Chicago Teachers Union Calls for Ceasefire in Palestine and Israel

Today we are talking with members of the Chicago Teachers Union, Ayesha Qazi, David Stieber and Hadeil Abdelfattah. As you may remember from our episode on the victory Chicago’s mayor, a former CTU member, Chicago’s students and educators have lived through a neoliberal hell. From 2003 to 2013 Chicago closed 50 schools, only making conditions for students worse. These closures moved the members of the teachers union to become militant. Their militancy changed the direction of Chicago’s education politics and reignited a labor movement in America that starting to reverse decades of decline of US union membership. Chicago educators recently joined 146 other unions, locals and caucuses, including United Auto Workers, United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of America and Association of Flight Attendants, signing a letter calling for basics rights to be restored in Gaza, hostages to be released, and for Biden to call for a ceasefire. 

Ayesha Qazi-Lampert is an AP Environmental Science Teacher at Chicago Public Schools. She is a member of the Chicago Teacher Union Climate Justice committee and is the Chair of the American Federation of Teachers Climate and Environmental Justice Caucus 

Dave Stieber is a 17 year Chicago Public Schools high school social studies and poetry teacher. He is National Board Certified and hold his Masters in Urban Education Policy. His partner is also a CPS teacher and together they have two children that both attend CPS.

Hadeil M. Abdelfattah, Ed.D. is a Palestinian-American born and raised on the northside of the city of Chicago. She is an educator of nearly 28 years and is currently a Lead Instructional Coach at Chicago Public Schools. She holds a doctorate in Educational Leadership and wrote an Autoethnographic study of her experiences as the child of immigrants in a large urban school district. 

Our Union Called for a Cease-Fire. It's About Our Students. (In These Times)

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Transcript

Elton LK: 0:00

You are listening to class and official podcast of the Democratic Socialists of America National Political Education Committee. My name is Elton, LK. In this episode, I had the honor to meet with some good people. This one is a little more personal. Today we are talking with the members of the Chicago Teachers Union, Azi, David Steber, and Hadil Abta. This episode is a little more personal because my family has a lot of school teachers in it. Also, my wife and I lived in Chicago for a few years. As you may remember from our episode on the victory of the current mayor of Chicago, Brandon Johnson, a former CTU member. Chicago students and educators have lived through a neoliberal hell. My wife and I experienced a small piece of that in 2006, right before the housing boom went bust. Investors were rapidly converting all the apartments in Chicago to condos. There were almost no affordable apartments and we had almost no money. So after several stressful months, we determined our time in Chicago was over schools in Chicago were famously underfunded. During that time, from 2003 to 2013, Chicago closed 50 schools only making conditions for students worse. These closures moved to the members of the teacher's union to become militant. Their militancy changed the direction of Chicago's education, politics, and reignited a labor movement in America that is starting to reverse decades of decline of US Union membership. Chicago educators recently joined 146 other unions, locals and caucuses including United Auto Workers. United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of America, an association of flight attendants signing a letter calling for basic rights to be restored in Gaza, hostages to be released, and for Biden to call for a ceasefire. I also just heard that SEIU, that is the Service Employees International Union, just called for a ceasefire. I found out first about the letter from a piece David wrote, and in these times, note that as I record this, Israel just announced that they're willing to consider a two month pause. We need to continue calling for a permanent ceasefire. Okay, let's meet our guests. Can you please introduce yourself

Ayesha T: 2:35

so good evening everyone. My name is Lampert.

Dave Stieber: 2:40

Good evening everyone. Uh, my name's Dave.

Hadeil Abdelfattah: 2:42

My name is born and raised on the north side of the city. Um, born to, uh, immigrant, Palestinian parents that came in the late, early seventies, so it's great to be here.

Elton LK: 2:54

So first question, what motivated you in. The Chicago Teachers Union to add your name to a letter with other unions calling for an immediate ceasefire in Israel and Palestine.

