Australia: Queensland Teachers Union trying to rush through sell-out award deal
The union leadership is running roughshod over the democratic rights of teachers.
Anna Siviero•
Strike called over job losses at University of Sheffield, as University and College Union begin national strike ballot
Balloted separately in September staff at both universities – academic, lecturers, researchers, support and professional services staff – voted for strike action with majorities of 77 and 79 percent respectively.
Simon Whelan•
New Zealand union bureaucrats peddle the lie: Australia—a land of “milk and honey”
The claims of the NZ union leaders that things are much better for workers on the other side of the Tasman Sea is an exercise in misinformation, aimed at disorienting workers who took part in last week’s “mega strike.”
Oscar Grenfell•
Alberta government runs roughshod over democratic rights to illegalize strike by 50,000 teachers
The far-right UCP government’s back-to-work law invokes Canada’s anti-democratic “notwithstanding clause,” enabling it to legally trample on rights supposedly guaranteed under the constitution’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Pierre Lajeunesse•
Sakuna Jayawardana•
Philip Guelpa•
Our reporters•
Our reporters•
John Harris•
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Air Canada flight attendants reject sellout wage deal in massive rebuke to union bureaucracy, Carney government
The vote’s outcome underlines the urgent necessity of flight attendants at Air Canada and across North America, as well as workers in every economic sector, establishing their organizational and political independence from the trade union bureaucracy.
Roger Jordan•
Philadelphia teachers: Prepare for a struggle—break the cycle of sellout, unite the working class, and build rank-and-file power!
The Philadelphia Workers Rank-and-File Strike Committee calls for teachers and all city workers to build independent rank-and-file power to defeat austerity, union betrayal, and attacks on living standards.
Philadelphia Workers Rank-and-File Strike Committee•
What way forward for postal workers after the rejection of Canada Post’s concessions-laden contract?
The contract rejection must become the launching pad for a renewed fight based on an entirely new strategy—one that breaks the stranglehold of the CUPW bureaucracy and mobilizes the immense social power of the entire working class.
Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee (Canada)•
The lessons of the Philadelphia municipal strike and the way forward
The Philadelphia municipal strike was not the end but the opening act in a rapid series of confrontations in Philadelphia and beyond.
Philadelphia Workers Rank-and-File Strike Committee•
our reporters•
Philadelphia Workers Rank-and-File Strike Committee•
Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee (Canada)•
Philadelphia Workers Rank-and-File Strike Committee•
our reporter•
Essential reading
All over the world the trade unions, including those which were founded through bitter struggles led by socialist-minded workers, now play the leading role in enforcing the dictates of management.
In this lecture, delivered in Sydney, Australia in January, 1998, WSWS international editorial board chairman David North explains this profound transformation through an historical examination of the trade unions themselves.
The Soviet literacy campaign remains the largest and most successful in world history. It serves as an enduring demonstration of the extraordinary possibilities for reorganizing society in the interests of the working class on a planned, socialist basis.
This two-part article is a critique of the Democratic Socialists of America’s narrative of the teachers strike wave in 2018-19. It reviews the role of the teachers unions from West Virginia to Arizona, exposing the claims of “victory” by the unions and the DSA. It also assesses the DSA’s opportunistic “dirty break” with the Democratic Party and their role in collaborating with the unions to divert teachers by pressuring the powers-that-be.
This article reviews the significance of the Janus vs. AFSCME Supreme Court case. As an AFSCME’s lawyer warned the ruling elites during oral arguments, the collection of “agency fees” is routinely traded for a no-strike clause in union contracts. He warned, “Should those clauses disappear, employers will have chaos and discord on their hands.”
In line with the identity politics promoted by the Democratic Party and the pseudo-left, “abolitionist teaching” foments divisions among teachers and students based on race.
The origin of the term ethnomathematics is attributed to Brazilian postmodernist Ubiratan D’Ambrosio (1932-). It emphasizes “power relationships” and cultural relativism, downplaying “objective knowledge.”
After Trump provocatively called educators “loser teachers preaching socialism,” the AFT made no comment. Far from defending teachers against red-baiting, union president Randi Weingarten (annual salary above $500,000) agrees that “socialist” teachers have no business in the classroom. This report looks at some of the long and ugly history of the union’s anticommunism.
Democratic rights and education
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