Written and edited by Norm Scott:
EDUCATE! ORGANIZE!! MOBILIZE!!!
Three pillars of The Resistance – providing information on current ed issues, organizing activities around fighting for public education in NYC and beyond and exposing the motives behind the education deformers. We link up with bands of resisters. Nothing will change unless WE ALL GET INVOLVED IN THE STRUGGLE!
Fred is back to our pages with a co-authored screed on the increasingly sellout Ed Dept no matter who is installed at the top - below are ed deform snakes.
Appointees at Ed Dept planning strikes at pubed
Here's our reaction to USDE's push to resume testing this spring. Please feel free to share with your readers and allies.
Robin Jacobowitz is director of education projects at the Benjamin Center for Public Policy Initiatives at SUNY New Paltz.
by Robin Jacobowitz
and Fred Smith - March 2, 2021
This week, the United States Department of
Education (USDE) sent a letter to chief state school officers directing them to
administer state-level standardized testing in
2021.
This annual testing, waived in spring 2020 due
to the COVID-19 pandemic, is required under the Every Student Succeeds Act
(ESSA) and has had bipartisan support. It encompasses English Language Arts
(ELA) and math tests in grades 3 – 8; science in grades 4 and 8; and one test
each in ELA, math, and science at the high school level. These tests are now
needed, the federal Department of Education rationalizes, to “understand the impact COVID-19 has had on learning and
identify what resources and supports students need.”
We support the search for understanding the
impacts the pandemic has had on our students and schools. But we object to the
premise that imposing the tests in 2021 will yield any meaningful answers
either about its effect on students and teachers or regarding the numerous ways
instruction has been organized and delivered this school year.
We find no justifiable logic in administering
these statewide tests to a population of young people already enduring a year
of disruption and hardship. As students and teachers struggle through unmatched
upheaval, the USDE is choosing to deprive them of precious instructional time
and instead subject them to mind-numbing exams whose worth, as we have previously written, was questionable even in good years.
These exams are not needed to tell us what we
already know: student learning has suffered this year, and even more so for
students from disadvantaged and traditionally marginalized backgrounds. In
requiring the tests, the USDE is reverting to old habits in a crisis and
failing to exert educational leadership. In 2021, testing becomes a ship
without an anchor.
Then there are the practical concerns.
We object to the loss of time and resources
that administering the tests will entail. The conduct of mass standardized testing
is not a simple endeavor. There is a multi-million dollar price tag that goes
to private vendors who are responsible for
test development. Even if the 2021 exams incorporate questions developed but not
used in 2020, there are the associated costs of test administration — producing
the exams (in print or computerized form) and ancillary materials, and
providing for their shipment and security. Added to these are the contractual
expenditures paid to testing companies for scoring, data processing and
reporting services.
Beyond that is the immeasurable value of the
time and effort that students and teachers invest in test preparation and
sitting for the exams — and the toll paid in test anxiety during an already
extremely stressful school year.
Moreover, with testing suspended in 2020 at
the federal level, what is the proposed baseline against which to measure pupil
achievement, class performance, different learning arrangements and various
modes of testing? In “normal” times, these are legitimate areas of
investigation for state- and district-wide test populations, as are
investigation of subgroup outcomes and comparison of ways in which instruction
is delivered. That’s not the case here.
To contemplate bringing students and teachers
to school over the summer for the purpose of taking a test clearly disregards
the weight they have shouldered this school year and ignores the serious
financial straits many districts currently face.
The “flexibility” offered by the USDE renders
the process confusing and cumbersome, and in effect, un-standardizes the
process. Most significant for a testing regime seeking useful information, this
flexibility makes the tests unreliable.
Such concessions place an even greater burden
on administrators as they figure out how to give the tests; on teachers who
must adjust their lesson plans to accommodate the exams; and on students who
are targeted to take them. They beg questions about what we learn from a
scrambled exercise in which participating school districts may follow different
procedures.
With New York and other states balking at the
prospect of testing this year, maybe we’ll see a re-awakening of the grass
roots opt-out movement. We agree that it is important to understand how our
students have fared through this pandemic. But forcing the administration of
state-level tests is an impediment to that goal, and does not help us reach
it.
We should turn to our teachers for a frontline
assessment of where their students are and elicit their thoughts about how we
might address deficiencies and inequities going forward. Instead it seems that
Washington D.C. is bent on taking the absurdity of testing to another level.
President Biden promised that teachers would have a friend in the White House.
