<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=3>I believe that there is some validity to both Doug's and Nathan's arguments,
<BR>although on different points, regarding the Mark Green candidacy for NYC
<BR>mayor.
<BR>
<BR>Doug is correct, I believe, that Mark Green is not the marvelous progressive
<BR>some make him out to be: he does not approach Villaragosa, the progressive
<BR>union-Latino candidate for the LA mayoralty. The notion that he stands heads
<BR>and shoulders above the other Democratic candidates, especially Ferrer and
<BR>Hevesi, just does not hold water. Much of the endorsements of him, such as
<BR>the Nation endorsement that made that completely overwrought evaluation of
<BR>his superiority, are based on personal-political associations of many years,
<BR>rather than an evaluation of his merits and demerits as a potential mayor. An
<BR>actual evaluation of the different candidates does not sustain the claims of
<BR>superiority from a progressive point of view.
<BR>
<BR>I had a real fight on the DSA listserv with Jim Chapin, someone with whom I
<BR>don't usually have such disagreements, over NYC DSA's and the Working
<BR>Families Party endorsements of Green. I characterized Green as a patrician
<BR>liberal -- a particular NYC type, straight out of the Upper East Side, with a
<BR>know-it-all, noblese oblige worldview. In this respect, he follows very
<BR>closely the last NYC mayor from the Upper East Side, John Lindsay. Green
<BR>parades his Harvard law degree like it was a royal pedigree, and he is known
<BR>inside NYC progressive political circles as a very obnoxious person -- right
<BR>up there in the Bella Abzug league -- with whom it is difficult to maintain
<BR>civil relations and virtually impossible to work for. His support is
<BR>relatively broad at this point in the contest, but I do not think that it is
<BR>that deep, and it may well be tested in a two person run-off primary.
<BR>
<BR>Like Lindsay, Green has a strained relationship with the NYC trade union
<BR>movement. His campaign speaks of being endorsed by 22 different unions, but
<BR>it carefully avoids going into particulars since the list does not include
<BR>any of the big three in electoral terms [1199/SEIU, UFT, DC 37/AFSCME].
<BR>Rather, the list has a number of Teamster locals endorsements, and some small
<BR>outfits -- the Deputy Wardens Association and the Fire Department Fire
<BR>Protection Inspectors -- that most people in the labor movement would not
<BR>recognize. DC 37/AFSCME endorsed Vallone; there is some disagreement among
<BR>the locals within it on that endorsement, but not in Green's favor; they
<BR>would rather have endorsed Ferrer. The UFT Executive Board vote to recommend
<BR>the endorsement of Hevesi yesterday, and the Delegate Assembly is most likely
<BR>to support that recommendation. My friends in 1199/SEIU tell me that an
<BR>endorsement of Green from that quarter is unlikely. Certainly, there will be
<BR>no Central Labor Council endorsement of Green.
<BR>
<BR>The UFT endorsement of Hevesi makes perfect sense from the vantage point of
<BR>our particular concerns for public education and teachers. On these issues,
<BR>Hevesi -- and Ferrer, too, to a lesser degree -- is far better than Green.
<BR>Despite two terms as Public Advocate, Green has no record to speak of public
<BR>education. The main educational plank of his platform is to lower class size
<BR>in the K-3 grades, a proposal which has already been under implementation for
<BR>a number of years, so it would provide minimal change for the better. [Since
<BR>NYC public schools are so overcrowded, a lot of schools lack the physical
<BR>space to create more, smaller classes, even if they were given the additional
<BR>teachers.] He equivocates on raising teacher salaries, despite the fact that
<BR>the current gap of approximately 25% with suburban teacher salaries is
<BR>creating a massive teacher shortage in city schools. He talks about rewarding
<BR>merit in ways that sound very much like Guiliani's merit pay schemes. By
<BR>contrast, Hevesi has a very thought out plan for how to improve the public
<BR>schools, and has pledged to raise taxes for that purpose, if he can not find
<BR>sufficient funds in the general budget. [This is important because Guiliani
<BR>is creating a 'poison pill' budget now with significant tax decreases which
<BR>would make it very difficult to have any spending initiatives in the budgets
<BR>of the coming years.] Ferrer has also detailed a plan on how to pay for
<BR>improvements. Neither Vallone nor Green has done so. Hevesi has flaws as a
<BR>candidate, but they are not in the area of public education.
<BR>
<BR>There is a history of bad blood and antagonism between Green and the UFT
<BR>President, Randi Weingarten, to the extent that it has been discussed in the
<BR>NY Times on several occasions. I would not be entirely surprised if there was
<BR>a teacher strike during his first year of office, since teachers have waited
<BR>far too long for a new contract to put with some of the antagonistic nonsense
<BR>he has communicated to the UFT. This could well be his undoing, just as the
<BR>TWU strike led by Mike Quill was the undoing of Lindsay when he first entered
<BR>office.
<BR>
<BR>I disagree with Doug, however, in his general maximalist approach to this and
<BR>other elections, always seeking the politically correct candidate on every
<BR>issue. Moreover, I believe that a progressive candidate can and should have a
<BR>position of how to reduce crime. Crime is highest in the inner city, and it
<BR>is poor folk and folk of color who suffer most from it. On top of that, under
<BR>the Guiliani regime, they have had to fear an out of control police that
<BR>often posed as much of a threat to them as the criminals. A progressive
<BR>platform on crime would advocate policies to ensure that poor communities
<BR>received the same quality of protection as the rich, and that police
<BR>respected people of color.
<BR>
<BR>I also think that Doug is off the mark on what he thinks NYC unions could and
<BR>should have done under the Guiliani regime. But it is late at night. I will
<BR>go into it tomorrow if anyone cares to know.
<BR>
<BR>Leo Casey
<BR>United Federation of Teachers
<BR>260 Park Avenue South
<BR>New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869)
<BR>
<BR>Power concedes nothing without a demand.
<BR>It never has, and it never will.
<BR>If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
<BR>Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men who
<BR>want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and
<BR>lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters.
<BR><P ALIGN=CENTER>-- Frederick Douglass --</P></FONT></HTML>