Showing posts with label organizing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label organizing. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Peoples Education Tribunal

An interesting idea from Sam Anderson:

In the not too distant future (Fall 2010?), I suggest that we NYC progressive educators, parents, students, community activists and our organizations need to COLLECTIVELY organize a Peoples Education Tribunal that lays out the crimes being committed in the name of public education by these privateers. This
Peoples Education Tribunal would also outline viable solutions to help retain and enhance public education for all.

We would document this historic event and help publicize it throughout our neighborhoods and across the nation.

I know that this suggestion adds an extra layer of work tonnage upon all of us who are already overworked with our current Movement Multitasking. But, we need to show in popular ways that what is being passed as "advance education reform" is actually "criminal education deform." From the White House to City Hall, we are bombarded with daily dis-information/mis-information and outright lies about the education crisis and its solution to such an extent that for many folks
dis-information/mis-information and outright lies become TRUTHS.

This education tribunal would be grounded in the foundation that "Education is a Human Right"... and would be structured in such a way that we would include national and international judges whose expertise in education and Human Rights Law would be renown.

In Struggle,

Sam Anderson

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s. e. anderson is author of "The Black Holocaust for Beginners"
Social Activism is not a hobby: it's a Lifelong Commitment.

www.blackeducator.org


Friday, April 17, 2009

Teacher Activist Course from Teachers Unite


How can we counteract the attacks on public schools and the teacher bashing that goes along with it?

Without a union willing to stand up to this onslaught and in fact a union that is a willing collaborator in so much of the program, a union that accepts the parameters set out by the corporate supported ed deformers, an undemocratic union run by a massive Unity Caucus machine, it will take an active and informed membership.

To accomplish that we need a core of educators that is well informed of the major issues affecting education and a willingness to become part of a core of organizers who will work with people in their schools and beyond to bring a message of true education reform. A message of progressive educators organizing to create a true movement for teacher power.

Besides coming out for the Grassroots Education Movement rally and march from Battery Park past UFT headquarters and up to Tweed on May 14, here is a more programmatic way to get involved from Teachers Unite.


Are you a teacher who asks:

*How can I be both an instructional leader and a teacher activist?

*How do teachers organize with NYC communities for social justice?

*What does the UFT, or a teachers contract, have to do with social justice?

*What is the history of public schools in New York City?

Register today for Teachers Unite's Teacher Activist Course! You can sign up for any combination of Sessions 1, 2, 3 and 4.


For full course descriptions, go to: http://www.teachersunite.net/register

Session 1:
Education Reform, Social Justice and Teachers Unions
Saturday, April 25, 2009, 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Session 2:
Organizing to Transform Public Education
Saturday, May 2, 2009, 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Session 3:
Effective outreach and organizing
Saturday, May 9, 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Session 4:
Who controls the public school system in New York City?
A brief history of the city's schools
Saturday, May 30th, 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

For full course descriptions, go to: http://www.teachersunite.net/register

Lunch is included in all sessions.

Free childcare is available for those who request it at least two
weeks in advance of their registered session.

Teacher Activist Course sessions are free for Teachers Unite members.

Sliding scale registration fee per session for non-members: $25 - $75

To register, go to: http://www.teachersunite.net/register

Teachers Unite is a membership organization supporting the leadership of NYC public school teachers committed to social justice and activism.

By leadership we mean:
1) a deep understanding of theproblems faced by educators, students and public school communities,
2) skills to organize a community to build power and make change, and
3) a willingness to take action.


Note, especially to subscribers:
Make sure to check the Ed Notes side panel for daily updates and other important information.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Fusing the Human Atom

Trying to both report on ed events in NYC and being part of them as an organizer surely gets confusing. I don't operate on any high-minded principals or with much of a plan, which is a good insight into the disorganized nature of my life. Instinct and the inability to say "NO" seem to be the driving force. I'm just as happy to sit in the backyard and read. Or make videos of just about anything that moves. Or doesn't move. (How about still life videos as an art form?)

I guess the one operative principal has been in the belief in releasing the latent energy inherent in not the splitting, but the uniting of the human atom. People fusion.

I was thinking about the enormous energy released when the atom is split and the analogy to the energy generated when masses of people become politically active. I have always believed if a mass movement of politically conscious teachers became active in alliances with parent and community groups and took this alliance beyond education into other unions (many parents are union members too, or would like to be) the energy released would be enormous, creating a sort of atomic social movement by bringing people together. Would the BloomKlein education deformers have gotten away with all their crap if such a movement existed?