Hadeil Abdelfattah: 3:08

For myself, it was just a natural thing to do considering I'm. Um, have visited my my parents' homeland many, many times, um, and after having just been there this past summer, um, and wondering like, how do people live there on a daily basis, um, with all the difficulties, the nuances that an average person here in America doesn't have to face. So it was, for me, it was a no brainer.,

Dave Stieber: 3:36

to give a little context too, so, you know, after October 7th happened, you know, like obviously many teachers were aware of just the issues in Palestine over the course of history. Um, but after October 7th happened, it really kind of awakened a lot of teachers and so. To get even to the signing onto the letter was, you know, a discussion that was brought to CTU leadership, by members. Like Aisha had like lots of people like, who like brought this to, you know, to like, to membership and like, Hey, we need to do something about this, right? So the discussion was what do we do as a union? Like we've never been involved in international matters before. Do we even have a place in international matters? Like all those discussions were happening. Um, kind of behind the scenes, right, amongst the members, um, behind the scenes of the general public. And so, you know, it was because of teachers who care and love their students and care and love about other educators and care and love about people, period. That. That discussion really started gaining momentum as to, you know, as a union, we need to come out and take a stand on this, right? We need to show up for our students, show up for our colleagues, and show up for just people in humanity. And so it was like, what do we do? How do we do it? You know? And then there was lots of discussions for a few weeks. Um. Multiple discussions, um, about what we do. And then the res, the idea to kind of sign on, came through the members, went through small committees, went through the executive board, went to the House of Delegates where we were voted on it as a whole, right? And so it was, it was a very democratic process that for people who really care about the issue, felt slow. But in the hindsight, it was like, you know, a couple week process. And we signed this letter November 1st, and we're still waiting for our federal government to call for a ceasefire now here in January.

Ayesha T: 5:18

And I wanna add, it was really easy for me to sign on and support this for many different reasons, given the various identities that I carry. For example, I'm Bush. Which is an Afghan identity. And coming from the Afghan diaspora, our country just came out of the longest war ever in history. The, um, war in Afghanistan, which lasted about, about 19 years and 10 months. And so thinking about the impact it has on generations of Afghans and Afghans within diaspora, but also I teach. Environmental environmental science. I teach AP environmental science, and I think about the environmental degradation and the disrespect and disregard of earth and all living things. I also think from the labor, movement and perspective, the impact the environment has on workers, worker protections, fight over resources. Economic impacts job security. So there's many different intersections into this type of work. And so this collective drive and need to make sure that this never happens again to anyone, uh, and making sure that we are on the right side of history, promoting peace, and modeling what peace looks like.

Elton LK: 6:37

So what kind of organizing had to occur in order to pass this resolution? How did you determine you had the support of the community that you needed?

Ayesha T: 6:48

I'm gonna jump in right away because I would say that organizing was happening for a very long time at CTU and I look back tog. War and the developments of us pulling out from the Afghan War. I was supporting young Afghan youth within the Chicago community and, um, the Afghan youth in my community helped to community protest downtown, and I had CTU Corps members show up to that protest and that was my way of getting involved in. The Chicago Teachers Union in core is when I saw core members present in that space and that international solidarity that they were showing beyond teaching, that pulled me into that space. And it's been many years of just collaboration and friendships and connecting with people within the union that had the strong moral compass. And for me it was always Palestine. Uh, war was a litmus test for me to see where people's values were. And by seeing people outside of the elements of teaching and being in these solidarity spaces, I had a clear idea where people were standing and I felt comfortable during moments of.

Hadeil Abdelfattah: 8:00

I don't know that there's much more to add to it than what, uh. I should just shared, um, I think, you know, as, as educators in one of the largest school districts in the country, that serves such a mix of students, um, how could you stay silent when. You know that students who are both invisible and hyper visible, um, are, are ignored. And to say that they don't exist would be an injustice within itself. And so, um. You know, every child's life matters. Whether they are here in Chicago or in New York, or in Florida, or in California or in Reza. I mean, we have to acknowledge that as educators, we have the most profound impact on a child. Probably alongside their parents. For those that have parents and right now the number of of children who have lost their lives and who have lost their parents is just horrendous.

