slandering teachers and other school workers on an almost daily basis. <br /></span></p></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote><div class="page" title="Page 2"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="color: #660000; font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Critics within the union grew in size and strength during the six years (July 1995 through June 2001) that Paul G. Vallas served as Mayor Richard M. Daley's handpicked "CEO" of Chicago's vast public school system. On May 18, 2001, the members of the 36,000-member Chi- cago Teachers Union got their first chance to vote on a referendum on the mayor's takeover. Paul Vallas, the school system's CEO, endorsed Chicago Teachers Union president Thomas Reece, an incumbent with a war chest on more than $200,000 and control of every one of the more than 40 jobs at the CTU's headquarters. The Chicago Sun-Times (circulation 500,000 daily) told Chicago's teachers to vote for Tom Reece and his "team." <br /></span></p></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote><div class="page" title="Page 2"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="color: #660000; font-family: times; font-size: medium;">When the results of the election were announced on May 25 after a hand-count of the paper ballots, the opposition slate from the Pro Active Chicago Teachers and School Workers (PACT) caucus had won the elec- tion with 57 percent of the vote to Reece's 43 percent. On the day they voted, all five of the PACT candidates for city-wide union office were teaching in their schools (or, in the case of Maureen Callaghan, candidate for treasurer, working in the school office where she served as secretary). Deborah Lynch (now CTU president), Howard Heath (now CTU vice president), Jacqueline Price Ward (now CTU recording secretary), James Alexander (now CTU financial secretary) and Maureen Callaghan (now CTU treasurer) all had to clean out their classrooms (or desks) before they reported to the downtown offices of the Chicago Teachers Union on July 1, 2001, to begin leading one of the largest locals in the American Federation of Teachers. <br /></span></p></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote><div class="page" title="Page 2"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="color: #660000; font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The victory of PACT in the May 2001 CTU election was an overwhelming vote of no confidence in the union leadership that had allowed the once powerful Chicago Teachers Union to become a company union under the domination of Chicago's City Hall. The victory of Deborah Lynch Walsh (who dropped the "Walsh" from her last name recently) and the other members of the PACT slate (including 40 of the 45 members of the CTU executive board, was a victory for the rank-and-file and for the secret ballot and democratic unionism. The betrayal of the
teachers and other union members in Chi-
cago by the former union administration was
decisively repudiated on May 18 in what was
the most exciting union election in recent
Chicago memory.</span>
</p><div class="page" title="Page 6"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="color: #660000; font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The hard work began immediately. The
new leadership of the CTU is rebuilding a
coalition of more than a dozen unions repre-
senting those who work in Chicago's public
schools -- from janitors and school engineers
to truck drivers and lunchroom workers.
With an eye towards the negotiations for a
contract which expires on August 31, 2003,
Deborah Lynch and her colleagues in the
union leadership have been mobilizing their
union membership in unprecedented ways.
</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #660000; font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Not only has the election of Deborah Lynch
provided a repudiation of the politics of union
busting and teacher bashing in Chicago's
public schools, but it has begun to lead to an
unprecedented era of mobilization and hope
among a formerly demoralized membership
of the once mighty union. With every step
the Chicago Teachers Union takes towards
getting its strength back after years of con-
valescence in the isolation ward of company
unionism, teachers and other union members
add their voices, votes and hard work to the
massive job of rebuilding the city's public
schools after years of mismanagement by
the political cronies of City Hall.
</span></p><br /></div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><p>
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<p><span color="rgb(13.725000%, 12.157000%, 12.549000%)" style="font-family: 'Times'; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: 700;"></span></p><blockquote><p><span color="rgb(13.725000%, 12.157000%, 12.549000%)" style="font-family: 'Times'; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: 700;">George Schmidt Visits Rockaway
</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #231f20; font-family: "Times";">George Schmidt, founder and editor of the independent education newsletter </span><span style="color: #231f20; font-family: "Times"; font-style: italic;">Substance
</span><span style="color: #231f20; font-family: "Times";">for the past 27 years and a major source of information on events in the Chicago
school system, met with a group of NYC teachers at the </span><span style="color: #231f20; font-family: "Times"; font-style: italic;">Ed. Notes </span><span style="color: #231f20; font-family: "Times";">palatial estate this
summer in Rockaway Beach. It was Georgeʼs first return to
</span><span style="color: #231f20; font-family: "Times";">Rockaway since he went out on a date to Rockaway Playland
in the 60ʼs.</span><span style="color: #231f20; font-family: "Times";"> Schmidt, accompanied by his 14 year old son, Danny, regaled
his audience with tales of the Chicago “corporate” model of
mayoral control, how school workers took back the union
and shared his experiences at the AFT convention (attended
by 800 Unity Caucus members at your expense) held in July
in Las Vegas. George also gave us advice on how to make
</span><span style="color: #231f20; font-family: "Times"; font-style: italic;">Ed. Notes </span><span style="color: #231f20; font-family: "Times";">a more viable and effective source of information
for school workers in NYC. See Georgeʼs article on Mayoral
control on page 5 and the stories on CTU President Debbie
Lynch on pages 5 and 6. </span><span style="color: #231f20; font-family: "Times";"><br /></span></span></p></blockquote><div class="page" title="Page 3"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span color="rgb(13.725000%, 12.157000%, 12.549000%)" style="font-family: 'Arial'; font-size: 9pt; font-weight: 700;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSZHIu172YCVkDCw7jcvDfolao_BpaqVazWR-vZHBgTvfC0BZJHnOUXI9ZRT4ITCe2V5o3t4EfWtIUGXKUiOmyO9-3B3IdafTU1NCmqEIkH7TtdPg2y1n-7HJ41N0B1ucELovsZYeSWRkVGJ6Qjk42ubHD9qQ36qWXAnFQyuhuWOyN8SrIB1C6/s446/Screenshot%202024-01-17%20at%2010.54.01%E2%80%AFAM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="446" data-original-width="322" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSZHIu172YCVkDCw7jcvDfolao_BpaqVazWR-vZHBgTvfC0BZJHnOUXI9ZRT4ITCe2V5o3t4EfWtIUGXKUiOmyO9-3B3IdafTU1NCmqEIkH7TtdPg2y1n-7HJ41N0B1ucELovsZYeSWRkVGJ6Qjk42ubHD9qQ36qWXAnFQyuhuWOyN8SrIB1C6/s320/Screenshot%202024-01-17%20at%2010.54.01%E2%80%AFAM.png" width="231" /></a></div><br /> <br /><p></p>
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</div></div></div></div>ed notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-17288067613260526282023-12-25T08:17:00.004-05:002023-12-25T09:29:16.874-05:00The Nightmare Before Christmas 2023 - Fred Smith Does it Again<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">December 25, 2023 -- <br /></span></span></p><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Another year, </b></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>another poem from Fred.<br /></b></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Not a lot of cheer</b></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>in a dismal year. </b></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>But do not fear,</b></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>We have Fred's Photo with NY Jets Dancers</b></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>For us to share <br /></b></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>--- Norm's feeble attempt at rhyme</b></span></span><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Fred Smith has been posting his xmas messages here and elsewhere for many years. This year's message is a bit gloomy but have no fear, Fred ends with a cheer.<br /></span></span></div><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>I first met Fred, a testing expert who used to work as a statistician
for the old NYCBOE, when
he contacted me about getting ICE members to assist in gathering data
for his exposures of the evils of testing I think sometime around 2008.
He then got involved with groups like GEM and Change the Stakes and was a
co-winner with me and Danny Dromm of Leonie Haimson's Skinny Award in
2018 - <a href="https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2018/06/june-19-im-skinny-honored-to-be-honored.html">(June 19 - I'm a Skinny: Honored to be honored by </a>)
</span></span></span></p><p>
</p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><div class="post-header">
</div><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>Fred Smith has done it again for 2023 with his yearly Xmas special. </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b style="color: #26282a;"><span style="font-size: large;"> If it's Christmas, it must be Ed Notes.</span></b></span></span></p><div id="m_-2372104204236254334ydpd7552577yiv2861994997"><span style="font-size: large;"><b style="color: #26282a;">Here it is. </b><b style="color: #26282a;">Happy holidays and good health in 24. </b></span></div><div id="m_-2372104204236254334ydp82326d86yiv2861994997yqtfd15661"><div id="m_-2372104204236254334ydp82326d86yiv2861994997yqtfd41686"><div id="m_-2372104204236254334ydp82326d86yiv2861994997ydp589fa5a8yiv6033150862yqtfd63426"><div dir="ltr"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Peace.</span></b></div><div dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Fred</b><br clear="none" /></span></div><div dir="ltr"><br /></div></div></div></div><div id="m_-2372104204236254334ydp82326d86yiv2861994997yqtfd55630"><div id="m_-2372104204236254334ydp82326d86yiv2861994997yqtfd37934"><div id="m_-2372104204236254334ydp82326d86yiv2861994997ydp589fa5a8yiv6033150862yqtfd13652"><div id="m_-2372104204236254334ydp82326d86yiv2861994997ydp589fa5a8yiv6033150862ydpd9ef1a8yiv3507148958yqt75239"><div id="m_-2372104204236254334ydp82326d86yiv2861994997ydp589fa5a8yiv6033150862ydpd9ef1a8yiv3507148958ydp3774916ayahoo_quoted_3543714056"><div style="color: #26282a; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><div><div id="m_-2372104204236254334ydp82326d86yiv2861994997ydp589fa5a8yiv6033150862ydpd9ef1a8yiv3507148958ydp3774916ayiv9130500638"><div><div style="font-family: arial;"><div dir="ltr"><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><u><span>The Nightmare Before
Christmas 2023</span></u></b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span><br clear="none" /></span></b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>The news
flash and photos showed that Santa was dead</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>When the
elves came upon him face down by his sled,</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>His red
cheeks turned white as the new fallen snow.</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>A voice
cried inside me “Please, say it ain’t so.”</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>The reindeer
stood silent—eyes brimming with tears.</b><br clear="none" /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>Mrs. Claus
draped in black. No more jolly years.</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>I refused to
believe Saint Nick really had died,</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>But the
cables broadcast his sad fate far and wide.</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span><br clear="none" /></span></b></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>Could it be so
surprising to find he was gone</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>In a year
that had been one grim tragi-thon?</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>Guess his
big heart could not endure all the stress,</span></b></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>The suff’ring
he saw; an imploding-world mess.</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>The ongoing
bombardment inside of Ukraine;</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>Now Middle
East slaughter again and again;</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>Children murdered
in classrooms with their schoolmates;</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>The armed
killings by sickos in psychotic states.</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span> </span></b></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>And he knew from
the annual missions he flew</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>Our planet ‘twas
rampantly spinning askew.</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>Disasters
both natural and wrought by man,</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>A list of
plagues exceeding the biblical ten:</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span> </span></b></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>Heat waves
and wild fires; floods, drought and tornadoes;</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>Icebergs
floating freely, earth quakes and volcanoes;</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>Starvation,
diseases, poisoned water and air;</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>Species
disappearing, migration despair.</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: #1d2228;"> </span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: #1d2228;">Folks
sleeping on cold streets and families without homes;</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: #1d2228;">No
chimneys for them, nor sweet Christmas Eve poems.</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: #1d2228;">'23 would
bring us no large cornucopia.</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: #1d2228;">Was Santa
the victim of raging dystopia?</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>And
literally, had he done his last laps,</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>Leaving kids
to sit blankly tapping their apps?</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>So, as I
conjectured on his deep pain and grief,</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>I became
more distraught and sought instant relief.</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span> </span></b></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>A sleeping
pill, two shots of rye, thence off to bed,</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>Fell asleep
with the covers fast over my head;</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>But I couldn’t
hide from the ensuing bad dreams,</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>Flowing
through my unconscious in noxious streams.</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span> </span></b></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>Demon
visions came rushing into my brain</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>Aboard a
veritable Walpurgis Night train,</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>A juggernaut
of sleighs from the bowels of hell,</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>Bearing legions
who’d succumbed to a vicious spell;</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span> </span></b></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>A crazed reindeer
named Rudolph with the mug of a hog</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>Was steering
this mad squadron straight into the fog.</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>First came the
invaders, rabid-eyed and on fire,</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>Destined to
become the Proud Boys prison choir.</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b><br clear="none" /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>Their leader
was a flamer with a fat orange face,</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>Surrounded
by trumpeters known as his base,</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>Spewing
satanic curses, purely laden with hate</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>That howled once
again to make Amerika great.</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span> </span></b></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>There was a
blonde screamer blazing down laser beams</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>Near a scruffy
podblaster preaching righteous extremes;</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>And in the
back of the pack, trying to hide,</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>Were two black-robed
impostors stealing a ride;</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>Then
white-collared George Santos popped up to exclaim</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>He was
coming to town—Santa was his real name.</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span> </span></b></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>Now I threw
off my blanket in a cold sweat;</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>Our country
divided. The Master had no regret.</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>But soon I
awoke to a joyous surprise;</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>Nick’s demise
was a cruel crock of big fake news lies.</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span> </span></b></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>Some are
already dubbing it, “Tucker’s Last Stand!”</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>But whatever
you call it, Christmas remains grand.</span></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>And we’ll hear
jingling bells chime from on high.</span></b></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>Goodness
rings eternal. The truth shall not die.</span></b></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><span style="font-size: small;"></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Here are his previous years, each with a different theme. 2019 seems to be absent.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name"><a href="https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2022/12/fred-smith-with-his-annual-xmas-poem.html">Fred Smith with his annual XMAS Poem - 2022 version</a></h3></li></ul><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2021/12/fred-smith-2021-edition-of-his-annual.html">Fred Smith 2021 edition of his Annual ‘Twas the night before Christmas</a></span></h3></li></ul></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><h4><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><a href="https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2020/12/fred-smith-with-his-annual-night-before.html">Fred Smith with his annual The Night Before Xmas—2020</a></span></span> </h4></li></ul></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2018/12/fred-smith-day-after-christmas-2018.html">Fred Smith - The Day After Christmas - 2018 Version </a></span></h3></li><li>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2017/12/poet-luareate-real-reform-fred-smith.html"><b>2017: Fred Smith: Dispirit of the Season</b></a></span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;"><b> </b></span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">
2016: <a href="https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2016/12/fred-smiths-annual-night-before.html">Fred Smith's Annual "Night Before Christmas"</a></span></li><li><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2015/12/fred-smith-poet-laureate-of-opt-out.html">2015: Fred Smith, Poet Laureate of Opt Out - 'Twas the night before... </a></span>
</h3></li><li><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia", "serif";"> And then there’s Mulgrew
who must choose who is winning</span></span> </span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia", "serif";">To claim he was backing
them from the beginning.</span></span> </span></blockquote></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">In (2014) Fred Smith gave us this gem.<br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2014/12/fred-smith-day-before-xmas-with-arne.html">Fred Smith: The Day Before Xmas (With Arne Duncan ...</a> <br /></span></li></ul></div><span style="font-size: medium;">
Fred is also a statistician for the NY Jets - don't blame him for their absence from the Super Bowl for over 50 years. <br />
</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-09vNb6YWhp4/Vn1OJLXzc1I/AAAAAAAASsI/GnEYBCfN7V8/s1600/red%252520hot%252520chili%252520peppers.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-09vNb6YWhp4/Vn1OJLXzc1I/AAAAAAAASsI/GnEYBCfN7V8/w640-h480/red%252520hot%252520chili%252520peppers.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fred Smith convincing Jets dancers to boycott field tests - he's the one in the middle </td></tr></tbody></table>ed notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-56275933393657227672023-12-21T22:10:00.005-05:002023-12-22T06:23:22.540-05:00Being surreal at December UFT Retiree meeting - the Morning Joe Edition<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><blockquote><span style="color: #660000;"><blockquote><br />I'm still reeling from Tuesday's retiree chapter meeting and then I get deja vu all over again while watching Morning Joe, with former Dem Senator Claire Caskill bragging about the record amounts of drilling Biden is doing. That's a sure way to capture the votes of the young people who see climate change as an existential threat.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGIxli6o7HEQwS19xnOKJeRNBWLZp-Z3WUEwbtJJqp84RzqjIKiasXQ0j9vk-YHiq5O4cB7nYONnUDOiOCCCUWTD8IVuQbtkP54rvppB2HuL1jY7MWoO_jgMYZ1GIYdRlIEWJIavHbmVcjCWZ1vnog0ocTLQN6D-KG4QnInr-QuSlv-3ipw-Z6/s769/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-21%20at%2010.07.46%20PM.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="504" data-original-width="769" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGIxli6o7HEQwS19xnOKJeRNBWLZp-Z3WUEwbtJJqp84RzqjIKiasXQ0j9vk-YHiq5O4cB7nYONnUDOiOCCCUWTD8IVuQbtkP54rvppB2HuL1jY7MWoO_jgMYZ1GIYdRlIEWJIavHbmVcjCWZ1vnog0ocTLQN6D-KG4QnInr-QuSlv-3ipw-Z6/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-21%20at%2010.07.46%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div></blockquote></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #660000;">It's surreal to watch how they talk about all the great Biden stuff but can't understand why the polls are so low, especially within his own coalition -- They admit that Biden hasn't laid out a second term agenda -- only talks about what has been done while ignoring what hasn't been done. A guest says people have to have a real sense that a second Biden term will make a difference in their lives. It's not enough not to be Trump. But no worries. They think people will come to their senses, especially after Tom Murphy rouses the masses in the UFT retiree chapter meeting. So, watching Morning Joe this morning is like a nightmare repeat of Tuesday's RTC meeting where I was more convinced than ever that Trump will be our next president.</span></span></blockquote><p></p></span></blockquote></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>December 21 - last day of fall/first day of winter -- brrr.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b> </b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Tuesday
started off peaceful enough. The day began with a gym, swim and sauna.
