Lisa Graves was one of the creators of the website ALECExposed. She has followed the money, and she here describes a dangerous threat to American democracy by the billionaire Koch brothers, ALEC, and others who seek control by the super-rich. They want to bust unions and privatize schools. Graves says that progressives must stand together. I agree. That’s why I grow frustrated when union members attack their unions. Of course, they should fight to win democratic control of their unions. But when they begin hurling insults and invective at their allies, they do the work of their common foe.
Graves writes:
“Two of the richest men in the entire world are plotting to dominate our elections this fall, from congressional races to school board seats.
“Their scheming to shove America further to the far right should be a serious wake-up call for anyone who cares about our nation’s soul.
“As Charles and David Koch promised their billionaire buddies, they’ve assessed how the quarter billion dollars they helped raise and spread across the country failed spectacularly in the 2012 elections. And, they’ve made adjustments to their battle plans to win more this time…..
“If unions and their leaders want to stand up to the Koch machine – which has sought to gut union power for decades – I say right on. Nurses, teachers, and factory workers ought to have a chance to negotiate with power for better wages and working conditions than each could negotiate with their powerful employer alone.
“Thank goodness they’ve all stood up to the Kochs’ neo-Bircher worldview, in their own ways.
“Thank goodness they understand that civil society — indeed, our very democracy — is what’s at stake.
“I stand against the cult of greed peddled by the Kochs.
“I’m utterly opposed to the Koch-y brand of Ayn Rand’s dystopian propaganda and the updated version of this kind of every-man-for-himself economic Darwinism peddled by Rand Paul in blue jeans. I don’t want America’s great dream for our people to be shrunk into a members’ only club, letting the richest few rule with the less lucky stuck as servants struggling to survive.
“A civil society — a true democracy – recognizes that investing in our shared future makes our nation stronger.
“A healthy democracy fully funds our public institutions that serve all of the American people and helps those living on the brink, as part of our social contract in recognition of our common humanity and the fact that we all face illness and aging out of work….
“It’s about having truly public schools that provide our children with empowered teachers trained in the art and science of teaching rather than inexperienced and un-certified stand-ins trying to do it on the cheap so a corporation can pay better dividends to stock speculators.
“The right-wing alternative to truly public schools that the Koch deregulation machine has helped spawn is “charter” schools paid for with our tax dollars.
“We’ve seen too many charters run by fly-by-night operators feeding kids religious gruel or designed by corporations to enrich Wall Street speculators through cutting what’s spent on kids, teachers, and classrooms but a healthy budget for slick ads blanketing the airwaves and underwritten by taxpayers.
“Charles and David Koch have spent decades trying to get rid of “government” schools, as touted in David’s run for the White House in 1980. That’s why it’s now practically a litmus test for Republican presidential candidates to list the Department of Education among the government agencies they are in a race to eliminate.
“We need all hands on deck to stop them.
“That’s one of the reasons why attacks on the DA or union leaders like Randi Weingarten as a false equivalent to the Koch cabal are so misplaced. They are not equivalent because the goals of the Kochs matter and investing in an alternative to the Kochs’ agenda matters, a lot…..
“But, as the person who launched ALECexposed with my team in Madison, I can tell you that Weingarten has been totally stalwart in standing up to ALEC and its anti-public education agenda, which is fueled by the Koch family fortune and other rich families — along with corporations that profit from privatizing public schools, of course.
“The American Federation of Teachers has been rock solid in the fight against ALEC, consistently devoting staff time week in and week out for three years to expose ALEC, due to her personal commitment. The ongoing public campaign on ALEC would not have had the success it has had without AFT’s work and her leadership, and without the work of many devoted colleagues across the country, including the National Education Association and other organizations, bloggers, and concerned citizens nationwide…..
“I know we need a more progressive America.
“And progressives need to get better at using their power to persuade each other and to win better policies.
“But attacking genuine progressives for banding together to take on the Kochs or for not being pure enough is foolish sport. And the right loves it when progressives fight. It makes their effort to tear down the left so much easier.
“So, let’s get real.
“Because there’s a real-world war going on to kill our public schools, outsource our public institutions to private companies not accountable to us, and destroy key government constraints on corporate power…..”
My union the AFT is collaborating with the forces bent on destroying public education in the United States. I have no choice but to raise my voice in protest. As a Newark teacher, I live the results of the failure of the AFT to oppose Common Core, VAM, merit pay, loss of seniority rights. I will not be silenced due to lack of political correctness.
