Redhog – Whatever you want to say about the big dog (Bill Clinton), at least Clinton hired Klein to be a prosecutor not to run the Department of Ed. Context is as important as the quote.

Of course, since this is a blog, one does not reproduce the entire post one is referring to, one links to it. And there was a link, so anyone could go and read Antonucci in the original. By all means, read all of it. It is very informative.

It is also the case, as Norman Scott knows quite well, that labor law in NY State requires unions to make clear and unambiguous divisions between what is done officially by the union and what is done by union political parties, both those in office and the opposition. You will note that the UFT blog links to no political caucus in the union, in conformity with our understanding of the state law. This has been the union’s long-standing practice with respect to our official web-site as well.

And it is amusing to read long comments on how one is being censored in the very place that is supposedly doing the censoring. We should all be so censored.

Now it has to be a little embarrassing to be posing as the truly authentic radical left wing, and then have it pointed out that your friends promoting you are rabidly anti-union partisans of the far right, of the sort that take umbrage at calling Bush’s handling of the aftermath of Katrina “incompetent.” But, hey, why seek out those partnerships then?

I am concerned by Norm’s readiness to hold up the EIA’s critique of EdWize as some sort of trophy with which to beat Casey with. Since when is Antonucci an authority on internal union business? Its like quoting the KKK to mediate a dispute in the Black community.

“The enemy of your enemy is not your friend.”

The EIA is a Tom Delay/Pombo right wing “libertarian” project whose mission is to fish in troubled waters and undermine teacher unions by posing as a critic of the union bureacracies.

Privatization of public education is the watchword of this crowd and their strongest opposition comes from the NEA and AFT. Privatization is a hard sell to teachers so they soft pedal that and pose instead as critics of undemocratic practices within the unions. EIA has also shown a white supremacist bent in their mocking and derisive characterization of the NEA’s discussion of reparations for the descendants of slaves. This may also play well among some teachers (Wouldn’t the enemies of teacher unionism just love to see a white supremacist split off from the NEA!) but it’s the kiss of death for a credible rank and file reform movement in the UFT. With “friends” like this , who needs enemies?

The lack of democracy is real in the AFT, but so is the EIA’s hidden agenda. They are on a fishing mission to establish anti union beach heads within the unions themselves. I hope that ICErs will not succumb to flattery.

We are critics of the UFT because it falls far short of what a union should be, the EIA is a critic because teacher unions exist. Unions are targets for the EIA. Unions and union contracts are our first line of defense, inadequate as they are. Three years without a contract, no right to strike, high stakes testing, corporate “reform”, underfunded, overcrowded schools and underpaid teachers in predominantly poor and working class districts? Ever read any “intelligence” reporting on that in the EIA? Ever see a positive proposal to correct the problem?

Peace,
Sean Ahern