CORE votes to endorse Bernie Sanders... Caucus leading the Chicago Teachers Union rejects earlier Clinton 'endorsement' by the American Federation of Teachers leadership...

After a heated debate, the Caucus Of Rank-and-file Educators (CORE) of the Chicago Teachers Union voted at its February 22, 2016 regular meeting to endorse the candidacy of Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in the March 15, 2015 Democratic Party primary in Illinois. The vote was overwhelming in support of Sanders (this reporter is a member of CORE and was present and voting at the meeting).

Contrary to what a small faction within CORE tried to claim while they tried to filibuster the debate over the CORE endorsement of Bernie Sanders, Sanders, not Hillary Clinton, had already let Chicago know where he stood. Above, Sanders, right, spoke to a rally in South Chicago in support of the candidacy of Sue Sadlowski Garza (left) against incumbent John Pope for alderman of Chicago's 10th Ward. Joining Garza and Sanders on stage during the event was mayoral candidate Jesus "Chuy" Garcia (center), who ran unsuccessfully for mayor against Rahm Emanuel. In The Times photo. The endorsement came at the end of a lengthy meeting which also considered issues ranging from the ongoing contract negotiations to the threat by Chicago Public Schools Chief Executive Officer Forrest Claypool to institute a seven percent pay cut against CTU members in late March by rescinding the so-called "pension pickup."

The endorsement vote came in part in response to the fact that for more than six months, the Chicago Teachers Union (and hence all CORE members) had been forced to support the Clinton candidacy. The Executive Council of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) had endorsed the Clinton candidacy after a controversial "push poll," which AFT President Randi Weingarten tried to characterize as a "survey" of the union's members, hence justifying the early Clinton endorsement.

Because millions of dollars from the CTU budget goes annually to the AFT, CTU members had in fact been providing support -- in dollars and in other ways -- to the Clinton candidacy for more than six months. Despite attempts by some speakers during the debate to end the meeting early, the debate continued until a final vote was taken. What was not taken was a vote, that had earlier been discussed by not decided, to call for a special meeting of the union's 800-member House of Delegates prior to the March 15 Illinois voting.

The CORE meeting of February 22, 2016 was one of the biggest meetings in the history of the caucus, with more than 80 people in attendance. At the meeting, the caucus, which has run the CTU since July 1, 2010, began the circulation of its nominating petitions for the May 20 union election, discussed in detail the contract negotiations currently underway between the CTU and the Chicago Board of Education, and voted to support the struggle of fellow unionists in the Chicago Transit Authority. Photo by John Kugler. The February 22 meeting included more than 80 people, making it one of the largest meetings in CORE history.

Although the debate was heated, the vote was clear, with a significant majority of the CORE members voting for the Bernie Sanders endorsement. The big news from the February 22 CORE meeting -- that CORE has endorsed Bernie Sanders, in opposition to the AFT's endorsement of the former Wal Mart director, Hillary Clinton, needs to be repeated widely.

There were some attempts by people at the CORE meeting to stall the vote on Bernie (or adjourn the meeting early). Nevertheless, the debate was thorough, and Bernie won cleanly.

One of those trying to deny the Bernie endorsement claimed was that Bernie had not been active in Chicago on "our issues." In fact, the opposite was true. As the photo at the top of this article shows, Bernie Sanders was the national candidate who came to Chicago and supported "our issues." Hillary Clinton, the former Wal Mart director, was at the time avoiding Chicago, apparently counting on the manipulation of the tiny AFT leadership clique to bring her money and "support."

The AFT endorsement of Clinton enabled Randi Weingarten and a faction in the AFT leadership to devote AFT resources, including money and people, to Hillary Clinton's campaign. As the struggle for the Democratic Party nomination became more and more intense, Hillary Clinton's record in support of racist attacks on working people (the three "reforms" promoted during the Clinton administration -- welfare reform, housing reform, and school reform) and actual support for some of the most odious union busting entities on Earth -- Wal Mart.

The AFT leadership has never been challenged to explain how with these records, anyone supposedly representing the working class can still back the Clinton candidacy.