I remember Jersey Jazzman had a post last summer about the Newark contract. I also remember leaving a comment on his blog urging members to take a closer look at the merit pay contingency since it was a huge red flag, yet somehow, the membership agreed to this contract. How in the heck did it pass a vote?
LG,
Newark teachers sold out for retroactive pay.
For the record, I voted against the contract.
I was contacted by two national AFT shills and I gave both of them a piece of my mind.
What was the voting outcome–was it close?
LG,
It passed with nearly 62% approval.
That is terrible. Somehow, the 38% need to get the message out that some compromises are detrimental. Likewise, the state needs to butt out and allow Newark the local control it deserves. I understand that parental disgust with Newark One is mounting. It may be time for the 38% to band together with these parents to run Anderson out of town and tell Christie to relinquish his crown in Newark. Neither belong there. I’m still stunned that this contract passed the vote.
LG,
As someone else posted, teachers behave like sheep. The NYC contract with all of its flaws recently passed by a large margin. Baraka is negotiating with Christie over the city budget. There is a federal investigation into One Newark and the police department is subject to federal intervention. Anderson has begun the first year of her new three year contract courtesy of Christie. I am predicting mayhem in September, but who am I?
Wonder if anyone had the Feds in their pocket. Yes, chaos indeed. Know that your fellow NJ teachers support you guys. We’re all watching very closely.
So the message is “shut up and do what Randi says or you are siding with the Koch brothers?”
That smacks of the old George W. Bush line of “you are either with us or against us.”
The conservative right uses that tactic of silencing all critics in order to keep the party on message. They manage to maintain a strong 30% of the populace as supporters that way.
That’s one of the many reasons I’m a liberal. We may not have the strength of staying on message but individuals are respected as having the freedom to disagree and offer alternative ideas without being accused of being purity trolls.
The AFT and NEA, both of which i pay dues to and have for 18 years, need to listen to me and other rank and file members and stop this totalitarian approach with pre-planned results at the national conventions.
Arne Duncan did not resign or even respond to the sternly worded letter. CCSS remains. VAM remains. School grades remain. No action is planned. All members have been asked to do is sign a worthless petition opposing testing.
When I return to school in August hundreds of my colleagues face termination and loss of licensure next June if their students don’t score high on an unknown test.
WHAT IS THE PLAN RANDI? Could you share it with those of us living this horror or are we to be collateral damage in the long range plan.? You don’t communicate with us at all so we don’t know.
My livelihood and the future of my family is more important to me than trusting and supporting you because i’m told to do so by a Wisconsin reporter who ‘knows you’ are doing the right thing.
Funny how the solidarity only works one way — upwards to the ‘leadership’ — and they are to be spared any criticism for consorting openly and compromising with our enemies yet when the rank and file, who actually do the TEACHING question them we are accused of aiding and abetting.
Tone arguments are insulting and a tool for silencing the opressed. This article hurts me and disappoints me. As a very vocal critic of the NEA and AFT here I guess this is aimed at me. Fair enough. It just cements me resolve to begin asking teachers to divert their dues money away from the unions that are selling us out and into a new organization that will fight to protect them and their interests before it is too late.
The capitulation, compromise, triangulation, and maintaining a seat at the table strategies favored by Randi are not working as I’ve demonstrated in post after post here. I will not work against her but alongside her whether that is approved or not.
And being lectured by a reporter from a state where teachers were stripped of all collective bargaining rights about how we should allow the same strategies to continue to be used by the AFT as failed their boggles my mind.
With allies like the current union brass, we can expect the Koch brothers to roll right over us. Perhaps those union stalwarts who are so bent on preventing the America’s Koch problem from getting even worse should listen to us. If they had our best interests at heart, if they were our true allies, why should we need to “fight for democratic control”? If there was serious dialogue, there would be no “fight”. The “we know best” is condescending, disrespectful, and offensive, and I’m paying to be treated that way. I think I have just figured out something, though: The unions are sticking with common core for one reason and one reason only: Charlie and Dave are against it. That’s the only explanation. How pathetic.
I attended three anti-charter demonstrations this spring. There was no union presence, no union statement, no visible reaching out of the union to families of disabled students being displaced by Eva Moskowitz. When my union stops caving and stops behaving like good little well-mannered sheep, when my union actually *acts* like a true ally, it will have my vocal and unwavering support. Until then, it is a Koch collaborator, pure and simple.
