Recent post from David Sirota
My two thoughts on this are:
1) If every Dem would talk like this, the party might be a real opposition
2) It's shameful that some Dems have been more focused on using their platforms to demonize/undermine this guy than on fighting Trump https://pic.x.com/QqhPxnaZuU Recent post from Ryan Grim
UPDATE: Arthur covers the issue too:
Mulgrew has done here, which surprises me not at all, is he
completely sidestepped elected Retired Teacher Chapter Leader Bennett
Fischer. After all, Bennett isn’t Unity, so Mulgrew has no respect for
him (let alone anyone who voted for him). Of course if he were Unity, that would mean he’d have taken and oath to support whatever, so he’d still merit no consideration. Then, on Tuesday, there’s a Delegate Assembly so Mulgrew can get his rubber stamp. ...
This is gonna be a hard sell for Michael Mulgrew and Unity. They know
it, too, which is why they’re doing the Town Hall. After all, they were
at least tacitly approving all the crap about Amy being antisemitic.
Some of them had no qualms about saying it out loud. or even writing
about it. It was curious because those very same people never noticed it
when Amy was part of the cult. Go figure.
Doubtless Mulgrew and
his Very Smart People have worked out some elaborate explanation to show
they are Not Guilty of antisemitism 2.0. The thing is, though, like
True Believers in Unity, True Believers in antisemitism 2.0 have their
minds made up and will not be persuaded otherwise.
Thursday, July 3, 2025
After a June 14 Gothamist report:
This news is more than shocking. After engaging in a massive attack on DSA, claiming they had a plan to infiltrate the union and tying in the heavily DSA MORE, to endorse a DSA member for mayor might make you blink in disbelief.
There's more than a
little irony if the UFT endorses Mamdani, who has faced some of the same
attacks over his position on Palestine and fake charges of antisemitism
that ABC Pres Candidate Amy Arundell faced with many of these attacks coming from union officials and Unity Caucus hacks. Oooh the eggs on the faces of the main attackers. But don't expect them to be fired, as Amy was.
Personally,
I'm for Mamdani - no matter what his stand on the Medicare issue, his
fundamental philosophy is pro-labor and anti-privatization - and he's one impressive political talent. I will go into some details of his campaign which is fundamentally non-ideological and more bread and butter, no matter how people try to distort - like free buses, where half the people don't pay anyway and better childcare is so radical. Even his response on intifada is interesting, as Ryan Grim explains when he compares the calls to denounce him as equivalent to cancel culture from the left:
"At the very end of this rant, Gillibrand argues that it doesn’t matter what the term intifada actually means, what matters is how people receive it, and she says that black, Hispanic, and LGBTQ people have similarly offensive words that must never be said and the same standard applies here.
So if you’re on the right and spent a decade denouncing this sort of thing, how is it that you are now embracing it and on Team Gillibrand?" ....
But my sense of democracy is challenged by a top-down endorsement process. If the DA was really open and not rushed we would get a snapshot of where membership stands - but I would go further.
I have
reservations about a UFT endorsement without checking the pulse of the
membership. Coming from the top as it usually does actually is harmful
as proven in previous elections where the massive UFT membership does
not seem to go along - witness the constant failures if mayoral
endorsements. My sense is this is a move to jump on the bandwagon of the
leading candidate, which actually may doom Mamdani, given the UFT track
record. A UFT endorsement will automatically elevate the chances of
Adams and or Cuomo.
There is a big push, naturally, coming from the left in the UFT, with a petition going around. So why am I bothered by that? It amounts to the same push from the top concept when the UFT leadership pushes its own interests over where the members might stand. I've been annoyed even when I agree with my left comrades on the way they push their agenda on members. Sure push your personal ideas - you have a right. But if you are trying to organize people, well how about seeing where they are at? That is precisely what Mamdani has done, as he went to Trump supporters. One surprising result in the election was how many Trump voters went for him -- the sort of Bernie/Trump concept we saw --- see NYT today:
Shocking that he actually talked to Trump voters -- something the ARISE crowd attacked ABC for. In fact I see a lot of similarities between the two campaigns - except we didn't win, of course. He reached out to new voters and so did ABC - he was more successful. He had 40k volunteers and I saw ABC with more volunteers in this campaign than I'd seen in the past - and the vote totals indicated that. Both campaigns get credit for their social media. But more on this comparison in the future.
Member driven means member driven even if the members on the whole don't agree with you. So though I would hope a clear majority of UFT members would support Mamdani, especially given the Adams/Cuomo/Sliwa alternatives, I would like to see where the actual pulse of the membership lies at this point.
The problem with pushing endorsements down the throat of members is that they alienate people unless there is a clear mandate. I think there is a strong case to be made for Mamdani but only if people get a chance to debate. Let's air the claims of anti-semitism and respond. Invite him to a meeting - invite them all.
