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!
After years in the wilderness of the de Blasio administration and
waning influence in Albany, charter schools are gaining a foothold in
the city again — if the race for mayor is any barometer.
The three leading candidates in the Democratic primary are decidedly
supportive of charter schools — a dramatic shift from when Mayor Bill de
Blasio was elected eight years ago and another sign of the citywide
electorate hewing closer to the center in the June 22 Democratic
primary.
Last week, “Our City” — a left-leaning political action committee
headed by Gabe Tobias — hosted a rally urging New Yorkers to not rank
Adams or Yang, referencing the candidates' support from hedge fund
billionaires linked to school privatization. ... Politico
Of course, They're in it for the children
With the latest charge against Stringer -- how more perfectly timed could they be, 20 and 30 years after the fact -- the charter industrial complex is in great position to renew the charter wars.
Even as charters see a new dawn of sorts this election season, there is
still a movement of families and advocates who remain wary of charter
growth and are taking steps of their own to fight it. City Comptroller
Scott Stringer remains a strong candidate in the race and his skepticism
over charters was among the factors that won him the endorsement of the
United Federation of Teachers — the city’s powerful teachers union
which is helping fund a multimillion dollar, independent expenditure in
support of his campaign.
The more charges against Stringer, the better a charter comeback looks. With him and Morales damaged, the best progressive shot might be Wiley - but don't be shocked to see something drop on her in the next week.
The charters have been given renewal by the awful manner in which de Blasio handled the schools during the pandemic and have opened up a dangerous channel of support from people who would risk trying something new as an alternative to any mayor running things for them. Thus the door is open to privatizing as it hasn't been since the height of the Bloomberg years. In three years the jobs crunch will come for the UFT which should take a message from the Chicago Teacher Union which actually has a clue on how to organize charter schools.
If you don't think there's war has been and is brewing - and will continue to brew in the Dem Party -- this one's for you.
In a listserve discussion of mayoral candidates, those in support of charters were being identified and echoing one of her blog posts, Diane Ravitch said, "Morales said she favors school choice, so strike her. "
Note: On the debate Morales took the strongest stand AGAINST charters, but some progressives have doubted her true commitment.
But then this comment came from a now retired person who was very tight with the UFT hierarchy until retirement:
She [Morales] should not even be a candidate...thank the so-called circular firing squad Dem progressives that are driving our City into the ground more than any GOP ever did!
Yes there is much disdain for progressives inside the UFT leadership and Unity Caucus. You can see that on social media where Unity hacks chime in to challenge progressive ideas --- and all of them echo the same talking points - it's like Unity has its own FOX news propaganda channel. Oh, that's the NY Teacher. Thank goodness no one reads it.
So imagine how they view the opposition, which varies on various levels of the left
-- if there is a credible threat to Unity in next year's UFT elections, just watch the fur fly with red-baiting ala Republican playbook - being played out. In fact Trump may be writing the Unity script - and if the opposition every did win, Unity will be calling Stop the Steal and invade the Delegate Assembly by climbing the walls of 52 Broadway with grappling tools.
“We
learned a lesson,” said Susan Kang, an active member of Democratic
Socialists of America who previously was supportive of Morales. “You
don’t go with an unvetted first-time candidate who tries to claim the
progressive mantle when you have never seen them before.”
Gabe
Tobias, a former campaign aide to both Ocasio-Cortez and Bowman, is now
working on an effort to educate voters about how the city’s new
ranked-choice-voting system will work and telling them to leave moderate
candidates like Yang and Adams off of their ballots. But even those
moderates, he notes, talk about left-wing ideas like reforming the NYPD
and meaningfully addressing poverty in the city. And had someone like
Ocasio-Cortez or Bowman or Public Advocate Jumaane Williams run, he
said, they would likely have been cleaning up in this race.
Follow the bouncing ball in the graphic above. Today we get into the nitty gritty of who did what to whom. DSA provided a lot of staffers for Morales and, in particular the Queens branch. Did sentiment inside DSA toward Morales shift away from her? Realizing her activism was short-lived but as long as she was not attracting attention, they could live with her. But as she began to make headway, what was viewed as a faux leftist became a possible threat to the DSA long-term project which is to infiltrate the Dem party with socialist ideals and candidates. They have strength in certain areas of the city to be able to elect state senators, assembly, congress and this year focused on city council. They were clear they would stay out of the mayoral race due to lack of resources but even if they did get involved on a citywide basis, it is not clear they hierarchy would have backed Morales since her career was so far from socialist ideals.
