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!
It was a pleasure joining Bruce Markens on WBAI yesterday on Leonie Haimson's "Talk Out of School" program, with Daniel Alicea hosting and skillfully guiding us through an hour of UFT history covering the 3rd and 4th decades of its existence - the 80s and 90s. This was part 2 of the three part history, each covering two decades.
In Part 1 in July Leo Casey, a high level UFT and now AFT official - he now heads the Shanker Institute -- joined Daniel and me: Listen to Inside UFT Politics and History (Part 1) : How The Nation’s
Most Powerful Teachers Union Impacted NYC Public Schools from Talk Out
of School in Podcasts. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/talk-out-of-school/id1490313171?i=1000529187414
Part 3 will be in September, covering the past 20 years. Despite the many changes we've seen over the 6 decades of UFT history, one thing has been constant: The absolute dominance and control by one party/caucus - Unity, a creation by one of the union founders, Albert Shanker, perhaps his most enduring legacy - creating a political structure that has seemed impregnable.
Bruce, Daniel and I covered a lot of ground, but could have spend many hours drilling down. We began with The Nation at Risk - the Ronald Reagan and neo-liberal ed deform report trashing public schools and teachers - while the impact didn't hit until the 90s and 2000s - think BloomKlein -- Shanker's support for it changed the way teacher unions were able to fight back against the deforms by enlisting the unions as partner and making way for the New Democrats - aping Republicans - like Clinton and late on Obama -- to forge ahead with policies that have often proven to be a disaster.
We spent time delving into internal UFT politics. The rise of a coalition of opposition groups to create a more serious challenge to total Unity control by beginning to win the high schools - which has pretty much continued to current times --- the MORE/NA win in 2016, for example. We talked about Michael Shulman's victory for HS VP -- on the AdCom -- the only time in UFT history that a non-Unity person was elected in 1985 and how Unity challenged his win and forced another election - Trump's Stop the Steal used Unity 85 as a model --- only to see Shulman win by over 60%. Unity changed the constitution a few years later to make all VPs elected by the entire membership - including retirees so this could never happen again.
We talked about Shanker's giving up the presidency of the UFT in 1985
and turning the union over to Sandra Feldman -- in the UFT, the
successor is hand-chosen -- like a monarch of sorts. We actually had a
few fond memories of Sandy, who in some ways adhered to at least some
formalities of democracy in the union. But of course he overall story was suppression of opposition when they could ger away with it,
We talked about the big 13 seat opposition united state in 1991 and Bruce Markens' major victories as the only non-Unity District Rep in the 90s and how his example led to the end of district rep elections by 2002 - that was Randi, not Sandy, who actually could have done the same thing soon after Bruce's election.
A key issue in the 90s was the 1995 contract which was voted down by the membership and our experiences with Giuliani as mayor. We just had time to mention the rise of Randi Weingarten, also a hand-chosen successor, in the 90s but ran out of time before getting to the details. Maybe in Part 3 we can talk about some of the changes she broight to the UFT before leaving in 2009 for the AFT after - guess what - hand choosing her successor, Michael Mulgrew.
And of course a big part of our discussion was charter schools, which was an original idea from Shanker, and how it morphed into a dagger at the heart of teacher unions and public education -- but that issue escalates in the 21st century.
We explore and analyze the history and political highlights of our city’s teachers union, the United Federation of Teachers, today with part 2 of what is to be a three part series.
In July, we had Leo Casey and Norm Scott, two iconic union activists, on this show to share with us what they thought were some of the highlights of UFT history and politics for the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Today we are joined by two lifelong and beloved UFT union activists and leaders, Bruce Markens and, once again, Norm Scott, as they take us through a decade by decade overview of the significant historical and political developments within the United Federation of Teachers union and how these impacted public education of NYC schools.
The Discussion:
Today’s discussion:
Inside UFT politics and history: How The Nation’s Most Powerful Teachers Union Impacted NYC Public Schools
Part 2, today, will take us through a decade by decade overview of what our our guests perceive as the most significant events within the UFT from the 1980s to the year 200- … we’ve invited Bruce Markens and Norm Scott. And Part 3 will likely be broadcast in September.
Richard Trumka fit the profile of a
traditional union leader. He got his hands dirty as a miner before he
ever gripped a podium and addressed a crowd... The Nation
One of Trumpka's most important positions was opposing the job sucking trade agreements, including the Hillary backed Pacific Trade Agreement in 2016, which Trump used to help beat her. Where was Randi on that issue? Supporting anything Hillary backed. In essence, Randi heading the AFL-CIO would be like inserting a Clinton operative - the Clintons who were fundamentally anti-union --- and if you doubt that just look at the record in Arkansas and the White House.
