CUNY Alliance
presidential candidate Fred Brodzinski has been circulating
emails to hundreds of individuals charging that the New Caucus
and PSC leadership are anti-Israel. The charges are
absolutely false.
He is circulating a
discredited article published several years ago that quotes
current CA candidates and ultra-conservative National
Association of Scholars members.
First CA circulated
lies and disinformation about salary increases and the Welfare
Fund. When PSC members rejected these falsehoods, they accelerated
a new disinformation campaign.
What are the facts
about the PSC and resolutions on Israel?
The PSC
leadership took a public position opposing the proposed boycotts
of two Israeli universities by the British faculty union, the
Association of University Teachers. (DA Resolution, June 21,
2007). Barbara Bowen, a member of the Executive Council of our
national affiliate, the American Federation of teachers, helped
to craft the Council’s resolution opposing the boycott (http://www.aft.org/about/resolutions/2005/aut-boycott.htm)
The PSC’s
representative to the AAUP Committee on Academic Freedom helped
to create the AAUP’s statement, also in opposition to the
boycott.
The PSC has passed
two other resolutions touching on Israel. One, recently passed,
declared “that the Delegate Assembly take no position on the
Israeli/Palestinian conflict at this time and that it encourage
delegates to the DA to hold conversations with members on whether
the union should take a position on this issue.” That resolution
was preceded by a respectful debate among delegates, during which
two proposed resolutions opposing Israel's actions in Gaza failed.
In a democratic union, all delegates are entitled to offer
resolutions and open debate is encouraged.
A second
resolution passed on
December 13, 2007, by
the PSC Delegate Assembly included the following statement in a
resolution opposing expansion of the Iraq war into Iran,
“Resolved, that NYSUT unequivocally condemn the reactionary
regime of Ahmadinejad and his shameful, anti-Semitic Holocaust
denials.”
To foster the
innuendo that the New Caucus PSC leadership is anti-Semitic or
“anti-Israel” is simply malicious. It’s also a familiar
technique of those who wish to stifle free speech and suggest
that any discussion and analysis of the volatile situation in
the Mideast is out of bounds.
Reject This Kind of
Campaigning. Vote For Barbara Bowen And The New Caucus Slate.
