I think the statements sister Stamberg has been making at the UFT meetings
are courageous and deeply inspiring. Like Lenin said of Liebknecht's
example, better to swim against the stream and be one against one
hundred--but in this case, it's one against one thousand! Bravo Marjorie!
Thank you! For Eric Garner and all the victims of the two parties.
On Wed, Feb 8, 2017 at 7:31 PM, Marjorie Stamberg <
marjoriestamberg@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Tonight the UFT endorsed De Blasio's re-election campaign and then they
brought him in to a standing ovation. The vote was something like 900 to
5.
I was the only opposition speaker.
LeRoy Barr, union secretary- treasurer presented the motion, saying the
leadership had decided what they really needed was to nominate a Democrat
at this time, that's was the important thing, and De Blasio in particular.
What was needed was a Democrat and we could be the first union in the city
to do it. He supported us against the charters, Le Roy stressed.
A couple more big wigs invited to speak, while I was standing up loudly
saying "speaker against, over here!"
UFT president Mulgrew called on me harassing me from the get-go to be
short (all the rest were windbags who spoke ad infinitium of course).
I said Brother LeRoy Barr's speech for DeBlasio was very political, and in
answer to that, I wanted to " put a minus everywhere he put a plus. We
should not be supporting a Democrat. You all know I'm a socialist, and I
think the Democrats and Republicans are twin parties of capitalism. They
are twin parties of U.S. imperialism.
"Let me say first, I think Donald Trump is a racist misogynist pig
(Mulgrew interrupts, we agree but not to the point, he says). "Yes it is
relevant," I said, because the Democrats are responsible for every
imperialist war from Vietnam to the attacks on Yemen. Obama deported 3
million people.
We should not be voting for Democrats and Republicans, we need a workers
party (serious heckling and screaming from the crowd, Mulgrew says softly,
"be respectful, and Marjorie, finish up...")
I continue, "As for the specifics of De Blasio, he did NOT support us
against the charters. You all know he fell apart in front of Eva
Moskowitz. And he presided over the police acquittal of the choke-hold
murderers of Eric Garner."
(More shouting,..)
"So we need a workers party," I finished.
Mulgrew recused himself from the chair to speak from the floor in an
impassioned speech for DeBlasio, basically whatever you think of his
politics, we are now in the fight our lives for public education and he is
a passionate supporter of public education).
An insufferable bureaucrat "calls the question." James Eterno stood up and
insisted that the question not be called, that it's violation of Roberts
Rules, that there were many speakers for, only one speaker permitted to
speak against. Le Roy defends himself as chair he can do whatever he
wants, he says.
Vote taken -- I saw 4 votes against a sea of "yes"; one was Mike Schirzer
of MORE, because we know he's a Republican! I looked carefully, Sean Ahern
was in the room but did not vote against, I didn't see if any PLers were
there, but none certainly had opposition hands up if they were in the room.
After the vote, my co-delegate from P2G, Matt Colacurto told me
immediately he voted no (that took some bravery, believe me). He said not
for my reasons, because he is a Democrat, but thought it was "too soon" for
an endorsement and he disagreed with many of De Blasio's policies. (Matt
was an AIDS counselor before this job, and feels strongly about issues of
health and housing.)
Then an older black woman chapter leader who had been sitting next to me
came up to me in the aisle and said "thank you for speaking up for Eric
Garner."
And a Latino delegate from the Bronx approached me and said he really
appreciated my words.
But basically it was the pop front in action, as only the UFT can do it.
I was in fact preparing to make an amendment to the bureaucracy's motion on
immigrant students' rights. The amendment was to call for the UFT to form
immigrant student support committees in every school, like we did in our
school. But the De Blasio show pre-empted that.
