Calling New Action an internal opposition group is like saying Christine Quinn stood up to Bloomberg. New Action has been the UFT’s “house” opposition for over 5 years. Weingarten ran at the top of their ticket in the 2007 election and all 8 of their exec board members were endorsed by the UFT leadership Unity Caucus. In the 2007 election they got the lowest vote total of all groups running but only won their seats due to Unity Caucus votes.
So how are they an internal opposition when the party in power controls their fate?
Their original sellout in 2003 was based on the same premise they are advocating in this post: it is time to fight Bloomberg. That was their excuse for not running a candidate against Weingarten in the last 2 UFT elections and they will not run a candidate against Mulgrew in the upcoming elections. Since they owe their continued existence to the beneficence of the UFT leadership, they cannot be critical or they will lose their support. Thus they have to come up with the “mistakes were made by the leadership but let’s not dwell on them” argument to justify their sellout.
New Action mentions charters but in fact backed the UFT all the way when it set up its own charter schools in public school buildings while ICE and TJC took positions opposed, knowing full well the charter dagger was squarely aimed at the heart of the union.
New Action has supported the UFT leadership without dwelling on the mistakes for all these years. They act like there will be a change despite the fact that New Action has been around for decades and seen little change in the way Unity Caucus operates.
There was a time when New Action put up a fight to create a more democratic union. Now they are part of the problem. Progressive teachers looking to reform the UFT in no way consider them an internal opposition, but a former opposition that has sold out to the leadership for a few Executive Board seats and some minor positions on the payroll of the UFT.
Thank God
Thank God for New Action. The UFT needs change. The UFT needs to start to fight for its members who are fighting with all their might, all on their own against charter schools. It is terrible the UFT, the teachers unions, is sitting back and doing NOTHING! That is what teachers pay for and the UFT does absolutely NOTHING!
http://sinksalive.blogspot.com KitchenSink
(Unrelated to previous posts) – Does anyone realize that the challenge to the Duncan/Obama reform initiatives that they are not “scientifically based” can be levied against ANY education reform?
There is more research-community consensus about global warming than about what works in education….and there are still folks blowing smoke about that!
http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/ norm
Thank God. You are off base here.
New Action at one time used to be for change, but as partners with the UFT leadership for the past 7 years that is all over. They used to actually have a decent platform calling the UFT leadership undemocratic and calling for democratization of the union. Now that they got theirs, all that has disappeared.
How can the UFT fight charter schools when they have two of their own? And occupying space in public schools. And New Action supported them all the way, with some New Action members volunteering in the charters. ICE and TJC were opposed to the establishment of the charters because it was clear what was coming down the line and having their own charters would make a fight impossible. The UFT strategy was to “show them we can do it with a union contract,” which New Action has supported. Then they sign a contract with Green Dot charter, also not opposed by New Action. Now their strategy is not to oppose charters but to try to organize them. Sort of like going back to the 1950′s. The charters will remove public schools and the UFT will try to sell charter school teachers on the concept of “look how incompetent we have been in defending NYC teachers, now give us a chance to screw you too.”
I know. Some say better any union contract than nothing. But the idea is so ass backwards as to make your hair hurt. The tidal wave is coming and the UFT is using a thimble to bail. And New Action will be there with them all the way.
http://curious2.typepad.com Ken
Hey Norm,
You write: “They used to actually have a decent platform calling the UFT leadership undemocratic and calling for democratization of the union.”
If you have time, could you tell me what “democratization of the union” would mean in practice?
scientific thinking
“Does anyone realize that the challenge to the Duncan/Obama reform initiatives that they are not “scientifically based” can be levied against ANY education reform?”
The above statement is good … so lets get rid of the charter school cancer that seems to have the eye of the billionaires in this country. It is all about money for them.
How on earth can they say they are better when they take all the top kids? Actually, since they are taking the cream off the top, then why are they not really doing better? They do not know what the hell they are doing?
The whole charter movement is a bad joke that will only get worse until it gets better.
As a side note, can we start a new teachers union since the UFT stands for Unorganized federation of teachers? The U cannot mean United…they could care less about its members fighting against charter schools.
How do we start a new union and kick this one out? Any ideas.
“It is true that differing start dates for age upon kindergarten enrollment make comparisons btw traditional public schools and charters unfair. Frankly, however, the system should give public schools more leeway in this area.”
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