Mr. Welch: Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty, or your recklessness. You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?...Paranoia has struck deep into the hearts of our ostensible leaders. After suffering major losses in two elections, they are losing their shit all over the place....It's Witch Hunt Time for Unity!Get out your tin foil hats! .... Arthur Goldstein
Al Shanker was a a member of the Young Socialists. The Unity red-baiting critique on the flier distributed at the Jan. 2025 DA saying “ARISE=DSA” is their usual tactic. That said, where was Unity’s outrage over outside influence when Bill Gates funded the E4E caucus? Or his failed interference that led to the mass closing of schools? Mulgrew’s got no problem with them. But, a caucus that cares about working people? That simply won’t do for Mulgrew... Current NYC Teacher comment
The attack on DSA with current members elected to various offices is a naked political play to move the UFT to the right and to distract from the real issues - but also to pump up Unity Caucus members who might be straying
What a joke that leaflet was, though some are not taking it as a joke, but a genuine threat. Shanker and the founders of the UFT all came out of the Socialist party and a particular wing - the right wing anti-communist Social Democrats USA - SDUSA - the Max Schachtman acolytes -- Check the link to wikipedia for the full story. But here's an interesting rub:
Yetta Barsh Shachtman (1915–1996) was married to Max Shachtman and also held Marxist views. Barsh worked as the secretary of Albert Shanker, the president of the United Federation of Teachers.[33] The money she earned from this job allowed Shachtman to focus on his political work.[34] While working for Shanker, Barsh was responsible for the hiring of Sandra Feldman [35]Yes. Future UFT President Sandra Feldman was recruited out of the Socialist Party into the UFT after one year of teaching. How's that for "outside" interference? And I'd bet Shanker was also recruited from somewhere.
Teaming this leaflet with the reso on outside interference that Unity sneaked into the New Motion period, their usual manner of dishonesty, where Mulgrew makes believe he is looking around the audience and "accidentally" chooses the Unity CL of Murrow HS who acts like the reso wasn't planted by the leadership. Described by Arthur as:
a very formally worded resolution about “union interference.” At first I thought I was mishearing, but I was not. The woman who brought the resolution refused to name which insidious forces were interfering. I’d bet she was talking about my friend Marianne Pizzitola and her group, NYC Retirees.
Here is the reso (wow - got my scanner to work).
So it was a surprise to see them also come out with a vicious Unity leaflet right out of the box and attack the MORE dominated ARISE, along with NAC, heavily loaded with retirees and RA, totally loaded with retirees, the group of caucuses running under the ARISE banner in the election, in such a vicious manner - so early in the election. I would have expected them to do it shortly before the ballots are sent out -- well, I guess they will again then.
Accompanying the outsider reso with the Unity leaflet attacking DSA and MORE as somehow infiltrating the UFT, caused MORE's Peter Lamphere to see red and he called a point of order that Mulgrew shut down. Peter pointed out that every member of MORE was a member of the UFT, not an outsider.
Hell, I was a member of DSA for years, though less enamored now, as were UFT leadership types like Leo Casey, and the UFT has actually backed some DSA candidates and incumbents. In fact a strong candidate for mayor,
is in DSA. Imagine the UFT, given a choice between Cuomo and Mamdani, will back Cuomo because of their 65 year history of vicious anti-communism and red-baiting.
Hell, I was a member of DSA for years, though less enamored now, as were UFT leadership types like Leo Casey, and the UFT has actually backed some DSA candidates and incumbents. In fact a strong candidate for mayor,
Zohran Mamdani
is in DSA. Imagine the UFT, given a choice between Cuomo and Mamdani, will back Cuomo because of their 65 year history of vicious anti-communism and red-baiting. Some of you may remember the red-baiting sneak postcard attack on the ICE/TJC Presidential candidate Kit Wainer in the 2007 election. Here are some Ed Notes posts from those days if you want to dig deeper. I have a list of 60 years of their history of red-baiting to share at some point.