A true union would be doing this but with the UFT AWOL, the only way for this to happen is to do it ourselves. This is where I part ways with some of my colleagues in ICE and other critical voices within the UFT. I think they spend too much time addressing the structures set up by the UFT/Unity Caucus leadership, time that would be better spend organizing in their own schools and beyond. But I seem to be in the minority. And there is a point to be made to use the union structures to pressure the leadership. My issue is I have no faith in the leadership to do anything but mislead.

This leads me to the "Save Public Education" conference we helped organize this past Saturday and the building of a coalition to fight back against the education deformers. We looked at it as a beginning of building a grass roots movement, not as a one-time event. The break-out sessions worked on future strategies and we're holding an organizing meeting (see side panel) tomorrow to follow up.

About 80 people came out on a rainy Saturday, mostly teachers, but some parents and representatives of community groups, like Time Out From Testing and students like Global Kids (two of them spoke and were extremely impressive.) Pretty interesting. Just as interesting was the organizing efforts behind it.

My experience as a teacher/activist certainly worked for me. In the 1970's I was part of a group that met almost every week and we were enormously active. While teaching was tiring, I walked out of these meetings energized for both my job and the other activities. So many teachers feel isolated in their schools, the boost they get from meeting with like-minded people has a positive effect on them on the job and in dealing with the political mind field school politics can so often turn out to be.

Now I know that things are very different today, as the DOE has turned schools into sweat shops and teachers are exhausted. But I've also seen the way teachers we've been meeting with feel as a result of these meetings. And it seems to be a good thing.

Over the long term, the number of people involved in active organizing, call it a core, is the key to creating change. I realized the importance of an active core after the last UFT general election in 2007 and was resolved not to do that again unless a core of committed activists emerged. it doesn't have to consist of an enormous number of people because the energy released in the human fusion process is enormous. But countering the massive Unity machine requires such a core. Thus, after that election, my attention shifted towards working to build a core. I knew we wouldn't get anywhere without tapping into the new teacher social activist group and trying to bring the older, union conscious people together with them.

With Teachers Unite aiming at reaching the newer teacher crowd and creating a higher level of union consciousness along with a social justice viewpoint (register for the 4 week course at the TU website) and the increasing interest of some members of NYCoRE in the union, there was a natural affinity to merge some of the work we were doing in ICE and Education Notes. Thus, for the first time, various scattered forces began to come together, like circling rocks in a pre-planet stage beginning to coalesce in a very loose manner. I would say it's still in the Saturn ring stage, but the conference was a sign that some rocks are sticking.


That the March 28 conference was well-organized and actually worked like we planned is somewhat astounding. I generally expect things to go wrong all the time, sort of like sitting on a cliff waiting to be pushed off. But having people like Angel Gonzalez and Sam Coleman pulling things together taught me a great deal about how to get things done. You know, that old dog thing was operating here.

I won't get into all the details of the conference at this time. I spoke on ATRs and seniority and being forced to organize my thoughts coherently into a 6 minute presentation was very valuable. I will post something soon. Sam did a great job on the high stakes testing issue and Michael Fiorillo nailed the grand unification theory of the attack on public ed in his usual brilliant way – hey Michael, how about a written account? TAGNYC and some rubber room people were also involved as well as other independents. (Read Pissed Off Teacher's report on the conference.)

As interesting as the event itself was the process behind it. Process over product is way more important I believe. Think of the way the ed deformers take the opposite, bottom line approach which is so ruinous to education. So let's look at the process.

We started with an ICE ATR committee in January focused on just that issue. I remember John Lawhead taking it beyond that at an ICE meeting, fusing the concept of high stakes testing and the emerging closing schools issue. John's points unlocked the narrow view I held and allowed a broadening concept to emerge. This group started to meet regularly and put out a few leaflets and we made contacts with people at closing schools, along with people active in the Ad-hoc ATR group that did such a good job organizing the November ATR rally (see the part 1 and 2 of the video I did showing the UFT selling out the rally The Video the UFT Doesn't Want You To See: The ATR Rally).

At the same time, we've been involved with the Justice Not Just Tests subgroup of NYCoRE and we've been passing around a petition to stop the use of teacher data reports and the misuse of tests. We've also been doing work on the merit pay issue. We got 200 signatures at the March UFT Delegate Assembly (see pics in the previous post to this), with even some Unity Caucus people signing it.

It seemed a natural step to merge the work of the ICE ATR committee, which renamed itself ASC-ICE (ATR/School Closing) and we started holding joint meetings.

