Ed Notes Online: Rally for Wisconsin Today at Union Square and Questions About Role (or lack of) UFT/AFT is Playing

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Rally for Wisconsin Today at Union Square and Questions About Role (or lack of) UFT/AFT is Playing

President Mulgrew:

I was very happy to see that the union is moving forward with a city-wide day of action in solidarity with Wisconsin on the 22nd, and I understand that we need a long term strategy for effective solidarity in defense of the attacks on collective bargaining across the Midwest. However, given the events of the last 48 hours, it seems there is an urgency for an immediate and vigorous response to the latest actions of the Republicans in Madison.

A mention of action tomorrow (details below) in Union Square on the UFT website and in the Chapter Leader's Update tonight would help to build the momentum for the long term struggle.

Please consider taking these steps, and I look forward to working with you on future solidarity actions.

In Solidarity- Peter Lamphere

Come out today for a mobilization in solidarity with workers standing up against the latest attack in Wisconsin. We need immediate and national mobilization to avoid a repeat of PATCO for our generation - today is a first step. - Peter

***Please Forward Widely***

WEAR RED! and spread the word..........

Rally Saturday to Stand with Wisconsin!!!

by New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE)

Saturday 1 PM Union Square
Stand in solidarity with hundreds of thousands protesting in Madison, WI!
Wisconsin Republicans have rammed through the elimination of collective bargaining rights for Wisconsin's public sector workers through slick, undemocratic legislative maneuvering. They lacked the required quorum to pass the entire so-called "budget repair bill" so they split off the parts dealing with collective bargaining rights and illegally passed the bill through committee with almost no public notice.

But the fight in Wisconsin is FAR FROM OVER!! As soon as word of the Republicans maneuver leaked, Wisconsin's state capitol was besieged with protesters--with thousands forcing their way through windows and past police into the capitol building. The bill only passed when police forcibly and illegally dragged protesters out of the Assembly hearing room. Wisconsinites predict the biggest rally yet this Saturday and the bill itself sits on shaky legal ground and faces a likely challenge. Many rank-and-file unionists clamor for a general strikeand some union leaders, including Joe Conway, president of Madison Fire Fighters Local 311. The struggle in Wisconsin is ongoing and needs our support!

Meanwhile, budget cuts and anti-union legislation is spreading like a virus from Wisconsin to Michigan to Puerto Rico. But our side is fighting back. We in NYC have a duty to stand with the workers of Wisconsin and elsewhere as they continue their struggle
What: Rally in support of Wisconsin workers
When: Saturday, March 12 1 p.m
Who: Workers, students, teachers, parents of New York
Where: South Side of Union Square

http://www.facebook.com/notes/new-york-collective-of-radical-educators-nycore/rally-saturday-to-stand-with-wisconsin/193318340709013

Comment from ICE/GEM's Lisa North on UFT/AFT action/inaction.

Interesting that a teacher in Kansas City is told to wait, it is not a good time by the AFT. In St. Louis, it was the Missouri National Teachers Assoc, which is the NEA, not the AFT local, that helped organize the rally (except the retired local of AFT). Here in NYC, the UFT (a local of the AFT) has NOT participated in any rallies so far. They have announced,buried in their weekly update to chapter leaders, a rally on March 15th at Union Square.

They have at least put the NYCORE rally for today and the March 15 Rally on their web site. Of course announcing rallies and ORGANIZING A BIG TURN out are TWO DIFFERENT things!. We are supposed to wear red on March 22 though!

The question is why has the UFT NOT organized to have a big turn-out in support of Wisconsin? For some reason they think teachers will only turn out in big numbers for ONE event per season. I guess they are thinking that we have to save up the "organizing " for a big rally against the lay-offs later in the spring. They are still in the "old" mind set of one big rally and lots of emails to legislators and then the UFT leadership can negotiate backroom deals to save a few teachers. The days of saving a "few" teachers or a few programs is OVER. The corporate interests are trying to go all the way...whether it is the privatization of the education system or doing away with union bargaining rights. The UFT's usually way of doing things will only get us a few crumbs left over. When will they be willing to fight for WHAT is NEEDED to educate our students instead of taking the least bad of the corporate agenda for education? When will they HELP organize here in NYC with ALL the unions to fight the corporate agenda against unions? NYC teachers ARE ready!

