Hi Leo. I’ve also enjoyed reading your pieces this election season (minus the pieces about Mike Shulman, who is a close personal friend). You present several interesting arguments here, to which I look forward to digesting and hopefully responding. One minor note, and it’s really on me for not being more specific in the piece that you cite. The specific instance in which an ABC officer candidate publicly attacked the ARISE presidential candidate was in regards to her support of decided AFT policy: Supporting The UAW's Call To Align Contract Expirations For May 1, 2028. That was one of the strange things about the attack - he was redbaiting ARISE’s top candidate for backing a resolution that Unity had also ostensibly supported. It was one of many instances in which I found ABC, or at least its leading candidates, had veered to the right of both ARISE and Unity in their messaging.
Thanks, Nick. There’s a subtle, but important point regarding that AFT resolution. The original version that was proposed to the convention included a call for a general strike, but that call was amended out in committee. What the convention passed was a call for coordination of contract expiration dates and contract negotiation fights, with possible simultaneous strikes that are contract related, along the lines of Fain’s call and what I support in my Convergence article.
Olivia’s position, at least from what I was able to find in YouTube videos, goes beyond the resolution and calls for a general strike; that was also the position of Alex Caputo-Pearl, who I was responding to in my article.
The AFT is clear that we need to defeat Trump and MAGA in the 2026 and 2028 elections, and that we need to have people in the streets protesting between now and then to make sure we get to those elections. For what it is worth, Daniel Alicea would have understood this difference, because when the resolution was passed he was telling everyone who would listen that the AFT had come out in support of a general strike, and I had to correct him.
Hi Leo. I’ve also enjoyed reading your pieces this election season (minus the pieces about Mike Shulman, who is a close personal friend). You present several interesting arguments here, to which I look forward to digesting and hopefully responding. One minor note, and it’s really on me for not being more specific in the piece that you cite. The specific instance in which an ABC officer candidate publicly attacked the ARISE presidential candidate was in regards to her support of decided AFT policy: Supporting The UAW's Call To Align Contract Expirations For May 1, 2028. That was one of the strange things about the attack - he was redbaiting ARISE’s top candidate for backing a resolution that Unity had also ostensibly supported. It was one of many instances in which I found ABC, or at least its leading candidates, had veered to the right of both ARISE and Unity in their messaging.
Thanks, Nick. There’s a subtle, but important point regarding that AFT resolution. The original version that was proposed to the convention included a call for a general strike, but that call was amended out in committee. What the convention passed was a call for coordination of contract expiration dates and contract negotiation fights, with possible simultaneous strikes that are contract related, along the lines of Fain’s call and what I support in my Convergence article.
Olivia’s position, at least from what I was able to find in YouTube videos, goes beyond the resolution and calls for a general strike; that was also the position of Alex Caputo-Pearl, who I was responding to in my article.
The AFT is clear that we need to defeat Trump and MAGA in the 2026 and 2028 elections, and that we need to have people in the streets protesting between now and then to make sure we get to those elections. For what it is worth, Daniel Alicea would have understood this difference, because when the resolution was passed he was telling everyone who would listen that the AFT had come out in support of a general strike, and I had to correct him.
Thank you for that point of clarification, Leo. Once the school year winds down, I hope to find some time to respond at a bit more length.