Norm in The WAVE: School Scope - Teachers REVOLT and MEMO From the RTC

Both articles appeared in May 4, 2018 edition of The WAVE

School Scope:  Teachers REVOLT

By Norm Scott

We returned from a 9-day tour of Greece – mainland only – with so much new knowledge, knowledge I was too bored to absorb in school – to find the same education stories lurking when I left. Opt-out stories related to the awful reading tests were infecting the math tests and we’ll see if more parents opted their kids out as a result of the bad press the reading tests had.

The major stories were the spread of the fascinating red-state teacher revolts from West Virginia to Oklahoma to Kentucky to Arizona and now to the blue/purple state of Colorado. All these states had big tax cuts that turned education into banana republic territory. Teachers are not just talking about poverty level salaries but severely restricted working conditions. After all, poor working conditions for teachers lead to poor learning conditions for children. Given the nature of these states, many teachers live and work in the same community and students are often neighbors. So when on strike, the West Virginia teachers helped feed the kids, which garnered parent and community support, thus dashing the hopes of politicians (mostly Republican slugs) that they could turn the public against the teachers.

This is all tricky ground to navigate. An interesting aspect not being talked about is how these revolts come right out of the classrooms, instead of union leaderships at the state level. These are all right to work states which has weakened union leaders at the state level where the two main national unions, the NEA the AFT, operate. We have seen independent movements grow up in these states that are challenging the NEA and AFT, which In some places are competing with each other for members.

Now, will we see some kind of revolts here in NYC in the UFT where Unity Caucus has a lock? Interesting question which I will explore in future columns.

Norm is revolting every day at ednotesonline.com

Memo From the RTC:  Lovers and Other Strangers Opens This Weekend

By Norm Scott

The first adult play of the season finally takes the stage with the Rockaway Theatre Company production of the Renee Taylor/Joseph Bologna play, “Lovers and Other Strangers.” It was made into a movie in 1970 and garnered three Academy Award nominations, winning one for best original song. While I helped a bit with the crew building the sets, I haven’t been able to get over to rehearsal and know very little about the storylines. I hear there is a great cast and directors Peggy Page Press and Michael Wotypka always deliver a top-level production. There reputations are impeccable (other than that they gave me my only two serious speaking roles in two plays) and expect a wonderful experience. I am going to do the video on opening night – and also scam any snacks if they have a post-opening night celebration at the theater. I’ll tell you more in next week’s column.

Evening shows are at 8PM: May 4, 5, 11, 12, 18, 19. Sunday Matinees at 2PM: May 6, 13, 20.

For Reservations: Call RTC Hotline @ 718-374-6400

Or email rtcworkshops@gmail.com

Can Weak Unions Get Teachers More Money? - NY Times

In West Virginia, by contrast, the weakness of the unions left workers no choice but to take the lead. And the unions were in no position to resist. “I said the unions won’t start the movement, but if it hits critical mass, they’ll have to join in,” said Ryan Frankenberry, West Virginia director of the Working Families Party... NY Times

This is a very interesting piece sent to me by Abigail. I've been putting forth the theme for a long time that the stronger the union leadership -- ie. - Unity - the weaker the militancy from the rank and file because the union structure keeps a lid on and has the infrastructure to deflect or kill insurgencies.

An anti-Janus argument has been that unions control the workers and prevent wild-cat actions. I predicted that in NY State the politicians would set up post-Janus protections for the UFT since it is a partner and that process has begun with the Cuomo push to give  unions the right not to represent non-members. I bet more protection is to come - especially in the area of sole bargaining rights, which are weakened in right to work states. In other words, say of 20% of the UFT left and began to organize a counter union. In some states that is easier than others depending on state laws.s

This has been one of my major push backs within MORE against the proposal passed at the April 28 meeting to try to connect the red state insurgencies to the UFT by creating pressure from below to force the Unity/UFT leaders to engage in strike preparation. See South Bronx for complete proposal (MORE Presents It's Contract Demands of the UFT (Seriously)), which I will dissect in future posts (and probably get attacked within MORE for doing so.)

I have made the point that beside so many differences between NYC and West V et al (how many people in MORE have to work 2nd jobs to make ends meet?) the major difference is the weakness of union hierarchy (and due to right to work state laws, competition between the NEA and AFT for members) and the absolute strength of the UFT/Unity machine.

That in the face of this the MORE proposal also calls for MORE to not run in the 2019 UFT elections and focus instead on its strike prep campaign, only makes Unity even stronger. So go figure the logic of the MOREs.

The NYT article makes the point that the red state movements coming out of the rank and file are not sustainable without a union infrastructure and non-teaching union leaders somehow often just don't feel the pain and are less militant than classroom teachers who are fed up.

It is a must read:

Can Weak Unions Get Teachers More Money?

