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taking it to tweed
July 6, 2009
Protest against mayoral control today to showcase 5-boro unity
Mayor Bloomberg’s school critics are joining up today to protest how little has changed since the mayoral control technically ended last week.
All spring, local activists who oppose mayoral control have been urging people to contact their lawmakers. But after the mayoral control law expired and Bloomberg packed the new Board of Education with his appointees anyway, it became clear that a more powerful protest was needed, according to Jitu Weusi, a longtime activist from Brooklyn.
A protest being held at 5 p.m. today outside Tweed Courthouse, education department headquarters, will highlight widespread opposition to “the mayoral control dictatorship,” Weusi said. He told me that community activists from all five boroughs have signed onto the event.
City Councilman Charles Barron, who has called for Schools Chancellor Joel Klein to be fired, helped organize a planning meeting last week that about 40 people attended, Weusi said. Weusi spoke last fall at the first forum organized by the Parent Commission on School Governance, which has pushed for substantial changes to mayoral control, and the commission is co-sponsoring today’s protest.
Parent activist Ann Kjellberg, who attended the planning meeting, said today would mark a change from the recent past, when local activists stuck to their own communities. “I think everybody’s distress at what happened with the political process reached such a point that the protest became so loud that we heard each other,” she said.
Today’s protest will not be the last city officials will hear from the as-yet-unnamed coalition, Weusi said. ”This is just like an announcement that we are serving notice that we are an official citywide body of discontent,” he said.
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July 6th, 2009 6:41 pm
So were there as many attendees as at Joel Klein’s pink slip party? Or more - as in, six?
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July 6th, 2009 6:58 pm
Jitu Weusi, aka Leslie Campbell … wow! “long time Bklyn activist,” really long time … had 1968 teacher strike flashbacks … hopefully Jitu can create a coalition, parents, community activists, etc., that provide the foot soldiers for the cash strapped Bill Thompson …
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July 6th, 2009 8:38 pm
KitchenSink — More on that tomorrow AM, from Philissa who was there. But for a preview, check out our Twitter updates. Particularly: http://twitter.com/gothamschools/statuses/2503753328
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July 6th, 2009 10:20 pm
Hey Kitchen Sink, the hundreds of protesters - teachers, parents and community activists from the black and white communities really missed you today. And this one was called on a few days notice with a lot of people out of town. But this is only the first step. You’ll have plenty of oportunities as they are not going away. And Peter, your UFT was absent. Except for your lone rep who spent the entire time schmoozing with Micah Lasher. Another demo of which side you guys are on. Thompson, another supporter of mayoral control, has always been the UFT’s guy. You’re just setting him up for the big run in 2013.
And here’s another rally for the UFT to be absent from. The parents at PS 123 in Harlem are rallying at 1 PM on Tues over the Moskowitz break in. We’ll be there. We’ll miss you and kitchen sink.
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July 6th, 2009 11:12 pm
I’ll leave it to the GS pros and others to report on the rally contents.
I’ll just pre-inject that LearnNY, aka BloombergForEmperor2009 didn’t appear to be there. How can one tell? Easy. Their parent shills are the ones who run out of gas 20 minutes in — just like a week ago Sunday at the “Chaos is Coming” presser in E. Harlem. The crowd tonite was still shouting up a storm 1-1/2 hours in.
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