It is interesting to see what has come out of MORE Caucus which seemed to be backing Morales. She gave them an hour interview and they castigated the UFT leadership for not including her in their final four. At the May DA a reso from a MORE ally called for Stringer to be dropped from UFT endorsement and I did read some MORE comment calling for Morales to be reconsidered. (I can't verify where I read that.) The key thing is that MORE is loaded with DSA people and they run MORE. Forming unions is of the highest priority and the DSA labor group is loaded with MOREs. So how to square the revolt by people calling for a union with support for Morales? If MORE is silent on Morales now after pushing her, there is a signal of DSA abandonment.
Before we go into more detail I'd like you to check out the new version of Rising in its first edition since Krystal and Sagaar did their final show on Friday. I was pleased to see Ryan Grim repping the left and I like Emily Jashinsky for the right.
Ryan delved into the Morales campaign mess and castigated the activists. In this must see video Ryan breaks news with a story of a similar revolt in Bernie's Iowa campaign where Bernie said - don't hire so-called activists who often put themselves and their interests ahead of the campaign -- the ME generation, I guess. Since so many were from DSA, these socialists weren't acting very social. I mean, you join a campaign a month ago and with a month left you want a union?
[UPDATE - In today's Rising Ryan goes deep into the charges against Stringer and the connections to is accusers lawyer to billionare anti-Stringer Steve Ross who formed an anti-Stringer PAC https://youtu.be/bjbY8iWjoPY].
On the other side, Morales brought into the campaign her personal assistant, Amanda van Kessel, who felt she had special rights and most likely came into conflict with campaign manager Witney Hu. Both are from Queens branch of DSA so that makes it interesting.
“We
learned a lesson,” said Susan Kang, an active member of Democratic
Socialists of America who previously was supportive of Morales. “You
don’t go with an unvetted first-time candidate who tries to claim the
progressive mantle when you have never seen them before.” The
collapse of the Morales campaign signals a low moment for a resurgent
left that not long ago looked set to dominate the race for mayor this
year. Back in 2020, New York’s financial and real-estate elites were so
concerned that this year’s mayoral election would herald a sharp
leftward turn in city politics that some of them started meeting
together in secret, trying to figure out how many millions of dollars to
deploy to fend off the rising tide.... With
the mayoral election less than four weeks away, the furrowed brows of
Wall Street can unclench. The spectacle of the Morales campaign staff
blowing up their own candidate seems to mark the end of any dream of a
leftist victory in the June 26 Democratic primary, and many of the
progressive organizers and activists who worked years for this moment
are left to look only with despair at the waning days of this race......
For
most of the past year, progressive hope was centered on Scott Stringer,
who, as a 60-year-old straight white male city comptroller with a long
career in government and a comptroller’s flair for spectacle, didn’t
exactly fit the young, diverse, and hype-house mood of the moment.
Stringer was surging when his campaign was derailed by an accusation
that he sexually harassed a volunteer on a 2001 campaign for public
advocate. The left-wing lawmakers whom he helped put into office in 2018
and 2020 by backing them early and campaigning vigorously on their
behalf quickly abandoned him (even as some have since expressed regrets
for acting hastily.)
Morales
seemed like a better fit. An Afro-Latina, she, like Bowman and
Ocasio-Cortez, came from outside politics. Unlike Stringer, she had
never taken money from real-estate interests (Stringer swore off the
donations once the campaign got under way), argued that the police
“don’t keep us safe,” and pledged to defund $3 billion from their annual
budget while creating “a care economy.”... had someone like
Ocasio-Cortez or Bowman or Public Advocate Jumaane Williams run, he
said, they would likely have been cleaning up in this race.