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/05/05/sunday-review/unions-teachers-money-strike.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fsunday

By Noam Scheiber

May 5, 2018

On Thursday, a weeklong walkout by teachers in Arizona resulted in a major victory, as the state’s governor approved a 10 to 20 percent wage increase and a significant investment in public schools.

That followed a roughly $6,000 salary increase that Oklahoma teachers won by threatening a walkout (and later following through). Which in turn came on the heels of a 5 percent raise for teachers in West Virginia, who had shut down schools for almost two weeks.

The teachers were intent on making a statement. “No funding, no future!” they chanted in Oklahoma. And their mantra seemed to carry the day.

That all this took place in so-called right-to-work states, where the power of unions is limited, raises some interesting questions: Do weak unions go hand-in-hand with more effective political activism? Would strong organized labor prevent teachers from getting their way? After all, in Wisconsin, a state where unions were famously powerful, public sector workers suffered a historic defeat at the hands of Gov. Scott Walker in 2011.

Yet the reality is closer to the opposite.

Strong unions tend to be effective at securing gains for workers. Weak unions often shortchange the rank and file. The data show that workers in heavily unionized areas earn a significant premium over workers in lightly unionized areas. And unless the teacher movements in West Virginia, Oklahoma and Arizona breathe new life into unions, or birth lasting institutions to replace them, they are likely to be short-lived.

Perhaps counterintuitively, one need look no further than Wisconsin to appreciate the benefits of strong unions. The measures enacted by Governor Walker — which ended teachers’ ability to bargain collectively over anything but base wages and required the unions to win annual “recertification” votes to officially stay intact — should by all rights have destroyed public employee unions across the state. By some measures they did. Membership collapsed after 2011, from half of public employees to just over one quarter within five years.

But in certain parts of the state, the unions have not only remained viable, they’ve become more aggressive.

Consider Racine, a city of about 75,000 in southeastern Wisconsin, whose teachers have voted overwhelmingly to retain their union.

Just before the Walker measures were enacted, the union secured a two-year extension of its favorable contract — with strict rules on class size, staffing and evaluation procedures. When that contract ended, the union saw to it that most of the key elements were inserted into a “handbook,” said Peter Knotek, a recent president. That included a requirement that the district consult with the union on policy changes.

In 2015, the president of the Racine school board tried to eliminate this provision. His effort narrowly failed, but the teachers were not so forgiving. The union recruited candidates for the nine school board seats and locked down eight of them in the next year’s election.

“We were pursuing an agenda of growing power independent of any other institution in the community,” Aaron Eick, one of Mr. Knotek’s successors as union president, said in an interview last week.

The teachers’ union in Racine is proof that strong unions provide more than just wage increases and protection from arbitrary bosses. They provide a kind of social glue — making members feel invested in a larger mission and promoting a sense of solidarity. Thanks to their involvement in the union, Racine teachers immediately understood the threat that Governor Walker’s plan posed. Hundreds trooped to the capital to resist it.

“Very scared and conservative people were like, ‘All right, fine,’” Mr. Eick said. “People who you never would have thought would participate” got involved.

In West Virginia, by contrast, it was years before teachers rose up to protest their eroding standard of living.

Beginning in 2014, after the Republican-controlled Legislature refused to increase funding for health insurance, foisting benefit cuts and cost increases onto public sector workers, the teachers’ unions pleaded their case to lawmakers. But the unions were ineffectual because they struggled to rile up their membership. Even in many counties where the unions were active, most members were disengaged.

Nicole McCormick, a music teacher who helps lead the Mercer County local, said, “It was like the same 15 faces at every meeting,” even though there were hundreds of members. For the rest, she added: “I was having to say the same thing 25 times and they still wouldn’t understand. ‘What do you mean? What legislation?’”

Worse, the lack of collective bargaining rights set teachers against one another, distracting them from external threats. Without collective bargaining, no one union can operate as the exclusive representative of teachers in a county. In that vacuum, at least two unions competed to scare up members.

“The unions spend a lot of time trying to out-recruit the other one,” said Jay O’Neal, a seventh-grade English teacher from Charleston who was a leader of the protest movement.

Mr. O’Neal and his colleagues were remarkably successful at building momentum for the walkout through a Facebook group. But they won only a down payment on what they’d hoped for. The health insurance issue was deferred to a task force that began public hearings last week — not coincidentally, long after the fervor had subsided.

Mr. O’Neal observed that “we’ve seen people fall off, not be as involved” since the strike was resolved in March, pointing to another problem with weak unions: It is much easier to rouse people for a single, high-profile fight than for sustained advocacy. For that you need institutions that carry on the struggle while workers get on with their daily lives.

“I think sometimes it’s a little glib for people on the political left to say we should just have a more fired-up base,” said Joseph Slater, an expert on public employee unions at the University of Toledo College of Law. “Workers have full-time jobs.”

