UFT Adult Education Chapter to Mulgrew - Rose-Marie Mills is still a problem

We call upon our union to defend us. We call upon our union to stop the harassment of the senior Teachers of Adult Education....

This statement was read at the April 8th UFT Ex Bd meeting:

From: Working Group of the Adult Education Chapter of the UFT
To: Michael Mulgrew, LeRoy Barr, Anthony Harmon

Dear Brothers Mulgrew, Barr, and Harmon and members of the Executive Committee:

Due to the unceasing efforts of members of the Adult Education Chapter of the United Federation of Teachers, Rose-Marie Mills has been removed from the Superintendency of the Office of Adult and Continuing Education. Unfortunately, the Department of Education, rather than dismissing Ms. Mills, has merely moved her, and she now oversees instruction of Adult Education, of which she has shown herself to know nothing, as well as being involved with funding and data (whatever that may be taken to mean). Testing anomalies still abound, with, for example, ESL Students being emailed math packets in English then being tested as distance learners, increasing the EPE hours billed to the State, though the Students have not received instruction in the subject they came to study: English. Though paperwork issues were supposedly resolved, paperwork is increasing, with Teachers forced to do more and more data entry on their own time.

Kentucky Mom "Goes Rogue" in Red State (By Siding with Teachers Instead of Union Leaders)

Right or wrong, the [Kentucky] sickout teachers voted with their feet. This is a big problem for school districts, but also for unions. The stated purpose of exclusive representation is that it brings labor peace because such differences are handled internally by the union and a single position is agreed upon. If a minority of teachers can shut down a district against the directives of their union, then there is in fact no exclusive representation.
Neither school districts nor unions seem to be contemplating the ramifications.... Mike Antonucci, EIA, Vox Populi?

Yes, labor peace -- we have seen that time and again - there is a partnership between a teacher union and the city and DOE -- they will stop sickouts and other wildcat actions. But when unions are weak, as they are in the red states, shit happens. In fact the unions tried to argue this to stop Janus -- that a weak union can lead to chaos from the ranks. Someone like me with Anarchist/libertarian tendencies, tend to have mixed feelings. While supporting a strong union, I also chafe under the yoke of a Unity Caucus dominated union. For those calling for change in the way the union is run there is often a contradiction in how far to go in being critical.

The situation in Kentucky is intriguing -- we have a revolt from below not only against the anti-union forces but also against their own official union leadership -- and both the left and the right are taking an interest. Here was my first report based on Antonucci on the sickouts in early March -- Kentucky One-Day Wildcat Sickout - Some want to co...

Here is a laugh out loud point from Mike:

Several large school districts shut down after the sickout was called by KY 120 United, identified as a grassroots organization of teachers, but one that apparently has some pull with district superintendents.
If that isn’t confusing enough, both the union and KY 120 United announced that teachers would return to work today, but a smaller wildcat faction rejected the idea. 

I posted another Anonucci story about the wildcat actions - Kentucky Unions Attempt to Undercat Wildcat Action...
-- of course, the anti-teacher union Antonucci loves to post bad behavior about teacher unions even if highlighting the actions of teachers in revolt against their own unions which often lead to more fragmentation and a weakening overall.

But then again we have Randi and Mike and other bureaucrats who are running teacher unions. The left also goes after the leadership and hopes to build rank and file movements against them from below -- but that also gets complicated because even when they win power they get sucked into the political fray.

The Kentucky situation is interesting because the left critics of organized labor may be inserting itself on behalf of the wild-cat sick-outs ---- Antonucci reported the other day:

Yesterday I ran a column about the Kentucky Education Association and other union affiliates in the Jefferson County school system and their efforts to get a handle on the “rogue groups” that were organizing teacher sickouts. Their primary argument was that a small number of people were making decisions affecting the livelihoods of thousands of school employees.
“It’s 800 people deciding for ultimately 6,500 teachers and then all the rest of the employees,” said one union president.

Oh, the problem with a small number of people making decisions for the many, something we never see in the UFT/AFT.

Those rogues must be driving the Randis of this world crazy. Imagine if a school in NYC with an abusive principal that is being ignored by the UFT suddenly had a sick-out? I can't imagine --but I say to my friends who constantly remind me how bad things are in the schools -- why hasn't something like this happened? They often answer it is the fault of the UFT who don't mobilize people. Well, who has mobilized the rogues in Kentucky? Sometimes teachers have to take actions. And by the way, who mobilized the founders of the UFT when there was no union? My retired pal has dubber NYC teachers as New York's Meekest.

I came across this interesting podcast on the Kentucky wildcats from the left - What's Left. Here's what they say in the intro:

We interview Gay Adelmann, parent of two and co-founder of "Dear JCPS", a grass-roots parent/teacher alliance built to fight racist policies in education and the erosion of public education through charter schools and privatization. Gay describes her involvement in the recent fight to bust the teachers union and the attack on teachers pay and pension which has produced a recent wave of sick outs in Kentucky. This put her group on the firing line from politicians looking to sneak shady policies past the pubic and union leaders who would rather cut backroom deals than lead fightback. Her story of struggle and transformation is inspiring.