“The candidate is the problem to solve,” he said. “Not the ideology.”.... NY Mag
The hot mess in the Dianne Morales mayoral campaign: I began writing this article a month ago. "A month ago", you ask? All the current drama over her campaign came out in the past week. Well, there was other stuff way before. And throughout, when you'd expect attacks on the most progressive candidate to come from the right and center, I was seeing the critiques coming from the left. And they rang true, while the current revelelations from her former staff, many of whom are connected to DSA Queens branch, need further examination, especially given some of the tactics - like demonstrating outside Morales headquarters and demands for severance pay for people who quit, demands for a union, and more.
Earlier in her career, our "most progressive" primary
candidate worked at New Visions for Public Education, the privatizing
non-profit that profited handsomely during those dark years of school
closings.
As a general rule, it's wise to be skeptical of, if not allergic to, non-profit/NGO leftists...
I'm always cautious about the kinds of attacks and where they come from.
But
from day one I was wary of the fact she had a high profile job with
Joel Klein and I remember complaints from parents over the actions of
that agency she was in charge of though I can't say for sure if it was
under her tenure which seemed to not last very long.
What is interesting are the attacks are from progressives who doubt her progressive credentials.
It is possible she got religion in the past year and a half after a career that didn't indicate progressive politics.
Like
no endorsements of people like AOC or Bowman or others. And hedging on
whether she voted for Cuomo. They view her as an opportunist who took
the lane left open.
There is a lot of info about Diane's links to charter school industry people in this article.
She
also came under fire on a podcast with Brianna Joy Tayler, with fire
from a tenant organizer who said her boss had the highest eviction rate
in the Bronx.
MORE Caucus called on UFT to cancel Stringer and replace him with Morales
There's been a lot more reporting on the story since but I thought this NYMag story is worth a read.
Apparently there are some people - some white people - who feel I have
no right to post critical pieces about a woman of color. The same kind
of attitude that allowed Neo-liberal in Chief Obama to skate by. With every passing day as I hear more stories -- like his labor cabinet member Tom Perez, taking a legal job with a major anti-union firm focused on stopping unions from being established. Or press spokesman Jay Carney running PR for Bezos.
Whereas a progressive candidate like Morales would expect to take hits from the right, she seems to be getting them from the left not just for not being a true leftist, but for not being involved in any of the major struggles over the past 20 years, even going back to two years ago.
But given the state of the candidates I will still put her as one of my choices.
Here are two Ross Barkan articles a month or so apart, with the latest from today coming first but read the older one for context since it predates the events of the past week but may have been the first real shot. Part 3 will delve into more details on the current crisis.
A key person we need to pay attention to is Amanda van Kessel
who worked with Morales at her previous job and still works there. She
used her relationship apparently to lord it over others. She's also
white in a sea of people of color. She was first demoted and then fired. She's also DSA, as was the campaign manager, Whitney Hu,
who quit. It is not clear if she quit because van Kessel was fired or
because she wasn't fired quickly enough. But both are Queens branch DSA
--- which I am also a fringe member of. Oh, the drama to come there as
many other Morales staffers also came out of DSA Queens branch.
May 30, 2021, 9 AM
The Morales campaign implosion, apparently unique in political lore, is going to have consequences for how some campaigns are organized in the future. There are lessons about bringing good friends into a campaign. See what happened to Scott Stringer whose supposed friend, Jean Kim, who he says he had a brief relationship with, turned on him 20 years later and imploded his campaign.
Let me say right up front - I've always had doubts about Morales but this strikes me as a hit job and I intend to pick her as one of my mayoral choices.
Lesson 1: Beware of friends in high campaign places
NYT... two campaign
staff members, Ramses Dukes and Amanda van Kessel, had been dismissed.
She said they were the employees accused of misconduct. Ms. van Kessel
had previously worked with Ms. Morales at the social services arm of
Phipps Houses, a housing development group. Mr. Dukes could not be
reached for comment, and Ms. van Kessel did not respond to requests for
comment.
The two leading progressives in the race have had their campaigns undermined. It is ironic that Morales and many of her supported immediately attacked Stringer and are now claiming Dianne needs a chance to explain. Ironic in that one person charged Stringer while 60 complained about Morales -- obviously not as serious a charge but numbers do count. If no other shoe drops on Stringer, on June 23, when Stringer who had been in the running loses because of that one charge and we end up with who knows who, we might see a reassessment of how to deal with the metoo movement.
