After 20 years of Honda CRVs - the current one from 2013 after we lost two cars in the hurricane, I'm trying something new. Today I pick up my new Subaru Forester hybrid - I took a chance on a brand new model just released but I wanted a hybrid and the Forester rates so well and everyone who drives one raves about it - also the first car that is keyless -- I hate that idea -- but that's "progress." I only have 66k mileage on my 12 year old CRV so I'm getting a nice trade-in on a slightly battered car.
Monday, May 12
I checked out the interview Marianne Pizzitola did with most of the ABC officer slate last night and expected it to last an hour. Two and a half hours later I was still engrossed in just how rich this discussion was. Anyone who says this group is not ready for leadership of the UFT is an idiot.
Also sign up for the ABC GOTV Rally Tuesday 5/13 at 8PM. Sign up at tinyurl.com/abcgotv
And check out this ABC ad: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1Abtud1cE8/?mibextid=wwXIfr
I won't give details of the insane accusations coming out of Unity attacking ABC -- they seem to think ABC actually has a chance to win. Which of course means some of them may face the dreary prospect of having to go back to the classrooms they have allowed to deteriorate.
I generally do not leaflet mail boxes in this election but I decided to do the two schools on my corner, one a D.75 school. I was turned away on Thursday and told to come back Friday and was chatting with the secretary and teacher in charge in the office as I stuffed boxes. They knew little or nothing about the election or who was running and I tried to explain when a para came into the office who was totally up on the election and an ABC supporter. She is a Marianne fan and knew so much about the election and even said she was going to bring her daughter, an Occupation Therapist to the afternoon ABC Rockaway meetup to meet Amy and the crew - and she did.
I've been busy with so many ABC events and the constant chats going on. We had a zoom last Thursday night and people I don't know were saying some amazing things. And then we had a Brooklyn meetup on Thursday and Rockaway meetup on Friday and same thing. I have never met or heard of most of them.
This is my first election experience where this has happened but then again the very idea of ABC from the beginning was to reach new people and schools. Will it go deep enough to win this election? Even if not, we have broken new ground in the UFT and the attacks on ABC by both Unity and some ARISE people are indications of the threat ABC poses to both the people in power and to the old legacy caucuses in the oppo.
How could a group of ad hoc individuals from a wide range of ideologies manage to come together, often as strangers, and build a 560 member slate and run an effective campaign when we were lectured ad infinitem that the only way was through the caucus infrasture?
The very idea for people who believe in "structure" is a threat to their way of thinking -- and I often find this need for strucure is very prevalent with the leftists I have worked with who view me as an anarchist with libertarian tendencies. At the root I find that they and the union leadership just don't trust the rank and file to emerge as leaders which is exactly the opposite of what we've seen with ABC, which is also a threat to their way of thinking.
What an interesting UFT election cycle, with all its permutations. I'm looking forward to the May 29 - through "whenever they finish" count, which could take days due to the delays from split ballots -- see my post - UFT Election W25 Splitters: Signs of Unity Desertions to ABC but How Far Will it Go?. Maybe we will know the outcome by July.
Also check out my ruminations on Amy-Gate from Oct. 23, 2023 - where I speculated on splits in Unity Caucus - which came to pass, though I never expected Amy to take her bold step of challenging Mulgrew.
The results will check the pulse of UFT members - and the current leadership - and also the legacy caucuses' ability to pull out votes.
Will the votes of in service go beyond the usual 25%? ABC predicated its run on increasing that number. Or will the 40% retiree return keep dominating UFT elections? Will the massive shift in retiree votes away from Unity continue? Will some of the votes Unity lost come back to them? Will ARISE and ABC split the anti-Unity retiree vote? What impact will Marianne's support for ABC have? Will paras come out in force for the first time in UFT elections and how would that affect the prospects of ABC? What about the.... Oy - the few hairs I have left are hurting.