I’m saddened that those who are safe, secure, and financially comfortable can’t understand the desperation of those of us who teach.
Many, if not most of us, are living paycheck to paycheck and we feel ignored, abandoned, and afraid and that is why we are so vocal and oppositional to theoretical games being played with politicians and billionaires that have a direct impact on the quality of our daily living.
Randi does not face eviction, homelessness, loss of medical care, etc. because she will not be VAMed out of a job in less than a year.
All those who are in stable sinecures in higher education, union leadership positions, are entrepreneurs, etc. are facing no threat at all yet they keep telling us to shut up, calm down, and trust them and not to dare raise a question about their strategies.
I don’t have that much trust.
If I’m going to lose my career and my job in 10 months then I would much rather take the $40 per paycheck union dues and invest them in a savings account so I can pay a couple of months rent while I try to seek a new job at the age of 53 with nothing but teaching degrees. Should be fun.
What I’d really like to do (and what I am working on) is divert that $80/month to a national organization that will call for a general strike the first day of school, having invested those dues in funds that can provide subsistence payments to membership since they will face termination and unemployment, while engaging in loud, media-drawing actions to wake up the people and gain their support.
Heck, even the loathsome Phelps family understands the power of showing up with their signs and getting publicity even if they are vilified and hated across the political spectrum. They have unwittingly created thousands of organized supporters for those they protest, along with public sympathy and outrage against their tactics.
When did the national unions last attempt to gain media publicity by TAKING A RISK in supporting the rank and file and engaging in civil disobedience? It worked in Chicago. Why not see if it works in Orlando and Miami and Decatur?
A nationwide first day strike would be incredible, though not every school has the same first day.
Chris in Florida,
You made me cry; not an easy task. I am 57 almost 58. My friends keep telling me to examine my options. What are my options? I cannot take one more minute of being told to go with the program. It is professional suicide.
The current environment promises professional suicide or murder for hire.
Democrats in DC are embarrassed by labor unions. They’ve moved on to “public-private partnerships” and “relinquishing” their role to the private sector. They’re “agnostics” on labor unions.
They only reason they’re still offering rhetorical support (well, occasionally, anyway) is because labor unions still provide a margin they need in certain, select states. Once that’s gone, they’re gone.
I wonder sometimes if that may be a net gain for labor unions, being cut loose by their former allies. Voters loathe DC, generally, more now than at any time I can remember. They think they’re corrupt and self-serving and captured. Maybe labor unions will find that their standing actually improves sans politicians. Stranger things have happened.
Hi, Chris. I hope you are having a good day.
I hear what you are saying about union leadership. I was having breakfast yesterday with a Vietnam vet who worked in management in Detroit back in the ’70’s. He didn’t so much blame unions for what’s happened to Detroit as he blamed union leaders. So, you are not far off the mark in your post when you talk about the benefits of being a union leader as opposed to the benefits of being a rank-and-file member.
I’ve not yet read Rerum Novarum, but know of its emphasis on BOTH solidarity (unions) AND subsidiarity (working together at the local level). It seems like the solidarity part is in full operation, but the subsidiarity part is dysfunctional. But, you probably know more about this than me, and I would welcome your thoughts. I don’t have time to tackle the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church due to all the time I must invest trying to re-tool my teaching: these are turbulent times for public school teachers. For me, I try to march to the Church’s teachings, and I don’t trust any other dogma.
Where I teach, we’re always a few years behind the large national school districts, and I am 57 years old. If we both do a good job and remember that we work for the kids, there isn’t much else to worry about.
Keep saying the Serenity Prayer and also pray for the children.
Thanks, Tort. I pray a rosary every night for children, teachers, and schools here and around the world.
Rerum Novarum is an interesting document indeed — on the one hand it condemns socialism as being antithetical to the rights of the individual to hold property without mentioning that the early Church held all property in common and operated in a socialistic manner.
It also lauds the class system and defends its existence claiming that justice and equality will only be realized in the afterlife while celebrating unions and associations and laying out organizational rules for their operation in order to defend the interests of the poor and the worker.
I urge you to read it sometime when you have the time to contemplate and study. It is enlightening and encouraging while a bit anachronistic and perplexing at the same time. I reread it periodically.
Chris in Florida,
Clearly, students would lose a great deal without you in the classroom. The amount they would lose by having a TFA. is distressing beyond words.
