Thursday, June 6, 2019

The Borgs: Opposing Unity Caucus is Futile - You Will be Absorbed or Marginalized

So what is do be done? With no organizing goal with the idea of building a counter organization to Unity, what are we left with? Often flailing away and spitting against the wind. Some people love to get spittle in their faces. 

The idea of a real opposition is dead. So what next? Abandon the UFT altogether? Maybe. There are many places to do political and social justice work. Why even bother in the UFT?

There has been a paradigm shift by a number of long-time activists involved in decades of "opposition" to the UFT/Unity Caucus dominance. The state of the union has been a topic of discussion. There is general agreement that the actions of MORE had pretty much decimated hopes of challenging Unity. A faux opposition made up of ideologues with an agenda to use a quasi-caucus as a mechanism to push their ideology will never have a serious impact but will always be a block to forming coalitions.

Some hard conversations about the state of the UFT have been taking place by people I consider as rationalists - mostly on the left -- call it rational leftism. They see the real world, not some idealistic notion. People who spent decades trying to build caucuses and coalitions that could one day challenge the Unity leadership.

I include former opposition who have decided to run with Unity in order to maintain some influence even if vastly diluted. Given the state of the opposition, they felt there was little alternative and didn't want to join the ranters and ravers. I'm not in that camp but don't condemn them for the choices they made. They made a rational decision from their point of view.


Some say they have been Borged - maybe they have.

Maybe I have been Borged when the people running the union seem preferable to some of the people I know who are ostensibly opposition.

You can't sit at UFT Ex Bd meetings and hear all the wonderful things Unity people do and not enter the realm of the Stockholm Syndrome. (a condition which causes hostages to develop a psychological alliance with their captors as a survival strategy during captivity.)

I do see signs even in me when there is no alternate narrative or a group that is serious about analyzing the problems with the Unity leadership and what needs to be done to challenge them.

There are cures -

The rationalists don't connect with the lone wolves bitching and whining on blogs about how bad the union is and why they want to stop paying dues but hide behind anonymity - and use that to cover their own racial attitudes - you know, those poor white guys crying about how bad they have it.

Now don't get me wrong. None of us thought we could ever defeat Unity in an election, especially due to the election rules, the use of retirees and the control over most functional chapters. That would be pie in the sky irrationality - magical thinking.

But we did think that a highly organized group could create a serious challenge at the school levels - to replicate the success in the high schools over the past thirty years - (at least until the 2019 elections when MORE helped blow up even that base. Don't get me started.)

We always felt that we could win the middle schools if we had sources in enough schools. As for the elementary schools, an organized effort at the district level had potential. And once the division levels were won there was an argument to be made that non-teachers were in control of the UFT and that would lead to further challenges. And from 2013-2016, I actually believed there was that potential for MORE to build the kinds of coalitions that could challenge Unity deep into the schools. Stupid and naive me - it became clear that all too many MOREs had no such intention but only wanted to use the guise of a caucus to push their ideology.
 
The 2019 election outcomes proved that point and killed the idea of  imagining a change of leadership in the UFT.

You will still see people blowing  smoke and trying to sell the myth of an opposition.

Beware! They are their own version of The Borg. 


Is there a third way?

We'll explore what may still be possible in a future post --- hint: not much.

Memo from the RTC: Doubt Is A MAJOR Theatrical Experience



Memo from the RTC:  Doubt Is A MAJOR Theatrical Experience
By Norm Scott

As one of the Rockaway Theatre Company’s videographers I video opening and closing performances. I admit that I was not enamored of the subject matter of John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt about a possible case of child molestation by a priest which opened last Friday and closes this Sunday. I knew the actors and was sure they would be great. But as for the play itself, I was not so sure. So I entered the theater with an attitude of doing my duty. I left a riveting hour and a half later feeling I had had one of the great theatrical experiences. I don’t believe I’ve ever heard an audience applaud at the end of every single scene.

The play itself is way more complex than I thought, with the older traditional hard-ass nun pointing to a number of instances of the oppression of women by the male church hierarchy where even the progressive young priest tries to take advantage of male privilege. And then there is the race issue where the parent of the one black child in the school scoffs at some of the automatic assumptions being made. Thus Doubt is very contemporary despite taking place in 1964, not long after JFK’s assassination.

Kudos to directors David Risley and Jodee Timpone and stars Susan Corning, Frank Caiati, Ashley Ann Jones and Billyn Tarplain. We all know the outstanding work of RTC mainstays Frank Caiati and Susan Corning as actors and directors. Ashley Ann Jones has been a major dancer at RTC musicals since “A Chorus Line” but I’d never seen her in a dramatic role. And as the young nun she was superb. And newcomer Billy Tarplain in her one scene, blew everyone away.

