Andrew Cuomo is No Friend to Labor

Big Jim Larkin: Enemy to Andrew Cuomo

100 years ago next July, 100,000 pounds of TNT permanently shut the Statue of Liberty's torch and shattered the stained glass of St. Patrick's Cathedral, a force felt as far away as Maryland.

The explosion was an attack by German secret agents on munitions barges parked at Black Tom Island in New York Harbor. The 2 AM uproar—which killed seven and approached 5.5 on the Richter Scale—is remembered as "one of the worst acts of terrorism in American history." Black Tom was a black eye for the United States as it ambled toward the Great War.  

With ISIS pissing its way across the Middle East and beyond, terrorism still persists, albeit absent the pickelhaubes and mustard gas.

The terrorists of today could be your next door neighbor, or even your child's school teacher, as Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker recently revealed.  

Walker compared protesters of his anti-union measures to those who like to film themselves cutting off people's heads. Interestingly, Walker's war on workers might propel him into contention for the White House in 2016, where he and his wealthy donors may fight teachers at home and murderous psychopaths abroad. Doubtless Walker and his burgeoning bald spot will find the military industrial complex just as generous to his campaign as the Koch brothers.

Not long after shrapnel struck Lady Liberty at Black Tom, a union organizer from Ireland was also branded a terrorist.

Fresh from leading Dublin's factory workers and their families through a harrowing eight-month lockout—a seminal moment in Irish labor history—James "Big Jim"Larkin traveled to Black Tom just before the explosion to help dockworkers fight for higher pay and better working conditions. Though he denied direct involvement in the attack, Larkin's union activism on the docks certainly didn't help weapons reach the allies any faster.  

It was Big Jim's forceful advocacy for workers and the union movement, however, and not the suspected sabotage at Black Tom that ensnared him in the First Red Scare of 1920, when Russian Bolsheviks were feared much more than ISIS is today. Big Jim's big mouth got him charged with "criminal anarchy" and sent to Sing Sing for three years just for speaking freely in a free country.

Imprisoning unionists for assault with the First Amendment is something Scott Walker and other candidates might consider in the lead up to the presidential auction election.   

Upon his release from prison in 1923, Larkin returned to Ireland and was hailed as a hero for his unionism and contributions to Irish independence. His exploits helped elect him to the newly formed Irish government, but he was not allowed to serve due to his bankruptcy. It seems Super PAC's didn't exist in Ireland in 1927.

Larkin continued fighting for working families until he died in his sleep in 1947, a legend of the labor movement. 

As he celebrated St. Patrick's Day 2015 at his mansion, New York Governor and corporate bootlicker Andrew Cuomo made no mention of Jim Larkin or the struggles of union workers. This should surprise no one considering Cuomo's bromances with billionaires and reckless crusade to "break" public schools.

Jim Larkin's grave shifted, however, when Secretary to the Governor Bill Mulrow thanked the administration's "friends in labor" at the reception.

If Andrew Cuomo is a friend, then who are labor's enemies? Scott Walker? ISIS? 

Andrew Cuomo is no friend to labor. 

Though Cuomo offered praise at the party for his Irish predecessor Al Smith, he didn't mention how Smith pardoned Larkin and deported him back to Dublin, sparing Big Jim from at least two more years in jail.

After all, Cuomo would deport all union members if given the chance, especially teachers.  

Working families throughout New York and the nation must care for their communities and just say no to the likes of Cuomo. Like the bullets and bombs at Black Tom, efforts to divide and conquer must be identified and incinerated before they create craters.    

Larkin's legacy will live on, as long as we let it.

The Oracles of Cuomo’s Orifices

The Pen is Mightier than the Person slogged through the sludge of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s recent op-ed on education so you wouldn’t have to. You’re welcome.   

Cuomo begins with a long-winded olive branch that only pokes his audience in the ear:

The education system is deeply entrenched, localized, unionized and personal to the families of the state—as it should be.

Cuomo’s correct—public education is in a deep trench. Parents, teachers and students are taking cover against the bayonets of the governor’s billionaire bidders and the pernicious fumes of his budget. 

Cuomo bizarrely claims he prefers “unionized” schools while simultaneously auditioning for Scott Walker’s running mate. The AFL-CIO even passed a resolution demanding the removal of his education reforms from the budget, calling them a "circumvention of the collective bargaining process."
 
