Angel Gonzalez on AFT/UFT/NEA Collaboration

Angel lauds the work of Lois Weiner in his email below.

(Lois will be doing 2 workshops at the SOTU conference:What Does Social Justice Unionism Look Like in the UFT and Pushing Back on Deskilling Teachers' Work.)

Angel will be making a presentation as part of the UFT 101 workshop I am organizing for the State of the Union this Saturday where he will present a point of view that we both hold that the teacher unions have been collaborationists on much of the ed deform we have seen. I should point out that many critics of UFT policy do not necessarily hold the same point of view. Some think they have just made bad judgements (which can be linked to the lack of democracy and discourse within the union). Others see it as a top-down bureaucracy functioning in their own self-interest. Really, there are elements of truth in all of these.

But what interests some of us is the ideology behind the UFT/AFT that makes them collaborationists? I mean, what do they have to lose in resistance? I'm not guaranteeing answers on Saturday, but view that as a beginning of opening up dialogues within the UFT/AFT that have been kept under the thumb of Unity Caucus for 50 years. I am proposing that we hold a series of workshops this spring and summer exploring many of the issues we never get to talk about in the union.

Angel sent this to various listserves:

Dear Education and Labor Activists,

Finally! Some fresh, excellent and incisive analysis of the AFT, NEA and powerhouse local UFT sell-out business unionism presented by Lois Weiner at http://newpol.org/node/579. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Lois.

Lois is on point with so much here and hopefully will generate lots of discussion and debate among education, school, labor, parent, community and teacher union grassroots activists.

It is very timely given that so many educators are rising up to fight back against so many of the disastrous manifestations of corporate neo-liberal assault such as charter-privatization of our public schools, school closings masqueraded as reforms (such as the NCLB/Race to the Top transformations, restart, or turnaround models), the increasing imposition of irrelevant high stakes testing, punitive fraudulent student/teacher/school evaluation methods, merit pay schemes, mayoral dictatorial school governance, etc. etc. etc.

Many of us are sick and tired of this AFT/UFT/NEA collaboration with the Wall street corporatization/privatization agenda for our public schools, the teacher bashing, and the rapid disappearance of teacher and worker labor rights!

Here in our NYC UFT/AFT and across the US, within progressive teacher “union” and education groups, activists are searching for ways to transform their school unions and truly build teacher unions that will fight for, and promote the interests of all the sectors of our working class school communities.

This article indeed contributes toward bridging the analysis gap and can help us rethink and shape our practice accordingly. Hopefully, we can help deepen this critique, analysis and push the debate needed as we develop tactics and strategies in our work to occupy our schools and the bankrupt unions.

"Educate, Agitate, Organize and Mobilize at all our schools."

Angel Gonzalez

Grassroots Education Movement – GEMnyc.org

FMPR (Puerto Rico Teachers’ Union) Support Committee

Teacher Unionism Reborn | New Politics

newpol.org

FEB. 4- STATE OF THE UNION: TIME TO FIGHT BACK Register at: http://stateoftheunionconference-estw.eventbrite.com/

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