Current Affairs

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers and one of America’s foremost labor leaders, joins Current Affairs editor in chief Nathan J. Robinson to discuss her new book Why Fascists Fear Teachers. Weingarten explains why Mike Pompeo once called her “the most dangerous person in the world,” how right-wing figures like Chris Rufo are manufacturing distrust in public schools, and why education remains a radical force for pluralism, empathy, and democracy. She also addresses the weaponization of anti-Semitism in the context of academic freedom, the destruction of Gaza’s schools (scholasticide), and the role of teachers’ unions as both defenders of democracy and pillars of the labor movement.