Cuomo’s anti-union stench only thickens further down the page:     

Not surprisingly, the teachers unions and educational bureaucracy oppose parts of my plan.

Wrong. Educators oppose all of Cuomo’s plan, including the current teacher evaluation law (APPR). Fueled by greed and hubris, it is a plan designed to undo the same schools Cuomo says are so “personal to the families of the state.”

There is no reasoning or reasons to compromise with someone who also writes:   

The acceptance and implementation of an evaluation system predates my administration.

Just like the state’s email-deletion policy predates his administration, so does the evaluation system Cuomo once wanted to “force down your throats.” In addition to emails, Cuomo would prefer to erase everything he has ever said about education, and it is impossible to decipher from which orifice his oracles are emerging:        

Virtually everyone also agrees that New York's teacher evaluation system is not accurate and is skewed in its construction to provide favorable results for teachers.

Who, exactly, is “virtually everyone”?  Virtually no one supports Cuomo’s plans, however, save those who stand to profit from the destruction of teachers unions.

The governor then turns wonky and indignant:

…only 38 percent of high school graduates are ready for college or careers. How can that be?

This nebulous number is allegedly the percentage of students on pace to score 1630 on the SAT.  The national average for the SAT is 1500, but that doesn't stop Cuomo from declaring 62 percent of kids unprepared for life. Though it’s not clear which colleges and careers these students are not “ready for”, Cuomo is not ready for a career as a statistician, or a realtor:

Suffolk County will want to know how its teachers and schools compare to those in Westchester County.

Right, because APPR scores are the first things people check before moving from Patchogue to Pleasantville. In fact, parents around the state have been so curious about how their own teachers rate that a whopping zero parents requested to see the scores in the cities of Syracuse and Rochester last year.

The Lobbyist for the Students next touts his heroism in the face of high-stakes tests:

I have signed a law reducing the significance of testing for students, including eliminating standardized testing for students in grades K-2 and removing standardized test results from students' permanent records for five years.

Cuomo thinks Common Core tests are so flawed that they shouldn’t count for students but should count against teachers. See the above reference to Cuomo’s orifices.     

Local school districts are then blamed, once again:  

My proposed reforms to the evaluation system reduce the amount of testing by eliminating the existing local component of the system that leads to more testing.

Though education should be “localized”, high-stakes tests should come from faceless, monopolistic corporations and be graded by people found on Craig’s List. The same tests Cuomo wants to banish from a student’s permanent record are somehow superior to tests created by that child’s teacher. See the above reference to Cuomo’s orifices.

The op-ed concludes in a fiery ball of ignorance and deception:

I have proposed that testing comprise 50 percent of the [teacher] evaluation. The State Department of Education suggests 40 percent. Still, teachers and administrators prefer that the emphasis be on classroom observation as opposed to testing. Interestingly, whatever percent is assigned to standardized testing will only affect a small minority of teacher evaluations as only 20 percent of teachers are in subjects and grades that have state testing.

The governor neglects to mention that per his budget, teachers rated ineffective on the testing component will be rated ineffective overall, regardless of how well their classroom observations go.  To further ensure failure, observations will be conducted by “independent evaluators” from outside the district. So much for a “localized” education system.

Furthermore, if local tests will not be used and 20 percent of teachers are tied to a state test, will tests comprise zero percent of the evaluation for the remaining 80 percent of teachers?

See the above reference to Cuomo’s orifices.  

Unions Must Jump Out for Teachout

How many Democrats will jump Cuomo's ship on September 9? 

Today's Democrats are turning into yesterday's Republicans.

Confused?

Look no further than New York State, where Democratic governor and aspiring outdoorsman Andrew Cuomo reportedly warned of "repercussions" for members of the state AFL-CIO if they did not endorse him at their union's annual convention on August 18. Amid this language and other acts of douchbaggery, it’s no surprise that U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara  is investigating Cuomo for meddling in the affairs of the supposedly independent anti-corruption Moreland Commission. Among other things, Cuomo is suspected of having an inflated head that's leaking something other than air.

Sure enough, Cuomo's name was absent from all convention literature and open discussion about the race for governor was prohibited before the body. The Lobbyist for the Student's name has become so toxic in his home state that he doesn't even want to talk about himself these days, brushing aside a recent call for a debate with Fordham law professor Zephyr Teachout, his opponent in the Democratic primary. Referring to political debates as a "campaign strategy", Cuomo said he'd leave the decision to debate Teachout up to the campaigns and "whatever they decide."