Sara Nelson actually worked her way up by working on the job. Randi was handed a job to buttress her rise to lead the union. Sara Nelson actually served drinks in the aisles and dealt with unruly
customers. I bet Randi never had to deal with an unruly student.
Nelson has been a flight attendant with United Airlines since August, 1996.[6]
Soon after beginning her career, based in Boston for United Airlines,
Nelson became an activist in the Boston AFA Local. She served in a
variety of roles including the elected position of Council
Representative. In 2002 Nelson was selected by AFA leaders at United
Airlines to serve as Communications Chair.[7]
She previously served as AFA's international vice president
for a term beginning January 1, 2011. AFA-CWA represents nearly 50,000 flight attendants at 20 airlines.
[She] worked four jobs to pay off her student debt, including as a
substitute teacher, waitress, linen salesperson, and temp at an
insurance agency.[5]
Funny - Nelson may have as much teaching experience as Randi.
Then I watched Randi's appearance on Morning Joe yesterday and video of Trumpka, who headed the Mineworkers union. Would miners and other workers accept a teacher union head as their leader? My brainstrust convinced me I was being delusional. Just watching how Randi waffles and obfuscates and is often so cloying convinced me.
We considered Sara Nelson and as head of the Flight Attendant union with a very public face during the pandemic, she seemed more likely to be accepted. The third option is Liz Shuler, Secretary-Treasurer and designated successor. Thus we will see the first woman to head the AFL-CIO in history -- unless a dark horse emerges.
The first ever woman elected to the position in 2009, Shuler also
holds the
distinction of being the youngest officer ever to sit on the
federation's Executive Council. Coming from Portland, Oregon, Shuler has
been at the forefront of progressive labor initiatives like green job
programs and the fight for workers' rights for many years, starting as
an organizer at her local union.Prior to her election as
secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, Shuler was part of the Executive
Leadership team of the Electrical Workers (IBEW)....Shuler first became active in union work after college. Her first job was as a union organizer for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 125, working on a campaign to organizer clerical workers at PGE.[3][5][7] She became a lobbyist for the IBEW in 1997, representing the union before the Oregon Legislature.[3][5]
OK. Shuler may be the favorite now and actually comes across as more progressive than Randi - for those doubters -- watch what Randi does, not what she says.
But here's something that makes Sara Nelson more legit and more Trumpka-like than either Randi or Shuler -- she actually worked in the industry she represents, just like Trumpka was a real miner.
But wait you say -- doesn't Randi claim to have worked for 6 years as a high school teacher - she mentioned her teaching on Morning Joe. We've reported many times that Randi only worked 6 months on a full schedule at Clara Barton HS, a school hand-picked for the lawyer from the UFT who had to show some in school creds in order to become UFT president. Everyone at the school knew what her future was and she was treated accordingly. That's not real world experience.
Sara Nelson actually served drinks in the aisles and dealt with unruly customers. I bet Randi never had to deal with an unruly student.
As for Shuler, she functioned as a union organizer and lobbyist, which give her some creds. And coming from the IBEW probably rates higher than the AFT, which is still not the largest teacher union. Now if Randi were heading a merged AFT/NEA with almost 4 million members, that might have bolstered her case.
But I also am thinking about the power as AFT leader of a union versus heading the AFL-CIO which is a coalition of unions with no actual power. I could also make a case that Mulgrew as head of the UFT actually has more real power than Randi as head of the AFT -- but the UFT is the tail that wags the AFT dog --- both need each other to maintain their position.
The brainstrust also speculated as to whether Mulgrew would even be taken seriously as a potential AFT leader. I heard from my old buddies in Chicago after they won their election 11 years ago that they had developed a good working relationship with Mulgrew, though politically, the Chicago leadership was more aligned with MORE.
Here's The Nation with a Trumpka obit
Richard Trumka, 1949–2021
The
labor leader practiced “true solidarity”—from his days as an
anti-apartheid activist to his bold embrace of immigrant rights and
Black Lives Matter.
