Chicago and the convention - Substance News:
AFT REPORTS: Chicago played major role in convention in 2012
George N. Schmidt - August 01, 2012
Although every seat inside the convention hall had an "Obama-Biden 2012" sign for the delegates and visitors and every delegate could have gone home with two "Obama Biden 2012" tee shirts as one souvenir of the 2012 AFT convention, a large number of delegates were less than enthusiastic for the Obama-Biden ticket. Only the Chicago delegation actively (but silently) protested, wearing Chicago Teachers Union red shirts and holding up "Stop Race To The Top" signs. CTU President Karen Lewis (above, right) was the only member of the AFT Executive Council who did not go on stage when called to do so by AFT President Randi Weingarten as Biden arrived on the stage, getting handshakes from the AFT vice presidents as he went to the podium to deliver a brilliant speech that failed to mention Arne Duncan or Race To The Top once. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.The New York delegations to the 2012 convention of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) might have stretch seemingly to infinity as the huge United Federation of Teachers (New York City) and New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) continued to have more than 1,000 of the nearly 3,000 convention delegates at their disposal, but the much smaller (fewer than the allotted 150 delegates) Chicago delegation had at least as much influence on the convention as anyone. The biggest reason was that Chicago has begun standing up to the corporate "school reform" bullies, and many of the