Of course, strong unions can bring their own baggage. Leaders can grow remote from their membership. A union’s strength may give it irrational confidence that it can defeat threats through conventional politics — like elections and lobbying — rather than more radical measures, like work stoppages.

In West Virginia, by contrast, the weakness of the unions left workers no choice but to take the lead. And the unions were in no position to resist. “I said the unions won’t start the movement, but if it hits critical mass, they’ll have to join in,” said Ryan Frankenberry, West Virginia director of the Working Families Party, who advised Mr. O’Neal and his colleagues.

But, in the end, there is no substitute for a strong union in a long-term struggle against powerful antagonists. And even the West Virginia walkout would have been impossible without the unions, which presided over an authorization vote in every county. “You can’t organize a strike on Facebook, even if everyone sounds really excited,” said Cathy Kunkel, an organizer with the progressive group Rise Up West Virginia who helped teachers strategize.

To really get teachers marching in lock step, Ms. Kunkel said, they needed the heft of a union.

How "choice" relates to segregation in NYC schools

This issue came up when I spoke to a literacy social justice class at Leon Goldstein HS the other day (Where I go back into the classroom) in Maurice Blackmon's class. The first question was about heterogeneous vs homogeneous instruction. And it was one of the longest answers I gave - I taught homogeneous - other than one year -- and there are positives and negatives to both - but I pointed out that getting rid classes based on reading scores fueled the charter movement as parents with kids with good test scores didn't want their kids in classes with lower performing kids.... Norm

Leonie Haimson reported this while on vacation celebrating her birthday in Sicily (happy B-day Leonie). There's no stopping her.

The essence of this report is the further destruction of the concept of a neighborhood school. How to balance that with attempts to desegregate is an issue. Our new chancellor stepped in it with his comments on white parents avoiding sending their kids to certain schools.

Report is here: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/53ee4f0be4b015b9c3690d84/t/5ae8b91ff950b73991688aec/1525201185652/The+Paradox+of+Choice.pdf

It appears that the expansion of charters, the elimination of zoned schools in D7 and D23, the restriction of controlled choice in D1, and the Kindergarten Connect systems have all contributed to more K students attending schools outside their zone:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, elected in 2001, was a fierce proponent of choice. His administration encouraged the rapid expansion of charter schools by offering them free space in ordinary public schools. The City eliminated attendance zones in three of the 32 school districts. District 1 on the Lower East Side, District 7 in the South Bronx, and District 23 in Brooklyn’s Brownsville section became all-choice districts. [Actually D1 was already]

On Sectarianism One of the Deadly Sins of the Left

Sectarianism: There are many fringe groups on the left that will never be anything more than tiny sects. They are “sectarian” because they counterpose their pre-packaged program against the real movement of people engaged in class struggle. These groups espouse revolutionary rhetoric but have little or no connection to the working class or any other meaningful social base. A rigid adherence to programmatic points prevents them from adapting to changing conditions in society. ..... One of The Left’s Five Dead Ends - Bread & Roses, Democratic Socialists of America, Jeremy Gong   -- DSA (Democratic Socialists) Is At A Crossroads – Jeremy Gong – Medium

There was a link in the article under the heading of: the dead-end wheel-spinning of the activist left - here's the direct link:
http://breadandrosesdsa.org/analysis-tasks.

Sectarianism doesn't only apply on the left. Wiki defines the term:
Sectarianism is a form of bigotry, discrimination, or hatred arising from attaching relations of inferiority and superiority to differences between subdivisions within a group. 

Seems to fit the bill. A major reason the left is so ineffective. The role played by leftists in pre-Nazi Germany, which at one point had more power and influence than the Nazi Party, has often been blamed for contributing to the rise of Hitler though I don't know enough to say that is true. But I did read George Orwell on the left sectarianism in the Spanish Civil War where the Stalinists went after the Trotskyists- which Orwell fought with- I think he was probably a Trot sympathizer - and which led him to being so anti-Soviet and to write "Animal Farm", a castigation of left wing orthodoxy - though I would guess he died a leftist of some sort.

There is even a brand known as Ultra-leftism - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-leftism
What many people don't get is that the "left" is far from homogeneous -- even those who characterize themselves as "left" function in practice like the right. The old joke is that if you put 2 sectarian leftists in a room you end up with 3 groups. Splitting is in the DNA of many left groups. And there are oh so many left wing sectarian organizations you need a score card to keep them straight. And oh how so many of them go after each other for ideological transgressions.

Now there are sectarian groups on the right too but I don't follow them. And how about the Unity Caucus in its earliest days when you had to be a card carrying member of the sectarian Social Democrats USA - SDUSA - considered the right wing of the SD movement -- whose members were key organizers of the UFT. If you wanted to get anywhere in the UFT you had to adhere to the program.