While Lisa Graves makes a defense for the AFT and NEA at the macro level, there appears to be little defense for them at the level of their membership.
NJTeacher, have a safe trip! Enjoy yourself — we need all the recharging we can get. Thanks for being so supportive.
Dear Chris:
That’s not what I’m saying and I’m not “lecturing” you.
Plus, your assumptions about me and my work are way off base.
We worked nearly round the clock to cover and expand public awareness of the fightback in Wisconsin by union members and other concerned citizens. You’re wrong about the idea of “the same strategies” of AFT leading to the loss in Wisconsin. Union members and leaders pushed for and won an unprecedented set of recall elections and almost unseated Walker, but there was a surge in Koch money in the last few weeks of that election, along with a lack of commitment by the White House in that race which backed Walker’s 2010 opponent rather than candidates preferred by labor — due in part to the undue influence of Rahm Emmanuel, who has been hostile to the AFT affiliate in Chicago and teachers there, whose fight back we have featured.
It’s your privilege to spend your time jumping to conclusions in attacking me but it’s really a waste of time to deploy your cognitive dissonance on me, given the way the Kochs are operating in Florida and elsewhere.
If you’d like to find out more about what actually happened in Wisconsin rather than just flame about it, please contact me. I’d be more than happy to share our research with you. Lisa
I have no interest in discussing anything with you. I find your attitude preventative from meeting on a level playing field. Attack me all you want — it shows I hit close to home. And maybe Randi needs to pop up occasionally to defend herself instead of having others do it for her. Not a supportive voice on this thread says a lot about her ‘leadership’. I’m no Unity oath taker.
“And progressives need to get better at using their power to persuade each other and to win better policies.
“But attacking genuine progressives for banding together to take on the Kochs or for not being pure enough is foolish sport. And the right loves it when progressives fight. It makes their effort to tear down the left so much easier.
“So, let’s get real.”
I think you need to reread your own writing.
Who are the ‘genuine progressives’ you refer to? Why, you and Randi, of course! The thirty-odd critics on this thread who agree with me? What are we, exactly?
Who are the attackers? Why, those of us who criticize Randi, the Unity Caucus, and the AFT and NEA inaction, fiddling while Rome burns and we lose our profession while paying for the privilege.
When was the argument made that Randi is ‘not pure enough’? Ah, the old liberal circular firing squad. If that is not an outright admonition to stop the criticism (in effect, shut up and do what Randi says) then it is nothing. Our argument is that Randi is wrong. Her policies fail time after time. She does thing that anger the rank and file and comes across as tone deaf and indifferent to our concerns. That’s not an argument about purity — it’s an argument about method and strategy.
And why is what you and Randi do ‘real’? Are those of us who actually teach and face the reformist gunfire EVERY SINGLE DAY unreal? Are you in danger of being VAMed? Is Randi? Do you have monitors following you around all day with clipboard and iPads that are Danielson checklisting you to distraction? Is your job being legislated away and eliminated by people who are friends of Randi?
Please don’t come at me with your misplaced self-righteous anger. I’ve been in this battle for the better part of 30 years in 3 different states in union leadership. You have no standing to accuse me of flaming, assuming, jumping to conclusions, and experiencing cognitive dissonance.
Try answering my critique of your words instead of the ad hominem attack.
Chris,
I also noted how we were all in agreement on this thread. I kept waiting for someone to argue, but it wasn’t happening. Those of us in the trenches are well aware of how energy sapping this whole fight is.
NJTeacher, Norm Scott and Susan Ohanian took note of this “discussion”:
http://www.susanohanian.org/show_commentaries.php?id=1184
I feel like I’m in pretty good company when I see that their reading of the Graves’ piece agreed with my own.
Makes the personal attacks easier to shrug off, LOL.
Sorry, Chris. My first inclination was to rush in with a “kudos” but I figured you recognized you had a lot of support here. But here they are to assist with that shrug. 🙂 KUDOS!
It is not personal Chris. We love you. I am driving south on 87 and stopping every so often to read my blogs. I am not making much progress. I saw Norm’s post yesterday. I will check out the other one next stop. I am somewhere south of Albany.
Chris–
You are plainly not interested in any dialogue, just sniping. I was responding out of courtesy not because your attacks on me hit close to home. They’re way off base. My team has been devoted to exposing the privatizers and we’ve been attacked repeatedly because of our work defending teachers and public schools.
