*Report-back from UFT Delegate Assembly of December 14, 2016**
President Michael Mulgew opened with comments on Trump’s cabinet choices:
The Labor Secretary, Puzder does not believe in the minimum wage, the head
of the Environmental Projection Agency thinks global warming in a hoax, the
education secretary doesn’t believe in public education, Exxon Mobil is the
secretary of state, and so forth.
There was a slide show on Betsy Devos, who has almost single-handedly
destroyed the Detroit public schools. She got the job after Eva Moskowitz
turned down the job, because she woudn’t take the pay cut. On the state
level, there is a proposed Constitutional Convention – we must have a “Vote
No” campaign because if they have one, they will use it to destroy
collective bargaining and pensions in New York State. Also vouchers are not
legal in New York State – they will want to change that. Probably they
won’t be overturning the new ESSA (federal education program) immediately.
Around the country, the election of Trump, who vowed to deport 11 million
undocumented immigrants (after the Obama administration has deported more
than 5.5 million) has caused great consternation, anxiety and fear among
immigrant students, their families and teachers.
I raised a motion, “NYC Schools Must Be a Sanctuary For Immigrant and All
Students” which has been put forward by my group, Class Struggle Education
Workers. The resolution (attached) calls for setting immigrant defense
committees in the schools, and for the union to take action to stop
deportations.
Prior to the meeting, we handed out about 400 copies as the delegates
streamed in.
After Mulgrew’s report, followed by Q&A, they opened the floor for
resolutions.
I was called on first, and followed the procedure for “motions for next
month’s agenda”: first present the motion and then be the speaker “for.”
I told the delegates that I would not read the “whereases” because they
were basically to inform the members of current New York law regarding
immigrant rights, and to document the specific threats made by the incoming
Trump regime.
I then began to read the “Resolveds.” I didn’t get past the first one,
which said that the UFT should state that “police and immigration
authorities will not be allowed on school premises under any circumstances.”
At this point, a Unity retiree popped out of his chair to cry ”point of
order” that the whole motion supposedly violated the Taylor Law. This is
typical of the Unity machine. Anything that smacks of real struggle
triggers a Pavlovian response among the bureaucratic hacks who act as
constables for self-enforcement of the Taylor Law, which they regard as a
godsend to block mass action. In any case, what the motion called was an
on-going assembly of teachers, students, staff and parents to shut down the
schools in the face actual deportations.
The “point of order” was ruled out of order by the chair. I then continued
to read the “resolveds” in the motion.
Then I motivated the resolution, saying that our November D.A., held the
day after the election, was very powerful, because delegate after delegate,
spoke of their passion to protect the thousands of immigrant students in
NYC schools. (Over half of all public school students in the city come from
homes where a language other than English is spoken.)
I said we need to make the schools a place of sanctuary, welcoming for
parents to come with any concerns or threats made to them, we need rapid
response teams and phone chains in place to respond immediately to any
threat of deportation. And we need to organize across the schools to
actually stop the deportations if they occur.
I noted that the *migra* in NYC would quite likely not come into the
schools where we will protect the kids; they were much more likely to break
down doors in the dead of the night. I said I know people have some
worries, that “we can’t do this because of the law,” and “we can’t do that…”
But, I said, we are the biggest union in NYC, we have powerful allies like
the TWU, we have strength, and we need to do what we need to do, because we
are not going to let our students be dragged out of the schools or out of
their homes.
There was considerable applause as I finished.
Howie Schoor, the convener of the Executive Board, then spoke against. He
repeated that the UFT couldn’t just stop ICE (the immigration police) from
coming in, we had no right to stop them, we couldn’t shut down the schools,
because that violates the Taylor Law and would lead to teachers getting
fired.
A chapter leader said to me, “hey, I’d be willing to get fired for that,
what’s wrong with these people?” But in fact, you don’t get fired for
violating the no-strike, slave-labor Taylor Law, but you get fined.
The vote was taken, the delegates duly voted it down, having received their
cue from Schoor’s diatribe. I looked toward the section of the hall where a
lot of oppositionists sit and saw about 30 or so cards raised to vote “yes,
I’m not sure how many total in the hall.
Mulgrew said it was voted down, but then added that even though some of the
“resolveds” weren’t doable under any circumstances (says who?), and
probably a violation of the Taylor Law, that he had already told the DOE
that if they try it there will arrests of teachers, that this is a decision
every person needs to make themselves, but that he as UFT president was
prepared to take the consequences because “I will not let kids be dragged
out of our schools.”
