Refugee Plight

REFUGEE  PLIGHT

By Stephen Wilson

 

             

'I would rather die at home , than in Russia. I am not recognized as a human being here "

 

             Syrian Refugee

              

'It is very difficult to be a refugee in Russia. I am very tired. Even Russians themselves live here as refugees'.

 

             Congolese Refugee reflecting on Russia.

 

            

´Run Toga, Run ' was the message sent by an anxious well-wisher to Bozobeyidou Batoma, a refugee recently brought by Russian police to an airport in Moscow for

deportation to the African Republic of Togo. The order for his deportation was made by a court in the Bryansk region of Russia. Despite an appeal against this court order, the police of Bryansk took the law into their own hands and decided to take him to a Russian airport. But should Batoma fall into the hands of the Toganese government he almost certainly faces torture or death. Batoma, a former presidential guard, had been arrested, detained and tortured for his opposition to a family dynastic dictatorship which has been in power since 1967. In 2014, Batoma managed to escape from prison and reach Russia where he requested political asylum. Almost 600 people {592} signed a petition in support of his case.

             When Second City Teacher made inquiries about his fate, nobody knew of his whereabouts never mind his fate. Valeria Pavlova, Media officer of the Civic Assistance  Committee told me "We don't know where he is or what has happened to him". It was as if he had just vanished into thin air. He'd disappeared. Batoma's plight is only one case among many where refugees have been deported by authorities that have no empathy or sympathy for refugees. The court rejected Batoma's plea by claiming the threat against him was 'mere speculation'. This is despite overwhelming International evidence pointing to the notorious brutality of the regime. Despite the fact that Article 63 of the Federation of the Russian Constitution declares Russia is obliged to offer political asylum to refugees,

this law is repeatedly violated again and again by the Russian authorities. As Svetlana Gannushkina , chairman of the Civic Assistance Committee puts it :

            

'The institution of asylum in Russia still practically does not function.' She adds, 'In 2018, the already insignificant number of refugees decreased by 20 people, dropping to 572 people. And still only two Syrians have refugee status in the Russian Federation ".

 

             

There is no doubt that the Russian authorities, as well as governments all over world have been hardening there response to refugees. Valeria Pavlova stated; "It's very difficult to get full refugee status. But there is temporary status of a maximum of up to one year. They can prolong this, but they have to go through the same process again by providing all the same documents.

             

It has become more difficult to get this temporary political asylum than 3 or 5 years ago. Now the courts are often refusing to prolong it. In 2018, the number of temporary asylums decreased by 27%. This is 30 less than the previous year. In 2018 only 30 people were recognized in Russia as official refugees. And this is even lower than in 2017."  Asked why so few Syrians have obtained refugee status , Valerie Pavlova explained "The Federal Migration Service refused to give Syrians refugee status , because they say the situation in Syria is stable and there is no war there. And the fact that your government allowed you to leave your country in the first place means you are not being persecuted by them. Another problem is that the Federal Migration Service asks refugees to prove practically everything".

             

Not surprisingly, given the fact some refugees are subjected to threats, police raids, harassment and basic rights to work, education and health, a few refugees come to the committee saying " I'm tired. I want to go home ".

       

Although Civic assistance Committee can provide some help , they don't have the resources to pay for the return tickets. But it is important people manage to pay for the tickets, otherwise they can be put into a detention center for 2 years. An indication of how disillusioned many refugees are is indicated by the fact that many of them think it is a waste of time talking to journalists. Some are afraid that if their names are published the authorities will pay more attention to preventing them from winning their cases. This seems a distinct rather than remote possibility.

 

             

The Civic Assistance Committee does provide refugees with some kind of aid such as free legal aid, advice , educational courses in Russian and Arabic as well as some material assistance. Pavlova stated : " The first person a refugee will be referred to is a specialist in migration who they can ask whether and how they can get refugee status. They want to know whether we have the resources to help them. They can apply for political asylum and we also have lawyers to help them in this matter. If they lose their case we can appeal to other courts for another decision ". The Committee also aids migrants and displaced people.

 

             

Although most activists state that the news is mainly bad rather than good, the Civic Assistance Committee has won some victories. One of those was in securing the right of some children of refugees to enter Russian state schools.

             

On the 15th August 2015, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation stated that lack of registration of parents or/and children 'Cannot be a reason to refuse to admit a child to an educational organisation if there are vacant places in it.'

             

Unfortunately, this decision has often been ignored by Moscow officials and some headmasters. Pavlova stated "If a school refuses to allow a child to study at a school we can take the school to court ". Denying children the right to an education in Russia represents a blatant violation of not only article 43 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation which allows all children the right, but of the law on education. Whether the child lacks registration or has poor Russian is immaterial. According to the Civic Assistance Committee report of 2018, the 'Committee's officials managed to get 26 children to school extra judicially in 2018, one child  to a kindergarten; a Ukrainian girl with a disability, who despite her state of health and refugee status in Russia, was not admitted to preschool, allegedly due to lack of registration at the place of residence in Russia. '

 

             

Valerie Pavlova states that the Committee encourages refugees to tell their narratives to the public in order to increase the awareness of their predicament. For instance, in the recent Civic Assistance Report you learn how Aida Sarkisova of Baku obtained a passport after 18 years of life without documents. You can hear how the refugee Traore on his way to Russian lessons during the Summer 2018 was detained, beaten up by police and had all his money stolen -1800 rubles.