What’s Left? Website: https://what-s-left.webnode.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YoloZGh2To&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3k8-5D10VyowEe5VDLaLRPjjmoIt7l2M63znQAr5aYMsZ_cH9KPtLxwNQ

Mike Antonucci followed up with a critique of the union leaders who are attacking the wildcatters ---  (http://www.eiaonline.com/intercepts/2019/04/05/vox-populi/)

Vox Populi?

School Scope: UFT Election Votes Will Be Counted April 17

For The WAVE - April 5, 2019

School Scope:  UFT Election Votes Will Be Counted April 17

By Norm Scott

I’ve been getting emails from UFT members asking me for suggestions on how to vote in the UFT elections and ballots must be received by April 16. They ask because they are aware that I’ve been deeply involved in internal UFT politics for decades and know all the players. In the past I would recommend the slate I was working with. This year I have no such recommendation for the first time in decades.

Two hundred thousand (a rough estimate) UFT members began receiving election ballots the week of March 24.  In my 52 years of UFT membership, 49 of them part of active minority parties, I can’t remember four parties (caucuses) running independent campaigns. Unity Caucus has run the UFT since its inception in the early 60s and due to the divisions among the three minority parties is guaranteed to win every single position, thus making the election outcome a foregone conclusion. The overwhelming majority of members (75%) toss the ballot away. The 60,000 retirees can vote for the majority of positions, including all officers and three quarters of the Executive Board and 750 delegates to the state and national conventions.

Retirees have the highest return rate (they have the time) and also vote Unity by 85% (they are the happiest people in the UFT). The winning slate, which will be Unity because the other three slates will split the anti-Unity vote, will serve a three year term. The other slates are New Action, Solidarity, and MORE. If you are a UFT member and still have your ballot, is very easy to vote for a slate – just put an X in the box on the front page, tear it off and mail it in. I am not doing that but am voting for individuals from all four slates, a tedious affair as I have to wade through pages of candidates.  Let me explain.

The reasons I am no longer voting for a slate are convoluted. In order to have a chance to win any of the all three parties needed to unite and run a massive campaign with hundreds of candidates. Despite entreaties to do so, it didn’t happen and each of the three opposition slates are running limited campaigns with less than 50 candidates each. A losing proposition and from my perspective a total waste of time, energy and money. I don’t have the space here to define the differences between the groups but do so on my blog. I’m fundamentally sitting this election out for the first time since 2001.

As a founder of the MORE caucus in 2012 I was very active in the 2013 and 2016 elections and helped engineer a narrow victory for the seven high school executive board seats – a drop in the bucket, given there are over 90 seats controlled by Unity. The reason we won was due to an alliance MORE made with the New Action caucus. Solidarity did not get on the ballot last time due to not reaching the required 40 candidates for slate status. This time Solidarity is on the ballot, thus creating the four ballot lines.

I am no longer associated with the MORE caucus because MORE refused to work with anyone else or run a serious campaign, thus helping strengthen Unity Caucus’ control of the UFT. I am now a free agent in the UFT political scene, free to alienate everyone. I have been thinking of getting involved in other political work, especially locally. There is standard Democratic Party politics – both the machine and the progressive Dems, community board work and some intriguing work with the current hot item on the left – the Democratic Socialists (DSA) of AOC fame who so terrorizes Republicans and centrist democrats. I have been going to some South Brooklyn DSA meetings, which I will report on in the future.

You can read about Norm’s choices for candidates at his blog, ednotesonline.com.

Memo from the RTC: I Give Up March Madness for Tenors and Have more fun

Memo from the RTC:  I Give Up March Madness for Tenors and Have more fun

I missed one of my rare opening nights of the Rockaway Theatre Company’s production of  “A Comedy of Tenors” (see my School Scope column for why) but received texts later that night about how funny and well-done it was. I wanted to see the show before this column was due on

ISO’s opponents on the Trotskyist Sectarian Left: it’s a middle class Identitarian coup

Michael found this piece with this comment:

ISO’s opponents on the Trotskyist Sectarian Left: it’s a middle class Identitarian coup...

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/04/02/inte-a02.html

Some excerpts

A March 20 post by Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, titled “What Socialists Can Learn From #MeToo,” exposes the hysterical psychology, akin to a lynch mob, that prevails among ISO members recruited on the basis of middle-class identity politics.....
In the statements issued by the ISO, there is no explicit reference to or discussion of the political differences within the organization’s leadership that underlay the crisis that erupted during the week of March 11, 2019. Readers are expected to believe that the alleged mishandling of an accusation of sexual assault, which occurred six years ago, has caused the political collapse of the International Socialist Organization.