Last week I wrote, “Call me prejudiced but I see this cast as capable of winning Tony Awards as well as any pros - if a Tony was given for community theater (there’s an idea!)”. Well, I truly believe that every one of the four performers deserves a Tony.

Doubt is a limited run production- there are only 7 chances to see it! Reserve tickets online at www.RockawayTheatreCompany.org for best seats. May 31/ June 1, 6, 7, 8 at 8 PM and June 2, 9 at 2 PM.

The directors of the summer blockbuster musical Newsies have offered me a small role where I get to run around the stage chasing some young people. I will be lugging my own defibrillator.

Norm’s other WAVE column is School Scope and he blogs daily at ednotesonline. com


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Monday, June 3, 2019

Ben Sherman Out at FHHS

Give the UFT some level of credit for this. They will be partying tonight at the Ex Bd meeting. Hope they have beer. Hey, I didn't know Sherman is a Rangers fan. No wonder they have won much lately.

UPDATE: Queens Chronicle: https://www.qchron.com/editions/queenswide/principal-at-fhhs-goes-up-in-smoke/article_b3f66fa1-878d-5d51-8172-341ccab825c2.html

Arthur has a post:

http://nyceducator.com/2019/06/uft-and-community-prevail-at-forest.html

Dear friends in the media:
We are happy to inform you that Principal Ben Sherman resigned as Principal of Forest Hills High School effective 2:20 pm, today.  We know that there is no way we could have accomplished this without your persistence and advocacy.  I don’t know what will be held on Thursday to replace the protest, but at this point, I don’t care.  I am hoping that we may have established a blueprint for the removal of Principals with no principles.   Hopefully, more schools will involve the media and perhaps stage “no confidence votes of their own.
Again, thanks for all you’ve done,
James C. Hogue
Jennifer G. Hogue
Forest Hills High School
Below is a copy of the resignation letter

Sent on Behalf of Mr. Sherman and Dr. Davenport

OR


Oberhaus Richard

Mon 6/3/2019 2:20 PM
  • Oberhaus Richard
Dear Teachers, Administrators, and Staff,
It has been my pleasure to work with you here at the great Forest Hills High School. Together, we have built on the fine traditions of our school to support the students of our community.
When I arrived here in April 2017, I immediately considered Forest Hills my home.
I appreciate the opportunity to work with some great educators, especially my cabinet team. Collectively, we have increased our graduation rate, the number of advanced placement courses offered and passed, as well as parent and community empowerment.  We have accomplished a lot.
While I love Forest Hills very much, I must inform you with a heavy heart that I have decided to transition to another leadership role.  It has been a pleasure to work with you for the past two years and I am confident that Forest Hills will continue to grow and develop.  I encourage you to always make decisions that are in the best interest of children.  I know that you will continue to partner with one another and our elected officials and school community to support Forest Hills. 
I have been inspired every day by the great lessons in classrooms, amazing afterschool programs, and the dedication of the Forest Hills team.  I know that you will continue to demonstrate professionalism and dedication to every scholar.
Go Rangers!
Ben Sherman
Principal
Sean L. Davenport, Ed.D.
Supervising Superintendent
Office of The First Deputy Chancellor
#ChampionsForChildren
52 Chambers Street
New York, NY 10007

LaGuardia HS and the UFT: Late to the party

UPDATE - Parent Protest at LaGuardia at 2 PM, Monday June 3.

I know a number of fairly recent LaGuardia grads from my theater work and they have been telling me this stuff for years and have not been happy but had no mechanism to organize around.The LaGuardia HS alum could be a powerful force but the UFT was the only agency with the money and outreach to do it. They didn't.... LGHS Principal Lisa Mars is an apparatchik - she has that in common with most people in Unity Caucus.  
See Daily News coverage here: https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-laguardia-sit-in-20190531-ijkweesh4nbbbe3zsd7rbk4swm-story.html

The UFT is too big a player to absolve itself 

The timidity of the UFT/Unity Caucus leadership is infuriating. The UFT was pretty silent when Bloomberg destroyed most of the vocational ed programs and closed down school after school. Entire shops were tossed out in the street.

The UFT leadership seemed to philosophically agree with the DOE that voc-ed was somehow racist - that academics and college were the way to go.


LaGuardia is one of the few trade schools left where skills trumped academics. That doesn't make it an easy school to manage - many of the students are flamboyant and "active." So Lisa Mars was sent in by Farina to tighten it up and raise the academic standing at the expense of the talent. This is right in line with the policies of the past 2 decades. 


Friday, May 31, 2019

School Scope: How are we going to pay for that?