It was Randi who changed things and junked the SDUSA connection after Shanker died in 1996 and opened up Unity Caucus to anyone who showed loyalty to her.

Sectarian organizations on the left - and Unity Caucus too - operate under democratic centralism, where once a decision is made, everyone adheres to it religiously or they can be tossed out and shunned. Now when I am critical of democratic centralism, people accuse me of attacking a basic tenet of Leninism and also point out that Unity is centralist but certainly not democratic. I maintain that there is a lot of hierarchy in many left sectarian groups with a small inner circle making a lot of the decisions and then fancying them up to look democratic. This works for small and large groups (see Communist Party meetings in China where people "vote".)

If people don't agree with them ideologically or programmatically, they function like charter schools and try to push them out or make things so uncomfortable for the people who push back that they leave on their own. A common tactic is to cover the political disagreements with personal attacks and character assassination. Fake news is not off the table.

After describing the roots of the tremendous growth of DSA - the Occupy movement etc -- really remarkable for this country - Jeremy Gong goes into -

The Left’s Five Dead Ends (shit, I think I'm a horizontalist).

Video: PEP April 25, 2018 - Port Richmond HS Protest Principal

https://vimeo.com/267774737

Randi Deletes Tweets That Praised Arizona Republican Governor Ducey's School Funding Plan

Thanks to Jeff Kaufman for this nugget. I imagine this is coming from a report attempting to embarrass Randi by the Ducey supporters but it just shows how her pandering keeps coming back to bite her. Oklahoma teacher Larry Cagle who threatened to go to the AFT should take note.

Teachers’ Union President Deletes Tweet Endorsing Republican’s School Funding Plan

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey received Weingarten’s praise before she endorsed his opponent

Randi Weingarten / Getty Images

·          

Video and Commentary: PEP April 25, 2018 Students Protest Closing Their School, PEP closes it anyway

Students at Crotona Academy: If you close our school we will drop out.
PEP closed the school anyway.

The April 25 PEP was another doozy - Lisa North got home at 2AM. I couldn't stand it anymore and left at around 10:30. Earlier today I posted a piece about speaking to a class at Leon Goldstein about our 2011 film, The Inconvenient Truth About Waiting for Superman. The film opened with students singing: DOE Don't Care About Us.

Clearly. Whether under Bloomberg or de Blasio.

I made this short segment for that class to see that 7 years later nothing has changed. I have 2 and a half hours of video and this is just 5 minutes - only a slice of what happened.

Below the video is a great account of the meeting from the always awesome Leonie Haimson.

https://vimeo.com/267416001

 

Failure of Mayoral control: De Blasio starts yesterday by slandering teachers and the day ends with the closure of yet more schools by his hand-picked panel, despite heartbreaking student pleas 

Where I go back into the classroom - for one hour

Yesterday I spoke to a high school class at Leon Goldstein HS about the movie - The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman - we made in 2010-11 when we were in the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM) - a pre-MORE group that emerged out of the ICEUFT Caucus. At that point we were just beginning to hold secret meetings about a proposed caucus that became MORE.

There is almost too much irony given current conditions between MORE and ICE (ICE SUSPENDS SUPPORT FOR MORE). 
But I'll deal with those issues as I sort them out.

In prep I watched the movie once again and realized a) how freaking good it is - with all the big activists in NYC education in it - and b) how united we were in early 2011 we all were so much together on so many issues.

Maybe everyone should watch the movie together as a reminder.

Mike Schirtzer, a teacher at Goldstein, put me in touch with young colleague, Maurice Blackmon, who invited me. His class watched "Waiting for Superman" and our movie and were asked to come up with question on testing, race, equity, race, class and economic status. And boy did they come up with questions -- questions -- that caused me to have to do a deep dive into so many areas. They asked about tracking, tenure as a way for lazy teachers to escape doing work, charter schools and the union. I made a few critical comments. I learned later that one of the young ladies is the daughter of a top union official. Oooops.

Maurice texted me earlier that today they will hold a debriefing. I hope I pass the test -- but as you all know - I love to talk so if anyone wants to show the movie to their class I'm ready to go.

Addendum: Independent Teacher Revolts Against AFT and NEA

I posted this Antonucci piece yesterday: Antonucci - Oklahoma Teachers Want to Impeach NEA Union Officer and Change to AFT - A WTF Moment

I sent the article out to the MORE and ICE Listserves with this addendum:

Imagine Larry Cagle at AFT conventions. I would go to Pittsburgh this July just to meet him.
Can Larry come here and organize against Mulgrew?

This article may be an interesting pre-cursor of things to come.
We have heard much about the lessons of the red states for us here in NYC.