Done by 8:30 AM. Downloaded the flyer for Retiree Advocate to hand out
at the RTC Dec. meeting later that day. Dropped by the FedEx on
Lexington and 40th St and the ladies there were so helpful in sending
the pdf to the copier. Then off to oatmeal and coffee at the Pret at
Park and 40th, followed by the library on 40th and 5th and then off to
check out the Bryant Park holiday fair and the ice skating - watching,
not skating. Then off to Grand Central to head downtown.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">So
I was pretty mellow when I got to 52 Broadway to meet with the Retiree
Advocate crew with leaflets and sign up sheets for RA. We got a pretty
good response to our leaflet - a lot of people seemed to know us
and wanted a copy. One guy referred to the last meeting where we saw a
presentation on seniors avoiding fraud when "the biggest frauds of all
were sitting up there running this union and RTC." </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">And once again the frauds
were in action. </span></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">So.....</span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I spent an angry hour and a half at Tuesday's Retiree Chapter meeting.
I wasn't the only one pissed. Arthur wrote about the meeting from a remote point of view. (<a href=" https://arthurgoldstein.substack.com/p/when-is-the-best-time-to-dump-uft">When Is the Best Time to Dump UFT Unity?</a>) </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Here's a sense of the meeting from Arthur:<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span><blockquote><span style="color: #660000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">...when someone actually has a question, Murphy interrupts her
relentlessly. That’s off topic. That’s not a question. Murphy
sarcastically calls her “nice.” The woman wants to know what AFT’s
position is on Medicare. The woman says if the whole city gets off of
it, the program may be in danger. Murphy snidely says, “Thank you,” over
and over again, until some Unity hack finally grabs the mike from her. </span></blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Lucky for Arthur he wasn't in the room where there was a lot of rage from both sides -- Unity hacks upset at how dare anyone challenge them. And he missed out on those stale bagels in cellophane wrappers. At the top of my platform for the RTC election would be promising to bring back real bagels and real pastries - strudel for sure. Maybe lox. Arthur also missed some awful xmas cookies. But you know me - I ate the bagel and the cookies.<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I usually don't get too excited at the shenanigans by the gang running the UFT/Unity Caucus syndicate and its retiree chapter subsidiary, but I had to listen to stuff that set me off. At one point Tom Murphy made a mistake and actually pointed to me for a question but when he recognized it was me he looked horrified and said "NO" and pointed in the other direction. He should make better use of the UFT welfare eyeglass fund. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The meeting, as usual, got off to a rousing start with moments of silence for death notices. (I wanted a moment for the death of our healthcare). RTC leadership loves death notices - which may explain why they want us off Medicare and in a MedAdv managed care program, a sure way to increase death notices. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I can't wait for Murphy to filibuster an entire RTC meeting dedicated to moments of silence, though a recent meeting dedicated to the death of George Altomare where he comes back to life to sing Solidarity Forever - and he means Forever - repeatedly because Murphy couldn't hear it well enough, qualifies. Murphy should make better use of the UFT Welfare hearing-aid fund.<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I was sorry to hear of the death of Bernie Zemsky, longtime Unity Caucus member, who soured on the leadership and communicated his feelings to people in the opposition. I was told he was fired by the union and sued them and there was a settlement but he had to sign an NDA. I had planned to get in touch with him to ask him to run with RA in the chapter election. He probably would have. Ooops. I gave Bernie away. Look for Unity to rescind the moment of silence at the next meeting. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">When I'm gone I want one minute of people screaming at the leadership "U Suck!"<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">"Why
aren't we talking about retiree issues," someone calls out a few
minutes into the meeting. The meeting reinforced the inept AFT/UFT gang as
part and parcel of the inept Democratic Party leadership which is a
major reason the Trump phenomena exists. And yes, we retirees get the
danger Trump presents. Don't waste our time beating our heads over it
and take care of our healthcare. We don't need to go to a meeting to
tell us how bad Trump is and how good Biden is. Trump is strong because the Dem Party is so inept. And it's not only about perceptions but policy.</span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>Using UFT Retirees a political force while ignoring their health needs</b><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">This
meeting was about the role for retirees for political action. </span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Randi's NYT Sunday ad warning about the Trump danger to democracy was referenced. How ironic to talk about democracy at an undemocratic UFT meeting. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2023/12/ugly-democracy-and-ugly-sweater-day-for.html">Has Mulgrew been a threat to democracy</a>?</span></li></ul></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Using the Trump threat as a way to distract people from the healthcare issue is not a surprise. The Trump threat is real but so is the healthcare threat the UFT foisted on the retirees. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>What will kill us first? Trump or Aetna?</b> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>The idea that getting the UFT retirees wired up about the Trump threat in the face of the assault on our healthcare by our own union is what made this meeting surreal.</i><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The major theme in the opening presentation by John Ost, AFT Director of Political Mobilization was all about how Trump is a danger to democracy and is leading Biden in all areas. DUHHHH! He was interrupted constantly by Mulgrew riding in a car trying to talk but all we heard and saw was static -- which is how I always view Mulgrew talking. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Arthur's report:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><blockquote><span style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Murphy says we’ll bring on a speaker from AFT, but we’ll interrupt him
whenever Mulgrew sees fit to show up. As soon as the guy starts to
speak, he’s interrupted by Mulgrew, evidently in a car, and no one in
the room can hear him. After we waste time on that, Mulgrew says he’ll
drop in on the meeting later. </span></span></blockquote></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Back to Ost. But of course it's not the fault of Biden or the inept Democrats, which includes our UFT leadership from the top national down to the locals they control. UFT/AFT is inbred with the right/central Dem Party -- which is controlled by the corporate wing. They will sit by while the Israeli lobby wipes out the progressives. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">John Ost posted charts - he charted us to death about how much of a
danger Trump was and how bad Biden was doing in the polls. I kept
calling out WHY? But they are not interested in WHY and when you don't
want to know WHY, you will never have an answer. The WHY is that the
corporate Dem agenda sucks and alienates the progressives and opens up
Biden to weakness on both flanks. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">And
they don't get why young people are deserting Biden in droves? Student
debt - inept. Climate change - inept. Healthcare improvement: inept.
Note: Biden ran on extending Medicare. Don't just blame Republicans.
Biden never mentions it. <br /></span></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></div></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">So
they talked about Biden bringing down drug prices and medicare
negotiating for lower drug prices. But always watch what they don't say:
the delay until 2025, that it's only a few drugs, etc. A Unity former VP made a point that Medicare and Social Security would be in more danger if Trump won? I slapped my head -- The UFT leadership has been a threat to Medicare so far, not Trump, who is one of the few Republicans who chastise them for talking about cutting Medicare -- one of his few redeeming points - even if he's probably lying.</span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">You see the problem is that the wonderful work Biden has done is just not getting through. Like people who can't pay rent or buy a house should bow down. <br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">In the first minute of the presentation I was more convinced Trump may win than ever because these people are so clueless. They are hoping to beat Trump by getting states to not put him on the ballot or the courts to convict him. Why so many people are either supporting Trump and rejecting Biden? Not interested.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">And how about those Dems in states like Florida, Massachusetts and Tennessee manipulating or cancelling primaries to protect Biden? Dems are not a threat to democracy? </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br />Biden's insistence of running may end up being the biggest threat to democracy, enabled by his enablers in support groups like the UFT.<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> <br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">We heard a long report from </span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">the UFT’s new political director, Venecia Wilson. </span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Arthur reports:</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span><blockquote><span style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">She is charming as she
relates a few personal anecdotes. I had expected her to answer the
question, but she doesn’t. </span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">She then talks about Santos and says the GOP
has picked a candidate for his seat, but we’re waiting to hear from the
Democrats. Oddly, I heard yesterday the Democrats had picked Tom Suozzi,
and a member later brings it up. (It’s a little disconcerting our
political director seemed not to know this.) </span></span></span></blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><p>I try to get a question in on Suozzi who is to the right of Hochul but Tom ignores me again. Joel Burger shows Newsday which announces Suozzi and leaves egg on their faces. Did they not know or were they hiding that this is the guy we are going to be asked to support? Not all good news on Suozzi either as he's blamed for running a dumb primary campaign against Hockul which helped Republicans in numerous ways -- maybe even the House loss is partly his fault with Santos replacing him.</p><p>Mulgrew walks in and he's in a good mood --- I'm glad he wasn't driving the car. He's handling the heckling with a hearty "Happy holidays". </p><p>Back to Arthur.</p></span><p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"></p><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><div style="line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Mulgrew
shows up at 2:15. Says this chapter will work harder than any other
chapter. Other people have to go into classroom. Evidently, he assumes
we have nothing else to do. He criticizes corporations who want
unfettered control. This strikes me as ironic. Mulgrew, despite
professing that the Delegate Assembly is the union’s highest
decision-making body, opposes the NY Health Act, twice endorsed by the
DA. He himself has unfettered control.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Murphy,
to his evident dread, has to allow questions. He says there are “lots
of health question, or statements posing as questions,” in yet another
barb at those of us who want to keep our insurance. Belittling us yet
again, he snaps, “Here’s an apt question,” which turns out to be about
Tier 6.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Murphy finally allows ONE question on health care to reach Mulgrew’s ears. </span></span></div><div style="line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Sarah Shapiro</i><span>—Why
are you more concerned with the city’s health than our health? NYS
Supreme court found Advantage would cause us irreparable harm. Isn’t
that enough of a reason to preserve the coverage we have now?”</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Mulgrew</i><span>—We
are at war with the health care industry. We can’t just say no, no, no.
We see around the corner with what will happen in the future. We will
make sure every member gets the best health care with the same benefits,
I know the city’s appealing. Keep hearing the rhetoric and the same
lines. Responds “Happy New Year and God bless” to people. I support your
right to your opinions. I will give you facts and you have a right to
agree or disagree. Moving on to next question.</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Mulgrew
did not answer the question. He implies we are contrary imbeciles, and
suggests he has vision, but offers absolutely no supporting evidence.
I’m glad he’s not in my class writing a persuasive essay. (He should be
glad too.)</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-size: medium;">There are a few statements on health and welfare. Notable is this one:</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Bennett Fisher</i><span>—</span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/e255841b-9285-4b51-9486-0fd70c6e40fa?j%3DeyJ1IjoiM3F1M3QifQ.uX8umPzUb6HBRPsqNLM7sW1fohFkrR5HHG4iJQ3YrxM&source=gmail&ust=1703299901721000&usg=AOvVaw1Yu-5SQ7B49JrufacC-xIZ" href="https://substack.com/redirect/e255841b-9285-4b51-9486-0fd70c6e40fa?j=eyJ1IjoiM3F1M3QifQ.uX8umPzUb6HBRPsqNLM7sW1fohFkrR5HHG4iJQ3YrxM" rel="" style="text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Retiree Advocate </a><span>had
very well attended general meeting. Discussed health care going
forward. Discussed health care with UFT other unions, and NYC Retirees,
Very happy most recent lawsuit went into our favor. If anybody has
interest in learning more about RA, please come see us and sign up. </span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Murphy
tried to interrupt, but Bennett got to complete his statement. There
was another speaker, and then Murphy loudly cried, “Meeting Adjourned!”