I'm going to examine the Morales story in depth because there are many lessons for progressives. Was this a hit by the left, led by DSA members who felt that Morales was a faux leftist - which I have come to believe - but if they didn't know what they were getting into it's on them. Morales has become an instant leftist - she voted for Cuomo and didn't endorse any of the new leftist candidates - but DSA people, including her campaign manager, knew that going in.
In Part 1 I want to share the NYT take which with the comments is an attack on progressives. (Remember - the Times endorsed Garcia who has promised to lift the charter school cap -- do not even list her.) And not all if it is undeserved though we have a lot of unpacking to do. I mean, a campaign is not a long-term job and some staffers have only recently been hired. A union in the midst of a campaign with one month to go? That's progressiveness gone too far.
Comments at NYT emphasize the anti-progressive pov:
This sounds like sabotage at the highest level. Trying to unionize with
four weeks left in the campaign? The staff knows they are sabotaging
more than this race; her career is on the line, her name splashed all
over the media while the team gets to walk away & join a different
campaign. Sad state of affairs all around.
------
Welcome to progressivism 101. Any success is met with claims of “toxic
workplace.” The very values one holds get weaponized against you by
people who don’t like it when they don’t feel “centered”. And because
you built your campaign on “centering” everyone, you can’t call it what
it actually is: selfishness, when they don’t like the fact that you are
actually the boss and have to make decisions. It’s lose/lose. And why
progressives- despite caring deeply about actual policy, will never win.
----
This is why kids with no experience doing anything probably shouldn’t
gain control of large governments.
Reading through Twitter feeds of her staffers reads like the angry
message boards of high schoolers upset about a school dress code.
---
Was really excited about Morales....but she is turning out to be yet
another DeBlasio: all talk, 0 action, and considers herself above it
all.
Depressing to say the least.
---
She messed up with handling this, but I will say it is peak irony that a
"progressive" candidate is sunk by her own truly progressive staff.
Also, I agree with the post from the portland guy talking about activist
politics. I have seen the exact same thing.
It's like my pops always said:
"When you're a hammer, everything is a nail." Activist staffers can make
for virtually ungovernable teams leaving leaders stuck between a rock
and a hard place. The devolution into chaos can be swift thereafter.
-----
I stopped calling myself a progressive when I saw this same circular
firing squad happening over and over again in activist politics here in
Portland. Noble objectives, but terrible tactics and ungovernable team
dynamics hamper the progressive movement’s ability to make change
happen.
More to come in parts 2 through infinity.
Here's the entire article:
Dianne Morales Tries to Calm a Sudden Crisis in Her Campaign
Two staff members have quit, two have been fired and four others involved in a unionization drive have been terminated.
Over 150 retirees attended the press conference on Monday protesting the attempt to move 250K NYC municipal retirees out of medicare into privatized insurance plans (remember how well privatizing school systems via charters has worked out).
Here's the video of the entire event. Excellent speakers and great specially written songs - Imagine No Health Care --
It was a quite a success with about 150 people
attending including a large and loud group of members from the DC 37-
Retiree Association. Their President Ed Hysyk and Vice President Neil
Frumkin spoke. Many PSA retirees were there and of course, UFT retirees
were out in force. Probably some other unions were in the crowd.
Other speakers included David
Kotelchuck from the Social Safety Net Committee of PSC-CUNY, Mariana
Gaston from the CSA, Dr. Alec Pruchnicki, a board member for Physicians
for National Health Care, Denise Rickles and Bennett Fischer, UFT
Retiree Advocates, and Naomi Zewde, Asst.Professor from CUNY and
advocate for the New York Health Act.
We did get some media attention
which is no small feat in NYC. The Chief News came as did WBAI. WPIX-11
also covered it and had a short clip on the Monday night news. We heard
that Channel 4 reported it and there might have been other media as
well.
Our incredible Sound Man Joel
Breitbart not only brought his system but he recorded the entire
Conference. And the People's Dave Lippman was an added bonus. He
composed a few songs just for this occasion and performed them for the
crowd.