I am getting blamed by all sorts of people for the existence of ABC who claim if we were one slate we would beat Mulgrew. I never believed one slate under the management of the 3 caucuses that make up ARISE, even with the sliver they offered ABC, would have won and in fact posited that two slates that ran independent campaigns but with enough common candidates was the better option to defeat Unity. I wrote in December - UFT Elections: The Two Slate Solution - Keep Calm.
ABC is a new entity that has never existed in the UFT before due to the influx of Unity people, the first break in Unity probably since the late 60s.
ABC is aiming at winning while I see ARISE at aiming at beating ABC. They know they can't win - you know why? Because their leading lights kept saying two slates cannot win. One of their leaders actually said in urging ABC to come to ARISE (when it was ARISE who left ABC) "Do you want this to be your legacy when you die -- you helped Mulgrew win?"
Unity clearly doesn't see ARISE as a threat and has worked with all of three caucuses in ARISE over the decades -- NAC, RA and MORE. ABC, with its ex-Unity contingent plus an ad hoc collection of independents and with its more aggressive assault on the Unity machine clearly is viewed as the bigger threat.
Even Mulgrew has jumped into the ABC bashing while ignoring ARISE:
..the most dangerous thing about them (ABC)? The company they keep. They’re working closely with non UFT organizations–outsiders– who are trying to use our election process to gain control of our union for their own political schemes. Do your research to see who they are backed by.
This is an attack on Marianne but he is afraid to name her here because she is more popular with UFTers than he is.
They shout over and over: “Members first” but reject plans that address members' needs, like the class size law and para legislation (yes, ABC slate fought back against both.) They throw slogans like “we need change” but offer no policy.
Thus, he accuses ABC of not supporting paras and class size reductions because we were critical of the half-assed way Unity goes about it, like supporting the 10k para bonus while being critical that it is non-pensionable and not trying to make class size reductions more bullet proof through the contract.
From the earliest days of this election going back a year, I took a position that the caucus alliance that became ARISE is similar to the UFC alliance from 3 years ago, though with the added imprimatur of the retiree win, along with the para win.
Someone made this comment - I forget where:
Their (ARISE) priorities are backwards. Number one priority should be to oust Mulgrew. The rest could be discussed later after getting him out so we could finally effect real change instead of just complaining. Speaks volumes that you (ARISE) are more interested in social justice than doing what is necessary to oust Mulgrew. Protests appeal to you more than petitions. Both are necessary where we are right now as a union, and as a nation. Discord will not help us to carry the day.
I
knew Marianne would not support ARISE and told people in RA repeatedly
that she would back ABC - and ABC and the ARISE people were at meetings
together from March through late October/early November when it was
clear Amy was seriously considering running against Mulgrew. ABC offered
a plan where everyone could run as individuals from all the caucuses
without branding ABC as caucus driven. The caucuses wouldn't accept that
even though they had enough people to flood ABC with candidates. First
MORE pulled out and then NAC and RA followed. They viewed what was left
of ABC as inept and only a few people with a bunch of ex-Unity and felt
they would drop out and leave the field for ARISE which offered what was
then ABC, a sliver. No one expected ABC to be able to form a massive
slate of people to run which exceeded ARISE. Even I was shocked and as
the petition coordinator begged them to stop getting people to run since
I was drowning in paperwork. I had to lug a massive suitcase full of
petitions the day it was due.
A
lot of the 300 delegates felt they ran under the RA banner but were not
included in the decision to run with ARISE plus the group has been kept
small and also does not put out minutes of its meetings. Bennett has
been the best of them
so far - fair-minded but he also needs the support of the other RA
people who make up the RTF officer slate and do work for RTC. The
problem is that New Action occupies 4 of the 12 slots on RA so their
interests take precedence over the interests of RA. Bennett is caught in
the middle but goes with the majority, which I get.
Anyway -- a long election cycle that for many of us began with the meeting at Amy's apartment last March is coming to an end in two weeks. The count is at 52 May 29 and probably May 30 and maybe into June. Any UFT member can observe but if they are overloaded they will use a waiting list. I will be there all the way as an election committee member.
Here are some photos from the Rockaway ABC meetup on Friday.
