Here are some interesting observations from a member of CORE about the recent Core Convention this past weekend. CORE is currently the party that forms the Chicago Teachers Union leadership.
It appears there are growing concerns about supporting a political party - the democrats - who continually sell out the union interests with its support of charter schools, cutting pensions and supporting the privatization of public education.
Friday night was split between a panel presentation, and open questions (done in the style of an HoD meeting).
Tim Meegan (Roosevelt High School delegate) got up and announced he was running for alderman, and called for running candidates independent of the Democratic Party (perhaps as the Working Families Party -- a title that came up a few times). His speech got a cheer from 30 or 40 of the 95 people in attendance.
A woman who's a city-wide occupational therapist stated that Meegan's comment had gotten a big cheer, and that the people at the head table should take that under consideration.
Sue Garza said something about every working stiff in the city getting worked over, and an election campaign could serve to unite them.
Two ISO speakers (Becca and Marilena) said something indistinct about "having more debate" within CORE.
Core leaders Karen Lewis (CTU president) and Jackson Potter (CTU staff coordinator) were on the defensive in their responses to a lot of the comments. Jackson hid the issue behind an ambiguous statement: something like "We want to make sure the Caucus and the Union aren't working at cross purposes to each other," going on to state that CORE shouldn't endorse candidates independently of those that CTU has democratically chosen to endorse. Which of course sidesteps the issues of how candidates are chosen for endorsement and whether that process is really democratic or not. Karen Lewis said something muted about "not being delusional."
The Political Workshop Saturday was well attended -- packed even, though the leftists in attendance were over represented. Stacey Davis-Gates had a hard time wrangling the crowd.
Steve Edwards, with Socialist Alternative, said something interesting -- that their group was running candidates in municipal elections in Seattle, Minneapolis and Boston; in Seattle, their candidate, running as a socialist, and highlighting a $15/hr minimum wage, was even a plausible contender to win her City Council Seat. Their candidate in Minneapolis was endorsed by the statewide SEIU federation (!!!!); he also was pushing the $15/hr minimum wage.
Most of the people at the meeting were calling for independent candidates. This meeting was also disproportionately white, compared to the conference as a whole. Gates was trying to make it a lesson on step-by-step strategizing and organizing, trying to finesse the point on the political basis for the slate.
Jesse Sharkey (CTU VP) intervened more than once. The last time, he took over/rescued Stacy, asking: "if it's Rauner/Quinn/Left Party, raise your hand if you support Quinn/Left Party". Jesse himself seemed at least pulled. Probably 2-1 voted for the Left Party. Norine Gutenkanst (CTU organizer) voted for Quinn, though other Solidarity militants were for the independent party.
Brandon Johnson said he was thinking of running for mayor.
Jesse said at the end of the meeting that there will be a separate CORE meeting about the election issue in a couple of weeks, at a site to be determined.
It was also stated that CORE needed to do more to build power in individual buildings. They said there are members in 100 schools. But they are at least openly acknowledging this as an issue. And they were discussing structuring the CORE meetings so that there could be more discussion. No concrete proposals yet.
I thought it was interesting that the panelists felt themselves to be on the defensive. I also think this is a strong indication that there would be a number of people friendly to a notion of running a Working Class slate, or whatever kind of slate independent of the Democrats at HoD.
No comments:
Post a Comment