"Hillary Clinton called Randi on her cell-phone and addressed the delegates from Nevada. The Union is clearly making a strong pitch for their endorsed candidate: Hillary. Comp
troller Bill Thompson [who has been the UFT choice for Mayor for about 10 years - part of the support for mayoral control by the UFT] also spoke live to the Delegates in favor of Hillary."I'm surprised Giuliani spouse Judy Nathan didn't call next. But Chicago Teacher Union President Marilyn Stewart did chip in.
Both Thompson and Stewart are Black.
The calls from Black leaders are part of the campaign to keep Blacks in the UFT from deserting Hillary for Obama.
Unity Caucus discipline will take care of Black members of the UFT Executive Board and Delegate Assembly. Watch the vote when the Hillary endorsement comes up at both bodies. It is hard to believe that not even one Unity Caucus Black member would not be for Obama, with polling numbers around the nation showing a massive drift of Black voters moving from Hillary to Obama since Iowa. Some numbers show 5 to 1.
But in the "democracy" in Unity Caucus, democratic centralism will suppress any sense of support for Obama. That doesn't mean an attempt won't be made to make a stand at the DA by both Black and White non-Unity Obama supporters. And it would be fun to watch some of the Unity faithful squirm around that one. Undercover Unity Obama supporters have got to be feeling some level of discomfort, especially Blacks who understand the historical significance of Obama's popularity across the board. Suppressing racial pride cannot be a good thing for Unity over the long-term.
Which just goes to show that there are some inherent contradictions within Unity and what looks monolithic, can develop cracks when Weingarten is no longer around to keep her hand on the trigger.
Which leads us to a discussion of last week's fascinating piece by Elizabeth Green on Randi's successor. Look for our comments later this week.
Some more tidbits from the ICE DA report:
Tidbit #1
ICE has not taken a position on the Democratic Primaries so further comment is not called for here.
Let me guarantee here that knowing the people in ICE, there is no way in hell ICE will take a position on the primaries but will point out how the UFT leadership will manipulate the members into an all out Hillary endorsement. Don't be shocked at a visit from Hillary to the DA at some point (as she did in 2000.)
Tidbit #2
Finally, the Union announced its Principals in Need of Improvement program. This was introduced by new Staff Director Leroy Barr. He called up to the podium multiple members from three schools who told horror stories about principals from hell. The schools were Acorn High School for Social Justice...
Is this the same Acorn that has an alliance with the UFT? I may be wrong and the school with Acorn's name on it might have little to do with the UFT buddy Acorn.
Apparently not. See comment #1 for clarification from a reader.
Is this the same Acorn that has an alliance with the UFT?
ReplyDeleteGood grief, how did you miss this story?
The ACORN High School for Social Justice is associated with ACORN (all caps, by the way). The principal sucked, and both the UFT and ACORN were calling for the principal to be replaced.
This was all over the news and the blogs. No, it wasn't the lead story on the 5 o'clock news, but it was well covered in a number of stories. I don't see how someone who claims to pay close attention to what's going on in the world of NYC schools could have missed it. You're slipping!
You're right. I am slipping. But you must also be slipping not to realize that I am no longer claiming to pay close attention to what's going on in the world of NYC schools (I have a big retirement list to work through) and am relying on people like you to keep me up to date.
ReplyDelete