By Robert Wright
Kamala Harris, current Vice President and now Democratic Presidential Nominee, has secured endorsements from the National Educators Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).
The NEA is the largest union in the country and the AFT is the largest teachers union after the NEA. Both have been long time supporters of the Democratic Party and have been vital endorsers of their campaigns. Members of the NEA were to vote on a resolution at their recent National Convention that would’ve included unendorsing Joe Biden and condemning the US-Israel genocide, showing a divide between NEA rank-and-file and their union brass, until the NEA staff launched a picket line the morning of the conference that resulted in the convention being canceled. As people in the US and across the globe have risen up in droves to condemn the genocide in Gaza, the Democrats have only dug their heels into their loyalty to Zionist lobbies and the imperialist project of Israel.
Harris is now trying to appeal to the more progressive voters they lost from Biden’s genocidal hand in Israel’s slaughter. Through using buzzwords like “ceasefire” (but only for a few weeks!) and propping herself up on identity politics, she attempts to sanitize her hands from the blood despite giving bare faced support to Netanyahu. Harris did not attend Netanyahu’s recent speech to congress in an attempt to keep a facade of centrism. Rather, on the next day, she had a private one-on-one conversation with Netanyahu reaffirming her support for the Zionist project. That same morning, Harris gave the keynote speech at the American Federation of Teachers National Convention in Houston, Texas.
Barely days after Biden dropped out, both NEA and AFT endorsed Harris for President. NEA Today, the news outlet of the NEA, posted a “Guide to Kamala Harris’ Position on Key Education Issues”—a list that regurgitated the same failed campaign promises of the current Biden-Harris Presidency. Biden’s promises to make community college free, tuition-free universities for families that make under $125k a year, and student debt forgiveness have all failed or were under-delivered. Despite Biden’s stance against school vouchers, his opinion holds no weight as school vouchers are authorized through state funding, not federal funding. This holds Harris’s efforts dead in the water.
As previously covered, following a legal strike, the NEA locked out their own staff union (NEASO), which has continued for over a month. The NEA staff is the backbone of the union—yet the largest union in the U.S. is now acting the same as the most vile corporations.
As the unions attempt to shift the bloody image of the Democratic Party back to its mild liberal talking points, their “fight for education” has put on full blinders to the scholasticide in Gaza being perpetrated by the Democrats and spearheaded by the Biden-Harris Administration.
Photo: AFT union delegates vote to endorse Harris. The 74.