USDE’s first step, however, signals business as usual. Is this how we “build
back better?”
In
December of 2019, Joe Biden promised that if elected, he would stop
standardized testing. Yet the U.S. Department of Education has announced
that states must test students in the midst of the pandemic. That is a
wrongheaded policy that puts data first and children last. Write Joe
Biden. Tell him to step in and cancel the tests.
1. Pick up the phone and call the White House switchboard at 202-456-1414.
Here is a suggested script.
"My
name is (name) from (state). I am calling to ask the President to keep
his promise about eliminating standardized testing. Forcing schools to
administer annual tests undermines the administration's call to support
our students' social-emotional and mental health in this time of
crisis. The tests must be canceled. Period."
2. Then pick up the phone and call the U.S. Department of Education at this number 800-872-5327. Press 3.
Here is a suggested script.
"My
name is (name) from (state). I strongly opposed Mr. Rosenblum's recent
letter that forces schools to administer annual tests this year. All of
our schools' efforts must be used to support our students'
social-emotional and mental health in this time of crisis. Test results
will be meaningless. Please tell Dr. Cardona that tests must be canceled. Period."
3. Finally, send an email to the White House by clicking here (letter prepared by our friends at NYC Opt Out).
Biden admin will go to the mat for Neera but not for minimum wage as payback to the Clinton corp machine. Do the Clinton's' have dirty pictures?
People on the left love to beat up on Biden appointee budget czar Neera Tanden, one of the most despised Hillary acolytes and former tweet queen. A noted Bernie hater, the irony is he is chairing the committee that has to approve her. Here two left commentators call for her to be rejected. And Krystal Ball and Nomiki Konst are not always lined up in the same place on the left. A Republican senator hounds her and reminds Bernie of some of the things Neera called him. Krystal does deep into her corporate shill history and Nomiki recalls Tanden personal attacks on her. I know my old fans would rather me talk about Mulgrew and the Del Ass but James is handing all that. [LIVE BLOGGING FROM REMOTE FEBRUARY DELEGATE ASSEMBLY].
The only thing I can say about the UFT is that they and the AFT are lined up with the Tanden wing of the Dem Party and she exhibits all the bad things about the party that brought us Trump.
Krystal Ball: NO ONE Should Vote For Neera Tanden, Hillary's Corrupt Hatchet Woman
Almost 20 years under the mayoral dictatorships of Bloomberg and de Blasio. It's time to put an end to it. School governance starts at the top but ends with someone in your school looking over your shoulder. Get a piece of the action.
Daniel has assembled a great cast for this event and there's only room for a few more - but it will be streamed live on FB too - but the Zoom is so much more fun. Register here: http://tinyurl.com/reimagine2
So many old friends from years of struggle against Bloomberg: Sam, Vern, Leonie, Bonita and some newer friends from more recent battles: Kaliris, Queen, Kim and maybe some surprises.
Leonie on her blog
The deep flaws and persistent problems with Mayoral control are
even more evident to many people, given the de Blasio’s push to have the Pearson
contract for the gifted test approved, and when it failed last night at the PEP, even among many of his own appointees, his insistence
to continue this controversial program anyway. Teachers of NYC are sponsoring a discussion of what alternative governance system would be best on Sunday at 8 PM.
We continue our collective journey to build a coalition of
community right-holders to Reimagine Our City Schools.
You won't want to miss this ... #ourcityschools #endmayoralcontrol #cancelthemayor
Is the lunatic fringe really the Dem party central crowd? Let me get this straight.
Are Mainstream Dems part of lunatic fringe?
State run health care (which exists in almost
every industrial society and defunding the police) is like saying
California wildfires were set by a Jewish space laser? Who's more nuts,
Jonathan Chait or Marjorie Taylor Greene? And Axios which is connected to MSNBC is not too far off.
Many people on the left have maintained that there is more consernation in the Dem Party and media supporters by the Bernie wing than by the right wing. Slandering the left with false equivalencies is part of their campaign. This one is hard to believe and Chait should take some serious lumps:
The leading Democratic mischief-maker is
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who advocates some left-wing views I consider
simplistic and impractical and, in some cases, poll badly. The top
example of a conservative mischief-maker, presented in perfect symmetry,
is Marjorie Taylor Greene..... Anyway,
it is true that Marjorie Taylor Greene and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
play equivalent roles within their respective parties. MTG holds down
her party’s right flank, and AOC holds down her party’s left flank. You
can somewhat deduce the corresponding beliefs of the two parties’
mainstream contingents by moving somewhat to the center of each. Most
Democrats are skeptical of defunding the police and question the
feasibility of transitioning to a state-run health-care system. Most
Republicans are probably quite skeptical that the California wildfires
were intentionally set by a Jewish space laser.... Jonathan Chait, NY Mag.
