On 4th April 2009, an International Day for another school and against
union busting will be held. The need for such a day was felt by several
unions in the midst of Spring 2007, at the International Meeting “I07” in
Paris. It is not in the interest of capitalists, churches, armies nor
despots to emancipate peoples. They try and destroy public education and
apprenticeship utilities wherever they work. By intimidation, union
busting, or sometimes murders, they prevent us from gaining basic rights
where they’re still denied. It’s a matter of urgency: education workers
must, more than ever, combine their forces and resist together. Since
their attacks are global, we must oppose them our solidarities, our
exchanges and our brotherhoods.
Why on 4th April?
This date was chosen as a tribute to Carlos Fuentealba, an Argentinian
teacher and unionist, shot down dead by the police, with a flashball at
point blank range, on a picket.
What demands for School?
We want to assert, on an international scale, the Right to Education for
all, and the Right of all to get an Education that is relevant to their
needs. That’s why we refuse a school system that aims at selecting social
or political elites, or aims at preparing individuals to be either
profitable or submissive, tools-to-be for Capitalism. This means that
Education mustn’t be subordinate to external interests: interests of the
Army, interests of Churches, interests of employers. On the contrary, we
want a school system that aims at liberating each individual, regardless
of his/her sex; ethnical, cultural or religious origins. Emancipation must
be reached by the acquisition of knowledge and the capacity to make use of
it. Consequently, we state the following demands:
Independence of Education towards all religious or private interests.
Refusal of all forms of Education privatisation, from Nursery Schools to
Colleges.
End of all forms of discrimination, among which discrimination
towards women.
Right for all to an Education aiming at people’s autonomy, not their formatting.
Preservation and development of human and financial means in Education.
What demands for the Workers of Education?
The above demands imply the right to organize in unions all over the
world, in Education as in any other branch. Consequently, we state the
following demands:
End of all union-busting and of all criminalization of social movements.
Defence of the Right to strike and the right to organize, including in
autonomous unions.
We also defend working conditions in themselves for the workers of
Education as for the whole of the workers. Consequently, we demand:
Improvement of working conditions: preservation and rise of wages.
Abolition of all forms of precarity, among which the precarious jobs
imposed on the youngest.
Improvement of living conditions with the creation of social housing.
What modalities for 4th April?
Each union, each association can seize this International Day and organize
meetings, gatherings, debates and conferences or any other actions.
They’ll simply notify that they do so in the frame of this International
Day. They will chose among the above demands the most relevant to their
local situation. They will spread, to the extent of their possibilities,
the material produced on the occasion.
What perspectives?
This International Day will be held each year, in the perspective of
collaboration. We wish the participating organizations to elaborate common
actions, every year, beyond borders. Let’s share our hopes and our
struggles. Together, let’s resist, impose and build!
CNT-FTE International Secretaryship