The WAVE - School Scope: The Smell of Socialism is in the Air

School Scope: The Smell of Socialism is in the Air
By Norm Scott

Submitted for print publication for April 12, 2019 - www.rockawave.com

There’s been a lot of talk about socialism. Bernie and AOC plus at least two other members of Congress, Brooklyn State Senator Julia Salazar and five just elected Chicago city council members identify themselves as members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). The DSA has its roots in the Socialist Party of America (SPA), whose most prominent leaders included Eugene V. Debs, Norman Thomas and Michael Harrington. DSA has grown exponentially from 5 to 60 thousand members since the election of Trump in 2016.

I’ve been looking at options since I’ve pulled back from organizing in the UFT. One was to get involved in Democratic Party politics. A leader of a Manhattan political club told me to find a local club to join. Then I saw Lew Simon getting petitions signed to get current Queens borough president Melinda Katz on the ballot so she can run for Queens DA and the thought of having to do that made me gag. The DSA candidate is Tiffany Cabán who seems so much more akin to my politics.

So, I started to attend some DSA meetings to learn more about the organization The NYC group has 8 branches located geographically in all boroughs and a citywide labor branch for those in unions.

About 60 people attend the monthly meetings of the South Brooklyn branch. They are very well organized and have working groups organizing for housing, health care, climate and just about any other issue you can imagine. The idea is to activate people at the grass roots level but they also include lobbying and running for office on a Democratic Party line. At this point DSA is not interested in putting itself forward as a third party. The national organization and its local branches have already endorsed Bernie Sanders and are going full bore to support his getting the nomination.

There is a lot of internal debate inside DSA over which direction it should go. While avowedly socialist, DSA is a big tent for people with socialist ideas from revolutionary Leninists to social democrats along the lines of Scandinavian countries which are capitalistic, albeit with a lot of controls and high taxes. The key issue is who own the means of production, the state or private interests. I’m not ready to jump into full-bore socialism with absolute state control since that has not turned out so well. The China miracle can be attributed to the willingness to allow private interests to operate. But I do believe in heavy duty controls over free-reign capitalism where the profit motive will overrun everything and everyone and lead to immense wealth gaps. An extreme example are attacks on the public school system as being “socialist”, which the “choice” charter school movement has tapped into and has lead to one scandal over another. I believe in the neighborhood school and if you don’t like it go pay for a private school.

The closest this country has come to socialism was during FDR’s New Deal during the depression in the 1930s which gave us social security and other protections which Republicans and some Democrats opposed and have been trying to undermine since then, with some success. There are so many socialist brands inside DSA, including some New Dealers and other critics who say the Democratic Party is a dead end. I imagine Democratic centrists would be very happy if DSA just stayed away, given the threats to primary incumbents or to run people like Tiffany Cabán against machine candidates like Melinda Katz.

It was not that long ago where talk of socialism would cause most people to break out in wild laughter in this, the least socialistic nation. And Trump is going to make that his main attack on the Democratic Party. He may be successful in 2020 but over time the younger generation does not seem to have the same fear of socialist ideas, mostly due to the rampages of capitalism. No one wants to opt for the China model and it may take another severe depression to even bring us back to the New Deal, albeit with universal health care, something FDR had in his program but abandoned, fearing his going too far would endanger his entire program. Imagine if Roosevelt had succeeded then. What would Bernie have to talk about?

Norm runs a proletarian dictatorship at his blog, ednotesonline.com.

Sectarians Connections to UFT current and past history

Sectarianism is circling the drain. Schemes to turn the left into a larger version of a tiny little group of smart alecks are dropping dead. Please stop trying to make it work. And now a moment to reflect on the death of the purest and most successful sectarian of our time, James Robertson, founder of the Spartacist League.

...their [Sparts] arrogance and delight in pissing on their opponents - the old 'political monopoly' fetish that characterized Trotskyism that they made their key ideological feature - was [James Robertson's] gift to the left.

The Sparts consistently have the highest amusement value of any of the sects...

Aren't the Sparts set up and paid just to stir the pot among lefties?

