NEWS & LETTERS, January - February 2011
Teachers mock boss
New York City--The following statement along with others was delivered at a press conference called by the NYC Green Party on Nov. 30 at 11:00 AM at Hearst Headquarters, 8th Ave. and 57th Street:
I am applying to head the Magazine division of Hearst Publications, a position vacated by Cathie Black [to become Schools Chancellor]. Although I have no experience either in business or in publications, I welcome the opportunity that Mayor Bloomberg, a leading figure in the mass media, has given to those with no prior experience in that field to head an agency.
As the mayor pointed out, he feels that Mrs. Black is eminently qualified to head the public school system because her experience in business will fit into his plan to organize public education into a top-down business model.
Likewise, I believe that businesses like Hearst Publications would benefit greatly by having a person like me who believes in a bottom-up democratic model. I would urge Hearst publications to democratize its operation by giving its workers the right to elect their supervisors, including the company's top management.
This would put Hearst in touch with the needs of the majority of the U.S. people. Hearst would expose the corruption of our economic and political system and give a voice to the voiceless.
Hearst would put forth the programs of independent parties such as the Greens, which are frozen out of the mass media but who advocate solving the economic crisis by bailing out Main Street, not Wall Street, and by getting off dirty fossil fuels in favor of clean solar and wind energy.
Hearst would become a beacon challenging the entrenched power of the corporate/financial oligarchy by giving the people information to change a society based upon greed into a society based upon social justice and environmental wisdom.
--Tom Siracuse, retired public school teacher
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