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David Ginsberg's avatar

Responding to both Keith and Craig: The candidate pool is a who's who of worst case scenarios from top to bottom for various reasons.

I thought Matt Brown brought up a good point when he said this felt rushed and that we should have time, as representatives of our fellow members, to talk to them and get their input before calling for a vote.

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Frank Marino's avatar

I know a few CLs that emailed / texted their members an anonymous google survey. Got good response. It’s not a lot of time, but it could be done.

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David Ginsberg's avatar

I'm glad there were some who were able to get feedback from their members. Still, it feels like the majority likely did not. A reconvening in August would have been optimal with appropriate time allocated to informing members before revisiting the endorsement process.

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Nick Bacon's avatar

It's good that some were able to do that, but yes, that was likely uncommon. Still, August has disadvantages over July too. The later the UFT makes an endorsement, the later COPE can actually effect the will of the UFT in helping advance the candidacy of the person endorsed.

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Linda Acevedo's avatar

Also in smaller schools most CL’s and delegates already know which way the majority of their school leans. I knew my members would be against it so I voted against it.

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Craig Persiani's avatar

This is horrible. But it doesn’t surprise me that our union will turn so radical left.

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Frank Marino's avatar

Gasp! A union has leftist politics? You don’t say!

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Craig Persiani's avatar

Don’t be foolish. This is radical far left.

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Frank Marino's avatar

It’s not even that far left. I wish !

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Craig Persiani's avatar

Socialism/Communism is really far left and the fact that you wish it to go even further is really sad

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Leo Casey's avatar

Saying the Socialism and the Communism are the same thing is saying that the British Labor Party, the German Social Democrats, the Canadian New Democrats, the various Scandinavian parties are the same as the Bolsheviks. It is the equivalent of equating a fascist and conservative political party.

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Craig Persiani's avatar

And socialism leads to communism. Don’t play your semantics with me, but if you wanna talk, come to my civics class and sit in Why don’t you do yourself a favor and hire Bahc the good people that lost their jobs while you sat on your ass and took money from big Pharma. Don’t play with me, Leo

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Craig Persiani's avatar

Hey Leo, you don’t know fascism if it smacked you in the face. When good people lost their jobs five years ago under the fascist vaccine mandate you sat there and let it happen. By the way, I’m on vaccinated. No, thanks to you. And I didn’t wear a mask because I don’t put up with fascism you do. My body, my choice. But yet you’ll be out there protesting for a woman’s right to kill their baby. Do me a favor and stay quiet.

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Keith Firestone's avatar

If a mayoral candidate supported the boycott, divestment and sanction against a group, let’s say Liberia, which was settled by African Americans, would the UFT endorse that candidate?

Mamdani believes in the boycott, divestment, and sanction against Israel: that is not misinformation,

that is not disinformation: that is a fact which he does not dispute or deny.

The UFT just endorsed that candidate. Own it.

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Keith Firestone's avatar

Nick,

No. 1 when Jordan annexed the West Bank it was not considered an “occupation” by the international community: why?

No 2. There were at most 80,000 Gazans in 1948 there are now over 2.1 million . By definition that is not genocide.

No. 3 1,200 innocent people including many non-Jews were murdered by Hamas which would be the equivalent of 42,000 people in the US: How do you think the US would have responded?

The Jewish people understand genocide: two out of three of Europe’s Jews were murdered. The Grand Mufti, the leader of the Palestinian pledged to shed the blood of every Jew.

The Jewish people have been the victim of genocide (the definition which applies)and the State of Israel is the last refuge.

BDS is economic warfare against the one Jewish state in the world and the UFT just endorsed a candidate who calls for its elimination.

Own it.

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Nick Klinovsky's avatar

The BDS movement is not targeting a group, but a nations state carrying out an occupation and genocide. Apples and oranges.

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Nick Bacon's avatar

It’s important to note that the UFT did not endorse Mamdani because of his views on BDS, but in spite of them. BDS and related resolutions have consistently failed to pass at the Delegate Assembly, and that’s not incidental. The endorsement was a difficult one for many. While Mamdani is the only remaining candidate who clearly supports public education and labor, there is deep apprehension among members about several of his positions—BDS included.

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Craig Persiani's avatar

Easy to be communist in a free country but try being free in a communist country

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