             

The report also tells of the struggle of Mohammad Nasser from Afghanistan and Didier, who fled the Democratic Republic of Congo and came to Russia in 2015 after participating in protests against the government. Asked why he fled to Russia, Didier answered:

            

'I did not know that I was going to Russia. My documents were handled by relatives. One day, my uncle came back home with my passport and Russia visa. I did not even know what kind of country Russia was. I was taken to the airport at night, and on April 21st I flew to Moscow. My aunt's friends met me at at the airport in Moscow, and I lived with them for the first three months, but then I moved to another place '. But it is when Didier is asked what he thinks about Russia and his future plans that his answer is revealing. He states:

            

'I like Russia, but still Congo is my motherland. I want to go back there, graduate university and acquire a profession. I was first given a certificate of consideration for an application for temporary asylum in Russia, then they extended it for several times for 1-3 months. It is very difficult to be a refugee in Russia. I am very tired. Even the Russians themselves live here as refugees. Sometimes, when  someone from Russia tells me about his life, I wonder if he's Russian or African, like me? No, he is Russian, but he lives as a refugee. I'm scared of such stories'.

Save Adult ESL!

Education NOT Deportation - Save Adult Education

Immigrants and other vulnerable persons are facing multiple attacks. Kids in cages. Border walls. Disruption of their home countries, which increases pressure to migrate.

Chicago officials say we are a sanctuary city and welcome immigrants. But City Colleges Chancellor Juan Salgado is undermining immigrant opportunity by cutting adult education classes available.

Adult Education is the biggest program in Illinois that provides opportunities to generations of immigrants and working-class Chicagoans, providing free classes in English as a Second Language (ESL) and GED high school equivalency. With no consultation with students or adult educators, Chancellor Salgado and Associate Vice Chancellor Maureen Fitzpatrick propose drastic cutbacks in ESL and GED classes.  

These cuts not only limit student choice and deny educational opportunity for people trying to improve their lives. It also means teachers suddenly losing 25% of their paid teaching hours - a drastic cut proposed only days after the adult educators union (AFSCME Local 3506) voted to accept a new contract. Teachers who lose hours are also in jeopardy of being ineligible for the CCC health insurance plan and other benefits.

Moreover, AFSCME 3506 has found that these changes do not meet the standards of sustainable educational practice. CCC wants to see an increase in standardized test scores for the Adult Education Program but the reduction in instructional hours will certainly make this goal more difficult for the students to achieve.

After winning election, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said “We are a sanctuary city…we're going to continue to make sure that this is truly a welcoming community for those immigrants”.

Tell City Colleges Chancellor Salgado to honor that spirit.  Tell him to save and improve adult education- a process that must include educators, students, and the community.

Please sign this petition to save Adult Education!

https://actionnetwork.org/letters/education-not-deportation-save-adult-education

Common Core

Common Core Shenanigans 
By Bob Shepard
Dianeravitch.net

Diane Ravitch posted two pieces so far today. One is on Ken Robinson’s book about the egregious consequences of high-stakes standardized testing. The other is about the Stalinesque way in which the “justice” system works in a small town in Georgia.
These two phenomena are related. I hope you will stick with me here, because I’m going to present an argument, and you will have to read fairly closely to follow it.

Ed Deformers based their “data driven accountability” systems on a key idea, which we might call the Fundamental Axiom of Ed Deform:

You get what you measure.

The unelected monarch of Ed Deform in the United States is Bill Gates. Find a shill organization or federal legislation promoting standardized testing, evaluating teachers and schools based on standardized tests, or promoting “common standards” to make testing easier, and the probability is quite high that the Gates Foundation will be its primary funder or, at least, one of them.
Gates is a computer guy. So, he is doubtless familiar with the triple bar symbol (≡) from symbolic logic, which means “if and only if.” What experience has shown is that foundational principle on which Ed Deform is based should be rewritten as Outcome ≡ measurement

In other words, in high-stakes, data-managed systems

You get what you measure AND ONLY WHAT YOU MEASURE.

The last part of this (“and only what you measure”) is REALLY important because IT CHANGES EVERYTHING.

The Common [sic] Core [sic] State [sic] Standards [sic] make lip service to students reading substantive works of literature. But the standards [sic] themselves consist entirely of statements of “skills,” and these AND ONLY THESE are what is measured on the high-stakes standardized tests. Furthermore, they are measured in a particular way: students are given a snippet of random text and are asked a question that requires them to “apply the standard” to the text. So, that’s what you get: you get the devolution of education in ELA into depersonalized learning software and textbooks and worksheets, print or online, that present students with random snippets of text and ask them to apply the skills standards to these. In other words, you get this vast distorting or devolution of ELA pedagogy and curricula.

In real life, when you read Orwell’s 1984 or the Constitution of the United States, you don’t read it primarily to apply a skill from Mr. Coleman’s list to it. You read it because the experience is moving and unforgettable and because you are interested in the important things that Orwell or the Founders had to say and want to join in the ongoing cultural discussion of these. So, the approach forced upon us is utterly unnatural. It leaves all that out. Here’s a little experiment you can try: read Melinda Gates’s new book, The Moment of Lift, and then write a review of it. However, limit your review to discussing how, in the book, Ms. Gates’s choice of particular words affected the tone and mood of her piece and to giving examples of this (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY-RI.8.4). Then see if you care at all to write such a piece or if anyone would care at all to read it.

In short, the Gates/Coleman approach, which I call New Criticism Lite, leads to completely unnatural InstaWriting and InstaThinking and reduces the process of reading and responding to literary and other written works to a Procrustean, highly constrained exercise IN TRIVIALITIES. The whole reason for reading and writing—the commerce in ideas and experiences–is devalued or lost. It’s not going to be on the test.

