Ed Notes Online: Left Meets Right in Populist Movements - the fight is between the people and the elites

Friday, March 20, 2020

Left Meets Right in Populist Movements - the fight is between the people and the elites

Beware, fellow plutocrats, the pitchforks are coming | Nick Hanauer--https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2gO4DKVpa8

It’s over, the fight from the right against the left. Now the fight is between the people and the elites.......Eduard Limonov, Russian Writer and Dissident, Dies at 77
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/books/eduard-limonov-dead.html

I hadn't heard of this fascinating Russian, Eduard Limonov, who bounced from left to right and back and forth, which sometimes I find myself doing to my utter confusion. I do read NYT obits religiously, which are so informative about people we wouldn't necessarily know about. So at the end of the obit this quote struck me.

Exactly what I've been thinking - a sort of merging of some on the left with some on the right over key economic issues --- this wing of the left plays down the social and identity issues. It is no accident that Bernie appeals to a segment of Trump supporters - economic populism resonates with whatever we call the working class today - which is not the classic white guy doing industrial work but also a growing segment of the gig economy.

I also am a fan of the daily broadcast of the Rising web broadcast on TheTune into "Rising" weekdays, starting at 10:30 a.m. (ET). Follow us on YouTube: hill.cm/xgu24G9 where lefty Krystal Ball (@krystalball) · Twitter and righty Saagar Enjeti @esaagar seem to line up with each other on so many issues. They even have a book out:

The Populist's Guide to 2020 - Amazon.com

They explain what is behind their politics here: (Sorry videos didn't work - check out their web site).

Now if you dig a little on Saagar, a Trump supporter, there is a lot to be disturbed about too but let's just focus on some surface stuff. I'm pretty aligned with Krystal, though some of the attacks on non-Bernie Dems go over the line. But it is a fascinating listen.

Krystal and Saagar have brought some clarity to me on why I, coming from the left, have so disliked the Dem party establishment. The traditional left dislikes the Dem party altogether and the furthest fringes mock Bernie and AOC for not being socialist enough - so we are covering wide territory.

While the Dem corporatists won this time, as the NYT piece yesterday almost gloated about - must read - and I will have a follow up on this article later -- https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/us/politics/bernie-sanders-progressives-elizabeth-warren.html?fbclid=IwAR1ADh-awimNjQeA5f7zjSw0gDWdreACpvM5_yn5zE19tUZmM1LRqcrt87c

Krystal and Saagar don't see that as lasting, especially with the acceleration by the virus - she says they are coming for them with pitchforks fairly soon. They also emphasize economics over identity - which is also where Bernie has been coming from and also explains his weakness with Blacks where identity often trumps economics - which is understandable due to the level of racism. The left hasn't found a way to blend the two effectively.

Their major target is often the Democratic corporate elites - clearly they lean toward Bernie as sort of a bridge favoring the working class.

Must watch videos where the left meets the right - a few short segments worth viewing from yesterday.

A typical assault on the Dem leadership - here for being behind Trump - Saagar claims Republicans showing more leadership protecting workers than Dems. Krystal and Saagar BLAST Pelosi for holding up cash to workers .... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZo_Ei0xJNQ

Another assault on the Dem leadership from the left: Michael Brooks issues DIRE warning to Establishment Dem -- Michael Brooks describes how Republicans have managed to propose solutions better for the working class than Democrats.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nas5d5EeAHc

Krystal is crystal clear on advice to Bernie to preserve the movement by not battling for a lost cause - she says he has the most leverage at this point by not running and organizing.
Krystal urges Bernie to Drop Out Now as he can be more effective in leading the movement. She points to the presidency not being that much of a prize at this time... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O78XUDVzENI&t=130s

Here they talk to Airline union president Sarah Nelson: Flight Attendants Union President: No airline bailouts, we need worker relief

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VXbH-WOHDg

Saagar Enjeti: Celebrates the DEATH of libertarianism

An insightful piece from the Saagar on the right -- so interesting with his attack on libertarianism. Saagar Enjeti: Celebrates the DEATH of libertarianism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clMafIdh1Ts

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If you want to see a slice of politics you don't get on FOX or MSNBC - watch Rising every day -- I just listen to the audio on my phone by going to The Hill site and click on Hill TV.

2 comments:

James Eterno said...: Norm, Good piece. Crystal is great. The Flight Attendant union president is Sarah Nelson. You wrote Sandra. Were you thinking about Feldman?; Saturday, March 21, 2020 at 7:43:00 PM EDT
ed notes online said...: Sandra Sarah - close.; Sunday, March 22, 2020 at 11:59:00 AM 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

Friday, March 20, 2020

Left Meets Right in Populist Movements - the fight is between the people and the elites

Beware, fellow plutocrats, the pitchforks are coming | Nick Hanauer--https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2gO4DKVpa8

2 comments: