AFT Washington
We represent education employees in early learning, K-12, and community/technical colleges and universities.
- It just so strongly highlights how small and petty they are that they can waste money to try to not support the communities they live and work in. Like, how small are you if you can't freaking pay taxes? The meanness of spirt would make Scrooge blush and reconsider.
- I could be wrong but I tend to think the more than tech billionaires pour into measures to ward off attempts to tax them, the more likely those measures are to pass. www.politico.com/news/2026/02...
- For the kind of real change we talk about creating and seeing, we need to see new leaders. It can be hard to know where to start; this program has been going for a while. There's also a union-led similar program in Washington State that I believe starts in the spring. Go. Start.
- If you are for some reason not familiar with Elie Mystal, you are super duper missing out. This is, as usual, an excellent piece that highlights the administration's effort to leverage slavery law and imagery to make white America shut up again.
- Here’s my @thenation.com post on the arrest of Don Lemon, Georgia Fort, the violation of the First Amendment, and Trump’s ongoing attempts to change the face of his victims and spark a race war.
- It's the step that a lot of the "General Strike Now" ppl miss. At this point, a nationwide general strike will take years of organizing to actually have numbers and be effective. It's a goal, don't get me wrong! Workers need to send the message that WE have the power. But it takes work, not posts.
- Curious to see what happens with that against the backdrop of looming bad polling for the GOP and the midterms coming up quick.
- Forgive the Friday maudlins, but at the end of it all, all we have is each other. The situation in Minnesota is dire and the actions of the federal government are evil, but seeing people stand together like this ... a lot of people counted on our division but Minnesota is showing us our strength.
- The simple answer is "because asking the wealthy to pay their share isn't radical - it's right."
- We'll be there! Join us!
- 🧵 If you aren't already connected to a local network, "when ICE comes to MY city" will be too late to get started. Start now. Look for trainings now. Look for solidarity opportunities now. Connect with your local chapter of Indivisible, immigrant solidarity groups, some unions - start now.
- Once we get closer to the primaries, AFT Washington will be including best practices for voting both via drop box and via post office, as well as our options for in-person voting (they do exist! Our voting system is really cool!) We expect that ICE may try to "monitor" the drop boxes.
- He can't cancel the elections, because the power resides in the states and the fact that terms end means that red states aren't motivated to cancel either. This is a credible list of what he CAN do that we need to be ready to prevent. I would add "use the board of USPS to control mail delivery".
- Trump’s efforts to interfere in midterms becoming clearer & more dangerous every day: -using ICE to terrorize blue states & cities -seizing ballots in heavily Dem counties -prosecuting 2020 enemies -extorting states for sensitive voter data www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
- A worthwhile thread.
- Iconic.
- This is actively offensive. Let's subject thousands of children to invasive genital exams because maybe as many as five trans kids play on team sports and some parents in the state can't cope with the science that shows absolutely zero physical advantage for trans athletes.
- Great news! This administration really doesn't stick to its principles, does it?
- It is my genuine hope that we remember how much more effective resisting the agendas of fascists and billionaires (and, of course, fascist billionaires) has been than anyone thought it would in Jan. All across the country, people are pushing back. We may not always win, but the solidarity matters.
- It's usually not the good guys who speak in absolutes, as Star Wars reminds us. Black and white thinking like this is harmful to everyone.
- Oh my god, I am in TEARS. Is AI the new opposite-land UBI? "We aren't sure it doesn't work yet, let's test it more." The benefit of UBI, of course, is that it actually does work, we just study it a lot because no one in power wants to believe giving people money helps.
- I mean, I'd never heard of a discharge petition before Mike Johnson's speakership. Suddenly, they're everywhere! We have more power than a lot of people thought we did in January. Looks like some of the people who thought we didn't are in Congressional leadership.
- Apropos of absolutely nothing at all, it's worth remembering that fascism relies on us being afraid of the people who seek to impose it. When we have the safety to speak out, making fascists look like fools is a marvelous use of our time.
- This is excellent news, and more municipalities should follow suit. There is literally nothing good whatsoever about AI.
- The cracks, they are showing.
- This is exciting! We love when new units organize! Get that contract!
- There's a lot of chatter about revenue and it's going to be a hot topic this session - if you have questions, join in!
- As anyone with any sense at all said at the time. (Not a criticism of Mother Jones!) We are going to have to do so much work just to try to get back to where we were before DOGE took a sledgehammer to the government. We believe it's possible, but it will be something we have to commit to.
- Translation: They're still trying to find a customer base for AI.
- Well, considering that the times we know it's been used by the employer it's been bad for employees and students both, I don't see why we'd all trust the plagiarism machine over the people skilled in doing their jobs. Just to make billionaires richer? One assumes?
- A lot of what Trump does is just a masterclass in How To Be Wrong About Every Word You Say. Also, it SHOULD be a bad look to prop up Saudi Arabia's oil industry by undercutting America's solar and windpower firms. Should be.
- One of the many things to reckon with, as we strive to build a better future - which most working Americans want - is all the little time bombs that have been insidiously built into our national fabric to protect whiteness. Some of them are quite recent, as this article points out.
- Mandatory genital inspection of children is a weird, weird thing to want to do.
- It probably isn't possible to pinpoint when traditional journalism went off the rails (though I might look very closely at 2016) but this should be the kind of thing that galvanizes resistance from journalists, not something that passes with a shrug.
- This is hugely important! The new CEO of Starbucks is intentionally missing the point about workers' rights and worker dignity, and it's up to all of us to help workers make the point for him.
- Anyone with eyes and half an ounce of common sense knew this was coming, and that it is entirely the point. It's still disgusting.
- They don't HAVE to do any of this. They want to. Probably more than they want to give tax cuts to billionaires, honestly. Because they're better than working people and they want us to know that. The best case endgame for these people is feudalism where most of us are serfs.
- Well, she's lying. Dumb, obvious lies and really bad taste are the signature abilities of the members of this administration.
- Absolutely read this thread. Derek is both marvelous on menswear (I have followed him since the Twitter days) and weaves (har) it into unionism and a rebuttal of the administration's bigoted crap that diversity is bad. Spoiler alert: our members are not harmed by non-white people having good jobs.
- It is extremely important to remember that the Trump administration is wildly unpopular on all of its signature issues, which makes it fundamentally weak and means that we can, in fact, defeat this fascist agenda. Not that anyone thought institutionalized evil was a position of strength, but still.
- This problem is widespread throughout the state, and it is both dire for families and absolutely disgusting that the administration both seeks to balance tax cuts for the rich on the backs of LITERAL CHILDREN.
- We are so pleased to have the opportunity to support this work!
- Great list!
- One of the reasons to participate in community support during the SNAP funding freeze and the shutdown - keep these jobs looking like the evil jobs they are.
- We absolutely agree that protest is crucial, both to defend our rights and to highlight that the administration is not as powerful as Trump would like to pretend it is. The more we stand up, the stronger our rights and the more courage we impart to others to stand up.
- If you're a Washington voter who doesn't get the Progressive Voter's Guide ... change that. It's excellent, particularly when there are candidates that look like a tossup based on their values.
- Good. They should face consequences for their behavior. Part of why we're in the situation we're in is that powerful people are rarely ever actually held to account for things less powerful people are held to account for constantly.
- One of the takeaways people should have from the debacle that is this administration is that unions fight for their members. And more people can be in a union than generally think they can.