But there is another modification we need to make in the Fundamental Axiom of Ed Deform before it actually reflects how it plays out in practice. Data-based accountability, Ed Deform style, depends upon the high stakes. You don’t get what you measure and only what you measure in the absence of high stakes accorded that measurement. In other words, you need violence and the threat of violence: give me what I am measuring (and only what I am measuring), or you will be fired, your school will be closed and replaced by a charter or, and your student will not graduate or be advanced to the fourth grade. So, the fundamental tenet of Ed Deform, revised:

You get what you measure and only what you measure if not getting this is accompanied by state violence.

So, what does the Fundamental Axiom of Ed Deform have to do with justice as practiced in that small town in Georgia? Well, the same axiom is at work. Increasingly in the United States, the criminal justice system is data-driven, and what is measured are guilty pleas and convictions, not whether justice was served. And so, under threat of state violence, you get what you measure and only what you measure—more guilty pleas. That’s why the “land of liberty” now has a higher percentage of its citizens under penal supervision (in jail, in prison, or on parole) than does any other country in the world (almost 3 percent of the adult population). Think of the sickest, most repressive regime out there. We in “the land of liberty” imprison people at a rate greater than it does. There are, today, more black men under penal supervision in the US than there were black men who were slaves in 1858. We are becoming one nation, accountable to data, like something out of Orwell or Kafka.

So, what sounds on the surface of it like a good idea (“We need real data-based accountability!”) ends up having these horrific consequences in the lives of actual people. Little Yolanda hates reading because she thinks it’s a guessing game in which you find which of the four tortured sentences in the multiple-choice question about standard CCSS. ELA-LITERACY.RI.666 is “most correct,” and then she grows up to be unable to get a job when she’s 30 because she was caught when she was 18 with her boyfriend’s roach clip in her pocket. She’s held accountable, forever. When she was 18, she went to a party, and she met the wrong guy, and so, of course, her life should be ruined going forward.

“If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.” George Orwell, 1984

• 
  

Book Review

Book Review: None of the Above: The Untold Story of the Atlanta Public Schools Cheating Scandal, Corporate Greed and the Criminalization of Educators
By Shani Robinson & Anna Simonton

I highly recommend reading this engaging and well-researched story that explains the education reform movement and the corporate attack on the public schools by both the Republicans (No Child Left Behind) and the Democrats (Race to the Top).

It brought back painful memories of the Common Core attack and closing our public schools, massive testing of the kids and evaluating the teachers, a stress that continues to this day!

What happened in Atlanta is exactly what happened in Chicago. They too competed for Race to the Top dollars, closed public schools and replaced them with charter schools to make way for gentrifying neighborhoods, created a charter schools commission to override local school board decisions to close charters, and implemented the same TIF (Tax Increment Financing) scam to take money from the public schools and transfer it to rich developments. In Atlanta they called it TAD (Tax Allocation Districts). Are we in Kansas, Dorothy?

It is always interesting to hear the other cities and countries dealing with the education reform fight. We highlight stories by our wonderful correspondent Stephen Wilson about what is happening in Russia that replicates Chicago in this global community. In the case of tax monies going to build wealthy development, in Atlanta they actually sued the city to say you cannot transfer money for education to developers. And the Georgia Supreme Court agreed! However, the rich never stop scheming, and they went around the courts by going to the legislators they bought off and got them to issue a referendum to restore the education dollars to the real estate market. That is how the world really works!

They did to poor black people in Atlanta, what they are doing to poor black people here and everywhere - trying to erase them! They destroy their public housing and public schools, and make way for the rich and white. Atlanta rulers tried to emulate New Orleans, but they didn´t have Hurricane Katrina that helped New Orleans to close half the public schools and replace them with charter schools. Pig faced Chicago Tribune editorial writer Kristine McQueary called for a Hurricane Katrina in Chicago to whip out the Chicago public schools and replace them with charters, which was repeated by Chicago schools chief Arne Duncan who became Barack Obama´s education secretary. Duncan had to apologize; I'm still waiting to hear from McQueary.

This was how CORE was formed to lead the Chicago Teachers Union and fight back against this ugly education reform movement!

The bookś authors take a close look at the Atlanta testing scandal which highlighted the racism as there were teachers all over the state and country who were/are cheating to keep their jobs, but they had to make 35 black educators scapegoats. Duncan quickly dismissed the cheating charges in Washington D.C. home to education reform darling Michelle Rhee and the feds never prosecuted. 

Georgia used the racketeering laws that were used to prosecute the mafia to highlight how horrible these teachers were. It was a conspiracy!

Prosecutions are tied to politics, and this comes out loud and clear in the book. We know the wealthy like Trump and sex predator Jeffrey Epstein paid off the politicians to get special treatment. Unfortunately, the teachers like Shani Robinson, who say they were innocent and it certainly looks that way, still believed in the American system of justice to fight in the courts. The others wisely took plea deals after being threatened with 20 year prison sentences because they hurt the kids on those standardized tests. They then ratted out or falsely accused the others to get convictions, despite the overwhelming evidence, or lack thereof, to show any conspiracy. In Robinson´s case, she thought she was just erasing stray marks from 7-year-olds whose tests didn´t count anyway toward the annual yearly progress they hold schools accountable. Who actually changed those answers to get higher test scores isn´t revealed in the book. But who cares, the whole thing is ridiculous!

Talk about racism alive and well in this country. In Georgia you have the first republican-elected governor in the state since reconstruction and he immediately cuts $1 billion in education funding and wants to restore the confederate flag. Atlanta named Beverly Hall, a black administrator from NY, as superintendent of the Atlanta Public Schools, who tragically died while fighting her case for cheating. Her transgression was crossing a white overlord - Gov. Sonny Perdue (currently serving as the head of agriculture in Trump's cabinet) - by contesting and appealing his investigation into massive cheating on the tests in Atlantaś public schools. But I have no strong tears for Hall, she became a darling of the reformists by firing hundreds of educators back East. They use you up, then throw you out. Look at our very own former CPS CEO Barbara Byrde Bennett who Mayor Emanuel used to close lots of black schools, until she got too greedy and is now in prison.

