teachers

The strike (previously reported on Libcom here and here), a contrast of almost blanket support from union members and almost blanket condemnation

On Friday 30th, the strike by the Oaxacan SNTE local (Sección 22, around whose strike coalesced the 2006 revolt) entered its 12th day, with more motorways blocked, more tollbooths closed down and more education buildings occupied throughout the state.

The occupation started as of yesterday (15 February) and is a preliminary attempt to reclaim all the schools organised by the 5,000-strong Sección 59, created by the PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional) Oaxacan state government and the SNTE leadership in Mexico City in an attempt to defeat the strikers in Sección 22 and thereby the 2006 uprising.

Teachers are demanding the payment of three months salary before the new school term starts. The government last year made an undertaking to pay teachers' wages promptly, this included an agreement to pay three months wages before the new term begins this September.

The teachers are protesting a government decision to reduce weekends to one day per week and end having Saturday as a day-off. In Tulkarem, in the northern West Bank, Ma'an's correspondent reported that the streets were teeming with students returning from school after finding their teachers absent from the classrooms.

They are demanding the reversal of a 5% pay cut and the changing of the retirement age from 60 to 55, and an additional 10% pay rise. The pay cut and change in retirement age were announced shortly after the military government took power in a coup last December.

The basic demand of the teachers is an increase in the allowance that they are paid towards accomodation. The planned budget for this year gives teachers 30000 CFA Francs (£29:50) a year. Average monthly wages in Ivory Coast are estimated at CFA 26200, although due to civil problems all figures are unreliable.

In a historic blow to workers’ rights, and working class solidarity in Hawaii, the members of the Hawaii State Teachers Association (HSTA) have been coerced into voting to relinquish basic rights to gain a needed pay raise. The contract they agreed to provides for 4% raises over each of the next two years, with other supplements amounting to an 11% pay raise over two years.

One of the most popular speakers and polemicists of the Anarchist Communist Federation, Ivan Nicolov was born in 1900 in Radomir.