tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post1934380044074579679..comments2024-03-26T11:07:03.496-04:00Comments on Ed Notes Online: Shanker Blows Up the Worlded notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-68604486582738549572008-06-07T04:18:00.000-04:002008-06-07T04:18:00.000-04:00First of all, we need to deal with Sugrue's statem...First of all, we need to deal with Sugrue's statement about Kahlenberg/Shanker's wish to "jettison pesky identity politics for the neat politics of of class interest". Kahlenberg and Shanker use class as a foil in an argument against affirmative action and efforts to give greater voice and power to the black community. However, when it comes to taking class-based political positions vis-a-vis the corporate banking, real estate, international oligopolies, whose policies were anti-working class, anti-poor, anti-public education, anti-affordable housing, anti-universal health care, pro-tax cuts for the rich, pro-spending for wars and subsidizing arms manufacturers, etc., Shanker was consistently defending the wrong class.<BR/><BR/>Secondly, the question of how Shanker's supposed conversion from militant unionist to tough liberal. We argue that there really wasn't any conversion. He wasn't a liberal who was mugged; instead his agenda was determined by his political affiliation with a group of "social democrats" who privileged their fight against socialists/commmunists/pacifists/black activists over any real commitment to education and worker rights. And despite their alleged concern for democracy in leftist countries, political parties, unions and worker confederations, they pulled no punches in undermining activism and democracy within the UFT and AFT.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-16554716252918226342008-06-06T19:57:00.000-04:002008-06-06T19:57:00.000-04:00Really interesting article. I don't know nearly e...Really interesting article. I don't know nearly enough about Shanker or about the described period of time, but I have a question for you. <BR/>I don't feel that Sugrue made a logical enough argument for Shanker's leap to the right. He associates Shanker's change to 'like many white liberal men of his generation--was mugged by the '60s.'<BR/>It doesn't seem like enough of an explanation to me. <BR/>Is there more to it than Sugrue explained or am I missing the magnitude of it?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com