Obama Cuts Drones But Can't Guarantee Safety of Karen Lewis

"We have Al Qaeda on the run but right now the biggest threat to our agenda is Karen Lewis and the Chicago Teachers Union," said an Obama spokesperson.

Karen Lewis seeking drone

"Our pal Rahm Emanuel has been forced to close 50 schools in retaliation for the strike led by Lewis and now suffers poll numbers so low they are getting close to the interest rate. He is actually being criticized for using money he saves by closing schools to put $100 million into building a new basketball arena where our president and Arne Duncan will be able to shoot hoops once their term in office is over. For that Rahm is being called the most loathsome politician in America? How dare they?"

"And some in the media have started ganging up on some of our allies like Michelle Rhee. And Arne Duncan's poor record in running the Chicago schools for so many years has been re-examined due to the work of Karen Lewis' union.

"And then to top it all our hand-picked crew to beat her in the election got only 20% of the vote despite being supported by our press pals at the Chicago Tribune, thus showing Chicago teachers will not go to the woodshed like the lambs being led by Randi Weingarten, our most important asset, who by the way we have supplied a military escort to protect, but let me point out that we are not using public money for Randi's escort since Bill Gates is paying."

"Getting Bin Laden was so much easier."

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Chicago Teachers Union Plans 3 Day March to Oppose School Closings

....while the UFT does......

The march will begin March 18, the day after the Chicago union elections, a sign that CORE is pretty confident. Expect a vicious attack on them from the mainstream press in the days before the election to try to influence the vote.
I know that some Unity people are rooting against Karen Lewis, especially after she embarrassed the hell out of some of them when she appeared at the UFT last month and talked about how they gave up the perks when they got elected. Oh, sitting in that room at that moment was oh so much fun.

Well we know from some of the Unity comments on the blogs during the elections that they think that these school closings are what the CTU deserve for daring to stand up and strike instead of collaborating. Of course many of the 150 plus schools closed under Bloomberg through 2010 came WITH the UFT collaboration. The rest had court, not street resistance. Given a choice, would Bloomberg prefer the current Unity leadership of a Chicago-like leadership? One MORE reason to come to Saturday's MORE meeting.

This just in from Diane Ravitch:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Stephanie Gadlin

May 9, 2013 312/329-6250

StephanieGadlin@ctulocal1.com

Thousands prepare for a three-day march against school closings as Chicago’s mayor continues his assault on working-class people under the guise of education reform

CHICAGO – As the city braces itself for the largest assault on public education in the country, thousands of parents, students, teachers, clergy, citizens and community leaders are preparing for a “long march” against school closings on May 18, 19 and 20. Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) President Karen Lewis said the non-violent demonstration is necessary because “we have a mayor who refuses to listen to reason, research and logic,” in his campaign to destroy 54 school communities which will impact about 50,000 children.

The 30-plus mile march is themed, “Our City. Our Schools. Our Voice,” and will include simultaneous routes from the West and South sides of the city. Protestors intend to walk each day past many of the 54 school communities slated for closure and their efforts will culminate in a mass demonstration downtown. It is sponsored by the CTU, the Grassroots Education Movement, SEIU Local 1, Unite Here Local 1 and Chicago PEACE, an interdenominational coalition of clergy leaders from across the city. Donations are pouring in from across the country.

“Despite the testimony of thousands of parents, teachers and people who work and live in the school communities impacted, Rahm Emanuel is dedicated to entering the history books as having destroyed the most public schools in one year than anyone,” Lewis said. “He refuses to listen to independent hearing officers, law enforcement officials, educators, researchers, parents and the students themselves. We have no choice but to use the power of organizing and direct action to engage in what will be a long fight to restore sanity to our school district.”

The march kicks off at 10:00 a.m. on May 18 on the South Side at Jesse Owens Elementary School, 12450 S. State St., and on the near West Side at Jean de Lafayette Elementary School, 2714 W. Augusta Blvd.

“School closings hurt children academically and the mayor’s plan will also put thousands of students’ safety at risk and many public school employees may lose their jobs,” Lewis said. “We must do whatever is necessary to stop this assault on the working class and the poor. Instead of just getting angry we must organize. Tell Emanuel, the Board, the school CEO and their corporate sponsors that this is our city, these are our schools and we will use our voice to fight for justice.”

Independent hearing officers reviewed the Chicago Public Schools’ list of 54 slated closings and have recommended removing 14 from the list saying those schools don't meet the state standards and are in violation of the law. The mayor’s hand-picked Chicago Board of Education will vote on the issue on Wednesday, May 22. Shortly thereafter, a massive voter registration drive will commence throughout the city.

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Karen Lewis Video at NYCORE: 30 Minutes of Wisdom

Rather than continuing an insider strategy that has netted so little for the rest of labor over the years, the CTU has entered into open opposition with the neoliberal wing of the [Democratic] party." --- Micah Uetricht from Strike for America: The CTU and the Democrats as quoted by Diane Ravitch.

