Sarah Chambers wears a sign during a rally in front of the Jenner Academy of the Arts, 1119 N. Cleveland Ave., to protest tax increment financing (TIF) funds being used for corporate interests instead of public education
On Tuesday join us in blogging about why a teacher like you supports unions.
Forget about protecting civilians. This is a war about regime change. Again. We see French, Italian and American involvement. Where are the Arab and African countries? This is a big power war for big power interests.
If when you’re old, you’d rather die,
And if, when sick, you’d gladly try
To live on streets, then let this pass.
If not, then rise, and kick some ass!
Arjun
2011 March 19th, Fri.
Brooklyn
Low Pay Piecework
The fifth-grade teacher and her followers—
Five classes, twenty-eight in each, all hers:
One-hundred-and-forty different characters.
Robert Pinsky’s Twitter poem
I got an inspiring email from Randi Weingarten today, urging me sign a pledge of solidarity with her and other unions around the country:
…Now our challenge is to take this moment and turn it into a movement. And the way to do this is by re-energizing America’s labor movement, which is the only institution fighting for working people at the ballot box and the bargaining table.
The AFT has joined with other labor unions and allies to stand together and participate in the “We Are One” Week of Action starting April 4.
Will you take the pledge to stand with us?
My response:
Dear Randi,
I will be glad to pledge to stand together with you when you pledge to stop cutting back room deals with the oligarchs to preserve your useless “place at the table,” a practice that has weakened the teaching profession to the point where we are now trying to defend against the final destruction of the teacher-student relationship by test-based teacher evaluation plans that you agreed to.
Your days as president of workers’ organization that demand leadership, rather than sucking up to Bill Gates, are numbered. But until you are voted out, go ahead and make your public pledge to stand with workers rather than Bill Gates, and I will right behind you with my pen.
Disgusted,
Jim Horn
Fred Klonsky 