Happy Halloween - All tricks, no treats.

Welcome to Halloween – The day when children, teens, and adults put on costumes and make-up and pretend to be something that they are not. In the case of children, it is something that they often wish to be: like an astronaut, police or fireman, or maybe a dancer or a doctor.

It is ironic that Halloween is close to election day as well. Here we have politicians pretending to be for the people when they are really in the service of the capitalist class.

Look at the recent presidential debates and tours. OK – I admit that the Republicans this time around are just out right scary, like zombies or vampires. There is no pretense here – they are out for the capitalist class and the array of candidates show it endlessly as they fall over each other to fawn for the money of the 1%.

The Democrats are more subtle about it though. They talk economic populism and reforms that could benefit the average American. But let's face the facts: At the end of the day, Hillary Clinton is owned and controlled by Wall Street and the big banks. She is running around the country, stopping in at $2700 a plate dinners, playing meet and greet with the rich, while promising everyone else their fair share of the pie. $2700 is more than some WNY families take home in a month. And she is picking it up in hours.

Bernie Sanders is a different story. He is talking some very popular reform ideas, but if he fails to win the nomination for the presidential ticket, promises the capitalist controlled DNC hand picked candidate.

And make no mistake about it – Sanders, a self avowed socialist, is only talking about reforming capitalism. In no way is he talking about overthrowing the system.

He talks of breaking up the banks, but – like Ma Bell – nothing stops them from reuniting in different ways. Look at Verizon and AT&T. Bigger and more powerful than Ma Bell ever dreamed. A real socialist would be putting the banks in the hands of its depositors – in each community. Or setting up banks like the Bank of North Dakota, where it is run to serve the people of North Dakota. (BTW: The big banks are so afraid of the BND that they actively campaigned against other states creating state banks during the 2008 financial meltdown.)

He talks about taxing Wall Street to provide free college tuition. A real socialist would ask “Why do we even need Wall Street?” and shut it down completely.

He talks about a single payer health care system – the hospitals are still mostly privatized. And after he leaves office, what would stop the “death by a thousand cuts” that the capitalist class is so famous for?

And who is Martin O'Malley anyways? And at that, I probably spelled his name wrong.

Yes, this is Halloween and election season. Where the capitalist class promises plenty of treats.

Make no mistake – it is all one big trick. 

On you.

Corrected vision

A late blog today.

I was going to blog about another topic today, but I remembered an appointment that I had this afternoon. It was an appointment that I needed. I knew something was wrong and I was compensating to deal with it. I grew tired of doing the compensating and made the appointment.

I needed new glasses. I was wearing my glasses and I had to use a magnifying glass to read some of the comics on the comics page. (Sometimes it's the only part of the paper that makes any logical sense.)

So I went to the eye doctor received a check up on my vision. The eyes are healthy. They just have different focal points now. Astigmatism in both eyes and for the life of me I don't understand the prescription fully, but when the good doctor put a pair of (real funny looking) glasses on me that had the correct prescription lens in them, I could see perfectly.

(Somehow three different focal ranges in the lens makes bifocals. That I will never figure out. New math?  Must be Common Core.....)

In two weeks I will have new glasses and all sorts of problems – eye strain, headaches, squinting – will all go away.

That's what it was like for me back in 2006. The Participation in Government (PIG) class teacher and I came up with a project where the students would take a Political Compass™ quiz and then compare their results to those of political parties and candidates from the 2004 Presidential election. (We repeated a modified version of this project , eventually using the Political Spectrum™ quiz, every year until the teacher retired. I am hoping to continue some form of this project with the new PIG teacher.) Students were surprised at the results. They liked seeing that there were political parties outside the two man capitalist ones. Some were even curious about socialism.

When badgered about my scores, I took it and scored very near the Socialist Party candidate. This surprised me as I was a registered member of the NYS Conservative Party. It surprised my students less.

So I looked into socialism and communism. I read the Communist Manifesto and Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, and other books. I began checking into independent media – Free Speech TV, Link TV, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, Project Censored, and many other indie news sources, which are now part of my daily diet.

I began seeing things through the lens of class- rich versus poor ; race – white versus anything else ; gender – male versus female and LGBTQ ; among many other ways. I still have to deal with what the (lame) mainstream media was dishing out, but then digging into the independent media to see what they say.

And take a guess who was more accurate…..

A decade later, with much reading, watching, listening, and learning , I see things differently and have a better understanding of what is going on and why. Something I never had when I was younger and in any of the  different political parties that I belonged to.

So, do you need a new pair of glasses to help you see things different?

I know a few good eye doctors.


Update:  Evidently I really needed new glasses as this is at least twice that I have forgotten to fill in the title field.  

Wrong Question.

The Buffalo News ran a man article and an editorial asking "Why no City Honors II?"

When you start with the wrong question, you can only arrive at the wrong answer.

In a capitalist society, education s not an individual right or a social responsibility – it is a commodity to be given to the elite 1%, as determined by class, race, and gender. And in a minority white, majority African-American, Asian, and Latino/a community, it's the power elite that get the best while everyone else gets the rest.

If one follows Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, self-actualization is limited to a small group at the top while the lower levels are more densely populated, with the bottom being the most dense level of all,  no pun intended. Like the capitalist distribution of wealth, the majority are on the bottom struggling for basic necessities while a small elite group is at the top achieving the dream of a lifetime at everyone else's expense.

