Forecasting the July '14 AFT Convention: Chicago (CORE) and NYC (Unity)

..this time around the CTU delegates to the Illinois Fed of Teachers - [their version of NYSUT] -  (which is kind of a rehearsal for next summer's AFT) are organized, ready, experienced and with a number of really important resolutions to support.... George Schmidt

Chicago Teachers Union Heads to IFT as Precursor for Next Summer AFT Convention.

The struggle to get the AFT to take a strong stance against ed deform, so resisted by Randi Weingarten and Unity Caucus, will escalate this summer at the AFT convention in Los Angeles. At least on paper, Randi has been forced by the increasingly vicious assault on public ed to rhetorically make louder noises. As George points out below, there was a difference between the AFT 2010 convention in Seattle with Bill Gates being the keynote speaker and the 2012 Detroit convention where Diane Ravitch spoke  -- But so did Joe Biden. Even some Unity slugs seemed to be getting the message. But that didn't stop the Randi hordes from trying to derail and defuse important resolutions from the CTU on testing and other issues.

I wonder if some open warfare won't break out over the common core and the NYSUT/UFT support for the horrible evaluation system -- they beg for a moratorium until teachers get "proper" materials from the DOE -- "Please, Sir, more porridge."

I'm hoping to get a big MORE crew out there to demonstrate to the delegates from the nation that there is a voice in NYC challenging Unity. Unity Caucus may not have a clear road to control the AFT convention next summer in Los Angeles getting their manipulative way as indicated by this report from George Schmidt.

Three years after the election of the CORE slate and six months after the re-election of the CORE leadership at the CTU, we are all going to the Illinois Federation of Teachers convention this weekend out near O'Hare. Anyone who is reading the resolutions to be entertained should be celebrating. In 2010, Karen and the leadership had been elected to the AFT convention (which I covered as a reporter, having not run on the slate because I wanted to be free to watch the count and other stuff) too early to get in resolutions that year. But nevertheless, Chicago made a memorable mark on that Seatlle convention in dozens of ways. My favorite was that Chicago helped lead the walkout when Bill Gates showed up to speak, despite the fact that Randi Weingarten hard ordered several locals to drown out the boos with cheering. I was happy to be there because I was able to get so many great photographs of one of the world's most intense union busting plutocrats being feted by our union leadership. In a town that had once symbolized union militancy (look up the "Seattle General Strike" if you don't know the history sitting in the library behind me in our dining room -- for starters). Well, this time around the CTU delegates to the IFT (which is kind of a rehearsal for next summer's AFT) are organized, ready, experienced and with a number of really important resolutions to support. 

 I went to the Ed Notes archives to pull some of my reports. The link to the walkout video is below.

• AFT Convention: UFT/CTU Deal Expose Fault Lines in...
• AFT Convention: CTU and UFT Compromise on School C...
• CORE and Unity on Charter Schools - Where the Rubb... 
• • A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Seattle
  • The UFT at the AFT - Part 3
  • UFT Coverup Over Columbia Secondary School - from ...
  • Bill Gates at the AFT - 1984 - UPDATED
  • Antonucci - the 13th Russian Spy?
  • UFT at the AFT - Part 2
  • The UFT/DOE Agreement on School Closings
  • 12th Russian in Spy Probe Was Microsoft Employee
  • CORE Rocks, Unity S_cks! - Part 1
  
  Ed Notes: July 2010:
  

  Video - Bill Gates at the AFT: Bringing in a Trojan Horse

  Who is the real Trojan Horse?
  
  Here is a rough video of low quality I put together very quickly. First a small demo outside before the speech, then Randi's intro of Gates to rousing cheers, the most vociferous from most of the 800 Unity Caucus people who were there on our dues, the walkout to Unity led jeers and the song na-na-hey-hey-goodbye, selections from Gates' speech with some commentary from me, and the final demo outside as people left. Here is the direct link if it is slow loading:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6Ezri0pVOg