Karen Lewis: Social Justice Unionism IS Trade Unionism [View all]

[HiPointDem]

A lot of times if you talk to other members about a teacher who is being targeted by the administration, they’ll say, “Oh, that’s one of the crazies.” We tried to have our members embrace disaffected teachers rather than isolate them. --- Karen Lewis

Face it. We are not in the good old days where it was just about a contract. We are in a battle to defend the very concept of a union and along with it the entire fabric of public education. In some sense the idea of a contract that has been and continues to be shredded becomes somewhat secondary to the bigger battle where even with the best contract one might not find a public school left to work in. Really, does anyone really think we have a shot at stopping closing schools by short term court cases and by not organizing a massive response from the communities most impacted when schools close? Without the social justice angle --- go tell the community how they need to support tenure without showing how their kids are affected by ed deform policies --- we are slipping over the edu cliff.

http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2013/01/chicago-tu-social-justice-unionism-is.html

Lessons in Social Justice Unionism
An Interview with Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis

http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/27_02/27_02_sokolower.shtml

The interview is long, but worth the read. There's a lot of meat about organizing, strategy, community relations, relations with peers, and general movement-building.