In a capitalist education system, not everyone needs a City Honors education. Only the best. The rest? Give them enough to get through. Make them employable and disposable by the 1% at the top.

If one looks at education and society through the lens of Maslow, one can see the poor of the city barely getting by, struggling to get any sense of stability in their lives. These are the students that go from school to school to school in a year, living wherever they can find a home for a while. And the only food some of them will get are the free and reduced breakfasts and lunches at school.  And their education is just as piecemeal and unstable.

 That's the capitalist way. Many people struggling at the bottom for the basics while the top coasts along just fine, getting everything they want, when they want it. Or else.

The Buffalo education leaders argue that a second City Honors is impractical and unnecessary as there are other “high quality schools” that students can apply to and receive an excellent education. None of those other “high quality schools” are ranked in the Top 100 Schools in America. And some of them are not all they are cracked up to be either.

But let's let's face the facts – the cost of City Honors. The AP course and International Baccalaureate programs require top notch equipment and teachers. That costs money and rather than spend money building up a quality educational system for all, the power brokers set up a system in Buffalo where the 1% get the best and everyone else gets the rest, which happens to be slim pickings. And I am not talking about the blues guitarist either.

The question is not “Why not a second City Honors?” The real question is “Why hasn't capitalism provided an Olmstead Elementary and City Honors education for all students in every school district across the country?” Which it claims it can do, if given the chance.

Pick up you pencils and pens. You have one hour to come up with a logical answer.

Start now.

Nar-can't.

Narcan™ is a drug that is used to address heroin overdoses. It was unknown here in Western New York until the heroin problem extended its deadly reach into the suburbs.

When inner city (read poor, African-American, Latino(a)) people were dying from drug overdoses, the “cure” was more policing, harsher drug sentences, and jail or prison time.

When drug overdoses began happening in the suburbs (read wealthier and mostly white), a “cure”was needed. Enter Narcan™, the “miracle working drug” that can reverse the effects of a a fatal overdose and save a life.

Now some “enlightened individuals” want to decriminalize marijuana, up to 2 oz. carried on a person, and allow individuals 18 and older to be able to grow no more than 6 marijuana plants in their houses in order to address the epidemic of people having criminal records for possession, sale, and distribution of a controlled substance. A substance, like alcohol, that has a history going back to ancient times.

Heroin, marijuana use, alcoholism – These are social problems to be sure. But they are symptoms of a larger problem. That problem is called alienation.

In the capitalist economic system, a person only has value if they can generate a profit for the system. When that ability stops, the person is no longer needed and becomes a burden on the system. Sad to say, many people know this and, while successful by the system's standards, see the clock ticking on the wall and can not see when the alarm will wake them up to the reality that they are no longer needed. A machine can now do their job or it has been sent someplace else where the same work can be done for less, making the capitalists more profits.

And they need some way to numb that pain.

Enter drugs and alcohol.

Which can lead to addiction, overdoses, and alcoholism – among other social problems.

Which leads to crime, death, and despair.

Narcan™ solves the problem of a potentially deadly overdose.

Marijuana decriminalization/legalization solves the problem of mindless arrests and prison.

Neither one solves the problem of alienation, which gives us streets full of walking dead everyday.

And that should scare you more than Halloween.

1 real question.

The United States Office of Civil Rights (OCR) has 53 questions for the Buffalo School Board regarding its practice of where students are sent to go for school.

Buffalo is a minority-majority school district that has, according to the Buffalo News, only 21% of it's students listed as being white. Yet this 21% has the largest percentage population at Buffalo's two best schools – Olmsted Elementary and City Honors.

So the OCR investigated and gave the Buffalo School Board a chance to reply. A consultant from UCLA was brought in, but his work was blown off by the school board.

Now, new Superintendent Kriner Cash has until Friday (October 30th) to answer 53 questions about the districts problems and how he plans to address them. That's no easy trick and I doubt there will be any treats for him in those questions.

And he wonders why leaders don't want to step up and help out.

He has a split and hostile school board, with Carl PaladiNO as its most vocal member.

He has a problem with securing funds that are needed to do things that would address the problem, like fixing up schools that are in such bad shape that it's a wonder that students learn anything.

Like buying up to date textbooks and computers so that students can get the best and most accurate information.

Like hiring enough teachers so that classroom sizes are around 15 students, which is what research shows is the ideal size for students to learn.

Like making sure each school has a properly staffed library with up to date books, magazines, newspapers, computers, and databases for students to research what they need to know and then dig into what they want to learn.

This problem has deeper roots though. Buffalo's decline is tied to the decline of manufacturing in the United States and capitalism's failure to do what it claims it can do – provide for everyone that lives under its wings (or more accurately, in it's claws).

Education's decline is also tied to the cutting in funds that would have kept the schools fully functional and fully staffed. Washington DC always seems to have money for misguided foreign wars that cost us billions and bring us nothing. (Remember Eisenhower's farewell address?) Or for foreign aid to countries that commit crimes against humanity. (Like Chile under Pinochet, and Saudi Arabia – to just name a two.  I seem to recall George Washington telling us something about entangling foreign alliances.)

Education's decline is also tied to all the tax cuts that the leaders in Washington and Albany seem to have for the 1%. When those taxes are cut,  education is cut back, and  the capitalist system starts cutting it's own throat with it's own hands. Uneducated workers are not going to provide the new ideas that are needed to keep the system going.

