NEA endorses Obama
(July 4, 2011) I just got a call from a person who is attending the National Education Association convention as an observer. She's an old friend who has been to nearly as many NEA representative assemblies as I have.
National Education Association members were strongly urged to contact lawmakers during their meeting in Chicago — but does the NEA understand how politics really works? NEA members' overwhelming endorsement of President Obama seems strange, after he hired Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education and continues to promote Arne's anti-union Race-to-the-Top plan to race for more reliance on standardized tests within even less funding than G. W. Bush's No Child Left Behind. Substance photo by David R. Stone NEA's delegates, local leaders from all over the USA, voted 5,414 to 2,002 to endorse the demagogue, Obama.
That's a far wider margin than most people were predicting and, if say 95% of the delegates actually voted, as they usually do, it means that NEA has nearly 1500 less delegates at the convention than last year, and last year was done from the usual 10,000 or so. Even if NEA lost 30,000 members the past year, as my friend says, that couldn't account for the notable drop in delegates.
In any case, keep in mind that on February 14th of this year, bosses from the NEA, AFL-CIO, Change to Win, and some national community groups held an extraordinary meeting at NEA's headquarters.
The meeting grew out of labor tops' worries about the nascent risings of students (especially in California and New York), school workers, and others--some drawing inspiration from accelerator events in the Middle East.
A class conscious movement dedicated to direct action in work places and communities would make the labor bosses irrelevant as their key project is to sell labor peace in exchange for dues income (the sole remaining definition of "collective bargaining" is, now, "send us the money.).
The concerned union overseers formulated a plan to surround, divert, and demolish any movement that might truly challenge US capital, their feed trough.
The scheme involved guaranteeing that mention of imperialist wars, capitalism, and direct action in workplaces or at schools was off the agenda, as was sharp criticism of Obama. The solution the united Quislings resolved was more than predictable: herd people into voting booths, re-elect Obama and Democrats. They re-dedicated themselves to fund-raising for the Democratic Party. Indeed, NEA alone plans to spend about $60 million backing Obama's campaign. The NEA delegates voted overwhelmingly for a measure to increase ballot contributions.
In addition, the RA also passed a convoluted motion that appears to allow in standardized testing for teacher evaluations.
At the NEA RA, my friend reports, Joe Biden was invited to play the good cop to bad cop Arne Duncan who was hugged in the platform at NEA RA's in the past but went uninvited this year. Both Biden and NEA's top boss, Dennis Van Roekel ($465,000 a year), made speeches citing their mothers' profound concern for education---union speech making has always been tub-thumping but this is a low even for NEA.
Obviously, the February scheme is working. Micro-resistance which ignores imperialism, capitalist exploitation, and urges a trip to the ballot box is going to fail. Who is fooling who when people march under their own enemies banners?
The wars, the financial bailouts, and the RaTT (nationalizing curricula, more high stakes exams, militarism) are all fully bi-partisan affairs. The bailouts, $12.9 trillion to the banksters, an extra legal measure that cannot be reversed (unlike, say, the Patriot Act), cut the legs of America's childrens' futures and finalized what is in fact a corporate state in the US. In that state, the government serves as an executive committee and armed weapon of the rich.
There, they work out their real differences (finance vs industrial capital for example), then turn on the majority of people with a vengeance. Choosing which one of them will oppress us best, out of a field of increasingly terrible choices, makes no sense, nor does electoral work, now tantamount to urging people to church.
As Vice President Joe Biden was arriving for the NEA RA, members of one opposition group, the Progressive Labor Communist Party, unfurled a message from the fourth floor balcony above the area where delegates were forced to wait in blocks-long lines because of the enhanced security. Substance photo by Carol Caref.As Labor Educator Harry Kelber recently pointed out, no AFL-CIO union has mentioned the many wars, where children of the poor fight other children of the poor on behalf of the rich in their homelands, in their press in the last five years. How about NEA?
The core issue of our time is the reality of endless war (6 for the US by my count now, and losing all), booming color-coded inequality, met by the potential of mass class conscious active resistance.
What defeats men with guns? Ideas--that get those guns turned around, in mass, at the minority of people who live off others.
Good luck to our side.
By: John Whitfield
Is this true John?
John, a reliable source has stated that it is not true, in regards to the criminal silence in regards to the wars(now 3?) that is with respet to the following. Did you have this checked out? Recalling that CORE is a caucus of the union, as we all know.
...no AFL-CIO union has mentioned the many wars, where children of the poor fight other children of the poor on behalf of the rich in their homelands, in their press in the last five years.
Hasn't CORE and others last summer in Seattle, been putting these questions in front of the AFT, and in the Bay Area and across the USA haven't local and state groups been raising the question of the "wars."
Needless to say, the revolutionary IWW has come out against "all wars", but as you know, they are not AFL-CIO.
Here is something that might be helpful, should you need some instrinsic motivation to get more involved in the movement. Mitch is a veteran teacher from Minnesota.
I am a stone
Written by: Mitch Walking Elk.
"There is such a thing as perpetuating a crime. In this case a crime against Humanity. A crime against the Earth and all living things placed upon this earth. A crime against those who are indigenous. Caretakers of the Earth. You seek to remove yourself from blame as you enjoy the spoils of war. While we stand on the other side - watching you. But I seek not only to blame you, but to charge you, to inform you and make you aware that this cannot and will not continue except at the assurance of your own demise.
You were and are the aggressor nation, and we are the defenders. But in your oppression, unbeknownst to you, you have provided me with all of the tools necessary with which I can be a competent defender. I will not allow myself or you to make me a victim any longer.
Resistance is alive and well. Resistance is a must. Resistance is a need. Resistance is a way of life. Resistance is a survival skill.
I cannot and will not support you in your oppression of other people in other countries who are similar to myself. And I cannot and will not participate in your flag waving or flag raising ceremonies, regardless of how many people you dupe into joining you, while you prey and play upon their emotions. Let there be no mistake, I know exactly who you are and all that you stand for.
You are now and always will be my enemy. And I am and will always will be, an obstacle in your path. I am a stone."