For some reason persecutor-turned-defender of public education Diane Ravitch loved Hall. At first, until it all turned sour.

What looked like a clear case of framing these poor black teachers turned into a witch hunt. The authors write how the corporate media made the teachers look like witches, rather than present both sides to the story. Any book that takes a serious look at the corporate media is important!

I didn´t like the part where, after they present all this research to show how charter schools were merely a scam concocted by the ruling class to screw the public schools, they then defend some of them. They write at the end that some charter schools are doing a great job, including those that are African-centered. Charters were merely pawns of the ruling class, and no African-centered charter is worth closing the public schools surrounding it.

I highly recommend everyone interested in public education to read what you can´t read in our mainstream media. It is an honest look at the education reform movement that focuses on real estate, with schools a mere fig leaf to disguise their true intentions. Anna Simonton did great research and clearly explains the various real estate scams, including mixed-income housing charades to tell the real story for the people who don´t have million dollar investments riding on destroying public education.

Book Review: Women´s Rights

         
BOOK REVIEW

         
MY OWN STORY (Womenś fight for equal rights)

           
EMMELINE PANKHURST

           
Vintage classics  London 2015  {originally published in Britain by Eveleigh Nash in 1914}

           
"Women would have got the votes earlier if the Suffragettes had not resorted to such extreme tactics which alienated much of their public support," argued my Scottish history teacher. This was in 1976. I have wondered over those words since. And I often thought, how would the Suffragettes themselves have answered this criticism? I later read in a history book by David McDowall, used by students of English in Russia that: "Many politicians who agreed with their aims were shocked by their violent methods and stopped supporting them. However, if they had not been willing to shock the public, the suffragettes might not have succeeded". This was a more ambivalent answer. Then I had a stroke of luck. I came across a republished book by Emmeline Pankhurst 'My Own Story.' The book offers a brilliant insight into why the Suffragettes felt compelled to use what the authorities regarded as 'extreme tactics'. The book is not just a treatise on women's rights, but provides portraits of the British Prime Minister Asquith, Lloyd George and Sir Winston Churchill. They are hardly flattering!

           
Emmeline Pankhurst was one of the main founders of the Women's Social and Political Union set up in 1903. The aim of the movement was to secure votes for women using direct action. Although women over thirty gained the right to vote it was not until 1928 that they attained equal voting rights with men. But even today women still don't have equal pay with men nor even the complete right to divorce should their husbands refuse consent. English divorce laws are still old, antiquated and absurd.

           
What emerges from the pages is a strong, but compassionate and caring woman whose motivation was inspired by the unjust treatment of pregnant woman abandoned by men, and older women forced to work like slaves in the workhouse. In the 19th century women were treated as the property of men, could not get a divorce and even had to give up property to men when they married. Until 1891 men were legally allowed to beat up their wives and lock them in a room. Even the early Celtic Brehon Laws and Adomnan's Laws of the Innocents of 697 A.D. gave women more rights. Under these laws newly married women were entitled to keep their property. They could divorce a man who beat her up. As Peter Ellis states in his work: 'The Celts', 'in both Law systems women were protected from rape and, indeed, from sexual harassment. In Ireland, the laws are clear that physical or even verbal harassment was punishable by a whole series of fines.' This shame not only the English legal system, but also the modern Russian system which in 2017 decriminalized certain forms of domestic violence thus inciting a huge increase in violence against women. Russian law does not even go to the trouble of defining or mentioning domestic violence as a separate offence, yet early Irish Medieval law is explicit about this!

           
The Suffragettes felt driven to use more extreme tactics because more moderate methods such as petitions, articles and new bills were being consistently ignored by the British Parliament. The British government were not only stubborn. They were intransigent and the cabinet was implacably opposed to granting women the vote. The Suffragettes often resorted to destroying golf courses, burning down pillar boxes and even attacking Buckingham Palace. Pankhurst writes articulately as well as convincingly on page 252 that:

'Now our task was to show the government that it was expedient to yield to the women's just demands. In order to do that we had to make England and every department of English life insecure and unsafe. We had to make English law a failure and the courts farce comedy theaters; we had to discredit the Government and Parliament in the eyes of the world; we had to spoil English sports, hurt business, destroy valuable property, demoralize the world of society, shame the churches, upset the whole orderly conduct of life -

           
That is, we had to do as much as this guerrilla warfare as the people of England would tolerate.' Such tactics make the antics of Pussy Riot in Russia look very moderate!  Pankhurst also declared that human rights transcend those of private property. In one passage she thunders at a priest: "You are well aware sir, that property has assumed a value in the eyes of men, and in the eyes of the law, that it ought never to claim. It is placed above all human values. The lives and health and happiness, and even the virtue of women and children-that is to say the race itself- are being ruthlessly sacrificed to the God of property everyday of the world." Her words are as relevant today as a century ago.
            

The suffragettes suffered badly from the often callous response of the authorities. Many who were imprisoned, force fed, and beaten later died. The history books have never generously acknowledged their profound role in sacrificing their health and at time, lives, to empower women.

This struggle has often been described as a war between the sexes. Even Pankhurst uses this very phrase. Yet she mentions that the English Philosopher James Stuart Mill fought for women's rights and so did her husband, who was a lawyer.