My one question is not for Superintendent Kriner Cash and the Buffalo School Board. It's for the people who place their faith in the capitalist system – When are you going to stop cutting your own throats?

Noble Intentions.

Noble intentions.

That is what Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown and Police Commissioner Daniel Derrenda have with their Police Scholarship program. They call it “BPD 21C” for the “Buffalo Police Department 21 Century.”

A little background information: Buffalo has 700 police officers. 30% of them are “minorities” and 24% of the force is female. (There is overlap with the female and minority statistics.)

The racial make-up of Buffalo, however, is much more diverse – 46.2% white, 36.9% African-American, 9.7% Hispanic, and 3.8% Asian. Buffalo is a minority-majority city. The face of the American future.

The goal of these scholarships is to increase the amount of minorities in the Buffalo Police Department (BPD) – African Americans, Asians, Latinos, and women.

The scholarships – approximately $6800 to 50 successful applicants – are going to help them with preemployment training towards passing the city's civil service exam and potentially being hired for the BPD

That's a nice first step.

It doesn't go far enough.

It doesn't cover firearms training or the federally mandated Homeland Security training.

It's like receiving a scholarship for your freshman and sophomore years in college and being let go for the junior and senior years. The two most important ones.

Without those two courses, can the recruits be kept on the force? And if they are – will they be anything other than “desk jockeys” or “paper pushers?”

The scholarships need to get the candidates through all the training. I have a number of students every year that get a “free ride” - that's full tuition (including books, room and board) to a wide variety of colleges across the United States.

Buffalo, and Albany, can do better than this.

Where can the money come from? Easy. Start looking at all those tax breaks given to private corporations that never delivered the jobs they promised. (Buffalo School Board Member Carl PaladiNO received $1.4 million and created only 1 job with it. Thank you Governor “Status” Cuomo for that information.) If the corporations didn't create and keep the promised jobs, the tax breaks just became interest bearing loans. (Win for the taxpayer.) That money can then be used to fully fund full tuition for all qualified candidates and virtually guarantee that the BPD will soon reflect the racial diversity that the people of Buffalo  needs it to have

And that will be a step in the right direction towards reducing racial tensions in the city.

Otherwise, we know what road is paved with noble intentions.

And nobody really wants to go there.

Religion and Socialism

I was at a wedding today – A Jewish wedding. They don't do weddings on Saturdays. It's a Sabbath thing I guess. I don't fully understand the faith and its practices. This did lead me down another path of thought though.

Since I was invited I decided to do a closer reading of the Jewish (Old) Testament. I was surprised at the practices that could be deemed socialist. Fields could not be picked clean – food had to be left for the poor to glean. Every third year the entirety of the tithe went to what I would call the local food pantry. Every Jubilee year (50 years) land reverted to it's original owner/family.

I was surprised at the number of references in the prophets to defending the rights of the poor and downtrodden. Amos, Daniel, among others call for the leaders and the community to defend the poor.

Nehemiah practically tears the repatriated Jewish community a new one over how they were treating the poor.

And then there is Matthew 25 : Feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, clothes to the naked, health care to the sick, and visit the lonely. Some people might call that being a decent human being. It's all a part of social responsibility to me. Social responsibility is an inherent part of socialism.  Jesus says quite a bit against the greedy elites and how they treat the poor.

I admit I do not know much about Islam and the Koran, the writings of the Jains, Hindus, Buddhists, or other world faiths. Or First Nation traditions for that matter. And I am near the Tonawanda, Tuscarora, and Seneca Nations. Perhaps I need to read them.

Are we writing off the religious unnecessarily and handing them over to social conservatives because we don't understand their faith? I find quite a bit of socialist thought in Judeo - Christian writings. Perhaps that's a foot in the door to let socialism in and get them out of the conservative movements.

It is said that Ronald Reagan Stated that the only way to get the Republican economic agenda passed was to “split the left.” So in 1979-80 the Republican party went from being pro-choice to pro-life. And look at what happened.

If we can, by knowing what the different faiths say about social issues like economic justice and rights of the poor, split the conservative movement, shouldn't we?

So, sit down, pick up some sacred writing and see what it says that fits in with socialism.

You might find it enlightening.

Shalom.

Broccoli. Yes, Broccoli.

I was going to blog today about Mayor Byron Brown's plan to increase the number of African Americans on the Buffalo Police Force, but the headline article in the Buffalo News caught my attention because it hits a little closer to home. Especially after I just finished food shopping.

“Broccoli a growing business and seeds planted here.” It painted a way too rosy picture of the situation.

Granted, I prefer to purchase locally grown produce for a wide variety of good reasons (strengthens the local economy, less greenhouse gases from transportation, etc.) - The story glossed over some issues that the News really needs to dig deeper into. Probably won't though.

First – The mentioning of the Latin music bothered me. Most of these workers are migrant workers. Latinos. Their “homes” - if they are to be called that, are RVs. converted buses, vans – are mobile. They go where the harvest is. They work 12 – 14 hour long days, sometimes longer, under conditions that I would not work under (and I worked on a farm when I grew up) to get the crop picked and to the market. Heat, rain, injuries, illness – things that I would like to avoid, they work in so that they can earn a “living” for their families. If what they do is called living.

Those seven inch knives. If I am injured at work, I can get workman's compensation. Easy. Not so easy, if at all,  for them, And they don't have health insurance to cover hospital bills. They don't have sick days if they are feeling under the weather. (No work, no money. Simple rule.) And if they mention the word “union,” they are most likely out of a job. Word gets around the farms fast. Especially in the age of cell phones.