This is preposterous and will be believed only by those who are either hopelessly naïve or hopelessly stupid.... Some are boasting that out of the wreckage of the ISO a “new model of revolutionary socialism” will emerge. They are whistling as they pass by the graveyard. Their quest for a “new model” is leading them squarely into the Democratic Party. .......World Socialist web site

Aside from my laugh out loud reaction to the name Wrigley-Field, this anti-ISO article from the faaar left 4th International has some interesting nuggets, though be careful if you read it to filter some of the hyperbole. Some of my friends on the left do not even think I should publish it because they can be so beyond the fringe - like Pluto. But --- as I say, there are some nuggets here.

For those interested in the past, current and future direction of the UFT opposition and its relationship to the membership, you must pay attention to what has occurred in the breakup of ISO and the control ISO UFTers exerted over MORE Caucus right through this faction's takeover (along with its allies) of the caucus and driving out those (mostly from ICEUFT) who pushed back. We have internal ISO documents written by this MORE faction about how they executed this takeover and purges and will publish them selectively over time.

I myself was shocked at the speed of the breakup of ISO and have felt there is more there than a coverup of a rape charge -- purges? Who ever heard of purges? I'm shocked, just shocked.

Another excerpt which raises the same point:

In the statements issued by the ISO, there is no explicit reference to or discussion of the political differences within the organization’s leadership that underlay the crisis that erupted during the week of March 11, 2019. Readers are expected to believe that the alleged mishandling of an accusation of sexual assault, which occurred six years ago, has caused the political collapse of the International Socialist Organization.

This is preposterous and will be believed only by those who are either hopelessly naïve or hopelessly stupid. The unleashing of a sex scandal in a political organization is aimed invariably at generating hysteria, stampeding the membership and preventing an open and rational discussion of program, perspective, strategy and the interests of conflicting internal factions and social forces. Only in the aftermath of the organizational massacre, as the smoke begins to clear, do the political interests and aims that precipitated the crisis begin to emerge.

Well, anyway, there's a good portion of the left that is rejoicing at the end of ISO but everyone knows you can't kill that zombie and in some form or other they will be back. For the forseeable future, MORE will remain under the control of the former ISO block, unless there are splits among them or splits between them and the block they recruited from the Democratic Socialists.

Insiders have been telling us they will enter full force into the DSA and attempt to do unto them as they did unto MORE. Beware the jabberwocky...... it may come at you from any direction.
Norm

Factional provocation, middle-class hysteria, and the collapse of the Internation

By the Political Committee of the Socialist Equality Party (US)
2 April 2019

The International Socialist Organization is collapsing just over a month after its national convention, amidst factionally instigated denunciations of sexual assault and cover-up.

Kentucky Unions Attempt to Undercat Wildcat Actions They Can't Control - Antonucci

Mike posts this at the god-awful anti teacher union the 74. But he is covering an interesting story: what happens when the union leadership loses control of its members? I one of Mike's reports he said that Labor Notes had a rep working with the wildcatters. That's an interesting story if it is so. I won't get into the weeds but Labor Notes has played a major role in the national UCORE social justice caucus movement around the nation, including MORE, though to a lesser extent.

Intercepts

Kentucky Unions Join Up to Try to Subdue ‘Rogue Groups’ Staging Teacher Sickouts
by Mike Antonucci

As spring arrives and the weather improves, we can expect more teacher protests to spring up as well. Many of these will be the traditional type of mass rally engineered and financed by the established teachers unions. The North Carolina Association of Educators has one scheduled for May 1, and the California Teachers Association will descend upon the state capitol on May 22.

It is much more difficult to know if other protests, organized by teacher activists outside union purview, will also occur. Last year, these wildcat groups were largely able to act in concert with unions in places like Oklahoma and Arizona, though not without some friction. While their goals concerning school funding and class size are the same, there isn’t agreement on when, where and how job actions should be deployed.

This was thrown into stark relief in Jefferson County, Kentucky, where groups of teachers have been staging sickouts that shut down the school district on six occasions in late February and March.

46% of Long Is students opted out of ELA exam this week

leoniehaimson@gmail.com More than 66,500 Long Island students - 46% of those eligible- opted out of NYS ELA exam this week. Bet you their parents are glad they did given exams' excessive length & train-wreck of computer-based testing.

https://www.newsday.com/long-island/education/schools-ela-opt-outs-test-boycott-1.29381145

Folks,

 

Thank you for being allies in the fight against the NYS Testing Program.

 

Here's my Op-Ed in today's DN.  It's a recent broad stroke history of disastrous NYS testing in the Common Core - Tisch - John King - Elia era.  A program that has no redeeming features.  I'm trying to get it out to parents and potential test resistors.

 

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-welcome-back-to-test-insanity-20190402-tyu42dirlzcgjgwyhq36sfwx7y-story.html

 

Fred

ATR Severance Offer - from Mike Sill at UFT

As you have likely heard, the DOE is offering a voluntary severance to all members of the ATR pool and to UFT-represented employees in Title I-funded positions in the nonpublic schools.

