Updated -
Arthur Goldstein at NYC Educator has a piece today -
Weingarten Supports Hochul, Hochul Thanks Her by Supporting Moskowitz.
Randi Weingarten's made robo-calls for NYS Lt. Gov Kathy Hochul, who made a slug appearance in front of the Moskowitz rally. I had a piece on this the other day-
Demand Accountability From UFT/AFT/NYSUT/Unity Caucus..., as did RBE at Perdido St.,
Time To Ask Randi Weingarten About The Kathy Hochul Robocalls Again.
Arthur raises some essential questions regarding the continuous bad policy decisions being made by the union time and again.
....How many times do we need to fall on our asses before someone in leadership gets tired? How much inexcusable nonsense do working teachers need to experience before someone says enough?
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when are we gonna learn from our mistakes? How many times are we gonna kowtow to people who hate us and everything we stand for just so they can crap all over us? I guess there's some logic to this, but my mind just can't get around it. Norm Scott regularly posts explanations, but even after he explains it I don't understand.
I'm apparently not able to articulate a clear explanation for the WHY behind the UFT's actions -- and let's make it clear, Unity Caucus, being the largest block in NYSUT and the AFT, controls both those organizations. So for those who try to make it seem Mulgrew is not Weingarten, that is just blowing smoke. All style and no substance in the difference.
Michael Fiorillo has a piece in the upcoming High School Voice newsletter on Unity control which we will try to get into as many high schools as possible (email me if you are willing to distribute.)
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Chaz blog |
The real problem is not just a small oligarchic leadership who sit in offices but the loyalists in Unity caucus who are actually in schools, many as chapter leaders, and still force feed the Unity line to the people they supposedly represent. Note the comments of people like Unity supporters Paula Washington and John Marvel on blog posts critical of the union as examples - loyalists rushing to rearrange the deck chairs.
You need to look at the institutions the union sets up and controls that extend their control into the schools.
If you attend one of the 50 district and functional chapter meetings which are aimed at chapter leaders, you will find a room dominated by Unity and controlled by the Unity person running the meeting. I know MORE CLs who feel there is little headway to be made with these people. In only one district I know of have MORE and other independent CLs been getting to a point of critical mass where their voices are being heard.
People focus way to much on the elections every 3 years. The really important elections take place this May and June for CLs.
[MORE chapter leader election workshops on March 14 at CUNY.]
Even if independents get elected, they are often pulled into the orbit of the union-employed District Rep and also union training weekends where they are shown the advantages of joining Unity - and many do right away. Then they are told the opposition is poison, radicals, crazies, etc. And they spread the word in their schools if someone asks about the opposition.
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NYC Educator blog |
One of our new people had a friend who basically knows nothing about the union with disparaging remarks about MORE, which astounded this person. Where did she get that from? It is the Unity Caucus rank and file who are fed the line and pass it on.
Co-opting the opposition is another tactic. They target certain people. They never give up on people other than people like Arthur, James Eterno, Jeff Kaufman and myself.
Many of the newer activists in MORE are being approached by union officials, if not outright offers to join "you will rise quickly in the union" but also more subtle -- we hear you, let's work together, join our working committees, etc. I call this "defanging" the opposition. Hey, it worked with New Action so effectively.
And for people who got involved with a group like MORE only recently, it can be heady stuff being approached with offers to give them a voice. Especially when Mulgrew himself is doing this - as Randi did with me for so many years - and yes, I admit fully to buying it for a long time. So I am not blaming them for being enticed. I can't tell you how many people who used to distribute Ed Notes from 1998-2003 ended up being co-opted into Unity -- I usually know that happened when they suddenly stopped saying hello to me at the DA -- though they are more friendly at AFT conventions in other cities.
Call them incompetent on policy but in this venture of control they are as good as it can get -- the Unity of Chicago was incompetent and that opened the way for CORE. Unity will make sure that never happens here.
Pogue made this excellent comment on Arthur's piece.
I don't believe leadership and Unity are out of touch, I believe they make decisions on fear... The fear that those at the top of our union leadership will lose their power, fear they will lose their double pensions, fear they will lose all the perks that come with keeping destructive policies the way they are. I imagine backdoor meetings with politicians and rich policymakers are made up of UFT leadership being told what's going to happen, then being assisted on formulating how Unity can make it seem like they are fighting back. Unionized marionette strings, if you will.
I used to think leadership made honest mistakes, too many mistakes, one worse than the last, over the course of the past 15 years, have made it crystal clear they are collaborative and complicit in public education's problems.
Leadership and Unity are not stupid, they are just scared.
I've been putting forward the Vichy-like-collaborationist theory for some time. I don't mean to compare them to Nazi sympathizers but with the kind of thinking that would get a significant group of probably decent people in France to think that a cooperating Vichy was better than the Resistance - which by the way was left wing -- and that is a story for another time given that ANY opposition will always have a left wing because, well, that is where activists and organizers are likely to come from.
One of the major tactics of Unity is the indoctrinate its people that the opposition are oddballs leftists to scare people who might venture into that camp. That MORE has been attracting a broader range of people is a threat to Unity and thus Unity woos them to try to winnow down the opposition to the extent they can be more easily branded.
What disturbs me is when our friends get all riled up when they hear some left rhetoric and end up, unwittingly, enforcing the Unity plan.