I guess you can see the outside interference in the reso when accompanied with the Unity flyer as an attack on DSA and MORE. Some retiree groups who have personally benefited from the work Marianne has done are sniping at her for being too bossy and I even heard one tell me she is not really an organizer, just someone who goes to court. Really?
I responded she has saved every one of us thousands of dollars and how is she not an organizer when she has tens of thousands of followers in multi municipal unions? I point to the retired fire fighter in my yoga class who high fives me about her. One leftist told me that Marianne has out organized the left and the Dem party and its subservient AFT/UFT/NYSUT by reaching deep into the working class and bringing people from many unions together, a leftist dream since the 30s. Marianne may have done something so unique in this country that people should do theses on her work.
I and many others knew this red-scare attack on MORE was going to come at some point. I would say knowing this attack was coming was a major reason the ABC faction wanted to run in the election without caucus attachment -- we argued with the caucuses that if we wanted to win we must try to minimize caucus baggage. RA won in June by focusing on one key issue. For RA to tie itself to MORE and New Action, whose history includes a dozen years of supporting Unity and having key leaders being on the UFT payroll - in fact running Mulgrew as their presidential candidate in 2010 and 2013, so directly, is a mistake and will hurt the brand.
But expect Unity to try to smear ABC the same way given that ABC is open to all points of view, so why not pick out one person and smear everyone? One reason ABC advocated individuals and not caucuses run in this election was to undermine these attacks, though stopping them entirely is not possible. And they tried the same tactic in the RTC election by trying to link Marianne to MORE and it clearly didn't work because RA was very careful to stick to the key issue and in fact we decided to reject any comments on our listserve that dealt with the middle east.
But the attack on DSA is so weird given the history -- DSA is an offbranch of the Socialist Party UFT leaders came from. UFT has endorsed DSA electeds who are incumbents (AOC, Bowman, and a number of state senators.
Rather than let it die, the scuzzy Unity Caucus blog doubled down, using the 50's era "card-carrying" phrase. Here they do line up with the analysis that the outside interference refers to DSA but I still think that is cover for the attack on Marianne. Who are they kidding? Do they a bigger fear of DSA or Marianne? No one has been fearing DSA recently, especially after the Trump election.
About that flyer: DSA=MORE=ARISE?
Lets talk about the caucus behind the curtain
Each month the Unity Caucus shares a flyer at our union's Delegates Assembly. Last week was no different - we shared a flyer that seemed to cause a stir. A new coalition named ARISE announced that they would be running in the UFT election this coming Spring. ARISE includes 3 caucuses: New Action Caucus, Retiree Advocate and MORE. The flyer called out the fact that this new coalition is just a rebranding of MORE, in an attempt to hide their own problematic political baggage. When you start to look past the slick website and the new logo, it's clear to anyone paying attention that MORE is the driving force behind ARISE.
So what happened at the Delegates Assembly last week and why does it matter?
A veteran delegate rose to speak against a resolution written to oppose the fact that organizations outside of the UFT are trying to influence the outcome of the UFT Spring election. No one objects to working with and being aligned with organizations outside of the UFT. The issue is that there is documentation (Politico Article: Democratic Socialists look to take over New York’s powerful labor unions | DSA Memo linked in politico article) showing that there is an outside organization ( the NYC DSA) actively strategizing to use the UFT as a tool for its own political objectives [see flyer below]. To flip something that this same delegate said at the DA: JWe are all card-carrying members of the UFT and unashamedly proud of it!
Jeez - card carrying Unityites. I'm a bit embarrassed for them.
Given the option of Unity, a group attached to MORE or non-sectarian ABC, which way do you think they will go?
I will close with this comment from the son of a UFT retiree, an active member of DSA:
“This
is fundamentally anti-worker hypocrisy. DSA advocates for powerful
unions and a better world, membership to this organization among UFT
members should be welcomed. Socialists
have been the bedrock of the labor movement since its inception,
anticommunism has been used to kneecap American labor with laws like the
Taft-Hartley act. It is dishonest and rabidly anti-worker, Michael
Mulgrew should be deeply ashamed of this idiotic red baiting.”
Mulgrew has proven time and again he has no shame.
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