           
One intriguing moment in the book is when one of her supporters Mr George Lansbury  puts the Prime Minister Asquith on the spot during a duel of words. The Prime Minister made a speech defending the cruel method of force feeding Suffragette hunger strikers. Pankhurst writes:

           
'Shocked to the depths of his soul by the insult thrown at our women, Mr Lansbury strode up to the ministerial bench and confronted the Prime Minister, saying again:

           
That was a disgraceful thing for you to say, sir. You are beneath contempt, you                    and your colleagues . You call yourselves gentlemen, and you forcibly feed and murder women in this fashion. You ought to be driven out of office. Talk about protesting. It is the most disgraceful thing that ever happened in the history of England. You will go down in history as the men who tortured innocent women.' {pages 227-228}

             
Things got so tough that Asquith had to go around with a special bodyguard. He even had to flee women who were pursuing him. Pankhurst writes : 'Every time he entered or left a railway carriage or  steamer he was confronted by women. Every time he rose to speak he was interrupted by women. Every public appearance was turned into a riot by women '.{page 233} Asquith was terrified of those women.

           
Pankhurst argues eloquently that every right secured by the oppressed has to be fought by massive protests which include direct action. This protest often leads to the full force of the law being imposed on you. What is interesting is how so called rights to petition the Prime Minister could be overruled by the chief of police and how even the will of parliament could be obstructed or overruled by a cabinet of ministers.

This book is a must for those interested in history. They will also find a soulmate        sympathetic to those who advocate direct action. The disturbing thing about this

book is that 1914 sounds so much like 2019!

Refugees

REFUGEES ARE AN ASSET

By Stephen Wilson

           

            In recent days President Putin made a speech ridiculing Germany as

            mad for accepting one million refugees. He also explicitly supported

            Trump's plan to build a wall to keep out migrants from Mexico. Like

            several Russians his view of refugees may well be colored by crude,

            primitive and negative stereotypes of refugees being potential

            terrorists, spongers, criminals or invaders. In short, they are seen as

            a disruptive, destructive and subversive force. They are viewed

            as another 'threat to national security'. They are a 'provocation'. It

            should come as no surprise to discover according to the Russian

            Federal State Statistics Service, only 30 people in Russia were

            recognized as refugees in 2018! As the Civic Assistance Committee

            Report of 2018 states: 'This is even lower than in 2017, when 33

            people were granted such status ....... This is a new

            worst record. The number of issued certificates of temporary asylum

            decreased from 10,500 in 2017 to 6,000 in 2018'. {For a full account

            of the Civic Assistance Committee Report 2018 you can read it in

            digital form on the Internet.}

            But are the Germans so mad? Recent research in Germany has found

            that refugees to Germany have proven to be a priceless asset rather

            than sucking away state funds. A poll by the German Association

            for the Integration of Refugees questioned as many as 500 companies

            where an estimated 5122 refugees work. and found that they boosted

            the performance of the companies. A 2016 survey found as many as

            a third of companies were employing refugees. Over the last two years

            the number of specialists and managers from refugees grew by 22 %.

            The German Minister of the Economy and Energy Peter Altmaier

            stated "From the integration of refugees into business both sides win;

            This is a classical no-lose situation!" Contrast this with the situation

            where Russia is suffering from a demographic disaster where they are

            short of highly skilled labor. Perhaps if they radically accepted many

            refugees they would find one new untapped source of prosperity. And  

            the Russian economy has been stagnating for the past decade.

           

            A second reason why refugees can be viewed as guests from God is

            that they offer the host culture a unique chance to learn first hand about

            a new culture and country. It should make life in certain dull, drab and

            stagnant villages more diverse and hence interesting. We can learn a

            little about their language, customs, and wonderful folk stories. They can

            even teach us how to dance better. So refugees rather than being

            bringers of disintegration can even revitalize a community by injecting a

            new spirit. They are the friends of folklorists and storytellers.

            A third reason to welcome refugees is that they have a profound experience

            of alienation, loneliness and extreme trauma. So some of them might well

            be able to understand and assist local youth who also feel traumatized by

            say being bullied as school. After all, they have spent their lives fleeing from

            some of the biggest bullies of the World.

            But even if refugees did not confer those benefits on people we must accept

            them. This is because the normal and natural thing to do is to help anyone

            in trouble. You don't help people because you want rewards, a reputation

            or for economic benefits such as attaining a supply of cheap labor.

            However, try telling this to some politicians and officials.

            The way some people speak about refugees you might be mislead into

            believing they are one of the  four  horses of the Apocalypse. But anyone

            can become a refugee. Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud and Paulo Freire

            who wrote 'The Pedagogy of Hope ' was also a refugee who wrote this

            work partly to console many refugees who could not return home not to

            fall into despair. There is no doubt that his novel alternative pedagogy

            was partly influenced if not forged from his experience with migrants

            and refugees.His other work 'The Pedagogy of the Oppressed' remains

            a classic work for educators involved in teaching literacy.

            Many people seem to be endowed with a short-sighted and myopic

            view of history forgetting that World history is full of huge migrations

            and flights of people. The Old Testament where Moses led his people

            out of Egypt can be seen as a flight of refugees. And when the refugees

            settled in their new homeland we read "Don't forget you were once an

            alien {refugee} , so you must love the alien".  Let us love the alien.

    

Innocent Teacher Terminated

Social Justice Teacher Terminated Based on Mistake and Placed on DNH
By Jim Vail

Ja-Chi Wang running a marathon. 

The drug war in this country is finally being recognized as a complete failure. 

Our state has now taken measures to minimize this disaster by legalizing marijuana and the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) followed suit by changing the Student Code of Conduct so that students are no longer expelled from school if found with drugs. 

However, what about the teachers who were punished for not properly reprimanding students caught with drugs? 

Take Ja-Chi Wangś case. The mathematics teacher at Social Justice High School sent an email to Second City Teachers to discuss his case that he called ¨a miscarriage of justice.¨

¨In the beginning of last October, one boy was smoking in my class. I smelled the odor and see a boy had a lighter in his hand. I asked him to give it to me, and the teacher aid came in at the same time. He was taken out by the teacher aid. I thought the main office would be in charge of this incident, so I did not make any report to the administration. Few days later, I was removed to Network 7 for an investigation until CPS told me to go back to work this Jan. 3.¨

The CPS investigators concluded after an investigatory conference on Nov. 1, 2018 that he engaged in ¨negligent supervision of students in that students were smoking marijuana or reeked of marijuana in your classroom and you failed to take action." They said he failed to notify the office and security about the incident. He was then issued a Step 2 Performance Improvement Plan. CPS gave him two warnings for the first incident.

When he returned in January, a math specialist from the STEM Dept. observed his class almost once a week until the end of April, but nobody asked him to do any improvement plan, and nobody checked or monitored the plan, he said. 

"The 2^nd  incident happened in my 4^th period class with 4 students who had IEP (Individual Education Plan)," he wrote in an email to Second City Teachers. "The target girl with an IEP used a vape pen to smoke and another girl recorded it and uploaded to Snapchat when I went to rear to support other students (she faced to front). I saw the smoke popped out when I turned around. I went to my desk and sent text to the main office request for help. Nobody came in before the end of that class.

"After the class, I reported to the assistant principal who showed me the video from his cell phone. He said it happened in my class. I asked him whether I need to write a report. He said I did not need to do so. He would handle it. It was Wednesday, March 13.

"On March 18, my 1^st period class co-teacher asked me whether I reported the incident. I told her I reported to the assistant principal already. She said it was not enough – I should report to the school principal in both oral and writing (email is preferred). I headed to the principal’s room when I had a break. Principal told me the assistant and he had reported it on March 15 (Friday). He told me it was okay, but remember to use intercom next time."

But CPS investigated and concluded that Wang failed to report the incident. The CPS law dept. stated: "The school clerk alerted the assistant principal that Wang had sent her a text message requesting assistance of the dean. However, during the incident, Mr. Wang failed to notify security, an administrator or to utilize the school intercom system to notify the main office and to request assistance." 

They then placed him on a Do Not Hire list after this third warning.

"I used text to notify the main office due to the reason of concern about the student's safety was very emotional," he said. "She was involved in group fighting at the entrance of the building after school just a few weeks before my 2nd incident."

Wang was a TAT or Temporary Assigned Teacher who did not have the full rights of a tenured teacher. The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) contract allows for due process for tenured teachers, where the union can ask for arbitration which is more neutral. The arbitration judges are picked equally between CPS and CTU.

Wang can appeal his DNH status, but the union said he should wait a year after he found new employment and explain in the appeal that he corrected his offense. His appeal would be to the same committee who fired him.

In many cases people find it easier to make a plea bargain, where they admit to offenses they perhaps didn't commit just so the prosecutor gets what they want, and the defendant gets off with a lighter sentence.

In one email from his union field rep who recommended that Wang wait a year before appealing his DNH, it stated that they were not familiar with his case. "Mr. Wang, I am unaware of what you would be appealing, since I have not been informed of what happened to you." Interestingly enough, it was the same field rep who represented him during both hearings. 

The CTU spokesperson Chris Geovanis did not respond to Second City Teachers request for comment on this case.

I liken the union in many ways to public defenders, who are overwhelmed at times with too many cases, especially now as CPS instructs its principals to forward any student complaints immediately to the law department. I've heard the problem now is there are not enough CPS lawyers to handle all the cases today and teachers who were suspended from the classroom and supposed to be reporting to the network office are instead waiting at home. In other words, the rubber room for wayward teachers being investigated is full. Build more jails!

In the spirit of the times, CPS should take another look at this case and let Wang back in. As a mathematics teacher from Taiwan, he brings strong experience to the classroom. And rather than be put on a do not hire list, he in fact did the right thing in this case by erring on behalf of the student. 

If CPS is serious about viewing drug users in its classrooms in a more restorative and treatment focused way, that should include the teachers!

###

Chalkbeat & Contract

Is Chalkbeat the official Chicago Teachers Union news source?
By Jim Vail

It appears the Chicago Teachers Union is in a race to get a new contract and the source that is telling us what to expect is linked to education reformers.

The CTU sent out a news blast with the story "With new video and deadline, the Chicago Teachers Union expresses urgency for a deal" written by Catherine Henderson from the education online news source Chalkbeat.

"The Chicago's teachers union is upping pressure on Mayor Lori Lightfoot, issuing a new deal-making deadline and a minute-long video of several educators explaining why they're pushing so hard on contract negotiations."

My own thoughts are the Mayor has proposed a five year contract so we keep quiet for a while, just like the deal Mayor Richard Daley got so he could keep labor peace while trying to snag the Olympics for 2016. But he gave us a 4 percent raise each year of a similar 5-year contract to get it. What is Lightfoot offering other than a 2.5% raise that is even less since she wants to raise health care costs?

I got the following text from the CTU about the new contract negotiations:  "Hey James! This is Leslie and I'm a member of the CTU's Big Bargaining Team. As you may have heard, the Lightfoot administration has offered a five year contract at 2.5% and 3% raises but also a .5% increase in healthcare costs that will eat into the raises. So far, she has rejected all of our proposals on class size reductions, staffing key areas like nurses, social workers, SpEd, ELL, librarians, counselors, etc. CPS has also rejected our suggestions on preparation time, salary and benefits, and demands to create sanctuary and sustainable community schools for our most vulnerable students that would fortify trauma supports, legal aid, protection from ICE/deportation and detention, housing for homeless students, etc. Does this seem right to you?"

When I texted back to speak further with Leslie, she said someone from the union would call me. They never did.

In fact, it appears Chalkbeat is getting more up to date information about the bargaining than the CTU's big bargaining members.

One inside source told me that a Chalkbeat story that detailed the countered demands from the principals (highly unlikely it was coming from the principals, but most likely CPS) was information the big bargaining members did not have access to.

How is this?

Chalkbeat is an excellent education news source, but it is close to CPS and bankrolled by the big business players who have bankrolled the education reform movement that has been hell bent on destroying public schools and the union.

Chalkbeat's funders include the Walton family, Gates Foundation, Zuckerberg and plenty of other big rollers for education reform.

I was a member of the first big bargaining team when CORE won election in 2010. But I decided I no longer needed to be involved with what I saw was more of a publicity stunt. Yes, more people from the CTU were involved in the ongoing negotiations, and this upset CPS, but gave the CTU some leverage. But at the end of the day, it came down to a handshake between the top union officials and the mayor's team. They of course had to sell the contract to their audience. That's why they get paid the big bucks!

The business community who helped fund the mayor's race play a big role in these negotiations. Their media via Chalkbeat will inform us of what's happening. But it's up to the members to ultimately vote on the contract.

Iran & Middle East Forum

Forum on Iran and the Middle East

Sunday, July 7 at 2 p.m. for a Chicago Anti-war Coalition (CAWC) forum on the continuing U.S. government economic attacks and military threats against Iran-- and elsewhere in the Middle East.

The aim is to prepare ourselves to alert others to the economic and military attacks and other crimes the U.S. government is carrying out, particularly against Iran, but also against others throughout the Middle East. The plan is to include discussion on how we can go out broadly among the people to combat government lies and bring out new people to actively oppose government crimes in the Middle East and around the world.

Panelists to include:

Ali Abutalebi, Iranian political activist, publisher, and board member of the Iranian Economic Reviews, who will be speaking about the U.S. government attacks on Iran, their impact, and the responses of the Iranian government and people.

Kathy Kelly, well known activist and witness to U.S. crimes in the Middle East, who will be speaking on the impact of the death and destruction the U.S. government is continuing to bring to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Betty Resnikoff, long-time political activist and member of CAWC, who will be speaking on the U.S. government attacks on Yemen and Syria and the present situation.

A speaker on the U.S. government role in the oppression and massacre of Palestinians, and resistance of Palestinians.

Discussion period: There will be ample time for everyone at the meeting to contribute their views and questions, and share their ideas on how we can mobilize more everyday people to actively oppose U.S. government crimes against Iran and others in the Middle East.

Where: The forum will be held in the Sulzer Library Auditorium. This is at 4455 N. Lincoln, a few blocks from the Western stop on the Brown Line, or the Montrose stop on the Western bus, or the Lincoln stop on the Montrose bus. There is usually free parking on nearby streets. The venue is wheelchair accessible. The program is free.

The Forum has been endorsed so far by: Albany Park, North Park, Mayfair Neighbors for Peace and Justice; ALBA Solidarity; Chicago Committee Against War and Racism (CCAWR); Fox River Valley Citizens for Peace and Justice;  Gay Liberation Network; Justice in Ayotzinapa Committee; March 19^th Antiwar Coalition; Second City Teacher; Veterans for Peace-Chicago; Voices for Creative Nonviolence.                        

Roma pograms

POGROMS BREAK OUT IN BOTH RUSSIA AND ROME

By Stephen Wilson

Moscow, Russia

 

            "You and I both know well that they professionally deal drugs there and

             people just don't want to live near that. That is the problem," declared

             President Putin in October 2018 at a Kremlin Round Table where he

             attempted to confront the problem of Russians driving out Roma from

             their towns and villages. Such a statement might have been expected

             from a local Russian working at the market or a crude Russian nationalist

             but coming from the President of Russia it did nothing to reassure an

             expert from Saint Petersburg,Olga Abramenko. In deed, almost one

             year ugly riots have broken out in several Russian towns this summer

             where as many as 650 Roma have fled their homes in Chemodunovka

             and Lopatka in the Penza region. It is difficult to establish the specific

             cause, or rather pretext, of this pogrom. The local Russians claim that

             the Roma were sexually harassing the local girls, a brawl broke out,

             one Russian was killed and many injured. If you ask some Roma who

             were forced to flee they claim that a group of drunken Russians came

             up to them looking for trouble. What is evident is that people who had  

             no knowledge or involvement in those events were forced to flee their

             homes. Their houses were subsequently burned down as the authorities

             simply stood back and remained aloof.

 

             The plight of the Roma in Russia is no exception. The Far Right Interior

             minister in Italy has promised to drive out the Roma. Italy has also

             witnessed pogroms where the Roma have been forced to flee their

             homes. Unpleasant fascists chanted outside the homes of the Roma

             "They must die of hunger."

             This is a complex problem. Even the name of such people varies.

             In Scotland they were often called Tinkers, Travelers, or Gypsies.

             In practice, those people belong to different tribes or groups each

             with their distinct customs, superstitions and identity. This is why

             it is  an over-simplistic and misleading generalization to label

             them as one group. We need to stop putting people into our own

             pigeon-hole boxes.

             In Russia they can be called Roma or tsiganski {цыганский} In both

             Scotland and Nazi Germany Laws were passed which allowed

             for the automatic death sentence of any Gypsies. During the

             Second World War as many as a million Gypsies perished {over

             50% of their population in Europe during what Gypsies call

            'Porraimos' or 'great devouring'.} A Nazis Chief Heinrich Kranz

            wrote: 'Nomads of another race, who because of their vermin, filth,

            and stench remain foreign to us to this day.'

