When vile poverty pimp Ben Austin and his fellow privatizers of Parent Revolution (pRev) issued a challenge to UTLA to meet with them after the crimes pRev committed at Weigand ES, only one teacher/UTLA officer showed up to stand alongside all the displaced Weigand teachers. That person was Ingrid Carol Villeda. I know, I was there. She faced pRev fearlessly and spoke truth to their corporate power. That's the kind of courage and activism we need defending our communities from reactionary privatization groups like pRev! Please vote for her and her entire slate for South Area UTLA BOD.
Central Area UTLA
Two of the Los Angeles social-justice educators and activists that I admire most because of their long record of principled struggle: Kelly Flores and José Lara are running on a slate with their colleagues Zulma Tobar and Ngwoke for the UTLA Central Area. José and Kelly are undisputed champions of students. Their work for immigrant rights, ethnic studies, adult education, SRLDP, early education, indigenous rights, bilingual education, anti-privatization, and so many more social justice venues is peerless. It was their leadership that spawned OccupyLAUSD, which forced Deasy and the district to answer for their wrongheaded budget priorities and threats to cut programs that our communities depend on. Please vote for Lara as Central Area Chair, and the rest of the slate for BOD.
North Area UTLA
The wildly popular Repairs Not IPads campaign has single-handedly exposed the corporate spending priorities John Deasy, the nonprofit industrial complex (NPIC), and edreform plutocracy to a wider public. Our schools are without libraries, are unsafe, unsanitary from BIC, and unready for earthquakes, but Deasy would rather spend our bond money to pad Pearson plc, and Apple, Inc.'s bottom lines. The Repairs Not iPads page, which now has over 4,100 likes, is in the newspapers, on the television, and in the public consciousness. The page was started by UTLA teachers who, tired of internal finger pointing, took decisive, principled action. Imagine how much good it would do if the innovative teachers behind Repairs Not iPads were running for leadership positions in the union? Guess what? One of them is—Matthew Kogan is running for North Area Chair. Vote for him and his experienced slate to see more of this effective activism.
Billionaire Boys Club once again tries to infiltrate UTLA!
I haven't endorsed anyone for UTLA president, but I can tell you who I now adamantly oppose! Right-wing poverty pimp Steve Barr has thrown the weight of his billionaire funded FIN/TAN School Privatization organization behind candidate Bill Gaffney. Given the irreparable damage Barr and his ilk have done nationwide—most recently in New Orleans—it's astonishing that any self respecting educator wouldn't reject overtures by these privatization pushers. Shame on Bill Gaffney for betraying our students, our communities, and his fellow union members.
No comments:
Post a Comment