Op-Ed: The UFT Must Call for a Ceasefire Now
Editor’s note: The following is the opinion of the authors and not of The Wire or Educators of NYC.
At The Wire, we try to allow for a diverse range of opinions from NYC educators from the various caucuses, groups and activists in our union. It by no means we endorse a specific viewpoint.
We believe this issue has a multitude of serious implications, passionate and varying perspectives that should be shared without antisemitic, Islamophobic or racist hate, through civil and democratic discourse.
This is the first of a series of posts regarding two published opposing viewpoints regarding a ceasefire amendment that failed to be passed by UFT chapter leaders and delegates in November of 2023, by a margin of about 100 votes.
See The Wire archive to view and read the related posts.
Wednesday night at the November UFT Delegate Assembly, members of the Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE) caucus presented an amendment supporting a ceasefire in Gaza to a resolution for humanitarian aid in the Middle East.
After limited debate among chapter leaders and delegates, statements about the ‘divisiveness’ of the amendment from top ranking UFT officials LeRoy Barr and Mike Sill, and many inflammatory accusations of infiltration from UFT President Michael Mulgrew, the amendment failed to pass by approximately 100 votes. At that point, some caucus members walked out to symbolize their frustration with restrictive democratic process and their horror at our union leadership’s hesitation to advocate for an end to violence and bloodshed.
Outside UFT headquarters, at least a hundred of NYC’s educators rallied in support of a ceasefire in Israel’s genocidal siege on Gaza. While the amendment failed to pass, it did so by a slim margin, demonstrating the support of many rank-and-file UFT members across the city for their union leadership to end its complicity in Israel’s ongoing atrocities in Palestine.
As educators, we cannot ignore the over 5,000 children who have been killed in Gaza since the start of this most recent war and the additional 2,000 who are still missing under the rubble. We are appalled that Israel is bombing schools and institutions of higher education like the University of Al-Azhar, where thousands of Palestinians are sheltering. So many students have been killed that the official school year in Gaza has been indefinitely canceled. These attacks on Palestinian civilians and the land’s educational infrastructure are considered war crimes under the very international laws that we are expected to teach our children and students about.
We urge UFT members to sign on to our petition to pressure the UFT to call for a ceasefire and our letter in response to Chancellor Banks’ email threatening teachers' free speech rights.
The struggle for justice continues, from NYC to Palestine!
NYC Educators for Palestine is a collective of Palestinian, Arab, Muslim and Jewish teachers and education workers united against Islamophobia, antisemitism and anti-Palestinian racism.
MORE, the Movement of Rank and File Educators is the social justice caucus within the United Federation of Teachers advocating for our public schools with the strong understanding that our working conditions are inextricably linked to our students' learning conditions.
 | A guest post by
|