I got fired for speaking out about the genocide in Palestine. In September, the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers (CFT), a labor union, fired me for expressing my viewpoint as a parent on an important issue.
I am not surprised that I was fired, but I am disappointed. I am deeply privileged to have been able to stand on my anti-war principles. This could only happen in a society that insists upon a blind acceptance of terrifying and massive state violence; violence perpetrated and protected by the settler-colonial narrative. It is only in this climate that a labor union would consider it acceptable to fire a contractor for expressing an opinion against a war in which tens of thousands of children have been killed. It is only in this climate that a labor union could consider it more important to ingratiate itself with mainstream politicians than to tolerate the viewpoint of an employee who has loyally and capably pursued the union mission.
For me, individually, this will not be a crisis. I will find other work. While I am saddened to be unable to continue my work with the Cincinnati Education Justice Coalition (CEJC), there is no job that is worth giving up my right to express my political views. There is no issue more pressing now than the atrocities happening in Gaza. The students and teachers in Gaza deserve a voice just as much as the students and teachers in Cincinnati do. We must not silo ourselves off within shortsighted political bubbles in order to align with the dying paradigm of power. CFT is wrong to enforce ideological purity on an issue that so divides our country. My viewpoint is neither rare nor radical. Tens of thousands of people have marched in the streets in this county protesting Israel’s war.
The whole purpose of a labor union is to serve as a place for working people to unite in order to strengthen themselves in struggles for justice. Yet, even within the seemingly progressive confines of a teacher’s union, there is zero tolerance for dissent on the issue of Palestine. CFT must change if it is to serve its members and its community.
The work of education justice is empowered by building solidarity across borders and oceans. Countless international agencies including Amnesty International and the UN Special Committee to investigate Israeli Practices have acknowledged the ongoing state-sanctioned violence as genocide, which is understood as an act committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. Zionism, the settler-colonial ideology that has supported this catastrophe through an unlawful occupation, increasing theft of land and forced displacement by settlers in the West Bank, and the expansion of an imperialist ethnostate, has no future in this changing world. Our power and our actions are threatening to this paradigm, which is why myself and countless others in this city, around the country and around the world have been fired in response to our solidarity.
The firing offense consisted of sending an email to the Executive Board of CFT. In the email, I requested that CFT refrain from endorsing any political candidate that does not explicitly call for a permanent ceasefire in Palestine and an arms embargo to Israel, including local democrats like Greg Landsman. I was one of many in the Cincinnati Public Schools community who contacted the Board as part of a citizens campaign. I wrote only as a parent, not in my capacity as a contractor with CFT. I sent this email from my personal email account, in my personal time.
In my work as the coordinator of CEJC, I was tasked with conducting meaningful community outreach to build solidarity among parents, teachers and community organizations who depend upon Cincinnati Public Schools. Just a few days after I sent the email, I was summoned to a meeting with the president of CFT. When I received the invitation, I assumed (or hoped) that the leadership wanted to address the Listening Sessions we had been planning to gain insight from community members around the budget issues in our school. Or perhaps the meeting could have been about the community partners, individuals, parents and students I had been speaking to around our campaign to influence the school budget. I thought it could be about one of the various conversations I had been having with organizations working to strengthen our schools in other ways.
But, predictably, the meeting was concerning my unwavering position on ending the genocide and occupation in Palestine.
During the meeting, my supervisors made no pretext of accepting a divergent viewpoint. Over the course of an hour and a half, they attempted to persuade me that my position was wrong, and their position (in support of the Israeli government) was right. They insisted that the meeting was not a reprimand, but stated that I had exercised bad judgment. They asked abruptly if I intended to complete my contract with them. I told them I indeed wanted to continue my contract, at which point they conceded that I had been doing a good job. However, they urged me to keep my personal views to myself, even during my personal time, despite being a member of the community that they are seeking to serve through the work of CEJC.
After the meeting, I returned to work. I resumed my activities organizing for an event that we had planned to take place several days later with two other community organizations. But by Monday afternoon, my access to CEJC accounts was cut off and a letter of termination was in my inbox. The event that we had planned had to be canceled because, in my absence, there was nobody to facilitate it. All of the work we had done to build trust and solidarity within our educational community had been unraveled.
The union’s power does not come from the Executive Board, the president or any organizers on staff. The union is powerful because of its membership, which, in this case, is all of the teachers and staff that keep Cincinnati Public Schools functioning for our kids. But CFT’s leadership has demonstrated that it values its relationship with people in power more than its relationship with the people it serves.
CFT will sever its ties with its own community before it will risk offending the political class. As schools are bombed and universities are turned to rubble in Gaza, the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers not only chose to be silent, they chose to silence the voices of dissent within their ranks. As we enter the new year and continue into the second year of this ongoing genocide, remember your duty to the people in Palestine. As Americans, we owe it to them to let every single person in a position of power know that we will not stand idly by while they perpetrate endless violence against civilians and freedom fighters alike.
In the words of Aaron Bushnell, the 25-year-old U.S. Air Force serviceman who self-immolated in February, “Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’ … The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now.”
The legacy of this union, in this moment, will be remembered as being silent on the genocide of the Palestinian people. To the teachers, organizers, students and public employees of CFT, I urge you to continue to speak out. Let my story not serve as a deterrent, but let it be a call to action to support the people in Palestine that have been silenced by American bombs. For all the teachers, students, janitors, tutors, administrators, dreamers and thinkers in Palestine, now and forever, martyred and still fighting, I regret nothing and stand with you.
Abby Friend is a mom, organizer and artist from Cincinnati, Ohio.
This article appears in Nov 27 – Dec 10, 2024.