This is an important development. And this is an essay you must read.-- Diane Ravitch

What a treat seeing Diane Ravitch signing on to the analysis that lays waste to the UFT/AFT strategy of never mentioning the word "neo-liberal" and placing the blame on Bloomberg and holding out hope to NYC teachers that once Bloomberg is gone all will be well with a Democrat in office. Sorry, Charlie. Ask Chicago and especially CORE teachers what neo-liberalism is and you will get an immediate response. Go ask the average Unity Caucus member what it means and you will get "duh."

If you viewed the video of Karen and Mulgrew at the UFT Friday night (Karen Lewis and Mike Mulgrew at Left Labor Project), this keynote at NYCORE from Saturday morning is a powerful treatise on organizing and teaching. You see how Karen was a TEACHER and these are the people we want running our TEACHER unions.

People who spend years interacting with students and parents. Leaders who know and understand what we do and can translate that into action to defend the teaching profession and public schools. She even gives some discipline tips (and I was thrilled since I used to do exactly the same thing -- tell the parents of the most difficult behavior problems what a pleasure it is to work with their children.) But most important -- and here is a lesson for MORE -- she talks about how CORE started in 2008 with 8 people studying the issues to try to understand what was happening to teachers and public education. "You need to understand your enemy in order to fight them." And the most fun --- mocking Rahm Emanuel and his stamping of his tiny little feet.


NYCORE Conference 2013 - Karen Lewis Keynote from Grassroots Education Movement on Vimeo.


Diane Ravitch just posted this which resonates with the issues raised by Karen. (Really, for long-time Ravitch watchers, how remarkable to see this coming from Diane.)

How CTU Confronted Antagonists in the Democratic Party by dianerav

This is a stunning analysis of the relationship between labor unions and the Democratic Party.

It is a must-read.

Many in education have been baffled by the bipartisan consensus around Republican ideology. Micah Uetricht is not baffled. He says without hedging that "Democrats have swallowed the Right’s free market orthodoxy whole. Much of the party appears to have given up on education as a public project."

Teachers unions, he writes, have been unable to articulate a coherent response to their abandonment.

That is, until last September, when the Chicago Teachers Union went on strike. He writes:

"The union has been unafraid to identify the education reform agenda pushed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his party nationally as an attempt to exacerbate inequalities within the education system, strip teachers of power and erode their standards of living, and chip away at public education as an institution, and to call such Democrats enemies. Rather than continuing an insider strategy that has netted so little for the rest of labor over the years, the CTU has entered into open opposition with the neoliberal wing of the party."

This is an important development. And this is an essay you must read.

I wanted to share a comment my friend made on the Friday night video that cuts to the core of some of the things Karen is talking about that distinguishes the CORE/CTU from the Unity/UFT approach: the refusal to let the enemy divide us. Divide closing school teachers from safe school teachers. Divide ATRs from the rest. Divide rubber room teachers from the mainstream. Divide small schools from large schools. What Unity does is call people like me and opposition caucuses like MORE dividers because we do not go along with whatever the leadership decides, even if it takes us over the cliff (like running charter schools -- which helps legitimize them -- and worse, co-locating them and undermining the public schools they reside in).

Karen Lewis is amazing. I only saw the initial statement you put up on the blog, but one of the things she seemed to be doing was to actually put her three maxims into effect by the way she was relating to the entire group she was addressing--both MORE and Unity Caucus people (who else was there?).
1. Unite
2. Make yourself stronger
3. Build power

Even her later statements which made Unity squirm were probably meant to do that, especially after she manipulated Mulgrew into echoing her (in the parts of his statement that was videotaped), setting up the contradiction between what he says and what the union actually does. Especially given the missed opportunity of building unity with parents/students/community when it came to closing schools.

For example, the question of union officer salary: How can union leaders really represent (and unite) teachers if our salaries [and job security] are so different from theirs, not to mention members of other unions and parents?

So, what do we have to do to make ourselves strong and unite with others? Let's start working to eliminate whatever we can that divides us (including those of us sitting in the room). Not that we necessarily believe that Mulgrew himself can be "united", but there were many others in the room.

The MOREs in the room Friday night looked at each other and covered their mouths as Mulgrew said stuff echoing Karen that was so far from reality, we felt we were in a comic book.

Here is one more quote from the Micah Uetricht article:

the union has put forth its own vision of reform, both at the bargaining table and in the streets through their engagement in mass action, their September strike, and their formal policy recommendations. It is a vision that explicitly rejects the Democratic Party’s education agenda and offers a strong program to shore up public schools as a public good–stronger than any reform proposals by the two major national teachers unions.

 You mean Randi's "Share Your Lesson" doesn't quite cut it?

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