Ann Ambia, a DC 37 Retiree,
took pictures which we have posted on our RA Facebook page. There were
other people with cameras and we look forward to getting more photos so
we can share them with you.
I've been sleptical about Morales but will get deeper into those weeds soon. The charter industry has evil intent -- to destroy public schools and offer them up to private industry. Any candidate who takes money from them is suspect.
What
campaign other than Stringer has no charter money? That alone tells you
something. Charters are anti union - 95% non union. And anti public
schools. The goal is to charterize which is privatize the nation and
eliminate teacher unions. Like they did in New Orleans and fired mostly
black union members. Funded by billionaires. Here in nyc coalitions
have managed to hold the line and charters are a dirty word in some
quarters. Even the Uft has been weak and we formed a pre More group
called GEM to engage them in battle and push the Uft. The charter cap is
what’s holding them back and protecting your jobs. They are spreading
money around to candidates for that purpose. The honorable thing to do
is refuse their money. The BloomKlein admin was a despicable neo liberal
operation and Disnevtook a high position in that admin which is what
caused my initial reaction. But let’s give her a benefit of the doubt
though I have tried to discern an explanation. She also worked for New
Visions and during the school closing wars of attacks on poor
communities they were on the wrong side. To watch kids crying and
begging for their schools to remain open was searing. I have hours of
tape of those hearings and we used that footage which also included
abused parents who left charters crying in our interview in our movie.
@eapelosi asked a meaningful question
@eapelosi asked a meaningful question. What campaign other than Stringer has no charter money? That alone tells you something. Charters are anti union - 95% non union. And anti public schools. The goal is to charterize which is privatize the nation and eliminate teacher unions. Like they did in New Orleans and fired mostly black union members. Funded by billionaires. Here in nyc coalitions have managed to hold the line and charters are a dirty word in some quarters. Even the Uft has been weak and we formed a pre More group called GEM to engage them in battle and push the Uft. The charter cap is what’s holding them back and protecting your jobs. They are spreading money around to candidates for that purpose. The honorable thing to do is refuse their money. The BloomKlein admin was a despicable neo liberal operation and Disnevtook a high position in that admin which is what caused my initial reaction. But let’s give her a benefit of the doubt though I have tried to discern an explanation. She also worked for New Visions and during the school closing wars of attacks on poor communities they were on the wrong side. To watch kids crying and begging for their schools to remain open was searing. I have hours of tape of those hearings and we used that footage which also included abused parents who left charters crying in our interview in our movie
In
a crowded field of candidates in the Democratic primary, only two are
opposed to expanding the number of charters in a city with hundreds of
them: Scott Stringer and Maya Wiley.
The
other candidates support more charters at a time when the national
Democratic Party seems to realize that charters are a key component of
the rightwing’s longtime goal of privatization of the public schools.
Charter advocates started a PAC for Eric Adams. Andrew Yang supports charter schools and
is advised by former Mayor Bloomberg’s advisor Bradley Tusk (Bloomberg
was very pro-charter). Financier Ray McGuire’s campaign relies on
Bloomberg’s chancellor Joel Klein for advice (his wife is the campaign
manager).
Betsy
DeVos loves charter schools, so does the anti-union Walton family and
Charles Koch. Across the country, Republican legislators and governors
are passing legislation to expand charters and vouchers, while Democrats
put public schools first.
Those
ties are now producing an outpouring of contributions from the charter
industry. And Kathryn Garcia, who was endorsed by the New York Times and
the New York Daily News, declared recently that she wants more charter schools in the city and will ask the legislature to raise the cap.
There
are currently 267 charter schools in the city. Of 1.1 million public
schools in the city, 88% are enrolled in the long-neglected public
schools. Ironically, by handing off more students to charter schools,
the mayor (whoever it may be) is acknowledging his or her own
incompetence as leader of the city’s schools.
At
the beginning of the campaign, Scott Stringer was the favorite. He
served in the legislature, and he is currently the City Comptroller,
meaning he has detailed knowledge of the budget and the city’s massive
bureaucracy. The United Federation of Teachers endorsed him, along with
many progressive groups. But then a woman stepped forward to say that 20
years ago, when they were both single, he groped her. Many of those who
endorsed Stringer withdrew their endorsements. Although I have a
tendency to believe women in these situations, I think it’s unfair to
discredit a candidate based on an unverified allegation. Stringer has
been a candidate many times, and the accuser remained silent.