Maybe I've been wrong on Mulgrew becoming AFT president. Imagine the scenario where Randi runs for AFL-CIO and wins (not so sure about that) and Mulgrew moves up -- Mulgrew wariness in the UFT might just make that enticing. Who would replace Mulgrew? Inside betting is on Leroy Barr. A former UFT president has been AFT president for 43 of the past 47 years.
This is a very disjointed piece based on old published and unpublished info I've been storing until the election was announced - which was in 2022. These articles are from pre-pandemic times mostly when the election was scheduled.
If she wants to be AFL-CIO president, she's going to have to break Trumka's kneecaps.... A source
For the record, Trunpka died of a heart attack, not knee capping, but check alibis.
Speculation has already begun. Will Randi run, as there have been indications in the past? Will Sara Nelson, a Bernie wing union leader also run? Does this set up another battle of progressives vs center/right Dems? And if Randi runs and wins who heads the AFT? Does Mulgrew follow the historic pattern since 1964 (other than 1966-74, 2006-10) where a UFT President runs the AFT? And if there is this chain reaction, who runs for president of the UFT in 2022?
Under the A.F.L.-C.I.O. constitution,
the federation’s current secretary-treasurer, Liz Shuler, will take
over as president until its executive council can meet to elect a
successor. The federation’s next presidential election was originally
scheduled to take place this year, but was delayed until next year because of the pandemic.
Sara Nelson, President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, is a contender. If it's Randi vs Sara, that's the repeat of the Biden/Bernie or any of the internal Dem Party battles.
The Guardianreported
in July 2019 that Trumka intends to back current AFL-CIO
secretary-treasurer Liz Shuler. Many labor activists, however, hope that
the militant and charismatic president of the Association of Flight
Attendants (AFA), Sara Nelson, throws her hat in — meaning that for only
the second time in its history, the AFL-CIO might have a contested race
for its presidency... When voting for AFL-CIO president, however, each delegate will get to
cast a number of votes equal to the number of members they represent. So
an international with a million members will get a million votes, split
equally among the twenty delegates.
The Jacobin article, which doesn't address a Randi candidacy, has good historical analysis.
Here's a piece from Bloomberg Law May 2019 that does:
As the campaign wound down, Democratic heavy hitters flocked to the
district, as the race, rightly or wrongly, was cast a re-litigation of
their party’s 2016 presidential primary.... Brown ran better in most suburban communities, and held Turner to just a
narrow edge in Cleveland proper -- Brown was especially strong in
Beachwood, which has a high Jewish population.
Though it doesn’t account for much of the district, Turner narrowly
carried OH-11’s portion of Summit County.... Sabato's Crystal Ball
Thursday, August 5
I reported on the much talked about Nina Turner loss twice yesterday:
So yesterday I followed a lot to commentary on the outcome. The right center Dems on Morning Joe gloating and attacking the left, with Sharpton leading the way. Below I posted the NYT article and the Sabato report on the race. Speaking of which, did the black vote abandon Nina because she is too radical and anti-Biden with her comment about eating a bowl of shit when she voted for him? or how about the fact that she didn't support Hillary in 2016 and voted for Jill Stein (most likely, though she didn't say? These anti-Dem comments were used to great effect - plus the Israel thing.
Plus the open primary may have brought in Republicans:
Progressives (including Nina Turner) pushed hard for open primaries and this analysis finds strong evidence of a significant number of people who typically vote Republican choosing a Dem ballot to oppose Turner over Israel https://dansdeals.com/more/dans-comm
The district has lots of whites and Jews -- so Nina lost those badly, which means that counter to early reporting, she actually didn't do badly with the black vote. Her biggest problem was turnout -- low. And the fact that her black base was younger and they just don't vote as much as older.
Ryan Grim on The Hill had an interview with Brianha Joy Taylor -- worth finding it if you can -- I can't seem to.
Some of the best stuff was Sam Seder's analysis (my daily watch from noon to 2:30 which often kills my day) on Majority Report where he took some shots at the progressives who engage in rhetorical flourishes that come back to bite them when they have to gather support beyond their base to win an election. Sam points out that the purpose of running is to win and the purpose of winning is to make changes.
The Nina discussion starts around 1 hour and 12 minutes and goes on until 2:02 -- long but a lesson for the left from Sam, who is often attacked for not being left enough -- but I like reality based leftists.
Sam strikes back at the Ultra left dum dums who criticize Cori Bush for "performative" politics. Sam and Emma take them to task for their attacks on those who actually run in the Dem Party to win and not search for the mythical left cannon unicorn of the Labor-Green-People Party where they can get ten votes or just enough to let Republican right wingers win. Ahhh purity. Sam points out that if Cori Bush were some civilian instead of a formerly homeless Congresswoman, her sleep-in would have been laughed at.