Equating the lunatics in the Republican Party who seem to have captured the party with the small left wing of the Democratic Party who have been margianized is pretty much over the top and a direct hit on the left by the supporters of Dem Central in the media. Here NY Mag and Axios take their shots.
Axios
has a small squib about “The Mischief Makers,” a handful of
idiosyncratic congressional backbenchers who make trouble for their
respective party leadership. The leading Democratic mischief-maker is
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who advocates some left-wing views I consider
simplistic and impractical and, in some cases, poll badly. The top
example of a conservative mischief-maker, presented in perfect symmetry,
is Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Greene’s views are just a bit more controversial. They include, but are by no means limited to, the following:
• The QAnon
conspiracy theory, which holds that Donald Trump is secretly fighting a
worldwide child-sex-slavery ring that was supposed to culminate in the
mass arrest of his political opposition, is “worth listening to.”
• “Zionist supremacists” are secretly masterminding Muslim immigration to Europe in a scheme to outbreed white people.
• Leading Democratic officials should be executed.
The most recent Greene view to be unearthed comes via Eric Hananoki.
Just over two years ago, Greene suggested in a Facebook post that
wildfires in California were not natural. Forests don’t just catch fire,
you know. Rather, the blazes had been started by PG&E, in
conjunction with the Rothschilds, using a space laser, in order to clear
room for a high-speed rail project. Here is Greene’s entire post, via
Media Matters:
The
Rothschild family has featured heavily in anti-Semitic conspiracy
theories since at least the 19th century. Anti-Semites have generally
updated the theory by replacing the Rothschilds with George Soros, a
more contemporary and plausible-seeming mastermind for a global
conspiracy to spread left-wing ideology. Greene’s version has instead
updated the theory by giving the Rothschilds possession of a secret,
powerful space laser.
Now,
you might wonder why, if an international cabal of Jewish bankers
wanted to finance a rail project, they would go about it by using their
space lasers to set a catastrophic blaze. Aren’t there easier ways to
get your rail stations approved by the state legislature? If you can
pull off a massive conspiracy like that and keep it quiet, and you have a
space laser you can use to immolate basically any target on Earth,
there have to be more direct profit-making opportunities than burning
down trees in order to arbitrage the land value for a public-transit
contract.
You’re probably not going to get Greene’s answer, though, because the last news crew that showed up at one of her events was threatened with arrest by the local sheriff.
Anyway,
it is true that Marjorie Taylor Greene and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
play equivalent roles within their respective parties. MTG holds down
her party’s right flank, and AOC holds down her party’s left flank. You
can somewhat deduce the corresponding beliefs of the two parties’
mainstream contingents by moving somewhat to the center of each. Most
Democrats are skeptical of defunding the police and question the
feasibility of transitioning to a state-run health-care system. Most
Republicans are probably quite skeptical that the California wildfires
were intentionally set by a Jewish space laser.
The thing is, you can be much more moderate than MTG, and still be extremely crazy.
Several
Republican and Democratic lawmakers are emerging as troublemakers
within their parties and political thorns for their leadership.
Why it matters: We're
calling this group "The Mischief Makers" — members who threaten to
upend party unity — the theme eclipsing Washington at the moment — and
potentially jeopardize the Democrats' or Republicans' position heading
into the 2022 midterms.
Axios spoke with a number of congressional sources about whom they find to be the most unpredictable and headache-inducing. Here's what they said:
Louie Gohmert (Texas):He
doesn't have much influence, but his antics — such suing Vice President
Mike Pence in federal court as part of a bizarre and futile bid to
force him to discard President Biden's electors — have generated
heartburn for leadership.
Mo Brooks (Alabama): True troublemaker. Led the push to oppose certifying President Biden's victory.
Democrats:
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York) and the other members of “The Squad”: Ilhan Omar (Minnesota), Rashida Tlaib (Michigan) and Ayanna Pressley
(Massachusetts): They have broken with leadership on crucial votes in
their collective effort to shift the Democratic Party leftward.
Jamaal Bowman (New
York): "The Squad" bolstered its standing by expanding its team with
freshmen who had replaced veteran lawmakers. Bowman joined the others in
voting against a waiver for retired Gen. Lloyd Austin to serve as
Defense secretary.