Clearly, there was nothing he wanted in life more than to end this
meeting. </span></span></div></blockquote><p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"></p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><p>Bennett was speaking under Good and Welfare which is where anyone can get up to the mic and say something. Well, not everyone. I'm waving my hand and shouting Good and Welfare. "Meeting adjourned" says Murphy, 20 minutes before it was supposed to end. </p><p>More info on the Suozzi story:<br /></p></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span><a data-jsarwt="1" data-usg="AOvVaw1eyGnNcBttJQNutWsD9Edk" data-ved="2ahUKEwj108CG_aGDAxUkmIkEHeRnCJUQFnoECBYQAQ" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/05/nyregion/suozzi-santos-hochul-special-election.html"><h3 class="LC20lb MBeuO DKV0Md">NYT: Inside the Secret Meeting That Cleared the Way for Tom ..</h3></a></span><h3 style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/new-york-playbook/2023/10/12/not-everyones-welcoming-back-tom-suozzi-00121143"></a></h3><blockquote><h3 style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/new-york-playbook/2023/10/12/not-everyones-welcoming-back-tom-suozzi-00121143">Politico: Not everyone’s welcoming back Tom Suozzi</a></h3><p><b>Anna Kaplan doesn’t like George Santos. </b>And she isn’t so sure about Tom Suozzi either.</p><p><b>“After almost a year of this district having embarrassing representation,</b>
Tom Suozzi thinks voters on Long Island have forgotten that he
abandoned us to George Santos,” Kaplan, who is running in the 3rd
Congressional District as a Democrat, said in a statement. “The
Democratic Party is a pro-choice party, and unlike Tom Suozzi, I will
always stand up for a woman’s right to choose — period.”</p><p><b>That was just a preview of just some of the attacks</b> that fellow Democrats will make against Suozzi after the longstanding, though divisive figure in New York politics <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/10/tom-suozzi-george-santos-new-york-representative-campaign-00120683" target="_blank"><u>launched his own campaign Tuesday</u></a> to win back his old seat.</p><p><b>Suozzi “abandoned” the Long Island district </b>last year, forgoing re-election to challenge Gov. Kathy Hochul in the Democratic primary from the right.</p><p><b>Team Hochul viewed Suozzi as a nuisance, at best.</b> And she <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/07/hochul-suozzi-williams-first-governor-debate-new-york-00037980" target="_blank"><u>slammed him</u></a> for initially supporting the Hyde amendment, which bans federal funds like Medicaid from being spent on abortion care.</p></blockquote><p></p></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMLJM2qj46aRtWs-PY3zqC5knlawNxfZXJMmJNVvGSnxpuYIDK9iwfcOGjyNC0NU9gOpx46lWltecukGkOJv4s1r7FaWSA0BKHd2N30XpieCkyCZg2Mc1EZ13FvshXRoJKIDGgfGUHyVQE8DseE_n_UhHWOdwH54UyphyphenhyphengJuWrmxzW-vrrtp-w/s2200/December%202023%20p1%20RTC%20Meeting%20Handout%20.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2200" data-original-width="1700" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMLJM2qj46aRtWs-PY3zqC5knlawNxfZXJMmJNVvGSnxpuYIDK9iwfcOGjyNC0NU9gOpx46lWltecukGkOJv4s1r7FaWSA0BKHd2N30XpieCkyCZg2Mc1EZ13FvshXRoJKIDGgfGUHyVQE8DseE_n_UhHWOdwH54UyphyphenhyphengJuWrmxzW-vrrtp-w/w494-h640/December%202023%20p1%20RTC%20Meeting%20Handout%20.jpg" width="494" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVzKJd4b_JwyyJCIGE2SByUSt1aF9lMP4uH4cq8akXJqGXoYugthqQwnPhDtqMcNbTnUeePFCTfZDxc5bR7mjiW6VF2oZy7hNZspnslODPDfHQuzT9BvfRXcpUdBxuYSCUHzlhwkTx7RsGYfwpIDcJRlGIVsr3VFmHaVsTMoNK6pLptg3HSUtg/s2200/December%202023%20p2%20RTC%20Meeting%20Handout%20.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2200" data-original-width="1700" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVzKJd4b_JwyyJCIGE2SByUSt1aF9lMP4uH4cq8akXJqGXoYugthqQwnPhDtqMcNbTnUeePFCTfZDxc5bR7mjiW6VF2oZy7hNZspnslODPDfHQuzT9BvfRXcpUdBxuYSCUHzlhwkTx7RsGYfwpIDcJRlGIVsr3VFmHaVsTMoNK6pLptg3HSUtg/w494-h640/December%202023%20p2%20RTC%20Meeting%20Handout%20.jpg" width="494" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /> </span></div>ed notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-11048854904799622382023-12-18T13:25:00.002-05:002023-12-21T18:29:32.213-05:00 Ugly Democracy and Ugly Sweater Day for Unity Caucus - and Ugly Truths too - Breaking: Mulgrew says a truth, Lawsuit Filed in NYS Supreme Court against MTA & TWU Local 100 to Demand Access to Promised Medicare Benefits<p></p><blockquote><b><span style="color: #660000; font-size: large;">A certain former congressman has been voted out. DC can’t get anything done... Michael Mulgrew, Dec DA</span></b><br /></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Monday, December 18, 2023<br /></span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Finally, some truth from Mulgrew. How dare people say he <a href="https://youtu.be/EzZKIwXrHFY?si=LVNE1iEMVEhrB6w2">lies</a> and <a href="https://youtu.be/dh5XkmWCaq8?si=QILNxZbcTzzEtQwR">lies</a> and <a href="https://youtu.be/dNXSP4khKDc?si=bVsSaqj37-MonlPT ">lies</a> and <a href=" https://youtu.be/GjYf8WTX4SM?si=LrU2BIrK9c02gv0X ">lies</a>?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Another thing Mulgrew doesn't hide - the increasingly open strangulation of democracy in the UFT. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">People look to Trump to kill democracy if elected - his model can be Mulgrew.<br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiuCeiWafGtLDBMMxy_yRP2pphZsAWM3k0dwypxHPu2p8qRu1MlUe2SjD_rgLMfQB1SZ7M_ek5otVaZeMWCA-AbfateElrwsqWFvVZWNVA2srtAW0huMaJk7SDfoPSBiJFDo4WzIH1nSTYqwYCnxLej8ZTdxqL4loy3GG5QGp7y9KuB7-i9CbT/s630/Screenshot%202023-12-15%20at%2011.26.07%20AM.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="246" data-original-width="630" height="125" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiuCeiWafGtLDBMMxy_yRP2pphZsAWM3k0dwypxHPu2p8qRu1MlUe2SjD_rgLMfQB1SZ7M_ek5otVaZeMWCA-AbfateElrwsqWFvVZWNVA2srtAW0huMaJk7SDfoPSBiJFDo4WzIH1nSTYqwYCnxLej8ZTdxqL4loy3GG5QGp7y9KuB7-i9CbT/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-15%20at%2011.26.07%20AM.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">There actually was a time when any UFT member could walk into a Delegate Assembly. Now you can't even get in the building.</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I was in the back lobby of the UFT the other day and a retiree told me a story. She was there for two issues, one a welfare fund story. She couldn't go up to see the people she had to see. Instead the security guard had to track down each person and it took some time. Then each person had to come down to the lobby to meet with her sitting at one of the rickety tables instead of their office upstairs. Are they afraid to show members how comfy they are? The process took over an hour when she could have settled each item in ten minutes.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Arthur talks all about our vaunted UFT Welfare Fund -- the absolute best according to Mulgrew. </span></p><h4 style="color: #404040; font-weight: bold; line-height: 36px; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/app-link/post?publication_id%3D1752095%26post_id%3D139785063%26utm_source%3Dpost-email-title%26utm_campaign%3Demail-post-title%26isFreemail%3Dtrue%26r%3D3qu3t%26token%3DeyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo2MjkwOTIxLCJwb3N0X2lkIjoxMzk3ODUwNjMsImlhdCI6MTcwMjU3Mzk0MCwiZXhwIjoxNzA1MTY1OTQwLCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMTc1MjA5NSIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.UBijmNHtakAiL6-3DXtqmpUuHZgwgq27CLKdM-LaPg0&source=gmail&ust=1702660367664000&usg=AOvVaw33UPb4NAuBsP9a7E1YIg4t" href="https://substack.com/app-link/post?publication_id=1752095&post_id=139785063&utm_source=post-email-title&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=3qu3t&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo2MjkwOTIxLCJwb3N0X2lkIjoxMzk3ODUwNjMsImlhdCI6MTcwMjU3Mzk0MCwiZXhwIjoxNzA1MTY1OTQwLCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMTc1MjA5NSIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.UBijmNHtakAiL6-3DXtqmpUuHZgwgq27CLKdM-LaPg0" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"></a></span></h4><blockquote><h4 style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 36px; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/app-link/post?publication_id%3D1752095%26post_id%3D139785063%26utm_source%3Dpost-email-title%26utm_campaign%3Demail-post-title%26isFreemail%3Dtrue%26r%3D3qu3t%26token%3DeyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo2MjkwOTIxLCJwb3N0X2lkIjoxMzk3ODUwNjMsImlhdCI6MTcwMjU3Mzk0MCwiZXhwIjoxNzA1MTY1OTQwLCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMTc1MjA5NSIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.UBijmNHtakAiL6-3DXtqmpUuHZgwgq27CLKdM-LaPg0&source=gmail&ust=1702660367664000&usg=AOvVaw33UPb4NAuBsP9a7E1YIg4t" href="https://substack.com/app-link/post?publication_id=1752095&post_id=139785063&utm_source=post-email-title&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=3qu3t&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo2MjkwOTIxLCJwb3N0X2lkIjoxMzk3ODUwNjMsImlhdCI6MTcwMjU3Mzk0MCwiZXhwIjoxNzA1MTY1OTQwLCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMTc1MjA5NSIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.UBijmNHtakAiL6-3DXtqmpUuHZgwgq27CLKdM-LaPg0" style="color: #990000; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">We Have the Best Welfare Fund in the Country</a></span></h4><p style="line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I was struck by several remarks made by UFT President Michael Mulgrew at </span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/ecce3846-724e-4176-9726-43436f926657?j%3DeyJ1IjoiM3F1M3QifQ.uX8umPzUb6HBRPsqNLM7sW1fohFkrR5HHG4iJQ3YrxM&source=gmail&ust=1702660367665000&usg=AOvVaw3VdLps4RaSc5GOKTTN8tRX" href="https://substack.com/redirect/ecce3846-724e-4176-9726-43436f926657?j=eyJ1IjoiM3F1M3QifQ.uX8umPzUb6HBRPsqNLM7sW1fohFkrR5HHG4iJQ3YrxM" rel="" style="color: #990000; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">last night’s Delegate Assembly</a><span style="color: #990000;">.
He’d said he’d have a major announcement on health care, but simply
reiterated that there were two finalists—Emblem/United and Aetna.
(Mulgrew just can’t wait to dump Aetna on retirees, so I suspect he’ll
lean toward them regardless.) </span></span></p><p style="line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #990000;">That
said, this is very disturbing—As Daniel Alicea pointed out on Twitter,
there’s a slide from the PowerPoint they used last night that speaks to
“real managed care”. Mulgrew also said that members would need to
declare a primary doctor. This suggests the new plan may be more of an
HMO than a PPO. If that’s the case, you will have far less choice among
providers (despite Mulgrew’s happy talk about paying 10% less for
something “as good or better”).</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://arthurgoldstein.substack.com/p/we-have-the-best-welfare-fund-in?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1752095&post_id=139785063&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=3qu3t&utm_medium=email" style="color: #990000;"> Continue reading</a></span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Mulgrew continues to claim his Aetna Medicare Adv is no different than Medicare -- maybe even better. Even better than the Emblem MedAdv plan he claimed was the best just two years ago. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Even the corp media on NBC exposes Mulgrew as a liar:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">NBC segment: :</span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DG7KWytC8DvQ&source=gmail&ust=1702746333978000&usg=AOvVaw1MkQq4yqQjF9orlsD1u90V" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7KWytC8DvQ" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?<wbr></wbr>v=G7KWytC8DvQ</a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I was outside the Delegate Assembly on Wednesday (Dec. 13) with Retiree Advocate colleagues and retirees from New Action handing out our leaflets. It was cold and some of us old folks wanted to in to distribute - a right we always used to have but in the increasing restrictions on democracy in the UFT, we had to fight to even stand inside the warm lobby. As for the table the opposition always has had - that is long gone -- according to sources under the orders of LeRoy Barr. As for our right to actually watch the DA even at the 19th floor - well that is long gone. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Adding to the ugliness, it seemed to be ugly sweater day for the Unity Caucus gang. And of course Mulgrew made sure not to call on any opposition people who might actually challenge his lies. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Nick wrote up the minutes.</span></p>
<div class="qodef-e-text">
<h4 class="qodef-e-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
</h4></div><blockquote><div class="qodef-e-text"><h4 class="qodef-e-title entry-title" itemprop="name"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a class="qodef-e-title-link" href="https://newaction.org/uft-healthcare-cuts-delegate-assembly-12-13-23/" itemprop="url">
UFT Healthcare cuts – Delegate Assembly – 12/13/23 <span><a name='more'></a></span></a></span>
</h4>
<p class="qodef-e-excerpt" itemprop="description"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Summary/Analysis:
That’s enough summarizing I think. I’ll leave the rest for standalone
articles. My informal minutes follow. President’s Report DA starts late
at 4:20 PM Someone asks for a FT pom pom hat, Mulgrew responds he’ll
look into it (retro collection) Last DA of 2023. Healthcare rep</span></p>
</div>
<span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a class="qodef-shortcode qodef-m qodef-button qodef-layout--textual qodef-html--link" href="https://newaction.org/uft-healthcare-cuts-delegate-assembly-12-13-23/" target="_self"> <span class="qodef-m-text">Read More</span> </a><a class="qodef-shortcode qodef-m qodef-button qodef-layout--textual qodef-html--link" href="https://newaction.org/uft-healthcare-cuts-delegate-assembly-12-13-23/" target="_self"><svg class="qodef-svg--custom-arrow qodef-m-arrow" height="13.056" viewbox="0 0 13.056 13.056" width="13.056" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"></svg></a></span></blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a class="qodef-shortcode qodef-m qodef-button qodef-layout--textual qodef-html--link" href="https://newaction.org/uft-healthcare-cuts-delegate-assembly-12-13-23/" target="_self"><svg class="qodef-svg--custom-arrow qodef-m-arrow" height="13.056" viewbox="0 0 13.056 13.056" width="13.056" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"></svg></a></span><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>Fear of Nick Pervades Unity hierarchy and Arthur is loathed by some<br /></b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Someone commented that Mulgrew tailors his presentations with what Nick might write in mind. Arthur too. They don't love Daniel, who voted for them in 2019, either. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">It must cut deep for the triarchy at the top that Nick used to be in Unity and Arthur ran with them twice. They never minded people like me and James because we have always trashed Unity. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">But the UFT is not the only teacher union to repress democracy. Read this long time Chicago teacher who has reported on their DAs for decades and is now being repressed by a usually considered more progressive union than the UFT.</span><br /></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><h4 style="color: #404040; font-weight: bold; line-height: 36px; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/app-link/post?publication_id%3D1202058%26post_id%3D139629231%26utm_source%3Dpost-email-title%26utm_campaign%3Demail-post-title%26isFreemail%3Dtrue%26r%3D3qu3t%26token%3DeyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo2MjkwOTIxLCJwb3N0X2lkIjoxMzk2MjkyMzEsImlhdCI6MTcwMjEzMzM5NSwiZXhwIjoxNzA0NzI1Mzk1LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMTIwMjA1OCIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.6xJ2W1fw0zSgm1iamHZPBDYBswMKgQSsw0GH6sCJe2U&source=gmail&ust=1702219936259000&usg=AOvVaw2qajAKLSBx63Ftseev1IEd" href="https://substack.com/app-link/post?publication_id=1202058&post_id=139629231&utm_source=post-email-title&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=3qu3t&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo2MjkwOTIxLCJwb3N0X2lkIjoxMzk2MjkyMzEsImlhdCI6MTcwMjEzMzM5NSwiZXhwIjoxNzA0NzI1Mzk1LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMTIwMjA1OCIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.6xJ2W1fw0zSgm1iamHZPBDYBswMKgQSsw0GH6sCJe2U" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><blockquote>Chicago Teachers Union Whacks Second City Teachers with Resolution to Stop Delegate Reporting</blockquote></a></span></h4><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;">and here's some healthcare updates:<br /></span></li></ul><blockquote><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-size: small;">The Council has now placed the entire 12/11/23 Finance Committee hearing on the budget on the City's website. </span></li></ul><blockquote><div><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;">While
the budget process each year follows a familiar pattern: the Mayor
proposes a draconian budget (and always cuts parks, libraries, and
schools) and after the predictable public outrage, the Council restores
the bulk of the funding, it is still useful to watch at least those
spots which I have highlighted below.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;">First, go to this link:</span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://legistar.council.nyc.gov/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID%3D1137709%26GUID%3D00711D11-555C-4DDA-BCD0-E0840FA1137B%26Search%3D&source=gmail&ust=1702732124404000&usg=AOvVaw1UQMmjj3t8gkKOFBj3gued" href="https://legistar.council.nyc.gov/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1137709&GUID=00711D11-555C-4DDA-BCD0-E0840FA1137B&Search=" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://legistar.council.nyc.<wbr></wbr>gov/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=<wbr></wbr>1137709&GUID=00711D11-555C-<wbr></wbr>4DDA-BCD0-E0840FA1137B&Search=</a><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;">Then click on the link for "Video."</span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;">If you are truly a glutton for punishment, you can watch all <b>10 hours and 47 minutes </b>of the hearing. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;">But
I suggest that if you want to see City Council members asking City
Office of Management and Budget Director Jacques Jiha about members'
budget priorities (while Jiha's extensive number of staffers sit next
to, and behind him, with retirees sitting in the row behind them), you
watch -- or skim -- the first 4 and a half (!) hours of the testimony,
up to <b>04:30:00</b>. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;">A
panel of Michael Mulgrew (UFT President), Henry Garrido (DC 37), James
Davis (Professional Staff Congress), and Andrew Ansbro (Uniformed
Firefighters Association) follows at <b>04: 35:00.</b> Mulgrew and
Garrido express their outrage at the City's budget numbers and anger
that the City plans to cut "revenue-producing titles" and replace them
with consultants. (DC 37 has sued the Mayor over this, by the way).