I'm sorry we never got to to deeper in our discussion at the MORE meeting this past Saturday but would suggest topics like the one below are worth exploring at the May meeting.

A What if?

Back in the fall when MORE began its Janus campaign of staying in the union, I raised the idea that people who might leave the UFT or call for leaving the UFT might actually organize something independent - it wouldn't be easy but it is possible.

The red state revolts are also revolts against the NEA and AFT.

At the Jacobin event I spoke to one of the WV teachers -- they were all NEA I think - and he said that they were being discouraged from working even with their own AFT colleagues in their own schools.

So underlining a lot of what is going on in those states is some competition between the AFT and NEA which may be more intense in right to work states.

In OK I think Randi has been pretty slick and we know she knows how to play people. So Larry Cagle may be fooled -- or just using her.

A big chunk of our dues goes to the AFT and come Janus these issues may come up.

After all our pals in the FMPR in Puerto Rico took their union out of the AFT over 10 years ago, with Raphy calling them blood-suckers.

At last summer's early July MORE event which Mike and I organized and was attended by 35 people, there was a heated discussion about the high school teachers doing a separation from the UFT -- given that they have voted anti-Unity for most of the past 30 years.

Imagine if some group in the UFT post-Janus actually went out and did what Larry Cagle did in Oklahoma and some of the WV and Ky people did and get enough signatures in the high schools to cause a bargaining election? James has floated this idea on the ICEUFT blog.

All balls are in the air.

I'd been thinking that with recent events organizing in the union and beyond here in NYC, with the power of Unity Caucus and a weak opposition that never gets a toe hold, is a dead end. Maybe not.

And here I was looking forward to some easier retirement years. Maybe not.

Antonucci - Oklahoma Teachers Want to Impeach NEA Union Officer and Change to AFT - A WTF Moment

Larry Cagle, one of the co-founders of Oklahoma Teachers United, issued an additional threat. He told KTUL in Tulsa that if his group can’t impeach the OEA officers, he’ll urge OEA members to drop their membership and reorganize under the auspices of the American Federation of Teachers. “If we can’t get rid of the leadership at OEA, then we will just rebuild the state through AFT,” he said.... EIA

Mike Antonucci has another interesting piece on how teacher activists with the leading independent force in Oklahoma, Oklahoma Teachers United , want to impeach their NEA union leaders. The funniest line was the one in the preface from one of the OAU leaders, Larry Cagle, who is using the threat of joining with Randi as a cudgel. Good luck with that path.

Effort Underway to Impeach Oklahoma Union Officers

The emergence of teacher groups organized mostly outside of the union structure is one of the most surprising aspects of this year’s protests. Connected through Facebook, these groups have either supplemented or supplanted formal union leadership of the walkouts.

For the most part their dealings with the unions have been cordial, but in Oklahoma the united front that existed during the strike has given way to open revolt.

Oklahoma Teachers United has turned its grassroots organizing skills toward an effort to impeach Oklahoma Education Association president Alicia Priest and vice president Katherine Bishop, primarily for incompetence in running the walkout and selling it out by ending it without achieving anything substantial.

“No strategy was developed or communicated to measure progress during the OEA walkout,” reads the list of charges posted on Facebook.

The timing isn’t great, since Priest and Bishop were reelected to their posts while the walkout was going on.

Larry Cagle, one of the co-founders of Oklahoma Teachers United, issued an additional threat. He told KTUL in Tulsa that if his group can’t impeach the OEA officers, he’ll urge OEA members to drop their membership and reorganize under the auspices of the American Federation of Teachers.

“If we can’t get rid of the leadership at OEA, then we will just rebuild the state through AFT,” he said.

They are not being subtle about it. One recent post reads: “DROP YOUR UNION MEMBERSHIP NOW!!!!! Make the unions take note that our membership dues is not their country club dues. They either change and adapt with the times or they die!!!!!”

They’re serious, but exclamation points don’t automatically transform into accomplishments. Oklahoma Teachers United may find the formal union governance system a more formidable opponent than the state legislature ever was.

DSA (Democratic Socialists) Is At A Crossroads – Jeremy Gong – Medium

Our choice: we can maintain a tiny navel-gazing subculture, or build a vibrant mass movement for socialism. Let’s build a mass movement.... Jeremy Gong, DSA (Democratic Socialists of America)

Michael Fiorillo:

Interesting piece from a DSA insider: you will all be shocked, shocked to read what the author says is the divergence within the group ...

At the ICEUFT meeting on Friday, one of the founders, John Lawhead, said that any labor movement must speak to all members, not a select few. Otherwise it becomes a club of like thinking members, clearly a contrast to what is occurring in so many teacher movements in red states. Something some people on the left, who want to aim their appeals at a narrow group of people, are glossing over.