And those fields – sprayed with chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Monsanto's Round-Up™ causes cancer according to European research. They have no protective clothing. Maybe leather gloves, hats, and sunglasses, if they buy them. Are these chemicals even safe to use? Read the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) on them. I have a MSDS for the glue that I use to fix library books. And by law I have to have access to it. Do these farm workers have access to the MSDS for the chemicals that were sprayed on the fields?

Can they even read English (or Spanish) fluently enough to understand what they are looking at? I have a friend that works in a Migrant Center – a place that migrant teens go to for education. How they get an education chasing the harvest is beyond me. She does her best, but I wonder how successful she is? When I discard a set of encyclopedias from my library because I don't want my students accessing outdated information, guess who gets it? And all my students all have laptops. The migrant center has a bank of computers. I'm not sure how old the computers are. She won't tell me. Yes they can access the NYS purchased databases that all libraries in NYS have access to – but I doubt anyone in the center has the time to teach them how to use them. That is their “school.”

The students learn out of workbooks. Not textbooks. Workbooks. And after “school” - and probably before school too – they go out to the fields to work. Labor laws sometimes get overlooked during harvest times. And bullets sometimes kill people.

Such as rosy article.

And then later in the paper it had an article about how doctors are being told to check children for “food insecurity.” That's double speak for “hunger.” (1984 lives!) The amount of food that is left to waste in the field because it doesn't look “perfect.” The broccoli was green and yellow because the summer was hot and people won't buy it. Give it to a family that is “food insecure” and I don't think that they will really care about the color. I buy it like that at farmers markets. Tastes just fine to me.

So food that doesn't look picture perfect is left to rot in the fields by exploited workers,  while poor people go hungry because they don't have money to buy food.

Right.

The article was about the business end of broccoli.

The Buffalo News needs to remember that most of its readers are not business owners. They are workers. They need to tell us that side of the story too.

Give me a Labor section in my paper.

Forgive my snarkiness, but chew on that for a while.

2 related articles - 2 seapate pages - in 2 separate sections.

Two news articles caught my eye today.

I don't care that the Bills are playing in London.

I really don't care about the Paul McCartney concert last night.

(John Lennon was a better songwriter & musician anyway.)

And Benghazi – the real crime there was the NATO bombing raids.

It was an article on the bottom of the front page about a youth caught up in a crime spree, how he had family problems, and that the crimes that he is accused of occurred while he was suspended from school. They advocate daytime curfews for students. Seriously.

The other article was on the top of page B1 – Superintendent Kriner Cash wants the authority (or thinks he has the authority) to assign teachers to schools in receivership. Schools that are struggling with students grades, achievement, and test scores. We need to have good test scores.

Teachers want seniority protections while Kriner wants to be able to put “the best person in the position.” He also wants to lengthen the school day and school year.

Why don't teachers want to go to the schools in receivership?And why aren't students achieving?

What's the physical plant like? Is it old an decrepit? Poor heating in winter and cooling in summer? Leaks in the ceiling? Are the desks ancient and needing replacement? Are the halls the long tomb like corridors with poor lighting? Are the lockers from the 1960's? Are the stairs safe? What's the gym like? And the cafeteria? What about the auditorium? I was in an auditorium in a Buffalo school during my student teaching days and it was ghastly. It looked like it was out of the 1950's. When I drove 30 minutes away to Williamsville and looked at their auditorium, it was sleek and modern looking with modern sound, lighting, and projector equipment. And the seats were comfortable enough to sleep in, not metal boards with worn out foam and faded corduroy covering.

What about books? Are the textbooks up to date (less than 5 years old)? Does it have a library with up to date materials? Or are we looking at books that talk about how one day man will make it to the moon. (Don't laugh – a friend of mine in a rural district had a book that said that on the shelf AND the Board of Education saw nothing wrong with it.) Does it have a computer lab with modern computers?

One of the receivership schools has a high concentration of ELL students – English Language Learners. The school has somewhere around 40 different languages spoke by students and not enough translators to help them. And I as a teacher am going to be held accountable for that student's success? First they need to become proficient in the language. This school should be exempt from all the testing requirements, but that is another article for another day.

The student accused of being involved in the crime spree was suspended and was dealing with emotional problems after his step father died. He wants to learn, according to his mother, but he needs help with outside issues before he can learn. Who's offering him counselling?

Of course the district and the state/federal government will say that it doesn't have money for counselling staff. Or enough money to hire enough teachers so that students aren't crammed into classes of 25+ students.

Turn the school over to a charter and all of a sudden money is available from everywhere. Public and private. And the school population becomes capped. Class sizes are capped. New materials (books, computers and other technology) come in like Noah's flood.

Where was this money when the school was in receivership?

Where was this money before the school went into receivership.

I have friends that are doctors and they always tell me that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” We all know that adage.

So why is the ounce of prevention being withheld from the students?

If the school that the student is assigned to is in horrible condition, a curfew isn't going to make the student want to go there. And a longer school day or year isn't going to do any more to help them learn.

And there needs to be a better alternative to suspending students. Kicking them out of a place that they don't want to be teaches them nothing. I had a student that was suspended for four months for drug (pot) possession. They received two hours of tutoring a day (that met the state's requirement for education!) and they picked up extra shifts at a part time job that they held. What did that student learn? Really? They wanted to go back to being suspended.