Dave Stieber: 9:11

I didn't come into teaching thinking like, this is gonna be easy. Right? Like the first school I worked at. I remember walking into the building and it legit felt like a prison. Like there was like a, like a, a lookup and there was like glass windows around this little courtyard that looked down into like where the students were. And the community had been disinvested in, right? It had been, it was a school that had been closed and then reopened and it was just this whole process of disinvestment over and over and over. And so that's teaching our students here in Chicago, and that's what you experience as a teacher. And so. When you first start teaching, you look around and be like, why do our students not have everything that they possibly deserve? And then you go through like, how can I teach them that they can get everything they they deserve if they're having to come to a space where there's networking computers and these types of things. This is like 20 2007, right? And so. Core and Karen Lewis and the Chicago Teachers Union radically changed, right? In 2012. Because I remember going as a delegate, going to a meeting before Karen Lewis came up and being like, what are we talking about here? Like, what is this? Right? And then it, there was a dramatic shift, right? And so that shift has evolved from not only advocating for everything our students deserve in the city, right? But then starting to think about. Outside of our classroom, like what do they deserve in their community? What does they deserve across, you know, everything, right? So housing and all these types of things. And so it's only natural that then these teachers, us, who care about all the things in our students' lives, we look not only in Chicago, right? We look around the country and then you look around the world. And so it's just, it's a progression and it's because of like was mentioned that. The organizing has happened over various issues of things that our students have deserved, that it makes something organizing around something of a global scale, like not a stretch, right? And so it's like, oh yeah, we care about all these things. So of course we care about this. Of course we care about life. Of course, we don't want a war, right? And so I think You again know? Oh yeah. Like I can know, I can rely on that person to care about fair housing for our students. I can also care about them to wanna end to war and brutality.

Elton LK: 11:13

How are your students affected by international events? And then, what do you say, uh, to the response that teachers need to stick to teaching?

Hadeil Abdelfattah: 11:27

We teach life, sir., we, we do it. All right. I guess that would be left up to each person to define what does, what is teaching. And so when we look at what we teach and what we do, it is not within the confines of a book that, that are papers that are bound. It is real life experiences and the capacity to think critically and to teach students, as well as sometimes their families. How do you critically and effectively look at the things that are offered to you in life, in your community, what your community deserves, and what they have access to, and how do you fight to make sure that you get what you deserve? And so, it, it's, it's all encompassing and it, it takes you out of just teaching, a book, uh, that's been published by a mass producer, right? and having the capacity to say that our students deserve more. They deserve to be able to critically think for themselves, and they deserve the right to determine what they should be entitled to. It's not us to say for them, but we need to give them the tools for them to then decide what it they want it to look like.

Ayesha T: 12:45

And wow, there's been so much going on and there was a moment in my classroom I will never, ever forget, and I was teaching AP Environmental Science and it was the day when the hospital was bombed, when the first hospital was bombed, and I had no idea that happened. I was teaching and my Palestinian student and my classroom was. Just tears. And from the back she looked fine, but when I walked on the other side, she was holding it so strong like she was taking notes and she just had, her face was filled with tears. I did not know what was happening in Gaza at that time. I did not know how well connected our students are in these moments of pain. And not only was she aware. I had to quickly pivot and make sure that the class was engaging in a quick prompt, and I pulled her into the hallway and I just asked her, what's going on? Are you okay? And she had a hard time sharing. I. What she was feeling and she, she broke that news to me and in that moment of pain and sadness that I will have to forever carry and she will have to forever carry, is that there's such a gap in education that the lack of social, emotional support for our students that are in direct moments of conflict and they're worried about their families. And our system has taught our students to stay so strong and brave. She really did not have to be like that in that space, in that moment. And making sure we give students that space and that moment to breathe and to walk out and to, just process this. And so I would say teaching in a state, teaching in a county that serves the largest Palestinian population in the nation. students are silently hurting. And our students, when given the opportunity to share, they will share. And our teachers, we're doing so much with barely any little support. And I think of the teachers who I connected to immediately within our SWANA diaspora, the Southwest Asian North African diaspora, a lot of us in this larger category. We barely had a teacher check in with us how we were doing. And so when I asked, you know, when we asked each other like, did anyone check up on you? The answer was no. And we're we're always in this profession of always giving. And that's something we signed up for, but also we need to be taken care of as well in order to do the jobs that we're also doing.