I described some of the tensions within MORE on Friday when we were facing ICE and MORE meetings less than 24 hours apart. Exploring Caucus Fault Lines: ICEUFT Meets Friday, MORE Meets Saturday. I will delve into what happened when I sort everything out.
 

I'm Rephrasing Gong's comment:

Our choice: we can maintain a tiny navel-gazing subculture or build a vibrant mass movement inside the UFT to challenge Unity Caucus. Let’s build a mass movement.. 

Gong:

We are a “big tent” organization and a democracy, meaning there is no party line we must adhere to, no cabal of leaders deciding our direction. We have to sort out among ourselves what kind of organization we want DSA to be. I see two paths forward emerging for us.

Over the decades in the UFT opposition movements people with the "big tent" idea of challenging Unity across the UFT have been frustrated as the potential of big tents with a wide range of views shrinks to the size of an igloo. Then along come the party liners - not only on the left - Unity is a party liner.

Gong:

They would rather be big fish in a small pond, posturing with their correct answers, than part of a millions-strong movement that can actually change the world.

Oh boy does this sound familiar.

Michael F. has come up with an interesting piece on DSA. MORE has had an influx of DSA people - I don't know enough to say which wing of DSA - but they seem to have aligned themselves with the ISO and Labor Notes view, people who want to build a safe space in MORE comfortable for young, activist oriented teachers, many of whom are connected to groups like DSA. On the surface this makes a lot of sense. But aiming at what is a relatively small segment of the UFT does not lead to a broad tent. I see a lot of party liners who want caucus discipline alla Unity.

What some people don't understand it that both ICE and MORE were basically founded by people who view themselves as socialists. I've always been in the edge -- never a Marxist though most of the people who influenced me were Marxists -- I'm too leftarian for that -- I'm more social democrat like Bernie with some belief that Marx was right about so much.

Gong gets to the core that boils things down to the essence of the internal battles in many movements bordering on the left.

On the one hand are those of us who are tired of both the useless compromise politics of the liberal center and the dead-end wheel-spinning of the activist left. We know that while it’s incredible and historic that 30,000 people have joined a socialist organization, we are still a tiny fraction of the US population. We have to grow many times over and consolidate the democratic socialist movement into an effective weapon against capitalists and elites before we can really transform our society. This is the DSA that reaches out into the non-DSA world to fight class enemies and bring in thousands of new members.

On the other hand are those who are not interested in the millions of working people who are not yet active socialists. Instead, they fixate on the purity and homogeneity of their own in-group and attack other members of DSA for not meeting their standards. This is the DSA that looks inward and fights with itself, disappointing and exhausting activists who joined DSA in order to change the world, and scaring off those not in DSA from joining.

I was looking to join the DSA myself but don't want to get into the same wars we have been fighting in the UFT over so many decades.
Gong begins by describing two DSAs. We are seeing that there are also two MOREs with some very parallel threads.

DSA Is At A Crossroads

Jeremy Gong 

Two DSAs
https://medium.com/@jer.gong/dsa-is-at-a-crossroads-60de6a4c84b6

The teachers' strikes prove it: the media is finally seeing America's new labor landscape | US news | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/apr/28/us-teachers-strikes-workers-labor-unions?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+USA+-+Collections+2017&utm_term=273111&subid=18260840&CMP=GT_US_collection

What a Union Is: Matewan Union Speech

We had a good discussion at the ICEUFT meeting yesterday of what a union is and how it has to talk to all members, not a slice of the membership. It came up in the context of a discussion of where MORE is heading. John Lawhead made the point that a union movement can't be led by what amounts to a club of like-minded people. That is not a caucus.

In this clip racism is rampant and challenged over how common ties bind all workers. It is a lesson some on the so-called left who are lauding the lessons of red state strikes but are missing the analysis of the politics and social attitudes that are driving the movement and uniting people of many political persuasions. Kudos to Michael Fiorillo for pointing us to this.

Haskell Wexler

Published on Nov 19, 2014

What a union is. Speech on what unionism is and where the primary strength of a union lies, in it's membership and threat of a strike denying the workforce from the employer to improve wages, working conditions, health and safety.

https://youtu.be/5RSaBoDl_9k

Exploring Caucus Fault Lines: ICEUFT Meets Friday, MORE Meets Saturday

Friday, April 27, 8 AM

I came back from a 4 hour MORE contract committee meeting last night where a few of us (a very few of us) have been going over potential contract demands we are putting in a survey.

Jeez, 4 days of meetings in a row -- PEP on Wed (after the funeral of a neighbor's 40 year old daughter), contract committee Thurs, ICE today, MORE tomorrow. And a shiver call on Sunday. And I'm leaving soon to go out to Long Island to help the Botanic Garden plant sale people pick out plants. And I transplanted two trees over the past few days. And I still  need to process the video from the PEP. Oy -- is this retirement?