Davis tells us how important CUNY is to the City. Ansbro says that
cutting firefighters will affect response time and that the cuts are
immoral.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;">The Independent Budget Office testifies at <b>05:25:00</b> and questions the Mayor's numbers.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;">Many members of the public, including arts groups and composting advocates, testify for several more hours. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;">Retirees testify later in the afternoon: Marianne Pizzitola testifies at <b>08:30:19</b>, Laura Genovese testifies at <b>08:35:01</b>, and Sue Ellen Dodell testifies <b>08:37:15</b>. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;">As noted above, the hearing is 10 hours and 47 minutes.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;">Enjoy!</span></div></blockquote><div><span style="font-size: small;"></span></div><span style="color: #888888;"><br /><div></div><div><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #1f497d;">And this just in:<img alt="_Logo-04-18-2022-400x400" class="CToWUd a6T" data-bit="iit" data-image-whitelisted="" height="198" id="m_6982439035563148494_x0000_i1025" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ui=2&ik=47843a658e&attid=0.1&permmsgid=msg-f:1785639450197286191&th=18c7dd9e85eedd2f&view=fimg&fur=ip&sz=s0-l75-ft&attbid=ANGjdJ_OIK6STzMu7kg40pvR86GRfBpFAABl5cYub1tuXHpi7WLXNk397VBklFxirTX22AfHHWG8dIoWZYP-GrJjOURCo1cdvtAZvAom5q-3FR7NjosE_GsQqMeYopE&disp=emb" tabindex="0" width="198" /></span></p></div></span></blockquote><span style="color: #888888;"><div><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #1f497d;"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #1f497d;"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #1f497d;">The
NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees is assisting yet another
Retiree Organization defend their right to their Medicare Benefits
earned and promised to them during their employment. TWU100R is a new
retiree organization founded much like ours and consisting of active and
retired union workers who do not wish to be forced onto inferior
alternatives to Medicare. We stand in solidarity with them and wish
them success in their battle to protect Medicare and their promised
health benefits. </span><u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #1f497d;">In solidarity, <u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #1f497d;">Marianne Pizzitola<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #1f497d;">President<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #1f497d;">NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p align="center" style="text-align: center;"><b>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE</b><u></u><u></u></p><p align="center" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Activists
and Retirees Unite to Preserve Medicare Access: Lawsuit Filed in NYS
Supreme Court against MTA & TWU Local 100 to Demand Access to
Promised Medicare Benefits<u></u><u></u></span></b></p><p align="center" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Complaint
asserts 7 causes of action ; Preliminary Injunction motion asks Court
to Stop the MTA and TWU Local 100 from stripping Retirees from their
long standing Medicare Insurance. </span></i></b><i><u></u><u></u></i></p><p><b>Brooklyn, New York, December 18,</b> <b> 2023</b> – On behalf of <b>TWU 100R</b>, retired workers of TWU Local 100 of the MTA, <b>Kenneth Nelson Page</b> filed an action and request for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against the <b>MTA </b>and <b>TWU Local 100 </b>challenging
their plan to force tens of thousands of elderly and disabled retirees
off their existing Traditional Medicare and supplement and onto an
inferior type of insurance known as “Medicare Advantage.” Unlike
Medicare - a Federal Public Health Benefit that has protected American
Taxpayers for 57 years - the Aetna Medicare Advantage Plan is a
private, for-profit plan that is accepted by a limited network of
providers, doesn't cover a vast array of medical services unless Aetna
deems them "medically necessary" delaying and denying them medical care
and exposes retirees to crippling healthcare costs.<u></u><u></u></p><p>In
a significant move, a diverse group of activists and retirees have
joined forces to file the TRO in the New York State Supreme Court,
Manhattan. This legal action marks a pivotal step in their determined
effort to preserve Traditional Medicare for Retirees, and the promises
made to them by the MTA and their former Union, TWU Local 100. TWU 100R
consists of retirees who used to move 8 million passengers a day for a
living. They ensured the riding public got to and from home, work, and
school safely every day, assisted in times of trouble; when stuck on a
train in the tunnel, during blackouts, robberies, and during the Covid
Pandemic. They often worked in dangerous and unsafe conditions which
affected their health in ways that didn't show up until after retirement
including 9/11 exposures.<u></u><u></u></p><p><b>Background:</b>
The coalition, comprising of individuals from TWU Local 100 as well has
come together over shared concerns about the erosion of traditional
Medicare and being forced into a Medicare advantage plan, diminishing
their current level of benefits. This situation is like what Mayor Adams
has attempted to force on NYC Retirees, but being Quasi State workers,
they were not protected by the court successes of the NYC Organization
of Public Service Retirees. They had to file their own litigation. <u></u><u></u></p><p><b>Details of the Injunction:</b>
The litigation filed in the NYS Supreme Court seeks to halt actions
that the coalition believes are detrimental to the health and longevity
of retirees and their families. Specific details of the case including
the parties involved, are outlined in the legal <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/DocumentList?docketId%3Dkw1Cb0UC7vvBe9XXdTo14A%3D%3D%26display%3Dall%26courtType%3DNew%2520York%2520County%2520Supreme%2520Court%26resultsPageNum%3D1&source=gmail&ust=1703005202876000&usg=AOvVaw37s3gfAbwyREs6XraicZa5" href="https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/DocumentList?docketId=kw1Cb0UC7vvBe9XXdTo14A==&display=all&courtType=New%20York%20County%20Supreme%20Court&resultsPageNum=1" target="_blank">documents submitted to the court.</a><u></u><u></u></p><p><b>Contact Information:</b> For more information, interviews, or detailed discussions, please contact:<u></u><u></u></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">Lloyd Archer<u></u><u></u></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">President<u></u><u></u></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">TWU100R <u></u><u></u></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #1f497d;"><a href="mailto:TWU100R@gmail.com" target="_blank">TWU100R@gmail.com</a> <u></u><u></u></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">929-247-7175<u></u><u></u></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><u></u> <u></u></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">Kenneth Nelson Page<u></u><u></u></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">Attorney<u></u><u></u></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><a href="mailto:k.nelsonPage@gmail.com" target="_blank">k.nelsonPage@gmail.com</a><u></u><u></u></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">917-655-6695<u></u><u></u></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;">Evangeline A. Byars</span><u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;">Labor Leader</span><u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;">Women Uplifting Women: A Sisterhood of Working Women & TWU Local 100 Active Member</span><u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.evanageline-byars.com&source=gmail&ust=1703005202876000&usg=AOvVaw01KKMGfqeIN7fZtFQ0zfpF" href="http://www.evanageline-byars.com" target="_blank">www.evanageline-byars.com</a></span><u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif;">917.932.5482</span><u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <br /></p><br /><br /></div></span><p> </p>ed notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-44005255162197912922023-12-04T09:35:00.001-05:002023-12-04T09:36:32.152-05:00Rambling on 2 - the 24 hour saga continued - RTC Meeting ends, Hitting the Museums - Morgan and Met<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I began my report on an interesting 24 hour period with the Retired Teacher Chapter meeting on Tuesday which ended at 5:20.</span></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name"><a href="https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2023/11/rambling-on-packed-24-hours-heres-first.html">Rambling
on - A Packed 24 hours + - Here's the first 4 hours - UFT Retiree
meeting, ICE comes alive, Marianne videos expose Mulgrew </a></h3></li></ul><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Surviving almost two hours of Mulgrew and Murphy, I needed fresh air. There was a segment on how seniors can avoid scams right after Mulgrew spoke and took questions. The presentation didn't include how to avoid the Mulgrew/Murphy healthcare scam. Luckily Marianne broke down the Mulgrew lies with 4 videos that add up to almost an hour --- it took an hour to debunk Mulgrew. To set the stage:</span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: firebrick; font-size: 1.3em; line-height: 120%;"><span>Mulgrew: I believe in democracy </span></span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: firebrick; font-size: 1.3em; line-height: 120%;"><span>Marianne: Laughs out loud.</span></span></h3><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">part 1: </span><a href="https://youtu.be/EzZKIwXrHFY?si=LVNE1iEMVEhrB6w2"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/EzZKIwXrHFY?si=LVNE1iEMVEhrB6w2</span></a></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">part 2: </span><span style="color: firebrick; font-size: 1.3em; line-height: 120%;"><span>https://you<a href="http://tu.be/dh5XkmWCaq8?si=QILNxZbcTzzEtQwR">tu.be/dh5XkmWCaq8?si=QILNxZbcTzzEtQwR</a></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">part 3: <a href="https://youtu.be/dNXSP4khKDc?si=bVsSaqj37-MonlPT">https://youtu.be/dNXSP4khKDc?si=bVsSaqj37-MonlPT </a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Part 4: <a href="https://youtu.be/GjYf8WTX4SM?si=LrU2BIrK9c02gv0X">https://youtu.be/GjYf8WTX4SM?si=LrU2BIrK9c02gv0X <br /></a></span></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I needed to wash off the propaganda so I headed uptown where I had two conflicting events at 6. Oh the choices. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">One was the tree lighting at Bryant Park winter village with entertainment and watching professional ice skating.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The other was a members' invitation to the Morgan library for a two hour special tour of various exhibits with an expert talking about each one. I chose the latter. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Lots about Gutenberg and the bibles and also some great stuff about books on nature from 500 years ago. Morgan is a great museum and only a few blocks from my place so I go often.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The Morgan <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD1Q0M8Xow64yqIsuXFAWt6kLUq_7rWSK3QhGwQZURV20ze7OhSLoeq3qE-NaaFAznXWIfqxIjhv5cViY2hfsRGm_NxQVYs8pm1S9wt4NDLzhYH86sxp_E_o4Xppc2MKh9t3N0uoXCq_c5Z85V8HDmfKTEYqV36pxZgQV2hX4a6UBGmLwOdbU5/s1748/Screenshot%202023-12-01%20at%2010.41.37%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1168" data-original-width="1748" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD1Q0M8Xow64yqIsuXFAWt6kLUq_7rWSK3QhGwQZURV20ze7OhSLoeq3qE-NaaFAznXWIfqxIjhv5cViY2hfsRGm_NxQVYs8pm1S9wt4NDLzhYH86sxp_E_o4Xppc2MKh9t3N0uoXCq_c5Z85V8HDmfKTEYqV36pxZgQV2hX4a6UBGmLwOdbU5/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-01%20at%2010.41.37%20AM.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGZd3t7Irjycf7YCVsau2pWDp7KqT4SGtB6MnpXjUkIj1nrTPvrVUeXz814Z9OlM9jbRAY4EZZRXx2gIJGSUeZg5V32HA4kV6NuQ0fHixoz0GqfeJOuWQUdoFNbwhPv5Pc9NtyMlGdh9zmWr74VvwiynvVE9KdhR15L4hoEVfu3QgMklQC2TAl/s1290/Screenshot%202023-12-01%20at%2010.41.18%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1290" data-original-width="920" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGZd3t7Irjycf7YCVsau2pWDp7KqT4SGtB6MnpXjUkIj1nrTPvrVUeXz814Z9OlM9jbRAY4EZZRXx2gIJGSUeZg5V32HA4kV6NuQ0fHixoz0GqfeJOuWQUdoFNbwhPv5Pc9NtyMlGdh9zmWr74VvwiynvVE9KdhR15L4hoEVfu3QgMklQC2TAl/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-01%20at%2010.41.18%20AM.png" width="228" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQzGzb7enO6F2kICSFgIksrDAMmJW5WRspYpYe1-P1fNalQgaoMCRthHDGh_M44l6yUqlQEveH0ZppsgPVp_c7XHk0nk5049dbX-DSwn4jsz_ieWGrDvX9lYDRJnKmQLnooNRQJQHCOHFMrPJoeX_3LfeEaVgLAF6R9FAqxqxfVu5XVEBsm2Gd/s1614/Screenshot%202023-12-01%20at%2010.41.01%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="704" data-original-width="1614" height="140" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQzGzb7enO6F2kICSFgIksrDAMmJW5WRspYpYe1-P1fNalQgaoMCRthHDGh_M44l6yUqlQEveH0ZppsgPVp_c7XHk0nk5049dbX-DSwn4jsz_ieWGrDvX9lYDRJnKmQLnooNRQJQHCOHFMrPJoeX_3LfeEaVgLAF6R9FAqxqxfVu5XVEBsm2Gd/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-01%20at%2010.41.01%20AM.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi0pxII5jDm1jNcaMHi-rtcriaBKCBisbG1wRPEsHbtGV-ShzDgo-A4Mv6zASJpGluXBHbDRERvt9Bddp61AI3Vd_rMu5e4cs79sgwsi4ti6hfC8yFXDHhecOXVVzbEn_BEPNgyXEudvqIq0lxXWSOycGyTDCSHdd3sUKUbSHTQnTX2yvjkzF6/s1292/Screenshot%202023-12-01%20at%2010.40.40%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1292" data-original-width="974" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi0pxII5jDm1jNcaMHi-rtcriaBKCBisbG1wRPEsHbtGV-ShzDgo-A4Mv6zASJpGluXBHbDRERvt9Bddp61AI3Vd_rMu5e4cs79sgwsi4ti6hfC8yFXDHhecOXVVzbEn_BEPNgyXEudvqIq0lxXWSOycGyTDCSHdd3sUKUbSHTQnTX2yvjkzF6/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-01%20at%2010.40.40%20AM.png" width="241" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH3Q7OlhR8FQKG6dRRAawQk1sHiZEa1X3fADpkk8udyapUEs08UnXtVV9TkxtBxaMPoZrAHG-EV6KHxWFggewezWlPK0-h8-egEunpwYHHkyEipt6_2VySUylXqt6LAE1v0DjApWAQdl_Kw3JBXk38F1Aas7-WrcHlnGDKDzCpTQB0dXTdn4y9/s1714/Screenshot%202023-12-01%20at%2010.39.50%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="1714" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH3Q7OlhR8FQKG6dRRAawQk1sHiZEa1X3fADpkk8udyapUEs08UnXtVV9TkxtBxaMPoZrAHG-EV6KHxWFggewezWlPK0-h8-egEunpwYHHkyEipt6_2VySUylXqt6LAE1v0DjApWAQdl_Kw3JBXk38F1Aas7-WrcHlnGDKDzCpTQB0dXTdn4y9/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-01%20at%2010.39.50%20AM.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Then off to one of my favorite diners - Murray Hill Diner on 33rd and Lex. Soup and sandwich - but no rice pudding.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">On way back to my apartment I passed a storefront with about 20 women doing what looked like yoga but on some machine - I went in to talk to the young lady in charge and she said it was Pilotes. Do any men take this class? One guy was in there. I told her ti do hot yoga and she slapped me 5. I may try it one day -- with women who could be my grandkids.