Dave Stieber: 15:29

don't teach. Students, my students are, predominantly black. They are watching the same tiktoks, they are seeing the same, you know, videos. They're seeing the same things that all of us in society are seeing. Right. And so they're like, how is this happening to these young people here or to this city, or to whatever, right? But then also like, because I teach history, right? They can look back and be like, oh yeah. During the Black Lives Matter movement, Palestinians were the ones that reached out. To people at Fer when they were protesting in Ferguson, they gave ideas of how to go to a protest and cover your mouth, you know, with the gas being put out by the police, right? And so, like, these are things that, like Palestinians have been making connections with the African American community here in the United States for shared, you know, uh, protests and shared struggles in a way. And so, like, there's a lot of historical connections there too, right? And so the idea of, you know, teachers should stick to the classroom like. I mean, the best teachers in the world, like always teach the world is the classroom, right? And so like that's what we want for our students. And so to bring in connections across all disciplines and in all places, right, is like the ideal. And so that's just by the, you know, narrow-minded individuals who don't like teachers actually. Being vocal. They just want us to teach from, you know, whatever, to whatever, and stay silent and all that. And so, you know, that's just not the case. And that's what, thankfully our union does not advocate. They advocate for teaching, right? Like everyone, and advocating for all

Ayesha T: 16:56

I wanna add,, to the second part about, being told teachers should stick to teaching being part of the Chicago Teachers Union and. Just being in the educational profession, we're all striving and constantly working for inclusive learning spaces that really center around the social and emotional wellbeing of our students, and that means being literate about issues that are happening within the community. And so yes, we are sticking to teaching and we're teaching international solidarity and what it means to be centered around love and justice for all, and peace for all. And so this is part of our curriculum is for us to become literate and for us to work together and fight for the resources we need, and also to model to students what positive behavior looks like. What does conflict resolution looks like? What does negotiation, collaboration, post-conflict look like?

Hadeil Abdelfattah: 17:51

second. I think that, you know, I'm, I'm not in the classroom per se as a classroom teacher. I'm an instructional coach and, um, we. An amazing teacher, she's a chemistry teacher and she spends an entire unit on the, on isms, racism, capitalism, imperialism, and all these things and how it impacts community. And so I think that, you know, real life experiences and what may be happening 6,000, 7,000 miles away does impact. What is happening here, and, and students see it. We, we can't disregard the access that this generation has, that generations before did not have. And so we need to teach them, you know, how do you decipher, how do you figure out what's real and what's not real? And and give them those tools to take it all in.

Elton LK: 18:41

How have your students in your community responded to cts stance towards the ceasefire?

Ayesha T: 18:48

I would say it's received a lot of encouraging and positive support from members who are looking for that validation and that understanding that, yes, the union and the labor movement. Recognizes workers, protections, justice and rights in all countries around the world. And there are times where I'm in conversation with educators who feel like they may be the only teacher or the only worker in a space with this sort of mentality or this sort of strong moral compass or ground. And to be like, Hey, did you know CTU signed on? It's like, wow, this huge union signed onto this, gives people the motivation and push to keep pushing forward within the spaces that they're in and the leverage to keep advocating for justice for all.

Elton LK: 19:48

We at Democratic Socialists of America believe the labor movement is strategically placed to put pressure on our political and economic system to do the right thing. And the Chicago Teachers Union Historic 2012 strike was critical for the American labor movement. It's hard to imagine that we would be seeing the labor activity that we are seeing today without CTU. Can you talk about some of the things that CTU has accomplished by standing together in, solidarity?

