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Notes on building our movement and the AFT following the Los Angeles convention

By Kipp Dawson (rank-and-file delegate to the AFT convention from Pittsburgh)

This is a life-or-death time for the American Federation of Teachers. The July 12-14, 2014, convention reflected both positive movement, and continuing obstacles, for our union. As we take on the challenges we all face with the opening of schools, we AFT members will face both from our union. Much will depend on how successfully we get our union to respond.

We need a strong, democratic, member-driven union which will fight for the schools our children deserve, and in which our members successfully can teach. Our union should be seen and known everywhere as one of the strongest allies in every battle for decent lives for the parents and communities from which our children come.

While the AFT reports growth in membership this year, the Vergara court decision and the copy-cat lawsuits now springing up elsewhere are among the indications that our union is far from immune from the attacks raining down on organized labor throughout this country, and internationally. And while public outcry and organization has held back some of the worst attacks on public education, and we have been a part of important new alliances, all around us our members are losing jobs to TFA drive-by teachers, and to the continuing privatization and charterization of public schools. Our own children – both those we raise, and those we teach – are among the millions of victims of the destruction of much public education that we had so long taken for granted. From Philadelphia to Detroit to New Orleans to you name it, we can not take for granted that there will be public schools for our children, let alone the schools our children deserve.

While the corporate “reformers” who have led this destruction have had to slightly pause some of their agenda here and there, they are still riding high on successes handed to them by politicians, judges, the media, appointed school boards, and state and federal Departments of Education. Their Common Core Standards have faced some tactical little bumps, but roll out by many names in much of this country, accompanied by the testing mania we have warned and worked against. Teacher “evaluation” schemes continue to handcuff, paralyze, and drive our colleagues from the profession, pitting teachers against one another, parents against teachers, and many of us against our own experiences and knowledge of what good teaching is.

How did the AFT, at its 2014 convention in Los Angeles, stand up to and prepare us for the challenges of 2014?

Inspiring moves toward recognizing and identifying with social justice movements

Rev. William Barber, leader of North Carolina’s Moral Monday Movement, called us to social justice organizing and action with a powerful, pointed, and specific speech on July 12. Throughout the convention hall delegates stood, cheered, and applauded his call to us to become a part of a broad and united social justice movement. The video of this speech would make an excellent opener for our local union meetings this fall.

Also on July 12, Randi Weingarten acknowledged Chicago as “an example of a place where the community has come together to reclaim the promise of public education in America.” CTU president Karen Lewis took the podium and delegates gave another ovation to Chicago’s Rev. Jitu Brown and student activist Asean Johnson. On July 14, gave yet another standing ovation and passed a Special Order of Business calling for support to the children crossing the U.S./Mexico border in their desperate attempts to find safety and some sort of decent life.

Democracy enchained

As usual at AFT conventions, Randi Weingarten chaired all plenary sessions, and she was a model of a democratic chair. However, behind the scenes, through the NYC-based Unity Caucus and its domination of the AFT’s national “Progressive Caucus,” Weingarten and the AFT leadership pulled no punches in working to control what did and didn’t make it to the floor, and who did or did not make it to which mikes. When delegates attempted to bring to the convention the rich discussion going on all around us on who is behind the attacks on our schools and children, the AFT leadership clamped down.

Progressive Caucus members were mobilized to ensure that several resolutions did pass, and several did not. At daily Caucus meetings, and via several texts each day, caucus members were reminded to get to sessions early to surround floor mikes, follow floor leaders, allow no substitutions for the resolutions that were “must pass” ones, and let the “expert” speakers do the most speaking.

Among those resolutions on the must-not-pass list was, for example, one introduced by Madison-based Teaching Assistants Association Federation, Local 3220 titled “In Opposition to the Keystone XL Pipeline.” It would have had the AFT call on President Obama “to deny the permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline, and instead to push for well-paying, sustainable ‘green jobs.’” Why was this a “must not pass?” The only direct reference this delegate heard to the “danger” of this resolution came from a leader of the Progressive Caucus who explained that the AFL-CIO had “a different take” on the pipeline, and therefore “we absolutely can’t” take this position. No discussion.

Another on the must-not-pass list was the California Federation of Teachers resolution, “Stop Unfriendly Money into AFT.” Caucus members thought it sufficient to say only that we should not “tie the hands” of leaders, as this resolution would, when it “resolved, that the American Federation of Teachers and its state affiliates seriously reconsider taking money from organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; any organization he, his wife or the organization funds; or the Walton Family Foundation and organizations it funds, and the Eli Broad-backed Teacher Union Reform Network.”