Here is the NY Times article which features the despicable corp shill Hakeem Jeffries who I pray will be primaried and even if it's a losing battle I will be giving money to whomever.
In String of Wins, ‘Biden Democrats’ See a Reality Check for the Left
Progressives
are holding their own with moderates in fights over policy. But
off-year elections suggest they need a new strategy for critiquing
President Biden without seeming disloyal.
Nina Turner, the hard-punching Bernie Sanders ally who lost a special election
for Congress in Ohio this week, had unique political flaws from the
start. A far-left former state legislator, Ms. Turner declined to
endorse Hillary Clinton over Donald J. Trump in 2016. Last year, she
described voting for President Biden as a grossly unpalatable option.
There were obvious reasons Democratic voters might view her with distrust.
Yet
Ms. Turner’s unexpectedly wide defeat on Tuesday marked more than the
demise of a social-media flamethrower who had hurled one belittling
insult too many. Instead, it was an exclamation mark in a season of
electoral setbacks for the left and victories for traditional Democratic
Party leaders.
In the most important
elections of 2021, the center-left Democratic establishment has enjoyed
an unbroken string of triumphs, besting the party’s activist wing from
New York to New Orleans and from the Virginia coastline to the banks of
the Cuyahoga River in Ohio. It is a winning streak that has shown the
institutional Democratic Party to be more united than at any other point
since the end of the Obama administration — and bonded tightly with the
bulk of its electoral base.
These
more moderate Democrats have mobilized an increasingly confident
alliance of senior Black and Hispanic politicians, moderate older
voters, white centrists and labor unions, in many ways mirroring the
coalition Mr. Biden assembled in 2020.
In
Ohio, it was a coalition strong enough to fell Ms. Turner, who entered
the race to succeed Marcia Fudge, the federal housing secretary, in
Congress as a well-known, well-funded favorite
with a huge lead in the polls. She drew ferocious opposition from local
and national Democrats, including leaders of the Congressional Black
Caucus who campaigned for her opponent, Shontel Brown, and a pro-Israel
super PAC that ran advertisements reminding voters about Ms. Turner’s
hostility toward Mr. Biden.
Representative
Hakeem Jeffries of New York, a top member of House leadership, said in
an interview Wednesday that Democratic voters were clearly rejecting
candidates from the party’s most strident and ideological flank.
Where
some primary voters welcomed an angrier message during the Trump years,
Mr. Jeffries said, there is less appetite now for revolutionary
rhetoric casting the Democratic Party as a broken institution.
“The
extreme left is obsessed with talking trash about mainstream Democrats
on Twitter, when the majority of the electorate constitute mainstream
Democrats at the polls,” Mr. Jeffries said. “In the post-Trump era, the
anti-establishment line of attack is lame — when President Biden and
Democratic legislators are delivering millions of good-paying jobs, the
fastest-growing economy in 40 years and a massive child tax cut.”
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Use caution with Sabato's Crystal Ball, and remember: "He who lives by the Crystal Ball ends up eating ground glass!"
OH-11
Wins for Clinton and Trump?
In two special elections last night, Ohio voters in two congressional districts went to the polls to cast ballots in primaries. Though there were four primaries overall, the results in the the two most watched contests were, to some degree or another, unexpected.
In the Cleveland area’s OH-11, County Councilwoman Shontel Brown upset former state Sen. Nina Turner in the Democratic primary. Turner, who had superior name recognition, built a fundraising advantage and was seen as a clear, but not prohibitive, favorite for much of the campaign. Though Turner represented part of the area in the legislature from 2008 to 2014, she was most known for her work on Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) presidential campaigns. Brown, who was initially elected to the Cuyahoga Council in 2014, positioned herself as a mainstream Democrat.
As the campaign wound down, Democratic heavy hitters flocked to the district, as the race, rightly or wrongly, was cast a re-litigation of their party’s 2016 presidential primary. In the closing week, Sanders stumped for Turner while House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D, SC-6), a major figure in the Congressional Black Caucus, made a visit on Brown’s behalf -- Hillary Clinton endorsed Brown earlier on.
