CORE Rocks, Unity S_cks! - Part 1

[proud2BlibKansan]

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There were a lot of subtexts at the AFT convention in Seattle. Some emphasized the Detroit led BAMN (By Any Means Necessary) slate running against Randi's Progressive/Unity Caucus, but given the overall platform of BAMN and skepticism if not outright hostility of other left activists this is not a long-term building block to challenge Weingarten. I'll do more on the left at the convention and their impact at some other time.

More interesting was the role being played, and that might be played in the future by the newly elected CORE (Caucus of Rank & File Educators), a 2 year plus old caucus in Chicago that won a run-off in the recent elections against the UPC (Unity allied).

No matter where you ran into or listened to CORE members, they issued warnings about the disaster of the ed deform program on a system after 16 years, warnings that mostly went on the deaf ears of Unity and their national clones.

I was sitting with a national reporter at the press table and he assumed that the CORE leadership, based on their militancy in defense of teachers would naturally align with BAMN. Thus, he was somewhat surprised when new Chicago TU President Karen Lewis ran on Randi's Progressive Caucus platform as a VP while other CTU delegates ran with BAMN. One UFT leader asked someone in CORE, "Don't you have caucus discipline?" I guess not.

I explained to the reporter that if Lewis didn't run with Progressive which was destined to win (and did win with 95% of the vote), then Chicago for the first time in history wouldn't have a member of the AFT Executive Board council. To not have Local 1 (the UFT is local 2) as part of the council would be embarrassing for the AFT. Soon after arriving in Seattle, negotiations began between CORE and the Progressive Caucus. Reports surfaced that there were demands that at least 50% of the CTU delegates must join Progressive. CORE balked. In the end I believe 3 joined.

More interesting - when the election results came in, Karen Lewis finished with the second hightest total. Professional Staff Congress' (New York based) Barbara Bowen finished with the highest total. Bowen's caucus defeated the Unity supported caucus many years ago and is considered a left dissident group even though Bowen is in Progressive. At the Progressive Caucus meeting I attended Bowen consistently battled them, often against Leo Casey.

more . . . http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2010/07/core-rocks-unity-scks-part-1.html

[LWolf]

1. That was an interesting read.

I look forward to Part 2.

I was especially interested to note that G.S. was there (it was his photo,) and that he has a piece up on Substance about it. I'll head over to read that next.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. I met George

Shook his hand and told him I was a fan. He grinned really big. It was a nice moment.

He's done some great pieces on CORE.

I really enjoyed the CORE folks. Their enthusiasm was just infectious. I met Karen Lewis and she seemed really pleased to hear that people all over the country have been paying attention to what is happening in her local.

I also sat on a panel with a CORE delegate and teachers from Detroit, NY and California. We all discussed different things that had been happening in each of our districts. There was a lot of interest in my district because of all the school closings.

The guy from CORE was just inspiring. He said they formed about two years ago. They started going into schools that had been threatened with closings due to low test scores. He said the district folks would go in, scare everyone by telling them their test scores were too low and they were going to move from being a turnaround school to being a closed school where everyone would lose their job. Then CORE would come in and tell the staff they couldn't raise their test scores or promise they wouldn't close or lose their jobs but they could help them organize. And CORE helped bring in parents and community members and the media to meetings and rallies to put pressure on district officials. They also never miss a school board meeting. And he said CORE had saved quite a few schools from closing, mainly because of the organizing.

Very inspiring.

[Hannah Bell]

3. the organizing piece is something that's been missing from the big unions for a long time.

seems like that's why core has some weight - because they went in at the ground floor & organized teachers & parents on their home turf, around their specific concerns.

yes, inspiring.

[LWolf]

4. That is inspiring.

I'm really regretting not driving up to Seattle, even if I'm not AFT.