Cori Bush
(Missouri): She pushed back against the highest-profile Democrat, former
President Barack Obama, after he dismissed "defund-the-police" as a
slogan.
Be smart: “The Squad” is an obvious
target considering their history in the Democratic caucus, but some
members of the cohort with military and intelligence backgrounds also
have shown they’ll buck leadership.
Jared Golden (Maine): He is one of two Democrats who voted against re-electing House Speaker Pelosi this month. He said it was time for new leaders “if leadership has not been delivering the results that you think are critical to the future of the country.”
Conor Lamb (Pennsylvania):He joined Golden in voting against Pelosi for speaker for the second time since she reclaimed the position in 2019.
What they're saying:
“As the speaker frequently says, ‘Our diversity is our strength and our
unity is our power,'" Pelosi spokesperson Drew Hamill told Axios. "This
rudimentary media exercise is not a way to understand how the House
Democratic caucus operates, or how our members will come together to get
the job done for the American people."
Massive demos at Nixon 1973 inauguration. I was there but had stepped away to get coffee and just as the guy handed it to me a massive chorus of boos went up as Nixon's car passed by - my friend Lew and I ran out and saw the car heading down the street - we managed a few weak boos, went back to the train and headed back to NY.
Jan. 20, 2021
When you think of it, every Democratic President from the 20th century to the present has had some tragic elements, with FDR considered the best and most successful, though that too ended in his death. Wilson was fundamentally incapacitated in his final years, LBJ - tragic war, JFK - nuff said, Carter - well - I actually liked him and still do, Clinton, Obama - neo-liberalism reigned and they led to Trump. Well,, Republicans haven't been to great either - Nixon, Reagan ended with Alzeimers, Bush 1 and Bush 2 and Trump. Even back to Teddy - following McKinley assassination - ended up starting a third party in 1912 to defeat his former protege, Taft. They all give me the woolies.
Four years ago we marched with women all over the nation in protest - people were mad but they didn't storm national monuments. I was reminded of four years ago on January 19th with a photo reminder from Facebook of a big anti-Trump rally at his hotel near Columbus Circle a few days before the inauguration on Jan. 19, 2017. That and the massive women's marches a few days later on Jan. 20 were intense but even with all the warning signs I don't think people thought it would turn out even worse than they thought. So much is being written about today I'm going to leave it to others like Patrick at
Raginghorseblog who has been inspired by recent events to return to blogging
But I wanted to touch on a few other memorable inauguration days I experienced.
The first and most memorable was JFK in 1961. I was 15, a high school junior, and his election was the first time I and many other young people got interested in
politics. We were bummed we would miss the event due to school but glory be there was a big snowstorm and we had a snow day after the night before.
January 18- 20 1961. This storm is dubbed the "Kennedy Inaugural Snowstorm" since it occurred on the eve of John F Kennedy's Presidential Inauguration in ...
But the 20th was bright and sunny and very cold. The sun in Washington was also very strong but also very cold and Kennedy stood up straight and strong.
Of course the dream ended less than four years later with the soul crushing assassination. I don't have the heart to do it but juxtapose a photo of the glorious Kennedy at the lectern with the funeral and it still breaks the heart of the nation.
And sort of started us on a road that leads to today. Only 12 years later, I had been somewhat radicalized and Nixon was being inaugurated for his second term. And numbers of people decided to head down to Washington to protest - to throw him a big BOO as his motorcade rode past. Trains were booked but my friend and political mentor Lew Friedman and I secured seats early in the morning and we got there before noon. Crowds were intense - both pro and con - but I don't remember any friction. It as so damn cold and we were standing there for hours waiting for Nixon to go by. We finally decided to jump into a coffee shop on the corner to get some cocoa. Just as the guy handed us our drinks we heard a massive chorus of boos. We ran out to catch a glimpse of Nixon's car halfway down the block. We managed a few loud boos and headed for the train back to NYC. In almost no time Nixon was gone after resigning.
Is my interest in inaugurations bad luck for whatever president? Clinton? Not so great. Obama? Not exactly much of a success. Trump? Even though he won the election bigly - if you subtract the votes of black and liberals and Democrats - he didn't end up too well. So my record is intact and I tried not to pay deep attention to Biden inauguration because I don't want to bring him bad luck.
Here are some pics of the 2017 events to remind you of the beginning of the bad dream.
