Listen: Racism Makes Us Weak; NYC Teachers Press Fight for New Contract

By Bob Hennelly

Here are the full show notes for this week’s edition of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour:

Part I: The Labor/Race Connection - Noted labor historian and educator Joe Wilson and Fitz Reid, former president of DC 37’s Local 768, discuss how racism has been used by capital historically to undermine worker solidarity as wealth concentration has accelerated. Wilson reflects on the essential contribution made by A. Phillip Randolph to both the labor and racial justice movements. Reid discusses how systemic racism endures in New York City's current civil service system where male African-American civil servants make 79 cents to the $1 of what their white counterparts make. For Black women, it's 69 cents to the dollar.

Part II: Energizing the rank and file to make the contract battle their own: Last Monday, thousands of UFT educators gathered in contract teach-ins at schools and worksites across New York City where members had a chance to shape the union's demands. Janella Hinds, UFT vice-president, Faiza Khalid, an elementary special education teacher and Amy Arundell, the  UFT's Queens Borough representative talk about the challenges educators face helping students make up for the unprecedented upending of in person instruction during the pandemic that took the lives of over 1.1 million Americans.

Educators at P.S. 179 in Brooklyn hold contract teach-in. Photo courtesy of UFT