The WAVE - May 31, 2019

School Scope:  How are we going to pay for that?
By Norm Scott

I hear this question raised when it comes to the progressive ideas like Medicare for all, free college tuition, a green new deal and guaranteed incomes being promoted by people like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. But no one seems to ask that question when Trump just came up with a $16 billion bail-out for farmers hurt by his tariff policies or when we pay for billion dollar airplanes or disaster relief. I mean, where did the money come for Sandy relief?

I’ve been using this space to explore various views of socialism and capitalism and the areas in between, trying to define the various concepts of liberalism and what it means to be a liberal, which on the surface seems antithetic to socialism and to conservatism. But there is more complexity to 350+ year old concept of liberalism that have been associated with both trends over the centuries: classic liberalism, often associated with Adam Smith, one of the godfathers of capitalism, with calls for free markets without government interference.

Capitalism was a 17-18th century progressive revolutionary reaction to mercantilism - the economic theory that trade generates wealth and is stimulated by the accumulation of profitable balances, which a government should encourage by means of protectionism.

Another definition: economic theory and practice common in Europe from the 16th to the 18th century that promoted governmental regulation of a nation's economy for the purpose of augmenting state power at the expense of rival national powers. It was the economic counterpart of political absolutism. And mercantilism was considered progressive when compared to the feudalism that preceded it. (I know I’m being simplistic, but I only have 500 words.)

So does this mean Trump’s protectionist trade polices is anti-capitalistic and a return to the 17th century? There’s a lot to more to say (but not now) about how anti-capitalistic so many policies have been, including monopolies supported by the state. Capitalism in theory moves the economic power into the hands of individuals but is often aided by the state.

What I really wanted to talk about is neo-liberalism since the 1970s, an ultra-form of market-driven capitalism with little state interference – unless it is needed. Here’s a formal definition: Neoliberalism is characterized by free market trade, deregulation of financial markets, individualisation, and the shift away from state welfare provision. Since the 1990s the term has been consistently used in academia to imply the move from welfare state to laissez faire economic management, particularly associated with the promotion of free market ideals in the late 1980s by Margaret Thatcher in the UK and Ronald Reagan in the US.

Milton Friedman, a leading guide for conservatives and libertarians, was the chief American voice.

Consider neo-liberalism a counter reaction to FDR’s New Deal which rescued us from the depression and helped win WWII and served to  guide this nation to unprecedented prosperity through the late 60s. The economic impact of the Vietnam War had a lot to do with the rise of neoliberalism which also included attacks on unions and a free market that led to the devastation of American manufacturing.

The interesting rise of Bernie Sanders and AOC are a counter-reaction to neoliberalism. Note there are intersections between some of the positions of both Sanders and Trump – an estimated 30% of Bernie supporters went for Trump in 2016.

I will close by referencing neoliberalism as the embodiment of the charter school movement -  the main agent in undermining the public school system, which Friedman considered a monopoly and called for its abolishment. Bringing the free market to education is a disaster just as it was to manufacturing and it couldn’t have happened without either the active support of the government or a hands off policy when workers lost their jobs in the millions, led by both parties – i.e, Bush and Obama/Biden. Oh yeah, wars always seem to play a role.

Bernie Sanders is one of the first politicians to call for a national moratorium on charter schools. And it is no surprise that Corey Booker and other Democrats have attacked Bernie. Keep an eye on the education policy divide inside the Democratic Party.

Norm blogs at ednotesonline.com.
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Don't Miss "Doubt" at the Rockaway Theatre Company - Opening tonight



Memo from the RTC:   Doubt Opens This Weekend

The busy season escalates at the Rockaway Theatre Company this week with the opening of Patrick Shanley’s Doubt.  You may be most aware of the 2008 movie starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and Viola Davis, all of whom were nominated for Academy Awards. The original production produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club in 2004 transferred to Broadway in 2005, winning a Tony Award for Best Play.

The RTC production is directed by David Risley and Jodee Timpone and stars Susan Corning, Frank Caiati, Ashley Ann Jones and Billyn Tarplain.  Call me prejudiced but I see this cast as capable of winning Tony Awards if they were given for community theater (there’s an idea!) We give our own Tony Homsey Awards, speaking of which…

Tony’s construction crew is meeting this week with the directors and set designers of the summer RTC blockbuster musical, Newsies. I’ll share the exciting details in a few weeks.

Doubt is a limited run production- there are only 7 chances to see it! Reserve tickets online at www.RockawayTheatreCompany.org for best seats. May 31/ June 1, 6, 7, 8 at 8 PM and June 2, 9 at 2 PM.






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Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Baltimore Union Election Update - Randi Talks Trusteeship - DUHHH!