If you really want to mobilize the membership in a campaign, win the bulk over and that takes work beyond calling an emergency summer meeting of the DA where a small minority of members will decide.
But one interesting story will emerge. The so-called left of the UFT, the ARISE crowd, will be overwhelmingly in favor and with UFT leadership backing Mamdani, we could expect overwhelming support at the DA. As for the 200k UFT membership? I'm not so sure. It weakens the union of there is a wide gap.
Thus, while I'm not speaking for ABC, and I think many ABCers do support Mamdani, I think there might be a sentiment to go through a more serious process in the UFT as a way to build support. At least a serious poll or a referendum -- like how about using electronic voting to do one? Oh, the Unity gang is allergic.
UPDATE -
https://substack.com/inbox/post/167483841
7 comments:
Theres a huge difference.
Trying to frame this as hypocrisy is weak. You guys lost - get over it. Lick you wounds and rebuild. Take a break from the internet and get serious. The world is in a scary place and no one has time for this. ABC ran Paul Egan for secretary - don’t lecture us about hypocrisy
DSA wrote about how they were going to attempt to make inroads into unions. MORE was working within both UFT/DSA to this end. However, this is based on a politico article from 2019 - Ancient history in political terms. DSA has adjusted their strategy after it became clear that this wasnt working. Zohran being a DSA member is way way different and its not fair to treat them the same. UFT has endorsed many DSA candidates - most of which have been incredible advocates for the issues that matter most to UFT members so stop it already.
Norm you don't believe this do you?
"My sense is this is a move to jump on the bandwagon of the leading candidate, which actually may doom Mamdani, given the UFT track record. A UFT endorsement will automatically elevate the chances of Adams and or Cuomo."
I semi-believe this given the UFT track record which helped bring us Bloomberg in 2001. I think the oligarchs may just be able to kill off the Mamdani effort and the UFT endorsement is a kiss of death because they are always so wrong. So even though in this case I am for him, I don't cheer when UFT leadership says yes. Consider this endorsement in line with Randi's leaving the Dem central committee -- they see things trending in a certain direction -- though one would think the ARISE disaster from the left and the relative ABC success muddles things. UFT membership at this point is still a big mystery and certainly not left.
What, Wait. UNity attacked DSA with a leaflet the same day of the outside interference reso -- 6 months ago. So you brought up 2019 for what reason? We Unity was most disappointed with the ARISE DEMISE -- you like the loyal oppo instead of teh frisky ABC. Did we really lose in the sense of where the UFT voting membership is moving? An ad hoc group of individuals, including a number of defectors from you guys get one third of the vote -- while the legacy caucuses after decades barely makes a dent. ARISE is the big loser. And your drop to 53% makes you guys a winner of sorts but trending to losing. ABC in its short time did not get far enough into the schools but just look at the hs where we finished 100 behind ARISE and a few hundred behind Unity - coming from nowhere. And how about those almost 3k elementary - the oppo biggest weakness and the 9k retiree vote vs Unity 13k. All within striking distance.
ABC didn't come from nowhere - the slate had insiders with ties all over. And that's 53% in a three way race. ARISE and ABC aren't the same and to think that if one wasn't running the other would get their votes is wishful thinking. How did Unity win the Retiree vote straight up if that were true? Unity - 13,573, ARISE - 3,031, ABC - 8,997
What some call frisky others see as ill-manned and reckless
If you read Ed Notes at no point did I think if we ran one slate we would have won. ARISE alone would have probably gotten 33% - but ABC alone would have probably gotten in the 40s. As for the retiree vote, given the 63% last year, the total vote from both groups are close enough to Unity which gained back about 3k from what they lost last time. Unity used to get 18-19K - assume that loss is permanent. The failure of RA to pull out more than 3k points to the influence of Marianne last year and this. I give her influence worth around 9k votes. No wonder you. guys freaked out about her. WIll she be a factor in the future 2 and 3 years down the line? If RA continues as a closed off group of a dozen seeking to make all the decisions, they will lose to Unity in the next chapter election.. If there's some accommodation with the ABC crew they have a chance.
"ABC didn't come from nowhere - the slate had insiders with ties all over. And that's 53% in a three way race". Wow are you off base using the 3 slate excuse. 2019 had 4 slates and Unity did much better. You feel good about the 53%? Unity delusion. If the oppo was more competent you would be in trouble. ABC represents the first real threat. Yes, we had some long-time people but also an amazing array of newly activist -- I had no idea they existed. And for this array of disparate people to come together in a short time and be so viable is something to crow about. Note how both Unity and their loyal opposition ARISE continue to attack ABC - obviously the real threat. I predict some of the caucus leaders will not give up the ship but some smart ARISE people have been reaching out and they will be welcome to what is still on open non-caucus ABC.
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