A core problem in discussions of racism IS the focus on individual attitudes rather than on structural inequities. hat do you picture when someone refers to the “Trump’s base”? If you’ve watched television coverage of his rallies or read any of the dozens of articles...
Get Active News
CFT Legislative Update 2019
INTRODUCTION September 13, 2019 marked the end of the first year of the two-year legislative session. The legislature will be on Interim Recess until January 6, 2020. The governor had until October 13, 2019 to sign or veto those bills that made it to his desk. An...
Much Needed Proposition 13 Reform is on the Way with Schools and Communities First
By James Miller There is a movement afoot to reform Proposition 13, with community organizations aligned with labor promoting the Schools and Communities First ballot measure. Why would anyone want to touch the third rail of California politics? The answer is...
American Inequality is Still Surging Along, Now is the Time to Finally Address It.
By James Miller Despite the mainstream media chorus about our “good economy” things aren’t so great for the average American worker when 4 in 10 Americans couldn’t put together $400 in cash to meet an emergency expense, 6 in 10 couldn’t meet 3 months of expenses if...
Labor Day 2019: Unions Weather the Storm and Look to Build a Brighter Future
These last few years have been particularly challenging times for the American Labor movement as we’ve faced everything from a host of anti-labor policies coming from Washington to a Supreme Court decision designed to gut public sector unions. The good news is that...
Unions and marketing: commodity fetishism and American labor
As I pondered the theme for this month’s issue of the Chaparral – marketing – I simply could not escape how our current consumer culture, based on the use of mass marketing campaigns, serves to isolate and alienate workers and the labor movement from American society....
Broad Discontent Amongst Teachers Nationally: New Poll Shows Support for Striking High And Not Just for Higher Pay
A recent poll released by PDK shows widespread discontent among teachers nationally. According to the annual poll done by this association of teachers, administrators, and other educational professionals, six out of ten teachers report feeling dissatisfied,...
CFT Calls for Accountablity at New Online-Only College, May Take Legal Action
This summer, California Federation of Teachers (CFT) President Jeff Freitas and CFT Community College Council President Jim Mahler testified before the Board of Trustees of California’s online-only community college. In that testimony (and in an accompanying letter),...
Help on the Way?: Two Potential Tax Measures seek to More Adequately Fund Education by Taxing Big Corporations and the Rich
As we head toward 2020, there are two tax measures that may be on the November ballot. The first of which, the Schools and Communities First (insert link: https://schoolsandcommunitiesfirst.org) measure, seeks to reform Proposition 13 by allowing the state to...
The College Admission Scandal Holds a Mirror Up to the Myth of Meritocracy in Higher Education
This is who we are now: a country where the criminal rich brazenly buy their kids’ ways into elite colleges while the sons and daughters of ordinary Americans scrape and claw to gain admission and then struggle to pay for the skyrocketing costs of higher education. ...
