Ed Notes Online: Wall Street Occupation

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Wall Street Occupation

There was lots of action today with a number of arrests at the Brooklyn Bridge. But the more aggressive the police the more the movement grows. Are we really in Egypt or Tunisia? Or Syria or Libya? Quadaffi for mayor? Or Assad to replace Bloomberg? At least we'd have a more responsive City Hall.

I was over at Police Plaza for Friday's rally and protest. Here are some pix and a piece of video. On Sunday teachers will be emulating Chicago with a Teach-In. See below. What are you waiting for?

Wall Street Occupation- Police Plaza Protest
A small rally at Police Plaza of union supporters was joined by the main contingent from the Wall Street Occupation which did a silent march to join the others to protest police brutality. Here they arrive and enter the plaza through the Municipal Building pathway.

Links to the 3 vids I made from Friday night

http://youtu.be/TwRu2Pxb6mg
http://youtu.be/IRcd0B7VX1c
http://youtu.be/Cc4X3arPZSk

Some more videos I didn't shoot.

Entering through the arch leading to police plaza:
http://youtu.be/U7MI3qV83Lk

This was the General Assembly in Police Plaza right in front of NYPD HQ:
http://youtu.be/ByEmdR_UUwU

I also have good footage of the General Assembly - a thousand people sitting in the plaza at a meeting. Wish the UFT Del Ass functioned as smoothly.

See Friday pix at the end of this post.

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Weds Oct. 5 is big union support for the occupation.
Support grows for Oct. 5
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/09/29/unions-and-liberal-groups-to-join-occupy-wall-street-protest/

I'm going to the matinee of Spiderman on Weds so I probably won't make it.

Reuters: The UFT declared their support for OWS.
Maybe the UFT can let the occupiers use their bathrooms.

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This came in from a teacher Sat. afternoon

We are now marching to one police plaza where we believe they are bringing those arrested. Trapped hundreds of protestors on bridge in pouring rain and bringing in empty buses to arrest and cart people to police precinct. Please spread word to join us at one police plaza!

There is a heavy police presence here so teachers should stick together if you come down. Tweet, post, and email to help spread the world.

Serve and protect, that's a lie!

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Join the October 2 Grade-In For Public Education
Public Schools and Universities Work Because We Do!

Education cuts to K-12 public schools and public Universities hurt
students by decreasing resources and decreasing the amount of time teachers,
graduate teaching fellows, and full time and part time faculty can dedicate to
their students due to an increased workload. To draw attention to the cuts
to public education, educators will grade papers to make visible the work of
teaching and call for increased public funding to make sure that students
receive a quality education.

What: Educators will lesson plan and grade papers and exams.
Bring your work and a folding chair (optional).

Who: K-12 Teachers, Graduate Teaching Fellows, Full Time and Part Time
Faculty

When: Sunday, October 2, noon-3pm
*rain date TBA* _RSVP on Facebook for updates_
(https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=284224124938936)

Where: Liberty Plaza/Zuccotti Park, Manhattan
northwest side of the plaza near the #OccupyWallSt poster/art display
Cross streets: Trinity Place and Liberty St.
Trains: 4/5 (Wall St), R (Rector St.)
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Helping #OccupyWallStreet

Hey everyone,

A lot of people have been asking how they can help the camp if they can't come down. Here's one way:

A local art exhibit, right on Wall Street, is being devastated by over-policing, barricading and intimidation from NYPD and Homeland Security. The curator, Marika, is a strong supporter of Occupy Wall Street.

Info about the exhibit: http://www.nyartsmagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=451:curated&id=577126:loft-in-the-red-zone-a-tribute-to-september-11th-

Kickstarter to help her recover lost funds: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/loftintheredzone/loft-in-the-red-zone

I hope we can work together to help her continue to exist and share our beautiful work. We have volunteers working with her now, and there is even talk of featuring our artwork there!

-justin

======================

Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: Yeah, next time that you need some help, call one of your fellow "Wall St. Protesters", i am sure that they will put there life on the line for you!! Sure there are some bad cops, also bad lawyers, teachers, doctors, plumbers firemen,etc. Yes they do protect and serve-very well might I add!!; Sunday, October 2, 2011 at 8:01:00 PM EDT
Anonymous said...: One day they will come for you.; Sunday, October 2, 2011 at 8:06:00 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

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Wall Street Occupation

Helping #OccupyWallStreet

2 comments: