Exclusive | Anti-Israel radical socialists who’ve backed Luigi Mangione plotting to take over United Federation of Teachers: sources

Radical socialists who back anti-Israel groups and alleged CEO killer Luigi Mangione are steadily making inroads into one of the city’s most powerful labor unions, sources warn The Post.

Candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America are polling strongly in elections to lead the United Federation of Teachers — who represent nearly 200,000 educators and manage a welfare fund with $1 billion in assets — which take place next month, according to a source.

The progressive political movement, which backed Vermont governor Bernie Sanders during his presidential campaign in 2016 and was behind New York Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s insurgent victory two years later, set up a strategy to infiltrate labor unions in 2018, according to a report in Politico, citing an internal DSA memo.

Among the candidates vying for the post of president is Amy Arundell, a former Queens borough representative to the UFT who was removed from her position in October 2023 following a public spat with current union leader Michael Mulgrew over the union’s resolution to condemn the October 7, 2023 terrorist strikes on Israel, which left 1,200 Israelis dead.

“Zionists are literally the most evil people to walk this earth,” Arundell reposted on her now-disabled X account.

Steve Swieciki, a social studies teacher and candidate for UFT vice president of high schools, described himself as a DSA member in a social media post, and reposted a meme of Luigi Mangione bearing the #FreeLuigi hashtag and the message “Make bad people feel unsafe.”

Mangione is accused of stalking and murdering United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in midtown Manhattan last year. He has pleaded not guilty.

Olivia Swisher, another candidate for UFT president, has links to People’s Forum and was photographed at a meeting of the group in 2022. Swisher follows @nyceducatorsforpalestine on Instagram and Breakthrough News, which is run by People’s Forum.

Swieciki, Swishe rand the DSA did not respond to The Post’s requests for comment. Meanwhile, a spokesman for the UFT’s Unity Caucus reminded all candidates they need to put the union first.

“We are a diverse union with UFT members belonging to a variety of organizations, said LeRoy Barr, chair of the UFT’s Unity Caucus.

“But when a UFT member runs for union office it is with the expectation that they are putting the needs of UFT members first. No outside organization is going to have the same commitment to our members’ livelihoods, working conditions or safety as we do. We serve the interests of our members, not the goals of outside groups.”

Arundell responded to those comments in a statement to The Post, saying: “My only interest is in the future of educators, students and the UFT. Anyone who suggests otherwise is a liar and is trying to distract our members from Mulgrew’s record of health care and pension disasters.”

Following the October 7 attacks, some DSA chapters became more radicalized and helped organize violent anti-Israel protests and glorified the Palestinian “resistance,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.

And in 2019, DSA organized a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Working Group, which promotes boycotts and sanctions against Israel. By July 2024, 26 local DSA chapters “passed resolutions declaring themselves explicitly anti-Zionist,” according to the ADL.

The UFT’s Movement of Rank-and-File Educators (MORE) caucus collaborated with DSA to organize several pro-Palestinian demonstrations after the Oct.7 attacks in New York City.

MORE’s public Google Calendar shows an entry for “NYC Educators for Palestine — Walkout Debrief” for November 27, 2023.

DSA has also worked to organize opposition to Mulgrew within the union.

In March 2024, New York City’s DSA chapter held a panel discussion on “Public Sector Organizing in Our City.” Panelist Sarah Slichter, a member of the MORE steering committee, represented the UFT. In 2013, she was identified as the “Northeast US Coordinator for Young Democratic Socialists,” the DSA youth branch.

The panel was hosted at the People’s Forum, a Manhattan non-profit that has organized anti-Israel demonstrations.

Less than a year later, in January 2025, the Flatbush chapter of DSA posted an advertisement for a three-part series on “What is a socialist education?” The post noted that one of the main topics covered would be the “upcoming mayoral and UFT elections in NYC.”

Mayoral Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani is also backed by the DSA.