Today’s biggest news story — the city’s crackdown on “Occupy” protesters occupying Zuccotti Park — got some of its legs from inside United Federation of Teachers headquarters.
The UFT has been hosting support for the protesters for some time in its Lower Manhattan offices, just blocks from the epicenter of the Occupy Wall Street movement. That won’t stop, according to UFT President Michael Mulgrew.
Here’s what Mulgrew said in a statement just now:
Occupy Wall Street isn’t a place – it’s an idea, a movement that has brought national and international focus to the danger to our economy and our nation that we face because of growing income inequality. The UFT is happy to continue providing logistical support for the Occupy Wall Street in our building, and we will be joining the OWS protestors in their continuing efforts around New York City to bring economic fairness and opportunity.
UFT officials told me earlier this week that the union had been planning to participate in a series of rallies on Thursday at Zuccotti Park. The future of those actions is not yet clear.
Today’s crackdown on the protesters had another education angle: NY1 education reporter Lindsey Christ was on the scene in the middle of the night — and then throughout the day, indefatigably, even as police officers warned her away — sending Twitter updates. In one update, she noted that Karen Matthews, an education reporter for the Associated Press, had been among the protesters and journalists arrested during the day.
Last week, protesters aligned with the Occupy movement rallied on the steps of the Department of Education’s headquarters. In October, protesters used the movement’s tactics, including the acoustic “human mic,” to derail a DOE meeting about new curriculum standards.