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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Getting back to this late. Just finished a
move to Jersey City and had problems with my computer.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I actually don't necessarily disagree with anything
Leo said about comparing Green to the other progressive Dems like Hevesi or
Ferrer. What is encouraging is that all three have good strong progressive
positions in a wide range of areas. I met Green once and he did seem to
have a stick up his ass - not on the level of Jerry Brown who ranks as the
number one politician who nearly instantly alienated me as one of the biggest
personal ass----- I ever met, but I can see where Green could be
problematic. He was a Naderite, which implies both good things and a
certain lone wolf holier-than-thou approach to politics.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>But that is a separate issue from the issue
criticism that Doug was making about Green. We should be glad that there
are real contenders for mayor who are arguably to the left of Green-- it implies
a great step forward from the years of Guiliani.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>Nathan Newman<BR><A
href="mailto:nathan@newman.org">nathan@newman.org</A><BR><A
href="http://www.nathannewman.org">http://www.nathannewman.org</A></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=LeoCasey@aol.com href="mailto:LeoCasey@aol.com">LeoCasey@aol.com</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=lbo-talk@lists.panix.com
href="mailto:lbo-talk@lists.panix.com">lbo-talk@lists.panix.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Friday, August 17, 2001 12:18
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Mark Green: Dilettante Wanker or
Patrician Liberal?</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><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></BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></FONT></BODY></HTML>