Hold Progressive Change Agents Accountable.

I love activism. If you read this site you know that. I openly advocate for people to get involved and on a basic level that begins with putting your name on a petition. Change.org and Care2.com encompass a progressive network of petitions allowing grassroots activists and organization access to millions of people to create positive change. I have come to rely upon them and placed a fair amount of trust into both organizations.

I may have placed my trust in the wrong place. Change.org and Care2.com have provided Michelle Rhee and her Students First organization a progressive platform despite it’s anti-union, anti-teacher, pro-corporate agenda. This is not progressive. I am calling upon both sites to take down Rhee’s misleading petitions and restore their progressive ideals.

The petition deceived myself and I know of others who feel the same way. Check out the petition to Change.org (also to Care2.com) below the fold and sign it! Here and here.

Headline: Stop tricking progressives into signing Michelle Rhee’s union busting petitions.

Synopsis:

Michelle Rhee has been using Change.org to collect tens of thousands of emails addresses. She uses cleverly worded language for her anti-union petitions.

Rhee has been traveling the country working with Tea Party governors to weaken public schools. She lobbied on behalf of SB 5 in Ohio, stripping collective bargaining from public workers; she played a major part in eliminating collective bargaining from Tennessee’s teachers; she advised Rick Scott as he gutted the Florida budget for public education; and she hired a lobbyist in Pennsylvania to work on weakening tenure for teachers. She even appeared on Fox News to support Scott Walker’s union-busting in Wisconsin.

At Change.org, Rhee posts deceptively worded petitions with titles including “Join the Fight to Save Great Teachers” and “Pay Effective Teachers What They Deserve.” When you delve into it, she’s working to weaken unions and institute merit pay for teachers. These are bad, corporate, anti-progressive reforms and Change.org should not be participating in this union busting.

Change.org claims that it is an open platform, but even as an open platform, they have a choice to actively promote and organize for an issue or client. If Scott Walker or John Kasich were to post a petition title “Join the Fight to Save Great Public Workers,” we would not let it stand. So we must stand up to them and let them know that this is not acceptable.

Petition Letter:

Dear Change.org,

Working with Michelle Rhee is unacceptable. Change.org is supposed to be a platform for progressive social change. We understand that the website is an open platform, but active promotion and organizing for Rhee’s issues is inexcusable.

Change.org members feel tricked by your misleading promotion of her petitions. To promote these petitions raises serious doubts about the credibility of Change.org; in particular on labor issues.

It is just as inexcusable for Change.org to promote a Rhee petition as it would be for you to promote a Scott Walker anti-union petition. They use the same anti-union arguments to achieve the same ends, ending collective bargaining and weakening the middle class.

As a member of Change.org I ask that you rectify the situation. Stop promoting her petitions; no amount of money is worth attacking a basic worker’s right in collective bargaining.