In order to be eligible, a person must be a member of the ATR pool (whether in a rotational or provisional assignment) or a UFT-represented DOE employee working in a Title I position in a nonpublic school.

Anyone who agrees to take the severance will receive $50,000 before taxes, on or about Sept. 16, 2019.

My UFT Election Choices: Duke Breaks Bracket, Ex-MORES In Play on Unity Slate - Yes, My Choices are Personal

An ecclectic group for sure:
5 for Solidarity, 4 for Unity, 3 for MORE
Howrilka, Portelos, Sill, Manning, Brown, De Jesus, Lupkin, Prosen, Hinds, Severenson, Zannoni, Diaz - Below, the reasons for why I voted for whom and why I didn't vote for whom - if you dare to wade through the muck.

People have been emailing asking me and others - Gloria has had numerous requests too - for voting recommendations - not for March Madness but for the UFT election. Today is the big reveal. Warning -  it's a long a tedious read. (I will make my final election voting outcome predictions before April 17.)

Duke, the Unity Caucus of the NCAA loses - a harbinger?

The Paul Egan Story, Redux: Commentary

Interestingly, if you look up the person who replaced [Paul], you discover that she worked for Cuomo, Andy Pallota at NYSUT, and recently for Mulgrew....

So what's actually going on here?
Is there more to this story?
Why was he really fired?
......... comment on the ICEUFT blog 

New Director of Grievance—David Campbell
New Political Director—Cassie Pruh
New Attorney—Beth Norton

Another postponement of my much anticipated UFT election recommendations. Maybe later.

There has been some commentary about the departure of political director Paul Egan from the UFT, which we were the first to report (Rumor: Paul Egan Out at UFT - Everyone is Mum).

Let me say straight up that I have always liked Paul

NYSAPE Final Press Release - NYS Education Commissioner Mary Ellen Elia Creates a Culture of Fear, Intimidation, and Misinformation in our Schools

Today's straw man:
Old UFT/AFT buddy Mary Ellen Elia under attack. Anti-Opt- out is a UFT signature- and a vote for Unity is a vote for supporting Elia and high stakes testing.

It's Monday, April 1^st and it is no April fool’s joke of what’s going on around the state. Please share widely, here’s the link to share all over social media:

https://www.nysape.org/nysape-pr-opt-out-scare-tactics.html

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 1, 2019

More information contact
Jeanette Deutermann  nys.allies@gmail.com

Kemala Karmen  nys.allies@gmail.com
NYS Allies for Public Education - NYSAPE

Link to Press Release

ISO Breaks up - Will MORE Be Affected?

There's lots of news about how the International Socialists (ISO) has decided to disband.

There's an article on the Socialist Worker: 

Haley Pessin argues that the failures of the ISO should be understood and used in order to improve the revolutionary socialist project, not abandon it. 

We fought to transform our group into one that would be run by its own members, open to multiple perspectives (without any illusions that only the “leadership” had the right answers), and fit to bring the politics of socialism from below into and alongside a growing, radicalizing left — and we won.
In the aftermath of this crisis, I was furious that our victory was being cut short by the retroactive impact of leaders whose actions proved more damaging than we could have imagined.
It seems like we are at the beginning of one of the moments revolutionaries prepare their whole lives for — a rebirth of a socialist left, complete with the return of class struggle and movements for social justice. And yet, the discovery that the leaders of an avowedly anti-sexist organization intervened such that a member accused of rape was allowed to rise to our highest leadership body has been so destructive that it is hard to figure out how we can participate and move forward. ... But I keep coming back to something my dad (who is also an ISO member) raised in response to the crisis: What if our organization had imploded due to these revelations not now, at the very beginning of a rebirth of the socialist left, but once we were much further along in the development of this new left?

I was recently in touch with Haley who is the daughter of Marc Pessin, who played a major role in the UFT opposition in the 1970s and 80's. Marc is an ISO member? Oy! I have to give him a call.

And last Friday I went on a trip with Schirtzer and his class and the guide was a former teacher and ISO member who talked about their issues -- he's a good guy and I may stay in touch. I still like some ISO people I've met. But I think the group dynamic often trumped the instincts of the individual.

I have wanted to write a piece on the tactics groups like ISO have used to exert control over mass organizations in the UFT like MORE. My personal experience with ISO in GEM and then MORE taught me a lot about the operation. Even back before ICE formed and Teachers for a Just Contract (TJC) as a choice, many on the independent left would stay way because of the presence of a core of ISO people in TJC, along with the Labor Notes/Solidarity group.



But I do have friends in other cities who say ISO did not operate that way. The late George Schmidt claimed the CTU/CORE ISO people were more open - and some of them supported George even when he butted heads with CTU President Jesse Sharkey, who is ISO.

It was that sense of being in a controlled caucus that led us to form ICE in 2003/4. A left leaning independent group that would never allow sectarian leftists to gain control. When ICE discussed going into MORE, a core of left ICEers refused mainly due to ISO.

