Union must qualify support for OWS

To the Editor:

I write to question the UFT’s seemingly total support of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. Even though there are a number of questionable groups residing under the OWS umbrella, the UFT support is without qualifiers.

It is not enough to say that these groups do not represent most of the demonstrators. That may be the case, but the union has not bothered to disavow any of them.

As teachers, we should be insisting on rigor and specificity, not intellectually vacuous slogans. Indeed, it may be the fact that OWS has nebulous aims and a lack of focus that makes it so attractive to fringe groups. I call on the UFT to qualify its support for OWS and clarify exactly what programs it wishes to champion.

Ruth Boylan, retired