NYS Teachers Convention: Rank and File Ready to Fight — ‘Leadership’ Not

NEW YORK CITY, April 7 — The hall was packed with 2,500 New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) delegates, many from districts plagued by budget cuts and layoffs. Usually soft-spoken union President Ianuzzi opened the assembly by leading chants of, “This is what democracy looks like!” and “We are all Wisconsin!” But Ianuzzi & Co. have no plans to lead workers in fighting back.

He proudly showed pictures of himself speaking in Wisconsin but New York labor leaders did not organize the rank and file to support that struggle. When he reported that 180,000 NYSUT workers (one-third of the membership) from Buffalo to NYC were working under long-expired contracts, someone yelled, “Well, what are we going to do about it?”

The main speakers at the convention and at a Saturday outdoor rally spoke about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer but made no criticism whatsoever of billionaire Mayor Bloomberg or millionaire Governor Cuomo! 

A weekend highpoint was a workshop, “From Wisconsin to New York — Building the Struggle,” organized by the American Federation of Teachers Peace and Justice Caucus. The main speaker, a teaching assistant from Madison, Wisconsin, gave a detailed report about the attacks Wisconsin public workers faced and how they organized the occupation of the Capitol.

Two NYC school workers reported how parents, teachers and students were fighting the privatization of public schools, noting its racist nature, given that the students were overwhelmingly black and Latino and suffering disproportionately from these attacks.

The next panelist made a systemic analysis of the crisis of capitalism. She explained how both the Democratic and Republican parties were enemies of working people and warned that organized national campaigns attacking unions could pave the way for fascism.

At the Saturday street rally delegates were joined by thousands of other workers, NYSUT rank-and-filers and members of other unions as well. The crowd was militant and ready to fight but clearly the”leadership” is not going to lead a fight against capitalism — they’re part of that system. While Wisconsin Governor Walker aims to eliminate collective bargaining and unions entirely, governors like Cuomo here want to retain the unions as long as they’re led by phonies who hold workers back.

The only speech at the rally which had any analysis and substance was from a leader of CUNY’s Professional Staff Congress who described the harsh effects of the cuts and explained their racist and sexist nature. CUNY’s student body is pre-dominantly black, Latino, and Asian and they are taking the brunt of these cuts while most of the budget is paying for wars, not workers’ needs.

PL members distributed CHALLENGE at the Peace and Justice forum and at the outdoor rally. We could have had mass distribution inside the convention and issued a special convention leaflet similar to efforts at national conventions. The workers are open to communist ideas and we’ll do a better job next time.