The
charter industry has demonstrated time and again that it has the deep
pockets to buy elections. What it has not bought is academic success.
Someone posted this info -- the battle is between Aetna and Emblem --- we don't know which group the city or MLC favor -- I assume the city favors the one that will screw us the most. Was it our pressure? Not likely according to sources but on the other hand the pressure might have firmed up the MLC a bit to resist to some extent, though they are still going ahead.
I am guessing the city wants Aetna which is probably worse than Emblem, which at least many of us have dealt with. Isn't Aetna our dental plan, which sucks? I don't really remember and am too lazy to look it up.
The problem is it now goes to arbitration and the fact is we get screwed either way.
The UFT has apparently assigned people to monitor social media for
critics and to respond in kind defending UFT leadership positions. Do
they get paid extra? Maybe they need a union. DOE employees have been hounded for their social media posts even when off time.
Do people who work for us (supposedly) have the right to engage in attacks on UFT members who are critical of union policies? By virtue of being paid a salary - and not an insubstantial salary -- is part of their job to defend the UFT leadership on social media?
UFT officials at work
It would seem so as the other day I noticed on certain FB teacher chats a battle over some policy of other in which people who clearly work for the UFT attacking a critic, with one calling the critic anti-union. And when I looked at the time, it was clearly during working hours for UFT staff -- which for many is until 6PM.
If they were working for the DOE they would be in the rubber room. Maybe our union needs a rubber room.
But what if they do this after working hours? Do they have free speech even if working for the UFT? An interesting question and I generally come down on the side of they do --- but I question if trolling for the leadership is really free speech.
Trolling means you are following a line --- talking points - we know they are because they are all so similar. Thus if the leadership says night is day, they all put on their shades. And if they reverse position they adamantly defend the position they were recently attacking.
Remember the common core and how punchy Mike defended it, only to abandon that defense not long after?
So is it really free speech when you are being handed a script?
Yes, a vote for us is a vote for stopping some of the crap that is going on.
Monday will be a rare day where I will venture forth from my fortress to join other municipal retirees, many from the UFT, in a press conference to focus attention on the move toward moving us from public Medicare to privatized Medicare Advantage, the very wrong direction our union should be going in.
I helped write more detailed info piece. click here.
This advisory, which I helped put together (this entire process had been a real learning experience for this old dog) is going out to the press.
WHAT: NYC municipal union retirees gather to save
Medicare and protest Municipal Labor Committee/NYC attempt to force them out of
Medicare into privatized Medicare Advantage plan.
WHEN:Monday, May 24, 2021
TIME: 12 Noon
WHO: Retiree Advocate/UFT, a caucus of
retirees in the United Federation of Teachers and allies in other municipal
unions and supporters defend our ability to remain on Medicare and reject
attempts to move us to a privatized plan.
WHERE:Park Row/Centre St. outside
City Hall Park by the 4/5/6 City Hall/Brooklyn Bridge Subway Station
DEMANDS:
A moratorium on any change to existing Medicare plan
NO
to privatization of government managed Medicare
Transparency on all negotiations with decision-making from all members
The
Metropolitan Labor Council (MLC), consisting of a number of unions, including
the UFT, and the NYC Office of Labor Relations are in the final stages of
negotiations to move 250,000 municipal workers currently enrolled in government-managed
Medicare into privately-managed Medicare Advantage with inherent disadvantages:
·High administrative costs
·Profit motive
·Excessive executive salaries
·Restrictions on patient services
We condemn
unions’ willingness to move away from public to privatization of
government-manages Medicare. Supposed savings can only come on the backs of
retirees. Stop the sell! Save traditional Medicare for NYC retirees!
To clear up a bit of confusion for some. While we whistle while we
work we are under a private plan which continues when we retire - until
we reach 65 when we go onto Medicare for 80% of our health care - I
haven't heard any complaints and 98% of doctors take it. The other 20% co-pay is still privately managed.