There are so many issues in the Buffalo school system – poverty, nutrition, school conditions, transportation, and learning issues that bumping teachers around isn't going to solve. And neither will a longer school day and year.

Then again, you would need to have taught in a classroom to know that.

A busy day in the garden

Planting seeds.

That's what I did today at the school where I work.

I planted seeds.

Students in the AP Government class were preparing for a presidential debate – Democrats vs Republicans. Same old boring, bland, and dry debate.

Wrong.

In an ironic twist, the teacher broke the class up into two groups: males vs females. The females chose to be Republicans (after all, ladies before gentlemen)  . That left the males to be Democrats. All but one of them are conservative Republicans.

I planted seeds.

They asked me about military spending and I spoke to them about cost over-runs, drone wars creating more enemies, and cuts to the Veterans Administration. All done or started by Republicans. All sorts of military waste. They did some research and found what I said to be true.  Iraq.  Afghanistan.  Somalia.  Syria.

Education – They all hate the excessive amounts of tests that have to take. I told them about A nation at risk and how Diane Ravitch, one of the authors, came out against the report. Why it was written and how it was written. All backed up by cooked up evidence. Blame Ronald Reagan. And all the Common Core tests have their roots in George W. Bush's No child left behind Act. All President Obama did was take Bush II's policies to the next level. More research by them. What I said was correct.  Imagine that.

Religion – What does the First Amendment say? Oh yeah – religion can't be imposed upon people. It's a personal issue. And the Pledge of Allegiance was written by a Baptist minister and it didn't have the words “under God” in it. That was added during cold war fear mongering.

Gay Marriage and Rights? First Amendment, again? What about “big government sticking it's nose into people's lives and telling them what to do?" Trying to micromanage everything. They were all opposed to that.  After all, a person has to have their personal freedoms and we need to reign big government in.

Abortion? What does the First Amendment say? And the fact that the Planned Parenthood videos were doctored? Checks out. Wait – 97% of what Planned Parenthood does has nothing to do with abortion. They deal with prenatal care, delivery, and post natal care. They also help with women's health issues (cancer, STDs, rape) and even birth control education. What's preferable – birth control or abortion? Well, that answer was obvious. And the 97% statistic holds up.

Immigration. Drop the word illegal. Look at the US drug war in Mexico, NAFTA and CAFTA. What about US wars in SE Asia, Central America, CIA operations in South America. Who was coming over and when? What was US foreign policy? Cause and effect. The misguided US policy is the cause. Immigration is the effect.  And don't get me started on the CIA drug smuggling.  Ever hear of Iran-Contra?  

And that went on all morning and part of the afternoon. Whatever the issue, I gave a socialist answer that checked out.  It went against the Democrats as well.

Global Warming – Anyone read that article about Exxon suppressing climate research? Yes – climate change is happening and it is being greatly affected by man and carbon emissions. Oh wow. Not on Fox? But look at where this story is on the American, Canadian, and international news. Must be something to this.

I planted seeds. The seeds of doubt in their minds about what the Republicans really believe and who the Democrats say they are. I painted it as facts versus fiction.

Did I win anyone over? Not yet. A person has to hear something six times before it gets into their mind enough for them to really adopt it. But they heard it once from me and a second time when they and their team mates checked into the research. They'll hear it a third time in the debate and, if they want to win, they have to defend it strongly against their adversaries. Very easy with the resources they are pulling up.

How many will become socialists? I don't know. Some of them were starting to sound like an article out of the Socialist Action newspaper though.

I was planting seeds. They told me what they were personally interested in researching and I spoke only about that. They went further on their own.

I planted seeds. 

Now to make sure they get watered and keep the ground weeded.

Buffalo Teachers Ferderation - Union Strong

A quick note today.

The Buffalo Teacher's union has been working without a contract since 2004.

2015-2004 = 11 years.

Evidently there's “no money.”

Where did they find the money for the new superintendent? BTW – he makes almost the same amount in salary as the Chancellor of the NYC Schools.

And then add in his bonuses, etc. For a man with a sketchy & questionable record.

That money came from where?

What does that say to teachers that spend long hours writing lessons & grading papers on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights? And constantly take professional development to improve their skills. And at the same time try to figure out how to teach students what they really need to know and, at the same time,  prepare them for the common core tests. Tests that tell us nothing about the students' abilities. (Can anyone provide a study that shows otherwise? I haven't seen one.  Yet.)

What does that say to new teachers in the district that are looking at their salaries and apply to suburban districts where they can make more money for the same exact work?

How many quality and experienced teachers have left the district for better pay and benefits?

What does that say to parents that are seeing their schools closed or teachers laid off? The ideal class size is 15 students per teacher. Some classes have 25 – 30 students. What are students learning? And how?

What does that say to students who are in decrepit, crowded classrooms, with old textbooks that they can't take home to do work from? Students that don't have libraries or books to read that interest them. What message are they hearing from the Buffalo School Board?

Do students matter?

Then settle the contract.

Stand strong Buffalo Teachers Federation.

Their acronym is BTF.

I've had many excellent teachers when I was a student.

To those teachers, I think BTF meant Brighten Their Future.

That was their attitude towards their students.

Sad to say, that isn't the Buffalo School Board's attitude towards the teachers that make everything possible.

On this day in history.....

