Action for U.S. Teachers (or people who know them)

Please send this to teachers you know everywhere:

U.S. Teachers Unions: American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and United Federation of Teachers (UFT)

1. AFT Members (and their friends) Contact state federation members here (aft.org/about/fedsites.htm).

In New York call or write the regional office covering NYC at

52 Broadway, 9th Floor
New York, NY 10004
(212) 533-6567

Thank them for their June 2006 resolution in support of the teachers in Oaxaca, see here (aft.org/about/resolutions/2006/MexicoTeachers.htm).

  • Urge them to support the democratic form of self-organizing (consulta) which has been adopted by the membership of the union in Oaxaca and which appears to have been betrayed by Rueda, the elected and disgraced leader of the union (for a detailed analysis see here (http://www.narconews.com/Issue43/article2220.html)).
  • Urge them to condemn publicly the current federal police incursion and attacks in Oaxaca and to educate and thereby mobilize AFT members and their communities about the Oaxacan teachers’ strike.
  • Ask them to send material support to Oaxacan teachers.

    • 2. UFT Members (and their friends) (Background info posted below):

  • Urge them on behalf of teachers to condemn publicly the current military, federal and provincial police incursion and attacks in Oaxaca and to educate and thereby mobilize UFT members and their communities about the Oaxacan teachers’ strike.
  • Ask them to send material support to Oaxacan teachers.

    • UFT has a caucus within it which is activist called ICE
    (see ice-uft.org) . Email both ICE and the UFT at the emails below:

    feedback@ice-uft.org, nytletters@uft.org, nytmail@uft.org, brokenlink@uft.org

    Also, there is no email asking for comments by UFT members on their website, so you can go here (http://www.uft.org/contact/) and make a call to their borough offices if you like.

    But do send a note too.

    Background on UFT Solidarity for Oaxacan Teachers

    The UFT has done nothing since they held a UFT delegates meeting August 16 and held a moment of silence to remember a Oaxacan teacher “reportedly killed on June 14″. On November 1st at the UFT delegates meeting, as the mandatory adjournment time for the meeting approached before all items on the agenda had been addressed, several delegates chanted, “Oaxaca can’t wait, Oaxaca can’t wait” referring to the resolution calling for an end to the violent attacks on striking teachers and their supporters in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Weingarten reassured delegates that the resolution was approved by the UFT Executive Board the previous evening and said that “we will move in that direction.” But the resolution Weingarten’s Executive Board approved is out of step with what teachers and other demonstrators are demanding in Oaxaca.

    The UFT Executive Board resolution “condemns the violence, supports the demands of the teachers and calls on Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz Ortiz to end police attacks immediately, return to negotiations in good faith and meet the teachers’ just demands.” Ellie Spielberg’s article in the official newspaper of the UFT – New York Teacher – and the Executive Board issuing this resolution – fail to consider that teachers in Oaxaca have suspended all demands in favor of a unified call for Ulises Ruiz’s resignation and an immediate withdrawal of the Mexican paramilitary and police. It appears that the UFT’s position is awfully similar to that of Rueda, the disgraced teacher’s union leader, who attempted last month to subvert the demonstrators and the democratic process they had adopted by holding a vote (boycotted by 20,000 teachers) and calling for a return to class before the consulta (democratic consultation) had taken place (for a detailed analysis see here (http://www.narconews.com/Issue43/article2220.html)).

  • Urge them on behalf of teachers to condemn publicly the current military, federal and provincial police incursion and attacks in Oaxaca and to educate and thereby mobilize UFT members and their communities about the Oaxacan teachers’ strike.
  • Ask them to send material support to Oaxacan teachers.

    • UFT has a caucus within it which is activist called ICE
    (see ice-uft.org) . Email both ICE and the UFT at the emails below:

    feedback@ice-uft.org, nytletters@uft.org, nytmail@uft.org, brokenlink@uft.org

    Also, there is no email asking for comments by UFT members on their website, so you can go here (http://www.uft.org/contact/) and make a call to their borough offices if you like.

    But do send a note too.

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