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THE PATRIOT RETURNS |
Vol. 49, No.3 September 30, 2009
NEW CAUCUS TURNS
In recent days, we all have been swamped with e-mails instructing us to vote for the PSC-endorsed candidates. Fortunately, voters in one Queens City Council district ignored that advice. Under the diktat of “Sidekick Steve” London---who, after having nearly bankrupted the Welfare Fund is now described as the PSC's chief political officer---the New Caucus sided with incumbent Helen Sears. Sears, described as all but inert by most City Hall observers, unsurprisingly attracted a spirited challenge, and as the campaign proceeded, her chief opponent became an openly gay man, Daniel Dromm. As Sears' lead in polls eroded, anonymous mailings flooded the district with homophobic smears against Dromm. The ugliness of the attacks even prompted The Advocate, the nation's leading gay and lesbian publication, to profile the race. But while the other candidates in the race denounced the smears, Sears remained silent. If homophobia could get the PSC-endorsed candidate reelected, then the PSC-endorsed candidate would use homophobia to win. The endorsement of Sears even generated one complaint from the usually rubber-stamp PSC delegate assembly. That prompted our Dear Leader, Barbara Bowen, to step in: "The committee recommending endorsements worked for more than six hours one July afternoon, considering each candidate carefully after listening to reports on the candidates in each borough." Apparently silence in the face of homophobia isn't enough to disqualify a politician from receiving the New Caucus' endorsement. By the way, Dromm won. Perhaps it's time for some "sensitivity training" regarding the evils of homophobia for the New Caucus leadership?
BARRON'S ON BOARD! Having been safely re-elected, the New Caucus no longer has any reason to conceal its anti-Israel zealotry. And so, in perhaps the least surprising news from the Steve London committee, the PSC extended its official endorsement to City Council member Charles Barron. That's the same Charles Barron who had just joined the Israel-bashing former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney on an illegal "mission" to Gaza, and who denounced Mayor Bloomberg for having the audacity to visit Israel and say that Israelis had a right to self-defense . By the way, this year's three city-wide elections (mayoral, public advocate runoff, comptroller runoff) all happened to feature one Jewish candidate running against one non-Jewish candidate. We're sure it's just a coincidence that in each of the races, the PSC political arm endorsed the non-Jewish candidate. But Councilor Barron would surely approve!
NEW CAUCUS RETURNS Now that our Dear Leader doesn't have to present herself as a ‘friend of Israel,' she can send out e-mail missives such as a recent one from PSC headquarters requesting assistance for a PSC venture with "US Labor Against the War." And what, again, is this organization? It was founded---and funded---by NYC Labor Against the War, an organization that traced its roots to an October 2001 NYC Labor Anti-War (NYCLAW) Statement that included the following assertion: "The United States and its allies have already inflicted widespread suffering on innocent people in such places as Iraq, Sudan, Israel and the Occupied Territories, the former Yugoslavia and Latin America." The Dear Leader was one of 12 "principal officers" who placed her signature on, and her presidential prestige behind, the statement. And the Dear Leader wasn't done with NYCLAW. In 2004, Dr. Bowen conferred upon Michael Letwin, head of NYCLAW, the PSC's top honor, "Friend of CUNY," just after Letwin and NYCLAW proposed that all unions (1) demand "the right of all Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and land"; (2) "an end to U.S. military and economic support for Israeli Apartheid"; and (3) "divest all labor investments in Israeli Apartheid." It's nice to see that the Dear Leader is back with her old friends.
-------------------- Readers please note: Research Foundation employees ARE NOT EMPLOYEES OF THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK, NOR ARE THEY CITY OR STATE EMPLOYEES. Thus the inclusion of RF employees under the banner of the PSC represents a departure from the PSC as representative of CUNY professional staff only. While PSC may argue otherwise, this inclusion dilutes the influence of CUNY professional staff in what was at one time "our" labor union. The Patriot also wishes to inform its readers that the vote by RF members to organize under the banner of the PSC only required a majority vote of those casting ballots. Of the members of RF who did not cast ballots, many assumed that not casting a ballot was "not voting for" the PSC. However since only a majority of "ballots cast" was needed, the PSC is able to bring under its oppressive banner a whole employee group of whom only a gullible minority actually cast ballots "for." --------------------
An open invitation to All Research Foundation Employees to join the Heroic new Caucus Union in our glorious Unionary struggle Dear Research Foundationers, If you REALLY want to know how much we will cherish and respect you, just take a look at how attentive we are to the needs of the HEOs and CLTs. That will put any doubt to rest about how you can expect to be treated! L. Noteduermas Sharad Karkhanis, Ph.D.
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