Weingarten replied, “I believe all parties [Baltimore Teacher Union] have now come to the national union seeking intervention, be it temporary trusteeship, an investigation or a rerun of the most recent election.”... Mike Antonucci report: Who Asked for a Trusteeship?
I wrote after the initial report of the insurgent win:
Don't expect this Baltimore outcome to be accepted by the caucus in power - Unity-like caucuses do not give up power easily. They will probably go to the AFT to adjudicate. 
Given that English is the president of AFT Maryland and an AFT vice presidents and Randi ally, and the politics of the insurgents are not in Randi's wheelhouse, I always expected the AFT to get involved with the hope of keeping English in power. So expect a new election. And overturning the election.

Note an interesting issue - English only protested the election in areas where she lost -- the classrooms. 


Antonucci writes:
As things stand, English has the new election she wants, and president-elect Brown certainly doesn’t want to be removed before she has even had a chance to be seated. Her letter mentions nothing about a trusteeship.
Under a trusteeship, all democratic functions of the union are suspended, and it generally ends with a new election. Who benefits?
Who benefits, indeed? Keep in mind that one of the keys in maintaining Unity Caucus control of city, state and national union is making sure leftist ideology never take hold. The AFT operates the same way on the international teacher front.

Watch the same politics play out in the Democratic nomination process where the AFT will play a role in keeping Bernie or any other left leaning 



Previous ed notes reports on the Baltimore election:

Diane Ravitch Exposes NY Times Bias Against Bernie Sanders

I was outraged and intended to write about some of the shameful NY Times coverage of Bernie Sanders - and by the way, the vicious attacks by the Jeff Bezos owned Washington Post, both papers very anti-Trump. But they see Bernie as a bigger threat and their bias also exposes the Democratic Party alliance with big corps and the education deformer crowd. When Bernie took on charters that was a dividing point. The article on Bernie's education plan was vicious.

Here is the link to the Diane Ravitch fabulous dissection of the articles in the NY Times, especially the co-written one by Dana Goldstein who we've considered yet another shill - even when she wrote for the left wing Nation (I remember we sent her our movie for coverage in The Nation and she didn't seem to like it - duhhhh!)

The “New York Times” vs. Senator Bernie Sanders
Below the fold is an entire re-post.

Monday, May 27, 2019

State Ed Comm Elia Attacks Our Own Fred Smith

NYState Ed Comm MaryEllen Alia: Fred Smith’s opinions are misleading and include fabrications regarding state assessments.


Fred Smith:
Calling on critical thinkers.  Please read below and decide whom to believe -- Commissioner MaryEllen Elia or Fred the Fabricator?
I may have missed where she shows that NYSED took steps to inform parents about the stand-alone field tests.  Thank you.
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-the-seeds-of-a-poisonous-testing-tree-20190516-w55d7mz3ejec7hq4kb7xc7skbq-story.html

This story is almost funny but the fact that Elia felt it necessary to respond to Fred, one of my fellow 2018 Skinny Awards - winners (don't forget to sign up for this year's event - Wednesday June 19 ) shows that nerves are being touched.

Friday, May 24, 2019

Baltimore Election Committee Orders New Election for but only for seats leadership lost - Antonucci

Don't expect this Baltimore outcome to be accepted by the caucus in power - Unity-like caucuses do not give up power easily.... Reminds me of when Mike Shulman won the high school VP position in 1985 and Unity protested the election they ran and actually got a new election - which they then lost.... Ed Notes, May 17, 2019 - Social Justice Activist Ousts Randi Ally, 21-Year ...
By a strange coincidence, the members of the election committee were appointed by the current BTU officers, and only the election for president and the teacher seats will be rerun.... Antonucci
So what else is new? I reported that something like this would happen - I should have put "ousts" in quotes. If the opposition were ever to win here in NYC, Unity just wouldn't give up power but go to the mattresses.




Mike Antonucci has a follow-up where he compares this case to the Baltimore-based "The Wire." (McNulty just played Jean Valjean in Les Mis on PBS - and maybe Randi can show up as Javert to save her pal and AFT VP Marietta English.

New Case for McNulty and Bunk


The Nominations and Elections Committee of the Baltimore Teachers Union has decided a new election for union officers is necessary.

The election was noteworthy for the defeat of 21-year incumbent president Marietta English and her Progressive Caucus slate for the teacher seats on the union’s executive committee. English’s slate won all the support employee seats. By a strange coincidence, the members of the election committee were appointed by the current BTU officers, and only the election for president and the teacher seats will be rerun.

It’s possible that the opposition caucus violated the union’s election rules. Weigh that possibility against the ballot set-up approved by the election committee.
To vote for English and her entire slate, a BTU member had to punch a single button on the first touchscreen. This image depicts what a member had to do to vote for the opposition slate:

It seems clear this contest isn’t so much an election as a street fight. English’s opposition should look to Omar Little for advice.