I don't have time to get into too many details of what has roiled the ISO recently -- left groups often seem to go into these convulsions. This is important in how it will affect MORE and other caucuses around the nation where ISO members have a lot of influence. Of the ten officer positions, three are ISO and one is a former ISO.

The key thing to be clear about- ISO operated on democratic centralism - like Unity Caucus - which means every member is obligated to go along even if they disagree. Thus whatever the ISO people decided to do in MORE, their entire block went along, thus exerting a level of influence beyond their numbers. (It was Mike Schirtzer calling them out on this that got him into so much trouble in MORE.)

But it was noticable how many ISO people passed through MORE over the years and seemed to lost interest  - in MORE and possibly ISO.

I will get into more details on the left in general and the impact of left-sectarian groups like ISO. In all the years of MORE not one person from the considerable ISO block in MORE ever varied from their group decision from the most minor to the major. Those of us who knew what was going on would wink at each other.

They clearly were making decisions about MORE outside the regular MORE process and bringing their pre-decisions into the group and shut down many discussions that might have gone outside the bounds of where they wanted MORE to go - always aligned with ISO policy.

From the first meetings of MORE, some of us have been in conflict at various times with the ISO faction of MORE. ISO constituted a block within MORE -- a caucus within a caucus - but not openly. In fact at the very first meeting I called out all the blocks within MORE and warned that unless these factions were open there would be conflicts. The only block of sorts within MORE - was the ICE faction. And ISO often justified their actions by citing ICE - except ICE was never dictated by an internal process that everyone must go along and support what the organization decided. ICE never operated under democratic centralism - and not even by voting -- but consensus - which is antithetical to groups like ISO.

The entire situation that took place in MORE over the past few years was instigated by the ISO faction and its allies. They were able to take control through their brilliant idea of recruiting from the democratic socialists which tipped the balance of MORE. Given how the new recruits played silence of the lambs while democracy was violated I use quotes around "democratic."

All the guesses out there are that nothing will change in MORE with the same people in control. ISO people will put their efforts into the DSA and will form and join in factions - and don't be surprised to see some of the same type of divisions arise in DSA as we saw in MORE. Sectarians just don' change the color of their stripes.

I will have more to say, but not right now. Not having ISO around as a formal organization will help some people sleep better at night.

School Scope: What are we willing to rally for? - Thoughts on shelters

Published in The WAVE - March 29, 2019 - www.rockawave.com

School Scope:  What are we willing to rally for?

By Norm Scott

I’ve been following local stories and hysteria regarding the incoming shelter on Beach 101St. My initial reaction was to join the fray of protests. There certainly are very legitimate concerns as Rockaway has been screwed over time and again and landlords often get away with outrageous profits. Would the intensity of the reaction be the same if the shelter were further downtown instead of in what is considered a gentrifying area? Is this just a simple case of NIMBY or are the issues more complex than that?

The reality is that no one wants shelters in their neighborhood. Even the people in shelters don’t want to be there. Are there any solutions at all?

I was struck by the It’s Our Turn article last week by Rockaway Revolution (RR): Homeless shelters aren’t the answer, but neither is hating on the most disenfranchised members of our society. Rockaway Revolution asked a number of pertinent questions that everyone should be asking even if against the shelter. They call for us to be solution oriented instead of just reacting. The call for investment in permanent housing seems to be an excellent idea. But then I think of NYCHA permanent housing, with so many here in Rockaway, and some of the catastrophes visited upon NYCHA residents around the city. Have you noticed any of our local politicians leading rallies to improve NYCHA housing? I would bet every person in a shelter would take even the worst NYCHA housing over a shelter.

RR points to other cities around the world as examples but that may not be an apt comparison. Many other nations have an extensive safety net and in our version of vulture capitalism getting something done is problematical. Free marketers support landlord rights to make as much as they can get. We need better controls. Let’s focus on the real estate industry which controls politics in this city. How about putting a shelter in one of those luxury multi-story towers going up in Manhattan which are getting tax breaks? Anyone for a batch of shelters in the brand new Hudson Yards? Ooooh, the thought is so delicious. I would go to a rally for that.

What do we think about holding a rally led by Councilmember and future mayoral candidate Eric Ulrich at the home of the DHS commissioner? That’s entering dangerous territory. What if a group of anti-Amazon protesters decided they didn’t like Eric’s pro-Amazon position and turned up at his house? I was thinking about the connection. Did Eric ever considering asking Amazon for a shelter on their brand new property? Or that the housing pressure created by Amazon would have led to more people needing shelters? Politicians need to think things through and come up with solutions instead of playing the blame game. If anything, I could see a protest at the business of landlords profiting from these deals.

One argument against the shelter is that there are so many schools with thousands of students nearby. I was thinking about that as I drove by recently through a noxious odor from the waste treatment plants, also so close to the schools. Whose house do we go to protest that?

There are so many issues people are NOT leading protests against.