On December 17, 2020, Gallup
polling found that 31% of Americans identified as Democrats, 25%
identified as Republican, and 41% as Independent.
I know people are left scratching their heads over the poll numbers that show Trump retaining the support of 70-80% of Republicans even after Jan. 6. The impression is scary - that so many people are perfectly willing to support what happened. And it is scary but I'm trying to square those numbers with Trumps major drop in overall approval ratings from the mid-40s at election day to under 30% today. So let's dig down a bit.
Start with the 75 million who voted for Trump - still not a majority given Biden's 80 million. That's a scary number and most say they would vote for him again. But 75 million in a nation of 350 million is still a minority.
We can see that Republicans are not a majority - there are more Democrats and independents. So let's start with the 25% and then take 75% of that as support for Trump today. Roughly 20% of the population. Throw in some marginal support from some (weird) Dems and a bigger chunk of independents and you get to the roughly 30% of the population that still supports him - scary numbers for sure, and far from a fringe.
Now if Biden doesn't end up eating children from that pedophilia ring in the basement of the pizza parlor, a few of these people might come over from the qanon edge, though expect them to keep up the drumbeat. Some reality might seep through.
I think Dems should take the lies about election fraud to a serious level and actually do a breakdown of the charges and do public hearings to refute all of them. The true believers won't believe it but a portion might and chipping away at that base is crucial.
I also don't get the resistance to showing ID when you vote. I get the problems in that some people may not have an ID - so let's get everyone some ID. We need ID for so many things, why not take away their arguments for future elections?
I'd urge another important move. Start organizing like they did in Georgia in every state with emphasis on battleground states. I bet North Carolina could have been won with such an organizing effort. And maybe Florida too. Ohio could be brought back in play.
How is West Virginia with so many poor one of the strongest Trump states? I would say because the Dems screwed them over the past 40 years.
This won't happen unless the Dems move away from centrist neo-liberalism privatization - watch where they come out on schools - and don't be fooled by the "public charter" moniker - charters are privatization. Thus, Biden's claim he opposes private charters is bogus and cover for supporting them, along with the partners of privatizing using the testing regime.
And the same goes for healthcare which is mostly privatized, a major reason for the pandemic and vaccination chaos. If Dems make no moves to reverse this -- Obamacare is still orivatized medicine - start worrying about the 2022 midterms when Republicans can win the House and Senate - and immediatly impeach Biden for picking his nose in public.
Oh, and unions, unions, unions. Their fundamental demise has been a major - if not THE major - factor in the growth of the Trumpism. So a key element for Dems is to push back against their anti-union corporate wing and push major support for unions that cannot be undone. And do it in the first two years. Believe me this will get them further than fighting unwinnable battles to make Washington DC a state.
The Capitol Police have a $460 million budget and 2,300 personnel to guard the U.S. Capitol complex. For comparison, that is twice the size of the budget
of my own city’s police department, which is used to secure an entire
metropolis. Somehow, this army of Capitol security forces was unable —
or unwilling — to stop insurrectionists from breaching the building and
taking over the floor of the U.S. Senate. And it’s not like they were
caught by surprise — they had advance warning of the potential for unrest. So it’s almost as if they weren’t trying to stop the mayhem.... David Sirota
Coup, Schmoo. Welcome to the New Year. We were so waiting for 2020 to end and a calm 2021 to begin. Did I oversleep and miss something? I'm packing my bags and heading to a real democracy, my mom's native country, Belarus.
Is there anyone who questions that Trump made sure not to call out the national guard for hours while the mob ransacked Congress. They were doing what he wanted - to stop the Biden certification. If they destroyed the place maybe Biden would never get that final vote by Jan. 20 and he could remain president. Pence had to actually intervene.
I'm reading Ruth Ben-Ghiat's new book "Strongmen" and also a recent Hitler bio and what happened today is in the playbook. They had the wherewithal to burn the place down today - it didn't happen this time but there's will be a time.
Mike Pence may end up being a big winner today as he survived being between a rock and a hard place. The rejection of Trump is in full swing and now the Ted Cruz types have to march in a zig zag direction. So Pence may look good to some Trumpers who are finally repulsed.
You probably won't believe me but I saw something like this coming. That Trump would get a mob to try to disrupt the final reckoning today by sending a mob to the Capitol. What I didn't expect was that there would not be enough security to defend the Capitol. We know that most police are Trump supporters, but some video of Capitol police taking selfies and opening barriers and even schmoozing surprised even a dystopian like me. Maybe there were afraid themselves and felt that schmoozing was a way to protect themselves.
