We hope you had a great holiday, and that rest, renewal, and joy will be yours all year long.
Sam and I are almost ready to bring the season in for a landing, starting with the next episode (dropping this weekend!) where we talk about a book that has shaped the last several months of my work, and that I hope I will come back to for the rest of my life. Here’s a preview:
“A generous heart is always open, always ready to receive our going and coming. In the midst of such love we need never fear abandonment. This is the most precious gift true love offers – the experience of knowing we always belong.”
-bell hooks, All About Love: New Visions
Please continue to send your notes of support (or disagreement), whether they are comments on the blog, tweets to @radbureau, or emails to info@radicalbureaucrat.com. We’d love to hear your thoughts.
In love and truth,
Abram (and Sam)
Before You Go: In the News!
The 34,000 members of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) are on the verge of going on strike. This particular labor dispute interests us for a few reasons:
First, members of the UTLA moved the union to its current, more progressive stance through steady internal organizing and advocacy over the past two decades. These folks (full disclosure: including some friends of Sam) believed in the power of their labor union to make positive change, and the worked to change it from the inside at no small risk to themselves. They are true radical bureaucrats.
Second, the UTLA’s position is based in principles of social justice and includes a systemic critique, more so than any other teacher labor dispute we have observed.
And third, this labor dispute is following on the heels of recent teacher strikes in West Virginia, Arizona, Kentucky, and Oklahoma. Given the timing, and the fact that Los Angeles Unified School District is the second largest district in the nation, the potential strike may have major implications for education and labor policy nationwide.
For more information, listen to this recent interview with UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl and read this piece with an overview of the dispute. If you are in New York, there will be an event in solidarity with the UTLA this Saturday at 7pm at Verso Books in Brooklyn. Please follow the story and stay informed.