Randi's Nightmare: DETROIT TEACHERS ELECT STEVE CONN FROM EON/BAMN TO HEAD DFT

Randi must be banging her head against the wall. I have somewhere some unpub video of Steve heckling her into distraction at a rally in Detroit. BAMM has been the only group to run against Randi at the aft.

Unofficial results of the December 6 election are: the UTR slate won all DFT executive board and trustee seats in yesterday's election. There will be a runoff election, however, for the office of DFT president, three vice presidents, secretary and treasurer.
For the position of president, Edna Reaves garnered 390 votes, Steve Conn got 300 votes, and Mershira Oliver got 168 votes. According to the DFT constitution and bylaws, the president must win at least 50 percent of the votes.

So it looks like the Oliver people threw their votes to Steve. I'm confused based on this Dec. 15 report:

President

• Edna Reaves (487) UTR
• Steve Conn (365) EON/BAMN

Vice President (3)

• Ivy Bailey (489)  UTR
• Michael Schenk (461) UTR
• Vida Bonacci (449) UTR
• Myra Akpabio (380) EON/BAMN
• April Chambers (310) EON/BAMN
• Derrick Marable (297) EON/BAMN

Recording Secretary

• Nicole M. Davis (480) UTR
• Erika M. Jones (308) EON/BAMN

Treasurer

• Michelle Broughton (483) UTR
• Ucal Finley (300) EON/BAMN

If he didn't win any seats on the Ex Bd so look for some battle.

What does this mean for the bigger picture? I can't imagine Randi allowing Steve to be on the AFT Exec Bd or Steve wanting to be - he'd have to run on the Progressive Caucus instead of BAMN caucus line at the next AFT convention in 2016. So Detroit loses its seat on the AFT EB - a meaningless position.

Steve barely lost last time. But it looks like there will be an interesting struggle in Detroit --- BAMN is as social justicy a group as conceivable.

PRESS RELEASE    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Detroit teachers elected Steve Conn to head the Detroit Federation of Teachers today.  Conn, a long-time civil rights activist, ran on the Equal Opportunity Now/ By Any Means Necessary (EON/BAMN) slate.  Conn and BAMN will now lead Detroit’s teachers in the new civil rights movement that is sweeping the country.

"Detroit teachers voted today to stand up to the attacks on their schools, their jobs and their students' futures by Snyder and his executive managers,"  said Conn.   "I take office Tuesday, and am immediately calling a mass meeting of the union membership and community to begin a fight against these attacks, to defend public education, and to win equal, quality education for our students. We must vote on a plan of action for the DFT to join the citizens of Detroit in a fight to restore democracy and dignity to all of the people of Detroit."

Contact Steve Conn & EON-BAMN ( Equal Opportunity Now – By Any Means Necessary) at 313.645.9340