Imagine if Black Lives Matter did this. Slaughter on 10 Avenue.
There is some serious talk of impeaching Trump or removing him with the 25th Amendment coming from heavy Republican areas, people who think Trump has gone beyond over the edge and is now more dangerous than ever. I lean toward impeachment which I believe can be accomplished quickly. Starting tomorrow. A quick trial in the House and a vote in the Senate. All we need is a few more than Romney but we may not even need much more when the Georians are seated. And it would tie Trump up a bit. Even removing him Jan, 19 would make sense. I think he would be barred from running for federal office again. That would make all the Republicans salivating for 2024 very happy.
Jonathan is one of the first of my fave bloggers to touch on today's events.
It seems, as I think about coups over the last 75 years, an awful lot of
them were instigated, or even orchestrated, in Washington DC. But I
none of them took place there. And I thought none ever would. Until
today.
I'm sure there will be loads to read but I wan to imclude this from David Sirota, who I recently bought a paid sub with, who also saw this coming.
The Insurrection Was Predictable
Today’s events were the expression of a dangerous authoritarian movement that has been long in the making.
Two socialists walk into a flower shop... this is not a Henny Youngman joke.If DSA gets a strong toehold in the Council whomever is the next mayor will face
some serious opposition that is very different than Corey Johnson. .. As a DSA member I have received notice of numerous organizing efforts around the tax the rich campaign.
I've been tracking the work of the Democratic Socialists (DSA) here in NYC and am in fact a member, attending a few meetings of the South Brooklyn branch and also touching base with the Queens and the Labor groups (there are at least 8 branches in NYC).
I'm told there is a southeast Queens group that would include Rockaway so I'm looking forward to working with them. DSA, which has grown from something like 5000 to almost 100,000 members nationally since Trump's election, has its fingers in many pies housing, health care, climate) but the key for me is the electoral strategy of challenging the Democratic Party machines at the grassroots level.
The AOC victory in 2018 was a key factor in pushing the strategy. Note also the number of teachers and educators getting involved. Jamaal Bowman was not a DSA endorsement I believe but a Justice Democrat recruit. Featured below is Jabari Brisport who was a middle school teacher in Crown Heights in Brooklyn and I believe a MORE member though not when I was still involved (until two years ago). Note that MORE is a heavy DSA outpost and wouldn't it be interesting if the MORE DSA people could actually bring a similar grassroots operation to the UFT elections, echoing the broader left/central battles in the Dem Party.
The DSA operation is impressive and they pick their battles and have beaten the Dem party machine in many of those battles. More will be coming up this year as they focus on the City Council. In some place DSa will also come into conflict with the UFT political machine with some juicy battles coming up - which I will report on. If DSA gets a strong toehold in the Council the next mayor will face some interesting opposition that is very different than Corey Johnson.
DSA is the most serious challenge to the Dem Party machine but only in select areas of the city. So how that will impact the mayoral race is left to be determined. My sense is they are not there yet and there is no current candidate they would conceivably report. But if they jump in with their resources in the primary for a candidate they could have a major impact due to the usual low turnout. Their ground game in impressive.
As a side note, Krystal Ball on Rising today had a story about a DSA challenge in the Dem primary for governor of Virginia. Krystal often points out that Virginia is dominated by Dems but ranks last in workers rights - what does that tell you about Dem Party central?
Check out her report:
This article in The Nation focuses on the battle with Cuomo, which should be delicious.
The Socialists vs. Andrew Cuomo
Newly
elected DSA members in the New York legislature will work with
grassroots organizers to force the governor to tax the rich. Will their
inside/outside strategy work?
Two socialists emerged from a flower shop in Astoria, Queens, with a
bouquet of red roses. Jabari Brisport, 33, a newly elected state senator
from Brooklyn, sported a red Democratic Socialists of America hoodie
while Zohran Mamdani, 29, a newly elected assemblyman from Queens, wore a
red-and-black checked Arsenal jersey—an item he’d just purchased and
later characterized as “this ridiculous shirt” yet was plainly excited
to show off. NYC-DSA endorsed both this year, and the pair spent the
overcast November weekend surprising each of the organization’s freshly
endorsed City Council candidates at home with a rose. (The color red has
represented socialism and communism at least since the 1840s, while the
red rose, now the symbol of the Democratic Socialists of America, has
been associated with socialist and social democratic movements and
parties since the 1880s.) “I’d like to point out that he didn’t pay [for
the flowers]. That’s the problem with socialism,” Mamdani ribbed
Brisport, impersonating a conservative. “Eventually you run out of other
people’s money.”