Also, pour one out for the recently departed ISO.

--------Comments on FB on the death of the Spartacists' founder James Robertson.

I've always been on the periphery of the left. Over the decades one of the most sectarian Trotskyist groups has been the Spartacists --- A few were/are still in the UFT at some point but left the Sparts. There has always been some disdain toward Sparts.

There is are some interesting points made about sectarians on the left - and with the breakup of the sectarian ISO (the subject of attacks from the Sparts over the years) in recent weeks, independent leftists have also been posting "good riddance" comments. There may have been a rape but no one died in ISO.

I will continue to focus on the sectarian left because even with the breakup of ISO, the former members still have the same sectarian gene and will bring that to any group they join, especially as they pile into the non-sectarian Democratic Socialists (DSA) and form sectarian blocks. Yes, they also are the major block that intentionally created a split in MORE and took the new DSA people along with them.

I have a lot of stories to tell of the activities of sectarians inside UFT caucuses over 45 years of personal experience. That is one reason there has never been and never will be an effective opposition to Unity Caucus -- not the only reason, but a significant factor. I issue these declarations as a cautionary note to future UFT activists -- I've been fooled a number of times in the past - ICEUFT was formed partially as a block to left sectarianism.

Below is a section of the wiki on James Robertson --- a key note is mention of Max Schachtman a key influence over the founders of the UFT -- his wife Yetta was an advisor to Al Shanker. Yes, Virginia, the UFT was fundamentally founded by people with a deformed Trotskyist mentality - who turned into right wing social democratic neocons.

As you read more about ISO in upcoming posts, you will note the similarities with Unity Caucus and the controls over the UFT they exert.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Robertson_(Trotskyist)?fbclid=IwAR0gu1hDis5vNaVpoo8CQ6uodo
YrlNR4bVy6ugIlIwZjdfq8nwxLgxizpLc

UPDATE: Rally Monday - DOE Give Student Data to Charters: Did Charter Industrial Complex Get to Di Blasio? Where is UFT?

Monday Rally:

NYC Public School Parents

Come to rally on Monday to protest the Mayor letting charters access student information to help them recruit students - *Please come and show your support and share with others. Don’t let the Mayor chicken out on this important issue because he is more scared of the chart...

This morning [Thursday] at Tweed, Chancellor Carranza spoke about his opposition to the long-standing DOE practice of allowing charter schools to use the DOE mailing lists.  He said no final decision has yet been made to change this practice– contrary to what reporters had already been told about this as late as last night and parents this morning.  He asked for parents to make their voices heard about whether they wanted this practice to continue or not. 

For more on this issue, see our press release here, with quotes from parent leaders, which among other things points out that DOE is the ONLY school district in the country that provides this info to charters voluntarily, helping them recruit their students, take their space and their funding, which is now costing our schools more than $2.1 billion per year.  See also Diane Ravitch's blog, which hypothesizes that the Mayor chickened out when the news leaked out prematurely and he got blowback from the wealthy and powerful charter lobby.

Grace Lovaglio streamed Carranza's remarks to CPAC on Facebook live.  He addressed the student privacy and charter school recruitment issue for about ten minutes at 36.25 minutes in.  A rough transcript of his remarks follows: 

Carranza says that he has not gone to any parent meetings where he has not heard about the “predatory nature” of charters and all the mailings.   He tells the story of one parent who told him that only one of her children not to get the mailings is the one who tested gifted and not the ones w/ IEPs.  The Mayor has spoken that this is not okay. …now somehow this has become that the district is going to cut this off. I cannot speak to whether or not this is going to happen.

The press release below came out earlier in the day but there seem to be some backtracking by the chancellor and Di Blasio.
A dividing line in progressive Democratic Party politics will be standing up to the charter industry. Reports on this story from Leonie Haimson and Diane Ravitch.

This morning, there was the announcement below the latest updates. Then the chancellor seemingly changed his mind.