But the facts seem of little interest to you, so I’m not going to waste any more time responding to your barbs.
Lisa
Just a little food for thought lisacmd. Maybe if lots of people are attacking you it’s partly you and how you present and come across. It’s worth a little self-reflection.
Like I said to NJTeacher, when 2 giants like Norm Scott and Susan OHanian read your article and came to the same conclusions that I did it makes me feel like I’m in very good company.
Wow, Chris. You may be one of the most arrogant people I’ve bumped into online. When I said we’ve been attacked, I was obviously referring to the groups back the privatization agenda that we have been exposing, not you. Yet again, you jump to the wrong conclusions, but that’s par for the course with your commentary and your last-word-itis. Good luck with that.
“We’re crazy ALEC and our educational policies are insane!” A talk given to the School Board of Palm Beach County, FL
Thank you, Andy Goldstein for the post. It’s a very powerful condemnation.
Not even will they–they have: Just received this very important article: http://mobile.edweek.org/c.jsp?DISPATCHED=true&cid=25983841&item=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.edweek.org%2Fteachers%2Fliving-in-dialogue%2F2014%2F07%2Fpaul_horton_will_the_market_de.html
The union is still strong, but if it is controlled by low class neopotists aping high class foes, what’s the point? We all know about how the unions were a direct creation of left-wing agitation, and after the CIO was purged of its left-wing protenitors, it merged with the dastardly AFL. The only people left running were Bill O’REily types getting off on denigrating the poor. The AFL-CIO still has a CIA front group that undermines left governments abroad. It’s all about ‘partnership’. Saying that, since there is nothing on the horizon to replace it, unions should still serve support. Several decades from now, these organizations may still exist, despite their leadership, and new left-wing forces may exist to revitalize them (or more likely given lack of worker demorcray in our “bread and butter” unions, rival unions.)
As an historical addendum to your mentioning that, “The AFL-CIO still has a CIA front group that undermines left governments abroad,”
that front group, AIFLD, was a favorite of Al Shanker when he was AFT head, and was deeply involved in “The First 9/11,” the military coup against the democratically-elected government of Salvador Allende. AIFLD helped fund and oversee a trucker’s strike that led to shortages of consumer goods and the impression that the country was out of control, eroding middle class support for the Unidad Popular government.
Needless to say, Allende’s corpse had barely been carried out of the Moneda Palace before those consumer goods reappeared in the stores. It must have been “the magic of the marketplace” that did it.
Unsurprisingly, Chile was the first country to impose the neoliberal policies- including the privatization of education – now targeting teachers here.
Our union, so crucial and necessary, has been collaborating with our enemies for decades, and the chickens are now coming home to roost. Yet it’s the innocents, not the collaborators, who suffer, while Randi goes fetch and keeps wagging her tail, eagerly hoping to get patted on the head by the people who would steal food out of our children’s mouths and take away our pensions…
If RW is fighting the Koch brothers et al it’s because she sees the way the winds are blowing. The “reformers” couldn’t have asked for a better ally in RW. The 2005 contract gave away one of the bedrock principles of unionism…seniority… which allowed Bloomberg/Klein to advance their agenda of school closures to force veteran teachers into instability as ATR’s hoping they will quit/retire to cut costs by branding them as failures to the public. I’m truly offended by RW apologists.
In one post Diane after seeing the Fritz Lang film asks educators to revolt. Well part of that revolt is against the undemocratic forces that control and manipulate union members and have helped ALEC by turning away militancy in the unions.
One only had to look at the difference between the Chicago fighting union and Randi’s old UFT at the AFT convention in the debate over common core and Arne Duncan. How nice that Lisa Graves gets to deal with Randi Weingarten directly and then chastises those who want to fight against one of the more undemocratic functioning organizations where voices of dissent are shunted aside. When Randi and her minions establish a democratic union in the UFT (Unity Caucus which runs a one-party system that sends 800 people to AFT conventions to control them and which controls every single seat on the UFT Ex Bd) we can begin to talk. Let Lisa attend a few UFT Delegate Assemblies and tell us how we are helping ALEC when we militantly challenge our leaders.
If the Koch brothers had to choose between insurgent social movement unionists like in Chicago, LA, Milwaukee and Randi’s brand of unionism, Randi would win hands down.
Dear Norm:
I’d love to attend one of the Delegate Assemblies.
