Speech of Karen Lewis of CORE to the June 2, 2010 meeting of the CTU House of Delegates
[Editor's Note: The following speech was delivered by Karen Lewis, CORE candidate for president of the Chicago Teachers Union, to the union's June 2, 2010, House of Delegates meeting. The two candidates for president each got five minutes to speak. Substance has again asked the United Progressive Caucus for a copy of the speech of Marilyn Stewart and for a caucus contact so that Substance reporters can cover this story accurately between now and the June 11 runoff].
Because the Chicago Teachers Union has refused to share its own photographs with Substance and refuses to allow reporters to cover the campaign activities that take place at the meetings of the House of Delegates, Substance does not have any photographs of Karen Lewis of CORE delivering her campaign speech to the House on June 2, 2010. The above photograph was taken following the June 2 meeting at Connie's Pizza on Archer Ave. in Chicago, where Karen Lewis (second from left) was joined by three of the other candidates who ran for president in the May 21 CTU election. Left to right above: Ted Hajiharis (SEA caucus candidate), Karen Lewis, Linda Porter (CSDU candidate), and Deborah Lynch (PACT candidate). All of them have endorsed Karen Lewis and CORE against the UPC and Marilyn Stewart in the June 11 runoff. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.Good afternoon. I would like to thank PACT, CSDU and SEA for running an honest campaign on the issues and for their support. I am honored … and exhilarated. Those of you who are unaligned and voted for CORE, thank you.
Last week’s rally was incredible, wasn’t it? All of us in this room turned out thousands of people to tell Huberman and Daley "No" -- stop destroying our neighborhood schools and trying to bust our union.
We should have done this every year for the past six years.
Because for years there has been a well-funded national smear campaign against public school teachers. Gains we won over 70 years of struggle are being stripped away. I have taught in this system for over 20 years and I have never seen this level of attack – scapegoating educators for all that ails urban schools.
But on June 11th we have a good chance of ending this business as usual, top-down unionism.
The most important thing Union leaders do is build consensus and organize members to speak and act as ONE. But who has heard our voice in the past 6 years? Who has seen a real fight against privatizing Chicago’s schools? Big business sees K-12 public education as $350 billion they weren’t getting a piece of. Why haven’t we heard our leadership attack that profit motive – and PROVE IT? Why has our union seemed complicit in its silence?
My opponent charges that we aren’t experienced despite the fact that we worked to stop 12 school closing and saved a thousand jobs. We had to sue the Board for budget and TIF details so we DON’T have to reopen the contract. You can’t talk numbers if you don’t have real information. We have the former vice-president of CTU, Howard Heath, who has not only negotiated a contract, he’s a mathematician who can crunch the numbers with the best of them.
We’ve got lawyers and old contracts so we’re ready!
Let me share something with you. You already know that I’m the wife and daughter of CTU members and I went to Chicago Public Schools. But I am the only Black woman in the class of 1974 at Dartmouth College, and I got that degree when I was 20 years old. I know how to stand strong in the face of adversity and win. I am not afraid. Never have been.
The current leadership claims that the safe bet now is to stay the course.
Clearly members didn’t buy that. Two-thirds voted against the very candidate Huberman has backed in secret meetings over the last couple months. On May 25 we said NO to repeating “the Marilyn experience” that cost 6,000 members their jobs. We said NO to pension raids. We said NO to the unchecked powers of abusive principals. We said No to rising class sizes. We’re going to bring real technology to this union so our members have access to relevant information. We’re going to have real delegate training so everyone knows how to run an election smoothly, help the members in our schools and provide professional development that makes us more effective educators and unionists.
We will have a political strategy that is based on our ability to initiate and take the lead on legislation, not wait until the hammer drops — especially after the beating we just took in Springfield with the pension raid, the diabetes fiasco and a voucher bill that just won’t die. Oh yeah — we’re ready.
So, I ask you today, will we stand united? Will we stop the attacks on our members because an injury to one is an injury to all. CORE represents what called us to the teaching profession in the first place. That commitment must be fused in our Union’s work every day. Let’s rebuild our spirit, our public image and harness the power of 30,000 members. Reclaim the joy of teaching and learning.
By: J.S. Whitfield
"An injury to one is an injury to all"
The last thing that Ms. Lewis said, thus ending her fine speech at the CTU house meeting last Wednesday was: "an injury to one is an injury to all."
"One big Union Karen !
! Que` viva CORE !