What UFT officials will actually do is another matter, but here they have
at least verbally made a commitment of sorts, and it’s up to us as
educators to stand with our immigrant students, which is why we need to
mobilize all of labor, together with parents and students and everyone who
defends democratic rights.
Other points of note at the D.A.
• Opt Out Campaign. In the Q & A, a delegate asked whether we could be
penalized under ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) if the number of students
who “opt out” of high-stakes testing goes above 5 percent. (ESSA is the
latest federal education program, following “Race to the Top”
(Obama/Duncan), which followed Bush’s “No Child Left Behind.”
The answer from Mulgrew was yes, we the NYC schools could lose pot-loads of
money if that happened. This was a not-so-veiled barb against the Opt Out
campaign which the bureaucracy in the past has suggested would “hurt
children” if we lose the Title 1 federal funds. (This is the standard UFT
leadership response to why we have to swallow Common Core or whatever
national mandate, because otherwise funds will be withdrawn.)
• NY State Constitutional Convention The UFT is campaigning big time
for a big “No” vote in November when the electorate will be asked to vote
on whether to have such a convention. Apparently, the voters are asked to
vote every 20 years on whether to have one. If people vote yes, then every
law in the NY State constitution can be up for a change. The right-wing
intends to use this method to outlaw collective bargaining,
impose-right-to-work anti-union laws, take away pensions and many other
items
• Argument in the Executive Board over the “Resolution Calling for
Respect for All People.”
E-board members from the Movement of Rank-and-file Educators/New Action
slate (who now have the high school seats) were incensed about the
machinations over this motion. The motion talks about opposing racist,
anti-immigrant, anti-gay speech, discrimination or harassment in the
schools, particularly in the current atmosphere, but beyond “action
committees” to vaguely “defend our values” doesn’t specifically call for
doing anything concrete.
The motion in question starts with two whereases: “”Whereas, the
presidential election campaign rhetoric targeted communities on the basis
of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identify and religion, and
displayed abusive behavior toward women, has threatened the nation’s
promise that all people are worthy of respect” and
“Whereas, the presidential election campaign rhetoric has outlined an
education agenda overtly hostile to public schools and teachers, promising
to prioritize vouchers and charter schools at the expense of public
schools”….
At the D.A., Peter Lamphere (MORE) put up an amendment to change “Whereas,
the presidential election campaign”… to “Whereas, the Donald Trump
election…” Peter said that was the initial wording of the motion in the
E-board, and that the leadership changed it behind their back to take out
the reference to Trump.
This sparked furious responses from some delegates and LeRoy Barr
(secretary treasurer) about how a “lot of UFTers” voted for Trump and we
have to win them back to the right path, and we can’t be hostile and we
can’t insult them, etc., etc. When I asked out loud to people around me, “A
lot of people? Who?” Delegates snapped back “Staten Island.”
So, the line coming down from the AFT tops is that the union is going to go
out of its way to avoid criticizing the Trump administration as such: where
they can’t work with it, they go to court, and meanwhile they dance around
the issues where they can. However, it will not possible to duck a fight
over school vouchers, more charters, national right-to-work legislation,
attempts to eliminate collective rights and defense of immigrant students,
which are core issues for the Trump regime.
So here you have the “mainstream” Weingarten-Mulgrew business union
bureaucracy trying to avoid direct confrontation with Trump, and the
MORE/New Action “opposition” wanting an anti-Trump popular front with the
capitalist Democratic Party. What we need is a class struggle workers party.
• Coming January demonstrations: Mulgrew said the UFT just learned
that the Trump & Co. will forbid any demos around the Washington Mall (no
word as to where they will be permitted, maybe in Maryland?). If people
want to go to Washington, Mulgrew said the AFT will provide buses. The UFT
will probably demonstrate at demos in NYC; they might go to DC, but were
non-committal at this point.
• Mulgrew ended the meeting, wishing everyone happy holidays and a
good rest because “when we come back, it is war.”
*As one of your UFT delegates I report-back on the monthly meetings. These
reports are "my take" on the meeting. For official minutes, let me know and
I'll send them along to you.
Attachment:
161216 MS Reportback from December DA.doc
Description: MS-Word document
Attachment:
161214 Motion to defend immigrant students.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document
