The head of the powerful city teachers union is trying to quell talk by some in the labor-backed Working Families Party about backing Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in the presidential primary, insiders say.
United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew has been contacting heads of the building trade unions who help make up the Working Families Party, a source said. He’s “complaining and bitching” about the party and the discussions on whether to endorse Sanders, the self-proclaimed socialist US senator from Vermont, the source said.
Mulgrew, who declined comment through a spokeswoman, is also a vice president of the American Federation of Teachers, which already has endorsed Clinton.
While the state Working Families Party does not have a presidential primary and does not have to set its ballot until September of 2016, its leaders have not ruled out publicly backing Sanders during the primary season to send a message to Clinton that she needs to go farther to the left.
Considering the damage Governor Cuomo has done to teachers and UFT rank and file, the end of the Lovett column is quite interesting:
The WFP, which was already feuding with Gov. Cuomo, isn’t doing its doing itself any favors alienating a major party player like Mulgrew and the potential Democratic nominee in Clinton, one source said.
In the analysis of this "source," we have Working Families Party and Sanders on one side of the political equation and Mulgrew, Clinton and Cuomo on the other.
That would seem odd, given how Cuomo has declared he wants to "break" teachers and public schools, until you remember that Mulgrew was said to have threatened WFP with financial dissolution if the party endorsed challenger Zephyr Teachout over Cuomo in 2014.
Just another sign that the "fight" between Cuomo and the UFT/AFT/Mulgrew/Weingarten crew is as "real" as something from professional wrestling.
That said, I don't particularly care whether WFP endorses Sanders or not.
Quite frankly, I don't "feel the Bern" after Sanders voted to continue the Endless Testing regime in NCLB Jr.
From my vantage point, Sanders is as full of shit as every other Democratic politician when it comes to the issue that matters most to me - education.
I will be voting Green come 2016 because I cannot and will not support a candidate who supports Endless Testing as a "civil right."
Weingarten showed incredible hubris by choosing a candidate 16 months early with little to no input from teachers. Whether or not you like Clinton it was just another example of most teachers being excluded from any kind of input. I like Bernie, but agree with you- I don't feel the Bern. What's most surprising is how many teachers I know who plan on voting for Trump. Everyone is completely fed up.
ReplyDeleteyes yes lets vote for trump people...lets take a chance...can things be any worse.......trump will eliminate politically correct common core and he will not hurt us here in nyc as he is a true new yorker.....trump has exposed these idiot politicians who are destroying our livlihoods.....people like bloomberg, klein, cuomo and obama are cheap no nothing politicians who are using us educators as pawns in their political egos.....
ReplyDeleteAfter the date rape WFP suffered from their "friends" over endorsing Cuomo, a Sanders endorsement would be a small step towards regaining the respect of teachers, voters and the rest of New York who see them as cowardly sell outs. It's not like this party has anything to lose....
ReplyDeleteUs organized teachers should get real. Presidential politics is not, in the near or middle future, going to be a venue of any relief for us. While I will support Bernie because I believe that, between him and Clinton II, he will at the very least create a somewhat anti-corporate environment that will make privatizers squirm a bit, it should not be on our horizon as a focus at all.
ReplyDeleteWe are missing the forest for the trees here. There is a brand of electoral politics that can bring us fairly swift, clear, and agenda-setting change where our voices can be heard and in fact magnified: voting out our union leadership at the state level. I mean this. We do have the power to vote in competent leadership. We do have the power to change our leadership mid-stream via intense, focused, democratic action. Lets start with a no-confidence vote. Lets just do it. I thought the Apple commercial told me that this new technology we have literally attached to us on a daily basis could bring connections and movements together with unheard of ease and swiftness! I thought Apple told me that we could all be the next Ghandi or Picasso! Lets use our amazing tools to get our Fricking AWFUL UNION LEADERSHIP OUT!
Only when we truly realize that there are NO SAVIORS for us....NONE....no politician, no president, no governor, no federal attorney, no outside movement, no court decision...that we will finally, at long last, realize that we can only save ourselves through taking back our political voice (our unions).
Really, there is no other option, no other path. No academic study, no election, no indictment will do it for us. Opt Out wont do the full job. Its remarkably clear what the path out is, and its almost like we are willing to try everything and waste countless months and years, and careers, when the path out is remarkably clear and simple. (That whole Churchill quote here.) Take back our unions....and with them simply say "NO MORE" and then put our collective asses in front of the train. Its the only thing thats ever worked. Only thing that every had the possibility of working....I mean, you know, we may lose even then....but man, wouldn't it be cool to do this fight properly! Give us all a little meaning in our lives thats been drained through corporatized teaching, spitting out babies, driving minivans, and worrying about APPRs and shit.
Who knows, maybe we don't have what it takes to even take back our unions...in which case, well, the privatizers have already won. And decisively.
Let's not forget Mulgrew was marching with Cuomo during the 2014 Labor Day Parade as well, amongst people holding sugbs that read, "Labor for Cuomo"
ReplyDeletechanged my party & voting for trump!
ReplyDelete