When Some Workers Don't Look Toward the Left The Battle with the United Federation of Teachers

The fight between Black and Puerto Rican community activists and the predominantly Jewish UFT irrevocably damaged the liberal Black-Jewish alliance. Old Left Jewish radicals who had cultivated links with workingclass Black and Latino communities were suddenly forced to choose between supporting a labor conflict and an important community issue affecting aggrieved populations of color. Both sides fought for things progressive activists supported. But both sides fought tenaciously, consequently eliminating the possibility of reconciliation any time soon.3