On this day in 1947, HUAC – the House Un-American Activities Committee began it's witch hunt of communists in Hollywood. Many people saw their careers shattered as this violation of First Amendment Rights proceeded.

This grew into the McCarthy Era insanity where communists were everywhere and had to be hunted down and, in some cases (like the Rosenbergs), murdered by the state on trumped up charges. (You can put a pun in there if you want.)

So many people that were abiding by their First Amendment rights had their lives destroyed. Freedom of speech and of the press. Freedom of association (peaceably assemble). Redress of grievances. All violated by the state out of some form of paranoia.

This paranoia dragged the US into the Vietnam war, which saw 58,000+ American servicemen and women die in combat and over 1 million Vietnamese killed as well. The aftermath of the war was worse – Agent Orange poisoning and PTSD with its high rates of alcoholism & drug abuse. Dare we look at the damage done to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos?

This happened before in American History. Look at the work that people did to organize unions. And the capitalists turned the power of the state against the workers.

Look at the WWI era United States, where President Wilson put the research of Walter Lippman into practice, lied the US into a war that was none of its business (sound familiar?) and jailed prominent socialists, like Eugene V. Debs. (By the way – running for president from jail, he still pulled in an incredible amount of votes. Over 100,000 when you had to be a 21+ year old male in order to vote at that time.)

Post WWI was as bad. Socialists were denied their seats in congress, driven out of political positions they were democratically elected to across the US. People were jailed. And J. Edgar Hoover began a reign of terror that lasted into the 1960's that would make Hitler, Stalin, and the East German Stasi proud.

Look at the Minneapolis strikes, Cleveland, and any time that workers rose up for their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and you will see the capitalists using (or trying to use) brutal force and the power of the state to put them down.

Thankfully it is hitting a wall. In the 18-30 year old demographic socialism is as acceptable as capitalism as an economic system. Even in the 30-50 year old range  support is growing as well. Look at the unemployment and under-employment rates among these groups and you can see the cracks in the facade of capitalism forming and growing.

People are getting tired of the stresses of capitalism and want something different. They are reading Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, and the many inspired additions to it. They are reading Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA and liking what they see.

We are approaching the Rubicon. Socialist ideas are being introduced and no matter how hard the media tries to ignore them, they keep leaking out. People are seeking out socialist writings and reading them on their own. The Internet, e-readers, and independent book shops are helping them get what they want – something different.  Something better.

Chicken Little is starting to scream “The sky is falling” again. And the people are saying “No. We remember the past.  And it's not worth the price .”

It's time for some socialist action. 

 

Let's go. 

We have nothing to lose but our chains.

The College Cost Crisis

So, why does college cost so much?

The Nation and Brave New Films report that colleges spend 7 times as much on sports as on actual academic programs.

Seven Times.
7x.

Seriously?  I went to UB for my Bachelor's and Master's degrees.  The number of adjunct professors back in 2000 was something that I have never experienced.  And it is getting worse.  Students not being able to take the classes they need to graduate and succeed in their chosen field.

Adjunct professors - Here this semester, gone the next.  What does that do for consistency in the program?  How does that affect the affect students?  Their confidence? Their knowledge?

David Zirin reports that if college sports were required to self-finance, after 1 year only 4 college football teams would be in the black.  Sounds like sports is not the cash cow that the true believers say it is. (I will find the link for this story.)

So with all this money that students are paying for sports, how are they supposed to afford college?

In the Buffalo News (October 11, 2015) Opinions section, Mitchell E.Daniels, Jr. proposes indentured servitude.  (Read the article "A prescription for student debt.")

What he proposes: Students sign a contract with a corporation to pay for their college.  After they graduate, they pay a portion of their income for a number of years to the corporation.  (I'm operating on the premise that the student will also be working for the corporation.)

That is the definition of being an indentured servant.
I thought that went out with the 1700's.  At least that's what my textbooks read.

So, students are taking out massive amounts of college debt, most of which pays for economically unfeasible sporting programs, and they are supposed to sell their souls to the 1% to pay for their future.

If pro-sports need players, let them start farm teams and pay for them out of their own profits.  It is bad enough that we are subsidizing the professional sports team stadiums (and the only publicly owned team is the Packers).  We pay for the concussions and all the other assorted damage that players accrue over the years.  And we have what to show for it?

Part time minimum wage jobs.  Seasonal at that.  And if you are working in a restaurant, even lower wages.

So,  what is to be done?

College is supposed to be about academics and academics alone.  Let the sports teams fund their own farm teams.  If the taxpayers are supposed to subsidize the teams and the stadiums, they should have part ownership & an appropriate share in the profits.

And at that, education is a human right and a social responsibility.  We all benefit from education.  All college education needs to be free to all.  Regardless of class,  race, gender, or age.

We have a crisis on our hands.  Its size is $1.3 trillion.
We owe our students and ourselves more and better than this.

Discussion Group Tonight (October 18, 2015) & Voting Rights

We are having out monthly discussion group tonight.

We will be discussing Leon Trotsky's Transitional Program.
Think of it like a bridge - how do we get from where we are to where we want to be.
Kind of our escape route from c(r)apitalism.

We will be transitioning to a discussion of A Transitional Program for Black Liberation. (I couldn't resist the pun.)
It needs some updating ($3/hour for wages? Try $15 NOW!) and other modernizations.  In reading it though, the demands and needs of the African American community have not changed.

If you are interested in joining in on the conversation, e-mail wnysocialist at gmail.com and I will send you the information. 

