AFT Civil Rights Conference: Help Turn America Around

by James Parks, Oct 27, 2009

Public school teachers must work hard to make the nation’s schools places where the suffering of the nation’s children is alleviated. In her keynote address to AFT‘s Civil, Human and Women’s Rights conference, Oct. 23-25 in Miami, union President Randi Weingarten said teachers can help turn America around by advocating for change inside and outside the classroom. 

Building on the conference theme, “Rise, Advocate, Collaborate, Educate: Our Civil Rights,” Weingarten urged the hundreds of union members and allies to fight for health care reform, affordable housing and after-school activities for students, as well as for tools and resources in the classroom.

Said Weingarten: 

We know that it takes a village to raise children. We have to pull in partners and fight to ensure that parents and children get the services they need.

For eight years, the country operated under the mantra: “rich is good, regulation is bad,” Weingarten said.

It was a system that led to the credit crisis, the mortgage crisis, and the freezes and furloughs that many of us are dealing with right now….Imagine what would have happened without the stimulus package. [But] the work is not done. People are still suffering.

She pointed to public schools as a place where we can begin to alleviate some of that suffering.

Schools are sometimes the only safe haven children have. That’s why we are focused on community schools. Right now, most parents have to leave their community to get the services they need. Imagine if that help was right next door?

Over three days, delegates discussed ways to build union power, the impact of the 2010 U.S. census and strategies to boost connections with younger workers.

During a panel on diversity, AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer William Lucy, president of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU), pointed to the AFL-CIO’s resolution to ensure that its union leadership looks like its members as a model for unions to follow.

Said Lucy:

We need to focus on the diverse pool of young people who should be given the opportunity to participate.

Maria Echaveste, former deputy chief of staff to President Clinton, also spoke to the conference.

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