Before reaching 65 we generally had a choice of GHI where we have more freedom to
choose our doctors and a more restricted HIP plan where your doctors
have to be part of the network and you need permissions to go to
specialists. Some are very happy with HIP.
And the UFT leadership has used the fact that we have had privately
managed care as a way to attack us for making a mountain out of a
molehill. We are not.
Neo-lib Dems like Clinton wanted to save money on our backs and in the 90s allowed private insurance to offer Medicare type plans on their own to compete with Medicare -- with the obvious aim of killing Medicare off altogether. This causes some confusion for people hitting 65 and I get calls all the time about what to do, upon with I ask my wife who managed medical billing in a large hospital for decades who then shouts - tell them NO - stick with Medicare.
Funny, but as recently as March when a Retiree Advocate member went for a meeting at the UFT they were being told the same thing -- stay away from Medicare Advantage plans. Some are scams in essence.
So low and behold as we are in the final stages of the UFT retiree chapter election, we begin to hear that the Municipal Labor Committee, where Mulgrew is VP, is about to announce a forced move out of Medicare into a MedADV plan and people are reprising our youth in the 60s:
A vote for Retiree Advocate is a vote to protect your health plan.
Ballots are out and here is the chance for retirees to send the UFT leadership a message that they are not happy with the way secret negotiations have taken place to push a quarter million municipal union members out of the public Medicare and into a privatized Medicare Adv program.
Numbers count -- Retiree Advocate had 450 people register for its webinar a few weeks ago -- UFT leaders took notice.
The same with this vote -- the more we get the better the chance to influence the leaders. No, we don't expect to win but a serious improvement on our usual 20% will serve notice not to tamper with retiree benefits, especially since Unity Caucus uses retirees to hold on to power. Even a 10% shift in this election might cause a shift in next year's general UFT election. If Mulgrew totals every dropped below 70% of retirees, the UFT elections become more possible for the opposition.
In response to the health care issue:
RA PRESS CONFERENCE ON MEDICARE CHANGES
MONDAY MAY 24 12 NOON
LOCATION: PARK ROW NEAR CITY HALL ACROSS FROM B'KLYN BRIDGE
Numbers count there too even if only a press conference where usually 30 people show - Imagine if a couple of hundred showed up -- that would scare the hell out if Unity -- so if you are free on Monday -- see u there.
We have an amazing list of 130 candidates, including UFT activists and superstars going back a half century - some of whom I didn't speak to for decades. OY! Strange bedfellows, indeed. You should see some comments on the Retiree Advocate listserve. I love open debate which you can't find in too many places in today's world, both left and right.
Why so many candidates? We could have run 300.
We are voting on a retiree chapter leader, ten officers, a 25 member retiree ex board (not to be confused with the regular UFT Ex Bd), and 300 delegates to the Delegate Assembly - another key element of Unity control. It's winner take all so even if we got 20% we get no delegates or ex bd members.
Taxation (dues) without representation
So we are entitled morally and democratically to 20% of the delegates - 60 - and don't think having 60 retired activists in the DA wouldn't have an impact. And of course Unity will never give. But our voters get no representation at all at the DA. We need to throw the tea bags at the retiree meetings into the ocean. But this time we asked Unity for a measly 5 delegates. And of course they said no --- all their 300 positions were filled.
Unity delegate banned for vote at DA
But then we found out that Unity delegate Dave Pecoraro who blew up the April DA by opposing Unity endorse Corey Johnson and was one of the 300 that morning, was tossed off the Unity slate - past the deadline for submission - after the DA -- supposedly at Mulgrew's orders. He Mulgrew -- I'll take Dave's place.
Unity even cheats on leaflet enclosed with ballot -- prints RA on cheap paper
Did you notice our leaflet that came with the ballot -- went out to all 70,000 retirees. The Unity leaflet in on yellow heavier bond paper, while ours is on cheap white paper --- but I still like ours better -- and I modestly claim to have played a major role in producing it. And I loved the collaborative effort working within the RA Organizing committee. The leaflet reflects our general leftist positions but not over the top with the usual rhetoric -- I am making war on leftist rhetoric - though some may have slipped through. We have an article on why unions shouldn't opposed universal health care, a move the money from defense spending article and a stock transfer tax article.