This leads me to an article that I read in the Buffalo News yesterday about this African American youth that was supporting Marco Rubio (I believe).  This is what the Republican Party "needs to do. " Reach out more to the "minorities."

In 2012 Herman Cain ran for president.  He was (& still is?) the head of the National Restaurant Association - an organization that has worked to keep wages in the restaurant industry down.  Waitresses still make $2.13 an hour plus tips.  I worked in the restaurant industry for 12 years and the number of women that I knew that worked full time as waitresses and still required food stamps and other public assistance was incredible.  Not to mention the wages of the kitchen staff (where I worked).

Now, in 2015/6, Ben Carson is running.  Another African American that "made it good" by becoming a brain surgeon.  How many African Americans, Latinos, Asians, and others never get to go to college because they went to substandard schools, were arrested for petty crimes, and went to jail/prison?

In the Black Transitional Program these people are referred to as "token examples" of capitalism's success story.

I'm not interested in a few people succeeding.  I'm interested in all people succeeding.  Capitalism has a few on top and the many on the bottom.  I want a fair playing field for all.

And Hillary was in the news because she spoke out against how Alabama was going to require voter ID cards (issued by the DMV) for voting AND THEN was going to close down DMV offices in predominantly African-American communities.  They (Alabama Republicans) have since retreated from that.  Who knows what they are planning to do next to disenfranchise those they do not like.

What about the African Americans that are denied the right to vote because the state they live in denies convicted felons the ability to vote?  What is the Democrat's plan to deal with that?

Did you hear a pin drop?

 I did.

Solar City's Aspirations

I waited a week before writing this because I wanted to see what the Buffalo media would say about the Solar City Protests.

Not enough.

The background: Governor Andrew “Status Cuomo” created the “Buffalo Billion” project – basically $1 billion in taxpayer dollars to bribe corporations to set up shop in WNY.  And then give them 10 years of "tax breaks" (taxpayers footing the bill for private profits that leave the state). 

Solar City took his offer of taxpayers footing the tax bill for the building of the Riverbend “Solar City” plant.

During the announcement of the plant “Status Cuomo,'” Mayor Brown, and the project managers promised that 25% of the workers hired would be minorities and women. The audits show otherwise. Just over 16% of the workers have been minorities and barely over 5.5% of the workers have been female.

The construction firm states that by using the law of averages that they have met the 25% goal. When that explanation fell flat, the goals became “aspirational.”

That's what capitalism does – It makes it's own definitions and rules so that no matter how much it fails to meet its promises, it did because they can change the rules to suit their purposes. If you average out the number of hours worked, they “met the goal.” If you don't buy that, then, well, you know, we'll just change the definition of success behind your back.

Capitalism and its empty promises.  It aspires to full employment.  It aspires to make everyone wealthy.  It aspires to provide good benefits and safe working conditions.  It all depends upon how you define "aspires."

Take #2: From reading the articles, I noticed it was the construction bosses and the union leaders against the African-Americans and women. It's the old “divide and conquer” the working class against itself trick. Put the unions against the non-unionized and let them fight it out.

There's a simple solution to that – unions need to open their doors more to the minorities and women. Reach out to the unemployed.  Build a united front against the bosses. In an era of declining union membership, and the resulting weakness that goes with it, it only makes sense for the unions to reach out and recruit the non-unionized.

Take #3: BUILD of Buffalo is right to monitor the hiring practices. But wouldn't it be better to use the “Buffalo Billions” to start up a solar manufacturing plant that would be headquartered in Buffalo? Owned by the people of Buffalo? Right now the profits from the company are leaving NYS. If the plant were owned by the people of Buffalo, or by the workers via a co-op, the profits would stay here, be spent here, and build up the economy right here in Buffalo and Erie County.

Take #4: And the medias' coverage of this was lame, to say the least. But look at who owns the media and you'll understand why. We need a worker's media – newspaper and TV/radio programs so that people get the worker's perspective.

The more I think about this, the different I see it.

Zombie houses from zombie capitalism

Thoughts on the October 15, 2015 article in the Buffalo News. Page 1. 

"Report tallies the costs of zombie homes n WNY."

It's about abandoned houses. Houses in foreclosure. In the rich suburbs. Dragging down property values and making the neighborhood look “bad.” Zombie houses eating up a good neighbourhood.  Orchard Park going down the drain.

Very little about abandoned houses in the city where a majority of the African American, Latino(a), Asian, and Middle Eastern people live. Or poor whites. Or anything about absentee landlords.

And the usual litany from the banks. “It's not the banks' fault,” “The process takes too long,” and so on.

There's a sentence or two on the sub-prime crisis. Banks loaning money to people that they knew the people would never be able to pay back. Nothing about the banks using churches to lure African Americans into bad loans. Nothing about how the houses were over-valued to begin with.

We all know that – but nobody wants to talk about it though.

Then there's the other side of capitalism: If you work hard enough & long enough you'll be able to enjoy the “good life.” 

Who believes that any more? 

In this economy? 

With what unemployment rate? 

Not the official one – the unofficial one. 

The one that counts the people that have given up on looking for work. 

The one that counts the people that are working below their degree (education level)? 

The one that counts people working 2, 3, or more jobs to make ends meet?

And the taxpayers are being stiffed $77,500 a year to take care of the properties.

So, what should be done?