Thursday, May 23, 2019

UFT Election Results: Unity the BIG Winner, MORE the Biggest Loser drops by 75%, Solidarity Beats MORE for Second Place and Stays Alive, Whither New Action - Ed Notes at the DA

On Wednesday I was going into Manhattan for a 3020a hearing (what a trip that has been) and a meeting later that night so I might as well go to the Delegate Assembly. But can I disappoint my many fans and not hand something out? No way.

So I cobbled this quicky together in the morning and beat my printer with a whip to wheeze out 300 copies. And since MORE seems to have been in the witness protection program since the election and just in case some attendees still take MORE seriously, why not beat a dead horse? They were snapping this up.

UFT Election Results: Unity the BIG Winner, MORE the Biggest Loser drops by 75%, Solidarity Beats MORE for Second Place and Stays Alive, Whither New Action

These results make me think Unity came in second – and those with an interest in promoting distance between the members and the union – our enemies – came in first… Jonathan Halabi, New Action, member of UFT Ex Bd.

The triennial UFT election ended with the usual victory for Unity Caucus, which has been in control of the UFT since its inception in 1962. Mulgrew received over 85% of the vote, with retirees being the largest voting block by far with 24,000 out of the 47,000 votes returned, with 89% going to Unity – yes, retirees are the happiest people in the UFT, maybe in the world. Over 197,000 ballots were sent out – about 25% returned overall. But the return from working UFT members was dismal.

Other than retirees, the turnout from working UFT members bordered on embarrassing. In the 20,000 member high school division, 3260 teachers voted. Without an effective opposition, the high schools, the only division where Unity has been weak, went for Unity by 67%, one of the few times Unity won a majority of high school votes over the past three decades. Unity got around 2100 high school votes, the same as in 2016 when they lost to MORE/New Action – and MORE’s insistence on running alone this time turned into a disaster as MORE received 550 high school votes and New Action 250, and Solidarity 375. In 2016 MORE/NA had over 2300. A lesson on divisiveness.

Unity won 75% of the middle school vote with 1200 votes out of 11,000 middle school teachers. They did even better in the elementary schools with 85% - 6,000 votes out of about 37,000 elementary school teachers. But the returns from the 3 teaching divisions is a sad commentary on how little UFT elections matter to working teachers. Jonathan’s point is right on.

Between the almost 70,000 teachers in elem, middle and high schools, Unity gets 10,000 votes. In the non-teaching functionals Unity received over 7,000 votes out of the 10,000 cast. 20,000 retirees voted for Unity. Is the UFT stronger or weaker when retirees are the most interested segment of the union? Read a detailed election analysis on ednotesonline: https://tinyurl.com/y6epxjub

A decimated opposition, with the sectarians in MORE being responsible
One of the reasons for the dismal results for the three opposition caucuses was their inability to form a united opposition. The rough order of total votes were Solidarity (7%), MORE (5%) and New Action (3%). As a longtime activist in the opposition, I shudder and question whether it is even worth participating in UFT elections, a waste of resources and time. In my final days in MORE I urged them to either take the election seriously and run with everyone in a united front or don’t run at all. I feel they have made a mockery of UFT elections and now a very weak Solidarity can claim the mantle of the only caucus that shows signs of growth, even if minimal. They finished second by outpolling MORE by a thousand votes a surprise since they have such a small base in the schools as was the poor showing of MORE Caucus with a bigger base. They bear the major responsibility for the debacle through divisive tactics internally and externally. Three key former MOREs ran on the Unity line for Ex Bd but maintain they will act independently of Unity. They no longer felt welcome in MORE. This puts Solidarity in the titular position of the opposition with the most support but it is a hollow "victory." Sadly, it seems that New Action has faded into possible oblivion. New Action was founded in 1995 as a merger of two caucuses and had initial success but as their leadership aged out into retirement they lost their base in the schools – plus the disaster of the alliance they made with Randi Weingarten and Unity Caucus in 2003.

In 2016 MORE/New Action had almost 10,600 votes and Solidarity had 1400. That’ was 12,000 votes against Unity. The total opposition vote this time was less than 7,000.

Solidarity beating out MORE is a big thing in the tiny world of the opposition inside the UFT. Showing some growth is essential but it was clear they didn't have enough of a base to make much bigger gains. The real race was to beat MORE and claim the mantle of the leading opposition - and Shockingly they did. I expected MORE to lose thousands of votes - but MORE dropped so drastically by 8000 votes. Think of it - in 3 years MORE, founded in 2012 as a merger of ICE and TJC, lost 8000 votes. from 10,600 to 2,600. The MORE leadership purged the ICE faction and some of their supporters voted for Solidarity.