Leonie writes:

The DN editorial which apparently scared de BLasio off and once again insulted parents by calling them mushrooms and by claiming the opposition to the practice of letting charters use student info was led by the teachers union, which as far as I know has never said a peep about this.

https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-edit-de-blasio-vs-charters-again-20190411-smbwzldlavhq5hncjkd3gvu7z4-story.html

NYC Public School Parents

The Chancellor says no final decision has yet been made on the issue of providing student information to charters for marketing purposes - *More on this fast-developing and changing story here from the Daily News here.* This morning at Tweed, Chancellor Carranza spoke about his opposition to...

NYC: Faced with Charter Pressure, DeBlasio Backs Down by dianeravitch

Memo from the RTC: Tenors in Duplex and RTC Gets to See Andrew in Evan Hansen

Memo from the RTC: Tenors in Duplex and RTC Gets to See Andrew in Evan Hansen

This is the final weekend to see Rockaway Theatre Company’s hilarious production of “A Comedy of Tenors.” I went back for the second time last Saturday night and laughed harder than I did at the opening weekend matinee performance. I expect I will bust my gut at the closing performance at this Sunday’s matinee where we expect an almost full house. Given the word of mouth and editor Mark Healey’s superb review in last week’s WAVE I was surprised at the small size of the audience Saturday night, as the theater was less than half full. But the laugher of the 80 attendees more than filled the house. Funny but the next day’s matinee had a full house. There must have been something going on last Saturday. I hadn’t known Mark was a professional actor in his prior life. As a former insider he was wowed by the RTC at this his first show. He pointed out just how difficult a play this is to perform and how without perfect timing it would be a disaster.

Bronx ATR Predicts Failure of Bronx Plans --- UFTJoins in as Distraction from Real Problems

I was talking today to some teachers about the idea that most of us went to our neighborhood schools through high school. And most teachers spent their entire careers in one school - all this was destroyed by BloomKlein. Here is a wise comment along these lines after I posted about the Bronx Plan, where by the way, all Queens schools happen to be in Rockaway.

Bronx ATR has left a new comment on your post "Caranza's Folly - Bronx Plan Schools Announced - $...":

I’ve met plenty of ATRs with those licenses and I’m sure this incentive isn’t truly open to them. This plan is ridiculous on several levels. Teaching for me (and most teachers I’ve known) is a vocation. A monetary incentive denigrates it to a job - something unpleasant you do only for money. This will not encourage stability in those schools or neighborhoods - it will do the opposite. I started my career in MS 301 then called JHS 120 - many of the teachers there attended it as kids and were originally from the neighborhood. I also grew up in the neighborhood - still one of the poorest and worst in the country. The older teachers there were teaching the grandchildren of their first students. Back then most teachers stayed in the same school they started, for their entire career. I ended up getting excessed and was placed down the block in Jane Addams. I had some of the same kids I taught in 120 as high school students. Many of the teachers back then still have lifelong friendships with their former students. Bloomberg ended these neighborhood schools with his business model. The business model destabilized not only the schools and their staffs, but also the heart of what a teacher should be. It created detachment in all facets of school governance and interpersonal relationships. That the Uft would present this, in the last contract, is an example of how oblivious they have become to the nefarious reality that Bloomberg has created. I don’t believe the chancellor actually believes this has any chance of working, it is just a façade. Otherwise, he actually is what the Post called him today - “a total pathetic twit”.

Caranza's Folly - Bronx Plan Schools Announced - $7500 Salary Differential - How Crappy are the Principals?

If there is a shit hole principal it won't mean crap. Look at the list of Queens schools: All in Rockaway -- guess why they are hard to staff? Well, the money will help cover tolls and gas.

QUEENS 

Elementary & Middle Schools 

P.S./M.S 042 R. Vernam 

P.S. 043 

M.S. 053 Brian Piccolo 

P.S. 197 The Ocean School 

Village Academy 

High Schools 

Rockaway Park High School for Environmental Sustainability 

Rockaway Collegiate High School

CHANCELLOR CARRANZA ANNOUNCES BRONX PLAN HARD-TO-STAFF SALARY DIFFERENTIALS

Initiative will include 10 Bronx District 75 schools in addition to 50 previously announced Collaborative Schools

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

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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.

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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.