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The Met</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I had to get up early on Wednesday for a press event at The Met for their upcoming exhibits this year. I love these events and they serve breakfast. And best of all the museum is closed on Wednesdays so imagine empty galleries. They introduced the upcoming exhibits (see below) but also after the program was done we had the opportunity to explore the newly opened European painting gallery until noon. I wish I had read this article before but I had fun just roaming around. I will go back. Read this before you go: </span></p><p><span><a data-ctbtn="0" data-cthref="/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwic177-9vWCAxWPlYkEHfE1B7MQFnoECA4QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2023%2F11%2F24%2Farts%2Fdesign%2Fmet-museum-european-painting-wing.html&usg=AOvVaw3ABCZxhs6o2mz1phkrU3EN&opi=89978449" data-jrwt="1" data-jsarwt="1" data-usg="AOvVaw3ABCZxhs6o2mz1phkrU3EN" data-ved="2ahUKEwic177-9vWCAxWPlYkEHfE1B7MQFnoECA4QAQ" href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwic177-9vWCAxWPlYkEHfE1B7MQFnoECA4QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2023%2F11%2F24%2Farts%2Fdesign%2Fmet-museum-european-painting-wing.html&usg=AOvVaw3ABCZxhs6o2mz1phkrU3EN&opi=89978449"></a></span></p><h3 class="LC20lb MBeuO DKV0Md"><a data-ctbtn="0" data-cthref="/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwic177-9vWCAxWPlYkEHfE1B7MQFnoECA4QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2023%2F11%2F24%2Farts%2Fdesign%2Fmet-museum-european-painting-wing.html&usg=AOvVaw3ABCZxhs6o2mz1phkrU3EN&opi=89978449" data-jrwt="1" data-jsarwt="1" data-usg="AOvVaw3ABCZxhs6o2mz1phkrU3EN" data-ved="2ahUKEwic177-9vWCAxWPlYkEHfE1B7MQFnoECA4QAQ" href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwic177-9vWCAxWPlYkEHfE1B7MQFnoECA4QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2023%2F11%2F24%2Farts%2Fdesign%2Fmet-museum-european-painting-wing.html&usg=AOvVaw3ABCZxhs6o2mz1phkrU3EN&opi=89978449">700 Paintings, 45 Galleries: A Guide to the Met's New ...</a></h3><div class="notranslate TbwUpd NJjxre iUh30 ojE3Fb"><a data-ctbtn="0" data-cthref="/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwic177-9vWCAxWPlYkEHfE1B7MQFnoECA4QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2023%2F11%2F24%2Farts%2Fdesign%2Fmet-museum-european-painting-wing.html&usg=AOvVaw3ABCZxhs6o2mz1phkrU3EN&opi=89978449" data-jrwt="1" data-jsarwt="1" data-usg="AOvVaw3ABCZxhs6o2mz1phkrU3EN" data-ved="2ahUKEwic177-9vWCAxWPlYkEHfE1B7MQFnoECA4QAQ" href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwic177-9vWCAxWPlYkEHfE1B7MQFnoECA4QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2023%2F11%2F24%2Farts%2Fdesign%2Fmet-museum-european-painting-wing.html&usg=AOvVaw3ABCZxhs6o2mz1phkrU3EN&opi=89978449"><span class="H9lube"><div aria-hidden="true" class="eqA2re NjwKYd Vwoesf"><img alt="" class="XNo5Ab" data-atf="1" data-csiid="10" src="data:image/png;base64,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" style="height: 18px; width: 18px;" /></div></span><div><span class="VuuXrf">The New York Times</span><div class="byrV5b"><cite class="qLRx3b tjvcx GvPZzd cHaqb" role="text">https://www.nytimes.com<span class="dyjrff ob9lvb" role="text"> › Arts › Art & Design</span></cite></div></div></a></div><p></p><div class="B6fmyf byrV5b Mg1HEd"><div class="TbwUpd iUh30 ojE3Fb"><span class="H9lube"><div class="eqA2re NjwKYd" style="height: 18px; width: 18px;"></div></span><div><span class="VuuXrf"></span><div class="byrV5b"><cite class="qLRx3b tjvcx GvPZzd cHaqb" role="text"><span class="dyjrff ob9lvb" role="text"></span></cite></div></div></div><div class="csDOgf BCF2pd ezY6nb L48a4c"><div data-bsextraheight="0" data-frm="true" data-isdesktop="true" data-movewtractions="true" data-ved="2ahUKEwic177-9vWCAxWPlYkEHfE1B7MQ2esEegQIDhAJ"><div aria-label="About this result" class="iTPLzd rNSxBe lUn2nc" role="button" style="position: absolute;" tabindex="0"><span class="D6lY4c mBswFe"><span class="xTFaxe z1asCe" style="height: 18px; 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margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxKZsfmbwSTBi4oRGRi4RvMCNRsWFwT0D4Lm1jNH2SIozy6trXFoiKcTGEJb5Asn5Q72AJzjoQ4AsGVHzbVaN0jNSpnWAAYMufNSQ-6lAKdk7ebPTF7EmLm92VJcMesGQ3X6eR82RT5ZXTq9VqvsgmiMk4M8t5u0Lpg_9agBCYaEL2_6SNilPX/s1280/Screenshot%202023-12-01%20at%2010.49.37%20AM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="886" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxKZsfmbwSTBi4oRGRi4RvMCNRsWFwT0D4Lm1jNH2SIozy6trXFoiKcTGEJb5Asn5Q72AJzjoQ4AsGVHzbVaN0jNSpnWAAYMufNSQ-6lAKdk7ebPTF7EmLm92VJcMesGQ3X6eR82RT5ZXTq9VqvsgmiMk4M8t5u0Lpg_9agBCYaEL2_6SNilPX/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-01%20at%2010.49.37%20AM.png" width="222" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My new girlfriend<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxfnyt3Ib10XCxykpfJw9oBTPsWrrJLbBa8u9EfpM75IYGzsBcMzKSHtf_bt7CkbFJJwv6SR4QbWmAvt_bChPdnwRm3IUswryRvPjFisdcm6Hoh3But2PCrVbUaMCK2cl_kVyB4bKMVZh1FLr366fX-supSw1Nyti6IZiC6prc_kPbQm1b08M5/s1312/Screenshot%202023-12-01%20at%2010.49.50%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1312" data-original-width="914" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxfnyt3Ib10XCxykpfJw9oBTPsWrrJLbBa8u9EfpM75IYGzsBcMzKSHtf_bt7CkbFJJwv6SR4QbWmAvt_bChPdnwRm3IUswryRvPjFisdcm6Hoh3But2PCrVbUaMCK2cl_kVyB4bKMVZh1FLr366fX-supSw1Nyti6IZiC6prc_kPbQm1b08M5/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-01%20at%2010.49.50%20AM.png" width="223" /></a></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaZxcuDZXfRk1SW9VSC7sTHW4QPOvTvY_Pzp2FMzJ9yBxL5ZZBxI19ykXyJ_BvfUa3phLQiw9A-SxGXHHXtSBdeFRDEsd7V7BmA-FGdlOxpd_SvP22drIXIvfHnp1AGEZGtQOhKC38K6Z-FrOwgrAjJwp5QAu293TMrX97MsmHAgssNEnxrhxO/s1738/Screenshot%202023-12-01%20at%2010.50.10%20AM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1258" data-original-width="1738" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaZxcuDZXfRk1SW9VSC7sTHW4QPOvTvY_Pzp2FMzJ9yBxL5ZZBxI19ykXyJ_BvfUa3phLQiw9A-SxGXHHXtSBdeFRDEsd7V7BmA-FGdlOxpd_SvP22drIXIvfHnp1AGEZGtQOhKC38K6Z-FrOwgrAjJwp5QAu293TMrX97MsmHAgssNEnxrhxO/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-01%20at%2010.50.10%20AM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And an opera <br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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<td style="padding-bottom: 15px;" valign="top"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfvUgWudsYuzdQPIhNQt6mhTXk&source=gmail&ust=1701480719719000&usg=AOvVaw1y7uU7mty49NzH8Icj926n" href="https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfvUgWudsYuzdQPIhNQt6mhTXk" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">
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<td align="left" style="color: #e4002b; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: normal;" valign="top">For Immediate Release</td>
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<td align="right" style="color: #e4002b; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 26px; font-weight: bold; line-height: normal;" valign="top">Exhibitions</td>
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<td align="left" class="m_8128715027711461011top m_8128715027711461011bottom m_8128715027711461011sidepad m_8128715027711461011lineHeight_target" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; line-height: 26px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px;"><h1 style="color: black; font-size: 22px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; line-height: auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit;"><b>The Metropolitan Museum of Art Announces Exhibition Program for Winter and Spring 2024</b></h1>
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<b>Highlights include </b><b><i><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism </span></i></b><b><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">(opening February 25); </span></b><b><i><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">Hidden Faces: Covered Portraits of the Renaissance </span></i></b><b><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">(opening April 2);</span></b><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;"> <b>and <i>Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion</i> (opening May 10)</b></span><br />
<br />
<b>The Museum also revealed the artists for the 2024 commissions series:</b> <b>Petrit
Halilaj will present a site-specific installation for the Museum’s Iris
and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden; Lee Bul will create sculptures for
The Met’s Fifth Avenue facade; and Tong Yang-Tze will create two
monumental works of Chinese calligraphy for The Met’s Great Hall </b></h3>
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<td align="left" class="m_8128715027711461011top m_8128715027711461011bottom" style="color: #0b141b; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><p style="font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">(New
York, November 30, 2023)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced
its schedule of exhibitions and programming that will activate the
Museum’s galleries and featured architectural spaces in the coming
months.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">“The Met’s
upcoming season will offer dazzling presentations of art from the
ancient times to the present day and reflect the breathtaking scope of
human creativity through new scholarship, commissions, and
groundbreaking exhibition displays,” said Max Hollein, the Museum’s
Marina Kellen French Director and Chief Executive Officer. “We are
excited for audiences to visit and take part in this thrilling next
chapter of our programming.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">Winter highlights include </span><b><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13Hfw9t1DTksUz1MtzViFHsC4JBH&source=gmail&ust=1701480719719000&usg=AOvVaw08COmfCvQ8rTm6V6gW0dCh" href="https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13Hfw9t1DTksUz1MtzViFHsC4JBH" target="_blank"><i><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">Women Dressing Women</span></i></a></b><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;"><b> </b>(opening December 7), a timely exploration of the creativity and artistic legacy of women fashion designers; </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfwoF6NzbXkyPI7ryNuVORRzg4&source=gmail&ust=1701480719719000&usg=AOvVaw0xiQfofBucFjFL4EOC5aEL" href="https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfwoF6NzbXkyPI7ryNuVORRzg4" target="_blank"><b><i><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">Don’t Forget to Call Your Mother</span></i></b></a><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">
(opening December 18), examining how artists use family photographs and
archival material to reflect on the complicated feelings of nostalgia
and sentimentality; </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfwT3h6UUWayrzpaPN9oxnreyO&source=gmail&ust=1701480719719000&usg=AOvVaw3SJt8_ybiKPy2WLTc6iqq3" href="https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfwT3h6UUWayrzpaPN9oxnreyO" target="_blank"><b><i><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">Cycladic Art: The Leonard N. Stern Collection on Loan from the Hellenic Republic</span></i></b></a><b><i> </i></b><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">(opening
January 25), a landmark international loan exhibition presenting 161
Early Bronze Age sculptures from the esteemed private collection; </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13Hfx8fmgAMqAyfv32thYCTDe4db&source=gmail&ust=1701480719719000&usg=AOvVaw0BNkcG2tqvhdKdok_UE1L0" href="https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13Hfx8fmgAMqAyfv32thYCTDe4db" target="_blank"><b><i><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">Vision and Verse: The Poetry of Chinese Painting</span></i></b></a><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;"> (opening February 3), exploring the interconnection of painting and poetry in Chinese culture; </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfxnrrqgDV0y3qGU6MNRfT0TRy&source=gmail&ust=1701480719719000&usg=AOvVaw1uhafcfvrxcTdyA_R0XdkW" href="https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfxnrrqgDV0y3qGU6MNRfT0TRy" target="_blank"><b><i><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">Indian Skies: The Howard Hodgkin Collection of Indian Court Painting</span></i></b></a><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">
(opening February 6), presenting the Museum’s recent acquisition of
Indian paintings from the 16th to the 19th century from the collection
of artist Howard Hodgkin; and </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfxCDwzWvpqxRmkLKhD5C8NJvV&source=gmail&ust=1701480719719000&usg=AOvVaw1KsKUzeHleUUaOLVn4yl1l" href="https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfxCDwzWvpqxRmkLKhD5C8NJvV" target="_blank"><b><i><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism</span></i></b></a><i> </i><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">(opening
February 25), a groundbreaking exhibition exploring the comprehensive
and far-reaching ways in which Black artists portrayed everyday modern
life in the 1920s–40s in New York City’s Harlem and nationwide.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">In the spring, The Met will present </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfxRPBJCmTQxFhYDnMsjYoAzai&source=gmail&ust=1701480719719000&usg=AOvVaw3oPqfOR6xluOLbQdXrbkS_" href="https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfxRPBJCmTQxFhYDnMsjYoAzai" target="_blank"><b><i>Weaving Abstraction in Ancient and Modern Art</i></b></a><b> </b>(opening
March 5), analyzing the striking connections between textile artists of
the ancient Andes and artists of the 20th century; <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13Hfy71GTieogxtdCv1hhykEnoOF&source=gmail&ust=1701480719719000&usg=AOvVaw1y9tNUAgrolYRvgVdyqmmn" href="https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13Hfy71GTieogxtdCv1hhykEnoOF" target="_blank"><b><i>The Art of the Literary Poster: Works from the Leonard A. Lauder Collection</i></b></a><b> </b>(opening
March 7), introducing audiences to a subgenre of posters from the 1890s
publicizing magazines, journals, books, and other types of literature; <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfymdM2Y5SGxh9gmEM6MGUaet2&source=gmail&ust=1701480719719000&usg=AOvVaw2X_YpFvSYPOfP3Ysl_gurp" href="https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfymdM2Y5SGxh9gmEM6MGUaet2" target="_blank"><b><i><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">The Real Thing: Unpackaging Product Photography</span></i></b></a><b> </b><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">(opening March 11), illustrating how commercial camerawork contributed to the visual language of modernism; </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfyBpRcDXn6x54UeigW139X47p&source=gmail&ust=1701480719719000&usg=AOvVaw2xCjzjVSykEb9TrrPS8X10" href="https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfyBpRcDXn6x54UeigW139X47p" target="_blank"><b><i><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">Hidden Faces: Covered Portraits of the Renaissance</span></i></b></a><b><i> </i></b><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">(opening
April 2), the first exhibition to examine the Renaissance tradition of
multisided portraits in which the sitter’s likeness was concealed behind
hinged or sliding covers;</span> <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfyQBWmjORwwT0y5VLLfppJTLM&source=gmail&ust=1701480719719000&usg=AOvVaw1VtvcVf79niMVrHuxam0SF" href="https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfyQBWmjORwwT0y5VLLfppJTLM" target="_blank"><b><i><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion</span></i></b></a><i> </i><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">(opening
May 10), reactivating the sensory capacities of masterworks in the
Museum’s Costume Institute collection through first-hand research,
conservation analysis, and diverse technologies; and </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13Hfz5O1vZGlWwGWbXzgAtLFwJq9&source=gmail&ust=1701480719719000&usg=AOvVaw3MB-v3hWtL1yQRbN1bJYO5" href="https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13Hfz5O1vZGlWwGWbXzgAtLFwJq9" target="_blank"><b><i><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">Collecting Inspiration: Edward C. Moore at Tiffany & Co.</span></i></b></a><b> </b><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">(opening
June 9), displaying the work of the silversmith for Tiffany & Co.