There are a whole bunch of people in MORE who are very excited about engaging in a militant fight for a "good" contract but when it comes to actually figuring out what a "good" contract might look like, the ICE people in MORE show up to do the work. MORE will probably vote to be militant for a good contract on Saturday - it doesn't really matter what constitutes a good contract, as long as they are militant and mention strike every 10 words. (For the old-timers out there who remember our old sister caucus, Teachers for a Just Contract -- or as we called them Teachers for Just a Contract, some ICE people have labeled this TJC 2.0.)

There's a lot going on in MORE on a lot of fronts. I intend to cover it all but can't keep up at times. James posted a proposal for ICE to permanently or temporarily withdraw support for MORE after the unfair suspensions of two ICE people from steering when they weren't present.

ICE doesn't bind people so no matter what the outcome of today's resolution, some will stay in MORE unless things get even more weird. Some are considering self-suspension in sympathy. You can read the comment of one of the suspendees here. Over time details will emerge.

I want to hear all the arguments from James and others but I am not planning to leave MORE but to stay there and do the work I feel is worthwhile like fighting closing schools and lower class size and abusive principals -- I mean if some of us don't raise these issues many of the MORE ideologues will just ignore them, as they have ignored the PEP where Black Lives Really Matter.

One of the very frustrating things about MORE is the seeming inability to engage in deep dives into issues, something ICEUFT has always done very well - to the exclusion of doing some other things. But MORE has young people who have a life and don't like to meet for too long a time. ICE people will meet and talk forever because they have a lot of things to talk about. And are mostly retired.

MORE has a lot of very political and sensitive people with limited powers of analysis, or willingness to see below the surface of things -- much younger than ICE people - and it shows at times. One of the heavy issues in MORE is people being rude on the listserve. That seems to tie people into knots with lots of angst and gnashing of teeth. Even I, a known caveman, have to tone it down.

But I try to imagine a group of people claiming to want to challenge the Unity machine, ed deformers, abusive principals, etc. but can't deal with a few (and it is very few) people supposedly making some crude comments - and I have at times have made some comments in the heat of the moment but have learned that listserves are not the best place to shoot off an angry email. So now I let things vegetate a bit and it works better.

The next two days should be fun. MORE on Saturday and ICEUFT Friday afternoon, starting at 4PM and ending till they toss us out of the diner. And all day Friday I'm driving out to Huntington with the crew from Brooklyn Botanic Gardens to pick out plants for the May 10 plant sale, for which I've been volunteering at for the past 35 years.

MORE will meet Saturday from 11-2:30, actually a longer meeting than usual. After that we will race over to the MORE family leave event which goes from 3-5. I would have gone home but my wife is coming into the city for world tai-chi day and trying to get half price tickets to a show. One of the great things about tai-chi, which I have never done, is that you can't tell if it's real people or statues.

Hey, if you are a regular reader of the blogs stop by for a while and have a dose of rice pudding. And hang with the Eternos, Gloria, Schirtzer, Lisa, Vera, Ellen, South Bronx, Giambalvo, maybe Arthur, and who knows who else might drop in? Email me offlist for details. normsco@gmail.com

You can also stop by the MORE meeting - if you haven't been flagellated recently.

My announcement of the ICEUFT  Meeting:

Meeting Friday: Independent Community of Educators

The Independent Community of Educators (ICE), one of the two founding caucuses in MORE, will be meeting Friday at 4PM to discuss a range of issues related to red state teacher revolts and recent actions in MORE. The meeting is expected to last three of four hours - or until everyone has had time to express their thoughts. Maybe midnight.

As usual ICE meetings are openly announced. As a consensus group with a wide range of opinions, all actions suggested are not binding on individuals.

Contact me offlist if interested in attending as there is limited space and meeting location might have to be changed.

Tentative agenda:

Undemocratic actions by MORE steering to suspend 2 members of steering, both associated with ICE, without due process and with ex post facto rules. The background behind a prominent member of MORE threatening to leave MORE unless one of them was purged from MORE and the so-called compromise reached to suspend them for a month, thus removing two potential votes on steering that might be in opposition to the initiatives being pushed.

Other undemocratic acts within MORE, including the moderator of the debate, unilaterally called for the MORE meeting to be closed to members only, the first time this has been done in the history of MORE. Plus the extremely constrictive rules promulgated by the moderator, one of the 30 people who signed the proposal.

An official response from ICE, including calls for ICE to formally suspend or withdraw its support of MORE? Discussion on options, including total withdrawal.

Objectively analyze red state teacher revolts vis a vis current and future conditions in the UFT.
The viability of the current proposal being floated in MORE, which is a reminder of the program put forth by the other caucus that formed MORE, TJC (See Ed Notes on the relationship between ICE and TJC over the years.)