I’m not suggesting you are helping ALEC. I’m telling you that AFT has put its shoulder to the wheel in helping to expose ALEC and confront the Koch agenda. That’s what I’ve observed first hand.
Lisa
When intelligent/creative energy and insight is not totally consumed with ALEC and chocking on the Koch’s, it is possible to remember NYC union teachers who woke up and thought for themselves.
“It was during the teacher strike of 1967 when a “Freedom School” was established by parents and teachers in a nearby community center. Many teachers were involved in setting up such schools throughout the city because, while they agreed with some of the strike issues, they repudiated the UFT leadership for its stand on “disruptive child” and could not in good conscience support a UFT picket line.
So rather than cross the lines, they set up informal schools with the help of parents. Many of these same teachers had previously supported school boycotts in favor of integration and had gone South during the Civil Rights Movement where they helped establish the famous Freedom Schools. In these settings, for the first time, many teachers were exercising their professional responsibilities in determining curriculum and social behavior and they were free to be creative, without restriction, from a bureaucratic administration.
In 1968 another teacher strike unfolded, this one directed against the movement for community control, which emerged because the Board of Education failed to integrate schools. With the cooperation of two-thirds of the students, half the faculty, and many parents who maintained the school around the clock, P.S. 84 was a beehive for the duration of the strike. We learned that we could work together harmoniously in an atmosphere of of mutual respect which we saw as basic to a better education for our children.”
Sid Morison Principal P.S. 84
MTI BDs, BCs, PAC, FRs, BRs, staff
OSUB
Lisa Graves is Publisher of The Progressive Magazine and President of Madison based Center for Media and Democracy. John
Sent from my iPad
And??
You can contact me at lisa@prwatch.org. Lisa
Lisa,
I don’t understand what the post by JM is about. MTI, BDs osub etc. . . have no meaning for me whatsoever, but then again I’m AI!
“Will” they?
Something about a horse and a barn door comes to mind here….
diane, can you help Elizabeth to learn from your wisdom?
Well-said, Norm Scott! What could be a more blatant example of divisiveness within a union than what happened at the AFT Convention, courtesy of the UFT? You can bet your boots that the UFT’s attempts to shut the CTU CORE up were DIVISIVE. You can bet that if MORE had won the votes to unseat the old guard UFT leader, the UFT would have been sitting in there side-by-side with the CTU, and a resolution to CONDEMN and to REJECT Common Core would most certainly have been passed.
And MORE than a simple “slap on the wrist” would have been delivered to Arne–the same resolution that had been passed, previously, by the NEA (the call for Arne Duncan’s resignation) would have been a two-peat. Therefore, I would say that the deviseness within the AFT is actually being sanctioned by Randi Weingarten & the rest of the AFT leadership. You have no one to blame but yourselves, leaders, and YOU need to acquiesce to YOUR rank-&-file (the majority of which–I’d bet money on it!–would gladly support the CTU over UFT on any given day). That having been said–irrespective of the Kochs and ALEC–PULL IT TOGETHER, AFT leaders–your rank-&-file is WAY ahead of you!
Full disclosure: I am a member of the NEA (retired) &, frankly, I am not applauding NEA leadership (at least not Dennis; however, we’re on a new administration, now) & their past actions in the least. It was DUE TO THE FACT that some of the rank-&-file elected RAs STOOD UP and proposed those resolutions (albeit, sadly again, not condemnation of Common Core, but it wasn’t for lack of trying!) & helped push them through! However, all reports from the NEA Denver Conference indicate no infighting or sabotage on the scale of what happened in LA.
Bottom line–OF COURSE our unions (NEVER doubt the power of the rank-&-file!) are united in fighting against (with our last breaths, need be) ALEC, the Kochs, the Waltons & others who cannot seem to stop trying to take control of OUR America.
As the inestimable blogger (& great retired RA!) Fred Klonsky takes those NEA/IEA leaders to task wherever & whenever he sees them MISrepresenting us–the rank-&-file, so, too, Lisa, Randi is by no means exempt. Disagreeing with the leadership is NOT–no way, ABSO-FRIGGIN-LUTELY-NOT–“attack(ing) their unions,”
Lisa. It is protecting the democracy WITHIN the union–the absolute right to disagree.
And then–by disagreeing–to make things right. That’s the way unions have survived, and that’s the way the unions will ALWAYS survive.
And THAT is how we beat back ALEC* and their ilk (or, should I say “ick?”)