alongside his expansive personal collection of global decorative arts,
which inspired his creations.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">The Met also announced new artist commissions for the </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfChl6xLTJoua1ycQJkuqYLySY&source=gmail&ust=1701480719719000&usg=AOvVaw2J6yHEp9Dx37T-9x2fz0Ra" href="https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfChl6xLTJoua1ycQJkuqYLySY" target="_blank"><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">2024 season</span></a><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">. </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfCwxbHrLdOtXXc4ue9INeyoxl&source=gmail&ust=1701480719719000&usg=AOvVaw1LBZzxlirzYIiok8Yv-ag_" href="https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfCwxbHrLdOtXXc4ue9INeyoxl" target="_blank"><b><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">Petrit Halilaj</span></b></a><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;"> will present a site-specific installation for the Museum’s Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden (April 29); </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfCLJgR7CIetLSPW7IYX9ulebI&source=gmail&ust=1701480719719000&usg=AOvVaw2VLIEOVvtvQw6cHjDsl5T3" href="https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfCLJgR7CIetLSPW7IYX9ulebI" target="_blank"><b><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">Lee Bul</span></b></a><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;"> will create four sculptures for the niches of The Met’s Fifth Avenue facade (September 12); and </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfD0Vm0NucEtzOtNLdObvK83Q5&source=gmail&ust=1701480719719000&usg=AOvVaw2BOPcHHlcsaFiE0higiVBn" href="https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfD0Vm0NucEtzOtNLdObvK83Q5" target="_blank"><b><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">Tong</span></b><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;"> <b>Yang-Tze</b></span></a><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;"> will create two monumental works of Chinese calligraphy for The Met’s Great Hall (November 21).</span><br />
<br />
<span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">Programmatic highlights include a </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfDg7ratlH4tnK7FoIDpRZUTus&source=gmail&ust=1701480719719000&usg=AOvVaw334phsyQsEOEXxKbS1n9YF" href="https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfDg7ratlH4tnK7FoIDpRZUTus" target="_blank"><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">series of talks</span></a><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">
about cultural heritage sites in Africa, Oceania, and the Americas
presented in partnership with World Monuments Fund and leading up to the
reopening of the reenvisioned </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfDvjwk9dbutbFLx2dsEefHJ8P&source=gmail&ust=1701480719719000&usg=AOvVaw1k_1-_F3OIqq2Kybx6ZN7R" href="https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfDvjwk9dbutbFLx2dsEefHJ8P" target="_blank"><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">Michael C. Rockefeller Wing</span></a><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;"> in 2025, as well as the return of two popular celebrations—<b><i>Lunar New Year</i></b> (February 3) and <b><i>Teens Take The Met!</i></b> (May 13). The Museum also previewed its winter </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfDKvBtP4FUsZBpoFIhSAvuyNc&source=gmail&ust=1701480719719000&usg=AOvVaw26Nex2YUp6c4XKIOvMpk_C" href="https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfDKvBtP4FUsZBpoFIhSAvuyNc" target="_blank"><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">MetLiveArts</span></a><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;"> season, which will include the world premiere of </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfDZHGDuWaksNx3gjd76WLhorz&source=gmail&ust=1701480719719000&usg=AOvVaw0hE3ze7N3FhAR7DGO7zpi9" href="https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfDZHGDuWaksNx3gjd76WLhorz" target="_blank"><i><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">Handel: Made in America</span></i></a> <span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">(February 15 and 16)</span><i><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">, </span></i><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">a new work written and performed by Terrance McKnight with opera stars Davóne Tines, J'Nai Bridges, and Noah Stewart.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">Visitors arriving at The Met during the current season can explore the must-see exhibitions </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfEeTLNaNEKsBsH7WHWlj14e5W&source=gmail&ust=1701480719719000&usg=AOvVaw1FTq1EDEFK5tdh0DMPz55g" href="https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfEeTLNaNEKsBsH7WHWlj14e5W" target="_blank"><b><i><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">Manet/Degas</span></i></b></a><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;"> (through January 7) and </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfEu5QWQF9aspokZAcLzFgR3Kj&source=gmail&ust=1701480719719000&usg=AOvVaw02BeYpNm-kjqm6VmmiJYdH" href="https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfEu5QWQF9aspokZAcLzFgR3Kj" target="_blank"><b><i><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">Africa & Byzantium</span></i></b></a><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;"> (through March 3) as well as</span> <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfEYu1gco80s1fCIRcq2nMqJ33&source=gmail&ust=1701480719719000&usg=AOvVaw010nTnx79IblDVm1dLFeuX" href="https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfEYu1gco80s1fCIRcq2nMqJ33" target="_blank"><b><i><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">Look Again: European Paintings 1300–1800</span></i></b></a><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">,
the renovated suite of 45 permanent collection galleries situated atop
the Great Hall stairs. Through January 2024, The Met’s holiday season is
in full swing with </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfFdG6pSfCqrPbgAuHfgK2dyHq&source=gmail&ust=1701480719719000&usg=AOvVaw37h3puAHsvc6tEuj0xSJYi" href="https://mail.metmuseum.org/c/13HfFdG6pSfCqrPbgAuHfgK2dyHq" target="_blank"><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">comprehensive festivities</span></a><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; padding: 0in;">
at both The Met Fifth Avenue and The Met Cloisters, including beloved
annual displays and seasonal dining and shopping opportunities.</span><br />
<br />
<b>### </b><br />
<br />
<b> November 30, 2023</b><br />
<br />
<b>Contact:</b><br />
<a href="mailto:communications@metmuseum.org" style="color: black;" target="_blank">Communications@metmuseum.org</a></p></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I got the ferries back to Rockaway Wed afternoon. 24 hour away and it felt like a week. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">------- <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>News Update:</b> So what's a little mistake? Or was it a mistake if you are a conspiracy theorist?<br /></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://am-quickie.ghost.io/r/8c8a7640?m%3D090953a3-4325-4922-941d-a16465b0a653&source=gmail&ust=1701525732642000&usg=AOvVaw3nSY5nMDj7XBHVt_-W6V3J" href="https://am-quickie.ghost.io/r/8c8a7640?m=090953a3-4325-4922-941d-a16465b0a653" style="color: #341aff; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">The New York Times reports</a> on how Israel knew about the Hamas plan a year ahead and did nothing. Not exactly nothing. Bibi actually withdrew forces and sent them to the West Bank to protect the murderous settlers. If I were a conspiracy theorist I might say the attack is exactly what he wanted as an excuse to destroy Gaza. <br /></p><blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(52, 26, 255); font-size: 17px; font-weight: 500; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 2em 0px; padding: 0px 25px;">The
approximately 40-page document, which the Israeli authorities
code-named 'Jericho Wall,' outlined, point by point, exactly the kind of
devastating invasion that led to the deaths of about 1,200 people. ...</blockquote><blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(52, 26, 255); font-size: 17px; font-weight: 500; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 2em 0px; padding: 0px 25px;">Then,
in July, just three months before the attacks, a veteran analyst with
Unit 8200, Israel's signals intelligence agency, warned that Hamas had
conducted an intense, daylong training exercise that appeared similar to
what was outlined in the blueprint.</blockquote><blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(52, 26, 255); font-size: 17px; font-weight: 500; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 2em 0px; padding: 0px 25px;">But a colonel in the Gaza division brushed off her concerns, according to encrypted emails viewed by The Times.</blockquote><p><b style="font-weight: 700;"> For the pro-Putin crowd:<br /></b></p><p><b style="font-weight: 700;">Russian Supreme Court Bans the 'International LGBT Public Movement'</b>
Activists are advising "LGBTQ+ Russians to flee the country, and
call[ing] on international rights organizations to help people from
those groups find refuge outside Russia." via <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://am-quickie.ghost.io/r/7ceb857b?m%3D090953a3-4325-4922-941d-a16465b0a653&source=gmail&ust=1701525732643000&usg=AOvVaw0hScju0BPNtOJPbdjieLgf" href="https://am-quickie.ghost.io/r/7ceb857b?m=090953a3-4325-4922-941d-a16465b0a653" style="color: #341aff; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">the Washington Post</a> and <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://am-quickie.ghost.io/r/3c106499?m%3D090953a3-4325-4922-941d-a16465b0a653&source=gmail&ust=1701525732643000&usg=AOvVaw26i-QJ85NAO4s21YoEqTvk" href="https://am-quickie.ghost.io/r/3c106499?m=090953a3-4325-4922-941d-a16465b0a653" style="color: #341aff; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">the Guardian</a>.</p><p> </p>ed notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-46588185047309013302023-11-30T22:54:00.002-05:002023-12-04T08:48:10.303-05:00Rambling on - A Packed 24 hours + - Here's the first 4 hours - UFT Retiree meeting, ICE comes alive, Marianne videos expose Mulgrew <ul style="text-align: left;"><li><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #660000;"><b>To Ramble - </b></span><span><div data-dobid="dfn" style="display: inline;"><b style="color: #660000;"><span>talk or write at length in a confused or </span><span class="AraNOb"><a class="rMNQNe" data-ved="2ahUKEwii0dSD7euCAxVPkYkEHTTcC-0QyecJegQIGxA5" href="https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=586470193&q=inconsequential&si=ALGXSlauYMaQ41mj_O9hyXg0i1XkmW50FwNKglunaVOzScEBhd_DVXQp53qK3Yh53rXM6zRoVfosWmeenFRC4Jkg_3S7zleDyKJC6pk4B-HoZWTCPUA-Kygt64RPjlEkwW1Jh6Sep8Os&expnd=1" tabindex="0">inconsequential</a></span><span> way.</span></b></div></span></span></span></h3></li></ul><p></p><div data-dobid="dfn" style="display: inline;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUKWfAFv5Cfu6ZjgT4zvUYxUnwmyYziA_11XmHqPTVv7gfaD1YyKV8rdDlTmR6kIu1sUFWOSTrIcVtvZjBDvyMEr5nPEZaVwatrafY1rnY3NUkQJ-qGH7u7gGPERh4f1shyFchBBD7WJd7b2IPu3yl56oGPW_zJwzWb8k-TjgA12OoqCp5j7c1/s2200/November%20RTC%20Flier%20Ultra-Final.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2200" data-original-width="1700" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUKWfAFv5Cfu6ZjgT4zvUYxUnwmyYziA_11XmHqPTVv7gfaD1YyKV8rdDlTmR6kIu1sUFWOSTrIcVtvZjBDvyMEr5nPEZaVwatrafY1rnY3NUkQJ-qGH7u7gGPERh4f1shyFchBBD7WJd7b2IPu3yl56oGPW_zJwzWb8k-TjgA12OoqCp5j7c1/w309-h400/November%20RTC%20Flier%20Ultra-Final.jpg" width="309" /></a></div>Confused and Inconsequential? – </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">a good way to define blogging and my current life.</span></span></div><div data-dobid="dfn" style="display: inline;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></div><p></p><p></p><div data-dobid="dfn" style="display: inline;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Trying to write this blog in an organized manner by sticking to one topic has become difficult because there is so much info coming in, just processing and refining it into a comprehensive piece is too much for my scattered thoughts. So I'm just going to start writing until a certain time and just stop when I get distracted. So if this ends in mid-word or mid-sentence, I didn't die - probably. <br /></span></span></div><p></p><p></p><div data-dobid="dfn" style="display: inline;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This blog is 17 years old and as an extension of Ed Notes the newsletter, 25 years old. That's a lot of verbiage. <br /></span></span></div><p></p><p></p><div data-dobid="dfn" style="display: inline;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I was checking back to some of my reporting on the 2014 contract and I did 90 blog posts a month. This month I did 5 and 93 all year. So I decided to not worry about being coherent but just let things fly as they come into my brain, even if I forget most of it. </span></span></div><p></p><p></p><div data-dobid="dfn" style="display: inline;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><span style="color: #990000;">ICE is still ALIVE! <br /></span></b></span></span></div><p></p><p></p><div data-dobid="dfn" style="display: inline;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Not having James Eterno to piggy back off since his illness in May has been a factor. His reporting on the issues we face was so important. Just before his stroke we had been discussing setting up an ICE meeting and since then I have been frozen in terms of ICE. As we <a href="https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2023/11/are-there-emerging-rifts-in-uftunity.html">reported</a>, ICE has been in hiatus. His dedication makes it worth trying to keep ICE alive.<br /></span></span></div><p></p><p></p><div data-dobid="dfn" style="display: inline;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">ICE did meet on a zoom recently and it was nice to see people even on a
screen. There was some money in the ICE account and we sent a donation
to Camille. Keep James in your thoughts:</span></span></div><p></p><h4 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/2023/08/james-eterno-recovery-fund.html" style="font-family: verdana;">James Eterno Recovery Fund</a></span>
</h4>
<div class="post-header">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://images.gofundme.com/IoQaNTKzoqudU2lRFp2DmAzjxzA=/720x405/https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/74540293_1691403467357672_r.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; font-family: verdana; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="720" height="112" src="https://images.gofundme.com/IoQaNTKzoqudU2lRFp2DmAzjxzA=/720x405/https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/74540293_1691403467357672_r.jpeg" width="200" /></a></span></div><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">It was clear that ICE people liked meeting in person so we are going to try at our favorite diner during the Xmas vacation. Rice pudding for all. If any of you are interested in rice pudding email me.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Thursday, November 30, 2023</b> - the last day of the hurricane season -- a big relief for us in Rockaway. Friday begins December and I need to get my car inspected -- 11 years old since Sandy hurricane.<br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I had an interesting 24 hours Tuesday/Wednesday. I took the 12:15 ferry to Wall St for the UFT Retired Teacher Meeting, which began at 3:30. They keep moving the day and time as a moving target to confuse people. And confuse people they did. </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">What next, midnight? <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><span style="color: #660000;">UFT November Retiree meeting - Mulgrew was LIVE! Tom Murphy - Sort of.<br /></span></b></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">There has been some speculation that Murphy has become so unpopular with retirees due to his role in healthcare issue and his undemocratic way of running meetings, that he might be replaced as CL in this spring's elections. </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">At the ExBd, Mike Sill announced Debra Penny was stepping down as UFT Treasurer, an officer position.T</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">here were some who speculated she might replace Murphy. But the latest word is that Mulgrew is so paranoid over AmyGate and undercurrents in Unity being pissed at Mulgrew for her removal, he won't risk changing horses in midstream and trusts Murphy to be loyal to him. <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">That is the major modus operendi inside the UFT at this time, given the AmyGate affair where if you expressed positives about Amy you were moved to Mulgrew's growing shit list. Loyalty not to Unity or the UFT but to Mulgrew. We get sneak attack leaks from inside the fortress - that is exactly what 52 is. No one is storming Mulgrew's office - yet. Watch the body language of key people. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><span style="color: #990000;">Retiree Advocate in action<br /></span></b></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I met my compadres from Retiree Advocate early before the meeting in the back lobby of the UFT where people come early for the meeting and we get to talk to them. Gloria Brandman is like a tiger at organizing and she signed people up for our listserve and recruiting people to run with us in the chapter election in the spring. We are hoping for 300 delegates to the DA - Imagine if we won how that would impact the DA - and if you are retired and interested email me. If we win that would shake up the UFT.<br /></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWzg2Ti_zU4WymkrKAjL8RpRE_NrgV-O4JUGOQhVVV3od4HOAdc1aGPLTzXAJKAkKr5v5ctHdY4_U33C1F03lZu9hafMG9ztWY1kCbY1ylsZdqPKM4wIJZBho-dDcm7srVVw2M05nfr32Za_IMt8aO2mMCooAAfozXrthSC-nN_cMG1Yol1kLw/s770/Screenshot%202023-11-30%20at%209.34.15%20AM.png" style="clear: right; float: right; font-family: verdana; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="454" data-original-width="770" height="118" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWzg2Ti_zU4WymkrKAjL8RpRE_NrgV-O4JUGOQhVVV3od4HOAdc1aGPLTzXAJKAkKr5v5ctHdY4_U33C1F03lZu9hafMG9ztWY1kCbY1ylsZdqPKM4wIJZBho-dDcm7srVVw2M05nfr32Za_IMt8aO2mMCooAAfozXrthSC-nN_cMG1Yol1kLw/w200-h118/Screenshot%202023-11-30%20at%209.34.15%20AM.png" width="200" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">We had a nice leaflet on co-pays – you know those pesky things you pay the doc that our leadership and the city seem to love so much? I love handing out leaflets and talking to people as they come in. I finally went up at 3:30 to get my bagel in a plastic bag and some cream cheese -- I miss the old days of Jeannette Di Lorenzo with humatashin and danish. I think we should make their return a main plank of our platform. Maybe rice pudding too. I didn't take a photo of the bagel in the plastic bag so as not to give you indigestion.<br /></span></span><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">We won in court on co-pays through Marianne's group so far but the city is appealing and the UFT leadership is mum. When questioned at the meeting Mulgrew said co-pays were only meant to be temporary while they figured out ways to screw us in better ways. See the leaflet above.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This meeting Murphy seemed to try to not alienate anyone and</span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> made sure to call on 3 RA people - he even mentioned Gloria Brandman for the second question. Bobby Greenberg and Bennett Fischer were also on target with their questions but Mulgrew was ready with his sophistry. (See Marianne videos below for her breakdown of Mulgrew comments.)<br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I had my hand up too and was surprised when Murphy pointed at me but in the line of sight was former HSVP John Soldini and low and behold the lady with the mic was sitting right there. Does anyone smell a planted question?</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><span style="color: #990000;">I won't get into the details of the meeting because of so much good coverage by Arthur and Marianne. </span><br /></b></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Arthur actually listened online while my focus was getting the damn bagel out of its plastic bag and spreading the cream cheese without getting it all over my pants.</span></span></p><p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span></span></p><blockquote><i><b><span style="color: #990000; font-size: medium;">I have not been retired very long, but I already feel disrespected and stereotyped by UFT Unity bosses. Last month they </span><span style="color: #990000; font-size: medium;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/8eaf77de-d7e9-4db1-82ff-4796d0e9b34d?j%3DeyJ1IjoiM3F1M3QifQ.uX8umPzUb6HBRPsqNLM7sW1fohFkrR5HHG4iJQ3YrxM&source=gmail&ust=1701403777721000&usg=AOvVaw1cIq468zo9LX1oUvnc2nqq" href="https://substack.com/redirect/8eaf77de-d7e9-4db1-82ff-4796d0e9b34d?j=eyJ1IjoiM3F1M3QifQ.uX8umPzUb6HBRPsqNLM7sW1fohFkrR5HHG4iJQ3YrxM" rel="" style="text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">cut short a meeting</a><span>,
citing a dangerous demonstration that appeared to be a big nothing.
This month we were expected to sit through a PowerPoint about telephone
scams and such. It’s like they think every single one of us is will fall
for those scams, so why shouldn’t </span>they<span> pull one too? Mulgrew
seems to suggest if we don’t capitulate and give in to his calls for a
corporate health care plan, with Aetna deciding whether or not we get
care, we will all be placed into HIP. You see, the city only has to
offer one plan. He said it over and over. This is his new talking point,
and he</span> adores<span> it.</span></span></b></i></blockquote><span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Arthur broke the meeting down in more detail.<br /></span></span></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><h4 style="color: #404040; font-family: "SF Compact Display", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-weight: bold; line-height: 36px; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://arthurgoldstein.substack.com/p/michael-mulgrew-takes-us-for-fools?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1752095&post_id=139248631&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=3qu3t&utm_medium=email"><span style="color: #404040; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">Michael Mulgrew Takes Us for Fools</span></span><span style="font-size: large;">: </span>He weaves an appeal to fear, hoping we'll give up on preserving Medicare.</a></h4></li></ul><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Marianne dives deep with a 4 part video. Mulgrew will probably go off over her having access from one of the 70 thousand retirees. I wonder which of her 20K NYC union fans it was? Imagine an election of Mulgrew vs Marianne. I take Marianne by ten lengths.<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Here are the first 2 parts and I will add the next two when they come in.<br /></span></div><h2 class="style-scope ytd-watch-metadata" style="text-align: left;">
<span class="style-scope yt-formatted-string" dir="auto">1/4 Mulgrew </span><a class="yt-simple-endpoint style-scope yt-formatted-string" dir="auto" href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx5lhPE-8sPBWMrWwwI_yxQ" spellcheck="false">@uftnyc</a><span class="style-scope yt-formatted-string" dir="auto"> Lied to Teachers about Medicare & Choice</span>
</h2><p><a href="https://youtu.be/EzZKIwXrHFY?si=LVNE1iEMVEhrB6w2"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">https://youtu.be/EzZKIwXrHFY?si=LVNE1iEMVEhrB6w2</span></a></p><p>
</p><p></p><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="250" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EzZKIwXrHFY?si=LVNE1iEMVEhrB6w2" title="YouTube video player" width="400"></iframe></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><br /></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span><span class="ytp-time-duration"></span></span></h3><div class="ytp-right-controls"></div><div class="style-scope ytd-watch-flexy" id="player">
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<h2 class="style-scope ytd-watch-metadata" style="text-align: left;">
<span class="style-scope yt-formatted-string" dir="auto">2/4 Mulgrew </span><a class="yt-simple-endpoint style-scope yt-formatted-string" dir="auto" href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx5lhPE-8sPBWMrWwwI_yxQ" spellcheck="false">@uftnyc</a><span class="style-scope yt-formatted-string" dir="auto"> LIES to Retired Teachers about CoPays to Gloria Brandman</span>
</h2></div></div></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: firebrick; font-size: 1.3em; line-height: 120%;"><span>https://you<a href="http://tu.be/dh5XkmWCaq8?si=QILNxZbcTzzEtQwR">tu.be/dh5XkmWCaq8?si=QILNxZbcTzzEtQwR</a> <br /></span></span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: firebrick; font-size: 1.3em; line-height: 120%;"><span>Mulgrew: I believe in democracy </span></span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: firebrick; font-size: 1.3em; line-height: 120%;"><span>Marianne: Laughs out loud.<br /></span></span></h3><p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="250" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dh5XkmWCaq8?si=QILNxZbcTzzEtQwR" title="YouTube video player" width="400"></iframe> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">My time is up to finish this post - crap - I only covered 4 of my 24 hours. More excitement to come. Look for Marianne's next 2 posts when they come in.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">OK - here are links to part 3: <a href="https://youtu.be/dNXSP4khKDc?si=bVsSaqj37-MonlPT">https://youtu.be/dNXSP4khKDc?si=bVsSaqj37-MonlPT </a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Part 4: <a href="https://youtu.be/GjYf8WTX4SM?si=LrU2BIrK9c02gv0X">https://youtu.be/GjYf8WTX4SM?si=LrU2BIrK9c02gv0X <br /></a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">of the mulgrew lies videos:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span> <br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: firebrick; font-size: 1.3em; line-height: 120%;"><span>In other news: </span></span><span style="color: firebrick; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium; line-height: 120%;"><span><br /></span></span></h3><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://portside.org/2023-11-29/uaw-launches-largest-union-organizing-drive-us-history?utm_source%3Dportside-general%26utm_medium%3Demail&source=gmail&ust=1701434884808000&usg=AOvVaw2Zt7TTizsGH5ulW63v6PRG" href="https://portside.org/2023-11-29/uaw-launches-largest-union-organizing-drive-us-history?utm_source=portside-general&utm_medium=email" target="_blank"><span style="color: firebrick; line-height: 120%;"><span>UAW Launches Largest Union Organizing Drive in US History</span></span></a></span></li></ul><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: firebrick; font-size: 1.3em; line-height: 120%;"><span>When does the UFT organize a drive to unionize charters in the NYC?<br /></span></span></h3><p><br /></p>ed notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-83842754674242819732023-11-25T12:35:00.010-05:002023-11-25T12:40:25.474-05:00The Worst Deal in NYC Labor History: 2014 + 2018 : MLC Minutes Reveal Mulgrew/Unity Caucus Healthcare Lies <p><b><span style="font-size: large;">An amazing expose by Arthur Goldstein and Daniel Alicea who got a hold of MLC minutes that prove Mulgrew has been a liar, aided and abetted by his fellow liars, or dupes, in Unity Caucus. </span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzB2KiLzbfOyBG4R0dE2bnBwYg-O6y5BjaMqgft4Cle7sQ-JEefNpxSQV7VW61T3P5VjW97KIFuOEb2MRCZnmGStgbYRvnqIivR_MsHwRl3rVVZHPTHBHWGvTZbA00u_y2sOmPLt4503Lqq1F2rA3cOe3j4MABPgZrzYn1Nxy649myj3MbKDkf/s1046/Screenshot%202023-11-25%20at%2012.22.15%20PM.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="1046" height="104" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzB2KiLzbfOyBG4R0dE2bnBwYg-O6y5BjaMqgft4Cle7sQ-JEefNpxSQV7VW61T3P5VjW97KIFuOEb2MRCZnmGStgbYRvnqIivR_MsHwRl3rVVZHPTHBHWGvTZbA00u_y2sOmPLt4503Lqq1F2rA3cOe3j4MABPgZrzYn1Nxy649myj3MbKDkf/s320/Screenshot%202023-11-25%20at%2012.22.15%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></span></b></div><p><b><span style="font-size: large;">Even Republicans are getting the point about Medicare advantage while Mulgrew defends it.</span></b></p><h2 class="hP" data-legacy-thread-id="18c078d7b054acb1" data-thread-perm-id="thread-f:1783558320210357425" tabindex="-1">'It was stunning': Bipartisan anger aimed at Medicare Advantage care denials - <a href=" https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/24/medicare-advantage-plans-congress-00128353">POLITICO</a></h2><p></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Saturday, November 25, 2023
</span></p><p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"></p><blockquote><p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="color: #660000;">Barbara Bowen, former President of PSC-CUNY, inquiring about the deal specifics at the May 2014 meeting:</span></p><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 32px auto;"><figure style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 100%;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #660000;"><br /></span></td><td align="left" style="text-align: center;" width="660"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/b0d6602c-588d-4530-8687-24e91cfcef08?j%3DeyJ1IjoiM3F1M3QifQ.uX8umPzUb6HBRPsqNLM7sW1fohFkrR5HHG4iJQ3YrxM&source=gmail&ust=1701016053265000&usg=AOvVaw1rn_dyvr-GxFC895-u6w0K" href="https://substack.com/redirect/b0d6602c-588d-4530-8687-24e91cfcef08?j=eyJ1IjoiM3F1M3QifQ.uX8umPzUb6HBRPsqNLM7sW1fohFkrR5HHG4iJQ3YrxM" rel="" style="border: medium; color: #660000; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; width: auto;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="CToWUd" data-bit="iit" height="195.77677224736047" src="https://ci4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/Jh2UZ-eInaYHSja_o77WXaF66f0yGGb2nRn4mEqp0nlkkDYFaIVdSLuYwudAIxzp8QUdvGAY0waBrjG-0srPLdmMfUoIuKOLL_BCodfSVETeU2pjwk1dUY_0kPbub9FZYNubsXbtloE0IKf7S-MOLk4biFZKgkEv5ak3uzUvTf1CcwEXOW93cVVJWnh0b92ZPovfFRJm7EZftazlwbvFdGvNCZTZe7rjhUytUYzi5vjARo4KlSFQaYScfzmk2CdjSq4dxtKH4rxtMr-XP4aoGLBwVE3VI_JLC0Bd8FoZ4U_3vOYrWNDqsA=s0-d-e1-ft#https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1320,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7aee3a9a-fb4a-4a1d-a2ff-59aaa9e09296_1326x472.jpeg" style="border: medium; display: block; height: auto; margin-bottom: 0; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: auto;" title="" width="550" /></a></td><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #660000;"><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table></figure></div><p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="color: #660000;">Union
leaders of cops and firefighters, evidently endowed with common sense,
opposed the billion dollar giveaway in no uncertain terms. Misgivings
were expressed about future giveaways. <br /></span></p><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 100%;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #660000;"><br /></span></td><td align="left" style="text-align: center;" width="585"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/e1f9047e-4d3b-4c6f-9add-906b143497c2?j%3DeyJ1IjoiM3F1M3QifQ.uX8umPzUb6HBRPsqNLM7sW1fohFkrR5HHG4iJQ3YrxM&source=gmail&ust=1701016053265000&usg=AOvVaw0nxoQ02U3AyHrcwT6djy1-" href="https://substack.com/redirect/e1f9047e-4d3b-4c6f-9add-906b143497c2?j=eyJ1IjoiM3F1M3QifQ.uX8umPzUb6HBRPsqNLM7sW1fohFkrR5HHG4iJQ3YrxM" rel="" style="border: medium; color: #660000; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; width: auto;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="CToWUd" data-bit="iit" height="339.4017094017094" src="https://ci4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/clKaEAG9UDdGVpow_T64ncnCSx55Ia7p3Dykr-d-dfSta8cgAdUJEFTinFvm3kplO_EAu5c-DcOnhTTR2I_5FVTk5uadrNlyWAziFZHhcZNmlEQOoIlTsFtI8oQjPEGuwbIkY9umosC9Qg0FQRbuc0bBcyB6HN3M8IJO9zioVTpPfo6tHotSyx72j0PRY3sttwsl-MYJFGTTf-U8SYqSAKvFm_lPRp4tu329gfFNK0pAGvwlPaG8WmaeNspNVEZO9wh1aKZHqIQzFsrTCvJCuzTpEB5_zbyEvNiB7IvM9zO68MAVNoSn=s0-d-e1-ft#https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1170,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff75cc351-2046-45f2-b031-12a07f54e275_585x361.jpeg" style="border: medium; display: block; height: auto; margin-bottom: 0; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: auto;" title="" width="550" /></a></td><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #660000;"><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="color: #660000;"><span>Was Mulgrew drunk? Asleep? On LSD? Desperate? Have you ever even </span><i>heard</i><span> of such awful labor deals? </span>Many
unions opposed what Mulgrew started. Alas, in MLC they are dwarfed by
the combination of UFT and DC37, who constitute two thirds of the MLC’s
weighted vote. Our
extraordinary lack of vision means not only we, but also our brothers
and sisters in the unions that opposed this nonsense are stuck with the
consequences of our damaging agreements. </span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">This is a seminal document that blows a hole into the Unity line we've been sold for ten years. But I must issue a warning: It is not just Mulgrew but the caucus. If for some reason Unity decided to dump Mulgrew for the 2025 election because he's toxic, don't be fooled again. Anyone in charge would lead us down the same path, but maybe with a bit more style.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">ICE and Ed Notes and MORE at the time adamantly opposed the 2014 contract. Look through the archives of Ed Notes and ICE blog in April/May 2014 for numerous exposes and how we were at the DA at the Hilton in force to oppose the contract. One more highlight before I send you off to read the entire document:</span> <br /></p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span><p><span></span></p><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><div><span style="color: #660000; font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><span>Deliberately missing from the UFT highlights is this—they agreed to fund new raises by</span><a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/2014/05/06/gonzalez-city-union-leaders-will-fund-raises-by-transferring-1-billion-from-city-health-account/" rel=""> giving one billion dollars</a><span> from our health stabilization fund, </span><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mJP7jnw-b2roQnE1SqvkB_ILwFd3nZ8E/view?usp=sharing" rel="">a fund designed to prevent members from paying premiums for GHI/CBP</a><span>.
