Some MORE chapter leaders in District 15 joined other CLs in the district to formulate a plan that would take protests beyond one school - most schools did these anyway the next day. The organizing concept is to help create links between neighborhood schools that over time can become a political force. The UFT district leadership saw the potential and jumped in to support it. But the key here is that the organizing force came out of parents and teachers working from the school level, not from UFT implementation from above. And the concept of the mext day school protests came from people like Leonie Haimson, not the UFT. If the union finally gets that this is the way to go that is a good thing. If it ends after some deal with Cuomo then it's back to the way things were. But press reports that the UFT organized all these protests is only 50% correct.
I know some people in MORE and beyond are rolling their eyes -- and did not take part in the protests because they felt this was UFT manipulation. But the younger MORE's, some featured in this video saw this as an opportunity to reach out to their school community and to link up with other schools, an essential organizing effort over the long run. For them this doesn't end the day a deal with Cuomo is signed. Now if people in the other 45 or so districts did the same we might be on to something.
I got there about 45 minutes in and was astounded that they got so many people to go to midtown after school for this rally. And kudos to the crew at PS 261 in Boerum Hill which brought out a massive contingent which you can see gathered at the end of the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnRWwt5_iYQ
1 comment:
great video of growing resistance to cuomo's attack on public ed
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