*BTW–ALEC held its 40th Birthday celebration one year ago, July…in CHICAGO. Now, WHO do you think was there protesting? UFT? NOooo…Chicagoans and–specifically–CTU members. It was an extremely well-attended protest–the downtown streets were jammed. But, of course, the rest of you didn’t see it on the ALEC-bought networks or read it in the ALEC-owned papers.
CTU rocks! You all did tremendous work in Chicago at the ALEC convention. We brought Karen Lewis to Madison in May to help inspire teachers and other members of the community here!
I feel I’m defending public education on many fronts: The obvious reformers, our local union president and cadre of blind loyalists, and our nationals. Tough sledding for educators these days.
Once again Diane you come out against those of us that want a stronger union. A union that protects public ed because that’s not what is happening within the AFT. When I have a union that operates the same way ALEC does….doing everything they can to silence those who have a different view on Common Core, VAM, Charters and the Reform Movement. Who changed the rules and the way my union used to operate? Randi did. Who took democratic procedures out of play? Randi did.
Once chapter leaders elected their district rep. Now Randi “anoints” them. Once people had a chance to stand at the Delegate’s meeting and voice concerns, now they are silenced. Once those who won a good percentage of the election served on the Executive Committee, but that rule was changed. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
While I welcome the fact you allow us to comment freely, I am still taken aback by your ignorance as to what is going on internally within the AFT and UFT. Chapter leaders are supposed to represent the views of their school, but Randi has them signing loyalty oaths so our voices are muffled and teachers are fed the spin instead of the truth. Shame on you!! Wasn’t it you who recently stated, “If the union doesn’t stand public ed and public school teachers, who will?” after Randi endorsed Malloy, a Reform governor?
So according to you we should all put our heads in the sand, follow like sheep to the slaughter house and play stupid. Maybe you like playing the submissive card, but not this gal.
Brava, Schoolgal. I agree wholeheartedly. I do want to say, however, that Diane has stated here recently that she considers Randi a friend, and that she does not criticize friends. As important as this all is, I have to say that I understand if someone chooses to remove someone considered a friend from the fray. I am not sure what I would do if a good friend acted against the interests of others I was dedicating most of my waking hours trying to help. I suspect that it would depend on the friendship: either it is a close and strong enough friendship to withstand public criticism in the “agree to disagree” framework, or conversation is kept private, and any criticisms are left out of the public discourse.
As for those critiquing us for not playing nice, I notice that union members who say this are in leadership roles or not following what is going on at all, just going with the flow and keeping themselves off the radar. Or, of course, they are on the outside, not teachers at all, and it is oh so simple to tell us to work from a position of blind loyalty and to persuade quietly and gently, because we all know how successful that tactic is in taking control of a closely guarded unity oligarchy.
I have no problem with Diane considering Randi a friend. However, Diane cannot speak for those of us who pay dues and tell us to keep our mouths shut. Those within the union writing these “commentaries” are also collecting a 2nd pension if of course they have signed the oath. There is a big problem with the lack of democracy in this union. I was surprised to see Norm Scott call Diane out on his blog. People are getting upset with this nonsense.
Diane needs Randi and Randi needs Diane. That’s fine. But Diane has to stop dictating to us what we can or cannot say about union politics. That just crosses a line. And believe me it’s dirtier than what goes on in real politics. We would not have a Billionaires Boys’ Club if Randi didn’t herself support them. After all, she has no qualms taking money from Gates.
Missouri has it’s own version of the Koch brothers, billionaire Rex Sinquefield. Missouri has no limit, none, on campaign contributions, and anyone who opposes any of Sinquefield’s hundred pet projects knows that their chances of being elected or reflected are about zilch. Destroying public education is one of his top goals. Sinquefield’s reach extends to neighboring states, too. Today, I saw an article in the Springfield (MO) News-Leader that highlights three superintendents who are standing against this man! Let’s hope others join them. http://www.news-leader.com/story/news/politics/2014/07/28/school-leaders-want-billionaire-butt-education/13295335/
Here’s our report on Sinquefield:
Click to access reporters_guide_to_rex_sinquefield_0.pdf
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/04/12458/new-reporters-guide-documents-rex-sinquefields-effort-railroad-personal-agenda
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/04/12459/show-me-money-meet-multimillionaire-squeezing-missouris-schools
lisacmd,
Thanks for the work you and CMD do. It takes diligence and courage.
Lisa Smith,
Thank you for the link.