MORE declares victory for not finishing last.
The MORE spin: One leader of MORE posted that they finished third, not last. The spin is that they didn't really try and purposely ran not to win and that the drop from almost 11,000 votes to 2600 shows that they still have a base to organize for their platform – sure, just like they organized the 10,600 last time. All the years of building the opposition and it all went crashing against the rocks of sectarianism. At the end of the day, the opposition in the UFT is decimated and Unity Caucus is more empowered than ever. Nice work. The faction in control of MORE ought to write book - how to destroy a union opposition and empower the ruling power. MORE missed an essential point. In the UFT the goal is to battle the Unity machine which controls the UFT, NYSUT and AFT with all forces at hand, not use elections to push an ideology. MORE has become a boutique caucus or a members only club.

Norm has been a UFT member for 52 years. He helped found ICE in 2003 and MORE in 2012. He is now a free agent. 

Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Skinny Awards - Wednesday June 19 - Support the important work

Last year I was joined by Fred Smith and Danny Dromm as winners of the award.  I'm a Skinny: Honored to be honored by Leonie...The year has gone by very fast. I expect to attend this year's event - I haven't missed one since Leonie began giving out Skinny's as an antidote to the Broad Awards.

Save the date! On Wednesday June 19 we will hold our annual Skinny award dinner at Casa La Femme on 140 Charles St. The honorees will be Attorney General Tish James for her steadfast and courageous leadership in supporting public school students and parents over many years; and NYC Kids PAC, the only political action committee that rates candidates on their positions on public education. Please reserve your ticket now — for a delicious three course dinner with wine and great company besides!

NYC Educator Asks: Why Is Ben Sherman Still Principal?

When people ask me what is the major problem with the NYC school system I answer "the principals". I've always maintained that teachers should play a major role in choosing the principal and that should be a core demand by the UFT even if it is pie in the sky.
A year ago I and other bloggers issued our first reports on Forest Hills HS Ben Sherman with this post:

Monday, June 4, 2018
Incompetent Principal Ben Sherman: Forest Hills HS Teachers Issue Declaration of Independence

Arthur has a follow-up today:
I can't ever recall 90% of a teacher's students filing a complaint. That would be extraordinary. Of course I'm not a principal. Mike Bloomberg decided that principals could do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, however they wanted, and established a Leadership Academy to teach that principle (to principals). Evidently, Ben Sherman learned well.... Arthur Goldstein

Why Is Ben Sherman Still Principal?

Bronx ATR left this comment which contains some truth:
 It’s been years since I’ve seen the UFT Publicly challenge an administrator. There used to a section in the UFT monthly rag that profiled these demi-gods in a rouge’s gallery of shame. There used to be many pickets against these characters. Teachers are afraid and see the UFT doing very little to help them, creating more passivity and emboldening even more abusive behavior.
The UFT claims it has been working behind the scenes. I believe that. But that is not enough. Teachers need the UFT to go public as a lesson to administrators and the CSA which covers for them.

I do get that there are limits to the UFT ability to get rid of a principal.

There was a time when we practically became the Ben Sherman blog. Here are a few more of our posts:

Tuesday, May 21, 2019

CORE Wins in Chicago, Supporters Express Concerns

I wrote about the Chicago union election last week -- Chicago Teachers Union CORE Caucus challenged by Members First.
CORE won the election but internally there are some serious concerns, as this excerpt signed by some key CORE people indicates:
...we recognize that many members are concerned about the direction of our union under the current CORE leadership team. We share many of those concerns. We are deeply sympathetic to members who feel that their working conditions, which are our students’ learning conditions, have been getting worse for years. As active rank-and-file teachers, clinicians, PSRPs, and school workers, we have experienced the bullying, the disrespect, the micromanaging, and the intense pressures and workloads personally.... it’s our contention the current leadership has made a series of mistakes that have deepened the defeats and taken us off the road to fighting back. One of the most concerning was the top-down decision of this leadership to call off a strike in 2016 accepting what we consider a weak contract. We also believe our union has not done a sufficient job defending members and our contract in the buildings and that leadership has become too far removed from the everyday abuses we experience. In addition, we are in deep disagreement with our leadership’s turn towards funding Democratic establishment politicians.... letter from CORE Supporters, including some founders
Sound familiar? The above, printed in full below, comes from a dissident faction internally within the CORE caucus - some of whom I have spoken to over the years and when they expressed some of their frustrations within the CTU. I spent a couple of days hanging out with some signees and other CORE people in Los Angeles back in July 2009, a year before CORE won. I heard from some of them as far back as 2012 and 2014 at AFT conventions. Some of them were among the top leadership but have left the leadership to go back in the classroom.

You won't read about these concerns from leftist social justice activists within CORE in the often fawning leftist press over CORE.

