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