James posted this on the ICE blog:

ICEUFT MEETING FRIDAY AFTERNOON IN MANHATTAN WILL DISCUSS PROPOSAL TO SUSPEND ICE SUPPORT FOR MORE

The Independent Community of Educators (ICEUFT) will be holding a meeting tomorrow (Friday) in Manhattan at 4:00 P.M.

It is no big secret that the relationship between ICEUFT and the Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE) has been frayed at times and lately it has kind of exploded. I have written the following resolution that I will bring up tomorrow. It kind of speaks for itself.

Whereas, a group within the Steering Committee in the Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE) has suspended two Steering Committee members who are associated with the Independent Community of Educators (ICEUFT) without any due process or authority to suspend people;

Whereas, due process is a fundamental human right and a basic principle of democracy that cannot be compromised; and

Whereas, the Independent Community of Educators (ICEUFT) on principle will not have anything to do with an organization that denies its members basic democratic rights; be it therefore

Resolved, that the Independent Community of Educators (ICEUFT) suspends all support for the Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE) until further notice; and be it further

Resolved, that the Independent Community of Educators (ICEUFT) will continue its work to advocate for the members of the United Federation of Teachers and for public education.

This is Norm Scott's agenda for the ICEUFT meeting:
Members of the Independent Community of Educators (ICE), founded in 2003, original organizers of the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM) and one of the founding caucuses of MORE, will be meeting to discuss a range of issues, including a discussion of the red state teacher revolts and the status of its ongoing relationship with MORE, on Friday, April 27 at 4PM

The MORE Meeting announcement - note how little information is given about what has been going on to the MORE membership.

REMINDER: Please try to attend this important meeting that will discuss the future direction of the caucus.

MORE General Meeting 

Sat. April 28

11am-2:30pm

CUNY Graduate Center

Room 5414

365 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 365 5th Ave, New York, NY 10016

Proposed Agenda:

• Contract Strategy Proposal
  
• Committee Reports
  
• New Items/ Sharing of concerns

Join us afterwards at the Parental Leave Forum - From 3-5 PM at the Ya Ya Center  - RSVP Here on FB - 224 West 29 Street, 14th floor, New York, NY 10001

You may RSVP on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/2036581303221106/

If you'd like to help out in some way contact john.antush@gmail.com or peter.lamphere@gmail.com 

John Giambalvo, Lauded for Work on Immigrant Rights, Wins Award From UFT at Social Studies Conference

By Mike Schirtzer

John Giambalvo and Mary Beth Tinker*

John Giambalvo was recognized by the Association of Social Studies Teachers UFT for his excellence in pedagogy, commitment to his students and dedication to the discipline.

This is the  second major award John has earned. Two years ago he was named Catholic Public School Educator of the year.

He was also nice enough to have me for an inter-visitation at his school where I was lucky enough to observe him teach and speak to students on his student government. His students were amazing and they gave me ideas for my senior council that I coordinate. I spoke glowingly of John’s work as Coordinator of Student Activities.

I learned of John when we both became interested in union activism. We both see the UFT as the most important organization in defending NYC’s public schools. We have fought for school integration, immigrant’s rights, a good contract for UFT members, and marched along side each other for women’s rights and public education.

We joined with a few groups to demand the DOE have an “immigrant liaison” to help students in public schools. When that didn’t go through, we attended a CUNY workshop on immigrant’s rights. He organized a conference in his school of mostly Latino, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Indian students on how they can protect themselves.

I saw first-hand how John’s students adore him. His COSA office was packed with kids wall to wall with students from the student government and national honors society which John also runs, and kids just looking for a place to feel at home during their lunch.

They were discussing student activities, politics, their favorite teachers, and of course making fun of Mr. Giambalvo while trying to figure out why I chose to come visit another school rather than just skip it and stay home (I told them I had a boss and like having a roof over my head).

I’m not an administrator. I don’t pretend to understand or like the Danielson domains. Here’s what I do know: the students in John’s class had smiles on their faces, they were laughing, they were engaged, it was really intellectual students having high level discussions in an AP class. His SGO and NHS were kids mostly of immigrant backgrounds, male and female that were empowered to make decisions, plan events, and work at the school store. They have a plane to have their voices heard, they are given agency as immigrant teens of color, in s society that has become increasingly tolerant of bigotry and xenophobia.

John deserves every reward he has earned. The UFT has a devoted member that will fight for his union with everything he has. Our schools and the kids we serve have a teacher that is as dedicated and smart as they come. Most importantly he had the unwavering love and support of his wife, daughter and friends.

======
Mary Beth Tinker is an American free speech activist known for her role in the 1969 Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District Supreme Court case, which ruled that Warren Harding Junior High School could not punish her for wearing a black armband in school in support of a truce in the Vietnam War. The case set a precedent for student speech in schools... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Beth_Tinker