NYC Educator: UFT-Unity Caucus Demonstrates How It Handles Dissent

NYC Educator: UFT-Unity Caucus Demonstrates How It Handles Dissent:

UFT-Unity Caucus Demonstrates How It Handles Dissent

Yesterday morning I watched from the audience as Lauren Cohen, a petite young woman from the UFT MORE caucus, got up and addressed the NYSUT Representative Assembly as a candidate. When Lauren mentioned the UFT-Unity Loyalty oath, my 800 brothers and sisters from UFT-Unity tried to drown her voice with loud boos. The moderator had to get up and explain that it was not in the best traditions of public forums to prevent people from speaking.

Lauren stood calmly, and continued undeterred after waiting a moment for the noise to subside. She demonstrated grace and thoughtfulness, neither of which was evident in the audience that saw fit to shout her down in the full view of UFT President Michael Mulgrew.

It is not in the best traditions of democracy to shut out dissenting points of view. Perhaps the participants deemed this activism.  But it was something else altogether.

In fact, activism does not entail drowning out your sister unionists, or voting in such a way that your part-time job at UFT stays a sure thing. Activism entails thinking, looking at