ICE Zoomed, ICE Talked, ICE Talked and Kept Talking and Talking and Talking

Something old, something new, something blue (The Passing of Giants: ICE founders And RA Organizers Ellen Fox and Lisa North.)

 

ICE meetings keep going until no one has anything left to say.

Tuesday, November 26, 2024

ICE met on a Sunday night zoom by notifying the members of the ICE listserve. I'm extremely proud of the 21 years of ICE and the quality people it has attracted. The meeting reflected that.

As always, the company at an ICE meeting is comforting. We had old hands from the first days and some new people. The discussion was open and at times invigorating. There was disagreement - intelligent disagreement and everyone had a say, as often as they needed. 

 

We began by reminiscing about Ellen Fox and Lisa North, two ICE founders. Lisa was low key and so was Ellen - on the surface. But she often came up with with some dingers, which I won't repeat to save some people from being embarrassed.

 
Then we went around the zoom asking people to say a few words - we heard many UFT activism origin stories. I was proud that Ed Notes and myself were mentioned so often as the "connector." That segment took over a half hour and not everyone wanted to speak. We used to start in person ICE meetings with a go-around where we all got a perspective and snapshot of the current situation in schools.

 

UFT Elections

The main topic was the UFT elections and people were updated on the latest developments.

What about the turnout in the 2022 UFT election where less than 20% of in-service people voted? Holy crap, the Don't Give a Crap Caucus makes up 80% of the in service electorate? Untapped by the 7 caucuses and groups running under United For Change in 2022? 

 

Do we think a severely reduced UFC could do better this time? There was general skepticism that doing the same old, same old would make much difference. Of course the retiree vote (40% voted in 2022) is a wild card.

 

The outcome of the discussion was that an attempt will be made to write a statement for the ICE blog expressing the sentiments at the meeting. 

 

 

Congestion Pricing

We ended with an interesting deep dive on congestion pricing based on Jeff Kaufman's post on the ICE blog: Out of Touch and Out of Time: Why Mulgrew’s Fight Against Congestion Pricing Fails Teachers and the Working Class.

 

Jeff, a serious bike rider was surprised at the push back but also made a cogent defense. As usual despite disagreement, with everyone getting a chance to make their case, the meeting ended after 2 hours. We must do it again soon. Join the ICE listserve if you are interested.