Despite Turner’s apparent advantages, Brown prevailed by a 50%-45% margin (there were almost a dozen minor candidates who split up the balance). While Turner’s association with Sanders undoubtedly seemed to help raise her profile, her association with the Vermont senator may ultimately not have been much of an asset in OH-11: in the 2016 primary, it was Clinton’s best district in the state, giving her a nearly 40-point advantage over Sanders.
Roughly 90% of OH-11’s votes come from Cleveland’s Cuyahoga County, where Brown did slightly better than her districtwide showing, but there were some interesting local patterns. Brown ran better in most suburban communities, and held Turner to just a narrow edge in Cleveland proper -- Brown was especially strong in Beachwood, which has a high Jewish population.
Though it doesn’t account for much of the district, Turner narrowly carried OH-11’s portion of Summit County. An interactive map from our friends at RRH Elections gives a detailed breakdown: Brown carried many of the white-majority areas while Turner ran better in the heavily Black precincts that make up Akron proper.
Given the working class nature of the Akron
area, perhaps Brown’s relative moderation played better with white
voters. A few months ago, a similar dynamic was at play in Louisiana’s
2nd District: in an April special election, now-Rep. Troy Carter (D,
LA-2), who was tagged with the “establishment” label, beat out state
Sen. Karen Carter Peterson in an intraparty runoff. Peterson’s posture
as an “unapologetic progressive” sold well in gentrifying white
neighborhoods in New Orleans, but Carter racked up healthy majorities in
the district’s white -- and non-white -- working class pockets.
Both the LA-2 result and the New York City
Democratic mayoral primary, where Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams
was seen as a moderate choice, represent, to some degree or
another, disappointments for progressives. Now, with a loss in Ohio,
progressives find themselves looking for a high profile win.
I rarely do this but I complained and received an initial response from one of the head honchos Jake Sherman and then a follow up:
This is John Bresnahan from Punchbowl News. I saw your
email asking why we didn’t say more on Rep. Cori Bush’s protest in our
A.M. edition today. I wanted to be sure you saw our A.M. edition from
yesterday, Tuesday. We covered the protest pretty thoroughly, including
an interview with Rep. Bush. Thanks for being a reader. I really do appreciate it. Bres
By the way -- even the free morning editions is a must read politically -- in the trial I was getting it 3 times a day and each was a deep dive. Even if I paid I couldn't keep up. Subscribe: Your referral link is: https://punchbowl.news/?rh_ref=689b4055
Rep. Cori Bush is winning.
The Missouri Democrat's sit-in protest over
her party’s botched handling of the eviction moratorium has lasted four
days. She’s been joined by colleagues, other members of the Squad and a
growing number of supporters. And now, it’s exceedingly clear that the
Democratic Party’s leadership and the White House have a problem on
their hands.
This very vocal group of junior lawmakers
want to extend the federal eviction moratorium, but the
leadership says they don’t have votes in the House to do it.
Furthermore, Democrats don’t believe they have 60 votes in the Senate in
the face of solid GOP opposition. And President Joe Biden’s administration doesn’t think it has the ability to extend the moratorium on its own.
Bush, though, has refused to
back down, and she’s helped put the White House and Democratic
congressional leaders in a tough spot. Bush has been camped out on the
House steps since Friday, sleeping sitting up in order not to draw
warnings from the U.S. Capitol Police. The above photo is after she met
with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in his Capitol suite Monday.
And Bush’s protest is
gaining momentum. It’s become a scene, with TV cameras rolling and
young people singing. There was even an appearance by a visibly ailing
Rev. Jesse Jackson on Monday evening. Jackson had been
arrested early in the day during a protest over voting rights, but he
still made sure to drop by Bush’s sit-in.
What we’re seeing here
is a fascinating exercise of outside political power -- the kind of
power that's difficult to successfully deploy. Bush has drawn the
attention of the media as she sits outside the Capitol, and that in turn
means attention from the administration and senior
members of the Democratic leadership. These kinds of demonstrations
rarely work, but in a one-party government with tight margins in both
chambers, everything needs to be taken seriously.
Bush is putting pressure
on Biden to resolve this situation, at least in the short term. She
wants him to extend the eviction moratorium -- which expired July 31 --
even if it’s later struck down by a federal court. That would buy some
time for Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Schumer to attempt some legislative action to resolve the situation.
“I think the quickest way
to get this thing done is for our
president to go ahead and get this thing done by an executive order and
get it done. He can get it done right now,” Bush insisted during an
interview Monday night.
Bush is firm in when she’ll
end her protest: “It ends when we win, it ends when we win. It ends
when we don’t have to worry about this moratorium at this point. It ends
when we get to say, ‘Okay, we got a little bit of time. Let’s go ahead
and get to work to get a bill done so Congress can actually act.’ That’s
when it ends for me.”
Bush, 45, is a freshman legislator, yet she’s certainly captured the
interest of Democratic party elders. Vice President Kamala Harris and Schumer came to see her on Monday. Schumer told her to call him at any time if she needs anything. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) made an appearance too.
When we stopped by, Bush was juggling interviews with CNN and MSNBC. Reps. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) and Mark Takano (D-Calif.) were there. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) was there. There was some chanting and praying. You don’t typically see this on the East Steps of the U.S. Capitol.
“This is spontaneous political combustion,
and it’s building and building,” said Markey, who was first elected to
Congress in 1976. “It’s just growing each hour into a national
movement.”
This is an old story on Capitol Hill. The
rank-and-file wants something that the leadership can’t deliver. In
this case, instead of simply saying that the game is up, the leadership
and the White House continue to obliquely suggest it’s possible. The
House Democratic leadership is publicly pressing Biden to take action.
And at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.,
that’s been a bit frustrating because administration officials believe
their hands are tied -- although, publicly, White House officials
say they’re checking whether they might be able to do it.
All this energy leads to the questions we
are focused on, and the one that you should be focused on: Just how big
of a problem is this for Biden? How big of a problem is it for Pelosi?
And how much anger is there between the progressive wing of the
Democratic Party and Biden’s White House?
The answers are:
Pelosi is skating at the moment because all of the anger -- and we mean
all of it -- is aimed squarely at the White House. The anger is real,
and it’s tangible.
“Once [the House] left, it
was just generally accepted that this was going to lapse, and that
there was nothing that we could do about it,” Ocasio-Cortez told us.
“And Congresswoman Bush and I were kind of just sitting here at a loss
after that rush to adjournment. And we just knew that we simply could
not accept this. … We now have Majority Leader [Chuck] Schumer that is
hopping on board and pushing back on the White House and the
administration. And so my hope is that this ends with the Biden
administration using its authority.”
Ocasio-Cortez sent an email to her political email list yesterday, urging people to keep the pressure up on Congress.
The larger question is what happens
if the White House can’t find a way to extend this unilaterally? With a
bunch of important legislation in the coming weeks, do Bush and Co. try
to hold them up to ensure the inclusion of the eviction moratorium? Our
bet is yes -- especially with the tight margins in both chambers.
I was so rooting for Nina Turner -Dem Party Goes After Nina Turner and Bernie Wing o... so it's a sad day. I wanted so bad to see her in Congress. But maybe in the real election next year. But then again Cori Bush activism was a winner.
Expect much gnashing of teeth from progressives over the Nina Turner loss but also much celebration over the Cori Bush win after her sleepout on the steps of the capitol forced the Bush admin to continue rent relief. The media won't connect the two and report mainly on the loss. MSNBC Morning Joe crew was positively glowing today while under reporting the Bush story.
Corporate media and Dems, following the celebration of the Eric Adams win in NYC, are overjoyed over the defeat of Nina Turner and the Bernie wing of the party in last night's primary.
With 96.5 percent of precincts reporting, Brown led Turner by 4,380 votes out of more than 71,000 votes cast.
Yesterday began with a big celebration by the activist left over how Cori Bush and the Squad stood up Joe Biden and the Dem party central over it's disastrous handing of rent relief. Heather Cox Richardson reports:
...after pressure from progressive Democrats, especially Representative
Cori Bush (D-MO), who led a sit-in at the Capitol to call for eviction
relief, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that in
counties experiencing high levels of community transmission of
Covid-19, it is extending until October 3 the federal moratorium on
evictions that ended this weekend. It is doing so as a public health
measure, but it is also an economic one. It should help about 90% of
renters—11 million adults—until the government helps to clear the
backlog of payments missed during the pandemic by disbursing more of the
$46 billion Congress allocated for that purpose.
One thing I've learned about many on the left -- celebrate and exaggerate the wins and blame the losses on corporate money - or the weather - or anything. Center/right/corp Dems push the idea that the majority of voters, particularly in the Black community, don't support the left. At least the older, more conservative church-going faction. But Cori Bush defeated one such black incumbent with a lot of support in the 2020 primary. But lessons learned by corp dems -- they didn't want yet another Cori Bush in Congress so they pulled out all the stops in Cleveland.
