The offensive launched by the anti-worker government of Anibal Acevedo Vila to take away the rights won by the teachers, privatize close to 1,000 schools through the vehicle of Charter schools, and destroy the Federation of Teachers should be resisted by the largest sectors of working people. Let us recall that the Plan of One Hundred Days presented by Jorge Silva Puras, Minister of the Interior, establishes the privatization of the schools as one of the main tasks of the Acevedo Vila government. What is at stake in this historic context is whether we will allow the government to
give our education resources to the privatizers, who dismantle the public system and take away fundamental teachers' rights that were won through numerous struggles.

The refusal to negotiate a collective bargaining contract for more than two years and the non-recognition of the Federation of Teachers are part of the strategy of the bosses. That is why we, workers, students, parents, should organize and mobilize to face the government. The teachers' strike raises demands that will transform education for the benefit of our people. In addition to a wage increase of 18% and better working conditions, we are demanding specific measures to improve the education that our students receive.

Also, the creation of the Broad Front is urgently needed to articulate a massive rejection of the fascist measures taken by the bosses' government to criminalize the Federation of Teachers. The non-recognition of the instrument of the teachers' struggle is a direct attack against free speech, free association, and the right of all workers to strike and take other powerful actions.

SOURCE: International Liaison Committee