Dave Stieber: 20:21

the CT as we know, essentially been. Whole teaching career. This is my year 17 CPS, you know, core started kind of forming before, and then before they got, you know, before we got control or whatever elected into CTU in 2012. Right. And so, like the whole like model for it, has just been my whole experience. Right. And so I guess all that to say is that when. I started teaching, right. I looked for, you know, I always was like inspired by people who were brave and who stood up and spoke out. And, you know, I wanted to use, you know, my race, like I'm a white male and I wanted to use these privileges to like dismantle, like the systems that have been always oppressed. All the people that I looked up to, right? And so I was like, where can I go? Like, who can I be by? Right? And so, like, CTU, has begun that quest and providing that space to find people like that, right? And so with all that then advocating for. not closing schools, right? Like a basic thing, right? Like 2013. Like remember marching through from the south side up to downtown over the course of multiple days, right. To say keep our schools open, right? And attending, you know, vigils at churches in the middle of the night where parents and school nights where parents were protesting keep the schools open, right? And so like, we clearly like didn't win that, right? We had the Chicago close Most schools in the history of our country, however. Right. Because of those early struggles, right. We now see where we are now. And so we have, you know, unions across the country wanting to replicate our model and Sean Fain at the UAW shouting out CTU, right? And Stacey Davis Gates and Jesse Sharkey and Karen Lewis, right? For the work that's been done over the past, you know, whatever that is, years now. And so, you know, we now have a mayor that came up through our ranks, right? And so. None of this is perfect, right? Like all of this is because of the work that CTU has been doing since 2012 and before, right. And the people that have been a part of it, and the teachers that are literally in the classrooms every day, um, working with, you know, the students and advocating for our students. Right? And so, you know, like. We would never be in a spot. Right now we're in March, we're gonna pass, um, bring Chicago home, which is gonna bring housing to our unhoused and through a tax on the rich right through a tax, if you own a property more than a million dollars, you will have to pay a one-time transition tax. Right. And so to the vast majority of us, we're like, that's cool. That's no problem to us. Right? But there's these few select individuals who are making it seem like it's gonna be like this whole thing. Right. But like. We're, we're putting legislation in place to radically change our city, to help our, the students and the people that live there, which before was never the case, or we've seen a city that's had to like, basically people been pushed out, through different policies and through disinvestment and through gentrification. And so we're trying to reverse that. So not only are we taking on issues in the classroom, it's citywide, right? And that's all because of the work that's been done and started and continues, kind of through CTU.

Hadeil Abdelfattah: 23:21

I think the activism of our union has grown over time. and the lens in which we do it. So I am in year 26 in CPS, and so I've seen how, you know, you had leadership that really didn't do justice for the students, families or teachers. and in recent years, You feel that it's children first. And so I think that with having that lens and that focus, how can you go wrong? Like when you're saying you're doing right by the next generation or two, you know, the, the counterbalances of, you know, what's what might be quote unquote fiscally correct. Right. versus the impact that it would have on, on, on students and their families and, and the lives that they live is just,, there are no words to describe it. And so for that, I'm, I'm, I'm really proud, uh, of the work that's happened and, uh, I'm not a delegate and, you know, and I know the contract inside and out from when I was a former principal and, and things like that. But it's just, it's, it's amazing to see the work that CTU has done. and that others are trying, really trying hard, to, to try to pull that together. And, and that we're leading the work I'm truly honored.

Ayesha T: 24:40

And I wanna add, now that you brought up delegate, I never saw myself this active in a union space, I would say seven years ago when I first started teaching. And so much has changed within the labor movement, and myself and Dave and others were on the floor. Of the house, the delegates meeting, speaking in favor of this resolution that passed. And standing in that line with my good friend Aaron and being ready to speak was a powerful moment and out of body experience for myself.'cause I never visioned myself to be in that space, but I, we needed to be in that space because our responsibility as delegates in these union spaces is to speak for. Is to really advocate and represent and speak for our members. And our members consist of Palestinian educators and students. And so I wanna add on to had deal sharing that shift that's been happening and that drastic shift in representation, creating space, opening up space for different members to start to speak up and advocate on the floor..

Elton LK: 25:57

Is there anything that you want to say to other teachers and other unions

Hadeil Abdelfattah: 26:04

I don't think that it's a matter of not necessarily having anything. It's like, where do you start, right? So it's like if you are silent and complicit, you are guilty. If you are advocating and feel like you're coming up against a wall because people are telling you using words, throwing them at you that have really been spun out of control, um, you have allies, you just need to find them. They are there I think that if there's anything that I would say to, to another teacher anywhere, in the country or anyone listening to the podcast would be that what will you tell your children in 10, 15, 20 years? What, what's the story that you're gonna tell your grandchildren when they learn about the atrocities that are going on in Zen? That you stood silent and did nothing about it. What will you, what will you say to them? On your deathbed, will you be okay with the fact that you did nothing or felt like you didn't do enough? And it doesn't mean, you know, showing up at board meetings and screaming and yelling, and it's not about that. It's about teaching political advocacy. Pick up the phone and call your elected officials. Take a stand on something, do something about it. There are so many different ways of support. It's like, find your niche and just do it. And don't feel that you're, you're, you're alone or in a world, on an island by yourself. Because if, if I, as a Palestinian educator don't feel that way, then I don't think that anybody really should have to feel that way. So you are here, you have support. You just have to find it..