From St. Louis

A crowd between 4-5000 people filled Kiener Plaza in downtown St.Louis this afternoon in solidarity with labor against the attacks in Wisconsin and the new attempts to impose the 'RIGHT TO WORK(for less)" law on Missouri. The group included not only the construction trades but Teamsters, SEIU, UAW and the Missouri National Teachers Association, retired members of AFT Local 420 , Laborers Locals as well as community groups such as MORE, JWJ, and Planned Parenthood.As was the case at the recent Move On rally in Jefferson City, many working class people from union families came even though they might not be in a union now. One women from Mount Olive , Illinois came in memory of her coal miner brothers who are buried in the cemetery there next to the grave and statue of Mother Jones. see attached KSDK TV video report link below.
http://www.ksdk.com/news/article/248938/3/Organized-labor-rally-at-Kiener-Plaza

From Kansas City:
Awesome! I am disgusted by the failure of the labor community in Kansas City to do anything. IBEW is having a picnic tomorrow at their union hall. A picnic! They need to be in the streets like they were in St Louis today. I tried to organize a rally sponsored by AFT here. Believe it or not, I was told to wait, it wasn't a good time. I'm about to just go ahead and put a rally together without my union's help.

2 comments:

Michael Fiorillo said...: The UFT's paralysis, if that is what it is, is incredible. Don't they realize that the law just passed in Wisconsin eliminates dues checkoff?

How long would those quail diners and double pensions last if the same thing happened here, and the District Reps had to collect dues in person?; Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 9:55:00 AM EST
Ted Maritas said...: Quail dinners? That is the least of the corruption in Mulgrew's office.
Mulgrew blew one million dollars on a "UFT History" bash just weeks before his election- it was a blatant mis-use of dues money to help his campaign. The entire event was planned by his Unity henchmen and they all laughed about how they were spending union dues to promote his canidacy. Any time David (Mr. PBA Man) Hickey is involved in a cash edvent, hold on to your wallets.
Who thinks Mulgrew and his free spending acolytes care one whit about union history? WHy isnt there regualr coverage of union history- after Jack Scheirenback had a stroke- Weingarten killed his Labor Notes column and NY Teacher editor Deidre McFadyen says younger teachers arent intersted in history! THe paper has more ads in it than history stories.

Mulgrew even forced his reporters to attend the UFT History event and to pay for a ticket!
Think about it: you have to kick back to Mulgrew's slush fund to do your job!
And he calls himself a union leader, shaking down his employees? It sounds more like the Carpenters Union.; Friday, March 18, 2011 at 11:15:00 PM EDT

"A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

What media call "philanthropy" for the public schools are actually seed monies to establish a private "market" in publicly-financed education - an enterprise worth trillions if successfully penetrated by corporate America. Cory Booker, one of the "New Black Leaders" financed by the filthy rich, is key to creating a "nationwide corporate-managed schools network paid for by public funds but run by private managers.

"Ed Reformers" want to cash in on public education and to control its content and outcome, not improve it. Provide great education? Baby boomers had as close as this country has ever gotten to it when we were growing up. The Ed Reform Movement has no interest in seeing such a well-educated, democratically astute population ever again.

http://blackagendareport.com/content/cory-booker-clear-and-present-threat-public-education

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

This award-winning series of articles by Jack Schierenbeck originally appeared in the New York Teacher in 1996 and 1997.

Naturally, from a certain point of view. But, despite certain biases, Schierenbeck, a great guy, was one of the best NY Teacher reporters so this is worth reading. Jack suffered a debilitating stroke many years ago (I used to get secret donations to ed notes from him through a 3rd source.)

This chapter looks interesting:

Class struggles: The UFT story, part 3

“The schism in the union over radical politics [is] a major reason for stalling the growth of a teacher union for decades.” Revolutionary politics and ideology take center stage, as the original Teachers Union becomes a battlefield, pitting leftist against leftist and splitting the union.

Clarence Taylor's "Reds at the Blackboard" focused on the old Teachers Union which disbanded in 1964 after suffering from anti-left attacks.

Of course for another view, check out the review at New Politics of the Kahlenberg Bio on Shanker by Vera Pavone and me: Albert Shanker: Ruthless Neocon

Effective Union Organizing

A video series put together by Jason Mann from the British Columbia Federation of Teachers about social media and how to use it for effective union organizing.

The first series was called New Media For Union Activists Roadmap and it's still available on-line at:
http://www.newmediabootcamp.ca/welcome/
I watched some of them and need to rewatch as they are loaded with information.

