“Hey, hey, ho, ho. Rahm Emanuel’s got to go!”
One of the things I am most proud of as a blogger was how a bunch of us dragged that little weasel, Jonah Edelman and his Stand for Children organization, out from the shadows a year ago.
They’re still around, of course. They are still doing their weasel work.
But Edelman came into town like a snake in the grass, handing out checks to legislators and kissing Madigan’s butt. And with the cooperation of IEA Executive Director Audrey Soglin and then-IEA President Ken Swanson, worked to get Senate Bill 7 passed through the legislature.
The little snot then went flying off to Aspen and gave a lecture on how to screw unions with the cooperation of the union leaders themselves. The lecture was taped and with the help of a few other education bloggers and techies, we got the tape online before Aspen had a chance to scrub it from their web site.
It caused Edelman and the IEA leadership great embarrassment. Which they deserved. Edelman ended up writing an apology and sending it to this blog.
What he apologized for was his big mouth. Not for what he did to teachers.
One of the things that Edelman described in the video was how the IEA leaders threw the CTU under the wheels of a Metra train. Senate Bill 7 contained a special clause just for the CTU: Any strike authorization vote would need 75% of the members. Not just 75% of those voting. But 75% of all the members.
This was part of the anti-union agenda of Edelman and Stand for Children. Edelman wanted a no-strike clause. But he was satisfied, figuring that 75% was too high a hurdle for the CTU to jump over.
What he didn’t figure on was Rahm Emanuel.
Rahm has so angered the teachers in this city that unofficial preparatory straw polls in the city’s schools have been running 90% in favor of a strike.
In fact, Rahm is so despised by the city’s educators that the most popular chant at last week’s massive demonstration of 5,000 in the Loop was, “Hey, hey, ho, ho. Rahm Emanuel’s got to go!”
Sweet revenge.
Fred Klonsky 
Wow, great article, it got me all fired up. I found the video you were talking about and posted it on my blog along with your article.
http://getinvolvedactnow.blogspot.com/2012/06/what-heck-time-to-get-real-before-you.html
Great, reporting and it all makes sense now how things played out these past few weeks. This is why lately we are always on the defensive and dodging bullets. And it looks like we are in for another round soon.
Thanks,
Roxanne
This is tangential but may be satisfying too:
Your readers may not know that Stand for Children got its start as a true grassroots organization a few years ago in Portland, OR, advocating for various children’s causes. It didn’t start out focusing specifically on education advocacy, and it definitely didn’t start out supporting the positions of billionaires and privatizers and attacking teachers, unions, public schools and the children in public schools.
i’m not sure if it’s unique, but it’s startling that Stand for Children became thoroughly corrupted by money from the forces of so-called education “reform,” privatization and union-busting, and entirely shifted its positions and focus. Now it’s all about privatization, other so-called education “reform” fads, and union-busting.
Apparently some of the existing members noted this all along, as the bathwater was heated up 1 degree at a time, and protested; some were taken by surprise once the corruption had become clear.
Fast forward to this weekend — public education supporters in Portland are planning a public demonstration against the corrupted Stand for Children. Portland activists are reporting that Stand for Children brass have contacted them begging them to meet instead and to cancel the protest. The response is: No, we protest now; contact us if you want to meet later.
Ever since you posted this last year, Fred, I have been watching the emails I receive from Marian Wright Edelman. I believe she is serving much the same purpose as her son in destroying public education. Here is her latest conference that includes some of the biggest privatizers in education, at least as far as I understand it. http://www.childrensdefense.org/national-conference/index.html Prof. Mark Naison talks about the role some civil rights groups are playing in helping the billionaires destroy our education system. In Los Angeles several groups joined a lawsuit to target our union and teachers as the reason students are failing. This is becoming an epidemic of monumental proportions.
Teachers in Chicago can be proud.
Stupid ?: Just as I thought it strange last year when the Chicago papers had a rather strange statement that had something to do w/ IL law signed by Madigan, Cross & Ty Fahner (at the time I thought, “TY FAHNER? What is HIS name doing on here? He’s not an elected politician!), I have wondered the same as to the presence of Jonah Edelman & the passage of SB 7. Is he from Illinois? Is he an elected union official? Just what the heck was he doing at the table in the first place?!
Jonah Edelman–STAY OUT OF ILLINOIS!!!!!