In 1989, the year Dinkens won the mayoralty, by beating Koch in the primary and Guiliani in the general election, he had the UFT's support, and we played a major role in his narrow general election victory.
In his one term of office, Dinkens allowed Koch holdovers such as Deputy Mayor Norman Steisel [later to be arrested for picking up prostitutes at a Dunkin' Donuts in the lower Park Slope] to run the city government, and the UFT went for a number of years without a contract as a result. By the end of the first term of office, anger at Dinkens within the ranks was very high. I have little doubt that a membership referendum would have supported Guiliani. The leadership, however, successfully won a position of neutrality over some internal opposition in 1993.
In 1993, when DC 37 and the CSA [Principal and Assistant Principal union] endorsed Guiliani, and when even 1199 flirted with endorsing Guiliani before deciding to remain neutral, the UFT was neutral from start to finish. [In addition to the fact that Messinger was clearly not going to win, she was never particularly friendly to the UFT.]
In sum, in the elections during which Dinkens ran for mayor, the UFT supported him once, and remained neutral the other time. The UFT never supported Guiliani in any of his three races.
I am sure that Hess knows nothing about the positions any of the candidates has taken concerning public education. Insofar as members in the UFT ranks have paid attention to this primary, I would say that most would support either Hevesi or Ferrer.
> on a side note: on yesterday's evening news on WBAI, their commentator john
> hess [sp?] lamented the behaviour of the UFT in their opposing dinkins and
> support guiliani and now hevesi, suggesting that what the UFT "management"
> (thats my word - leaders would be better?) want is quite the opposite of
> what is good for the members of the organization (and that this has been a
> trend since shanker).
>
Leo Casey United Federation of Teachers 260 Park Avenue South New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869)
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has, and it never will. If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. -- Frederick Douglass --
-------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <../attachments/20010817/fc291a06/attachment.htm>