The two were part of a slate
of five candidates for state government endorsed by NYC-DSA this
election cycle. The others were Julia Salazar, the sole incumbent,
representing North Brooklyn in the state Senate; and Assembly
challengers (both tenant organizers) Peruvian-born Marcela Mitaynes in
Sunset Park and Phara Souffrant Forrest
of Crown Heights, a nurse and daughter of Haitian immigrants. All five
won their races, in a huge show of power for an organization that has
only been a significant force in New York electoral politics for two
years. Through a retreat in October, weekly Zoom calls with fellow
NYC-DSA members, and other meetings and texts, the socialist five have
been getting to know one another and planning their Albany strategy. I’m
an NYC-DSA member; I live in Brisport and Forrest’s districts, and
volunteered on their campaigns as well as Salazar’s. I can’t wait to see
what happens next.
Mamdani was kidding about running out of “other people’s money,”
but it’s an important joke. Everything the socialists want to achieve in
office—eviction relief and other urgent assistance; full funding for
transit, schools, and health care; a Green New Deal for New York—costs
money. The first item on their legislative agenda, then, is the one that
could make everything else possible: taxing the rich.
Ninety
percent of New Yorkers favor increasing taxes on millionaires and
billionaires. In a deadly pandemic and a devastating recession, the
needs are obvious, with lines for food pantries spanning blocks. Still,
the policy won’t be decided on its moral rightness or even its
popularity but by a power struggle. On the socialists’ side is an
organized movement and a receptive public. Against them, most likely,
will be Governor Andrew Cuomo and the ruling class he represents.
Cuomo, Salazar told me, “is practically a Republican.” Taking shelter
under a temporary pandemic lean-to outside a bar on Wyckoff Avenue in
Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood, on a cold, rainy evening last month,
Salazar sipped a hot toddy and explained how power is organized in
Albany. “The way the budget process is constitutionally designed gives
outsized power to the governor,” she said, explaining that the
legislature isn’t empowered to add items to the budget without the
governor’s consent. This makes progressive legislation especially tough,
since Cuomo, she said, “is a fiscal conservative, proudly committed to
austerity.” He’s a crucial part of the reason New York state has a
budget shortfall, despite having at least a million millionaires and 118 billionaires.
But Salazar observed that the winds around Cuomo were shifting, with
even moderate legislators now calling for taxing the rich. Senate
majority leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, who represents wealthy
Westchester County, said this summer that raising taxes was unlikely
despite the state’s looming budget crises. Yet as soon as all the
absentee ballots were counted and all five members of the DSA slate
declared victory, Salazar said, the Democratic leadership in the
legislature released a public statement saying the state government
needed to raise revenues. “That was very telling, to me, of what was to
come in January.” The presence of more socialists in Albany, Salazar
emphasized, “will really make a difference.”
In fact, the socialist victories over longtime incumbents should
serve as a warning. NYC-DSA cochair Chi Anunwa put it this way: “Hey,
you know, if you don’t want to raise revenue and provide housing and
health care to all, that’s fine. But don’t be surprised if you
experience our primary challenge.”
Before 2018 Cuomo mostly got his way. A cadre of Democrats in the
state Senate who caucused with the Republicans made progressive
legislation almost impossible. In 2018, a grassroots campaign defeated
nearly all of those conservative Democrats, replacing them with
progressives. It was then that DSA made its first foray into state
politics, electing Salazar to the state Senate. Salazar, DSA, and a
coalition of tenants’ rights groups seized the moment, expanding
protection for renters in New York State for the first time in 40 years.
The real estate industry is one of the most powerful interest groups in
the state, and most political observers both inside and outside DSA
were shocked that it could be defeated by grassroots organizing. “The
governor could have vetoed it,” said Michael Kinnucan of the Brooklyn
DSA Electoral Working Group. “I would have thought the rent laws would
be the last thing he’d want to compromise on.”
Cuomo is known as a vengeful bully, and a great deal of New York
politics is explained by the fact that people know that if they cross
the governor, they may face punishment. Cuomo’s also skilled at
resisting policy moves from the left, while retaining something
resembling heartthrob status to the party’s liberal base. In the early
days of the pandemic, many incorporated his briefings into their daily
routines and wore “Cuomosexual” T-shirts. But this mystique around the
governor’s political power, said Kinnucan, though not unfounded, has
often served to let the legislature off the hook. Now that Cuomo’s power
is increasingly challenged, New Yorkers are learning that he’s not the
only decision-maker in Albany. When Cuomo’s real estate industry cronies
called him to ask him to stop the pro-tenant legislation from passing
last year, he told them to call their legislators.