Ayesha T: 27:44

I think it's important for any educator who's not sure or anyone in the labor movement that's not sure where to start, is to start with that personal connection. I just think of my parents in moments of conflict. When I was a student, the first thing that asked me is like, what did your teacher say? Like, what did they say in school? They were also learning with me and do we wanna be that teacher? Student at home, they didn't say anything. Wasn't that important? I. I, I asked my classes, is this something they wanted to talk about? It was a simple democratic poll. Is there, do we wanna create space in my classroom today to talk about this? Overwhelmingly, all my classes voted in favor to talk about. If I did not ask that question, how would I have known that they wanted that space to talk about this during the first couple weeks of October? And so create that space, create that personal connection, humanize everyone in each other. Because we are going to have to navigate what collaboration looks like. We have to model to students what conflict resolution looks like, and students have to understand that listening to each other goes a very long way and looking at each other as human beings goes a very long way.

Track 1: 29:07

hardest things that, like I've had to learn, I guess, is that, No school system, I guess. Very few system. They probably say no school system. Do students get what they deserve? Right. And Chicago, our students definitely don't get what they deserve. And I kind of naively thought when I started teaching that people would get that. Like I was like, oh, adults will understand that. You know, politicians will understand that our students deserve more. And I remember like my first year couple, you know, first month of teaching. Coming home and being like, man, our students don't have this, that, and the other. And I just had this conversation with this adult and they didn't get it at all. My wife is like, who's also a teacher? She was like, you gotta teach them too. And I was like, I didn't sign up to teach adults. I signed up to teach, you know, 14 year olds. Like, I understand they don't know things and they're gonna teach me things. I'm gonna teach'em and it's gonna be great. but you quickly realize that like. When you advocate for your students, you have to advocate fully for your students. And that means putting yourself out there because if you don't advocate for your students, they might not always be there, right? Things can happen in our city and things can happen in this world as we're seeing in Palestine. So you have to put yourself out there. And when you do that though. There'll be lots of people that love and support you, and there's also people that say terrible things about you and threaten you. And that's also something that you need to realize as well, depending on what level of advocacy you, which route you go. And so obviously find your group, find your people, find your support, find your therapy, right? Like open up and talk to people because holding it all in isn't gonna help you or your students. And so. I think about my students all the time. I think about students. I lost all the time. I think about my own children all the time. Like, what do I want all my students to have my own children to have? What do they, how should I want? How do I want them to remember me? How do I want them to, what do I want them to have? Right? And so like, you can't. You can't watch the news and see what's happening in Palestine or watch the news and see what's happening in Chicago as a teacher no matter where, and not like if you've let it, I mean, like it's so painful if you can't even describe it. Right. And so like I. To add to that too, like my father was in Vietnam, he was drafted into Vietnam, he was in combat in Vietnam, and you know, he didn't drink and he didn't, you know, disappear and he didn't go homeless like a lot of veterans did. Um, but he wasn't there. He was there physically, but he wasn't there emotionally. And it took many, many, many years for him to open up about anything. And he doesn't open up about much. But I know if my kids cry, he can't deal with it. I know. Now I know why that's the case. Right? And I'm thankful he speaks out against wars and he joined Veterans for Peace and these types of things. But I know what war does to everyone. Like I know what it does to the people who are impacted in it, and I know the people who are told to go do it. and so that's something I don't want on my students either. I don't want them to be sent over to some country to go kill people, right? Because that's, they're not gonna come home the same and.

Elton LK: 32:08

This is Class, an official podcast of the Democratic Socialists of America National Political Education Committee. My name is Elton LK. Thank you to Casey Stikker, who deserves a big thanks for sound engineering and theme music. Thank you to Palmer Conrad for editing. if you're inspired by anything we've been talking about, if you think the system is rigged and democracy is the solution, join DSA. Become a member. I've put a link in the show notes to DSA's website. if you're already a member of DSA, please share this podcast with your local chapter. Class is intended to be a resource for chapters and members to articulate, apply, and share socialist theory with DSA and the wider working class. Also, remember to rate and review us on iTunes or your favorite podcatcher. As you know from listening to other podcasts, this is an important way to get out the word about class.