Yesterday I reposted the Jersey Jazzman.
He expressed concerns about questioning the motivation of our teacher union leadership, even as we disagree with their actions.
I hear this a lot from my union colleagues. Even as they agree with my criticisms of leadership, they fear that these disagreements will or have turned personal.
Of course, I have never suggested that state leaders of the IEA or national leaders of the NEA were personally corrupt.
I have always tried to frame my disagreements as disagreements in policy and outlook. Although I am sure that over time I have not done that as well as I should have. I’m positive that I have made mistakes.
However.
It appears there is a movement that is slowly developing within the NEA and the AFT that has a vision for a new kind of union.
You can find that vision in the CORE caucus that took leadership of the Chicago Teachers Union.
It can be found in the forces that elected Bob Peterson to the presidency of the NEA local in Milwaukee.
In the MORE caucus in New York.
Perhaps in the newly elected leadership in DC.
The Jazzman warned his readers that they should never forget who the enemy is.
True enough. But how should we fight that enemy?
By having leadership that stands for and actively defends the living and working conditions of its members, both active and retired.
By having leadership that stands for and actively defends what we believe is best for our students and the teaching profession.
By having leadership that stands for and actively defends public education against the attacks by the corporate reformers and their representatives in both the Republican and Democratic Party.
By having leadership that stands for and actively works to build alliances with parents and community organizations in the fight for social justice and equality.
And by having union leadership that encourages debate, full democracy and establishes organizational means that ensures it.
Whether Dennis Van Roekel went off of his talking points at the Retired Conference or not is not really the point.
He said it. I reported what I and others heard.
As the Jazzman said, CTU President Karen Lewis may not “waste her ammo on internal squabbles.” But she and the CORE caucus created a movement that ousted do-nothing, never-say-no leadership. They built a caucus that could unite the majority in the CTU. And then they were returned to office after a bruising battle with our union-busting, privatizing Mayor with the overwhelming support of the people of Chicago.
Fred Klonsky 
Hi Fred,
I was unclear about something in my post, and I hope you’ll let me clarify it here:
I think you were more than fair in all of your posts about DVR and the NEA RA. And I’ve never thought you attacked the leadership personally. You did us all a service by giving us your candid views about what happened in Atlanta.
It’s clear I’ve struck a nerve, but that’s fine. We need to have this conversation.
I support Karen and CORE; I think she and they are the new template for teachers unions going forward. I admire MORE and would have voted for them had I taught in NYC. I support NEW Caucus; no one did more to point out the flaws in the Newark contract than me (although I didn’t think it was right for me to insist NTU members vote down the contract when they had skin in the game and I didn’t; I thought my proper role was to lay out issues that were not being addressed and let members decide for themselves).
But here’s the thing: I live in a state where our loudmouth governor runs around and tells everyone he can whenever he can that the union does not have the best interests of teachers at heart. He has used the line “You teachers deserve a better union!” probably a hundred times. He talks about how greedy union leaders are incessantly.
In my post, I pointed out that in Newark (which in part of AFT and not NJEA like most of the rest of the state), the New Caucus just gained a majority of seats on the NTU’s executive council. Branden Rippey had some harsh words about Joe Del Grosso’s leadership. However – and I can’t say this for sure because I obviously never heard everything Branden ever said – I don’t think Rippey ever accused Del Grosso of PERSONAL corruption arising from being the NTU leader.
Because, if he did, he knows he’d be subjected to the same charges. He knows Chris Christie could turn around and use those Tea Party applause lines on him, and he’d really have no response, because he said the same things about his predecessor.
So, yes to everything you say here. Yes to a proactive leadership that is not afraid to fight. Yes to hard-fought union leadership elections. Yes to stoping the collaborations with Gates and Broad and Christie and whomever.
But I see a big difference between reforming our unions and poisoning them.
Again: thanks for all you do, Fred, and thanks for having this discussion.