It’s too early to say whether this story will be repeated in the
fight for progressive taxation. Last summer, Cuomo argued that taxing
New York’s wealthy would mean “you’d have no more billionaires,” as if, New York Times
columnist Ginia Bellafante quipped, “someone had proposed killing off
the warblers of the Adirondacks.” Recently, however, Cuomo seems to have
tacked to the left on the matter. In late November he warned that New
York would need to raise taxes on the wealthy if no pandemic-related aid
were forthcoming from Washington, which depends partly on the outcome
of next month’s Georgia Senate runoffs. In early December, Cuomo went
further, suggesting that such tax increases were likely regardless of
what happens in Georgia or Washington. He’s perhaps conceding in advance
to the politically inevitable, hoping to take credit for a popular
policy he initially opposed (as he’s done before)—or preparing the
ground for a small, watered-down tax increase that will appear
responsive while making everyone to his left look like Ho Chi Minh (as
he’s also done before).
How will the elected socialists, DSA, and their allies prevail?
Through an “inside/outside” strategy, Anunwa explained, with the new
officials organizing their colleagues, while the rest of DSA, in turn,
organizes the grassroots to pressure Albany.
The grassroots campaign launched in early December, with phone
banking and leafletting urging New Yorkers to pressure their legislators
to support legislation taxing the rich. About 785 volunteers
participated in the campaign in the first week, making more than 105,000
calls and hanging flyers on some 60,000 doors (no canvassing yet due to
Covid-19). On the phones, volunteers found tremendous enthusiasm for
the campaign; the phone bank technology allows the volunteer to put the
constituents through to their legislator’s office right that minute to
tell them to support the bills, and DSA volunteers have been especially
struck by how many people (968 in the first week) chose this option. It
was the most successful launch of any single-issue campaign in NYC-DSA’s
history.
NYC-DSA is not the only powerful organization fighting to tax New
York’s rich. A coalition called New York Budget Justice—which, along
with NYC-DSA, includes Alliance for Quality Education, Indivisible
Harlem, and more than a dozen other groups—has formed solely around this
demand. In mid-December, the week after NYC-DSA launched its Tax the
Rich campaign, 10 labor unions plus the New York State AFL-CIO publicly
joined the call, with the union that represents transit workers, Local
100 TWU, organizing a rally in mid-December with DSA and other labor
unions.
Sitting in Astoria’s Socrates Sculpture Garden, Brisport
and his chief of staff, Kara Clark, who was active in DSA’s Defund the
Police campaign, talked about building relationships in Albany, where
they have a growing number of progressive and even fellow socialist
allies. But the slate is working on their more moderate future
colleagues, too. Brisport, a middle school math teacher about to become
the first openly gay Black person in the New York State legislature, has
befriended Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the first Black woman to be the
state senate’s majority leader. Brisport helped her out in the fall with
the fight to keep a Democratic majority in the legislature,
volunteering on campaigns in swing districts where Democratic seats were
threatened by Republicans. (Now that all the absentee ballots have been
counted, the Democrats have a veto-proof supermajority.) Asked if the
majority leader is receptive to the socialist agenda, Brisport paused
and answered, “She’s receptive to me as a person, so that’s good.” This
means more than many working outside government might suppose. Mamdani
observed that how legislators vote or what bills they sign onto is often
not ideological but “because their friends asked them to.”
The next day, I met Brisport and Mamdani
in Brooklyn. Brisport wore the same red hoodie as the previous day,
while Mamdani, who was born in Kampala, Uganda, repped the Nigerian
national soccer team with a black-and-white checked jersey almost as
loud as the previous day’s choice. Neither were dressed quite warmly
enough for the chilly day. This time Brisport paid for the roses. One of
the City Council candidates we visited, Brandon West, a community
organizer, answered his door warily. He seemed relieved when Mamdani and
Brisport presented him with a rose, admitting sheepishly, “I thought I
was getting hazed.” NYC-DSA is no fraternity; West’s new comrades came
only in solidarity and left extra flowers for his roommates. But the
socialists are indeed about to be hazed by the state’s political
establishment. In any case, they’re getting ready.