The Cleveland primary makes that point. There were many centrist black candidates and corp Dems used the Biden strategy against Bernie -- unite behind one. And it worked -- this time -- there is another election next year and Nina my be back and doing a lot of campaigning -- starting today. Turnout was terrible and that was what brought Nina down.
David Sirota faces facts in this tweet:
@NinaTurner ran a brave campaign. More Dem voters supported her corporate opponent not just because an overwhelming amount of super PAC money was spent to destroy Nina, but also because in general more Dem voters want a corporate government than something else. This is reality.
I follow left wing alt media, which is so anti-corp Dem. I was listening to live reports from The Young Turks - TYT - and there was more than a bit of hysteria over the Turner loss -- with a semi-attack on the voters -- the black voters - who chose corp Dems over Turner. When Bernie lost to Biden there was a lot ot crying on the left over how dare the corp dems unite -- Bernie could have won if they split the vote - as he did in early primaries with 30% -- but they ignore the reality that if you add up the non-Bernie vote it pretty much comes to about a third.
Some of this racial dynamic plays out in the UFT, where Unity Caucus attracts a significant portion of older Black UFTers. Younger Black teachers, if they are active, are also being recruited by Unity and if they are progressive, will go to MORE. Or do outside UFT activism if turned off by MORE/DSA left rhetoric. That will be an interesting dynamic.
I also follow corp media - Punchbowl covers Congress -- now watch how they report the Cori Bush story -- give her some credit but give Pelosi most of the credit -- as if she gave a shit until Bush embarrassed her.
[UPDATE NOTE 1- I complained about the coverage and received this from Jake Sherman - hi Norm -- We covered this extensively in our midday and PM editions. Only problem is those versions behind pay wall - so if a tree falls in a forest -- etc.
Happy Wednesday. We
wanted to bring you a little bit more on the backstory of how the White
House completely reversed its position from “We can’t issue a new
eviction moratorium” to “We’re going to issue a new eviction
moratorium.”
There’s no doubt that Reps. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Mondaire Jones’ (D-N.Y.)
public pressure campaign -- which included Bush camping out on the
Capitol steps for five days -- was key to creating the political
environment for Biden’s decision. With so much anger from the left,
inaction wasn’t an option.
Yet behind the scenes, Speaker Nancy Pelosi
played a pivotal role. She helped convince the Biden administration to
issue a revised moratorium that lasts until Oct. 3, despite possible
legal challenges from landlords. The previous moratorium expired on July
31, leaving millions of families facing possible eviction and causing
an uproar among progressives.
Over several days, Pelosi engaged in a frantic round of phone calls and lobbying, pressing President Joe Biden
and senior White House officials to respond. Pelosi spoke directly with
Biden three times over
the weekend and into Tuesday, making a case that the White House found
compelling. Pelosi was adamant the president needed to move unilaterally
and insisted the Delta variant presented a new public health emergency.
Pelosi argued the White House didn’t
need to issue a national moratorium but should rather focus on halting
evictions in areas where the CDC was recommending masking. That way, the
two public health emergencies overlapped for the agency, according to
people familiar with the arguments Pelosi made to Biden, White House
Chief of Staff Ron Klain and Steve Ricchetti, a counselor to Biden.
During one conversation with Pelosi,
Biden said his legal advisers were warning him that he couldn’t extend
the moratorium due to a June 29 Supreme Court ruling. The high court had
let the moratorium stand in a 5-4 decision, but Justice Brett Kavanaugh
said the CDC had “exceeded its existing statutory authority” and
Congress must act to extend the ban. Biden asked Pelosi if she had any
legal experts with a different take. Pelosi provided Biden with several
names, including Laurence Tribe, the well-known Harvard
Law professor. Tribe also has a long friendship with Klain, himself a
Harvard Law grad. Tribe encouraged White House officials to move ahead
with the revised moratorium.
When Biden decided
to make his announcement on Tuesday on the new moratorium, the first
person he called was Pelosi, who’d just finished a caucus call with her
members and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
“Today is a day of extraordinary relief,” Pelosi
said in a statement released by her office. “Thanks to the leadership
of President Biden, the imminent fear of eviction and being put out on
the street has been lifted for countless families across America. Help
is Here!”
Cori gets one line. A joke.