As long as we're paying those taxes, let's use the houses. Bring in Habitat for Humanity and the various vocational schools & fix the houses up. Then, as Utah showed so well, move the homeless into them. They showed that it cost less to house the homeless in homes & apartments than to leave them on the streets or jail them. And since they were living in the houses, their condition (physical, mental, and emotional health) improved and some of them became productive members of society,

If a house is too far gone, tear it down & turn it into an urban garden. Let the community work it and harvest healthy and affordable food from it,  rather than buying junk food or food trucked in from who knows where.  Good organic gardening. People eating healthier foods will help improve their physical health (not to mention the mental health benefits from gardening).

And we give the bill to the banks that created the crisis in the first place.

Shaming the banks with signs on the lawns of the zombie houses won't change anything.

And it's not about zombie houses - It's about zombie capitalism.  Destroying everything of value in its pursuit of higher profits.

Get it right.

$2 Billion for what?

That's the amount that is going to be spent on advertising during the primary season,  or at least by the end of November 2015.

That's quite a chunk of money.

Status Cuomo gave us the "Buffalo Billion" to try and bribe capitalists to come set shop up in the Buffalo-Niagara region.

What could Buffalo, Niagara Falls, the suburbs, the south-towns do with $2 billion?

How about opening up the closed schools and hiring teachers so that class size diminishes?  Research show that the optimum class size is 15 students per teacher.  We have what in some of our schools?  30 students in a class?  What are they really learning?  What can the teacher really teach to a class that size?

Or open back up the community schools.  I grew up walking to my community school.  Then it was closed and students started getting bused all over Buffalo.  Miss the bus and that did what to your grades?  How many students would be in school if they could safely walk to the school rather than worry about trying to figure out some crazy bus schedule?

How about those pot hole pocked roads?  Not fill them, fix them.  In my economics classes in college the professors talked about transportation costs and networks and how they affected businesses.  Can the workers get to work?  What does a rotten road do to cars, trucks, buses?

How about the homeless?  Renovate houses and let them be occupied by people that need a place to live?  Utah found it less expensive to provide houses than other solutions (incarceration).

What about tearing down deadly houses and building community gardens where people could grow affordable food?  Healthy food.  How much would that cut down on obesity, diabetes, and other nutrition related health problems?

What about community health clinics?  Instead of travelling half way across the city for health care, go to a place that's less than 15 minutes away?  That you could walk to?

How about increasing and improving public transportation?  Fixing the Metro Rail stations, adding buses and routes, etc so that people can get around?

How about using that money to help people instead of trying to tell them what to think?

What ideas do you have?

How would you use $2B to improve WNY?

Giving the First Nations People some long overdue respect

Today Newstead joins other enlightened cities in celebrating Indigenous People's Day.

We have been taught a rosy view of Cristobol Colon (aka Christopher Columbus) and it is high time we started telling the truth about how Western European nations treated the First Nations peoples.

Read the writings of Bartholomew de las Casas on what he saw.
Read Colon's own writings - "These people will make great slaves."
No thank you.

Read Howard Zinn's  A People's History of the United States for a different perspective on settlement.

There is also Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States (ReVisioning American History).


Thank you to Don Esmonde for highlighting the great work that Justin Rooney did in bringing this change around.


Newstead prepares for its first Indigenous Peoples Day on Monday

And let us celebrate the hard work of the Seneca Nation with the renaming of "Squaw Island."
It is now "Unity Island" or Ga’nigo:i:yoh, pronounced ga’-nego-e-yah Island in the Seneca language.

There was a great article in the paper on Friday or Saturday.  This one will have to do for now.

"Feel the Bern" or "Get Berned?"

Today I read an article posted on International Viewpoint about the Bernie Sanders "phenomenon."

Ok.  Socialism is finally getting a discussion.  Actually, Northern European social democracy is getting a discussion.

I plan to develop this further in another post - Bernie Sanders is far from a socialist.  He advocates for a friendlier face on capitalism.  He is, at best, a reformer or a progressive.

He does raise some good points (single payer health care, breaking up the banks, and other reforms),  but these, for real socialists, are only starting points,.  For Bernie, they are the end.

And we must remember - Bernie said that if he does not win the nomination,  he would support the Democrat (capitalist) that did.  How does a socialist do this? In good conscience?

At the end on the article - the writer puts in a plug for Dr. Jill Stein and the Green Party.  Again, more reformers.  The Green Party wants to put an environmentally friendly face on capitalism.  It can not be done.  How does one destroy the earth in an environmentally friendly way?  (They can make their profits in an environmentally friendly way.  Right. As if.....)  Again, just trying to put make-up on the face of capitalism in order to make it look pretty.

Neither Bernie Sanders or the Green Party are truly socialist.  They have good talking points,  but their end all goal is only the start of the conversation for people who are serious about socialism.

I will develop a better critique in a later post.

The article I am typing about:  Millions Are “Feeling the Bern,” but What’s Next?

Check out the Socialist Action web site for articles  on Bernie Sanders.

Welcome to Socalist Action of WNY

This is the blog of Socialist Action of WNY.

Here we will provide a socialist perspective of the events that effect WNY - from the cities of Buffalo and Niagara Falls to the rural communities that make up all of WNY.

We are an organization that follows the Marxist - Leninist - Trotskyist lines.

We believe in democracy for all, regardless of race, gender, age, or creed.

For more on the national party visit Socialist Action

E-mail us at wnysocialist at gmail dot com

Thank you.