The local Democratic and Republican politicians certainly don’t seem to be offering very much other than NIMBY. Well, I gotta run. I’m heading off to a meeting of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) where maybe I can find some solutions on addressing the housing crisis through political activism.

Norm nimbly blogs about education and politics at ednotesonline.com.

-->

Memo from the RTC: A Comedy of Tenors Opens March 29 for Three Weekends

The WAVE - March 22, 2019

Memo from the RTC: A Comedy of Tenors Opens March 29 for Three Weekends
By Norm Scott

One hotel suite, four tenors, two wives, three girlfriends, and a soccer stadium filled with screaming fans. What could possibly go wrong? It’s 1930s Paris and the stage is set for the concert of the century – as long as producer Henry Saunders can keep Italian superstar Tito Merelli and his hot-blooded wife, Maira, from causing runaway chaos. Prepare for an uproarious ride, full of mistaken identities, bedroom hijinks, and madcap delight.
… Samuel French web site, “A Comedy of Tenors”

The Rockaway Theatre Company opens its adult season with the Peggy Page/Mike Wotypka directed Ken Ludwig play, “A Comedy of Tenors,” his follow-up to the hilarious “Lend Me a Tenor,” which Peggy and Mike directed a few years ago. I dropped by to a Sunday afternoon rehearsal and saw part of the second act and laughed out loud at the shenanigans. And in these metoo times I won’t mention how hot all the ladies in the play are. The cast includes RTC veteran actors of all ages from 17 to 76 who know their way around the stage. I will focus on them in future updates.

I worked with Tony Homsey’s crew to help build the set and the painting crew led by Cliff Hesse, who also has a major role in the play, along with his able assistant Frank Verderame, are just finishing up and the theater will be ready to go for the March 29 opening night.

Performance Dates:
March 29, 30, 31 April 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14
Fridays & Saturday @ 8:00 PM, Sundays @ 2:00 PM
visit www.rockawaytheatrecompany.org to reserve your seats.

Paul Egan Sex Scandal Breaks in DN - Ed Notes broke the original story

See also my latest post on April 2: The Paul Egan Story, Redux: Commentary

This has been edited with some updated information:


Another reason to vote Unity in the elections? Not. There are a lot more reasons to vote against Unity.

Look at the ballot and you won't see Paul's name - which means they knew before the ballots were printed.

“Rumor: Paul Egan Out at UFT - Everyone is Mum,” read the headline of an item published March 19 in city education blog Ed Notes. “It would be a funny time to remove Paul,” the blog post mused. “Maybe someone will contact Ed Notes with the full story.”

.... The Daily News

The subheadline was

When Paul Egan wasn't at last week's UFT Executive Board meeting we never got the latest updates on the Chelsea soccer team.

Well, today the story is finally out -- Good reporting Ben -- and thanks for the mention - but how about a hot link?

Now all we need is the other names of the UFT staffers who ratted him out. Are they out too? And holy crap - Paul threw away 200 grand - he should have taken some testosterone suppressors. And by the way -- not the first sex scandal at the UFT - remember Jerry Goldman who was fired for some shenanigans at a NYSUT convention at the Hilton?

Come on guys at 52 - send me some leaks.
Some clues:
Notice that Mulgrew announced these replacements at the Ex Bd meeting:
New Director of Grievance—David Campbell
New Political Director—Cassie Pruh
New Attorney—Beth Norton
Thanks people who took new positions. 


Here is the DN story.

Unitymustgo: Here’s why I say no to MORE

Voting in the 2019 UFT Elections

I'm postponing publishing my list of people I voted for to publish this.

Unitymustgo! -- Here’s why I say no to MORE. Currently there are several posts/ads from MORE on my Facebook stream. Not one of them speaks of fighting for me. They all speak about social justice issues. That’s all well and good, but I believe the primary purpose of a union is to fight to improve the working conditions and benefits of the people who pay them. Period. Do I care about social issues? Sure I do. Are there tons of social issues that affect our students? Yup there are. They affect many of our members to. Do I believe a teacher’s union should speak up about the social issues that affect members and students? Yes, yes I do. But, and here’s the thing, if you think, I think, the real issue(s) I have with our union is that Unity just doesn’t focus enough on social issues, well then you are really woefully out of touch with your fellow members. Perhaps, even more so than Unity. Not to go off on a tangent, but I actually think Unity isn’t so much out of touch with the real daily, grinding, piercing travesties members have to deal with. I think they have made a conscious calculated decision not to do much about any of it. MORE’s messaging makes me think MORE doesn’t get the simple idea, that members who don’t vote aren’t not voting because they are just so frustrated that the UFT just isn’t doing enough about social justice issues. Nor, does MORE seem to get the even bigger and even simpler idea that those members who are out there actually seeking alternative leadership are most definitely not doing so because of social justice issues. HEAR ME Unity. HEAR ME MORE, HEAR me anybody that wants my support. I want my union to focus on me. Period. There is plenty to do to improve the working conditions and benefits of our members. Can someone? Anyone? Just do that. ....comment on "UFT Election Update: I Vote Thrice": 

There's one point about MORE and the reason you don't see the kind of angst from them about the way teachers are treated in schools. Most of them have found "safe" schools and they bring other MOREs in so we have a few clusters of people working in some of the better schools in the city - which allows them the luxury to focus on social justice instead of the fight for daily survival.

