By Aaron Hanscom
FrontPageMagazine.com
The United Nations and the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) have long had something in common. Both organizations have so-called Human Rights Committees that routinely condemn the United States and Israel as the biggest threats to world peace.
Now both share another, equally dubious distinction: Just as the Oil-for-Food scandal revealed the corruption of the UN, a controversy earlier this month has focused attention on the inner workings of the largest union in Los Angeles County.
As reported last week, UTLA made headlines when it became known that the Los Angeles chapter of the Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS) would use UTLA headquarters to discuss the launching of an anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign. Local Jewish groups responded with a campaign of their own and were able to exert enough pressure on UTLA president A.J. Duffy to get the meeting moved.
But it was obvious from the start that Duffy wanted only the story—not the meeting—to go away. “This is a democratic union in a democratic nation and I will not sponsor censorship,” Duffy recently wrote on the UTLA's website. In fact, however, the current controversy has nothing to do with free expression. Rather, it concerns the UTLA’s effective sponsorship of a group -- the MDS -- that openly supports terrorist organizations. The MDS “Statement on the ‘New Middle East’” reads: “We support a new internationalism founded on unity and solidarity with popular, mass-based resistance movements such as Hamas and Hizbullah struggling against those who oppress us all.”
Duffy’s second tactic—claiming to be unaware of the Human Rights Committee’s activities—was even less persuasive than his attempt to act as a champion of free speech. In a meeting with local Jewish organizations on October 4, Duffy told participants that because of the great autonomy enjoyed by UTLA’s member committees, their positions don’t always reflect those of the union as a whole.
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