The most “dangerous” resolutions, in the eyes of the Progressive Caucus, included those introduced by the Chicago Teachers Union. One of those which spoke to many of us was titled, “Against Standardized Assessments for Students Receiving Special Education Services.” This resolution, for example, “resolved, that the AFT will encourage school districts to change their assessment policies to allow students with special needs to be assessed according to their IEPs and according to the judgment of the IEP teams as to which assessments are appropriate for individual students.” This delegate did not hear arguments against this resolution, either in the Education Committee but there it was “referred” to the post-convention AFT leadership.

Weingarten’s Progressive Caucus organized its most virulent opposition – and vigorous get-the-mike muscling — for the debate on Common Core. Two resolutions were counterposed to one another in the Education Committee – one submitted by the AFL Executive Council titled “The Role of Standards in Public Education,” and the other, the Chicago CTU’s “Oppose the Common Core State Standards.” Reflecting the impact of the activists and organizers and bloggers and testifiers around the country exposing dangers in CCSS and its co-joined testing mania, the Executive Council’s resolution had lots of strong-sounding “where-as’s” and some calls for slow-downs in implementation, especially re testing, its bottom line was clear from the first “resolved”: “that the American Federation of Teachers will continue to support the promise of CCSS, provided that a set of essential conditions, structures and resources are, in place. Making those necessary corrections will, in the long run, keep us from going back to a system that did not address the needs of many students, especially disadvantaged students, English language learners and students with disabilities.” In other words, CCSS was saving us from hurting our students.

The CTU’s resolution stood in strong contrast. It called on the union to oppose CCSS “(and the aligned tests) as a framework for teaching and learning,” and to “advocate for an engaged and socially relevant curriculum that is student-based and supported by research as well as for supports such as those described in the Chicago Teachers Union report, ‘The Schools Chicago’s Students Deserve.’” Supporters of this resolution explained in writing, and at the mikes they were able to get to, that CCSS is one weapon in the school “reformers” arsenal, and needs to be opposed as part of our fight to preserve public education and make it work for our children.

It was in this discussion that the major strategic differences came out most clearly at the convention: should the AFT tie its future to the wagon of the “better” Democratic party politicians and try to “reform” their reforms, or should it align itself independently with the anti-corporate “reform” and social justice movements and call for exposing and opposing all of the deformers’ machinations and formations.

Several delegates captured this forcefully in their remarks, evoking spirited applause from others who had been waiting for this opportunity. CTU leader Michelle Gunderson kicked off the discussion. “”The common-core standards were not created with teaching and learning in mind. They were created with testing in mind.”

Minneapolis teacher Pia Payne-Shannon evoked thunderous applause: “As a teacher in a classroom who’s not trained in special ed. services, and whose kids are not getting services they need to teach them grade-level content, I’m opposed to these standards. … I’m opposed to corporate-backed standards where we were not [consulted]. … They were not written with success in mind. These standards were written with failure in mind.” CTU delegate Carol Caref put it this way: “This debate is not about standards. [Common Core State Standards] were not developed to improve teaching. They were never about education. They are a business plan, not an education plan. Their purpose is to allow Pearson and other education profiteers to sell education materials to a national audience. … It is part and parcel of the top-down corporate reform. It cannot be separated from the accountability measures.” (For more complete reports on this debate, see Stephen Sawchuk’s here, and Kati Gilson’s here.)

To no one’s surprise, the delegates voted in their large majority for the Executive Council’s resolution. All of the resolutions supported by the Progressive Caucus passed; none passed which did not have that endorsement.

Some observers were disappointed that the AFT did not vote against CCSS, or call outright for Arne Duncan’s resignation, or reject future money from Gates, Broad, Walton, or other anti-public-school, anti-union, corporate “reformers,” or align itself with the parents who are organizing opting out of standardized testing. As a veteran of two previous AFT conventions, I left heartened by the obvious impact social justice movements, and the fight for public education in particular, had had on our union. While I had voted differently from other members of my delegation, we left unified in our determination to work together to build support for our students, their communities, and our union as we enter the tough fight that will lead up to a contract battle in Pittsburgh, on top of all of the other fights we share with colleagues across the country.

We have opportunities to take advantage of, and potential pitfalls to avoid and warn against. Electoral politics/Democratic party diversions could derail us. We got hints of that problem via the recorded messages played for delegates from Democratic candidates for office, including Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate, who made no specific promises or calls to action around the issues facing our schools and children. The AFT leadership’s refusal to differentiate itself from these politicians, or from the specifics of their attacks, continued policies which could derail our union.

We have a long way to go in the struggle for the kind of union democracy which can lead to the kind of member-driven union that we desperately need on both the local and national level. The Chicago Teachers Union’s successes give us a sense of how far we could go in developing the rank-and-file leaders we are going to need everywhere who can take on the challenges and run, together, to build a strong, victorious movement. This stands in stark contrast to union functioning in places like New York City, and to the kind of rich discussion, debate, and organizing we could have at national gatherings if we could leave behind the strongarming of the Unity and Progressive Caucuses.

On the other hand, it was easy to leave the convention inspired to go home to build our union and to take on those who would like nothing better than to see the AFT disappear. The voices of educators, parents and students who have taken on the fight against corporate reform rang louder, and were echoed from the podium and the floor, considerably more than at either of the last two conventions. When NEA president-elect Lily Eskelsen García spoke to us of the need for our unions to work together to save public education in the U.S., it was easy to join delegates in the standing ovation which was a promise to try to build this necessary unity. The voices of Rev. Barber, Karen Lewis, spokespeople for the “illegal” children, and passionate educators advocating for our children rang in many ears as we headed home. There will be battles everywhere, including over what kind of union we will have. In its entirety, this convention gave us tools and hope for building the AFT and its locals, even as we keep our eyes open for pitfalls, and keep helping our members and allies learn the big picture of what’s happening with education “reform,” and with our counterposed fight for the schools our children deserve.

Kipp Dawson is a middle-school English and Social Studies teacher in Pittsburgh Public Schools, where she has taught since 1999. She is a member of the Executive Board of the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers, AFT400, and was an elected delegate to the AFT convention in Los Angeles in 2014.

Prior to becoming a teacher, she worked for 13 years in an underground Pennsylvania coal mine, where, from 1979-92 she was an active member of the United Mine Workers of America, and of the women miners organization, the Coal Employment Project. She credits the southern civil rights movement for beginning her life-long commitment to social justice which now drives her work both as a teacher, and as a union and community activist. She and her partner have two adult daughters who recently left the nest in Pittsburgh, PA.

Author

Anthony Cody

Anthony Cody worked in the high poverty schools of Oakland, California, for 24 years, 18 of them as a middle school science teacher. He was one of the organizers of the Save Our Schools March in Washington, DC in 2011 and he is a founding member of The Network for Public Education. A graduate of UC Berkeley and San Jose State University, he now lives in Mendocino County, California.

Comments

  1. Kipp Dawson    

    One of the convention’s presentations which had to be shortened due to time constraints deserves to be seen in its intended fullness. From historian Mark Levy, to Chicago’s Asean Johnson. http://www.teachingforchange.org/mark-levy-speech-at-aft

  2. mklonsky    

    Good piece, Kipp, but why no mention of Mulgrew’s threats and intimidation tactics on the Common Core debate, apparently supported by Randi? Regardless of how you voted, did you feel the threat was too insignificant to mention, or a real threat to any real discussion of the issues or to any potential insurgency within the AFT?

  3. Kipp Dawson    

    Excellent question, Mike. My goal was to try to give a balanced (from my perspective, of course) overview of a convention in which social justice movements had more of an impact than might be seen with a focus on the rowdiness and threats posed by the antics of leaders of the Unity Caucus. It was a challenge to me to figure out how, in this context, to expose the dangers Mulgrew and his crew (backed by Weingarten) pose to our union, and our profession, and our cause. Even to write as I did about the Progressive Caucus was to bring “internal” AFT problems out into the public eye. I thought a great deal about doing that, and decided to go ahead, since the AFT does not provide members with ways to have these discussions and deal with these problems “internally,” which a solidly democratic union would do (as CORE does in Chicago, for example).

    I also thought it better (for this article) to avoid personalizing or localizing the problem by pointing to the caricature-like displays of Mulgrew and his most bumbling colleagues. They debased themselves, and the very real debate that needed to happen, and still needs to happen. Better, I thought, to focus (though only briefly) on the excellent comments from people like Michelle Gunderson and Pia Payne-Shannon.

    That said, I am proud of those who are now exposing Mulgrew’s behavior at the convention, as we can not build the union we need so long as the UFT, our largest local, is led the way the Unity Caucus is led. The Unity Caucus is one of the largest obstacles we face, not only in the AFT, and not only in NYC (where it is a huge obstacle to social justice unionism), but as we work to build the alliances we must have with parents and community in order to save and rebuild public education.

    Thank you for your question. It is important. How we take this on will make a big difference in how well we build the movement we need.

  4. mklonsky    

    Thanks Kipp. Kipp up your great work.
    Mike

  5. mklonsky    

    Sorry, I mean, keep up your great work. LOL

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