Yesterday I published another comment from Unity Must Go, a longtime anti-Unity chapter leader who has supported the opposition for a decade - he seemed somewhat reluctantly to decide to vote for Solidarity:  UFT Elections: Solidarity Picking up Defections from MORE

The problem with Solidarity is that its main boast is a web site, not a presence in the schools. Now if people like Unitymustgo who is a CL with his own constituency goes beyond voting for Solidarity, they might yet become a real caucus with real people doing real things.

Fighting Unity requires being in the schools --  as you can see from the ballot they have 750-800 running -- while many are retirees and staffers for the UFT, many are also chapter leaders and delegates and have constituencies in their schools. The total of 3 caucuses is less than 150.

Is there a life for the opposition after this election? Let's see how many people see things the way Unitymustgo does. I heard a rough straw poll in what has been a strong opposition and pro-MORE school until now where there were a number of people who had voted for MORE now voting for Unity, and not one vote for Solidarity with one vote for New Action.

While UnityMustGo resisted in 2013, he decided to run with MORE in 2016.

When I met with him in his school and we went for lunch during the last election he mentioned that in his district CL meetings everyone seemed to be Unity or Unity supporters. I pointed to a chapter leader in his district who had always been an ICE supporter and ran with ICE - he hadn't realized that. I've always maintained that anti-Unity CLs should use the monthly CL meetings as an organizing tool. But that hasn't happened, even among the so-called militants.

In my mind, he is a prototypical rank and filer any opposition would want to organize as a backbone of challenging Unity in the schools. But - and this is not an accident - MORE doesn't want people like him precisely because of what he said in his comment -- he wants a union to fight for HIM, not social justice. And MORE doesn't want these type of people.

I don't quite agree with him since I feel there needs to be a balance of SJ and teacher rights.

That was the essence of the internal struggle in MORE from day 1 when it was organized -- I felt we - mostly the ICE people - we were SJ people too - and some allies - kept some balance between SJ and bread and butter --  but ultimately we lost the internal battle.

And we lost because an non-elected faction of MORE vigilantes decided to take drastic action against what they viewed as the opposition to their plan to morph more away from a broad tent - the ICE core. I still think there are a number of MORE supporters who have no idea what really occurred. But they seem perfectly happy to not have the rancor internally even at the expense of democracy -- an analogy to what we see generally in politics.

--- but Unity Must GO is right about the MORE messaging. It is purposely designed to not attract him or the mainstream of the UFT but a particular slice of young social justice oriented teachers - it's a dog whistle and the entire election for MORE in not running to win anything in a limited campaign was to have the opportunity to put out those dog whistles in the hope of attracting the left in the UFT. And they have been successful to a limited extent with new people who are fundamentally clueless about the UFT - some still call me for info.

A key event for MORE is the monthly happy hours with teachers from the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) before the MORE meetings -- this has become the main organizing tool of MORE.

So for those who think MORE may be going away, don't bet on it -- there will always be a left in the UFT who will go along with the program put out by MORE. Expect them to operate the same way in the 2022 UFT elections. The problem with the MORE plan is that it actually makes Unity stronger and gives them even less influence - but they don't worry about that -- MORE is about recruitment, not influencing real change.

I wouldn't be shocked to see the exact same scenario played out in 2022. Which is why I advocate throwing in the towel in terms of a formal opposition to Unity - just don't run in elections. And why I support Arthur, Mike and Mindy for running with Unity where they are at least free to advocate - in a limited manner --- but given the alternative what else is there to do? My problem with them is voting the straight Unity slate, endorsing a caucus that has made Unity Must Go so disgusted - and a betrayal of loyal supporters of our blogs like him. At best it is insensitive politically.

I may organize a post-election forum which I will call: What is to be done? (ref, intentional).

UFT Elections: Solidarity Picking up Defections from MORE

Unitymustgo! has left a new comment on your post "UFT Election Update: I Vote Thrice":

From reading yours and a few other blogs my decision is to just check off Solidarity. As a long time reader I know of whom you speak. My understanding is that person has been minimized. Solidarity seems like the best choice if you want to send a message to Unity. What that message is I have no real idea. Any vote not for Unity is more like one water drop making a ripple in the ocean. Not gonna even be felt by ocean liner Unity. I'm not naive, but I also refuse to give up on the dream of a vital, responsive, open minded union that is actually interested in what it's members have to say. I would never had thunk it, but I'd recommend Solidarity to your readers.

Unity Must Go is a chapter leader in an elementary school who has supported ICEUFT and MORE in the past. In fact he ran with MORE last time. In one of my last attempts to bring some rationality I talked to some of he ideologues about this guy and how people like him are the backbone if we have any hope of changing the UFT. They looked at me like I landed from outer space and shrugged.