 

             The prejudice against Roma in Russia, as well as in Western Europe,

             has been increasing. A recent Levada report found that as many as  

             43% stated they would not like to have Roma as neighbors. Roma

             or Gypsies have long been negatively stereotyped as either thieves,

             magicians who can put a curse on you, con-artists and fake fortune

             tellers. They are also derided as work-shy as well as unhygienic. They

             are constantly blamed for leaving garbage behind them. Over the past

             few decades I have personally encountered such prejudice, but also

             befriended many gypsies. Five years ago I heard a middle aged Russian

             woman tell me she had become afraid of the gypsies she had met. "I heard

             all kinds of stories that they were dealing with drugs. Where did they

             make all this money they had? I wondered if they had been selling drugs".

             The woman was afraid after she heard so many rumors and gossip and

             read press reports.

 

             When I and Daniel Ogan were working in a soup kitchen for the homeless

             the charity group involved let a gypsy girl stay and work with them. But

             the director of the Soup kitchen then accused the girl of practicing black

             magic. It must have been some strange kind of magic as this girl preached

             some kind of Christianity to me one day.

 

             One day I was walking around the city center of Moscow and I gave a

             gypsy woman some money. Being grateful, she told me my fortune, pulled

             out one of my hairs saying, "I can punish one of your enemies if you want".

             I politely declined the offer.

             Five years ago Second City Teachers interviewed refugees from Ukraine

             who had settled in Moscow. The family who offered them free accommodation

             were Roma! The Roma told us of how they felt sorry for their plight. If only

             the Russian state would allow the Roma the right to legalize their homes!

 

             I recall that I found myself teaching a Russian Model English. The woman was

             very kind, warm and friendly. She was only 18. She asked my advice: "I have

             some Gypsy roots. Should I keep them secret? " I honestly did not know

             what to answer. I think I replied that "Maybe it would be an advantage as

             some people hold positive stereotypes of gypsies". I'm not so sure it was

             prudent advice. But there are positive stereotypes of gypsies as great dancers,

             singers and as highly skilled blacksmiths. In Scotland, the gypsies are

             now viewed by folklorists as the main guardians of a rich oral storytelling

             tradition which comprised a huge reservoir of thousands of unpublished

             gems. Who can forget great Traveler storytellers such as Duncan Williamson

             and Jess Smith?  And this is only to name the very few!

             In Scotland, I came across a helpful and decent Gypsy student of English

             who took my hand and told my fortune. He informed me, "You will have an

             accident and become ill. But you will recover from it". A few weeks later

             I was run over by a speeding car.

             My personal encounters with Gypsies in Ireland, Scotland, Moldova and

             Russia have been positive. On the whole, I find them a largely helpful and

             caring people. While many people accuse the Gypsies of kidnapping children,

             the experience of Scotland rather suggests they would be the only people  

             prepared to adopt and look after an abandoned baby left on the road by

             a young servant girl who wanted to avoid a scandal  after an unwanted

             pregnancy. In Scotland, Gypsies or Travelers as they are called, are one

             of the oldest indigenous people in Scotland. Davie Donaldson stated that

             their roots go back a 1000 years. In an interview he stated that he once

             spoke to a policeman who told him the crime rate can actually decrease

             when Gypsies settle in a town. To the allegation that Gypsies create a

             mess he states this only happens on rare occasions and this is due to

             the fact that there are not enough bins or access to skips to dispose their

             rubbish. Unfortunately, the tabloid media latches on to this. Donaldson

             stated that his people suffered from great inequality and their life

             expectancy is less than ten years the Scottish average. There exist only

             26 sites for them and they have 500 homes for a staggering 60,000

             people.

             Recent reports by Memorial as well as a Human Rights Watch Report  

             of 2018 indicate that the Roma encounter even worse discrimination and

             injustice than their Scots counterparts. They found that the Roma

             faced extreme poverty, lack of sanitation, lack of access to water and

             electricity. At school their children are taught in separate buildings

             on the grounds that their Russian is not so good. The Roma often face

             forced eviction and the destruction of their homes from the local

             authorities because they don't have the legal permission. Their

             attempts to legalize their homes has always been thwarted by

             huge red tape. A 1956 decree by the Supreme Soviet effectively

             made their life style 'illegal'. They were classified as 'vagrants'

             and 'parasites' who had to be forced into performing 'socially

             useful labor '. The Soviet and post Soviet authorities have never

             been tolerant of people who live a different way of life. For them,

             normal people should go to work listlessly in boring factories

             or offices. They must just stay put!

             The Russian state has ratified agreements to observe International

             Covenant  on economic, social and cultural rights as well as

             an agreement which eliminates all forms of racial discrimination.

             When Russian politicians and officials hear of such allegations

             of widespread discrimination they go into denial. It is all seen as

             'a provocation ' or 'just a few exceptional incidents'. In other words,

             there is no widespread discrimination. All this research is based

             on poorly selected facts or even fabrication. Getting the authorities

             to even acknowledge the problem remains a feat never mind

             passing new measures to provide the Roma with legalized housing as

             well as access to better school education.

             But the Roma are not without  their friends. When some Extreme

             Right Fascists were demonstrating for the eviction of Roma in Italy, a

             young school boy interrupted an interviewed tirade against the

             Roma with the following words:

            "I don't think like you. What you are doing here in Torre Maura is

             exploiting the anger of the people. You turn the anger of the people

             into votes for your own interests. The thing of always going against

             minorities is not okay with me. When you talk about European

             funding to invest in this I think they should be spent on everyone.

             No one should be left behind . Neither the Italians, nor the Roma,

             nor the Africans should be abandoned."