Evidently, an open discussion about the future of New York State now hinges on the whims of Joe Percoco, Cuomo's campaign manager who was also recently suspected of strong-arming members of the Moreland Commission into scrubbing Cuomo clean. Multiple sources say Percoco pressured key members of the commission into issuing public statements in support of the executive office in the days following the publication of a New York Times article which ripped the lid off the inner workings of Cuomo's Albany.

Teachout should not expect comments from Percoco about a debate anytime soon, however, as Percoco seemingly cherishes his role as Cuomo's "man behind the man" and invisible campaign manager. With both men refusing to talk about talking about the issues, voters can only speculate about the status of a government that has grown less transparent than pond scum.

Among other stark contrasts with Teachout, Cuomo's icy relationship with unions and other groups is indicative of a shifting paradigm in local and national politics—an intra-party rejection of Democrats beholden to big money in favor of grassroots populists who seek to rise above the fetid fumes of money and threats to transparent, moral ground.

Cracks in the system have only been deepened by the supposed standard-bearers of the Democratic Party, with the tax and trade policies of Cuomo, the Clintons, and President Obama turning Ronald Reagan's trickle-down into a deluge for .01 percent of Americans. Today's most prominent Democratic leaders have become everything Reagan dreamed they could become and more, insulating the pockets of plutocrats with the calluses of working men and women everywhere.

It seems NYSUT—whose members comprised the majority in attendance on August 18—could also use a dose of transparency these days. Cuomo recently signed a bill that the Albany legislature approved faster than you can say quid pro quo, as even the NYSUT Board of Directors was not aware of a law which strengthens the retirement safety net of a mere three members—Karen Magee, Paul Pecorale, and Martin Messner—all of whom were elected NYSUT officers in the union's recent election.

While questions linger about the origins of the bill, the larger question is did newly-elected officers of the state's largest teachers union—with the unanimous support of lawmakers—trade self-serving legislation for political favors? Both the timing and secrecy of this legislation raises unsettling questions about the principles of union leadership, who must not tip-toe away from transparency but march towards it.

The union has no good reason not to challenge Cuomo, after all, and a non-endorsement only muffles the political discourse and forces working teachers to retreat into their classrooms, away from politics in both voice and vote. Teachers in the United States cannot afford to sink further into political apathy, and union leaders have a responsibility to help engender an open debate about those government officials who are helping the rich subsume the system.

NYSUT members must hear why State Senator Jeff Klein, for example, deserves their time and VOTE-COPE money. Klein, a Democrat who yielded progressive control of the senate to Republicans and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Cuomo at a recent rally for charter schools, is another example of a leader with the face of a Democrat and the fangs of a Republican.

State Senator Jeff Klein (background) has a face only NYSUT could love.

Former New York Senator and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, recently sighted hobnobbing in the Hamptons with AFT President Randi Weingarten, will dilute any national conversation about economic inequality should she be the Democratic nominee for president in 2016. Both Republican and Democratic talking points will likely revolve around the need to help "all" Americans by cutting corporate taxes and shipping jobs overseas competing in the global economy.

Cuomo's "death penalty" for New York's public schools also spells doom for both social justice and his core values as a Democratic, which he likely never possessed in the first place. The good news is that Zephyr Teachout and her running mate for Lieutenant Governor Tim Wu exist, and their campaign has gained momentum since Cuomo unsuccessfully tried to kick Teachout off the ballot for not being as New York as him.

Cuomo and his running mate Kathy Hochul—a former bank lobbyist and future Republican—have $35 million to spend compared to Teachout and Wu's $181,000. This money, however, speaks only through glossy campaign flyers and commercials, and no amount money could turn Cuomo and Hochul back into real Democrats.  Perhaps the Cuomo campaign will soon invite Republican challenger Rob Astorino to debate, confident they can out-Democrat him.

America’s workers, not its lawmakers, keep the machine of democracy running daily. It is therefore up to workers and their unions to be first on the scene when its engine seizes in a cloud of cronyism and greed.

Unions must lead with solutions, promoting candidates like Teachout who will seek to undo recent changes to the Great Seal of the United States:



Both political parties have finally agreed on one thing.

Our democracy depends on it.