This is the kind of activist rank and filer MORE has tossed away. I define an activist not as someone who goes to rallies but as someone who takes on the job of chapter leader despite having a young family and supports the opposition.

I went to his school in 2016 to drop leaflets and to have lunch with him. Assume his school went for MORE last time. This time it will go for Solidarity.

James Eterno urges support for Lydia as president:  VOTE FOR LYDIA HOWRILKA FOR UFT PRESIDENT.
Did he endorse Solidarity outright?

I am going to publish my list of who I am voting for tomorrow.

UFT Election Update: I Vote Thrice

Hi Norm - I just got my UFT ballot in the mail. I've never received one, and today was perfect timing, because I had it out with someone in the UFT office. They have not responded to my email sent in October, despite me following up every month or so. I may need to start advising young teachers to save their dues for getting their own personal champion rather than have faith in the UFT's ability to even respond to an email within 6 months....
What do you recommend I do with the ballot? Did you have a falling out with MORE?

People have been asking me for UFT voting advice. I am flummoxed. This is where the long-term dangers lie for the UFT - arrogance and ignoring the pleas of people under assault. And I certainly won't tell anyone to vote for MORE. But.....

My teacher friends and neighbors are in California for 6 months and I am taking care of their house and mail. I asked what to do with their ballots -- we forward all their mail - and they told me to decide who to vote for since they usually ask me who to vote for anyway.

This time things are a bit more complicated since there is no slate I would recommend.  However, it does give me a chance to have one of my friends vote for New Action and the other for Solidarity while I in essence toss away my ballot and vote for individual candidates from all 4 slates - Unity too.

Why am I throwing away my ballot? The individual votes are counted -- they have to tear the booklets apart and feed them through the machine and this process delays the count by hours. But they only give us the slate vote totals and that is what gets reported. So those individual votes, which are usually around a couple of hundred people, don't count for much. But this time I have to do it on my ballot.

So, I'm going through the pages of the ballot and voting for people from all caucuses that I like or respect or know. It is tedious work. We have to pick out 48 names from the at-large Ex Bd candidates. Then 750 at most from the AFT/NYSUT convention list - which is easy to do since Unity has 750 running and MORE, Solidarity, New Action COMBINED have less than 150 -- that is why even a combined opposition can't come close to Unity. (The only time I can remember matching them in numbers was around 1980, but I hear from Ellen Fox they did match a few times -- but certainly not close since I became involved in elections again in 2004.)

Well, anyhow -- I will do a follow-up with a list of some of the candidates I voted for and why. I did manage to find a few MOREs that I still like and respect to vote for plus every New Action candidate even if I didn't know them. Plus every Solidarity candidate I know - minus a few that I have had some bad blood with in the past.

Mayoral-Control Hearing Sparks Divergent Views - The Chief Leader

http://thechiefleader.com/news/news_of_the_week/mayoral-control-hearing-sparks-divergent-views/article_e640273c-4cb1-11e9-9d20-cb5725daf304.html

Shino Tanikawa, co-chair of the Education Council Consortium and Vice-President of District 2’s Education Council, said that the parent advocates were “vehemently opposed to mayoral control as it stands right now. I think one thing we learned from the former Mayor [Michael] Bloomberg is that this system does not work. A system that depends on the individual temperament of the Mayor is not a good system,” she said..”

Class Size Matters founder Leonie Haimson said that there were no effective checks and balances on the Mayor at the local level.

Deliver Them From Eva

“If we got the worst Mayor in the world, would our schools be protected the maximum extent possible?” she asked. “If Eva Moskowitz was elected Mayor, literally she could close every non-zoned school in the city and put a charter school in its place.”

Recently-elected Public Advocate Jumaane Williams called for other elected officials, including his former fellow Council Members, to have a stronger voice in running schools.
“I believe that local government is best to bear this responsibility. However, this does not mean I am in unequivocal support of mayoral control,” he said. “The responsibility and power are too great and the consequences are too far-reaching to rest on one person.”
Mr. Williams, who has criticized Mr. de Blasio for not doing enough to reform the Police Department and address housing issues, noted that his belief wasn’t about one particular Mayor. “This is about a system that is open to abuse,” he said.

Randi's Choice: Kamala Harris - Make it so democratically

New York noted that “the union’s executive council could theoretically endorse someone against the majoritarian wishes of its rank and file.” I’ll go a step further. If Hillary were to run again in 2020, AFT would endorse her again.... Mike Antonucci

UPDATE:

https://www.blackagendareport.com/freedom-rider-kamala-harris-fix

https://www.blackagendareport.com/kamala-harris-first-won-office-law-and-order-candidate

When Randi Weingarten announced a new "democratic" process for the AFT to choose its presidential candidate I laughed out loud (I've been doing a lot of that lately). Practically simultaneously came the big news from candidate Kamala Harris as reported by James Eterno: