Thanks M. I do love your reports—so informative and insightful always
On Wed, Jul 18, 2018 at 5:03 AM Marjorie Stamberg <
marjoriestamberg@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Angie and I went to this event tonight (July 17th) at the Grad Center.
First time I went to one of their things--- soft and gushy. yuk.
Speaker from Oklahoma teachers strike described herself as a "democratic
socialist" later saying she is a registered Democrat and thought that was
better than the Republicans and wanted to vote in the primaries. Repeated
the slogan "Remember in November" without criticism.
She is one of two people in her school who are in the union and she is
considering quitting the union because she doesn't want to pay the dues, as
her salary is so low.
The meeting kind of went downhill after that. Not that much more to say
after those two zingers.
I had to begin my intervention by telling her to stay in the union, as it
is the prime historic and contemporary vehicle for working class struggle,
talked about the classroom being where race and class come together, need
for a program of class struggle etc.
Ben (Left Voice person) stood up for Debsian socialism; provoked me to
speak again at meeting's end to say that Debsian socialism was an insult to
socialism, the black question is the key to the American revolution. Ben
got mad, later apologized to me.
I believe I was the only one in 1-3/4 hours who raised the black question.
Two UFT teachers there, I got their e-mail,
What else can I tell you. Angie spoke great, talked about her experiences
in West Virginia and Oklahoma and what she learned from the teachers and
the importance of a class struggle program. We sold well, or I should say
Angie did. I was hesitant to go near our lit table and jinx the sales
being as they were pretty annoyed with me..
Their chair person, Tatiana Cozzarelli, is a competent bureaucrat, had 5
years teaching middle school, now at Urban Studies at the grad center where
she will indubitably use her 5 years in the trenches as she gets her PhD
and gets on a tenure track somewhere or an administrator at the DOE.
They have very little in UFT, which is excellent.
I raised the point that I had done the reading they had listed for the
event, and in the Left Voice their article on Janus said that the union
"bureaucracy didn't learn from its mistakes and continued to contribute
money to the Democrats." What mistake? They are the labor lieutenants
of capital and their social role is the transmission belt to the capitalist
class, as Trotsky said. Silence from Socialist Voice. I could not raise
them out of their soggy just-us-folks demeanor. Very few teachers, mostly
grad students from Urban Studies.
No Francesca.
Margaret Collins was there, and spoke about how we New Yorkers and
Northerners think we are so tough and have all the answers, but the
Southerners did this strike; she blocked with me about the hard issues in
New York re the Taylor law and the bureaucracy.