And here's another celebratory anti-left article from the
When I was a classroom teacher, today's date evoked feeling that this amazing freedom from angst had turned a corner and it was time to begin thinking of going back to school. In fact at some point in the week after Aug. 1 I would go into school and set up my classroom and muck around doing a few things to ease my mind and the coming intense workload around Labor Day, allowing me to enjoy the rest of August. Of course, the last time I had to set up a classroom was in 1996, and for the past 17 years since full separation from the DOE, it's been like one big continuous August.
I thought I'd capture a few items from the news that popped up that you might not have seen.
China Attacks Ed Deform test prep
China changed its two-child policy to allow married couples to have three children. It promised to increase maternity leave and ease workplace pressures.
This is a fascinating article and I'm including it in full after the break for those behind a pay wall. Fundamentally, the government is attacking test prep and over preparation - not for the same reasons we oppose it here -- better for the child -- but because it costs too much and parents are sticking to one child while the Party wants to increase the birth rate.
Parental focus on education
in China can sometimes make American helicopter parenting seem quaint.
Exam preparation courses begin in kindergarten.
Quaint? Have they checked out the Stuyvesant prep classes?
China Targets Costly Tutoring Classes. Parents Want to Save Them.
Many
families and experts say Beijing’s education overhaul will help the
rich and make the system even more competitive for those who can barely
afford it.
In
China, the competitive pursuit of education — and the better life it
promises — is relentless. So are the financial pressures it adds to
families already dealing with climbing house prices, caring for aging parents and costly health care.
The
burden of this pursuit has caught the attention of officials who want
couples to have more children. China’s ruling Communist Party has tried
to slow the education treadmill. It has banned homework, curbed
livestreaming hours of online tutors and created more coveted slots at
top universities.
Last week, it tried something bigger: barring private companies
that offer after-school tutoring and targeting China’s $100 billion
for-profit test-prep industry. The first limits are set to take place
during the coming year, to be carried out by local governments.
The
move, which will require companies that offer curriculum tutoring to
register as nonprofits, is aimed at making life easier for parents who
are overwhelmed by the financial pressures of educating their children.
Yet parents and experts are skeptical it will work. The wealthy, they
point out, will simply hire expensive private tutors, making education
even more competitive and ultimately widening China’s yawning wealth
gap.
You have to wade through the NYT neoliberal interpretation that test prep for everyone is a good thing. [Below the fold for entire article.]
I have become more conscious about Jewish history and Jewish identity issues, especially when some Jews poo-poo issues like Black Lives Matter. Jews should support BLM because in our own history we faced heavy issues too. I'm not playing a game of "my holocaust was worse than yours." These thoughts were triggered by this obit:
Ruth Pearl, Mother of Murdered Reporter Daniel Pearl, Dies at 85
Ruth Pearl, the mother of Daniel Pearl, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal who was brutally murdered by Muslim extremists in Pakistan in 2002
his kidnappers beheaded him on Feb. 1, 2002, recording a video of his
last words — “My father’s Jewish, my mother’s Jewish, I’m Jewish.”
His murderers singled him out because he was American and Jewish
She was born Eveline Rejwan on Nov. 11, 1935, in Baghdad. Her father,
Joseph, was a tailor and ran an import business, and her mother,
Victoria (Abada) Rejwan, was a homemaker.
Eveline was 5 when a failed coup led to
an outbreak of anti-Jewish violence across Iraq. In what came to be
known as the Farhud, Jewish-owned stores were ransacked and at least 179
Jews were killed. Her family hid in their home for days, protected by
Arab neighbors, who told would-be looters, “There are no Jews here.”
Soon
afterward the family moved to a suburb, but the violence continued.
Joseph was beaten while riding his bicycle, resulting in the loss of
vision in one eye; he later had to bribe a police officer to free his
two sons after their arrest on false charges. Others were less lucky.
Mrs. Pearl recalled seeing the bodies of Iraqi Jews hanging from gallows
in a square.
“Growing up as a Jewish
child in Baghdad,” she wrote in “I Am Jewish,” “left me with recurring
nightmares of being chased by a knife-wielding Arab in the school’s
stairway while 2,000 schoolmates screamed hysterically.”
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• How Unions and Their Allies Are Trying to Hold Amazon Accountable(Capital and Main) — “In
California, labor advocates are supporting Assembly Bill 701, which
would require all warehouse employers to provide workers with a written
description of expected quotas, the number of tasks to be performed
within a given time and potential adverse employment action. In other
words, the employer has to share the metrics and the penalties for not
meeting them.”
