Harvard Student Writing Paper on '68 Strike Looking to Interview People

Hi Norm,

I'm from Rockaway, and I used to write a column for The Wave, and I know that you still do! Anyway, I am a junior at Harvard now, and am writing a paper on the teachers' strike of 1968 and the Ocean Hill Brownsville controversy. I would like to interview several teachers who were involved in the strike, and maybe even those who taught in district. I know that you were in the system for a long time, so I figured you might have some contacts. Would love to pick your brain as well.

I hope he doesn't pick too much of my brain -- not a lot left. I have an interesting POV on that strike -- not in line with the automatic left analysis which comes down to: Community GOOD, UFT BAD. I did not cross the picket line -- but I was also not politically conscious. When I became so 2 years later, all the people I met and who influenced me had crossed the picket line. I think over time they began to rethink some of their views -- my crew places blame on the then version of the Gates Foundation, the Ford Foundation, which played a very anti-union role. My position has been that even if you thought the strike was wrong, if you wanted to organize inside the UFT in opposition to the Shanker machine you could not cross that line and hope to have much credibility. Fight that battle internally.

Thus, Teachers Action Caucus (TAC), the major opposition party to Unity in the 70s was banded as scabs and made little headway. It took a generation and a merger with another opposition group (New Directions which was more to the right - or more opportunistic in hiding their politics) in 1995 to form the current New Action, which purged itself of left politics and made itself tenable for the sellout deal with Unity in 2003 -- though old-time red-baiting Unity people never forgot the New Action TAC roots and used to grouse  about how Randi never should have done it and how Shanker, if alive, would never have allowed it because he had such disdain.

Email me if interested in being interviewed.

1968 REVISITED: Ocean Hill-Brownsville

Lots of meat here. This one should be a "fun" event. I'm not sure the statement in the announcement that local communities ever had control of the schools is accurate.

I went on strike in '68 but did not know anything about nuthin' then. A few years later I met many of the gang that crossed the line and worked with them politically. I understand their position. There's plenty of blame to go around on both the UFT and community control side and I'm not sure what I would do if I were back then with my current knowledge of the UFT - my instinct is that if I intended to organize teachers in the UFT crossing the line is death. If you disagree with the strike, work to provide people with a balanced view and you can't do that when you are looked at as a scab. But then again, if you wanted to work with the community, as many teachers did then, staying out was also death. Oy vey!

This event will present only one side of the issue, but I will be there to get a better read. I'm currently reading Kahlenberg and Podair's book on the strike, which is much more balanced than RK.

I might even write about '68 one day - but only from my fall-out shelter.

One of the fun ironies is that the old lefty guard of the former (and now bought out) New Action Caucus all crossed the lines in '68 and now traipse through the 52 Broadway with impunity. Thus, Randi's "liberal generosity." But we've always said she has no real ideology and it's all about what politics she sees is necessary to firm up Unity power - like having New Action on board with the paltry vote totals really has an impact.

No matter what she's done, that more than anything is what would make Shanker turn over in his grave. "Better dead than red" was one of Al's major themes. Some old-line Unity Caucus still seethe when they see the New Action crew around. But I do too - for other reasons.

Announcement:

1968 REVISITED: Ocean Hill-Brownsville
The Struggle for Quality Public Education: 1968-2008

Stanley Aronowitz, Sally Lee, Edwin Mayorga, Roberta Thomas & Jitu Weusi

Co-sponsors: New York Coalition of Radical Educators & Teachers Unite

In 1968, Ocean Hill-Brownsville, Brooklyn, was the site of an experiment that gave local communities control of their public schools. The controversy sparked from this movement still resonates throughout the city. This panel discussion will explore the political moment that gave rise to the community control experiment and will attempt to compare it to today's context. How are NYC Communities responding to the current mayoral control of our public schools? How do these contrasting forms of school governance impact classroom teaching and learning?

Panelists include: Stanley Aronowitz, author of Education Under Siege: The Conservative, Liberal, and Radical Debate over Schooling; Sally Lee, Teachers Unite; Edwin Mayorga, New York Coalition of Radical Educators; Roberta Thomas, Independent Commission on Public Education (ICOPE) and Jitu Weusi, Teacher in Ocean Hill Brownsville.

The Brecht Forum

451 West Street

(Between Bank and Bethune off of the West Side Highway)

212-242-4201

www.brechtforum.org

Thursday, April 10
7:30 pm

Sliding scale: $6/$10/$15
Free for Brecht Forum Subscribers