Concurrently, Angel Gonzalez and I took a labor study course given through NYCoRE and we worked closely with the organizers of the study group, giving a presentation on the union at the culminating event a few weeks ago to a group of mostly young teachers. Since this was on a Friday night, a bunch of us went out to a bar afterwards, where fusion really works over a few beers. (I was over 2 times older than most of them, so I was pretty well fused.)

Some of the work of that group became incorporated into the committee planning the conference. A few teachers connected to ISO and TJC also became involved in the planning committee.


Beside being able to pull off a successful event, it is just as important for the core to keep coalescing and there's no better place to let gravity work than in a bar.

Thus, after a long day of conferencing, ten of us retired to a local bar Saturday to do some coalescing. That this is not a pre-planned group but anyone who felt like going makes things very open ended. No matter how many meetings you attend together, the socializing after is often more important in building bonds and trust. Unfortunately, this bar charged $7 a beer and food was expensive, so we did some quick bonding and trust building and headed off for the rest of the weekend, only to gather again tomorrow afternoon at CUNY to plan the next steps. Ahhh, there's nothing like some good old Core knowledge.

The only thing that bummed us out was that a bunch of our compadres in NYQueer held another conference the same day, which went pretty well I hear. (Organizing to Create Safer Schools for LGBTQ Youth)

Next time we will double check our calendars. So much organizing to do, so few troops.

Monday, March 23, 2009

The Big Laugh: UFT Strategy is to Organize Teachers at Charter Schools

When this was brought up at the Labor Notes Troublemakers School on Saturday, every UFT'er in the room laughed.

Like, if a KIPP teacher asked you about organizing the teachers at their school to have the UFT represent them, what would you tell them?

After hearing FMPR president Rafael Feliciano speak over the weekend, I would tell them to have the FMPR in Puerto Rico be their bargaining agent.

More later...

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Broken Hearts Rally: Updated

Updated, Sat., Feb. 16

At the DA on Feb. 6, an amendment calling for a Feb. 14 rally as an addition to the official UFT resolution fighting the budget cuts (you know, the usual tepid things like calling on the mayor to open the books) was turned down – too hard to organize on such short notice, was one of the reasons, amongst others. Weingarten danced on a pin to pin down the maker who insisted the date was flexible. ("Sorry, she said, "you didn't make that officially" - a version of Randi's Rules of Order by which meetings are run.) One Unity Caucus speaker said holding a rally that day might lead to divorce. (Ed Notes has reported extensively on the role the UFT played in the cancelled rally last May.)

At the same time a group of students, teachers, community activists and politicians were meeting at John Jay Educational Complex in Park Slope to plan a "Valentine's Day" rally for Feb. 12 at Tweed at 4pm.

Well, they managed to pull off a spirited rally – not massive, but with hundreds of people - maybe a thousand - they made a point. There were lots of familiar adult faces: Time out for Testing provided support and assistance. Many of the crew from NYCORE were there, some with kids from their classes.

Teachers and parents and lots of kids – all ages at their first demonstration. A great hour of fun for all. I got a particular kick out of the excited elementary school kids jumping in for a photo op. In their equally excited teachers, many of them young activists, I recognized my old self from way back when – with a touch of nostalgia.

Many of the high school kids were very impressive, though I was taken aback when a few kids read speeches denouncing capitalism, speeches very reminiscent of those I've heard at Delegate Assemblies. I almost expected a call for a May Day demonstration. When I questioned one of the teachers, he said they had learned a lot from great teachers. Truly a miracle.

Knowing how some politicians fear the UFT, I was surprised at how many showed up. NYC Council member Bill de Blasio played a big role (other politicians were also involved in organizing the event) and Robert Jackson made the usual rousing speech. I saw Gail Brewer there. Others were there too, but I was part of a film crew assigned to outer limits of the crowd and missed most of the speeches.

The UFT is planning its own rally on March 19 and the fact that the "Broken Hearts" Valentine Day rally came off must have been somewhat embarrassing – they had no presence. They should have been there to whatever extent they could but the vote at the DA locked them in.
The March 19th rally will be a one shot deal. No attempt to build a movement for change. But the UFT doesn't want change.

Broken Hearts, though small, was a step in the building phase. Activists for Progressive Ed Reform (APERs?) worked together and hopefully will continue to work together to build a counter movement to challenge the move to corporatize/privatize the urban educational landscape. Ed Notes will be there to participate and report on the work they are doing.