These dissidents are somewhat similar to the former dissidents within MORE - mostly people associated with the ICEUFT wing of MORE who have been pushed out by people with similar ideologies to the leadership of the CTU --- many of the people in ICEUFT do not cede the SJ interpretation to the ideologues. What is clear, it that since similar issues are being raised in other caucuses, this is a fundamental political disagreement and not personal --- which is often raised by people who want to hide the politics. I think what happened in MORE is happening in other places too.

Monday, May 20, 2019

Former ISO member: Stay the revolutionary course

Leadership of the wrong kind — but what were the causes?

After four years or so, I had a lot of unresolved questions about ISO’s program. In addition, it turned out that some of the people in leadership could be downright nasty, and I didn’t like that at all.

In a personal example, I was called a dilettante by one of the prominent NYC organizers because I occasionally volunteered in a soup kitchen.

At an East Coast conference, a national leader once berated a comrade who was studying law. She did it from the podium, in a room with more than a hundred people. It was shocking to hear her say, “You want to be a lawyer? Go ahead and be a fucking lawyer!”

Only years after leaving the ISO in 2002 did I understand that the lack of democracy, the unaccountability of leadership, and the rejection of feminism were fundamental flaws which led to such abhorrent behavior.
I'm publishing articles about ISO due to the influence ISO has had in MORE and still has. The non-ISO leftists in MORE - independents from DSA should take a hard look at how these people operated and still operate. The critiques of ISO as a sort of cult and undemocratic and issues related to race and feminism seemed to infiltrate in MORE. Like the people in control are mostly white males. (Which is funny since they used surrogates to attack people like Mike and I as being white and male- at least I think we are.)

Here's a former ISOer who is now in another Party and reveals his point of view. I don't know enough to agree or disagree other than what I saw in MORE. He ends with: Some former ISOers will no doubt regroup and form yet another organization.
MORE is not yet free from the plague.
May 16, 2019

Stay the revolutionary course: a former member’s thoughts on the collapse of the International Socialist Organization

