Progressive Teachers

Two kinds of response: 1. This is not a proposed resolution, but a sense of the house motion which reflects the sentiment of those at the Business Meeting. Such a motion does not have the force of a resolution. Since I was the Chair of the Resolutions Committee for that meeting, we had already adopted three resolutions which had been vetted and proposed by the committee. Thus, NCTE's Executive Committee need not follow the direction of the motion. 2. I served on the CCCC EC for seven years in a row and for two years on the NCTE EC. Often, this question of not having our convention in a site that has state or local laws we object to comes up. In my view, this is gesture politics at its worst. While the goal is sound, the method is not. If NCTE never goes to New Orleans (to cite one place with sodomy laws still on the books), the people of Louisiana will never miss us. They won't know we didn't come and they won't know why. So we can sit in a hotel room and pass resolutions that make us feel progressive and good, but an NCTE convention is not going to make or break any large American city, much less provide economic leverage over a state legislature. My argument has always been that we should meet all over the country, in hotels that provide appropriate accomodation to a diverse membership. Should we find ourselves in a city or state that has laws we find objectionable, we should use our skill as rhetoricians to make both our views and our presence known. If you are going to protest, you better do it in a way that the object of your protest has a chance of knowing about it.

I agree with all that jocalo has said--and would like to add that we can't influence change anywhere (Louisiana, Ohio etc.) if we're not there to speak up.

Is it the case that CCCC will only have its conventions at unionized hotels? If so, why would gay rights be seen as less important? At this current moment, when gay bashing has become a national pastime, I think a similar logic might apply. Plus to insist that the conference be held in a state not hostile to gay rights should not be seen as a punishing gesture towards a bigoted state. It's a statement of support for open minds states.

I believe CCCC only books unionized hotels. But I would not see a parallel to a gay rights issue if there's no way for the decision NOT to do something to become part of a public dialogue. For me, gay rights are not less important than labor equity. In fact, social justice is not separable. Rights is rights, period. But we're talking tactics here, not goals. Let's consider the two states mentioned, Louisiana and Ohio. The only place in Louisiana we could possibly meet is New Orleans. The only city I know that's gayer than New Orleans is San Francisco. The city is very different from the whole state. It's hard to believe CCCC members would be uncomfortable in that city. But if we met there, we could find ways to make our views known publically. I would make a similar argument for meeting in Cleveland [where I was born]. 3000 comp/rhet teachers in one place at the same time should be able to make some good public arguments about rights issues. And that would support a "blue" area in a barely "red" state. The tactic of the boycott makes sense only when you can harness sufficient economic clout to make a difference. A boycott that no one knows about has no force. And in any event, CCCC is committed to rotating among Chicago, New York, West Coast and a wild card for some years out. So we're already supporting blue states 75% of the time.