And if any sufficient funds are still available in it, they can be
earmarked towards new benefits – like we’d done with PICA. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #660000; font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><span>In case the giveaway weren’t outrageous enough, the fund contained 1.8 billion in 2014, so they were giving away </span><i>more than half</i><span>. Not only that, but take a look at the pattern it funded:</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #660000; font-family: times; font-size: medium;">1 percent — 1 percent —$1,000 cash — 1 percent — 1.5 percent —2.5 percent — 3 percent</span></div><div><span style="color: #660000; font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><span>What was </span><i>not </i><span>said in the UFT communique </span><a href="https://www.uft.org/news/press-releases/uft-contract-highlights-2014" rel="">referenced here</a><span> was that the thousand dollar bonus was </span><i>in lieu of </i><span>a raise. The city’s thousand buck bonus bought a zero percent raise for a </span><a href="https://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/2014/05/new-contract-retro-delayed-retro-denied.html?m=1" rel="">full eighteen months.</a></span></div></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://thewire.educators.nyc/p/mulgrew-and-uft-unity-not-mlc-initiated?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=293646&post_id=139142191&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=3qu3t&utm_medium=email">Must read </a></span></p><br />ed notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-19175436194455185232023-11-21T06:57:00.003-05:002023-11-21T07:09:28.557-05:00Now Is The Time To Fight Back, Not Give In To UFT Leadership - Part 2 by Rebel Teacher<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Tuesday, November 21, 2023 - Happy Thanksgiving<br /></span></span></p><p><i><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">ICE being in a state of flux since the illness of James Eterno, zoom-met on Sunday night and will be meeting in person during the Xmas vacation in attempts to sort things out. ICE associate (ICE doesn't have formal memberships) Rebel Teacher continues a view of the union leadership and how critical voices should deal with them. In the current state of ICE this is one opinion. Others think alliances with Unity leadership should be built. Still others believe that there is something called "Unity light" - internal critics in the belly of the beast who whisper sweet nothings about reforming the union in their ears. I know that drill. I was a target for years when Randi took over c. 1997 and fell for it. Until I didn't.</span></span></i><br /></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name"><a href="https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2023/11/are-there-emerging-rifts-in-uftunity.html">Part 1 - Are
there emerging rifts in the UFT/Unity Caucus leadership that threaten
its 60 year control of the UFT? If so what is a Path Forward for
Independent Community of Educators (ICE/UFT) </a></h3></li></ul><p dir="ltr" id="m_-5822898224866388703docs-internal-guid-f80e401c-f171-b9ac-3059-89af7d58f700" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Ed Notes published <a href="https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2023/11/are-there-emerging-rifts-in-uftunity.html">Part 1</a> and I helped edit it and part 2. </span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="m_-5822898224866388703docs-internal-guid-f80e401c-f171-b9ac-3059-89af7d58f700" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><h3 id="m_-5822898224866388703docs-internal-guid-f80e401c-f171-b9ac-3059-89af7d58f700" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now Is The Time To Fight Back, Not Give In To UFT Leadership - Part 2</span></span></h3><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.9872; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Written by Rebel Teacher, a Long time teacher and union organizer with the Indep</span><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">endent Community of Educators (ICE-UFT).</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.9872; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfiPx48628OKS3KkNWZT4afBTGioUEUAeFDxFvsG5W3yqI3nocbAV8TwSLvustak74upVj0jbp-Tz0sGe0FZ_CwvvTgAHn-0rF6gwYDh5h7wmrPWpQv31mWncpFnt90P9Qlw2YQeMf9BsHvbeFXKQBMaRxc9MnTtUJsmJWA7zM4fkNjZeEBY-s/s403/Screen%20Shot%202023-11-21%20at%206.21.33%20AM.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="393" data-original-width="403" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfiPx48628OKS3KkNWZT4afBTGioUEUAeFDxFvsG5W3yqI3nocbAV8TwSLvustak74upVj0jbp-Tz0sGe0FZ_CwvvTgAHn-0rF6gwYDh5h7wmrPWpQv31mWncpFnt90P9Qlw2YQeMf9BsHvbeFXKQBMaRxc9MnTtUJsmJWA7zM4fkNjZeEBY-s/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-11-21%20at%206.21.33%20AM.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.9872; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In part 1 the author raised issues related to signs of fractures in Unity Caucus of UFT President Michael Mulgrew while they continue to either vilify the opposition or try to fracture them by picking off those they see can be seduced by being offered a faux deal of access to power and influence. He argues in part 2 not to be seduced.</span></p><br style="color: black;" /><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A prominent UFT Unity staffer recently said:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><blockquote><b><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> “One Unity tactic to control the opposition is to put them somewhere where they can feel important but have little influence.”</span><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></blockquote><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Beware of falling into this Unity trap.</span><p></p><br style="color: black;" /><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We can’t allow Unity to have an opportunity to sell their bureaucratic values, to tame the aggressiveness of chapter leaders and other activists. They are very happy to get them behind closed doors, in the shadows and out of sight of the rank and file. We must resist giving in to the impulse and temptation of being given a seat at the table – a bait and switch seat at the table – a tiny stool at the kiddy table. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Unity has proven very capable of managing the membership despite its failures in managing the union</span></p><br style="color: black;" /><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Unity does many things wrong but gets managing membership expectations right. UFT leadership doesn’t want their borough representatives or district reps empowering members. Rather than activate the rank and file, they view such activation as a threat to their power and restrain members to keep them under control. They’ve been successful in finding opposition people they view as susceptible to their message and make them feel important. One of the hidden issues in the removal of UFT Queens Borough Representative Amy Arundell was her push to get members to be more active, which stepped on some toes.</span></p><br style="color: black;" /><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Unity/UFT leadership prefers the status quo, a membership content with what they have, not fighting for a better union.</span></p><br style="color: black;" /><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The ICE-UFT blog over almost 20 years has been a compendium of UFT history and has publicized militant Chapter Leaders who fought against micromanagement and won by organizing their chapters, mobilizing them with letters of no confidence, working with SLT’s and PTA’s to remove bad principals and have filed mass grievances. </span></p><br style="color: black;" /><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ICE has been nonsectarian, open to working with all caucuses and independents</span></p><br style="color: black;" /><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dissident voices opposed to Unity should be ready to work with chapter leaders, delegates, and union activists in any caucus, along with independents, to show how to build their chapter and not to wait for the UFT leaders to come and save them, because they often will not show. How often have we heard praise for Arundell as someone who has shown up and is constantly present, in contrast to the rest of the UFT bureaucracy? Maybe her hard work has embarrassed them to the extent that she had to go.</span></p><br style="color: black;" /><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The leaders of our union need to be challenged in public forums. Many members in our chapters, our shops, need to know there is an organized resistance to the tom-foolery coming from above. They will be resentful if they see opposition forces getting too cozy with those that work against our best interests. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They want us standing up to our leadership, to be more militant and to actively fight for our rights and those of our students. </span></p><br style="color: black;" /><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is important to show up at public union meetings with resolutions and petitions signed by our members. Expose the Unity-two step of saying yes now while doing the exact opposite later. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One example is Unity taking a false stand against privatization of our healthcare while trying to force our retirees into a managed care plan and still working behind the scenes with the Adams administration to change health care of working members. When retirees won a recent ruling to stop co-pays, UFT/Unity was silent while the Mayor is appealing. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Can UFT leadership be pressured?</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our answer is not by small groups lobbying because leadership is good at obfuscation and distraction while hinting at a willingness to change but with little intention of doing anything unless there is a massive uprising from below. That has rarely happened and when it did, Unity found ways to undermine it. </span></p><br style="color: black;" /><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Two examples:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In 1975, with 15k layoffs looming, the rank and file rose up and demanded a strike despite knowing there would be two for one penalties - which the leadership went along with for one week and then sold it out. Layoffs still took place but the starch was taken out of the members, teaching a lesson that such activism that worked so well in building the UFT in the 60s was no longer valid. Since then the leadership has worked successfully to dampen expectations.</span></p><br style="color: black;" /><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another example was the ATR protest and rally at Tweed in Nov. 2008 that attracted hundreds and the leadership attempt to subvert it by holding a concurrent wine and cheese party. That was a perfect example of people in ICE working with others in organizing rank and file, mobilizing workers and educating them from the bottom and the Unity leadership undermining and subverting the efforts. </span></p><br style="color: black;" /><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Activists in the UFT should work with allies to inspire our members to believe a better version of the UFT is possible, one that connects with members, knows the classroom and hallways, fights for its members, and educates everyone inside the chapters to their rights and how to ensure they actually have them.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Without doing the above, there is a danger in focusing on closed meetings with Unity/UFT. It throws a lifeline to a group that already has power and money, but lacks mass support of its members. (Note low turnout for Unity in elections.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ICE had a long history of working with partners, including parent and community groups, that were dedicated to worker’s rights and quality free public schools and supported groups opposed to charters and high stakes testing. It was members of ICE active in MORE that reached across the aisle to ask New Action to run with on a joint opposition slate which resulted in victory in the high schools in the 2016 election. And there are even some affiliated with ICE who have run with, or supported, Unity, when they thought it was the right thing to do at the time.</span></p><br style="color: black;" /><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ICE-PAC and TJC won the high school executive board seats in the 2004 UFT election. ICE people came out every 2 weeks to support the chapter leaders James Eterno (Jamaica HS), Jeff Kaufman (Rikers) and Barbara Kaplan-Alpert (Forest Hills HS) in their regular battles with Randi Weingarten and the Unity leadership. These were among the most contentious years in resistance to Unity policy, especially in response to the disastrous 2005 contract, which ICE, along with TJC, organized a Vote-No campaign with rallies at the DA and in front of 52 Broadway that resulted in 40% voting against.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The problem was ICE didn't make enough use of these action as an organizing mechanism and often seemed content to engage in these battles at the top. ICE organized with various components of the UFT like the ATRs c. 2005-10, but never got deep into the schools. Let's learn the lessons of that experience. Top down engagement with leadership can give the illusion of progress, but if not accompanied by an open process that brings those battles to the schools, it is often a wasted effort. </span></p><br style="color: black;" /><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As stated above, Unity caucus regularly tries to either woo or undermine critical voices, with their major goal being to not only hold onto power, but to also minimize the ability of those voices to influence policy and to grow the movement. There is a cost to get Unity cooperation - hand-cuffs.</span></p><br style="color: black;" /><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A growing <b>New Action(NA/UFT)</b> has learned the lessons of the past and is re-organizing as a militant caucus within UFT. Through Nick Bacon’s writing and their work on the Ex Bd, they are actively challenging the leadership and direction of our union. And they have a wide range of chapter leaders distributing their literature in the schools. They need to continue to grow by helping rank and file members run for chapter leader and delegates by offering targeted trainings for members interested in having democratic, militant chapters. Most ICE associates are very supportive of these efforts and are actively working with them.</span></p><br style="color: black;" /><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some of our retirees are organizing with the <b>Retiree Advocate</b>, which will be running in the UFT chapter elections against Unity spring 2024 on a platform of saving our healthcare, not selling out our retirees to the highest bidders.</span></p><br style="color: black;" /><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ICE has been a space for people with divergent views who might suffer judgment for expressing those views elsewhere. ICE has been a happy place for many over its 20 years history, a place for friendships to grow, alliances to be built, and fight backs to be organized. We hope to continue the ICE tradition of fighting for a union that stands up for its members and the children we serve.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">====== <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: small;">Part 3 is in the works.</span> </p>ed notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.com0