The second series started last week and it's called "Online Campaigning for Union Activists"

You can sign up for this free series at :
http://act.bcfed.ca/online-campaigning-for-union-activists/

You Don't Have A Choice - Join the Revolt

Ex-Harlem Success Teacher Comments on Eva the Diva

Ex-HSA Teacher has left a new comment on your post "Fear and Loathing at Evil's Harlem Success Empire ...":

I am a former Harlem Success teacher. Not many people who work/worked for her like her very much. I once made the comment that she is very nice when I first was hired. Two of her closest colleague responded immediately almost in unison, "Eve is not nice!" Over time I realized that there was a lot of political games going on. Another colleague once said to me that he was tired of "being part of a political campaign." Sending out 15,000 applications for only 400 seats in a school is reprehensible. The money that paid for those mass mailings could have paid the yearly salary of another teacher not to mention the heartache of all those parents who applied but did not get a spot. She does good work trying to give disadvantaged students a quality public school education but at a great cost to staff AND the school's educational budget! school budget.

Davis Guggenheim Compared to Riefenstahl

“Waiting for Superman" is the second most intellectually dishonest piece of documentary work I have seen. It is surpassed only by Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," the pro-Hitler propaganda classic, in that regard. Uses personal narratives of adorable children to create narrative suspense that overrides public policy discussion with pure emotion in unscrupulous attack on teachers and their unions, among others

Timothy Tyson
Professor of African American Studies and History
Duke University

How Teaching Experience Makes a Difference

Even as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and others around the nation are arguing for experienced teachers to be laid off regardless of seniority, every single study shows teaching experience matters. In fact, the only two observable factors that have been found consistently to lead to higher student achievement are class size and teacher experience, so that it’s ironic that these same individuals are trying to undermine both.
- Leonie Haimson on Parents Across America web site

Full article with charts here.

Weingarten/Gates Foundation announce drone-driven teacher evaluation

According to a press release issued by the Gates Foundation, the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, these three have entered a ground-breaking partnership to evaluate teachers utilizing the drone technology that has revolutionized warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. A bird-size device floats up to 400 feet above a classroom and instantly beams live video of teachers in action to agents at desks at Teacher Quality Inspection Stations established by the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

When asked if the drones were authorized to drop bombs on teachers who exhibit inadequacy, Chester E. Finn, Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, replied, "Don't be ridiculous. Gates money puts other methods at our disposal."

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million-member American Federation of Teachers said the powerful union has signed on to the drone project...

More at Substance

The Real Reason Behind Push for Standardized Tests: It's All About the Adults

On standardized testing in our schools

A must read article about the standardized test industry.
Written by an insider who has worked as a test scorer, the article outlines a multinational industry based on an army of temporary workers paid by the piece at $0.30 to $0.70 per test, translated in the need to grade 40 tests per hour to make a $12 salary. The article goes on to show how the companies gauge the grading "results" based on the need to ensure new contracts to continue profiting off of our youth. The original article is from Monthly Review. Here it is on Schools Matter blog.

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/12/on-growing-use-of-corporate-test.html

Parallels between America today and Germany in the 1920's and early 30's

"Resentment and obstruction are all the right wing in America have to peddle. Their policies are utterly discredited. Their ideology - even by its own standards - is a sham. They are so bereft of leaders, their de facto leader is a former drug addicted, thrice-divorced radio talk show host. That is literally the best they can muster. But they have built a national franchise inciting the downwardly mobile to blame the government, not the right, for their problems, exactly as Hitler did in the 1920s."

The US Is Facing a Weimar Moment

Published on Sunday, March 15, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

Chicago View of Unity/UFT on Charters

After many meetings and debates, the Chicago delegation succeeded in working with the New York United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) to push the AFT to take stronger stands on charter school accountability and school closings — though many delegates from Chicago would have liked the language to have been even stronger.

Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose.

Jen Johnson, CTU, Local 1 in Substance

Ed Notes Greatest Hits: HSA Rally and Founding of GEM

SEE MY VIDEO ON HARLEM SUCCESS RALLY 2009:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEp7rg_L5JI

Angel Gonzalez and I attended that rally and used the footage to promote our conference on Mar. 28, 2009, which is where the concept of a group like GEM emerged. Until then we had basically been a committee of ICE working with the NYCORE high stakes testing group. The actions of Eva and crew helped spawn GEM. Mommie Dearest!!

I have more video somewhere. I was hoping to get Leni Riefenstahl to edit it but she died. We would have called it "Triumph of the Hedge Fund Operators."

Ed Notes Extended

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Rally for Wisconsin Today at Union Square and Questions About Role (or lack of) UFT/AFT is Playing

Rally Saturday to Stand with Wisconsin!!!

2 comments: