Diane Ravitch Praises Randi Weingarten on Her Blog and All Hell Breaks Loose

[HiPointDem]

12. he said he had asked his reps and couldn't get a clear answer. if so, the problem is with his reps,

not him.

The same caucus has won aft elections for about 50 years. It's like the democrats winning for 50 years. and the reason is the rigged election structure.

With the UFT in NYC being the tail that wags the AFT dog in Washington, in practice that means that only loyalty oath-signing members of Unity Caucus become delegates. It is no accident that, with the exception of a brief caretaker administration after the death of Sandy Feldman, every AFT leader has sprung from Unity Caucus leadership in NYC.

Under Albert Shanker, that meant support for the Vietnam War until the bitter end, and support for the coup that killed Salvador Allende in Chile and ushered in the neoliberal era in 1973. Under Randi Weingarten, that means nominally (though empty and meaningless) support for more liberal politics, but also co-managing teachers as their profession is de-professionalized and de-skilled, and as public education is re-configured into a vehicle for corporate profits and explicit social engineering.

This is the same Unity Caucus leadership that was elected in April with 52% of the votes coming from retirees, and only 18% from working teachers. This is the same Unity Caucus leadership that the year before passed an amendment to the by-laws giving increased weight to the retiree vote.

And this is the same Unity Caucus leadership that boasts about its “collaboration” with Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Michael Bloomberg, John King, Andrew Cuomo, and others members of the Overclass and their political brokers.