As a former member of the International Socialist Organization who is now a member of the Freedom Socialist Party, I take ISO’s recent implosion seriously. As a revolutionary, my biggest concern is whether those comrades who invested some part of their political lives in the ISO will remain radicals or instead be lost to cynicism, despair, or … the Democrats.
ISO’s extraordinarily rapid decision to close up shop came about through a somewhat dubious process — an online poll and then a phone call involving several hundred of its members. This course was precipitated by revelations about ISO leaders’ mishandling and cover-up of a 2013 rape charge against a member who, six years later, had just been elected to ISO’s highest leadership body. Members heard about the suppression of the case on March 11 of this year; by the end of the month, the ISO was no more.
Of course this is hardly the whole story of why the ISO fell apart. There are lessons to be learned by examining its politics, structure and leadership, all of which were fatally flawed.
At the same time it is necessary to defend the work that ordinary comrades did, based on an earnest desire to build an organization that they saw as instrumental to winning a better world.
The high of having all the answers
I was in the ISO from about 1997 to 2002. That is to say, from the time of Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright’s murderous sanctions and bombings against Iraq, until shortly after some of my closest comrades split from the ISO to form a now-dissolved group called Left Turn.
I participated wholeheartedly in the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, went to summer school in Chicago (which later became the annual “Socialism” conference), and eagerly sold the Socialist Worker newspaper. I gave an educational for the Harlem branch on the life of Che Guevara. It was a privilege to read the newly reincarnated International Socialist Review magazine, and to be responsible for its distribution in New York City. It was exciting to think of being part of a group of young, smart people who wanted to change the world.
There is a euphoria that comes from being so confidently busy and knowing that you’re so right about everything you do, about every opinion you have, and about every political statement you make. It leaves you with very little time to question or understand the possibility that not everything might be so perfect.
But certain things came to bother me. One was the tendency of my branch to drop one area of unfinished political work to pick up something else. Another was an avoidable level of organizational sloppiness — for example, frequent running around at the last minute to secure a venue for a regular weekly meeting.
I began to wonder about the correctness of ISO supporting Ralph Nader for president in 2000. Why did we vote for a pro-capitalist “left” celebrity? Why not for other socialists?
And could it be true that white privilege really does not exist, as ISO claimed in those days? And what was up with the ISO’s longstanding, explicit hostility to feminism? Was feminism really by nature “bourgeois”?
My comprehension of the bigger historical issues was limited. For example, the slogan “neither Moscow nor Washington” went along with ISO’s stance that the Soviet Union was “state capitalist” — but what did that really mean? Much later I came to understand that this position (like the endorsement of Nader) was opportunist — that is, convenient rather than principled. The roots of the ISO are in a political grouping that was unwilling at the beginning of World War II to take the “unpopular” stand of defending the USSR against U.S. aggression.
Leadership of the wrong kind — but what were the causes?
After four years or so, I had a lot of unresolved questions about ISO’s program. In addition, it turned out that some of the people in leadership could be downright nasty, and I didn’t like that at all.
In a personal example, I was called a dilettante by one of the prominent NYC organizers because I occasionally volunteered in a soup kitchen.
At an East Coast conference, a national leader once berated a comrade who was studying law. She did it from the podium, in a room with more than a hundred people. It was shocking to hear her say, “You want to be a lawyer? Go ahead and be a fucking lawyer!”
Only years after leaving the ISO in 2002 did I understand that the lack of democracy, the unaccountability of leadership, and the rejection of feminism were fundamental flaws which led to such abhorrent behavior.
Even more recently, I learned that some members were increasingly questioning the official antagonism of ISO leadership toward autonomous organizing by female comrades and comrades of color. It makes sense that it would be the women and people of color who were ultimately going to expose the internal contradictions which had existed for decades, and which eventually unraveled the fabric of the organization in late March of this year.
From these political deficiencies arose problems of the organizational culture.
A longtime West Coast leader, Steve Leigh, had this to say in a written contribution about the crisis: “From the beginning, modesty and a sense of humility was part of the DNA of the ISO.”
This is a most telling example of how the lSO as an organization had long insulated itself from reality.
What really existed was the opposite: a general hubris prevailed. ISO members were taught never to back down from an argument. This meant that members knew everything, that nobody in the organization would ever say to a non-member, “You know, I never thought of that. You might be right.” This arrogant mindset also bears responsibility for the fact that ISO was rarely involved in coalition work unless it, as the “largest socialist group on the Left in the U.S.,” could call the shots.
At a Trotsky Conference in the Bronx, the same national leader who publicly berated the comrade studying law offhandedly responded to a lunchtime conversation about sexism and the necessity for a socialist feminist program by saying, “We don’t have those problems in the ISO.”
What had developed was an organization whose leadership, and until recently much of the membership, actually believed themselves immune to the social prejudices in capitalist society in general. In other words, sexism, racism, heterosexism and so on were not problems inside the ISO. Therefore only theory was needed, and then only for the world outside of the organization, because the body itself had already been purged of these problems.
Pressured by the resurgence of women’s activism via the MeToo movement and the matter-of-fact acceptance of feminism of many of its newer and younger members, the ISO of late began to head in the direction of socialist feminism. It is ironic that people who joined in the last year or two were largely unaware of its traditional rejection of it.
Feminism: not the problem but the solution
After leaving the ISO, I wanted to avoid three things above all: to drop out of revolutionary political activity altogether, to go back to the Democratic Party, or to become bitter and even hostile toward serious party-building. I saw at least two former comrades eventually reject the need for a vanguard party along with the ISO’s distorted, bureaucratic organizational norms.
As I shopped around for another political center of gravity, I found that only the Freedom Socialist Party had a program and practice that was both proudly feminist and truly revolutionary.
Socialist feminist theory is as simple, profound and obvious as the theory of surplus value: that for the emancipation of women to become a reality, women have to be in the leadership of the revolutionary process. Same for the leadership of Blacks, other people of color, and all the specially oppressed who have suffered the worst that the capitalist system delivers.
Simply stated, feminism is not the problem, it is the answer. Only socialist feminism can correct what Frederick Engels called “the world historic defeat of the female sex.” It is not feminism but sexism which is divisive. ISO had this tragically and fatally wrong.
One of the most satisfying episodes of my ISO experience was promoting and attending several productions of Howard Zinn’s play “Marx in Soho.” Marx comes into the present for an hour or so, to clear his name and explain why his ideas are still relevant.
In one section he mentions the collapse of the Soviet Union, and explains why it’s wrong to equate Stalinism with communism. He says: “Socialism is not supposed to reproduce the stupidities of capitalism!”
The ISO would have done well to consider this statement as it reproduced yet another top-down, undemocratic, macho structure which was bound sooner or later to collapse.
In retrospect, it seems that it would have been so easy for ISO to consider programmatic feminism as necessary political fabric, instead of issuing reams of tortured and twisted arguments against it! But bureaucratic leadership insulated the group from correction until it was too late.
Anyone who wants to see a human society based on cooperation rather than competition, where people get what they need and can finally live lives that are their own, needs a revolutionary political home. There is no antidote to pessimism more powerful than organizing along with people with whom you passionately agree! That’s why people joined the ISO. That it turned out not to be what it appeared is no individual’s fault, but a result of something deeper.
Some former ISOers will no doubt regroup and form yet another organization. I hope that others might at least find my journey from the ISO to the FSP interesting enough to inquire more about what I consider the original socialist feminist party.
Email the author at daveschmauch@hotmail.com.