TEACHING IS WORK

Attended a powerful GSOC rally at NYU Thursday. Chris Quinn - proudly introduced by the UAW's Secretary-Treasurer as the first woman and first gay person to lead New York's City Council - spoke insightfully about the fundamental rights at stake in these teachers' fight to save the union they won. The most compelling of the speakers with Amy LeClair, one of the teachers NYU is locking out of future work. As she said:

Teaching is an enormous responsibility, and I take that very seriously. Teaching is work – hard work – and anyone that does not understand that, that teaching is work, should not be in the business of education. The university administration has reminded me time and time again of my obligations to my undergraduate students. And now my stipend is going to be terminated, I am essentially being fired from my JOB for not only the current but future semester as well, because I am not fulfilling my responsibilities. But as one of my colleagues so astutely pointed out, with responsibilities come rights.

From there, I took the A Train over to a great fundraiser for Students for a New American Politics with Geraldine Ferraro, who spoke to the importance of SNAP's mission:

I wasn't a student activist in college because my father had died when I was eight and I had to work some nights, most weekends and every summer to help my mother financially. That's why I'm glad that with the help of SNAP, students who are financially strapped as I was, can still participate in the process.

More on that here. You can donate to help SNAP send students to work on progressive congressional campaigns this summer here.